Portland Wrestling
1980
VOLUME 9

The current Portland wrestling champions are as follows as of 8/2/1980:
NWA World Champion: Harley Race (11/7/1979)
PNW Heavyweight Champion: Rick Martel (3/22/1980)
PNW Tag Team Champions: Vacant (7/26/1980)

Your host is Frank Bonnema.

From 8/2/80. We start off with Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskowski proclaiming how happy they are that the Sheepherders are finally gone from the northwest. Now they focus on Rick Martel saying that he is always screaming at the referee to end their matches with him because he’s a big fat coward. Talk turns to Roddy Piper and Johnny Boyd. Rose will continue to get rid of these guys to control the northwest. The west coast belongs to Rose and Wiskowski.

• 2/3 Falls for the vacant PNW Tag Team Titles: Roddy Piper & Rick Martel vs. Buddy Rose & Ed Wiskowski – (Portland Wrestling, 8/2/80)
  

FIRST FALL: Bonnema makes a big deal out of Rose and Wiskowski getting small bouquets of flowers while Piper and Martel get HUGE bouquets. Any chance there’s a lead pipe in one of the heels bouquets? Another commentary highlight is Bonnema saying Sandy Barr looks like a popsicle because of his colorful clothes. Piper goes PUNCH CRAZY on the heels and they bump well for him. Martel is one giant ball of fire as well once he gets a tag. He and Piper take turns cranking on the headlock as the crowd counts along. That’s always fun. Piper shows off with a standing dropkick and puts Rose on the floor. When Rose gets back inside, he catches Piper charging him in the corner with a knee to the ribs and thus begins a great face in peril segment where Rose and Wiskowski keep him grounded with a body scissors as they play up the false tags to a tea. Piper finally gets away from Rose and makes that hot tag to Martel that they have milked to perfection. He destroys Rose and puts him away with the hurracanrana to win the fall at 8:42.

SECOND FALL: Martel tries to get the quick pin on Rose to start, but Rose escapes to the floor to slow things down a bit. Tag to Wiskowski, Martel continues to dominate and keeps him contained with a headlock. Rose comes in and faces the same headlock. More headlocks from Piper. The thing is though these guys are so good that they know how to keep just working a headlock interesting. When Martel leaves the game plan behind and goes for a dropkick, he misses and Wiskowski gets a tag. He slows down the action punishing the back of Martel. Rose tags and picks up Martel in a Canadian backbreaker like it’s no big deal. He puts Martel over on Wiskowski’s shoulders to show off a little bit. Looks like the bottom turnbuckle in the heels corner has come loose due to Rose jumping on the bottom rope. Some stagehand is busy trying to get that fixed. Back to a bearhug. Piper comes in without being tagged and causes more trouble than he’s helping. Rose catapults Martel into the ropes so that Martel bounces back onto his knees. Awesome spot. Martel sits up though and breaks free. Rose knocks Piper off the apron to prevent any tags though. As Piper continues to show his frustration, Wiskowski backs Martel into the heel corner. Rose picks up the turnbuckle with the STEEL connector attached and wallops Martel on the back! Wiskowski reapplies the bearhug and they milk that hold for a while longer. He follows up with an atomic drop for 1-2-NO! Piper makes the save. Tag to Rose, Martel makes a great effort to counter what Rose is looking for, but ultimately gets caught in the BILLY ROBINSON BACKBREAKER for the three-count to split the falls at one for each team at 20:12 total.

THIRD FALL: The heels continue to work on Martel’s back. He reverses suplexes on Wiskowski and Rose. They continue to cut the ring in half on Martel despite all his advances. The hot tag to Piper finally comes. He’s a house of fire as he delivers hiptosses and kneelifts. As Wiskowski punches low, he catapults Piper into a backdrop from Rose that sends him over the top to the floor. That was a cool spot. Rose approaches Piper and gets blindsided by Martel as all four men are brawling on the floor until both sides are counted out leaving this match a draw with no new tag champs decided. (24:37 total) Great post-match brawl as well. Piper and Martel put the heels in sleeperholds, but it’s way past mattering at this point. Dutch Savage comes down to help Sandy Barr. The tag belts end up in the ring and it continues to be a struggle to maintain order here. While Martel has one belt, Wiskowski holds onto the other as he and Rose head up to Bonnema to talk smack. Barr retrieves the belts and says he’s holding up the belts. Piper demands Don Owen let them finish the fight, but instead Owen changes the main event for Tuesday night to settle the tag titles situation. One fall to a finish, no time limit, no DQ, and lumberjack rules to keep everybody inside the ring to finish this once and for all. Rose tries to grab Don Owen and gets pummeled by Piper and Martel. HA! This triggers another awesome quick brawl until it’s finally broken up by Dutch Savage and Sandy Barr. ***½

In between the first and second falls, Rick Martel accepts the no-disqualification match challenge from Buddy Rose. All Rose is talk and he’s been the champ for over four months. They will meet this Tuesday night in Portland.

Boyd talks about how wrestling has turned into a bunch of different factions (or armies) and that he came here to help the Sheepherders, but now the Sheepherders have gone back to New Zealand. He calls himself a one-man army because he doesn’t need anybody else to do what he does in the ring. Boyd says he has signed thirty open contracts and not one of them have been accepted by the Rose Army. So yeah, what’s the deal? Boyd wants people to see that he can kick anybody’s butt anytime he wants. If he doesn’t start seeing the Rose Army signing his open contracts, he will personally go over to Buddy’s house and kick his butt in his own living room. He challenges Fidel Cortez first and then Ed Wiskowski and then Buddy Rose. When it’s all said and done, he’ll be the only general left standing.

• No-DQ 2/3 falls match for the PNW Heavyweight Title: Rick Martel (c) vs. Buddy Rose – (Portland Wrestling, 8/9/80)
  

FIRST FALL: Bonnema lets us know that Piper and Martel won the tag belts back on Tuesday night. Dutch Savage is the referee here. Ed Wiskowski is barred from the building. Rose stalls and messes with the crowd a little bit to start. He wears down Martel with a body scissors, but Martel escapes and applies an STF-style hold. Rose bites his way out and runs away from Martel. Rose sets him up, but Martel is just too focused right now. He rakes the back and slams Rose for an elbow drop for two. Rose knees out of a chinlock and uses Savage as a shield only to still get drilled by Martel. Rose is going to have to take another powder. He finally makes Martel make a mistake as he catches Martel charging him in the corner. Rose pounds him down and hiptosses for a dropkick that gets two. Martel escapes a front headlock and just goes nuts on Rose to set up the flying headscissors to win the first fall in 8:33.

SECOND FALL: Martel gets Rose cornered and concentrates on the back. This is a great example of psychology and sticking with a plan for sure. This all leads to a BOSTON CRAB. Rose pulls on the tights to get out of the hold though. Martel hits a back suplex for two. He grabs a headlock, but then Rose dumps him onto the top turnbuckle and the tape abruptly ends at 13:31 total. Obvs Rose eventually won the fall, folks.

THIRD FALL: Epic start to the third fall as Martel gets caught snoozing trying a backdrop and gets kicked in the mush. It seems basic, but he bumps well and Rose plays it off like he just split the atom. Rose uses the Killer Kowalski body claw on Martel. When Martel has had enough, he starts pulling off the mask. When the mask if halfway off, Rose manages to claw on Martel’s eyeballs and get away. He double stomps Martel and elbow drops the ribs for two. Martel punches back and starts giving him payback for all the work on the ribs. He double stomps Rose TWICE. Both guys try for running bulldogs, but both guys are shoved off into the corner. Rose looks for a back suplex, but Martel kicks off the turnbuckle and drops Rose’s balls on the turnbuckle – which was the same move that beat Martel in the second fall. Martel covers Rose and picks up the victory. (18:13 total) Another fun match between these two with great psychology. I haven’t seen them have a match that wasn’t on some level of greatness. ****

Ed Wiskowski and Buddy Rose tried to give Roddy Piper a Columbian necktie on Tuesday night. He’s talking all strange and lacking the usual charisma. This is hilarious and awesome at the same time of the level of commitment Piper gives to the work of pro wrestling. Rick Martel is being considered for “wrestler of the year” and Piper puts him over HUGE. You have got to see this promo.

Rose is so hellbent on sending Rick Martel out of the area that he challenges Martel to a “loser leaves Portland” match over the PNW heavyweight title for next week.

• Roddy Piper vs. Tony Borne – (Portland Wrestling, 8/9/80)
  

Tony Borne – the father of Matt Borne – is in his mid-50s at this point. He’s not at his peak of potential here. Looks like Sal Martino is the referee. Bonnema mentions how well Matt Borne is doing these days in Mid-Atlantic. Martino makes a big deal about Borne jabbing Piper in the throat because Columbian neckties hurt. Borne beats Piper up the aisle, but Piper beats Borne back into the ring. Borne fights back and slams Piper down for BOMBS AWAY, but misses. Piper gets two. Borne punches back and gets a few nearfalls on Piper, but Piper sunset flips him for the win at 3:43 shown. Sounds like about two minutes shaved off this one.

Don Owen presents Rick Martel with the “Pacific Coast Wrestler of the Year” award with a giant trophy. Any chance this thing gets broken by Buddy Rose? You betcha. Martel has an idea on how to get Buddy Rose out of the territory, but we don’t hear any details because he wants to run it by Owen first.

Final Thoughts: Two awesome matches to check out here. Plus, some SOLID promo work from Roddy Piper. It’s just another day here in Portland, folks.

NEXT TIME IN PORTLAND: We continue through August with MIKE POPOVICH, Roddy Piper, Johnny Boyd, Buddy Rose, and Ed Wiskowski.