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This started slow, but picked up a bit toward the end. I kind of knew that Dynmite would win this somehow, but in spite of that some of Yamada's nearfalls toward the end were compelling anyway. Dynamite's Razor's Edge powerbomb looked vicious. If Hall had used it he'd have probably killed or crippled someone with it, as big as he was. That last kick Dynamite threw should have probably been enough to put Yamada away, as she (Yamada) didn't look like she was moving at all afterward. Both women threw some of the more forceful kicks this side of shoot-style; one of Dynamite's early in the match looked hard enough to knock out some of Yamada's teeth, and from the way Yamada sold it I thought it had. Is it my imagination or is the STF not that big a deal in Japan by now? It's supposed to be this killer move that no one gets out of, yet almost everyone it's applied to lately makes it to the ropes. Yamada's submission where she stretched Dynamite's leg over her head looked brutal. I've seen the hold before, but most people don't apply it for as long as she did here.

I liked this as much as most of you did, but not because of Hall. He was as good as he had to be, but this was Martel's show all the way. He showed that he still had plenty in the tank as a wrestler, especially with the way he worked on Hall's back to set up the Boston crab. That kind of body part work wasn't often seen in the WWF at this point, but it makes the match here. I disagree that Hall struggled tp get Martel up in the Razor's Edge; though; this seemed to me to be one of those times where selling took second place to making sure a wrestler hit his finisher with no problem. As good as some of the ring work was, the commentary threatened to make it meaningless. Vince was puking all over everything in sight all match long, and his attempts to tie the match into Columbus Day just because the Razor Ramon character happened to be Hispanic were pathetic reaches at best. He also makes an unconscionable error by stating that Columbus was working for the Queen of England when he discovered America. Every child over the age of seven knows that Queen Isabella was Hispanic, and when it's demonstrated on national TV that you know less than some of the younger members of your target audience, you know you're going downhill fast. Add to that the usual reluctance to call moves correctly (he calls a Martel back suplex a side suplex, then doesn't bother to call a legit side suplex later in the match at all), and you have a bad performance, even by Vince's rapidly sliding standards. Heenan was good here, although the constant ghetto jokes got to be a little much. It was he who remembered to put over Martel's Boston crab as a credible finisher, and Vince was smart enough to pick up on it and go along. He also put the match over as a battle of wills and guts, which would have fit even better than it did here if they'd done it directly after the battle royal as they should have. Finally, I liked how he got Savage to admit that he would cheat to regain the title if he was in the match, even though Vince probably didn't want him to. Savage has become more and more intolerable as 1993 has progressed. It's to the point now where he offers almost no insight whatsoever. Not only that, but his inflections and intonations are becoming stranger and stranger. I guess he thinks he's being unique; what he's really being is annoying to the point where I either want to use the mute button or reach through my computer screen and slap his glasses and hat off. If it wasn't for his work in Memphis and the few decent matches he's had in the WWF, he might be my leading candidate for Biggest Waste of Time for the year. By focusing so much on the commentary, I don't mean to slight the in-ring work; as I said earlier, it was well-done, but not spectacular enough to rave about. I liked Hall's celebration with the IC belt; he seemed to realize that he was now the mover and shaker he'd wanted to be since he arrived in the WWF. The fans seemed to truly be behind him, and I didn't even mind the "Oozing Machismo" T-shirts, even though that's a stupid catchphrase in my opinion. I much prefer "Say hello to The Bad Guy", or in this case, "the new Intercontinental champion". Line of the Night goes to Savage: "This is the toughest match I've never been in!" Sometimes the man makes sense without even knowing it, which is more than he does intentionally these days.

First fall: ​A lot of this fall is a reprise of the first fall in the first match between these teams, as Piper and Martel work over Luke's left arm. We also get the false tag spots that drove the Sheeps wild. amd after a while it seems like Luke will have to submit again so he has enough left for the next two falls. But he gets a lucky shot in on Piper's bad left knee, and from then on it's the Sheeps' turn to go to work. Butch eventually locks Piper in a half-crab, and Rod gives up to save his knee. The champions take a one fall to none lead approximately seventeen minutes (disc time) into the match. Nice to see Don back and recovered from his surgery. He impacts this match right away by telling Buddy in no uncertain terms to go back to the locker room, which he does with little complaint. I'm torn about the whole managers at ringside thing; I understand why most territiories sent them back, but having guys like Bobby Heenan and Jim Cornette at ringside during the eighties added a fresh dimension to the matches, as interference or the threat of it kept the faces on their toes and the fans on the edge of their seats. I'm not a fan of the constant false tags with Piper and Martel; they do it too often to be cute, and it makes Sandy come off like an incompetent boob. especially when he lets one of the tags go because he thinks that they were close enough to tag. You think​, Sandy? I've said this at least once before, but if that's the way it's going to be in tag matches, the heels should get the same benefit of the doubt. Of course, that will never even come close to happening. A curious spot: Luke tries at least twice to tag out while Rod and Rick are working on his arm, only for Butch to be further down the apron yelling at the crowd. They never used this as an excuse to turn the Sheeps on each other, so I'm wondering why they used this spot. It was probably to show the fans that even champions can be off their game at times. The promo between falls gives a hint of the dissension to come when Buddy says that he's the one who made the Sheeps the champions that they are and Butch corrects him rather forcefully, but the rest is straight ahead heel stuff. I loved the Sheeps taking credit for the car accident that injured Piper's knee (with a little help from the ash of Mt. St. Helens), and the stuff where Butch is bragging about bank presidents putting them on the same level as millionaires and other VIPs is fantastic. They end the interview by threatening to break Piper' s leg, and we'll see if they can do it over the next two falls. Second fall: ​Needing to even the match, Martel and Piper remember that they hurt Luke's arm earlier in the bout, so after Piper fights his way out of trouble, they go back to work on it. Highlights include Piper ramming the arm into the steel post, and there's a hint of glee in Frank's voice when he says that the Sheeps are now taking the kind of punishment that they've dished out so often over the years. Eventually Martel slaps on a rather vicious-looking hammerlock, and Luke has no choice but to submit. We're even at a fall apiece with a little over thirteen minutes of disc time remaining. The action in this fall is good, but the promo between falls stands out to me. First, Martel brings out a cake, which becomes one of the few cakes in wrestling history not to be smashed in a manager's face, as an example of how the fans of Portland care about their favorites. Then, Piper comes out to discuss an upcoming Northwest title shot against Martel that he's earned in Salem after winning the city's annual tournament. As JK said above, this is about as pure a babyface interview as Piper will ever give, and I wish we had the match on tape to see how it turned out. (We have some of the '84 tournament on the set, most notably the final between Curt Hennig and The Assassin.) Interestingly enough, I'd rate Piper and Martel as just about equal verbally; Piper still hasn't fully developed the smart-alecky style that would make him a legend; there are traces of it, but they're not consistent, and his Canadian accent is as thick as it would ever be. Rick's an underrated talker as a face, nowhere near as bad as his detractors would have people believe. His biggest problem as AWA champion was that he was expected to deliver on the same level as guys like Flair and Hogan, each of whom was blessed with a gift of gab that fit their respective characters like a glove. Martel the humble soft-spoken babyface with an accent was doomed from the get-go. ​Third fall: Martel plays FIP for the first part of this, but eventually tags Piper, and things start getting wild. At one point, all four men are outside the ring and almost counted out. Piper hurriedly throws Luke into the ring and slaps on the sleeper while Martel has Butch occupied outside. Suddenly Buddy comes flying out of the locker room with the pole which holds the Sheeps' New Zealand flag, goes up top, and means to hit Piper to break up the sleeper. But Rod moves, and Buddy cracks Luke in the head, which saves the belts for the Sheeps, but gives the match to Piper and Martel on a DQ. What follows is one of the greatest turns I've ever seen. Luke is still laid out in one corner, and when Butch demands to know what happened, Piper helpfully points the finger at Buddy. An enraged Butch puts the Playboy on his wallet, and Buddy retaliates by absolutely murdering Luke with the pole. By the time Butch can put a stop to this, Luke's a gory mess. Butch then attacks Buddy and throws him out of the ring, and the two brawl into the crowd. Once that's broken up, Buddy tries a sneak attack with a chair, only for Butch to catch him at it and hammer him. Eventually Buddy bails, and a bloody, semiconscious Luke is hauled up to the Crow's Nest for an interview. What makes this such a great turn is that although there were hints of dissension between Buddy and the Sheeps, no one ever dreamed that things were as bad as they turned out to be. Buddy puts his all into the pole shots, and even Frank's stunned by what he's seeing, which takes some doing for a cool customer like him. We don't see many brawls into the crowd in Portland, and although this one really doesn't last long, it's still bloody and violent enough to be memorable. Finally, Luke takes the beating of his life here, and it's hard to no-sell the type of shots Buddy was laying in, even if you're already supposed to be unconscious. This may be the most vicious beating I've ever seen the Sheeps take, bar none. Butch's promo is tremendous, one of the best I've heard on this whole set. He not only swears vengeance, but he details how Buddy was instrumental in both him and Luke losing their hair in hair matches, which most people probable wrote off as accidents at the time it happened. At one point, Butch touches Luke's cut. then smears his blood all over his (Butch's) body in a show of family solidarity. While Butch is pouring his bile out, Luke's selling blood loss as well as anyone in wrestling ever has. At one point, he's unable to stand anymore and collapses to the floor of the Crow's Nest, only to fight his way unsteadily back to his feet (the camera misses this, but you can sense movement to Butch's left if you pay attention). By the end of the promo. Luke's down again and we fade to black as Frank requests medical attention for him. To wrap this all up, Buddy's out for a closing interview, bragging about how he taught the Sheeps everything they know, not everything he ​knows. He then says that he won't wrestle Butch, which predictably brings Butch out to attack him again. He's held back before he can do too much damage, but demands a match with Buddy for the following week. Don grants him the match, saying that he doesn't care who wins as long as the turmoil Portland's been in since Buddy and the Sheeps got together is stopped. We get another short prom from Butch while he's being held back, and once Butch is finally taken out of the arena Buddy's left with no one to complain to but Sandy. He says again that he won't wrestle Butch, and wonders what Butch did to make the people cheer him all of a sudden. I've tried in these last few paragraphs to boil down the essence of this whole deal, but much like Flair-DiBiase in Mid-South and Bill Dundee's 1985 turn on Jerry Lawler in Memphis over their match with the Fabulous Ones, this has to be seen to be truly appreciated. This is probably the best single segment or angle that I've seen so far in this set (I'm almost ten discs in), and the match that precedes it is outstanding as well. If you want one segment to show someone who's never seen Portland wrestling before just how special it is, you can't do much better than this one.

​First fall: ​Piper and Martel show excellent tag team coordination, better than I've seen from either man in any tag match that they've ever been in. They make at least five switches without tagging, and Sandy is either distracted or chooses to let them by on the honor system. Their target is Luke's arm, which they destroy over the course of the fall. Luke tags Butch at least twice, but Sandy never sees it, and eventually Luke submits to a rather simple hammerlock from Piper just to give himself a respite. Rod and Rick lead one fall to none approximately eleven minutes (of disc time) into the contest. The tags or lack thereof on each side are the major issue in this fall, and I can't blame Butch and Buddy (who's at ringside for the Sheeps) for being frustrated. Then again, they could just be mad that they're being beaten by their own tactics, as this is exactly how the Sheeps would have wrestled if they'd had the opportunity. I knew that Martel had had enough experience in his career to be a good tag wrestler, but Piper surprised me here. I'm so used to the loner heel character who trusts no one that seeing him and Rick work like a well-coordinated babyface unit is more than a bit of a shock, as is seeing Piper actually work holds for an entire fall without even a hint of brawling. I prefer the colorful outfits the Sheeps are wearing here to the singlet shirt and camouflage pants that they wore everywhere else. They were wearing that ensemble in Memphis in '82 and '83, which is the next stop where we have footage of them in this project. Who wants to bet that Buddy gets involved somehow before this is all over, especially since his team's down a fall? There has to be a reason why he was allowed to stay at ringside, which doesn't happen often for managers in Portland. I miss Don's ring introductions on this disc. They aren't exactly Finkelesque, but they definitely add to the whole atmosphere at the House of Action. ​Second fall: ​ This fall is almost all Sheeps, as Luke finally makes the tag, then he and Butch go to work on Martel. It only takes a series of elbows for Luke to get the pin on Rick, which ties the match up at a fall apiece with about eighteen minutes of disc time remaining. I can't think of a match on this set where an individual fall has lasted eighteen minutes, so we've either got a long brawl or a promo after the third fall wraps up. Even if you're rooting for the faces, you have to admit that it's poetic justice of a sort that it's Piper and Martel who can't get Sandy to see a tag for love nor money in this fall. Add in the fact that Rod's late making the save on the pinfall, and this is as forgettable a performance for the champions as the first fall was a dominant one. In case you're wondering why the writeups are a tad shorter, it's because there's nothing really memorable or funny coming from Frank. He's just doing his usual good job, which is more than enough. ​Third fall: ​This is a tremendous back-and-forth fall, with both teams coming within a hair of winning on multiple occasions, quite a few saves, and Piper and Martel each getting a chance to play FIP. The finish is truly inspired: With Martel and Luke legal, Rick accidentally catches Sandy with a dropkick meant for Luke, and Sandy goes flying over the top to the floor. Piper and Martel try to whip the Sheeps into each other, but one half gets reversed, and illegal man Piper ends up crashing into legal man Luke. Martel, the other legal man, covers Luke, while Butch races in to cover Piper. Sandy stands up at ringside and uses the apron to count three. He's counting the pinfall nearest him, which is Butch and Piper, and realizes too late that Rick was also covering Luke. After a few minutes, he decides to cover for himself by snatching the belts and taking off for the Crow's Nest, where he announces that since he unknowingly counted the wrong fall and only belatedly realized that Rick was also pinning Luke, he's holding the belts up pending a rematch the following week. When both teams protest, he says that the two teams can either wrestle for the belts next week or he'll hold on to them forever. This finish must have really made an impression on Martel, because the WWF used the same finish a few months later when he and Tony Garea took the World tag team titles from the Samoans. After a similar whip spot, the illegal Samoan (Sika, I think) covered Garea, while Martel caught Afa in a sunset flip. Both falls were counted, but this time the ref (probably Dick Woerhle) realized who was legal and gave the belts to Martel and Garea. What's even more interesting is what happens at the end of the interview: Luke and Butch start to forearm each other in the chest to show how tough they are, and decide to include Buddy as well. But after one forearm, Buddy backs away, and you can hear him warn the Sheeps, "Don't (bleep)in' hit me." I assume that that's the first seed of the dissension between the three of them, although Buddy could have also been legitimately pissed, depending on how hard he was hit. Speaking of the Playboy, I didn't see the supposed interference that got him sent back to the dressing room for the third fall. I wonder if Sandy goofed in letting Buddy stay in the first place and had to cover for it by making up a reason to have him thrown out once he (Sandy) realized the mistake he'd made.

Gene and Alfred were supposedly playing Jim Fowler and Marlon Perkins from Wild Kingdom​. I say "supposedly" because Vince doesn't seem the type to watch that show, so for all we know they could have decided to call Okerlund Jim for an entirely unrelated reason.

First fall: ​This one interests me because I've never seen one of the Sheepherders in a meaningful singles match before. Apparently this one came after Buddy had turned on Luke Williams at the end of the previous week's tag match (which is also on this disc) and beaten him bloody with the Sheeps' flagpole. Butch is now seeking revenge. There's not much action here; Buddy stalls for most of the fall before Butch hits a couple of rights and whips him into the interior ringpost (the one sticking up from the corner). A few elbowdrops later, Butch scores the three count to take a one fall to none lead about seven minutes into the bout. There's a cut right in the middle of Frank's setup for the match and the resulting feud, and it's really annoying, even though I know it's not Will's fault. At any rate, I enjoyed the rundown of the matches that had taken place throughout the week in the various towns, and the subplot of Buddy being all alone in the big upcoming battle royal ought to be very interesting. I guess Wiskowski hadn't come into Portland yet. I wonder who Frank means when he references "Volkoff" here. Nikolai was in Florida, and Igor (otherwise known as Yukon Lumberjack Pierre) was supposedly retired, at least according to Wrestlingdata.com. I even checked on the "original" Nikolai Volkoff from the 1950's to be sure it wasn't him. My guess is that it's Igor and that Wrestlingdata simply doesn't list the match. (Edited to add: I checked for the wrong Igor Volkoff. Even though the particular show Frank's talking about isn't listed, there was an Igor Volkoff wrestling in the Northwest around this time whose real name is Danny Babich. He's the one who was most likely Buddy's partner.) I liked Buddy trying to assert his authority with his "City of Roses" T-shirt, and Butch ripping it up really got the crowd going. As Frank said in the first Martel-Buddy match, the Portland crowds may not always be the biggest, but they're certainly among the loudest, particularly when Buddy's getting his hat handed to him. Second fall: ​This fall's a straightforward brawl, which Buddy has the most of. Toward the end, Butch starts to unload with right hands, whips Buddy to the corner, then tries to follow up. Seeing an opportunity, Buddy hooks Butch's legs to take him down, then puts his feet up on the top turnbuckle to score the pin that evens the match at a fall apiece. Naturally, Dandy Sandy Barr suspects nothing. I thought that Buddy could possibly pull a decent match out of Butch, but such isn't the case. It's not that I wanted a five-star classic or anything, but one or two moves not often seen out of the Sheeps would have been a nice surprise. Kudos to Buddy for adapting so well to the Sheeps' style of bout and going toe-to-toe with Butch believably. The Playboy's a heel, but he's not a dirty wrestler for the most part, even in grudge matches. He makes an exception here, though, and proves to be as nasty a brawler as you'd ever want to meet. The promo between falls can't be described; it has to be seen to be believed. If ever a wrestler told the world what he was about in one promo, Buddy did here. The best part of the whole thing is, Buddy did what he set out to do, as Piper, Martel, and the Sheeps were all out of the Northwest by the end of 1980. Few heels that I know of have been so successful in such a short period of time, and it only added to Buddy's vaunted reputation as a man who eliminated his competition no matter what it took. The list of wrestlers that Buddy's run out of the Northwest up to this time include many of the sport's biggest names. He truly turned out to be the King of Portland; the only other man who defeated almost everyone who got in his way and ran them out of his town to boot was Lawler. I liked Frank reminding the audience that no-calls happen in other sports besides wrestling, using a baseball game that had aired that day on television as an example. It was a great way to get most of the heat off of Sandy and on to Buddy where it belonged. (By the way, where does Sandy get those godawful shirts?) Third fall: ​There's not much to this fall; it quickly ends up outside the ring and stays there. The match is eventually ruled a no-contest due to a double countout in this fall. Butch is busted open in the brawl afterward, and Sandy has to get help from a whole slew of jobbers to keep Butch and Buddy apart. At one point Luke jumps into the fray and gets a few shots in on Buddy before he's ​pulled away. Butch demands a no-DQ, anything goes match for the following Tuesday in the postmatch promo. He says that the no-contest was Don's doing, as he doesn't like the sight of blood on TV (can you blame him, especially in 1980?) He also says that he doesn't want to win the battle royal; all he wants is a piece of Buddy's hide. Not bad work from a man who's best known for screaming "WHOOOOOA!" at the top of his lungs. I've seen the Sheeps in Mid-South, Memphis, and Puerto Rico (among other places), but it's here in Portland that I've really gotten a glimpse of their entire skill set. They were never great, or even good, technical wrestlers, but allow them to be the brawlers they are and they're not terrible. They're also good on the mic, particularly Butch, whose accent is slightly thinner than Luke's. It's a shame that their bodies were too broken down to allow them to be the Sheeps in the WWF, as they would have been a breath of fresh air in the tag division. Even as they were, they might not have been seen as such a joke if they'd been allowed to talk like actual people. I can't wait to see their matches against Piper and Martel on this disc.

First fall: ​Buddy's in a special mask that he's wearing because Piper (I think) recently won a hair match against him. It's just now growing back a little, and the mask allows him to wear a wig while he's wrestling without having to worry about it falling off. Of course, it's also a bullseye for any babyface who wants to try and pull it off. At least for this match, Sandy treats it like a luchador mask and tries to stop Martel from pulling on it; he's only partially successful, as Buddy has to readjust it several times. As for the wrestling, Buddy spends most of the fall dissecting Martel's left leg. His main hold is a figure-four leg scissors, which isn't all that different from a standard figure four. He also applies a spinning toehold briefly, with the end result being that Martel can't stand on the leg at all. Having the leg rammed into the ringpost twice doesn't help, either. Martel's his own worst enemy when it comes time for the finish. He's making a comeback against Buddy and goes for an atomic drop, but forgets himself and hits it on the bad knee. Buddy follows up with a shinbreaker and a half crab, and Rick wisely submits to conserve his leg as best he can for the rest of the match. Buddy leads one fall to none with about twelve minutes of disc time remaining. Rick's submission is especially smart because this is a non-title match. Even if he has to submit away both falls in order to protect his leg, he doesn't lose anything. I don't think we'll actually see him submit twice in a row, and I'm not saying he should​, but it wouldn't cost him anything if he did. This is the second match on the set that I've seen where Buddy has made someone submit to the half crab. It's still surprising to see someone actually submit to that hold after seeing it used in so many Japanese matches as the equivalent of an armbar or a reverse chinlock in this country. Buddy's leg work in general is something to see; he's not usually this methodical, but makes an exception in this case and has Martel's leg so badly hurt as we get ready for the second fall that security has to help Rick to ringside. Frank mentions that Rick has had plenty of offers to go elsewhere, but has chosen to stay in Portland thus far. That will change by the fall, when Vince the Elder comes calling. Second fall: ​Buddy continues to dissect Martel's leg early on, but tries to ram it into the post one time too many, and Rick grabs a handful of hair and rams Buddy's head into the post instead. He then picks Buddy up and jams his back full force into the post, which sets up his offense for the rest of the fall. Buddy's lower back is hammered relentlessly with fists and knees, and when Rick's had enough of that he applies the Boston crab. Buddy submits after a moment, and we're even at a fall apiece with about five minutes of disc time remaining. This reminds me of one of the matches Buddy had with Curt Hennig a couple of years later, in that it's a total meat grinder of a bout that both men are simply hoping to survive intact. Buddy seems to inspire that kind of hatred in people like few others, and to his credit he takes as good as he gives. I would think that since there's a title match coming in two weeks (which we'll see later in this disc), Buddy will win the third fall cleanly somehow in order to set it up. ​Third fall: ​Most of this fall consists of Martel further punishing Buddy's back, which is soon in such bad shape that he can't even get Rick up for a simple bodyslam. At some point, Rick's focus turns from winning the match to trying to unmask Buddy, and after a few minutes he actually gets the mask off. Buddy's head is only seen for a few seconds, as the Sheepherders come out to shield him. A humiliated Buddy flees back to the locker room, and Rick's declared the winner on a countout. Rick tries to abscond with the wig and mask, but Sandy stops him. The finish may have fit Buddy's character at the time, but it certainly didn't fit with the gritty, intense match we'd seen up until that point. That reason alone is enough to dislike it, but the last straw is that Buddy actually gets the title shot that I talked about two weeks later. In essence, he's rewarded for being a total coward, and I think it's ridiculous. I'm still looking forward to seeing the match, though. Frank does a wonderful job of covering for Martel using his bad leg to execute certain moves by saying that the leg's actually feeling better because of the competitive adrenaline that's flowing through his body. Most fans had probably heard of a situation like this or even seen it in other sports, so it would make sense to them. Frank may not have gotten the publicity and acclaim that guys like Lance Russell and Gordon Solie enjoyed, but he's proven on this set that he can be every bit as good in his own way.

This was pretty competitive when Fujinami and Kido were able to focus on Hara in the first part of the match, but once Tenryu was tagged in for the first time, any real chance that they had to win was lost. No one on the New Japan side can do a damn thing with Tenryu, and that's what keeps me from putting this over Lawler/WWF as the Feud of the Year. At one point this year, of course, it was reversed, and Tenryu had his ​turn at looking like an ineffectual schmuck. That's the problem with this feud: one side or the other completely dominates at a given time to the point where you feel sorry for the non-dominant side. I agree that it's nice to see Fujinami bleed for once, but watching him being safely held back instead of storming down the aisle after Tenryu and Hara left me cold. If you're going to open your mouth like he did, follow it up; it's easy to yell and scream about what you're going to do when you know that there's no way in hell that you're going to get a chance to do it. That's a universal problem in wrestling going back as long as there's been wrestling. The trick for the restrained wrestler is to make those who hold him or her back work for the privilege and make it seem like they'd really fight if they could. I saw nothing of the sort from Fujinami here. I also agree that the finish was sort of weak after we'd seen real blood and hatred at the beginning, but that's par for the course in this feud too. They need to start building toward whatever the ultimate showdown is in a hurry, whether it's Hash/Tenryu or whatever else, before they ruin this feud beyond any possible hope of salvage. It may be too late already.

First fall: ​This is a much better technical bout than I thought Wiskowski in particular was capable of having. Martel is in total clean-cut face mode here, so he's naturally supposed to be the wrestler, but Big Ed matches him hold for hold and does very little, if any, cheating. The fall comes when Wiskowski gets out of a side headlock by hitting a back suplex, then goes up top and hits a flying headbutt to get the three count and go up one fall to none with about nine minutes of disc time remaining. Why was Martel billed as being from France instead of Quebec? I know that when he debuted in the WWF, he was correctly billed as being from Quebec City. Could Don have thought that saying a guy who had a French accent was from Canada would be too confusing for his fans? If so, he ought to have been ashamed of himself, since he fan base extended into British Columbia. I liked the "French Rocket" nickname, though. There were two cuts during the long double front facelock sequence; I'm not sure if there were technical difficulties with the tape or whether the guy who originally recorded it wanted to minimize what he saw as a boring part. Actually, this was fascinating to me, as I'd never seen a spot quite like it before, especially Wiskowski holding on to his facelock after two separate Martel suplexes. From what I've seen of Big Ed in this set so far, it seems as though the Colonel DeBeers gimmick, as great as it was for getting heat, may have compromised his ring work, and that's a shame. Did Frank actually call Sandy "The Teenage Tourist" at one point? That's what it sounded like to me. I know he wasn't a teenager by 1980, but I'd be interested to know how in the world he picked up a nickname like that in his younger days. The first part of this was cut, but I caught the end of Ed's explanation of why he chose wrestling over football, which is a pretty standard answer, especially for a heel. I wonder how many fans bought it, though, especially since the salary boom in legitimate professional sports was happening by then. Plus, the fame of being a legit pro athlete was greater than that of wrestler, since wrestlers were almost universally written off as freaks and stuntmen by non-fans who wouldn't dream of disrespecting a football player in the same way. How far the legends have yet to rise; even two years later, there's no way Fidel Cortez would come close to a draw against Piper. Four years later, he might have been lucky to get a cameo on ​Piper's Pit. ​Second fall: ​Martel gets most of the action here, working on Wiskowski's lower back. He almost gets submissions with both an abdominal stretch and his future WWF finisher the Boston crab, then scores the pin that evens the match with a beautifully executed headscissors/rollup combo. We're tied at a fall apiece with about three minutes of disc time remaining. I think the special Piper interview Frank references here is with the kid who had muscular dystrophy. His first name was Joe; I can't remember the last name. The interview can be found on the extras (Disc 10, I believe). "The Cripplers" is a good name for a tag team, but for whatever reason, Buddy and Ed didn't stick with it, and the next time we heard the nickname in the Northwest Rip Oliver was using it. I didn't like Sandy going to such lengths to make Wiskowski turn loose of the rope when he was in the Boston crab. Shake the rope a little or tap the guy's hand if you want, but don't stand on the rope and bear down on his hand. If Ed loses, he's got a legitimate case (at least in his own mind) for Sandy being in Martel's back pocket. Since there's so little time left, I'm guessing that we're going to a draw, although a lot of my predicitions about such things have been wrong before. Third fall: ​With time running out, there are a few desperate nearfalls on each side, including one where Martel kicks out with such force that Wiskowski's head hits the top turnbuckle. Eventually, Martel rallies and catches Ed with a dropkick. He goes for a second one, but it hits Sandy instead. With Martel down, Ed scurries up top and hits the flying headbutt again, but Sandy's already called for the bell. He rules that although Martel's dropkick hit him, it was Ed who pushed him into the way of it, so Ed's disqualified and Martel wins the match and keeps the Northwest title. There was no instant replay, and I didn't have time to rewind it, but I never saw Ed push Sandy into the path of Martel's dropkick. I don't think they'd have booked Rick to intentionally dropkick Sandy to get himself disqualified and save the title, but if Ed pushing Sandy was going to be such an integral part of the finish, they needed to make sure that it was shown as clearly as possible. Ed could sure bump in his younger days, based on what we saw here. I don't recall DeBeers bumping for anyone at all, so I'm guessing that Ed played him that way to save his body, because some of the bumps he took here were spectacular. After six more years of those kind of bumps, his body must have needed a break desperately.

There wasn't much going on here except a bunch of restarts, since the wrestlers insisted on doing their matwork too close to the ropes. The only truly exciting moment came when Shamrock scored his knockdown. I almost missed the anklelock that got the submission since it blended in with all the other stuff on the mat. If the people behind this promotion thought longer matches would help raise the excitement level, they were dead wrong. Even worked shoot-style's more excting than this. Now I know why I prefer good old-fashioned pro wrestling to MMA.

This was a match with two distict halves. I thought that the juniors would roll until Benoit accidentally nailed Liger with that dropkick off the top, then I thought that the heavies would take over and wear down Liger before pinning him. Intead, Chono's incredible string of bad losses continued as he was surprised and pinned by Liger seemingly out of nowhere. The camera didn't clearly catch the crucifix, which added to the surprise. It was great to see Liger again; I'm not even sure he's had a match on the set so far. We haven't seen a whole lot of Benoit either. I guess the NJPW juniors have had an off year in '93. Benoit and Liger's doubleteams are something else; they'll likely pose plenty of problems for the rest of the teams in the tournament, and I hope a few of their matches made the rest of the set. I can't wait to see if Hash and Chono can get their act together for their match against Tenryu and Hara. Chono needs a win somewhere quickly in order to maintain his reputation, as this hasn't exactly been the best month of his career so far.

I must be in a bad mood, because this is another one I actively hated. First, what the hell was Arnold doing in the ring? Okay, the Matilda tributes at the beginning and end were funny, but why leave him in the actual corner inside the ring? You've made the ring into a three-sided enclosure, and it's only because the Bodies and Steiners were as good as they were that they managed to work around that. One Irish whip the wrong way and that dog would have either bitten someone's leg off or been crushed to death himself, and either accident would have been deserved on grounds of blatant human stupidity, not to mention animal cruelty. At least they got him out of there at some point, thank God. Second, I understand that the Bodies are the hometown team and will be here next week and for weeks to come while the Steiners are headed back up north for good, but the way the match was clipped made it seem almost like a Bodies squash. Rick and Scotty looked either overmatched or stupid when they weren't siccing Arnold on everything that moved, and that's just wrong. Any team from SMW could have been in the Steiners' place as long as they had a dog with them to harass Corny, so why spend the money to bring Rick and Scotty in to begin with? Last, Mark Curtis/Brian Hildebrand looks clueless for the second match in a row. Disqualifying the Steiners was technically the right move because Scotty Steinerlined him, but to ignore that and do it for the racquet shots Rick gave out after​ he'd made such a major deal of spotting the racquet and seemingly questioning everyone in the arena about it? Either DQ the Bodies because it's Corny's racquet or pitch the damn thing into the third row and keep the match going. Don't let it lay there unattended, then disqualify Rick for using it when you failed to do your job in getting it out of the ring. I know, it's wrestling and all that malarkey. That doesn't excuse making your most visible referee look incompetent in back-to-back matches by painting him as suddenly being unable to tell what a foreign object is. Corny's promo took the bad taste out of my mouth a bit. I'm pretty sure I know who the first mystery team is, and if they do on this side of Tennessee what they did on the other, look out. The second mystery team, as we know from this month's listings, are the Harrises, and I would have loved Bob Caudle to end the interview by letting Corny know that just to see his reaction. As Pete said, two mystery teams makes things a lot more confusing than they need to be, even if it's only for a week. I wish we actually had a Rock 'n' Roll match from the WWF prior to Survivor Series so we can see how Vince promoted them. I have a hard time believing that their feud with the Bodies wouldn't have gotten over with the proper promotion that we all know Vince is more than capable of delivering when he chooses to.

Nice to see Lawler and Bruno having a good time at the North's expense. There's nothing particularly clever about any of this, but the Memphis fans eat it up by the heaping spoonful and beg for more. I think Vince must have forgotten that even Memphians watch TV. Cheap heat is cheap heat, but to claim that New Yorkers can sleep with their doors and windows open goes beyond the level of acceptable wrestling bullshit. He's turning into more of a cartoon as the weeks go on, and it's taking the edge off of his performances, much the same as would happen five years later against Austin. Lawler admitting that he was just as afraid of the fire he throws as his opponents was a nice touch, but the false modesty ("Who's the ovation for?") rings a tad hollow. Still, it's so much better than the lounge lizard routine that we see from him in the WWF that I'm happy to overlook such trifles. As a Pittsburgher, my ears perked up when Bruno said that Pittsburgh was almost as big a dump as New York, which it's really not. Still, it was fun listening to him put down the North and the WWF with almost as much gusto as Lawler did. I noticed that while Bruno acknowledged that he did some work for the WWF, the name "Harvey Wippleman" was never uttered, even though most of the fans in the studio certainly knew that they were the same man. If there was any kind of real-life fight between Vince and Bruno, my money would be on Vince without question. But since Vince is going to be in Geeky Announcer mode at the MSC instead of Genetic Jackhammer mode, I would actually give Bruno a fighting chance against him. Ever the gentleman, Dave had the class to look slightly uncomfortable when Lawler called all the wrestling fans of New York jerks, although you can tell that he's agreed with Lawler's assessment of Vince and most of the rest of the WWF guys. I wonder what kind of reaction Lawler would have gotten at this point if he'd given Eddie Marlin the Unified belt right between the eyes. It sure looked like he was thinking about it. Even if they weren't prepared to go that far, I'll bet if he was given five minutes he could have made Eddie out to be the most contemptible stooge Vince ever put on his payroll. Of course, that would have wrecked Eddie's effectiveness on TV for a good long time, if not forever. I liked Eddie's cover story for why they hadn't gotten the belt from Lawler yet, although why they waited until Saturday morning to hold the belt up is puzzling to say the least. If Vince's promo (which had probably been in the can for at least a week or two) hadn't mentioned the belt being held up, I'd have sworn that they'd just decided to do it that morning in order to promote interest in the rematch. Vince is back in cool, calm, and collected mode here. I liked how he tried to spin the stuff with the chain, and his delivery of "Shame on you, Jeff Jarrett! Shame on you, Jerry Lawler!" was absolutely perfect. My favorite line was the one about seeing Savage in living Machovision, and I'd have loved it if he'd closed with "OOH YEAH! DIG IT!"

I sympathized with Crush here. He did an excellent job of explaining exactly why he was mad at Savage, and unlike Pete I never felt that Heenan was carrying him through the interview. He even did a good job in explaining Fuji's presence in his life during his recovery. Savage, on the other hand, had nothing to offer beyond "You're making a mistake". I would have loved to hear Crush flat-out ask Randy in front of the crowd why he waited so long to pull him out of the ring against Yoko, but under the circumstances, "I didn't want to lose my job in the booth" would have felt really weak and may have even turned part of the crowd against Randy. The beatdown reminded me in some ways of Orndorff's turn on Hogan, with Crush openly spurning both Heenan and Fuji the way Orndorff attacked Studd and Bundy and sent them fleeing. Then the turn happens. I may be in the minority, but I'd have rather seen Crush hit the heart punch (his heel finisher, if I recall correctly) than drop Savage across the railing, although that was a nice (unacknowledged) callback to what Savage had done to Steamboat seven years earlier. Yoko's banzai drop was a nice substitute, but they never followed up with even a brief Savage-Yoko program, so it ended up meaningless. Heenan did just enough instigating to be noticed; he gave the pot the first stir, then backed away and let Crush take over. It would have been nice for continuity's sake if Corny had come out with Crush and Fuji, but I understand why Vince didn't go there after hearing the promo. It's actually kind of sweet in a weird way that Crush and Fuji rebonded, even if it's for evil purposes. (It would have been nice to mention that Crush had been managed by Fuji once before, but with Eadie and Darsow both gone and Adams' gimmick thoroughly changed, who would have thought of Demolition?) I wonder if Fuji, who was really a native Hawaiian, actually owned part of a hotel on the beach. If he did, why in the world would he have retired to Knoxville, Tennessee? I didn't notice Adams' fake accent too much here; it will probably come back with a vengeance in the future, but I think Adams wanted to make sure he was understood clearly in such an important promo, so he wisely chose to dial it back. Yes, Randy was probably nuts enough to bite his own tongue in order to get the angle over, although I don't know if he actually did. He might have also been nuts enough to knock out a few of his own teeth, which is what Heenan thought had happened after Crush dropped him over the railing.

This was a lot closer on the scoreboard than it ever was in the ring, as Han dominated on the mat from beginning to end. Lucky knockdown or no, Naruse never really stood a chance. I'd have loved to see Han work a regulation-style pro match just to see how he would do. You couldn't put him in against the heavyweights until he got some experience, but he could certainly work some excellent mat-based matches with the juniors (assuming, of course, that he was light enough to be considered a junior).

Aoyagi was able to keep it close for the first couple of rounds by using his feet, but then Tenryu showed up and the match was over. Tenryu's powerbombs looked especially brutal here; it was almost like he was mad that he had to wrestle a match like this in the first place and took it out on Aoyagi. I liked the spot where he hit Aoyagi over the head with his stool. It just might be the most devastating transition move in wrestling history, if you choose to look at it that way. I much prefer WAR matches without rounds. In fact, I prefer most wrestling matches without rounds, period. Someone has to be used to working that style to really make it look good, and few of the rounds matches on the yearbooks have two guys who are used to it. One is nice, but it's not enough.

I must have missed this judo throw some of you are talking about. All I saw was Hase deciding to faint dead away out of a clear blue sky at a random point near the finish so Muta could hit the moonsault to win. Even if it happened, it must have been pretty weak not to have made an impression, and I have no intention of rewatching the match just to see it. I really hated this, mostly because Hase did such a great job destroying Muta's knee with the figure four and the scorpion, only for Muta to not register it at all and execute his offense as if he was fresh out of the locker room. I have no idea why a few of you thought this was epic or anything close to it; once Muta (in case you're wondering, I call him Muta whether or not he wears the paint; it's easier that way) decided to ignore what should have been the story of the match, I was turned off for good. The fact that he hit the moonsault seemingly out of nowhere just because that was the finish was the final straw. I have to admit one small thing that impressed me: the submission holds that both men applied while bridging with their necks. It must have taken a ton of strength to hold those bridges and apply the submissions at the same time.

Most of what I was going to say has already been taken. I wasn't sure why this match made the set until I saw Waltman's sunset flip to the floor. Vince had it right for once; what a maneuver! I thought Waltman's selling of the aftereffects was excellent, although I'm not sure if it was all selling. Tanaka never looked this good as a member of the Orient Express, or as a member of Badd Company for that matter. Interesting that he still has a loose association with Fuji and Yoko; Vince could have done more with that if he'd chosen, at least to the extent or using him (and some others) for more exciting TV matches. Pat's bump off of Waltman's clothesline was the second best bump of the bout. Not bad for a guy who I'd assumed had left the business two plus years before. Lawler and his rent-a-jokes were a total pain in the ass here. Even Heenan and Jesse get into an exciting match as it's going on, regardless of their supposed feelings about the performers. This kind of attitude was slightly more tolerable in Memphis because he is who he is there, face/heel dynamics aside. Here, it smacks of legitimately crapping on a product he doesn't want to be associated with, whether that's actually true or not. It certainly doesn't help get himself or anything he's associated with over. Is it just me or was Vince trying to make it sound at one point like Waltman beat Lawler to launch his WWF career instead of Hall? He made a reference to Lawler hearing the "1-2-3" chant many times before, which makes no sense whatsoever unless that's what he was trying to imply. Does he really think that the fans can't remember what happened five months ago? ​I know Hall's supposed to be a face who can do no more wrong now or forever, amen, but going this far to rewrite history is too much even for him. What's next, did Savage win the World title on January 23, 1984? Was Vince's announcement of the fundraiser at the start meant for local consumption only? It sounded like he was making that announcement for the national audience as well, and I have no idea why on earth he would do that. If it was meant to be just a local promo, he should have had Howard Finkel do it like he did for so many years. Nice to hear Lord Alfred saying "Promotional consideration paid for by the following". At least one vestige of the WWF I grew up with is left, thank heaven.

The promo was better than the match, for reasons I'll get to in a second. Tammy was tremendous here, and so different from the spoiled but still well-meaning host of Tammy's Tips​. Here, there's no question that she's a scheming, greedy little Jezebel, talking about how "Ronnie" has bought her all sorts of nice things and has even "consented" to adopt her out of gratitude for recuing him from Tony. Lee's every bit as funny making gestures in the background with Ron's credit card, and I loved his "slip" about Ron's will. This is a great angle that probably wouldn't have been run in either of the Big Two for at least another five years, and even then they'd have probably messed it up by playing the whole thing for cheap laughs. As for the match, it really didn't deliver unless the only thing you wanted to see was Sherri getting her hands on Tammy. Even then, there wasn't any sort of real action between the two, since Sherri was a trained wrestler and Tammy wasn't. More importantly, Sherri didn't do her job, which was to stop Tammy from interfering. Her purse was still used in the finish, and Brian still got the pinfall. So why bring Sherri in? Anyone could have done what Sherri ended up doing (or not ​doing, as the case may be) for a lot less money. The cherry on the sundae was that Curtis had ​to have seen the object that Brian used on the canvas; it was right there big as life. But he didn't choose to reverse the decision, which as Pete said was a sure sign that the feud was over with Brian coming out on top fairly decisively. I guess with Tony about to turn Corny really didn't need Tracy as his top singles face anymore, but that's at least three of them down the drain, or at least shoved down the card: Horner, Brian himself, and Tracy. Then again, I'm not sure that Corny felt the need to have ​a true top singles face in the first place: SMW, at its core, was about Rock 'n' Roll, the Bodies (at least until they left), and his own endless struggle with Bullet Bob. As long as those elements were in place, Corny most likely believed that the rest of the card was interchangeable window dressing.

How I wish this had been wrestled at least semi-straight. Seeing Snuka and Muraco actually work a regulation-style tag as partners would have been something else. Sane with Funk and Abby. As it was, this was a six-man bunkhouse match minus the fancy get-ups. Even at that, it would have been more watchable had the cameras focused on the guys who were actually in the ring. Instead, most of the focus was on the two guys whom I don't believe ever made it into the ring (Sully and Abby) and the other four guys were afterthoughts, including Terry the former lead babyface. Smith taking a bump like he did for Muraco really didn't make a whole lot of sense. It should have been the other way around, since Smith was ostensibly part of ECW's future. Of course, Muraco wasn't bumping for anyone, as big as he was. He's back in full "Beach Bum" mode physique-wise after looking like he'd swallowed steroids by the metric ton his last year or so in the WWF. Snuka throwing powder in Muraco's face was an interesting way to set up the finish, and I wouldn't have minded one last brief reprise of their feud, which was never really settled in the WWF. Smith's small package for the winning fall was the sloppiest I've ever seen. It's almost like either Muraco didn't want to go down or JT was having trouble taking him down, neither of which was a good thing. Heyman's line about Muraco working body parts was funny under the circumstances, especially since he said it straight. Joey no-sold it, which was the only thing he could do under the circumstances, at least in 1993. Speaking of Mr. Styles, I'm sure this won't be the last time I say this, but he needs to tone it down about four or five notches. He can actually be funny and insightful when he speaks normally, but when he's in what I call "DJ Puke" mode as he was here, there's no one worse in wrestling, not even Vince at his most obnoxious. Does anyone know whatever became of Smith? He must have been left in the dust as the decade wore on and ECW became more and more hardcore.

The best part of all this is that Tammy plays it almost totally straight; she comes across as someone who truly wants to help those whom she believes to be inferior to herself, but gets exasperated when she realizes just how big a hill she has to climb. That's the difference between these segments and the ones that Andy Kaufman did in Memphis. Kaufman was a heel cutting a promo from beginning to end and never tried to be anything different. The fact that Margie really ​was​, shall we say, in need of help makes it even better. Corny could have used a female from the office or even dressed up Brian Hildebrand in drag to do these if he'd just wanted to show Tammy being a bitch for the sake of it, but he really happened into someone who Tammy was more advanced than in certain ways. Not only that, but the producers kept Tammy's real reactions in, including her laughter when Margie tried to use the perfume like deodorant. In the WWF, they'd have reshot stuff like that over and over until it came out canned and unfunny. Tammy's best stuff definitely came in SMW. Sunny wasn't nearly as charismatic or even as naturally gorgeous as Tammy was here. She wasn't as versatile either; at the same time Tammy was doing Tammy's Tips, she was also playing the scheming bimbo in the Ron Wright angle and showing a whole different, darker side of her persona. There are few performers of any age or either gender who can do two vastly different things at the same time and do both so brilliantly. She may be my choice for All-Around Performer of the Year for 1993.

Wait a second. If WCW isn't supposed to recognize Rude's belt, why is Tony still calling him the World heavyweight champion? Not the so-called champion, not the self-proclaimed champion, but the World champion without qualification. He knows WCW doesn't recognize that title anymore, so why is he, in essence, going into business for himself? As for Rude, he's right all the way down the line, but as usual it doesn't do him a whole lot of good. The only good thing is that if he loses to Flair, he can keep the belt, since it's now his own personal vanity belt (at least until the NWA gets around to collecting it). I like how he looks the part of a World champion, and even though he's obviously still a heel, he conducts this interview with class and respect, kind of like Flair used to before he became a blowhard thanks in large part to Dusty. I'd have laughed out loud if Rude had brought up Yoko or the WWF when he was mentioning all the other countries and/or continents and their champions. Don't forget, he acknowledged his time in the WWF at least once before during a WCW interview.

Randy makes more sense here than he did in some of his vintage WWF heel interviews. He never denies using the chain, but he's mad at Jeff for catching him at it and mad at the USWA for stripping him of the title because of it. He really seems happy to be doing something of substance, even if it's in front of a relatively limited audience. Vince was more than likely at the MSC as scheduled on 10/11, since Raw ​was taped that night. (The main event was the Hall-Martel match for the vacant IC title.) This is more than likely Savage's last MSC appearance for a while, as Crush's turn on him happens the following week live on ​Raw​. "King of the Hicks"? Actually, I'm surprised that the USWA didn't acknowledge Savage's past as the Macho King at some point. Maybe they felt that one fake king from the WWF (Bret) was enough for this feud.

Savage better ​have avoided the fire; otherwise, that was one of the worst no-sells I've ever seen in my life, and I wouldn't have let him back in Memphis if I was Lawler. (For the record, I couldn't tell if he avoided it or not, and of course Corey was no help whatsoever.) It seems like they may be preparing the Memphis fans for Double J's WWF debut, which if I read the match listings right comes later this month. What better way than to give him a program, however brief it may be, with an established WWF name like Savage? At least Lawler got to throw the fire, even if it didn't mean much to the match. When he promises it as explicitly as he did for this match, he almost has ​to deliver, even if the rest of the match renders the spot meaningless.

God, does Sal look different here than in his WWF days. The thing I remember him for most was trying to make pizza on ​TNT​ and being the number five man on the babyface side in one of those ten-man tags they used to run at the Spectrum. It was Andre, Rocky Johnson, Pedro Morales, Jimmy Snuka, and Sal against Muraco, Fuji, Billy Graham, Ray Stevens, and Buddy Rose; Andre's team won three falls to one. (The match made at least two Coliseum Video releases back in the day.) The stuff about chairshots and other weapon use becoming such an everyday thing is the number one thing I have against ECW, and it's also part of the reason so many guys are walking around today with mental problems of various types.