Portland Wrestling
1980
THE FINAL VOLUME

The current Portland wrestling champions are as follows as of 11/22/1980:
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.

From 11/22/80. Before one of the preliminary matches, Don Owen forces Buddy Rose to defend his PNW heavyweight title this Tuesday night. Clearly not looking for competition that could potentially mess up his way of life, Buddy Rose comes out and wants to give a young Eric Embry (who is standing in the ring) a title match. That’s when Jonathan Boyd finally has enough and jumps Rose. He wants that title shot and feels he deserves that title shot.

Over at the Crow’s Nest, the Rose Army insult Jay Youngblood and his army. NOBODY CAN STOP THEM.

Jonathan Boyd tells us that the Portland wrestling commission has decided he will face Buddy Rose for the PNW heavyweight title this Tuesday night. He says Rose will see a new champion this Tuesday with his shoulders pinned to the mat.

Jay Youngblood has gone to the Ricky Steamboat school of babyfaces. He’s cool, calm, and collected. He knows the people are what make him. He’s fantastic. Joe Lightfoot is open to any and all challenges from the Rose Army as well.

• Jay Youngblood, Joe Lightfoot, Jonathan Boyd & Buzz Sawyer vs. The Destroyer, Buddy Rose, Rip Oliver & Fidel Cortez – (Portland Wrestling, 11/22/80)
  

We only get the finish of the third fall. Youngblood gets a hot tag from Lightfoot, but Youngblood misses a dropkick and gets brought into the Rose Army corner. They tag in and out holding Youngblood up for punches, but Oliver comes off the ropes and misses to hit Cortez. Youngblood hops on top of Cortez for the three-count. (2:24 shown) After the match, the Rose Army turns on Cortez and bloodies him up with his Castro pole. Youngblood, Lightfoot, and Sawyer come back to help out the commie. N/R

Buddy Rose, Rip Oliver, and the Destroyer head to the Crow’s Nest to say that Fidel Cortez has made one mistake too many and now he’s out of the army. Rip Oliver talks about how Cortez has cost him the tag titles and a whole lot of money lately. He challenges Fidel Cortez and threatens to send him back to Cuba. Cortez makes it over to the Crow’s Nest. He said he believed in the Rose Army like he believes in his own mother. His mother gave him life, but the Rose Army just tried to take his life away tonight. Oh my. Anyways, he vows revenge on Rip Oliver and it appears they will in fact meet on Tuesday night.

From 11/29/80. Buddy Rose is all dressed up with nowhere to go. He says after last Tuesday night, Jonathan Boyd was arrested outside the Portland Sports Arena for WRAF. Buddy Rose has got it all. As for top challenger Jay Youngblood, Rose admits he has been avoiding him and will continue to do so. He also wants an eight-man elimination tag match. Even though they got rid of Fidel Cortez, they do have a fourth man if any other four people will accept the challenge. Rip Oliver still wants to send Cortez out of here on a little old boat back to Cuba.

ED WISKOWSKI IS BACK! He returns from filming a movie in Germany and has some dachshunds that he’s brought back for Rose. The Rose Army shout threats to the local babyfaces. Jay Youngblood will never ever ever ever get a title shot! IT WILL NEVER HAPPEN!

• Buddy Rose, Billy the Kid & Tokyo Joe vs. Jonathan Boyd, Cowboy Lang & Lone Eagle – (Portland Wrestling, 12/13/80)
  

Some legendary midget wrestlers in the ring here. After the heels get some heat on Lone Eagle, Cowboy Lang gets the hot tag. They decide to have a chicken fight and Rose tumbles over with Tokyo Joe on his shoulders. Cowboy Lang decides to put Boyd on his shoulders who challenges Buddy Rose to a chicken fight, but Tokyo Joe can’t hold up Rose as he falls over. Hilarious. Boyd and Lang try to put away Rose, but Boyd telegraphs a backdrop. Lone Eagle comes in and takes a bite out of Rose. He then chases the midgets around, but runs into a right hand from Boyd. Cowboy Lang gets lifted up by Boyd who kicks down Tokyo Joe. Lang rolls up Tokyo Joe for the win. (4:53 shown) Afterwards, Rose gives Cowboy Lang the BILLY ROBINSON BACKBREAKER and leaves him for dead as the other two midgets put the boots to him. Fun match with a sad ending! **½

From 12/20/80. After Rip Oliver submits Eric Embry to a figure-four, he continues to try and CRIPPLE Eric Embry while keeping Sandy Barr away from him. Boyd tries to save the day, but Oliver is adamant about destroying Embry’s leg. Boyd finally gets Oliver out of the ring, but the damage is done. Eric Embry is in bad shape.

Babyface Buzz Sawyer just feels wrong. Anyways, he has won a battle royal to get himself a PNW heavyweight title shot for next week. He decides since Jay Youngblood has come back to Portland to get the title, he will give Jay the title shot instead. Because Buddy Rose has done nothing but avoid Youngblood since his return, Rose comes out yelling how it’s unfair. When Rose interrupts Youngblood as he’s speaking, Jay chops him across the face. Youngblood picks up the title belt and Buzz helps him put it around his waist. He then mocks Rose as the self-proclaimed greatest champ in Portland history and tosses the belt while he’s down on the floor. Simple enough.

It seems like history is always repeating itself in wrestling. Jonathan Boyd was beaten up in a Portland bar and now they are turning a shoot into an angle. It’s not exactly like the Shawn Michaels situation, but it is close. He’s not forfeiting any titles here. He claims Rip Oliver is behind this and challenges him to a Kangaroo Death Match very soon.

• PNW Heavyweight Championship: Buddy Rose (c) vs. Jay Youngblood – (Portland Wrestling, 12/27/80)
  

FIRST FALL: Rose has re-blonded his hair. Since Rose injured Youngblood’s left shoulder back in 1977, he figures that’s the best place to start as he works on the arm. When Youngblood eventually gets fired up enough to come back, he chops away. They do a great routine running the ropes ending with Youngblood slipping away from the Billy Robinson Backbreaker and surprising Rose with the O’Connor roll with a bridge for the three-count at 6:41.

SECOND FALL: Now Rose has everything to lose here. Youngblood is all over the left arm. It’s simple payback, baby. Does anybody else hear music playing? Pretty sure I hear Bob Seger playing in the background. Rose has virtually no offense, but Youngblood can’t put him away. With one minute left in the show, Rose gets out to the floor and stays away from Youngblood until the time runs out. (13:32 total) Sandy Barr holds up the belt and says Youngblood had Rose beat until he took the coward’s way out. Until there’s a rematch, the title is held up until next week without any time limits. A man of the people – Jay Youngblood gets on the mic and calls out to the crowd pleading with them to come back next week to see him beat Buddy Rose for the title. **½

FINAL THOUGHTS: Well that wraps it up for Portland 1980 after 182 YouTube videos. As Frank Bonnema put it during the Youngblood/Rose match, this has got to be the best year for Portland wrestling up to this point with more publicity and bigger crowds than ever because of the personalities involved and of course the strong wrestling product. As far as this volume goes, it was somewhat disappointing. The eight man tag was cut down to nothing and I was expecting a title change at the end that didn’t happen. The midget match was fun and might be the overall highlight found here. Anyways, it’s still an enjoyable hour of wrestling from back in the day. Until we get to 1981, so long for now.