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I really miss Mean Gene for stuff like this. He was a better natural shiller than Gino, who comes off as a bit too hard-sell even for the WWF. Selling out any ​arena in one hour was a big deal for the WWF at this time, let alone a major arena like the Boston Garden. Remember, their "main building" at this time, if you can call it that, was the Manhattan Center, since they weren't running MSG every month anymore. I'll be interested in seeing how this match evolved, now that I know the match that we actually got at Survivor Series. Most of the pieces fit already, but I'm curious to find out what happened to Tatanka.

I think that was the idea, Pete. You can already see that they're building for Starrcade, even though they haven't talked about it yet. Flair does what he does here, which doesn't really seem like as big a deal as it used to for whatever reason. This really feels like a second-tier program, even with the NWA World title involved. Fifi tries halfheartedly to perform a little, but she's way out of her league. She's a bit like Liz, only Liz was playing a character and knew it. She was naturally shy and unpolished, but she was never clueless as to what was going on around her like Fifi always seems to be. Fifi was nice eye candy on ​AFFTG, ​but they should have let her go after that.

Not a bad first effort. A bit cliched, but not everyone's 1985 Dusty Rhodes on the stick right off the bat. "Giving 110%" is one of the few sports cliches that I don't have a problem with. It's just another way of saying that the athlete in question will do whatever it takes to win, even if it's something that he or she may not appear capable of or something that takes more effort than most human beings would exert. The trouble is that no one says it with much conviction anymore, which makes it sound extra stupid.

I've heard the narrator before, Pete. He's done most of the WCW voiceovers since Turner bought the company, and I think I've also heard him on some non-wrestling stuff for TBS too. I agree with everyone about Mr. Monopoly; that might have been a good name for DiBiase if he'd come to WCW about this time. They're batting around .500 with these, if you can believe it. There's at least the germ of good ideas or pieces of talent in quite a few of these videos so far. We know Matt Hardy made it, and WCW used the High Voltage name later, so that's two segments that actually turned into something out of nine so far, plus at least one other gimmick that could have worked with Mr. Monopoly and at least one other guy who might have made a decent wrestler with training. That's not a bad percentage any way you slice it, especially when there were probably quite a few submissions that were ​total crapola.

The second and third guys are worth a look if they can put a pair of boots on. The first? Well, you can't win them all. Nice to see number three actually made it in the business. I haven't actually seen much of Matt (though of course I know who he is), but it's nice to know that this challenge actually produced one bona fide piece of wrestling talent. Again, I don't think this was done as a deliberate attempt to embarrass fans. I believe WCW was actually trying to see if any of them were good enough talkers and had good enough bodies that they might actually be made into something. I don't think it worked, but you can't blame them for trying.

This was pretty creative. There was a natural tie-in, what with Yoko supposedly being Japanese, and they used it well. At least it didn't insult anyone (except maybe Charles Barkley). I like the "Unbelievable!" tag line, but it's too easy a joke for those who want to trash the business. They should have gone with Vince's other pet phrase from around this time, "Anything can happen in the WWF".

After seeing this one unfold, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Billy Jack didn't plan to be gone long. Wrestlers who are supposedly leaving a territory for good don't start brand-new feuds on the way out, as he did here with Nagasaki. They also don't leave their original issue, the one they planned to settle before they left, completely unsettled, never mind being stretchered out of the arena. Maybe he knew even as he was leaving that he didn't really want to go, and thus he planned to be back after taking whatever bookings he'd already signed for in the WWF (where he was heading). Of course, he only lasted one TV taping. I've never seen Nagasaki before on tape, and if ever a receding hairline killed a gimmick, it was here. I know he was always pushed as a master of the martial arts and a dangerous crippler, but he looks like a CPA who hit the lottery, retired early, and went to wrestling school on a lark. Maybe seeing him actually wrestle will give me new respect for him, but I wouldn't count on it. Oliver looked like a sure loser here early on, as Billy Jack opened up a whole crate of whoop-ass on him to the point where he was using his taped thumb just to avoid being beaten to death. I thought at one point that he wouldn't get one offensive move in the whole match, and the crowd and the announcers thought so too, especially after Billy Jack threatened to break his neck in his prematch promo. Who was commentating with Coss here? It was a guy named Johnny with a British accent, so could it have been Johnny Saint the junior heavyweight? I didn't know he'd ever gotten to Portland. If Coss hadn't called him by name I would have sworn that it was Billy Robinson. I might have been wrong up above; I remember that Billy Jack had nice runs in both Florida and Texas early in '85. Still, there was nothing stopping him from returning as a special guest every once in a while to continue his feud with the Clan, just like nothing stopped Oliver from taking the feud to Billy Jack in both Florida and Texas. Knowing what I know now, I'd have laughed if Oliver had shown up out of nowhere in the WWF and gone after Billy Jack. That would probably have been a better feud than Billy Jack-Hercules was, and it might have also saved Oliver from having to do the job to The Ultimate Warrior on SNME ​in that ridiculous Black Ninja outfit.

This one was kind of weird. It was pretty much a competitive squash in Wiskowski's favor, with Grey showing occasional fire and working on Big Ed's arm a bit. Then Wisowski crotched Grey on the top rope, and all of a sudden that was it. It reminded me of the match between Buddy and Steve Pardee from around this time, only Buddy got disqualified for choking Pardee between the top and middle ropes. That DQ felt wrong somehow, and so did this one. This was treated as part of a return for Wiskowski, even though he had been on the Clan's side in several six-mans just the previous summer, some of which are on this disc. Coss even mentioned that Ed might have been reading from "the Clan's book of wrestling etiquette" as if he hadn't been part of the group just a few months before. More McMahonizing of history from a promotion of which I expected better. I'll be interested to see the younger version of Dr. Tom when he appears on this disc in a six-man. I'm going through the '93 Yearbook at the same time as this set, and he's the captain of the Heavenly Bodies (at least as much as he can be with Corny around), so it'll be a treat to see him as a relative youngster. (I mention this here because Coss teases an appearance by Dr. Tom later in the same program that this match was taken from.)

You all know I love Gino, but he shouldn't have been allowed to cut promos on Update, mostly because it doesn't do the programs they're trying to push any good. What would the average fan have rather heard here, Gino describing what happened in the clip from Raw ​or Lawler actually insulting Stu and Helen? There shouldn't even need to be a debate about that. I'm guessing that Vince lets Gino do that segment however he sees fit, because otherwise they wouldn't make the air that way. If that's true, it's a lousy decision on his part. Bret's promo was fine, but isn't calling Lawler the undisputed king making light of Bret's victory at King of the Ring? Normally that's not a big deal, but King of the Ring was a first-time pay-per-view this year, and its results need to be protected. What's the matter with doing what they did at the start of the feud, which was calling Lawler the "self-professed" king and Bret the undisputed King of the Ring? (Gino doing it in his rant doesn't count.) Were they trying to protect themselves from a possible Lawler lawsuit, or just trying to paint Bret as a kind of underdog to add juice to the feud, as if it needed any?

First fall: ​The atmosphere in this fall is unlike anything on this set so far; all the respect everyone's had for Buddy over the years but couldn't show because he's been such a slimeball is gushing out, and the House of Action's so loud that Coss legitimately wonders a few times if anyone can hear him. It's hard, believe me. Buddy fans the flames of adoration by running out into the crowd at least twice and borrowing banners for the whole arena (except, oddly, for the TV cameras) to see. This reminds me a lot of Piper's turn in the WWF in the fall of '86, except that in this case Buddy's basking in the love unashamedly. Meanwhile, the Clan has the unenviable task of trying to keep Oliver away from Buddy at all times and all costs. Rip tags out any time Buddy breathes on him until late in the fall, when the Clan finally gets the advantage with Buddy in the ring. Even then, Rip hits a knee to the midsection and quickly tags out before Buddy can make a comeback on him. It says something about the hatred Buddy has for Rip and how afraid Rip is of Buddy that Rip willingly faces Billy Jack (his other sworn enemy) rather than deal with Buddy at all. Before the match starts, Buddy tries a few cheap shots, and watching Rip scramble to get out of his (Buddy's) way before he can be touched drives the crowd even more wild. As far as the action goes, the faces get most of it, and the arena goes wild for every move. Both Buddy and Billy Jack are put in peril briefly, but that only slows their momentum slightly. Eventually Curt gets the fall by hitting a high monkey flip/flying bodypress combination on Dynamite, and the RBA is up 1-0 with just a little over thirteen minutes of disc time remaining. Coss is alone for this fall; Dutch returns between the first and second falls. There's not a whole lot of time for funny lines or pungent observations, but he does a wonderful job of getting this very special atmosphere across. Sometimes that's all you need to do. ​Second fall: ​This fall is just as wild as the first one, especially the ending. Dynamite and Curt are legal in the ring, and Dynamite brings Curt out of the corner to set up a tombstone piledriver. But instead of simply executing the move, he calls on Oliver and Assassin to help him, and they make it a triple spike tombstone. Dynamite gets the easy pin, and we're even at a fall apiece. After the fall, it's obvious that Curt's badly injured. Buddy and Billy Jack each try to communicate with him, but get no response. Finally, Buddy grabs the mic and says that as much as he hates to do it, he's asking for a stretcher, since Curt can't leave the ring on his own. After a minute or two, the Clan's special "Carryout Service" stretcher appears, and Buddy and Billy Jack reluctantly put him on it. All the while, Oliver's yelling at them to hurry up and get Curt out of there, and he's so obnoxious that Coss suggests that someone take the mic away. Then, Oliver and Assassin, who have each been sitting on the top rope in opposite corners, create a distraction while Dynamite climbs to the top and drops a flying knee on Curt's throat (which leads to Curt selling a throat injury), then knocks out Sandy with a vicious headbutt for good measure. Eventually Curt's loaded on the stretcher, and after Dutch yells at the fans to clear the aisle, Curt's carried back to the locker room. Coss says that they'll find someone to sub for Curt in the third fall, but apparently they were short on time, because the bout ends in a 1-1 draw. In the postmatch interview, Buddy asks for and receives a match with Oliver, who was originally supposed to wrestle Curt for the Northwest title, on the following Tuesday, while Billy Jack asks for and receives a match with Assassin. Don also breaks the news that Dynamite's been suspended for a month as a result of his actions. This angle was so detailed that I felt it needed a long recap. The atmosphere for this whole match was off the charts, and hasn't been replicated in any of the many subsequent RBA-Clan matches that we've seen on the set. The fans had been waiting for years for Buddy to see the light whether they knew it or not, and now that he finally has they can cheer him as lustily as they ever booed him. Strangely enough, things were never quite the same for him after he turned back in the spring of '84; Oliver remained the hottest heel in Portland, and eventually Buddy left to go to the AWA. On a broadcasting note, can someone please tell Coss to stop with the constant references to explosions when Dynamite's in the ring? We know he's called the Dynamite Kid, Donald. We don't need your bum jokes to hammer the point home every ten seconds. Who do you think you are, Vince McMahon? Before I close, I have to mention the insane armdrag Billy Jack gave Dynamite during the second fall; he almost threw him clean out of the wring by the wrist. I saw it happen earlier tonight in a lucha match from Will's 1993 Yearbook, and considering the circumstances I thought Billy Jack did it better.

Thanks for the info, Tim!

Matches like this are what keep me from giving up on lucha completely. Lots of blood, lots of dramatic nearfalls (particularly in the third fall), and one hell of an ending that leaves the door open for rematches if the promoters so desire. If I remember correctly, Tirantres is a heel ref, so him disqualifying Rambo (who was supposed to be the heel according to the announcers) for something so relatively minor was a surprise, especially since it looked like an accidental bump on Rambo's part. Of course, he later fouled Villano when both of them were on the top rope, and that would have been a DQ if Tirantes had seen it (at least I would think so). I loved Villano armdragging Rambo off the top rope, then doing it again later in the match and flinging him all the way to the outside. Let's see Ricky Steamboat try and top that! I know enough Spanish to recognize "pink panther" when I hear it, and regardless of what he may have looked like I doubt that was what Villano's second was going for. What he was ​going for I honestly couldn't tell you.

I can't hope to talk about everything that went on, of course, but here are some things that really stuck out: Savage getting three (literally) huge eliminations: Gigante, Booger, and Adam Bomb. Are you sure ​you want to put him out to pasture, Vince? Mabel auditioning for a heel run by going at it with guys like Waltman and Tatanka. It seemed even more like an audition because Mo was nowhere to be found. Several guys defying all common sense and using the top rope, including Savage at the start. Remember the Royal Rumble, Randy? Why on earth would you make the same mistake twice? Lombardi (MVP) getting a decent-sized run. I think he even eliminated someone, though I can't remember who at the moment. Patterson's lover or not, he's always looked like he belongs in whatever role Vince decides to put him in, and there are plenty of bigger names that you can't say that about. Almost all the big men being eliminated in the first half of the match, and Mabel, the biggest man in the whole thing, being eliminated by Nash singlehandedly. Could you tell that Vince had plans for Big Sexy? Guys like Curt and Jannetty, who seemed like logical favorites going in, also being eliminated fairly early. Vince clearly wanted the belt on new blood, which also doomed the chances of guys like Backlund and Snuka. The pot already being stirred for the Savage-Crush feud when Heenan says that he was told that Savage went to Jack Tunney and deliberately got Crush excluded from the battle royal. What feud not involving a part-timer gets five months of build in today's WWE? Hall surviving the three-on-one, and who survived with him. Draw with Tatanka aside, Martel's no threat to Hall; he's another "blast from the past", as Vince put it when talking about Snuka, while Hall represents the "new generation". Even if I hadn't already known who won, I would have bought a lot of other people as Hall's opponent before Martel. My choice? Even though he's not exactly fresh as a spring rain himself, Bam Bam Bigelow. The exclusion of guys like Luger, Lawler, Taker, and even Bret. I'd have rather seen at least one or two of these four over the likes of Lombardi and Snuka. I can buy Taker being focused on Yoko, so maybe singling him out isn't fair. But how about Lawler, with or without Bret as a foil? If nothing else, he could have beat on Owen for a while. And there's no way in this universe Luger shouldn't have been in there. Kayfabe-wise, the IC belt is still a top contender, if not the ​top contender, for the World title, so what better way to reestablish yourself as a viable challenger for Yoko? No, he'd rather beat up on some guy with a German first name and a Danish last name who thinks he's from Finland. Heenan came up with some good lines here (my favorite was him describing Gigante as "not your average Slim Jim" after Savage eliminated him), but Vince was in "ignore my color man and yell as loudly as I can" mode for the most part. Oh, and let's not forget "never, under any circumstances, say the name of a wrestling move" mode. "WHATTA MANEUVER!" for a clothesline? Imagine, if you will, Al Michaels calling an NFL game without using words like run, pass or tackle. Or, if you're from Europe, think of a soccer announcer calling a game without saying words like kick, goal, or save. Can't do it, eh? That's how bad Vince has gotten over the years, and I'm sure it'll get a lot worse before Mr. McMahon makes his first appearance. By the way, at the same time Savage was being shown in the battle royal on ​Raw​, he and Lawler were going at it in real time at the Mid-South Coliseum. Even though they were shown in separate weeks, the Hall-Martel IC title match took place the same night as the battle royal (9-27 in New Haven, Connecticut), so my main complaint about the battle royal (not having the title match occur on the same night) no longer holds water. I'm looking forward to seeing it!

I might just be getting tired of these six-mans, since I've been watching them for four Yearbooks straight, but this didn't do a lot for me. Kikuchi's beating was frightful, especially the slam to the floor and Fuchi bending him back over the top rope for what seemed like forever, then releasing him almost on his head. But not much advances here; nothing is set up to change. We already know everyone on the Misawa side hates Kawada because he turned on them, we already know that Fuchi's probably the flat-out meanest bastard in wrestling today, and we already know Kikuchi's the Japanese Ricky Morton. So what else is new? I liked these matches better when they were leading to Misawa taking down Jumbo. Would this be the day he finally got a pin or made the master submit? If it wasn't Misawa, would Kawada or Kobashi score a huge upset? How would Kikuchi and Kobashi continue to develop? There was a sense of urgency to the work in the ring that just isn't there anymore. Misawa isn't in the matches enough for Kawada or Taue to put him in much danger, and we already know Fuchi's not getting anywhere near the Triple Crown; he's too old. Kenta's a nice number two, and his feud with Kawada looks tasty, but it doesn't mean anything if he wins, because outside of a tournament setting they're not going to run Misawa-Kobashi, at least not yet. I've had it with Kikuchi; his career's stalled at the punching bag level, and any win he'd get over Kawada or Taue would look like a total fluke by now. His performance in this particular match was his best in quite a while, but he still ended up taking the pin after teasing a huge comeback. If Kikuchi getting pinned was going to be the finish, why not do it after Taue put him through the table? Why waste our time? For those who see the work in the ring as almost the be-all and end-all, I know why these matches are still popular, because there's plenty of good stuff. But I'm a big-picture guy, and a match with the six biggest native stars in the promotion should move the needle, or at least threaten to, more often than not. That's not happening in AJPW very much these days. New Japan feels much more urgent, with Tenryu trying to run roughshod and everyone seemingly jockeying to be the one who beats him and runs him out of town. Maybe AJPW needs a shot of Tenryu-esque new blood, but where is it going to come from?

This bout was pretty much over the second Hase hurt his knee. He had a moment here and there afterward, but Hash was never truly in danger again. It looked like Hase was putting the Scorpion on in such a way that his bad leg was taking all the pressure. If so, that was a ridiculous thing to do on his part, and on top of that he really didn't sell it as much as you'd think someone who just finished applying a hold involving his bad leg would have. The kickouts kept Hase strong, and they also allowed Hash to hit the DDT using the slight bit of elevation supplied by the first turnbuckle, which made the move more impactful than usual. I also liked Hash kicking Hase's leg out from undernath him every once in a while just to make sure that it wouldn't be able to recover. If Hash wrestles a match like this against Tenryu when they meet, NJPW may finally win its battle against WAR once and for all.

I had a post ready to send that was eaten by the server, and I'm not going to bother recreating it; this match isn't worth the trouble. Horrible camerawork, two completely mismatched styles (high-flyers Sasuke and Shinzaki; hardcores Onita and Pogo) and a finish that no one bothered to try to film add up to a completely wasted sixteen minutes. As someone who's enjoyed what little I've seen of Michinoku Pro, I'm glad that they moved away from matches like this. They should be left to the workers and promotions who know how to do them best (or worst, depending on your perspective). In the meantime, I'm looking forward to more M-Pro matches with the likes of Sasuke and Delphin.

​First fall: ​This is a pretty even scientific contest most of the way, with Hack slightly outwrestling Flair. Eventually (and inevitably), the fists start flying, and Hack widens his advantage. Finally, he puts Flair in the sleeper, and Flair tries to run Hack into the corner to escape. Hack shoves off, and Flair hits chest first. Hack's ready for him with a small package, but Flair reverses (without the aid if tights, from what I can see) and scores the three count to go up one fall to none with about fifteen minutes of disc time remaining. When Don said during his introduction that the World champion seldom appeared on TV, I was ready to laugh out loud until I realized that this was 1982. Even so, I'm pretty sure Flair was doing interviews on WTBS fairly often; he just wasn't actually wrestling. Frank discusses Buddy's challenge thoroughly in the first few minutes of the match and does an excellent job detailing the similarities between Buddy and Flair. He doesn't mention Verne Gagne at any point, though, or that they actually trained together for a while. I'm pretty sure that Buddy (under his real name) was a frequent opponent of Flair's during his early days as well. For what it's worth, the Playboy doesn't bother Flair in the least here, and why should he? Each of them are the other for the most part except for where they choose to ply their trade. Flair was even as fat as Buddy at one point early in his career. Hack doesn't get a whole lot of mention, but he's doing quite well for himself so far. Frank brings up an interesting point: Both Hack and Flair use the figure four as a finisher, so each of them also knows how to counter it, which should make the inevitable race to lock it in first a big part of the match's strategy.. If I'm not mistaken, Buddy chose Curt as his special referee for the match against Flair, which is what started their epic feud. Second fall: ​This fall starts out as even as the first fall was, but Flair eventually manages to take control and punish Hack both inside and outside the ring. After he scores several close two counts, he decides it's time to wrap things up, so he goes for the figure four, only for Hack to catch him in a small package. He can't reverse it this time, and Hack scores the three count. We're even at a fall apiece with a little less than four minutes of disc time remaining. Unlike the Billy Jack-Harley Race match which I reviewed earlier, this one has a strong control section by Flair which shows just how talented he is. Seeing Flair executing shoulderbreakers and gut wrench suplexes is a bit surprising, not because he can't do it but because he did it so seldom under Crockett and Dusty. Maybe if he had he would have provided the television audience with a more palatable alternative to Hogan. Flair's already being talked about in the same breath as guys like Harley and Jack Brisco, although Frank takes care to say that he'll have to amass a track record before we know for sure how good he is. In many ways, Flair was something the territories had never seen before as champion unless one of them was lucky enough to get an appearance by Superstar Billy Graham as WWWF champ, and to quote Flair's good friend Bobby Heenan, comparing Flair to Superstar is like comparing horse manure to ice cream, at least in the ring. The crowd really wants Hack to be the one to defeat Flair, but as much as they love him, most of them also probably don't want Buddy anywhere near the belt for fear that even as he travels the world, he'll make sure that the Northwest never forgets who the champion is. ​Third fall: ​It's desperation time for Hack, so he pulls out all the stops, including beating Flair to a pulp in the corner. He then catches Flair's leg as he attempts a kick and locks on the figure four, but Flair makes it to the ropes. Undaunted, Hack tries to whip Flair out of the corner but is reversed. He goes up to the second rope and tries to catch Flair with a flying bodypress, but the momentum puts the champion on top, and he holds on for the winning three count. Frank does a great job putting over Flair's desperation to hang on to the title in both the second and third falls, despite the fact that he led 1-0 and that Hack has to beat him twice to win. Most champions don't wrestle desperately unless they have to come from ​down ​a fall, which makes Flair's performance unique. If he'd won the match, Hack would have been the youngest NWA World champion in history, as Frank points out. This match was in April of '82, and he wouldn't turn twenty-one until August. I thought for sure that we'd hear from Buddy again before this match was over, or that he'd even interfere on Flair's behalf to make sure he kept the belt so he (Buddy) could win it himself. This shows that I've probably watched too much mid-eighties JCP for my own good.

​First fall: ​The action's a bit faster-paced than in a normal tag team match, as it was in the match on Disc 7. Eventually things settle down with Curt playing FIP. By the grace of "fan power" (TM Don Coss), he makes it to his corner and tags Billy Jack, who cleans house on Oliver. Instead of going for the full nelson to secure the fall, though, he brings Oliver's ribcage down on his own shoulder to knock the wind out of him. Buddy and Curt hit Oliver and Assassin with stereo dropkicks, and Billy Jack gets the pin to put the RBA up one fall to none with approximately sixteen minutes of disc time remaining. The finisher Billy Jack used here looked pretty impressive. It's a shame he didn't use it more often instead of always trying to set guys up for the full nelson, which seldom got a submission in a big match. I think we know the result of this match already, because Oliver's threatened to leave the Northwest if the Clan loses, and it's pretty apparent that he's going nowhere at the moment. Either that or Don has one hell of a bait-and-switch in mind. Nice save by Dutch when Don gets his months mixed up not once, but twice. Going a month behind or ahead is one thing, but to get April mixed up with September twice takes an especially scrambled brain. Buddy does a great job working the apron here, especially when he cheats halfway to the other side of the ring so Curt could try to tag. Unfortunately, Sandy caught him and sent him back to his corner. Dutch must have been getting a lot of flack for no-shows, because this is the second time on this disc that he's had to reassure fans that Portland's wrestlers will be where they're booked to be barring injury or transportation problems. I wonder who was causing all the trouble. If I knew the roster a little better I could take an educated guess, but I don't. Line of the Fall goes to Coss, as he gently (?) pokes fun at Don's mistake: "Next he'll be telling us it's Memorial Day." Second fall: ​The faces control the first part of the fall targeting Oliver's back, but eventually the Clan turns the tide and targets Billy Jack, working on his ​back. Billy Jack kicks out of some awful punishment, but ecentaully succumbs to the combination of an Assassin slam and an Oliver stomp off the top. We're even at a fall apiece with approximately ten minutes of disc time remaining. Billy Jack's getting the hang of being an FIP. He still does an occasional Superman kickout (which the fans expect), but he's also learning how to make some nearfalls close to add to the suspense of a match. Of course, considering how popular the RBA is at the moment and how despised the Clan is, neither side needs to do much to elicit sympathy and scorn respectively. Buddy makes a big deal about not changing his style, but his occasional forays into frontier justice cost his team to the point of setting up pinfalls for the other side, which is what happened here. If Don wanted to, he could instruct the announcers to make a big deal out of that, but turning Buddy back now makes no sense, as this is one of the hottest (and most underrated) feuds in wrestling. I loved this exchange between Dutch and Coss after Oliver got his feet up on a Billy Jack corner charge: Dutch: "What did the spider say to the fly?" Coss: "Welcome to my feet, or something like that." Third fall: ​The Clan's in control for most of this fall, delivering severe beatings to both Buddy and Billy Jack. Eventually Curt gets the hot tag, and is well on his way to victory against Assassin when Assassin adjusts his hood and catches him with a series of headbutts to both the ribs and the forehead. Then he tags Dynamite, who makes the whole thing look legal with a beautiful flying knee off the top for the semi-clean pin. There's a brief brawl afterwards, during which Billy Jack gets his foot caught between the ropes and has to be helped out by a fan, who is promptly scolded by security. I wish the match with Andre joining Billy Jack and Buddy against the Clan had made tape. If this wasn't his last appearance in the Northwest before he went WWF-exclusive, there only could have been one more at most, since he didn't travel in North America after the spring of '84. Nice explanation by Dutch of how wrestlers can recover in restholds. It seems counterintuitive to the average fan, but Dutch makes it all seem perfectly logical. The promo at the end was great with Buddy trying to destroy the Clan's stretcher. I don't know if Billy Jack was legitimately distracted or what, but he didn't seem to be paying attention to Buddy, as he asked Dutch to repeat almost word for word the details of Andre coming to Portland and teaming with Buddy. If it was a sales technique dome for the fans' sake, it was a pretty clever one. Otherwise, Billy Jack needs to quit daydreaming when he's not being talked to,

First fall: ​The action here is great as always, and Dynamite's put over as a true fame-changing force despite his small stature. He and Buddy work Curt over for most of the fall, but Curt gets loose and tags Billy Jack, who comes in on fore but gets caught because Dynamite's so quick. Eventually Dynamite uses the tombstone piledriver to score the win, and he and Buddy lead one fall tp none at about the nine-minute mark. Dynamite's hyped as the best of both worlds: both a junior heavyweight threat and a strongman who can keep up with Billy Jack. I'm not positive, but it wouldn't surprise me if Tommy was already on steroids here. We see most of his signature moves, including the dropkick off the top and the snap suplex, which isn't nearly as fast as it would be in the WWF, where it seemed like the guy taking the move barely touched the mat at times. In the prematch promo, Buddy says that Dynamite crippled two wrestlers while in Japan, then left the junior heavyweight championship of the world behind because there wasn't enough competition. What a way to establish a man's credentials quickly, even if the claims made are highly exaggerated at best and complete bullshit at worst. Buddy could have just talked about the legitimately classic matches Dynamite was having with Tiger Mask all over the world, but I guess Don didn't think the Portland fans would know or care who Tiger Mask was. Dynamite's accent adds to his thuggish persona; he sounds like a man who would rip your head off for the right price, then turn around and rip the head off of the guy who'd hired him to hurt you in the first place. Wisely, guys like Buddy and Oliver do almost all of Dynamite's talking here in the Northwest; as helpful as his accent is in establishing his persona, it's also hard as hell to understand after a while. They're protecting Billy Jack, who's still a rookie for all intents and purposes. He's not quite the one-move wonder he was a few months ago when he used the full nelson the first possible chance he got in the match we saw, but he's coming along slowly, which means that we're seeing a whole lot of Curt in this match. He did hit a nice monkey flip on Dynamite, so his lessons are still progressing nicely. I liked Buddy bringing out his softball trophy during his promo to emphasize his point about how he always makes successful investments. If I remember correctly, however, this one's not going to turn out so well for him. ​Second fall: ​Billy Jack plays FIP for most of this fall and does it quite well. There's a lot of build to the hot tag, including a false tag that Sandy doesn't see, and when it finally comes Curt's all business, eventually dispatching Buddy with a dropkick off the top similar to the one that sent Buddy out on a stretcher a couple of months before. We're even at fall apiece with about ten minutes of disc time remaining. Even as strong as Billy Jack is, he's still a good FIP because he's so inexperienced and can easily fall prey to the heels' tricks. That said, he's still strong enough to launch both Dynamite and Buddy when he kicks out of attempted pins, which is a bit odd. Dutch mentions that this is his daughter's first time at a live wrestling match. Good for her, because this is the kind of match that makes wrestling fans for life I loved Dutch's incredulous reaction to the fan who challenged Buddy. Actually, even if the guy only weighed a hundred and twenty pounds and had a cigarette in his hand, he could still be dangerous because he could use the cigarette to burn or blind Buddy if he got close enough. That's more likely than Buddy fixing it so the guy blows smoke out of his ear. Even though we didn't see the promo, I liked Curt's reaction to what Dynamite was able to do in the first fall. Any wrestler who can impress his peers that much should definitely be a force to be reckoned with. I don't think Billy Jack and Dynamite ever crossed paths in Calgary; in fact, I don't think Billy Jack ever worked for Stampede. I guess Don could have sent him up there for a match or two to gain experience, but he didn't work there on any sort of regular basis that I know of. Third fall: ​There's dissension from the start of the fall, as Dynamite insists that Buddy do almost all of the wrestling, only coming in briefly himself. Finally, Buddy gets the advantage on Curt and tags Dynamite anyway. With Buddy holding Curt fast, Dynamite climbs to the top for a dropkick........which catches Buddy flush on the jaw! Curt gets the easy three-count to win the match for himself and Billy Jack. Meanwhile, Dynamite and Buddy start to brawl, and Buddy calls Oliver and Assassin to come down and help him beat Dynamite up. The good news is that they come down; the bad news is that it's Buddy who's their victim! The Clan lays Buddy out and busts him wide open while Curt and Billy Jack remain undecided about what to do. At first they try to walk away, but decency eventually compels them to come to the Playboy's aid. We end the package with a pair of promos. Dynamite calls Buddy a loser and officially accepts membership in The Clan, while Buddy somberly promises revenge and says that while the people of the Northwest may not trust him now, he's changing his attitude for good and already has Billy Jack in his corner to help him go after Oliver and company. On the one hand, you could say that this was done far too quickly, that Buddy should never have been accepted by his former enemies until a suitable amount of time had passed. But what chance would even Buddy have had three-on-one? Being an island unto yourself makes no sense in a situation like that. I'm sure that there were plenty of fans who despaired when they found out that Billy Jack was the first one to side with Buddy, given that he and Oliver had a major feud going and that Buddy could have easily been trying to set him up, but it would have made less sense for Curt to befriend him immediately after all that they'd tried to do to each other over the last year or so. Oliver could have stood to be clearer on why he sided with Dynamite over Buddy; "It's money, baby" could have meant any number of things. Still, given the quality of the upcoming matches between the two sides, I'll take this feud whether Oliver had any specific motivation or not. Quite simply, it may be the best match-for-match feud in Portland history, with more classic bouts of all sorts than many more publicized feuds regardless of territory. Those of you watching in chronological order are in for a grab bag full of treats. Line of the Night goes to Coss during the second fall, as he's talking about how Buddy's money brought Dynamite back to the Northwest: "I wished my ​money talked like that; it's got laryngitis."

First fall: ​This is an Iranian death match. The rules are simple: A second of each wrestler's choosing (Assassin for Hassan, Billy Jack for Curt) ties his opponent to the turnbuckles. It's up to each wrestler to free themselves by whatever means they can. If they can do this, they can pummel their opponent at will without the opponent being able to do a thing about it until he​ can get free. There's no disqualification, and two out of three falls determines the winner. So we're set. Both seconds tie their man's opponent to the buckles, and it's a race to see who can gain the advantage by untying themselves first. Or it would have been, except that we're running short on time and getting time calls from the time Don leaves the ring after making the opening announcements. Each man thus throws off their ropes at the exact same time, and we're left with a straight no-DQ match, and Curt wins the first fall with a flying bodypress, taking a 1-0 lead with about nine minutes of disc rime remaining. This may be the most useless stip match I've ever seen. Dutch makes a big deal about how tightly Billy Jack and Assassin are tying the knots, puts Hassan over as a magical escape artists who can appear and disappear literally at will, makes it sound like Curt's in for the beating of his life because of how Assassin hogtied him, and just like that Curt's free of the ropes and the whole reason for the match is gone. Why book a match that requires a long build when you know that you're on a time schedule because of TV? What's the difference between this match and any other now? There's not even any time to put the stip over as dangerous, because it's dispensed with in about sixty seconds. Curt looks really good, and I'm betting that with so little time left we're in for a sweep, especially since Don puts over in his introduction how Curt ran The Convict out of Portland and has just about done the same to Buddy. Hassan's gotten in no offense at all; the only time he's been active so far is when he berated Don during the introductions about letting kids in free the following week because he's a prince and no one, not even Don, deserves to look upon his body for free, Don answers that it's his promotion and he'll do what he wants to do. I'm guessing Hassan is at least an associate of the Clan, since Assassin's seconding him here. Second fall: ​This one's surprisingly quick. Curt dominates most of it, busting Hassan open on the ringpost. But just when the sweep seems inevitable, Curt misses another flying bodypress from the second turnbuckle, and Hassan pounces with a reverse neckbreaker, then covers and gets the three count. We're even at a fall apiece with about five minutes of disc time remaining. I just realized that the Sheik who was talked about as Assassin's partner a couple of matches ago is actually Hassan. No wonder Assassin's his second here. (I thought it might have been Farhat, although I've never heard of him working in the Northwest.) Of all things to have on your tights. "Oil". Come on, Hassan, show some pride in your "country". At least The Iron Sheik has "Iran" on some of his tights. (For the record, Hassan looks and sounds about as Iranian as President Reagan did. As it turns out, he's former WWF jobber and referee Jack Krueger.) ​Third fall: ​We get some good action here, including low blows by both guys and Hassan kicking out of the Ax. In the end, the bout ends in a TV time limit draw with both men still slugging away. In postmatch interview, we learn that Curt beat Hassan for the Northwest title the night before, only to lose it somehow thanks to Oliver's interference. Curt promises to get the belt back if it's the last thing he does, and we fade out. Apparently, this is the first time Hassan hasn't won an Iranian death match, though he's lost a few by reverse decision, which I didn't think was possible in an anything goes match. This is as good as any place to ask: What was the proper name for Portland's belts? Don calls them the Northwest belts in his introductions, but Dutch always refers to them as the Pacific Coast belts.

I found the prematch promo a bit disappointing; it sounded like Buddy was trying to suck up to Oliver, which isn't exactly a good thing for the top heel in a promotion to be doing. Rip was the one who sounded cool and confident, as well he should be with Assassin and his mystery man to back him up. This match intrigues me because it happens when Buddy's turn is obviously in the works. Curt-Buddy has been one of the most vicious feuds in recent memory; will that continue to be the case here, or might we see a slightly kinder, gentler Buddy? ​First fall: ​From the beginning, they're subtly trying to put it in the fans' minds that maybe Buddy isn't such a bad guy after all. He wrestles this fall completely clean, which is amazing since he and Curt were literally trying to cripple each other just weeks ago. The announcers compliment his wrestling ability, and Coss even remarks, "He (Buddy)'s got style." They also put over his ability to draw money at both MSG and the Olympic Auditorium in Los Angeles. (I was wondering when Buddy ever wrestled in a main event slot out in Los Angeles until I remembered that Vince was promoting out there by then, so he probably headlined a house or two against Bob Backlund. He may have also drawn money for the LeBells, though they were mostly out of business by the time he got to be a headliner.) The fall comes out of nowhere here, as Buddy turns his back on Curt to celebrate a good move, only to be put in a bodyscissors and rolled around the ring until he's dizzy. I think I've heard the move called the log roll, but I can't be positive. Anyway, once Buddy's reeling Curt simply turns him over and scores the pin to go up one fall to none about seven minutes into the match. Line of the Fall goes to Dutch after Buddy gets on the mic to announce that he's 221 pounds buck naked: "He must have taken his wallet out of his pants." Well, Dutch, if he was naked he wouldn't have pants on in the first place, would he? Coss mentions that it's over a hundred and twenty degrees in the arena, which explains why Don's only dressed in a shirt. How these guys are going to go up to nineteen more minutes (the time left on the disc) in that kind of heat I have no idea. Coss was probably exaggerating about the arena temperature, but his point still stands. Interesting sales technique by Dutch: Come down to the matches in person, then get home and see yourself on TV. Knowing how popular wrestling was in Portland at this time, it probably worked like a charm. We're going to see Curt and Billy Jack as a tag team later on this disc against Buddy and Dynamite, so we'll know if they were able to beat Oliver and Assassin for the belts in the match Coss is hyping for the following week. (The match we have took place on 6/11, the week after that.) ​Second fall: ​We get another unusual pin here, as Curt foils a superplex attempt from Buddy, then catches him in a rollup. The two men spend the next minute exchanging two counts, then Buddy finally comes out on top. We're even at a fall apiece with about six minutes of disc time remaining. There were two other epic holds in this fall: a struggle over a backslide which Curt finally got, and a side headlock by Curt reminiscent of the one Jay Youngblood used on Buddy a couple of years earlier. Curt almost broke Jay's record for the number of times a performer ground on a side headlock; Jay had seventy-three by my count, while Curt stopped at sixty-four. He almost got a three-count as well. Buddy wrestled this fall totally clean as well, without even so much as an eye rake or an unclean break. Now that the title's really up for grabs in the third fall, it'll be interesting to see if he keeps this up or if he gives Curt a dose of the old Playboy Dutch does a tremendous job putting over Curt's newfound maturity, which he credits to Curt's stint in the WWF. He calls Buddy out for constantly turning his back on Curt, and also for stalling when he had the chance to possibly score a fall and tie the match. Coss also points out that Buddy's running out of time, which is absolutely right. We'll see how Buddy approaches the third fall. ​Third fall: ​As I and just about everyone else who's seen more than one Buddy Rose match in their lifetime expected, he's a lot more aggressive in this fall, though he doesn't out-and-out cheat until the end, when he reverses the momentum of Curt's flying bodypress, then grabs his trunks (which Sandy naturally doesn't see) to get the three-count. Sandy presents the belt to Buddy at first, but Billy Jack comes down and explains what happened, and Sandy reverses the decision, which means that Buddy's disqualified and Curt keeps the title. In a brief postmatch promo, Buddy admits that he pulled Curt's tights, but says that in no other sport is a wrong decision ever reversed. He blames Billy Jack for costing him the title, then says that he'll find a partner and kill both Billy Jack and Curt. (This is most likely the 6/11 match which I referenced earlier.) I'm amazed at how clean this match was without being dull. It proved that Buddy could wrestle at the level of the top scientific guys in the Northwest (as if we needed to be reminded of that). The weightlifting contest between Billy Jack and Oliver that's in the Extras takes place on this show, as Dutch and Coss spend much of the third fall talking about the elbow injury Oliver gave Billy Jack the night before. They also mention that Budd tried to further damage the elbow in the postmatch altercation, but we don't see it. I can't wait to see Dynamite and Buddy as partners. If they're half as good as they were as opponents, we might just have a classic on our hands!

I wiped out the first two falls of my writeup, so I'll just summarize what happened, then move on to fall three. ​First fall: ​Assassin pins Buddy after a loaded headbutt. ​Second fall: ​Buddy pins Assassin with a backslide. Third fall: ​Buddy plays FIP at the beginning, much like he has since being pinned to end the first fall. He eventually gets to Billy Jack, who cleans house, then puts the full nelson on Oliver while Rip's on the apron. That doesn't get it done, of course, so Billy Jack drags Oliver over the top rope and into the ring, then bears down on the hold until Oliver quits. The belts don't change hands, because the match is non-title; however, Buddy and Billy Jack get a title match the following week. Assassin attacks both Biily Jack and Buddy after the match with his loaded mask, laying them both out with headbutts. This is another of the great tag matches between the RBA and The Clan, and they're great because aside from Assassin's loaded hood, these guys wrestle ​first and foremost, even though the hatred between them is so thick you can spread it on bread. The only other teams that have this level of both skill and animosity were the Rock 'n' Roll Express and the Midnight Express, although the British Bulldogs and the Hart Foundation came close. Buddy and Billy Jack are a bit rough as a team here; overall I think Buddy and Curt mesh much better, mostly because Billy Jack's so green. Oliver and Assassin have the experience advantage, and their teamwork is excellent. The eternal debate continues: What's in Assassin's hood, and how does he load it? Dutch seems to believe that Assassin's old partner The Sheik may have taught him a thing or two, but that's impossible to say for sure since Sheik never wore a mask. At any rate, it's still a mystery, as it will remain through early 1984. Dutch and Coss are really going with all guns blazing; their interplay's a lot like that of Gino and Heenan, only these two are on the same side of the fence. When you watch this match, listen for several classic Dutch bits, including his answers to certain fans' questions, especially this one by the show's director: "What do wrestlers take for headache, neuritis, and neuralgia?" That query, which I'm guessing was supposed to be a wisecrack, leads to one of the most passionate defenses of the toughness of wrestlers you'll ever hear. The postmatch interview promises several falls count anywhere matches, most notably between Buddy and Oliver. I had no idea these matches were booked regularly as early as this; the first one I remember clearly was Kevin Sullivan vs. Norman the Lunatic at Clash of the Champions X. Sorry for the lack of depth here; these posts impossible to recreate once they've been lost. I'll be back to normal next time!

Chono and Hash tried their best here, but this was Tenryu and Hara's night almost from start to finish. Hara looked great for a grizzled old vet, and Tenryu continued his domination of Chono from their singles match in September. If New Japan is still looking for someone to be a force in this feud going forward, they should scratch Chono off the list immediately. I understand that they want to get Tenryu's new submission over, and making Chono submit twice in two tries is a hell of a feat, but I would have felt better if Chono had been pinned off of either the double clothesline or that powerbomb stunner or whatever it's supposed to be called. That move could be the nineties version of the Doomsday Device if it's built and used properly, as it looks absolutely lethal. Does anyone else feel like Chono's STF is being too easily weathered and/or countered? Hara got trapped in it twice, but he was able to reduce it to a simple crossface by working his leg free, then make it to the ropes. If this hold is supposed to be the number one submission in Chono's arsenal, then shouldn't Tenryu have had to make the save each time the hold was applied? (He tried both times, but was cut off by Hash each time.) WAR's really been dominating this feud lately, much like NJPW was for a while. New Japan needs to pull their socks up and get some big wins if they want interest in this feud to continue, and finding a way to beat Tenryu cleanly once or twice would be a good start.

I'm not sure, but I think the idea was supposed to be that Chono went for a cover no one expected and caught Fujiwara by surprise before he could kick out. Either that or they were running really short on time for the card and needed some quick finishes. Anyway, what was here was very good. Chono's slap in the face is what sets Fujiwara off; from then on, he does everything he can to make sure Chono pays dearly for insulting him. To be honest, Fujiwara doesn't have the biggest moveset in the world, but when you use your main weapon (in his case, the headbutt) as effectively as he does, who needs a moveset? He looks like the world's toughest man for most of this, and while Chono gets a fluke pin, there's no mistaking who got the better of things. Chono really needed to look better coming off of his performance against Tenryu, but this match wasn't the place for that. Hopefully we'll get a rematch between these two soon which shows what he can do.

I thought Jesse was there to do the job, so seeing him get the win so cleanly surprised me. Not that he didn't deserve it, as he looked great here. How someone with such talent got stuck playing Vince's dime-store version of the Lone Ranger is something I'll never understand. Colt was treated as a much bigger deal when he came back in 1986-87 than he was in this match, although that might have had to do with the fact that Portland's roster was paper thin by then. He really didn't do much here of note except complain about Sandy refereeing a match involving his son. Actually, he had a point. I know Dutch and Coss fell all over themselves telling us how impartial Sandy always was when he was refereeing Jesse's matches, and he did a good job proving it here. But he still shouldn't have been in this position. Was Luke Brown taking the day off or what? I liked how the match led into the discussion of Dutch's son wanting to get into the business as a wrestler, which Dutch didn't seem too thrilled about. He wasn't even happy with the idea of Mark (the son) working for Don in any capacity, from what I could tell here. I wonder if Mark ever made it as a wrestler, even for a few matches here and there. The highlight of this conversation was Dutch talking about how Jesse should be afraid to screw up in the ring while his dad was refereeing so he wouldn't have to face Sandy's wrath at home. We ended up getting the tag match that Dutch teased. In fact, Piper/Billy Jack-Flair/Oliver made this set as an extra. As far as alternate name for holds go, "English crab" for camel clutch isn't the worst in the world. At least it sounds like something someone would call a wrestling hold.