Portland Wrestling
1980
VOLUME 14

The current Portland wrestling champions are as follows as of 11/15/1980:
NWA World Champion: Harley Race (9/9/1980)
PNW Heavyweight Champion: Buddy Rose (9/20/1980)
PNW Tag Team Champions: Jay Youngblood & Joe Lightfoot (10/25/1980)

Your host is Frank Bonnema.

• Tiny Anderson vs. Eric Embry – (Portland Wrestling, 11/15/80)
  

Can you imagine the words that would come through the headset of a WWE commentator if they told the TV audience that they do not in fact have a “sell out crowd”? Rick Martel and Roddy Piper leaving was of course quite a big blow to the promotion. Fun old-school match. Tiny Anderson’s knee drops and leg drops leave something to be desired, but he does a great job getting heat from hair pulling when it suits him and thumbing Embry in the throat when Sandy Barr is off to the side. The crowd hates on Anderson. At one point, someone in the crowd calls him a fat tub of lard. TRIGGERED~! Embry shows off with some great power moves on his larger opponent for hope spots. He backdrops, back suplexes, and slams Anderson. Sandy Barr gives Tiny every chance in the world to stop cheating before he finally catches Anderson thumbing Embry in the throat for the DQ. (9:32) Like I said above, fun old-school match with some real storytelling in there. **½

• The Destroyer vs. Jonathan Boyd – (Portland Wrestling, 11/15/80)
  

This match is all about the Destroyer and his loaded mask. He’s able to shift the giant washer or whatever he’s got in there to the side so that Sandy Barr doesn’t find out about it and DQ him. He goes after the back as he slams Boyd into the corner and then locks in a Boston crab. When Boyd powers out, Destroyer feels he has no choice but to blast him with another loaded headbutt. Boyd fights out of a chinlock and goes after the mask, but Destroyer rakes the eyes. They both brawl to the floor and it gets pretty heated until they are both counted out. (8:37) Boyd and Destroyer trade words on the mic after the bell, but Boyd is the last man standing as he scares the Destroyer away with a chair. **

Looks like the Destroyer has joined the Rose Army. Destroyer wants any other four in the world who thinks they can beat them, but he highly doubts it can be done. Apparently Fidel Cortez has been slipping lately and got reprimanded by Buddy Rose. Cortez says he’s going to do it right from now. Has he got Fidel Castro’s head on a stick? That’s pretty strange. Anyways, Buddy finishes up giving us his theory on the “Who Shot JR?” storyline on the TV show “Dallas”. That episode which received a record 53.3 Nielsen rating would air the following Friday night.

Over at the Crow’s Nest, Buddy Rose advertises the midget wrestlers coming to the northwest while simultaneously insulting Jonathan Boyd and the midgets. He also says that Jay Youngblood, Joe Lightfoot, and Jonathan Boyd have accepted to compete in the eight-man tag against the Rose Army, but they can’t find anyone with the guts to be the fourth partner. The Rose Army is looking good, baby.

Jonathan Boyd challenges Buddy Rose for a PNW heavyweight title match. He says it must be hard waking up in the morning being a chicken like Rose. BE A MAN! Put the title on the line against Boyd, Buddy Rose. How about it, Rose? It doesn’t seem like Rose is interested.

• 2/3 Falls for the PNW Tag Team Championship: Jay Youngblood & Joe Lightfoot (c) vs. Buddy Rose & Rip Oliver – (Portland Wrestling, 11/15/80)
  

FIRST FALL: Youngblood and Lightfoot keep Oliver grounded with armbars to start. This crowd is JACKED. In comes Rose, Lightfoot lands on his feet out of a backdrop. Since he can’t quite land perfectly, he lays on the mat ready to kick at Rose. We now move into some headlock action now as Youngblood controls Rose. During a criss-cross routine, Youngblood gets a great sunset flip on Rose for 1-2-NO! Tag to Oliver, he gets a cheap shot closed fist on Youngblood and works him to the mat with a headlock. We see Youngblood get some incredible airtime on these big slams. He makes Rose and Oliver look like the strongest men on the planet. After some chinlocks, Youngblood gets double-teamed on the wrong side of town. When he tries to come back, Oliver sticks a thumb in his throat to slow him down for some Ricky Steamboat selling. Awesome. Rose hits the BILLY ROBINSON BACKBREAKER, but Youngblood lands too close to the ropes. Rose picks him up and delivers a few more backbreakers before pinning in the center of the ring to win the first fall at 15:00.

SECOND FALL: The crowd chants INDIAN POWER as we get things going. Wisely enough, the challengers go right to work on the back. Youngblood sells it all like he’s absolutely tortured in there. They build some INCREDIBLE drama around Youngblood finally reaching Lightfoot for a tag, but then Buddy Rose comes over and distracts Lightfoot just as Youngblood reaches his corner. Of course when Lightfoot returns to his corner, Rip Oliver has Youngblood moved back to the center of the ring. This crowd wants to kill Buddy Rose. Youngblood finally ear claps out of the bearhug and punches Rose Away. As Youngblood starts to crawl towards Lightfoot, Oliver rolls Youngblood back towards their corner so Rose can gets his mitts on him again. This is standard Mid-Atlantic tag wrestling that I doubt the crowd has seen to this level before. Oliver and Rose try for a double backdrop, but Youngblood sunset flips them both over. Rose corners Youngblood, but Youngblood drills him with an inverted atomic drop. Oliver again thumbs Youngblood in the throat to slow him down. He picks up Youngblood for a backbreaker over the shoulder until Lightfoot has enough and breaks it up. Youngblood knocks away Rose and finally makes the hot tag to Lightfoot! He goes CHOP CRAZY. Tag to Youngblood, they deliver a DOUBLE WAHOO CHOP and Youngblood hits the running splash on Rose for the three-count in 23:12 total.

THIRD FALL: Lots of reluctance on Rose’s part to hook it up with Youngblood. Rose eventually suckers Youngblood and throws him to the floor to be bent over the ringpost by Oliver. Lightfoot does what he can to stop it. Back inside, Youngblood and Oliver KO each other. Rose yanks Youngblood back out to the floor to post him again. Back in again, Youngblood slams Oliver’s face off the mat and reaches Lightfoot for a hot tag. Lightfoot quickly finds himself in the Rose Army corner. He and Oliver trade nearfalls causing the match to break down. Youngblood starts wrapping Rose’s arm around a ringpost while Oliver and Lightfoot are brawling. We run short on TV time as the bell rings for a time-limit draw. (29:50 total) Almost as long as the non-title match, but this needed a better finish to be as strong as the first one. All the same, it’s still a great match with tons of heat. Youngblood knows how to sell for the heels and made them look deadly. Afterwards, Youngblood and Lightfoot head over to the Crow’s Nest to show us who the fourth member of their team will be: BUZZ SAWYER. Jonathan Boyd comes over to confirm the eight man tag for next week. ****

Final Thoughts: One of the stronger volumes I’ve recapped from 1980. Definitely check out the tag match for a great example of tag team wrestling the way it should be done. Our next visit to Portland will be our last for 1980 as we will wrap up the year with the eight-man tag mentioned above, midgets, and Jay Youngblood getting a PNW heavyweight title match with Buddy Rose. Another one you won’t want to miss! Until next time, so long for now.