Portland Wrestling
1980
VOLUME 6

The current Portland wrestling champions are as follows as of 6/7/1980:
NWA World Champion: Harley Race (11/7/1979)
PNW Heavyweight Champion: Rick Martel (3/22/1980)
PNW Tag Team Champions: The Sheepherders (5/10/1980)

Your host is Frank Bonnema.

From June 7, Rick Martel and Roddy Piper hang with Frank. Martel talks about a recent PNW heavyweight title match with Piper where Piper had him beat with the sleeperhold, but his shoulders were pinned. Piper says he’s proud of Martel as champion and switches gears over to Buddy Rose. All of a sudden we have a general without any troops. The crowd cheers like a dragon has just been slain. While Piper doesn’t care for the Sheepherders, he can’t wait to see Butch Miller slap Rose around tonight. If anybody knows that Butch can slap, it would be Piper. To show Portland how he really feels, Piper wishes the Sheepherders would all fight in loser leaves town matches until they all get trips to Iran. More vintage Piper.

• 2/3 Falls: Buddy Rose vs. Butch Miller – (Portland Wrestling, 6/7/80)
  

FIRST FALL: Yes, Rose is still wearing the wig sown on the mask. Don Owen says this match should have been left for Tuesday night instead of airing on TV, but here we are anyways. Too much heat, I suppose? Butch is clearly the fan favorite here and you can see him getting jazzed up from the reaction. Before the bell, Butch gets Buddy’s shirt away from him and rips it up to the delight of the fans. Strange seeing Bushwhacker Butch as the feature attraction this week, right? Rose spends the first few minutes after the bell stalling and avoiding Butch. He finally gets his hands on Rose and beats him into an oblivion. At one point, Rose tries to leave through the ropes and gets his tights pulled to show Portland a full moon. Back in, a kitchen sink knee and a backdrop connects. You can already see shades of Butch’s babyface act once he gets to the WWF. More punching. More biting. Butch hits Rose with a whole bunch of elbows and pins him to win the first fall at around 5:30.

In between the first and second falls, the Sheepherders meet with Frank. They promote the battle royal planned for Tuesday night. The people love them now because the people know they are the only ones who can destroy Buddy Rose. Butch looks forward to doing more damage to Rose in the battle royal. When he and Luke come after Rose, how many other wrestlers will come and help him? NONE. Butch doesn’t care what any promoter tells him, he’s finished. We’ll see about that.

SECOND FALL: Bonnema accuses Rose of fiddling with the turnbuckle. We’ll see if that comes into play here. Butch pounds on Rose and goes after the mask. Rose manages to fight him back and applies a chinlock, but Butch punches out and Rose bumps real big. Butch telegraphs a backdrop and it’s bad news from there. To the finish we go, Butch reverses a corner whip only to run into a knee and get the Ric Flair corner pin treatment to lose the second fall at 10:57.

Now to the intermission between the second and third falls. Rose reminds us he’s a “general of improvisation” and was able to beat Butch just like that. He admits he can’t handle the entire northwest by himself and comes up with a new plan. The new plan doesn’t include Rip Rogers and needs to find a new army. So it’s not a new plan because it’s just like the old plan. He promises Portland that he will rid them of the Sheepherders, Roddy Piper, and Rick Martel. He then lists all the people he’s run out of Portland and that won’t change now. Rose says the people don’t get behind him because they are jealous. It’s really that simple. The crowd continues to give him crap and Rose says they will ALL see him carry out his big plan. He’s like Hillary Clinton over here. HI-OHH.

THIRD FALL: So before you know it, these two are on the floor beating the life out of each other. Butch gets busted open and both get counted out. (12:51) The fight continues way past the sound of the bell as various undercard folks and officials come out to hold them back. **

Once everything calms down after the match, Butch goes over to Frank “wearing a crimson mask”. He wants a fight to the finish with Rose. He knows Don Owen doesn’t like blood on TV, but says there’s plenty of blood left in this feud. Awesome. Butch looks forward to getting Buddy Rose in the battle royal. He’s not looking to win, he just wants to fight the man again. He pleads with Don Owen to book another match and challenges Rose to a no-DQ match on Tuesday night. Over in the ring, Don Owen scraps the battle royal and gives Butch exactly what he wants.

Dutch Savage reminds us about the new Tuesday night main event and says the battle royal has been pushed back to Saturday to be aired on TV.

Part of the reason Rose is so driven to be successful is because he enjoys financial security. That is one of the things he provides for his army. When the Sheepherders were with him, he made them wealthy and helped them get accustomed to American life. But because they are dumb, they left all of that and now they will getting beaten up on the regular by Buddy Rose. Buddy mentions that a Portland area rock band has written a song about him called “The Playboy”. In the very near future, he will have them perform the song. Rose seems pretty pumped about that – AND WHY WOULDN’T HE BE?

• 13-Man Battle Royal – (Portland Wrestling, 6/14/80)
  

Okay, let’s see if we got everybody here: Steve Pardee, Roddy Piper, Mike Hennessy, Rick Martel, Ricky Hunter, Tony Borne, Sal Martino, Luke Williams, Butch Miller, Chris Colt, Igor Volkoff, Buddy Rose, and Rip Rogers. Rose had this match planned out so well. He stays on the outside of the ring for most of the match and as other people get eliminated that he doesn’t care about, he uses Rip Rogers as bait. While Martel and Piper are trying to throw Rogers, Rose gets on the apron reaches into the ring to pull out ALL THREE of them. The final four becomes the Sheepherders, Igor Volkoff, and Rose. Rose acts like he’s going to team up with Volkoff against the Sheepherders and plays him for a complete fool leaving the ring and letting the Sheepherders eat Volkoff alive before throwing him out. Rose tries to jump the Sheepherders from behind, but they catch him and beat him into a corner. That’s when a big and tall fan limps around ringside and hops in the ring to start beating the Sheepherders with his cane! Portland wrestling security is absolutely useless against this guy. Frank realizes it’s Buddy’s old pal Ed Wiskowski who has returned to Portland. Oh boy. Now this angle really needed the emotionalism of a Jim Ross more so than a laid back attitude of Frank Bonnema. Anyways, they throw out the Sheepherders to win the battle royal and do a number on them until the babyfaces of the battle royal come out to run them off. (7:30) Awesome angle and a great return for Ed Wiskowski. Hey, Rose warned us! Due to Wiskowski’s interference, ref Sandy Barr awards the match to the Sheepherders. *½

The Sheepherders go and visit Frank. Butch can’t believe what happened in that battle royal. He was hit so hard, he doesn’t even realize who that was who hit him. Next week, Butch wants a lumberjack match with Rose. The video then skips over to an interview with Ed Wiskowski. He’s still wearing the painter’s mask over his mouth he used to hide his face from the crowd. Wiskowski says he beat the Sheepherders to death for Buddy Rose and there’s more to come.

After the break, Buddy Rose shows us how pleased he is with the return of his pal Ed Wiskowski. Don Owen comes over and ensures us Wiskowski will be banned from the Portland arena next week during the lumberjack match. Despite the setback, Rose and Wiskowski devise a different plan for the Sheepherders.

• Roddy Piper vs. Rip Rogers (w/Buddy Rose) – (Portland Wrestling, 6/21/80)
  

Rogers pearl harbors Piper and throws him to the floor for a Randy Savage double sledge. Geez! I didn’t even realize the ceiling was high enough for that. Back inside, Piper comes back and takes Rip from corner to corner smashing his face off the buckle. A hiptoss and a knee lift gets two on Rogers. Now Piper gets distracted by Rose for no real reason and gets nailed from behind by Rogers. Rip gives him a full body slam for two. Piper reverses a corner whip and jabs Rogers in the throat with his thumb behind Sandy’s back. More left jabs to the face and Rogers goes down for two. Rogers avoids an elbow drop and lowers the boom on the back of his neck. He catches Piper again with a thumb in the eye without Sandy Barr seeing it happen. Rogers throws Piper out for another double sledge and Piper moves. Frank thinks Rogers twisted his knee on the way down. Back in, Piper finds the SLEEPERHOLD. He gets distracted by Rose though who tosses a foreign object into the ring to Rogers. While Sandy Barr takes care of Rose, Rogers decks Piper for the upset win. (6:47) The crowd is genuinely pissed off at the outcome and they go tell Sandy Barr what happened. **½

Buddy Rose makes it clear that he and Ed Wiskowski want a “loser leaves town” match with the Sheepherders. Rip Rogers gets added to the Rose Army and now the Sheepherders have to find a partner. The loser of the fall must leave Portland. Rip seems pretty pumped about this.

More from June 21. Roddy Piper is being considered as a partner for the Sheepherders, but he doesn’t trust the Sheepherders enough to be their partner. Piper continues on and calls Buddy Rose a liar about his escapades. He also feels Rose is trying to get under his skin talking about buying seal skin coats for his women because he knows Piper is a big animal activist. Piper says he’s seen Rose in the shower and thinks maybe buying his women fur coats is the only way he can keep them around. WOO! As for Ed Wiskowski talking about meeting the queen of England, Piper says the closest Wiskowski ever got to meeting a queen was when Rose dressed up in drag. Holy crap that’s awesome.

• Lumberjack Match: Buddy Rose vs. Butch Miller – (Portland Wrestling, 6/21/80)
  

Not sure we’re going to get a list of all the lumberjacks, but Roddy Piper and Rip Rogers are two of them for sure. There’s eight lumberjacks – two on each side. Butch is in control pounding on Rose while he tries to get out of the ring as much as possible. When Butch goes for the mask, Rose goes for his eyes and whips him into the corner. Rose then pitches Butch over to Rip Rogers and Sal Martino. Some confusion amongst the lumberjacks allows Rose to stomp Butch on the apron. Back in, Butch fires back on Rose and Rose tries to leave through the crowd, but he’s picked up by the lumberjacks and taken back in the ring. When Butch tries a piledriver, Rose backdrops out and comes off the top with a Superfly Splash of sorts. Cover, 1-2-NO! Butch continues to punch on Rose and goes for the mask. Rogers gets up on the apron and they do the same bit that was done in his match with Piper. Rose gets tossed the foreign object. Piper tries to grab the object away from Rose. That allows Butch to knee Rose from behind. Cover, 1-2-3! (8:21) Rose and Rogers get the last word though as they nail the Sheepherders with the chain and walk out leaving everybody else behind. Over at the Crow’s Nest, Buddy Rose and Rip Rogers challenge the Sheepherders again to a “loser leaves town” match for next week. **

The Sheepherders confront Rose and Rogers. They don’t want another Rose Army here in Portland. It looks like Roddy Piper is pondering joining the Sheepherders. He lets the Sheepherders know he doesn’t trust them one bit, but he HATES Buddy Rose. Looks like Piper will team up with the Sheepherders against the Rose Army. If the Sheepherders turn on him, there will be hell to pay. Butch promises Piper and the people that they will rid the northwest of the Rose Army. Buddy gets mad about Piper sticking his nose in army business.

The Rose Army gets HYPED for their “loser leaves town” match tonight. Rose makes jokes about how stupid Roddy Piper is. They mention something about Piper oozing all over the mat. I don’t know what that was all about. Rip Rogers declares the New Army is here to stay. And that’s bad news for everybody! Hilarious.

Final Thoughts: Anybody that’s a fan of the Sheepherders would enjoy this volume of Portland wrestling. It’s not super bloody brawling or great wrestling, but it’s fun episodic TV. Plus, we’ve got the return of Ed Wiskowski who had been AWOL from Portland for a year now.

When we return to Portland, you’ll get just about all the Ed Wiskowski you can stand. Not only does he and Buddy Rose battle the Sheepherders, but he also goes after Rick Martel and his PNW heavyweight title. That’s July 1980 on the next volume of Portland Wrestling.