garretta

First fall: ​This match is for the Northwest tag team championship. Dynamite and Assassin are the champions. This is actually the last in a series of four tag matches in four weeks which involve the Clan. Dynamite and Assassin wrestle Buddy and Curt Hennig twice, and in the other match Oliver takes Dynamite's place. The fall goes back and forth, with some excellent work by both teams. The finish comes when Buddy hits an atomic drop on Dynamite and sends him outside. The trouble is, Dynamite has already tagged Assassin, and before Buddy knows what's happening, Assassin hits a flying headbutt from the top with his loaded mask (which the camera misses) and gets the three count, putting the champs up one fall to none with about ten minutes of disc time remaining. As I just mentioned, the teamwork is very good here on both sides. Dynamite and Assassin aren't much of a surprise since they're the champs, but I was surprised at how well Buddy worked with Billy Jack. If you hadn't been following following Portland all along, you would never have known that Buddy and Billy Jack had been on opposite sides of the fence just a few short months ago, I especially liked Billy Jack coming in to make the save for Buddy on a few occasions; it proves that they trust each other and aren't just together because they have a common enemy. Assassin shows that he can wrestle in the opening minutes in his exchanges with Buddy, and Buddy and Dynamite aren't in together much, but when they are the sparks fly just like they did in their singles matches. This isn't Buddy's highest-profile rivalry, or even his most violent, but it's the one that shows a side of Buddy that few fans know exist: the tough guy babyface, a role he's proven to be very good at so far. Billy Jack shows off his strength, particularly when he press-slams Dynamite. Boy could Dynamite bump in his younger days. The bald head's going to take some getting used to, though, especially since the long hair added so much to his look as a heel. Hopefully Coss will know what he's seeing if Dynamite pulls his straps down in this match; in the second Buddy-Dynamite singles match, all she could say when he saw Dynamite with his straps down was that he had appeared to lose his top! ​Second fall: Buddy plays FIP for most of this fall, as Dynamite and Assassin work on his arm. Eventually, though Buddy manages to drag both himself and Assassin over to his corner and tag Billy Jack, who comes in with guns blazing. The champions subdue him briefly, but eventually Billy Jack hits what looks like a gutbuster (again partially missed by the camera) off of an Irish whip and gets the three count while Buddy slams Dynamite off the top before he can interfere. We're tied at a fall apiece with just over three minutes remaining. These missed moves have simply got to stop. That's two finishes in two falls for this match that we either haven't seen or only seen part of. No wonder Portland always seemed low rent, even back in the day. Maybe he was taking different steroids when he was working for Vince than he was here, but Dynamite looks to be in a lot better shape here, more muscular and better proportioned. In the WWF, he looked scrawny even with his muscles, especially compared to Davey Boy, who almost literally blew up like a balloon during his time there; if you'd stuck a (non-drugged) needle in one of his muscles, I swear it would have either popped or deflated. Kudos to Billy Jack for not falling victim to Assassin's obvious attempts to sucker him into the ring with a cheap shot. He's tried it at least three times so far, and Billy Jack hasn't reacted. Either he's smarter than we've given him credit for over the years or he was so strung out on God knows what that he forgot to sell. For the second match in a row, Buddy cuts a promo on The Clan between the second and third falls. The parts about The Clan aren't really newsworthy, but he sells his exertion well. More importantly, he tells us that newcomer Irish Pat McGhee is a protégé of none other than Roddy Piper. I'm not sure whether that was true in real life or not, but it's a hell of a leg up in Portland regardless. Third fall: ​This fall doesn't last too long, and the tape cuts out before we learn the decision. Billy Jack is whaling away on Dynamite, and Dynamite goes to the outside. Billy Jack goes to pull him back in, but Assassin grabs hold of his feet. Then the bell rings. The exchange between Billy Jack and Dynamite is the highpoint of the fall, as Dynamite knocks Buddy off the apron, then proceeds to forearm the living hell out of Billy Jack in the corner. Eventually Billy Jack fights back in kind. Seeing stuff like this makes you realize just how much we missed from each of these guys in the WWF, whether Vince didn't want them to be that physical or whether the travel schedule tired them out to the point where they couldn't ​be that physical. If the other three Clan tags on this disc are half as good as this one, we've got a hidden gem of a series on our hands.

First fall: ​We don't exactly pick up where we left off last week; in fact, the previous week's match isn't even referred to at any time during this match. But there's still plenty of great action, and things are much more even here than they were in the first fall last week. Dynamite eventually takes control and pins Buddy after a flying headbutt from the top to take a 1-0 lead with about fourteen minutes of disc time remaining. Anyone who thinks that all Dynamite can do is fly ought to watch the fall. It's a hard-hitting contest from the start, and Dynamite matched Buddy blow for blow, and even bested him at times. With his long hair and mustache, he really looks like a slimeball, and as a fan you're itching for the Playboy to teach him a lesson he'll never forget. Buddy hasn't forgotten his old bag of tricks entirely, he paintbrushed Dynamite several times during the fall, and also snapped his neck off the top rope at least once. But he also mixed in some great babyface moves that it's hard to imagine him doing, such as a flying bodypress and a sunset flip, both of which worked for close nearfalls. Overall, he looked way more comfortable in the face role than he did last week. This is Dutch's last week on the air; we saw his farewell in the Extras. This gives me a chance to mention a favorite line of mine that I forgot during the original match in which it happened: The fans are chanting for the babyface to break the heel's arm, and Dutch says something to the effect of "What sympathetic souls the wrestling fans of Portland are." It doesn't read like much, mostly because I can't think of the original line exactly as he said it. Hopefully there's a similar situation on one of the earlier discs I have yet to watch, and he'll say something like it again. I loved Coss giving Dutch a medal that says "You done real good". These two obviously have fun working together, and it shows. After Frank died, the show needed something a little bit different that still took the wrestlers seriously, and they found it with these two. I like Coss in this role much better than I do as a play-by-play guy, though he isn't bad in that role either. I thought they'd try to explain how fighting Dynamite to a draw last week entitled Buddy to a title shot this week, but as I said above they never mentioned last week's match even once. ​Second fall: ​The hard hitting continues, and just like last week Dynamite ends up bleeding from over the left eye. Late in the fall, he gains the advantage and heads up top, only for Buddy to catch him with a back superplex that evens things up at a fall apiece with just over six minutes remaining. I never would have expected these two to have such hard-hitting matches if I hadn't seen them with my own eyes. They've really had their working boots on in these bouts, and they've neither asked for quarter nor given any. Once these bouts hit general circulation, people may start looking at both guys in a whole new light. I lost count of how many elbows Buddy dropped during the one sequence, but I've never seen anyone survive that many and come back to take over the fall like Dynamite did here. I'm wondering if the cut we see on Dynamite was opened by accident. It looked like Buddy hit him with a headbutt, which might have stunned him but most likely wouldn't have busted him open under normal circumstances. Dutch talking about how Oliver was using Dynamite (and, by extension, the Northwest title) to soften Buddy up in case there was ever a match between the two is the type of analysis you don't see these days. Of course, you don't see heel stables where even champions are expected to carry out the orders of the ringleader either. It certainly seems like the whole end game of Buddy's face turn is going to be a confrontation between him and Rip, regardless of whether he wins the belt in this match. I liked Buddy's promo where he talks about finally having the people on his side when he wrestles for the NWA World title, although the fans' response when Buddy asked them if they would support him was kind of weak. He also talks about a possible hair rematch with Dynamite and a bullrope match with Oliver "if the people want it" (like they'd say no, right?). I'll say this for Don: he was looking to squeeze every possible dime out of Buddy's turn while it was still fresh in the people's minds. Third fall: ​It gets more serious than ever in the last few minutes. as Dynamite hurts his knee coming off the top. Buddy slaps on the figure-four, but Dynamite gets to the ropes, then a minute or so later traps Buddy in the Boston crab. Buddy somehow ends up with a pinning combination, and Sandy counts three, but Dynamite's legs are clearly on the bottom rope. Buddy thinks he's won, but Dynamite rolls him up while he's celebrating and scores the pinfall with the aid of a handful of trunks. It's ironic that Buddy gets screwed out of the Northwest title in his first high-profile chance for it (at least that I've seen) the way he's scored quite a few sneaky pinfalls in his day. Even though he's a face now, his complaints still ring a bit hollow for that very reason. Line of the Night goes to Dutch, after Coss mentions that Buddy's trying to work on Dynamite's hamstrings: "By the time he's through, they're gonna be like violin strings!" What a pair of matches. Hopefully we'll see these two guys mix it up again real soon.

This was a run-of-the-mill ​SNME​ match two tears late. Greatest WWF tag ever? Not in the top five hundred. I never felt that the Steiners were in danger. Sure the Bodies got some offense in, but they look a thousand times better in SMW on their worst day there. This was a favor given to Corny so he would agree to manage Yoko, and it felt like it. If anything, this was notable for the prematch stuff and Corny's ringside work, which was much better than this match deserved. I loved his rant about secret strategy meetings ending with "Do you want me to have an aneurysm?" That was a great line, and Corny looked so flustered that you thought it was really possible that he would, right there on pay-per-view. About the only thing he didn't do was take a bump for Rick or Scotty, and that was because he needed to be in good shape for the main event. Vince tried to get into the spirit of the occasion, God bless him, but calling every lift that isn't under the crotch a suplex doesn't make you seem any more intelligent about wrestling, no matter what he may think. After a while, we were back to "Whatta maneuver!" for everything but the Frankensteiner. He also didn't really acknowledge Corny's injury, claiming somewhat facetiously that Corny was wearing his brace as a result of a mosquito bite on the side of his neck. What was the matter with giving Bullet Bob a brief plug, especially since everything else about the Bodies' time in SMW was being acknowledged? Heenan never really got warmed up, either. His fawning over Corny was more than a bit tiresome by the end, and most of the rest of his schtick (the Bodies being ahead on points, the color of the University of Michigan being yellow, etc.) felt totally predictable. I'm just not digging him on this card. He doesn't sound impaired, and he's still pretty quick, but his material is finally starting to show its age. Of course, he's still miles better than either Savage or Lawler. (Speaking of whom, where was​ Randy? In my mind's eye, I see him in Luger's "victory" celebration, but why would Vince fly him in for that and not put him in the booth?) Pettengill's going to be a real pill (rhyme intended). Todd, my friend, it's generally not cool to practice your stupid throwaway standup lines on wrestler's parents who may not even be totally smart to the business. Did you notice Mrs. Steiner's reaction to his line about the Frankensteiner? It's like she wasn't even sure what such a thing was. The sister calling Rick Rob was understandable under the circumstances, but I'm wondering if either one of them understood what they were seeing. They sure didn't sound like they'd been fans for long, if they were at all. I loved the fans breaking out in a "Let's Go Blue!" (for Michigan) chant when Rick and Scotty were on offense. This was before the days when the crowd was as produced as the wrestlers and broadcasters were, and Vince either didn't know what the chant was or didn't want to acknowledge it, since it involved an institution outside of his universe. I suppose we should be lucky that he acknowledged their background at all and sounded like he knew what he was talking about while he did it. Line of the Night goes to Heenan, as the Steiners clean house following the hot tag to Rick: "Mrs. Steiner just gave her daughter a clothesline! They're all nuts!" As an aside, I much prefer "Frankenstein" as a theme for the Bodies. I know why they couldn't use it in the WWF, but it still fits them better than any theme that the WWF could have used for them.

First fall: ​I've been curious about this one since I got the set, because outside of a few captain's matches when he was one of the Bulldogs and the Wrestling Classic, I've never seen Dynamite as a singles wrestler. He certainly does well for himself here, dominating Buddy for the majority of the fall and hitting his trademark diving headbutt off the top to take the fall and a 1-0 lead with about eleven minutes of disc time remaining. I'm guessing that the result of this match somehow sets up the next singles match on the disc between these two, which is supposed to take place the following week, I'll definitely be interested in how we get there from here. Dynamite hits his other signature move, the snap suplex, in this fall as well, but it's not nearly as fast as it would be at times in the WWF. Whether that was because he isn't as comfortable using it as he would later become or because Buddy weighs much more than the average WWF victim, I'm not sure. I think the only two name wrestlers who ever took the move in the WWF were Greg Valentine and Bret Hart; everyone else was just too big. I'm not sure what the deal is with Dutch and the ring moving after almost every whip into the turnbuckle, but it's becoming overkill. Gorilla Monsoon talked about that too, but only occasionally. If the ring Don's using really does ​move that much, maybe it's time to invest in a new ring. Even though Buddy as a face is a nice change of pace, I can already tell something's missing. He's trying to act like he's been a face all his life: no more flowing robes, a shy wave at the crowd when he's introduced, and I'll bet his talk is more subdued for the most part as well. We talk a lot about what Vince did wrong as the WWF took over the industry, but one thing he did right was let heels who turned face keep their personas intact. Piper still rambled on interviews and poked his opponents in the eye; Jake still put Damien all over the poor jobbers he destroyed and talked like a frontman for the devil; Hercules still swung his chain, and so forth. They didn't have to act like solid citizens, because everyone with two eyes and a memory knew that they weren't. They were just beating up on guys the fans hated worse than them, that's all. And that was enough. ​Second fall: Dynamite continues his dominance over Buddy for the first part of the fall, but refuses to pin him several times when he looked to have the match won. This costs him eventually after he backdrops Buddy over the top rope, then uses the ringpost to set him up for a headbutt. The Playboy moves, and Dynamite's head hits the post, opening a bad cut that leaves the left half of his ace covered in blood. From there, it's all Buddy, and after paying Dynamite back a few times by picking him up on pin attempts, hits a supeplex to tie the match at a fall apiece with about two and a half minutes left. The camerawork on this fall is atrocious. We completely missed Dynamite raising his knees to counter a Buddy splash, and the entire fight outside the ring looked like it was shot from the roof. These are supposedly experienced cameramen who know how to shoot wrestling, so sloppiness like this is tough to forgive. Okay, maybe someone was just having a bad day, but that's not much consolation to the TV audience. I loved Dutch mentioning Buddy's seeming lack of energy and reminding the audience that it happens to all athletes on occasion. It must have inspired Buddy psychically, because right after that the match turned in his favor. Seriously, though, it's always nice to hear guys like Dutch treat wrestling like a real sport after so many years of hearing Vince treating it like a B-grade action adventure flick or a poorly written soap opera. Along the same vein, Dutch also talks about how important speed is to a wrestler, noting that he still knows lots of ways to hurt someone, but isn't fast enough to catch them and apply holds anymore. You seldom hear talk like that during matches in the bigger promotions, where any time spent not calling holds is mostly dedicated to shilling for the next big card. Nice to see Buddy use the ringpost for several maneuvers, including bashing the back of Dynamite's head into it to set him up for the superplex. The man knows how to use every inch of the arena to his advantage, that's for sure. ​Third fall: ​We get a few close nearfalls, including one off of a back superplex by Dynamite, but the bout ends in a 1-1 draw when the time limit expires. This sets up a rematch for the following week, which is the next match on Disc 7. Dynamite is the current Northwest champion, but it's never clearly established whether this was supposed to be a title match or not. I hope someone makes it clear whether the rematch is for the belt. This is the first time-limit draw I've seen in a two-out-of-three match on the set. Keep in mind that I'm not watching the discs in chronological order.

This had the feel of a pull-apart from the second Stasiak and Coss mentioned the stitches that each of these guys had put in the other's head. If there were more than two wrestling moves in this bout, I'd like to know what they wwre, because this was a barroom brawl from start to finish. Having Tony as a special guest commentator was a nice touch, and although everyone knew he was rooting for Matt, he wasn't too obnoxious about it from what I could hear. His audio kept fading, and the crowd noise didn't help much. I liked that he supposedly came all the way from Hawaii to watch the match, and that he was planning on doing so again for the big arena match in Seattle. This sounded like it might have actually been taped in Seattle at KCPQ, because Stasiak references "what happened down in Portland" at least once. I know that doesn't necessarily mean anything- commentators have been known to make their audience think they're live in one place when they're taping the commentary in another- but at least it raises the question, especially since we now know that Salem got its own tapings. Seattle's a lot bigger than that, so they were definitely important enough to have their own too. I liked Oliver's postmatch promo; he was calm, almost matter-of-fact, but his words were scary as could be. He truly sounded like a man who didn't care what happened to him as long as he could get his hands on Matt, even if he was injured, fined or suspended in the process. It's always the calm ones who are the deadliest, and it sounds like Matt will find that out on the fifteenth. The only thing I could have done without was Rip saying that he didn't care if the fans showed up or not, although I guess it helped get over the personal nature of the feud. The Lamey Award for interviewing goes to Stasiak, as he interrupted Oliver's spiel about how his fight with Matt could end up in a barroom, a prison yard, or a graveyard with "I think it'll end at the Seattle Center Arena". I know shilling the card is your first responsibility, Stan, but how did you like it when and if someone cut in on you while you were on a roll back in ​​your ​heyday? I'll bet you didn't. To his credit, Rip acknowledged Stan's aside briefly, then plowed right on like the professional he is.

This was wrestled like a normal house show midcard match, not a tournament final. That's not to say that the action was subpar, but there were a lot of restholds on both sides that you wouldn't expect to see when a trophy's on the line. I know both guys had wrestled multiple matches that night and were probably out of gas, but that doesn't make a two-minute front facelock any easier to sit through. This program had no idea when to cut their footage. We went from an Assassin bearhug straight to the finish with no preamble whatsoever, then the postmatch beatdown was cut off in the middle too. Look, it's no shame to just show finishes if you're short on time, but if you're going to show the whole match, do it. Don't leave your fans wondering how you got from Point A in a match to Point B. If they had to cut, we didn't need Curt's entire front facelock, since Assassin was never checked for a submission. The mask was used to great advantage again, as Assissin used it to injure Curt's ribs. They're really getting a lot of mileage out of it instead of just using it for one illegal knockout headbutt per match, and I definitely approve. After all, if a guy's going to risk suspension by loading his mask with a foreign object, using it just once a match is kind of a waste of resources. The Cliff guy who calls the Salem matches reminds me a bit of The Spectrum's Dick Graham. It's obvious that broadcasting wrestling's just a sideline for him, but no one can say he doesn't bring enthusiasm to the job. I loved him actually calling Assassin a villain, and after an offensive burst from Curt he actually yelled, "Take that, you villain!" like this was an episode of ​Super Friends​. I couldn't take him in every match for the rest of the set, but I wouldn't mind seeing him another time or two before I'm done. If only he didn't refer to right hand punches as "piledrivers"! I get the impression that this trophy wasn't one that had to be defended, that this was a yearly tournament specifically for the people of Salem, kind of like the old pre-1993 King of the Ring tournaments were exclusive to Boston/Foxborough/Providence. If I'm wrong, feel free to correct me. Camera shot of the match: The blood on Assassin's mask from the McGhee match. It was a grand way to show what could happen to Curt if he wasn't careful (as it eventually did). Plus, it proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that Assassin loaded his mask, just the kind of proof Stasiak talked about during the match.

Speaking for myself, I enjoy the fact that we can let loose on wrestlers and matches without having to watch what we say beyond normal boundaries of good taste. I'd hate to feel like we had to police what we say or feel like we had to find positive things to say even about stuff we have no use for in order not to be warned about excessive negativity/lack of civility, and that's what could start happening if moderation becomes too strict. On the other hand, some posters feel the need to always be right and prove that they're smarter than those they're conversing with, and when they're told they're not, they get after the people who tell them they're not right just because they've gotten their feelings hurt, and we end up with grade-school pissing contests. That definitely has to stop. My main interest right now is going through the Yearbooks, so I just lurk in most of the other areas, but there are threads I wouldn't dare post on even if I had the notion because I don't want to wade into the muck. What I guess we need is more moderation of that sort of stuff without limiting criticism, even pointed criticism, of the matches and/or wrestling personalities themselves. If we can achieve that somehow, things could get back to what passes for normal around here.

I've literally dreamed more coherent matches than this. The two actual falls couldn't have taken more than two minutes combined; the rest of this was something I couldn't explain if you gave me from now until summertime. I hope Sagrada and Perro got extra pay, because they took more of a beating than any of the wrestlers involved in this so-called "match". So did the girl Jake threw down at the start, for that matter. Based on the angles we saw between Jake and Konnan, I thought this would actually be something memorable. I guess one or both of them simply didn't feel like working on this night. What a shame. At least I found out how Jake and DDP first knew each other, so the experience wasn't a total loss.

The action here wasn't bad, and it's always nice to see Sully at his craziest. I wonder why Corny didn't keep the Harrises with Sully instead of trying to turn them face. Come to think of it, Sully shows up in ECW with Nancy later in the month, so that could be the answer. I'm guessing that Corny wasn't planning on turning Tony face just yet, as aligning oneself with Sully even briefly is hardly the act of a paragon of virtue. On a related note, I can't think of two wrestling managers who are more different personality-wise than Kevin Sullivan and Ron Wright. Caudle was in a bit of an ornery mood to say the least; I don't think I've ever heard him criticize Ricky Morton openly before, even as matter-of-factly as he did it here. Today, of course, everyone would be waiting for Ricky to turn heel and challenge Bob to a match because of it.

Terry's interview did nothing for me. Between the skull and crossbones which almost obilterated his face and the fact that "bastard" and "whore" were bleeped, the supposed shock effect was reduced to nil. The one line I liked was Terry saying that he couldn't knock out Bullet Bob's teeth because vitamins A. G, and E had caused them all to fall out. We needed more creativity like that and less bleepable stuff. On the other hand, Corny's interview was a masterpiece. No one else at this time can so seamlessly mix lowbrow comedy and serious menace. To go from fussing over his ice water and yelling at Jigolo Jimmy for coloring all his coloring books to promising to leave Bullet Bob jobless, humiliated and broke in the space of only a few seconds is a segue that few others in this business could ever even try to pull off, and each part hits all the right notes. Whether it was greater artistic freedom or the pressure of being the only person in the promotion he felt he could count on, Corny was never better on the mic than he was in SMW. I can't think of one promo which has made the Yearbooks in the past two years that wasn't excellent. Not even Bobby Heenan was so consistent for so long, at least from what I've seen.

Stan was fine here, but Jay Sulli made a segment for the first time in his career. He reminded me of Larry Nelson, who was either a tremendous actor or legit scared out of his gourd during interviews with Stan when he was AWA champion. We all know Sulli can't act his way off the head of a pin, so it's safe to assume that Stan had him crapping his pants, his shirt, and everything else attached to him too. It was glorious to watch. Stan went out of his way not only to promote the tag match, but threw in some words of warning for Snuka and Muraco too. Both Jimmy and Don had lost several steps by now, but I'd have still paid to see either one of them hook it up with Stan.

Takayama got the hell kibked out of him early on, but capitalized once it became obvious that Kanehara had hurt his back, and kept at the crabs (both half and full) until he got the submission. You don't often see body part psychology in shoot-style, so it was a welcome treat to see it here. Until I read this thread, I had no idea which guy was which because the ring announcer had marbles in his mouth. My understanding of Japanese is zero, but I'm usually able to pick out the wrestlers' names clearly at least. Get this guy some elocution lessons!

This was pretty much a competitiove squash to set up a tornamrnt final in Salem (the capital of Oregon) between Curt and Assassin. The major theme of this one is Assassin and his loaded mask, which he uses to bust McGhee open badly. Curt has to make the save in the end because Assassin has McGhee tied up in the ropes and at his mercy. As a result, McGhee is disqualified. The announcers seem to be okay with this, mostly because McGhee's bleeding all over the joint. I would have loved to see McGhee upset Wiskowski. In most tournaments, there's one match where a jobber gets a win over a star just to prove that it can happen, and this was apparently the one for the Salem tournament. The announcers play up an arm injury that McGhee suffered in that match in order to make him more of an underdog. I guess I shouldn't call McGhee a jobber, as he held some kind of tag team title with Curt. "Lower-level talent" would seem to be more accurate. Interesting that Oliver was the first one out of the running for the trophy, and also that some of the eliminations occurred within a battle royal, Usually when there's a tournament, all the entrants get at least one tournament match. I had no idea that Salem had its own distinct TV program. I have no idea who the play-by-play guy is, but the analyst sure sounds like Stasiak. Can't wait to see the final!

This was a war of attrition, plain and simple. From the submission attempts in the first half to the big bombs in the second, both Aja and Dynamite not only wanted to score a victory, they wanted to establish dominance, one over the other. A rarity for Aja: Even though she brought the trash can to ringside, she never used it. I don't believe there was any brawling outside the ring either; if there was ​any, it was only a brief sequence. I have to give it to Dynamite for taking all those backfists in a row. She looked legitimately woozy in the postmatch, and it's not hard to figure out why; with someone as powerful as Aja, even worked punches have to feel like tons of bricks. If this was the first match in the series, I can't wait to see what kind of wars the others will be. This was so different from most of the other joshi matches in the Yearbooks that it isn't funny. This pairing looks like it could give Aja-Bull a run for its money as joshi's feud of the decade.

I liked the third fall, and thought it would have served as a decent first fall if we hadn't had so much stuff with the seconds. It was really no worse than we get in some Ameircan matches, but I thought Mexican wager matches were supposed to be above that sort of thing, at least to the extent that we saw it here. In spite of it all, MS-1 did some fine work on Caras' arm, but it took second place to all the drama with the referee and the seconds, which was a shame. By the third fall, I thought the ref had gotten tired of ​​both ​of them and simply wanted the match over with, which isn't exactly an admirable quality in a referee, regardless of what country he's from or which side of the fence he favors. The entrances really were the best thing about this, and whoever had the idea of MS-1 getting his hair cut with the pyro going off and Caras' music playing deserves a raise. What a visual.

First fall: ​I've been looking forward to seeing Rocky on this set, and he doesn't disappoint here, outclassing both Buddy and Oliver in the quickness and athleticism departments, much to Buddy's chagrin in particular. He compounds the felony by scoring the pin on Buddy following a pair of dropkicks and a sunset flip. He and Hack are up one fall to none with about fifteen minutes of disc time remaining. As was the case in the Adams bout, Buddy feels the need to prove his athleticism by doing cartwheels in order to avoid some of Rocky's best moves and punches. At one point Buddy turns to the camera and mouths, "Aren't I an athlete?", to which Frank gives the classic response, "Send your cards and letters to......" How delightfully droll, Mr. Bonnema! I'm honestly not sure if Rocky ever sparred with Muhammad Ali, but he sure can throw his fists, and he does here, only he dies so to augment armbars on both Buddy and Oliver. I love those uppercuts he sneaks in under their armpits, and his attempts to teach Hack how to do the same are hilarious. Hack gets the hang of it as best he can after a few quick lessons, which only makes life more miserable for the Army. We miss yet another memorable interaction between Buddy and a fan, as he apparently tries before the match to accost a man in a gorilla mask and steal the mask from him. That's why Don can be heard during the ring announcements yelling, "Get back in the ring!" I liked Frank telling the story of Rocky's efforts to win the Northwest title, and also why he refused to challenge Hack for the belt when he (Hack) held it. Remember those bygone days when faces considered themselves too honorable to challenge their friends for titles? In this day and age, that would be a heel turn waiting to happen. We get another round of Hack being too stupid to think straight, as he spends almost all of Rocky's FIP segment making things worse for him by distracting Luke Brown. It gets so bad that Frank explicitly calls him out on it, which he very seldom does to a wrestler. That must be a part of Hack's character, like it is Robert Gibson's. The problem is, as good as guys like Rocky and Chris Adams are, they're not nearly as good an FIP as Ricky Morton, so it's easy to focus on Hack's stupidity rather than the beating his partner's taking. I like the little local touches that Portland puts into its broadcasts, like saying hello to the station security guard who just came back to work after spending some time in the hospital. The only other promotion that can pull this off and still sound sincere about it is (not surprisingly) Memphis. Smoky Mountain could have done it if it had been around about this time (1982), but by the mid-nineties everyone, even small-time promoters like Corny, wanted to look and sound big-time, so little things like that went by the boards. ​Second fall: ​Rocky's trapped in the ring for the entire fall, and Buddy and Oliver mix some doubleteams with a nervehold to keep him at bay. Twice toward the end of the fall, Rocky makes a legal tag to Hack, only for Luke Brown not to allow it because he didn't see it. Right after the second attempt, Buddy hits a double axhandle off the top while Oliver holds Rocky to score the pin and even the bout at a fall apiece with about seven minutes of disc time remaining. I had no problem with the hot tag spot being used twice in rapid succession, but I hope we don't see it again in the third fall. How many times can either the wrestlers or the referee be made to look foolish in one match? I liked Rocky sliding out of Buddy's headlock so easily, and the payback spot where Buddy tries the same thing and fails, only for Rocky to drop him right on his nose, was a classic. So was Oliver thumbing Rocky in the throat before Rocky could slide out of his headlock. Frank puts over Buddy's appearances on WWF television, and we even get a Grand Wizard mention, which I never expected. It's kind of a shame Ernie didn't want to travel, because now that the fans knew that he managed Buddy in New York, he would have been a nice added attraction on Buddy's trips back home. I can just imagine him running down the likes of Rocky or Dave Schultz or Curt on the mic. It would have been a treat to see him interact with guys like Oliver as well. In a similar vein, there's justifiable pride shown in others who were making it big elsewhere, such as Piper and Snuka. Unlike Dutch, however, Frank never sees the need to take potshots at New York or its fans in order to make Portland seem like a bigger deal. He really seems like a class guy, and Portland's going to miss him when he passes away soon. ​Third fall: ​We really don't get much of a fall here, as Rocky's just made the hot tag to Hack when Dave Schultz comes to ringside looking for a piece of Buddy. Pretty soon, we have Rocky putting Oliver to sleep on the floor while Dave posts Buddy and opens a gusher on his forehead. Rather than disqualify Rocky and Hack for outside interference that they clearly had no part in arranging (and thus giving the match to the Army), Luke throws the whole match out and orders the belts held up. I had a problem with that decision at first, but better that than implicating two "pure" faces in the actions of a man whose motives amount to nothing more than wanting to kick Buddy's ass. If you listen to Dave's promo from the Crow's Nest, he talks like Buddy's the babyface here, which isn't strictly true. As I said in another thread, he's the "hometown bastard" at best. It's interesting that Don made sure not to televise the first match between Dave and Buddy because he supposedly was afraid that it would get too violent. By the end of the feud, he was promoting a cage match between the two and televising it, and a cage match, even a watered-down one, is one of the most violent bouts in the sport. We couldn't hear Buddy's answer promo because the show was going off the air, but the visual of him slowly sliding out of the ring and making his way back to the dressing room will stay with me for a long time because we seldom see Buddy looking quite that vulnerable, even if he brought it on himself.

​First fall: ​It takes a while for this match to get started, but once it does, Adams has the upper hand throughout, working mainly on Buddy's arm. Eventually, he sets up the superkick and catches Buddy flush with it, then hits a tombstone piledriver to go up one fall to none with about twelve minutes of disc time remaining. I liked the athletic exhibition between Chris and Buddy before the fall got started. Yes, it's stalling, but it's stalling with action to prove a point, and it plays into the match, as we see Buddy do cartwheels to avoid several of Chris's moves. If stalling is part of a wrestler's act, some version of this (depending on what the man in question can do athletically) is the way to go. I also liked Buddy starting out the match as a perfect gentleman, then slowly ramping up the aggression. There's something indefinable about Buddy: yes, you want to see him get his ass kicked, but you also hope against hope that one day he'll put the bullshit aside and wrestle the way everyone knows he can, and use his charisma to win the fans over instead of making himself so hated. The popular phrase for this is "man you love to hate", and the more I see of Buddy here in Portland, the more I see where Piper got the basis for his WWF character. Rod adapted it to fit himself, of course, but the psychology was the same, and Rod did it better because he was more naturally charismatic, though not by a whole lot. Dutch and Coss had some fun with Adams' English heritage, and Coss attempted one of the worst British accents I've ever heard, almost the stage version of a stage accent, if you will. I liked Coss explaining that a slap in the face means something different (and more insulting) to an Englishman than it does to an American, which means that Buddy was wise to back off once he paintbrushed Chris. Buddy's prematch promo was a classic, as he vows to be a loner and stay out of Oliver and the Clan's way. Personally, I enjoyed seeing him as the general of his Army, and he really doesn't seem like the loner type, but Oliver's flourished in his absence, so it doesn't make much sense to cut him off at the knees. Another match I wish we had on the set: the Adams-Oliver hair match from Seattle. I hope we at least see a glimpse of whomever was shaved bald at some point. Second fall: ​This fall goes back and forth for the most part until Buddy whips Chris to the corner. Chris quickly climbs to the top and catches Buddy with a flying bodypress, but his momentum puts Buddy on top, and Buddy hooks the leg (but not the tights) to score the pin. We're even at a fall apiece with just under seven minutes of disc time remaining. It was nice of Dutch to put Buddy over as a real athlete, which most fans forget about since making fun of his weight and chanting "whale on the beach" is so much more satisfying. By the way, thanks to Dutch for explaining the origins of that chant during the first fall. It took me a while to really notice, but Portland uses WWF-style turnbuckles without the pads. I mention this because Dutch talked about how hard the buckles are and challenged any fan who wanted to to come down to the ring and feel them. No thanks, Dutch, I'll take your word for it! I wish we'd actually seen Buddy give his rose to the young lady in the crowd during the first fall, but it happened just out of camera range. We ​did see the young lady's smiling face in another camera shot, though. I'm guessing that Adams' hamstring injury was legit, since Buddy didn't work on it during the first two falls at all. ​Third fall: ​This may have been the most action-packed fall we've seen yet on the set, as both men score several close near falls. Finally, Chris nails Buddy with the superkick in the back of the neck to send him to the outside, then dives through the ropes on top of him. This ends up costing him the match, though, as Buddy beats Sandy's twenty-count back into the ring. In Dutch's words, "He did it again!" The intensity from both guys was off the charts, as Buddy wanted to avoid losing to the young newcomer, while Chris wanted to score the victory that would have made him a household name throughout the Northwest. I didn't have a problem with the finish; it was Buddy's return bout, and beating him would have made no sense whatsoever. I just hope that he and Chris had a televised rematch at some point, whether we get to see it or not. The superkick continued to be put over as a killer move, as Dutch and Coss went crazy both times Chris hit it during this fall. The only other superkicki that I remember being put over to this extent was Sweet Chin Music, and Chris' kick looks a thousand percent better than Shawn's. I love Dutch's excitement level. He yells, stumbles over words, and makes the viewers feel privileged to be part of an exciting experience with him. Coss is a little calmer, but you can tell he's having a good time too. Lance and Dave are a little better, but they have more talented people to work with in Memphis; as good as Buddy is, he's only one man, and one of him doesn't hold up against a group like Lawler, Dundee, Mantel, and Jimmy Hart just to name a few, not to mention a guest the caliber of Andy Kaufman. Kudos to Chris for taking two bad bumps in a matter of seconds: the dive outside the ring that ended the match, and the turnbuckle bump a few seconds earlier where he damn near crotched himself on the post accidentally. Even in 1982, certain guys went above and beyond to put a show on for the public, and Chris was definitely one of them. I can't believe that I forgot this earlier, but when Frank was doing a rundown of one of the major shows, he said that JJ Dillon was coming in to wrestle, and acknowledged that he managed Oliver in Florida. I winder if they had him second Rip in his match that night for the hell of it. (I believe the match was against Billy Jack.)

First fall: ​The two teams go back and forth, with some excellent teamwork from both sides. Oliver and Assassin are too much in the end, though, as Assassin hits an elbow to the jaw and a headbutt off the ropes to get the pin on Pardee. The challengers lead one fall to none with about twenty minutes of disc time remaining. Hack and Pardee seem to be a smoother team than Hack and Adams were, probably because Pardee's slightly more experienced in American-style wrestling. It's nice to see Steve as something other than Buddy's designated punching bag. Speaking of the Playboy, they're really hyping his match with Flair coming up at the end of September. Don tells a nice story about Rose talking Flair down on interviews in New York, but unless you count the one Vince taped with him specifically for air in the Portland market, that's completely untrue. I harp on this because I hate lies by promoters where the promoter in question should know better and they get mo business benefit from the lie anyway. Buddy doesn't need to talk Flair down in New York; he can send in an interview or fly home for a weekend and do it live right in the Crow's Nest. Also, I'm mad as a fan that Vince was given an opportunity through Buddy's interviews to have a match like Flair-Buddy in the Garden and chose not to do it. Just thinking of Flair defending against a WWF guy like Buddy or Don Muraco or a heel Jimmy Snuka is enough to make my mouth water even thirty-four years later. Nice discussion by Frank on why masked wrestler wear the hood and what an insult it is to have it ripped off of them. It was framed in such a way that fans would wish for their favorite face to rip the hood off of guys like Assassin just to humiliate them, which is exactly the point. Frank and the office seem to be pleased to be on the radio and back in the Oregonian. Honestly, I'm surprised that they were kept out of the papers in a hot wrestling town like Portland for over ten years. It's not like today, where WWE comes in only once a year; they were having matches once or twice a week for all that time. I guess we know why we haven't seen Sandy ref as much as usual lately; Luke Brown also fills in on the Flair-Hack title match later in the disc. Good to see that Don had the money to pay more than one official. Second fall: ​Pardee's in the ring for almost the entire fall, and Oliver and Assassin target his left arm both individually and collectively with some vicious doubleteaming, making a fool out of Hack several times in the process. Finally, Assassin outs his head down looking for a backdrop, and Steve catches him in a sunset flip for the pin. We're tied at a fall apiece with about nine minutes of disc time remaining. Frank's not the type to call guys out, but you can tell that he doesn't think much of Hack constantly allowing himself to be suckered into the ring by Rip and Assassin. He's got a friend in me; that spot should be done no more than twice a match at most (once a fall in a multi-fall match). It was done at least four or five times here, and Hack looked more and more like an idiot who doesn't understand tag team wrestling each time. The worst offense was when Pardee actually made it to the corner while Hack was in the ring arguing with Luke. That's just too much for my credulity. period. Not even Ricky Morton could make something like that look good. Hack Sawyer, you are officially brainless. Nice rundown by Frank of all the heels currently in the territory, but I'll take Rose, Oliver, and Wiskowski any day of the week. Thankfully, Buddy will be back before too much longer (in real time, that is). Other than Miller and Gene Kiniski, I have no idea who any of these guys even are. (I had no idea that Gene was still wrestling this late.). I'm pretty sure that this is the match where Oliver and Assassin win the belts, and it'll be interesting to see how they pull it off. Third fall: ​After a couple of more teases (which were a couple of more too many), Hack's finally tagged in, and he's on fire until he slips off the turnbuckle while trying to monkey-flip Oliver. Rip and Assassin get him back to their corner, and Assassin comes off the top rope with a loaded headbutt that busts Hack's head wide open in one of the sickest cuts I've seen in a while. The heels work the cut over until Luke stops the match and awards the titles to Rip and Assassin on a blood stoppage. I'm used to the WWF, where blood stoppages didn't mean that the heel got the title, so this was a bit of a surprise, just like how throwing a guy over the top rope doesn't ​get their opponent disqualified. I guess this is the start of Assassin's loaded mask angle. It bears repeating what a gusher Hack tapped here; talk about going above and beyond to get another man's gimmick over. Frank estimates Hack's blood loss and a pint every two minutes, and it certainly seemed that way. Hack's interview afterward is a perfect interview for someone who was bleeding as badly as he was. He still made the points he needed to make about Buzz coming in and his upcoming singles bout with Assassin, but he weaved all over the Crow's Nest and lost his train of thought frequently (for example, he has Buzz traveling fifteen thousand miles at first, then five, then four). Too many guys are perfectly lucid just seconds after they've been busted open, and they're talking perfectly well while they're standing there bleeding out, which is ludicrous. I couldn't believe that they ran the "Pardee goes back to the corner to tag while Hack stupidly argues with the ref" spot a second time. That's just plain inexcusable, no matter the circumstances.

​First fall: ​This was a tremendous back-and-forth fall, with Adams and Hack working on the arms of both Oliver and the Assassin and in turn each taking a turn as face-in-peril for them. Adams is busted open slightly, and Hack takes a nasty spill over the top rope courtesy of Oliver, who's in the ring for the heels for most of the fall. Eventually, Hack pins Assassin with a sunset flip to take a 1-0 lead for his team with about eighteen minutes of disc time remaining. Dutch and Coss really put over Adams' superkick as a killer move, especially when he hits it on Oliver late in the fall. Dutch: "I thought I saw (Rip's) ear fly off!" What was the deal with Hack being as injured as he was? The way Dutch talked about it, he almost had to be in a car wreck, because no wrestler could cause that much damage in one match, legitimate or otherwise. Adams looks strange with that half beard. How long had he been over here at this point? Speaking of whom, he deserves an award for wrestling back-to-back matches on the same TV card: a singles squash, then this match. I wonder who Hack's partner was supposed to be originally, because there's no way Chris would have been booked to wrestle twice in a row. They're already pimping Buddy's return by calling him "the star of Madison Square Garden". Well, for one card I guess he was. Dutch and Coss have a good time throughout the fall without taking away from the action in the ring. Their exchange about the "English crab" tickled me in particular. It's a shame that Dutch had such a relatively short broadcasting career, because he definitely had a talent for it. ​Second fall: ​Hack's in the ring for the entre fall, as Oliver and Assassin successfully cut him off from Adams. Finally Chris can't take it anymore and charges into the ring, allowing the heels to hit a sloppy version of the Demolition Decapitation (Assassin almost slips off the turnbuckle at one point) to tie the bout at a fall apiece with about nine minutes of disc time remaining. There's not much that stands out here either with the action itself or the commentary. They're still trying to push Oliver as a muscleman, and as long as he's showing his strength against junior heavyweights like Hack and Adams they'll get away with it. Dutch and Coss spend a lot of time during this fall hyping the dark main event: Billy Jack vs. Matt Borne. That seems like an excellent matchup, and I'm sorry that we don't appear to have it on the set. Third fall: ​Adams finally gets in the ring, and he and Hack have Oliver and Assassin going. Knowing that their belts are about to fly the coop, the heels deliberately stall out the time limit, and the bout ends up a no-contest. The finish didn't bother me so much as Adams and Sawyer's reaction to it. It was easy to tell that they weren't meant to be serious challengers for the tag belts, because after being screwed about as blatantly as a team can be screwed, they don't demand, or even mention the possibility of, a rematch, instead choosing to focus on their individual pursuits, such as Chris's upcoming match with Buddy and Hack's participation in an upcoming battle royal. If it was me, I'd be screaming and swearing up and down until I got some sort of rematch. I think they may have been leading up to an unmasking of Assassin, which would account for Dutch's remarks about his appearance and the implication that there may be more than one of them. The cameramen must have really been asleep at the switch, because we never saw either Oliver or Adams bleed. Either that or Dutch has X-ray vision and hasn't bothered to inform the audience. Chris's match with Buddy comes up later on this very disc, and from what we saw here Chris looks like he can hang with the Playboy. Whether that's enough to translate into victory remains to be seen. I liked Dutch reminding the audience that, as distasteful as Oliver and Assassin's stalling may have been, it was legal and in fact a smart strategy. You don't get that kind of insight very often, even from former wrestlers. Usually, everyone's busy calling the stalling champion a coward and a pantywaist.

First fall: ​This has to be one of the most aggressive bouts we've seen yet out of Flair. He centers his attack on Hack's nose, trying to break it, which I've seldom seen from him. He also takes the bout outside several times to do further damage, including a backbreaker on the floor. As someone who's used to Flair being beaten from pillar to post until someone can come down to save his hide, matches like this are a revelation. Hack keeps up with Flair at times, including in a nice little amateur sequence not too long after the start, but he's clearly shown to not quite be in Flair's class. Dutch and Coss put over his guts and pain tolerance more than his wrestling ability, which is never a good sign for a wrestler's prospects in a given match. He's the Northwest champion at this time, so he's not exactly a slouch, but there's a definite feeling that a Sawyer victory, especially on TV, would be an upset of monumental proportions. Dutch mentions that if Hack wins the title, he'll have to make all of Flair's previous dates. On the list of cities he mentions is New York, but Flair never came near WWF territory during this reign, He wrestled Backlund a couple of times in unification bouts, but never at MSG. (I know there was one at the Omni on July 4 of '82, and I could have sworn that there was at least one other in Toronto, although that match may have been while Flair was US champion for Crockett. I know Bobby wrestled Nick Bockwinkel in a WWF/AWA unification match at Maple Leaf Gardens as well.) Another flat-out wrong claim Dutch made was that Hack was the only wrestler ever to hold Flair to a draw up until this time. He might have gotten away with that ten years ago, but unless the Seattle area didn't have cable yet, the fans there would have known if Flair had been held to a draw at the Omni, and if they read arena reports in the Apter mags they would have seen quite a few draws for Flair, I'd imagine. Lies like that are one part of kayfabe that I certainly don't miss. Line of the Fall goes to Dutch after Hack elevates Flair for a high backdrop: "He went up so high he had icicles on him!" Flair gets the fall when he reverses a small package from Hack. He's up one-zip with about thirteen minutes of disc time remaining. Second fall: ​Hack gets most of this fall, and he takes it by submission with the figure-four (of all things) to even the bout at a fall apiece with about seven minutes of disc time remaining. I've seen Flair submit in multi-fall matches before, but how humiliating is it to be made to submit to your own finisher? I was expecting to see the reversal sequence we see so often in JCP, but no such luck. For whatever reason, Dutch and Coss don't mention that the figure-four is Flair's go-to submission hold. Maybe it's not made out to be that big a deal until JCP hits TBS in '85. They're pimping the upcoming Piper-Rose match in Seattle heavily, so I'm guessing that this match comes from the Seattle feed. Interestingly enough, Dutch and Coss create the impression that the matches are coming from someplace in Seattle generically named "the arena". I guess they got away with it, since I wouldn't think Portland stations and Seattle stations were available together in too many places. ​I'd almost think that Flair would have to go over clean here, since there's no hint of a house show program with Hack on the horizon the next time Flair comes to town. Besides, there's most likely bigger money to be made in a rematch with Buddy and/or a one-shot against Piper. ​Third fall: ​Hack tries to go after Flair's leg again, but Ric foils that strategy early on. The turning point in the match comes when Hack misses consecutive dropkicks. From there on, it's almost all Flair, as he gets a close nearfall on a back suplex, then finishes Hack once and for all with a picture-perfect Stun Gun. I love the excitement level of Dutch and Coss. Even though I knew that Hack wasn't getting the title, they had me believing that it was possible at various points in the match, and Dutch in particular seemed to be pulling hard for Hack, though not in an obnoxious way. I loved the request he made to Coss at the start of the third fall: "If I get too excited, punch me in the ear!" No wonder Portland missed him when he left. He reminds me a bit of Gorilla Monsoon without all the long words and (sometimes) tiresome clichés. I think I've said this before, but I'm sorry we don't seem to have Buddy-Flair or a Portland version of Piper-Flair on tape. I think we only have one more Flair match, against Billy Jack, and I'm really looking forward to it.

From the minute that they handcuffed Delphin's manager to the top turnbuckle, I figured he'd end up as part of the finish, and he did. My problem wasn't that there was a ref bump, it was that the ref laid there out cold for far too long to be believable. Weren't there any other referees in the building who could have come down and taken over? Of course, that would have meant that Delphin's stablemate wouldn't have been able to interfere and powerbomb Sasuke, which is what really led to the pin. Delphin's suplex looked devastating, but it was just window dressing. Before all the shenanigans, this was quite a good bout. These two can definitely go, and though the setting was a bit sterile they managed to overcome it and put on a show. Nothing overly flashy, but satisfying nonetheless. If this is an example of what Michinoku Pro can be, I'm definitely on board for more. It seems almost like this bout was staged as part of a talk show or other non-wrestling TV segment, knid of like the match that took place in the Donahue ​studio during his show on the AWA. If that's the case, they may have been better served taping the match at an arena and showing the tape instead.

Any match that takes almost ten minutes to get to the opening lockup is all but done before it starts in my book. Eddy and Art looked really good, but other than that this wasn't much at all to me, and the utter stupidity of the finish (and if I pck up on the stupidity of a lucha finish, you know​ it's dumb) killed what little was left. I have to say that Art's tombstone looked really good in spite of everything, though. I'm feeling the matches on this card even less than I usually do when it comes to lucha. Maybe Jake being in the last bout we have from it will help a little.

First fall: ​I don't honestly know that you could call what we've seen so far a wrestling match. Most of the blows we've seen are illegal, and in fact the first fall comes on a DQ when Dave crotches Buddy on the top rope. The Playboy leads one fall to none with about nine minutes of disc time remaining. More interesting than anything that happens in the ring is Don's prematch declaration that if both men don't stay in the ring, they won't get paid. This creates an interesting bit of psychology, as each man takes turns leaving the ring and daring the other to follow and attack, thus forfeiting their purse for the evening. So far both men have resisted the temptation, but we still have at least one more fall to go. Each man has hit the other from the apron at least once, and we'll probably see more of that in the upcoming falls. From the He May Be A Bastard, But He's Our ​Bastard, And Don't You Forget It Dept.: The elderly woman at ringside complaining to Sandy when Dave uses his thumb to jab Buddy in the throat. Dave hasn't exactly behaved like a gentleman since he came to Portland, but they've been trying to portray him as a kind of knight in tarnished armor who's come to town to save the people from the scourge known as Buddy Rose. But if the people ever bought it, they're not doing so anymore. The time to turn Buddy may not exactly be at hand, but it's up over the next bend in the road and will come into view soon. Further evidence of the above is Buddy being voted one of the coolest thing in Portland sports. Don has to have expected it, but it also has to have thrown his plans for a bit of a loop. I don't know how ready he is to turn Buddy face, but he has to get ready now, if he wasn't before. Maybe that's one reason why Dave's being a little more heelish than has been usual for him here in Portland. Second fall: ​Just as I say the above, Buddy unloads every vile trick in the book on Dave, ending the display by crotching him on the post and drawing a payback DQ. We're even at a fall apiece, and according to Frank we have about four minutes of wrestling time (six minutes of disc time) remaining. I don't know if Frank's right about this being the first two-out-of-three fall match he's ever seen where each wrestler takes one of the first two falls by DQ, but I know it's the first time I've ​seen it. Then again, this is the first heel-heel two-out-of-three match I've ever seen. Third fall: ​This fall is even shorter than the second, as Buddy tries to run out on the match at least twice before Dave gets sick of it and goes after him. We see Dave ram Buddy into the post, then beat him senseless with a chair. Eventually both men are counted out, and the whole thing's declared a no-contest, with neither man getting paid, just as Don had warned. Dave's postmatch promo sets up the cage match that's in the extras section. Buddy doesn't want the match, but according to Frank he has to take it or face a suspension. For the record, this is the first no-contest I've ever seen in a two-out-of-three match, and if ever a match deserved to be a no-contest, this one was it.

I couldn't make a lick of sense out of this, but that's typical for me and trios matches. Some of the spots and dives looked good, but damned if I know what they were leading up to. I did ​notice that several blatant low blows weren't called, and I guess that's what Pete meant by a screwjob from the heel referee, but I wasn't invested in the match in the slightest, so I didn't care. Mostly, I was looking forward to my next match on the Portland set. Cute move by the rudos going into the crowd to avoid the tecnicos' dives. I wonder why it wasn't tried more often. Just to say something a little positive, Rey took a hell of a Bret Hart chest bump off of that triple whip to the buckle. If there were more moves like that and less pointless gymnastics, I might care more about the trios style.

I thought the storytelling was actually better here than in the semifinals. Hotta destroys Hokuto's leg for the first few minutes, then decides she's done enough of that and proceeds to power moves. She gets several openings to go back to the leg again, but she doesn't take any of them, and her hubris ends up costing her the loss and the tournament. There were two differences between this and the semifinal. One is that Hokuto sells the leg throughout instead of jumping right up to do her signature moves regardless of it. The second is that the leg work ends early enough in the bout that there's a clear transition between it and the other part of Hotta's attack. She's not pounding on the leg one second and suplexing Hokuto into oblivion the next. On such little things like that are proper storytelling built. Hokuto's finisher was definitely helped by the knee injury, as it's obvious that Akira can't hold Hotta's weight for long, so she decides to unburden herself and win the match at the same time, spiking Hotta right on her head in the process. What was the deal with Hokuto throwing the check and the trophy away? Was she trying to say that she didn't need such things, that beating her opponents was enough for her? I sure hope so, because any other reason would be stupid both in kayfabe and real life. We get on certain joshi wrestlers for not selling properly at all times, and Hotta's halfhearted selling of the scorpion is yet another example. Sometimes she remembers the danger she's supposed to be in and throws in a scream or two, but most of the time the camera catches her not doing much of anything. Maybe the AJW cameramen shouldn't zoom in for so many closeups.