Portland Wrestling
1980
VOLUME 12

The current Portland wrestling champions are as follows as of 9/20/1980:
NWA World Champion: Harley Race (9/9/1980)
PNW Heavyweight Champion: Roddy Piper (9/4/1980)
PNW Tag Team Champions: Rip Oliver & Fidel Cortez (9/12/1980)

Your host is Frank Bonnema.

From 9/20/80. Jonathan Boyd says he hates loser leaves town matches because it gets rid of competition. He’s referring to the loser leaves town match between Roddy Piper and Buddy Rose that is going down tonight. If Rose was to lose, Boyd would have to leave town and go after him. Boyd seems to think that Rose no longer looks like the playboy he was when he first came to Portland to hint that he thinks Rose will lose. He claims Rose has no more money because he’s having to give it all to his army. YOU’RE A FRAUD, BUDDY ROSE.

Buddy Rose makes a claim that Roddy Piper gave up in his figure-four leg lock, but Dutch Savage screwed him out of the fall because of the time limit. The crowd is chanting “Bye Bye Rose”. He puts Roddy Piper over as the best and the toughest on his side of the locker room, but Rose is the toughest of them all. Rose then announces that Rip Oliver and Fidel Cortez are the new PNW tag champs – all due to the guidance of Buddy Rose. Odd promo by Rose. Maybe he seemed frazzled by the crowd.

Over to Frank Bonnema, Rip Oliver and Fidel Cortez tells us they are looking for competition. Mike Popovich gets called out. I’m not the least bit surprised either. Portland really needs some babyfaces.

Old man Gene Kiniski calls Portland the hotbed of wrestling. He claims so many wrestlers have left for the east coast and made it big in Madison Square Garden over the last few years. Either Kiniski’s voice is horrible or the audio is bad because it’s hard to understand him. I did understand he wants to make himself the number one challenger to Harley Race. Of course that does not come to be. Kiniski wrestles with Eric Embry a few times and gets the heck out of Portland for now.

After a double-DQ, Mike Popovich and Jonathan Boyd fail to secure the tag titles from Rip Oliver and Fidel Cortez. Popovich really wants Fidel Cortez next week and tells us how awesome his body is. He’s simply ravishing. If Popovich will listen to him, Boyd says he’ll take Popovich to the top.

It’s now 9/27/80 and Buddy Rose is still in Portland. And well, you know what that means. Buddy Rose is shown celebrating doing champagne showers with Fidel Cortez and Rip Oliver. He’s got “Bye Bye Piper” on his shirt and some more writing on the back. Hilarious. Rose threatens Jonathan Boyd, Mike Popovich, and old man Dutch Savage. He calls them spectators who don’t have the guts to take him on, but WHO’S NEXT?! Frank Bonnema wants Rose to discuss the rumor that he’s bringing somebody out here from back east. I guess everywhere is back east when you’re in Portland. Rose doesn’t want to spoil the surprise and will let us know when he wants us to know. CELEBRATE GOOD TIMES. Come on.

• 2/3 Falls: Mike Popovich vs. Fidel Cortez – (Portland Wrestling, 9/27/80)
  

FIRST FALL: Don Owen mentions that Jay Youngblood and Terry Gibbs will be coming to Portland in two weeks. The fall is edited down. We pick up with Popovich applying a hammerlock on Cortez. When Cortez escapes, he goes right into the bearhug. Cortez claws at Popovich’s face to break free and hammers him down. As the crowd chants for Mike, he shoots up and reverses a whip to apply a FULL NELSON for the submission in 1:45 shown.

SECOND FALL: We are JIP again. Mike Popovich is so green that we can’t handle a full 2/3 fall match. Cortez gets his heat back working over Popovich with a front facelock and turnbuckle smashes. The COBRA CLUTCH ends up submitting Popovich in 5:16 total shown. Cortez kicks Popovich around after the bell and Sandy Barr wants to punch the commie so bad.

THIRD FALL: Bonnema announces Jay Youngblood is returning to Portland with an eye out for Buddy Rose. Even this fall is clipped. Popovich comes back and puts Cortez back into the FULL NELSON when Buddy Rose appears to attack him for the DQ. (8:24 total shown) Rose immediately throws Sandy Barr OVER THE TOP ROPE. While Rose puts the boots to Popovich, Jonathan Boyd makes the save and beats Rose out of the ring. Rose doesn’t seem to know what hit him. *½

Over to Frank Bonnema, he’s talking to Buddy Rose and Rip Oliver. He wants a six-man tag – the Rose Army against Mike Popovich, Jonathan Boyd, and Joe Lightfoot for next Saturday. Rip Oliver isn’t impressed with these guys, but let’s see what they got. Next thing you know, WHAM-O. Dutch Savage appears and wallops Buddy Rose with a chair! HAHA. He said he would get revenge when Rose least expected it and there it was. That was awesome. After they leave, Dutch walks over to Bonnema and says that Rose really needs to watch his back a little more. I sense your sarcasm, sir.

Jonathan Boyd thinks Buddy Rose just got lucky beating Roddy Piper last week, but a gambler’s luck always eventually runs out. As Boyd describes the finish, it’s interesting that Piper lost here to the same finish that he lost to at WrestleMania VIII to Bret Hart. It’s like his go to way to job. In big matches, he never loses clean! It always looks like a fluke. Piper is the man. Anyways, Boyd runs down the Rose Army and thinks they are out of money. Boyd wears diamond rings while the Rose Army wear t-shirts. He’s either got a point or doesn’t understand how comfortable t-shirts are.

After the main event, Jonathan Boyd returns to talk to Frank Bonnema with Mike Popovich and Joe Lightfoot. They accept the six-man tag challenge against the Rose Army for next week. THE ARMY IS DOOMED, BUDDY ROSE.

NEXT TIME: We’ll get our first look at Jay Youngblood as we head into November 1980. He and Joe Lightfoot will be the PNW tag champs by then and we’ll see them battle Buddy Rose and Rip Oliver. Plus, more Jonathan Boyd threats for Buddy Rose! You know we have to see some more of those!

Until next time, so long for now.