Matt D

This is the land of no dogma.

That sentence sums up how we do things around here in a nutshell.

29. Kurt Angle 30. Edge 31. Masaaki Mochizuki 32. Jeff Hardy 33. Davey Richards 34. Adrian Neville 35. Randy Orton 36. Kevin Steen This is a fun section.

It is going to be a Buddy Rose day for me. I've gotten my hands on the WON Obit Bio too which I've never read and if I get the chance I'll try to listen to the Titans podcast too (though that might wait til next week). The 10/3 Opening is awesome since you see all the kids just standing around waving and jumping around. Everyone in the crowd has BeeGees beards too. This is actually a much tamer version of the opening but gives you some idea of what they'd do to get on TV. Buddy Rose/Stan Stasiak vs Matt Borne/Steve Regal - 10/3/81 - 2/3 Falls - Tag Titles I'm expecting this to be fun, but part of that is because I want to see Stasiak punch Regal a lot. Stasiak's robe with a giant heart on the back of it looks like a bathrobe and it's awesome. Pre-Match antics are great. Buddy is SUPER excited because someone in the crowd has a "Buddy Is Great" sign, so he keeps pointing to it and giving the person a thumbs up but the camera can't get it. He finally gets the person to bring it to him and carries it around the ring until Borne rips it apart and steps on it. Buddy responds by saying he wasn't even going to bother trying to invite Borne into the army anymore. Kim Song is already gone btw (Owen claims it's due to immigration papers) and Buddy is facing Regal for the singles belt on the upcoming Tuesday. It's Stasiak and Borne to start. Stasiak no longer has his hands taped up because he lost a match to Regal and that was a stip. He bumps well for Borne to start on a back body drop and drop kick out of the ring but then starts goozling him with a choke where Barr can't see it. Old man heel tactics. He tosses Borne out and Buddy tries to attack on the floor but Regal chases him around the ringside area and into the ring. Borne and Regal are pretty much the kings of overexcited, energetic twit babyfaces. all of this distraction lets Stasiak get Borne from behind again and toss him out. Buddy grabs him on the floor. Regal gives chase. Buddy tries to run Borne into the pull but Borne tosses Buddy into it, just a glancing blow. Stasaik and Borne back inside. Old man eyepoke. Heel Stasiak is great because he just cheats at every opportunity for the hell of it and it's so understated and matter of fact. They reset and Regal and Buddy tag in. Borne gets pissed off about something and they do an illegal switch but Barr makes them switch back. The one okay thing about Regal is that he can move quickly enough that Buddy can do some interesting rope running with him. Here Buddy works the headlock and they move in and out of it a bit and then into armwork by Regal. Buddy really doesn't get to rope run enough. It's great to watch. He gets to the corner and tags Stan in but Regal's right back to the arm, which Stan sells sort of frantically. They go in and out of this. Borne comes in with a big double axehandle on it and takes over with the shine limbwork. He tosses Stan into the heel corner and then gives Buddy this overdramatic bow inviting him into the ring. Fans are very much into Borne vs Buddy, with Buddy bumping around the ring for him. Regal tags in and makes Borne's punches look really good. Tag back to Borne. They do a nice little spot where Regal punches Buddy off the ropes in the gut, causing him to bend over and Borne slingshots into a sunset flip from the outside for the fall. Pretty good shine first fall that still made the heels look devious and dangerous. Second fall starts with the faces doing more armwork, first on Buddy and then to Stasiak. Lots of ten count arm wrenches. Stasiak does this little thing where he sort of shoots under his opponent's arm and gives him a rabbit punch to the ribs. He starts with armwork on his own on Regal, goes to the hair to stop a comeback and tags Buddy in. I think we have a FIP. Regal comes back but Buddy falls into his corner, tags Stasiak and hangs on to the arm. Bonnema makes the claim about Stasiak that I love so, so much. "The King of Madison Square Garden from 1965 to 1975. Wrestled more main events than anyone else and sold it out more times than anyone." Obviously, Portland was located somewhere in Siberia. Anyway, Regal tries to come back again but Buddy grabs his arm from the outside and wraps it around the pole (Borne chases Buddy away; Stasiak keeps on Regal). Regal starts to crawl towards the tag while still in an arm bar and Buddy casually walks around the ring to get Borne off the apron. They do a crowd shot and I need to post it because it's awesome. It's of the fans all warning Borne at once. They were so into this stuff. Anyway, Borne kicks Buddy away but it means he's not there for the tag. Really well timed stuff. This is Stasiak pulling him away just as Borne dives back. Okay, enough with the images, though it's tempting to grab Buddy pointing to his head after the fact. Regal fights back again but not until a tag was made and they double team him back down. Buddy switches gears to a trap claw that looks pretty nasty. Regal kind of sells before fighting up, hitting a gut punch and making the kind of clumsy hot tag as Stasiak rushes in to stop him. Borne clears house, including slamming their heads together as Rose is teeter tottering between the first and second ropes. Stasiak is cut open now. Buddy's outside and grabs the head of the prone Borne while hiding just below the top of the apron, letting Stasiak attack. Regal comes in pissed and this just lets Stasiak choke Borne with his foot and retake the advantage. Stasiak locks in a trap claw of his own and Borne sells it better than Regal.... like this, actually: Borne goes to the eyes, but he's too close to the heel corner and Buddy comes in. Borne comes back and they go toe to toe. Borne gets the advantage and starts biting at Buddy's forehead, punching and trying to open him up. Borne hits a standing vertical suplex but Stasiak breaks up the pin. This prompts Borne to start on Stan who is on the apron from the inside out. Regal comes in as Buddy (the legal man) begins to edge towards his partner. Barr takes Regal out. Buddy holds Borne's arms from behind. HEART PUNCH and the second fall. Pretty good stuff. Borne is still reeling but has to start the third fall since he was the legal man at the end of the second. Buddy hits a big flying back elbow on him almost immediately, but he scrambles on his hands and knees for the hot tag. Regal hits the turnbuckle with his knee though and the heels take right back over. Stasiak tags in, pulls Regal to his corner, and puts on a half crab to the damage knee. Buddy pushes on his chest for extra leverage and Regal has to give it up. Heels celebrate right up to the point where Sandy Barr shows his corrupt nature, listens to the fans, and reverses the decision. Much better than the last tag match though some of that was just more Borne and less (or better focused) Regal. Stan Stasiak is tons of fun to watch and anyone who feels otherwise needs to actually watch the matches.

Buddy Rose/Kim Song vs Steve Regal/Matt Borne - 9/26/81 - 2/3 Falls This was just days before I was born. This is non-title, best as I can tell and the drama between Borne and Rose is still there but they still haven't hit the point of no return where the police have to stop him from killing Buddy. They're still playing up that Buddy's invitation into the army is still on the table. Apparently Buddy won their last one-on-one match the previous Tuesday. Regal was building to a taped fist match with Stasiak. Back and forth arm stuff and wrestling with Borne and Song to start. Buddy comes in out of nowhere and yanks Borne's hair for no reason just to heat things up. They do some rope running including a really nasty stomp on Song's head. The sky was really the limit for Borne at this point of his career. Buddy comes in and the two of them start wailing on each other with Borne getting the better of it. Regal comes in and if you have to watch a Regal match, it's best to watch one against Buddy at least. Some boring arm work from Regal that Buddy makes look great as the doofus babyface just stands there. Buddy goes for the flying back elbow off the rope and Regal sidesteps. This is followed by a head cracker which Buddy sells like it was polio. Buddy finally gets a kick in and tags to Song. Song gets a few hits in but Regal starts on the arm again, this time with a bit more energetic stuff. Faces tag and Borne comes off the top with a shot on the arm. Quick shine stuff here. Regal comes back in and bores everyone to death with another nothing arm bar on Song. He does hit a nice dropkick leading to a spot where both he and Song go for dropkicks and hit each other. Buddy tries to attack Regal from the apron but gets blocked and knocked off. Regal goes for a sunset flip. They do a fun spot where Song holds on to Rose to prevent going over but Borne comes in to kick them apart and Regal gets a two count until Song claps the legs out to get free. This is followed by another nice roll up out of a fireman's carry and the faces going right back to the arm work. Borne's stuff is more interesting as he adds some kick to his armbar. He eats a rake to the eye letting Song tag out to Buddy. The fans immediately start chanting for Borne even as Buddy hones right in on the forehead cut from Tuesday. The best part of this is him guiding Borne's head right to Songs' teeth. Song tags in and gets off focus for a second until Buddy shouts at him to hone back in. Song goes for a pin but Borne does a huge kick out letting Borne start to recover. Right when he's about to make the tag, Buddy lures Regal away and Borne finds no one where. Song takes back over in a neutral corner with pretty good looking shots. Buddy's able to draw Regal in again which puts him out of position for the tag. Buddy tags back in and keeps on the forehead. He goes for a press slam but Borne floats over and scrambles into the hot tag. Regal cleans house on Buddy until he puts his head down and gets a kick to the face for his trouble. Buddy slams and goes up high but Regal catches him and tosses him off. Regal goes up, Buddy tries to toss him off, but Regal hangs on and turns it into a small package for a pretty good finish to the first fall. Second fall starts with a headlock base. This isn't quite as good as the arm sequence since we don't get Buddy's facial expression. Regal keeps climbing up the ropes with a takeover until buddy punches out with a cheapshot to the gut and Song tags in only to run right into another Regal headlock takeover. We get what looks to be a "can't get anything going" bit but Song rather holds his own. He telegraphs a few things too much from a selling standpoint which never looks good and it all ends with Borne tagging in while he's back in a headlock. Borne rakes the eyes with his foot and goes into a chinlock. They do a back and forth which ends with a really nice atomic drop by Borne that sends Song out. Borne whiplashes him back in over the top rope. Regal tags back in and puts Song in a side headlock but Song is able to lead him to Rose who just nails him. Borne gets pissed off and runs across the ring to knock Buddy off the apron but this just lets Song goozle the hell out of Regal. Rose recovers, tags in and start tearing Regal's face apart which is a wonderful visual considering Regal's now got a cut in his mouth. Rose is a bastard and it's kind of great.He tags in Song who keeps trying to use illegal karate on Regal. One thing I like about this match is the consistency in which Regal/Borne are chasing after buddy every time he tries to interfere. it usually costs the faces in turn. Transition is Regal catching a thumb to the throat and fighting back for a lukewarm tag. Borne hits a huge belly to back suplex but Rose breaks up the pin. Regal comes back in and tosses Song into Borne's foot but can't get the three. Borne back in and Song is reeling. Buddy tries to break up another pin but Borne moves so Buddy gets his own guy. Then, as Regal comes back in, Buddy refuses the tag until Song gets a lucky shot to the throat. with the advantage back, Buddy takes the tag and starts to work back on the mouth/face. Regal fights back and out of it but ends up in the wrong corner and eats another thumb from Song. Buddy hits a slam and then a really awesome elbow drop off the ropes. He puts his head down for a shoulder throw and gets kicked. They do some back and forth off the ropes before Buddy rolls through on Regal's cross body for the second fall. This stuff was fine but Regal's not great. Between falls Bonnema spells out how there are always matches after the show goes off the taping ends, so what happens is that the crowd stays for the next hour and then gets to go home and watch themselves on TV right when they get there as the show's timed to begin right about then. Third fall starts with Buddy hotshotting Regal over the top rope (which I've not seen him don in Portland before). Song in to clubber and hit that nice legdrop again. Regal tries to fight back but Buddy gets his tights from the outside and Song cuts him off. Regal fights back for another lukewarm tag. Borne drives Song back to the corner and Buddy has no choice but to come in. Borne takes him right to the corner and slams his head in ten times. Song breaks up the pin. Borne tosses Buddy out and tags Regal in. He goes for a big drop kick but Buddy hangs on to the ropes and gets the tag to Song. Song does a nice arm twist over the top take over and they announce there are three minutes remaining. Buddy comes in and goes for a back body drop but Regal leapfrogs it for the tag. Borne tosses Buddy into the corner, breaks the turnbuckle and hits a big suplex as the ref tries to fix the ring. Buddy recovers enough to toss Borne into him. Song comes in illegally and headbutts Borne getting the three count from the groggy ref even though he's not the legal man. They brawl post match. So, this wasn't very good. The stuff with Borne in it had good action and Buddy did a great job making Regal look pretty good with Song looking just about as good as he did in the last match if a bit unfocused at times. I can't believe they were pushing Regal on top in both singles and tags at this point. At least all the kids get to run in front of the camera at the end.

Benoit was the golden boy as early as 98 if not earlier. There was internet rejoicing and then massive frustration when the house show TV title win over Booker T happened and then wasn't acknowledge on TV.

I'm not entirely saying that Rose taught him but of course Michaels credits Buddy with teaching him a hell of a lot. Aynway, I am falling way behind here. Buddy Rose/Kim Song vs Matt Borne/Hack Sawyer - 9/12/81 - 2/3 Falls There's a promo introducing Kim Song that I absolutely love. Buddy, knowing Kim doesn't know English just runs circles around him while he stands right next to him. It's awesome stuff. Anyway, I'm glad this is Borne and not Regal. I don't think the "incident" has happened yet, but there's still a lot of heat between Borne and Buddy, not the least over that Borne turned his brother-in-law down to be partners. They're going one-on-one on Tuesday. Luke Brown's the ref here and I really do love his red "Referee" shirt. Apparently he was Dutch Savage's half brother and wrestled against him and with him years before. Bonnema makes the important distinction: "Judo chops are legal, karate chops are not." Kim and Buddy bow to each other and here we go. I've not seen a ton of Song but I'm curious how they compare to the awesome team of Bockwinkel and Saito. Song, by the way, is not Kim Sung Ho, who wrestled in the 70s. There's some debate on exactly who he was. All you really need to know is that he's got astoundingly stereotypical facial expressions and a karate/hard head gimmick. They do a great job of establishing what sort of threat Song is right from the get go. He presses Borne against the ropes and rears back throwing a giant backhand chop. Borne ducks it and scrambles across the ring and Sawyer complains. It's a little thing but instantly, the fans know that yes, Song is a martial arts threat, and if he hits that chop, it's bad news. All in about fifteen seconds with no actual contact. Pro wrestling is great. Then they do the same thing in the corner with a straight thrust "karate chop." Anyway Borne tries to counter this with wrestling, but Song responds with kicks (Borne sells them huge) and a slam before missing a giant legdrop off the ropes. Borne hones in with an atomic drop and drags Song back into his corner so Hack can do one too. Hack (who I will liken to a mix between Eugene and Spike Dudley today) goes for another one but Song reverses it into a beautiful Russian Leg Sweep which he follows with a nice knee drop and a terrible "judo kick." They run the missed leg drop again to the delight of the crowd but Song dives across the ring for the tag and Buddy lawn darts Hack with a great press slam. this allows Buddy to stooge for the fans for a bit. Hack comes back in and ends up in a back body drop toss. Buddy against smaller guys can be really fun because he's able to kick out just the meanest looking power offense and you know he's probably enjoying the crap out of it. They start working a headlock with Buddy keeping Hack away from the corner. Finally he tags Song who starts unleashing the chop. They protect it well enough, too as Borne has to make the save. Heels are working well in controlling the ring. It's a fun pairing. They do a great looking turnbuckle treatment reversal spot with Buddy eating the corner then Hack walks over to the heel corner and tries to do it to Song, who is, of course, immune to such things. Song comes in and does it to Hack which draws Borne in so that things break down. The chaos allows Buddy to goozle Sawyer. When Borne complains, Buddy tosses Hack so that Song can attack him on the outside. Borne's fiery as hell in this match and rushes around to brawl with Song again who weeble wobble sells it. Buddy uses the headlock to contain Sawyer again but he makes it to the corner and Borne flies in with a sunset flip off the top while Buddy had the headlock on Sawyer and that's the first fall. Crowd was super into it. Nice little heel-tactic based FIP there. Second fall starts with Buddy trying to sneak Song in, first by default and then before touching Borne, with a tag. this is followed by another bow to Song, some stalling in the corner, and a quick touch on Borne's chest before he scrambles back to his corner and tags Song in. Amazing that I haven't seen him do this before because it's such intuitive stooging. Song goes for the hair with a take down and Borne flies back up menacing him out of the ring. Borne is, as I said, really fiery. The attempts of communication between Buddy and Song are pretty enjoyable. After a ducked judo chop, Song slows things down and requests a test of strength. He immediately kicks born to drive him down and kicks him back down every time he starts to fight up. Borne finally breaks it and takes over which starts a mid match mini shine on the arm including Hack coming off the top with an axehandle to it and Song flipping over like nobody's business on an arm wringer/legdrop on the arm combo. I hate that I can't help but like Sawyer. He's do damn plucky, like a goofier Brady Boone. Nice little transition sequence here: Song rolls up Sawyer and then uses the ropes for leverage. Borne comes in and pulls him off with the tights. Ref pulls Borne out. Sawyer gets another armbar on. Buddy complains about Borne. Ref checks on Borne. Buddy grabs Sawyer's hair to pull him down, letting song take back over. Rose comes in and hits the big back elbow and a great little walk-up kneedrop. Buddy slams him and tags Song who FINALLY hits the legdrop (Borne breaks up the pin but Sawyer goes to the wrong corner) and then a BEAUTIFUL butterfly suplex (Borne breaks up the pin but Song tosses Saywer back into the heel corner). Buddy comes in and locks on a bear hug, again keeping Sawyer away from his corner. RIGHT when Hack's about to get the tag, Song rushes in and pulls him back; he makes the tag but the ref is distracted and misses it. He has to force Borne back out while the heels take advantage with the super illegal Song karate chop. Ah, tag team wrestling. Song hits a much cooler kick on Sawyer but Sawyer kicks out (on his own which is important once and a while for a plucky babyface underdog). Song cuts him off with a nasty kneedrop to the back of the head though. Buddy tags in and locks the headlock cut off again but this time Sawyer back body drops him out of it and hits the hot tag. Borne bursts in and cuts through the heels before unloading on Buddy. He gets too close to the heel corner though and Song beats him up from behind. This brings Sawyer in and the ref has to pull him out. Meanwhile, Borne's got Buddy up in the airplane spin which is his finish, but Song comes in, hits the big headbutt and Buddy basically falls on him for the three count. Bock/Saito is actually a GREAT comparison to Rose/Song so far. I'm happily surprised. Third fall takes its time to get back to the ring and then even more time as Buddy stooges and stalls and does the chest tap on Borne again before tagging out. What a glorious jerk. Then Song comes over for instruction and Buddy starts doing these hilarious over the top hand signals. This is followed by more of Borne trying to slam Songs' head into the turnbuckle. All he gets for his trouble is a headbutt and some clubbering and a lovely opportunity to eat the turnbuckle himself. Buddy tags in. He's chewing gum visibly here which not something I've seen out of him before I don't think. Borne takes a big back body drop and then, after getting dragged back to the middle of the ring, a delayed vertical suplex. Buddy sells his own head after the fact and tags Song in who hits a nice back suplex. Transition is Borne ducking a chop off the ropes and then hitting a really nice dropkick to set up the hot tag. I love how Hack does the crazy Bob Backlund hand motions after hitting a drop kick. He's such an excited lad. Song just clobbers him though leading to another ducked chop and then a Nikolai Volkoff side kick without the spin (i.e. he lifts up his foot and someone runs into the side of it with his stomach) and then a pretty cool frantic judo chop on prone Sawyer from the second rope for the three count. Heels dismantle the faces post match including a chair shot on Borne from the floor in after dodging some angry fans. Yeah, I liked this a good deal. Lots of stooging and heel tricks executed well. It was a showcase to debut song while still having Borne look great and in that it did exactly what it was supposed to. Song overachieved from what i was expecting even if his facial expressions are sort of Kamala level over the top.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1892331...company-history Bix wrote a really good article on this. I know Chris has been following it on his site as well.

I make my eleven year old watch TCM all the time. He tends to want to watch TV whenever he can because he gets relatively small amounts of it and he'll take what he can get and enjoy almost anything, so he's seen probably 70 movies that were made before 1970 at this point. I control the horizontal and the vertical and what not. I also had lists of TV and movies from the 70s-00s that I thought he should watch at certain ages (Ducktales, Back to the Future, Ghostbusters, The Muppet Show/Fraggle Rock, Bill and Ted's, Original Gundam/Macross/etc). I really came to appreciate older things when I was in high school but it really ought to be fostered by the parents and it's easier than to be exposed to things now with DVDs/Streaming/etc.

As a kid in 1986 or whatever, I freaking loved the Monkees. For the first few years of my life, that, Danger Mouse, and He-Man were my favorite shows. And maybe when I skewed just a bit younger Bananaman.

I read that as Kelly Kelly for a second.

I can't imagine WWE not JUMPING at the idea of Jack inducting Flair into the Hall of Fame. I guess 2007 Hunter would have that level of veto power since he wanted to do it himself, but I imagine it would have come out in the sheets since there'd be a lot of talk about it internally.

I was in the crowd for Angle/Benoit. I have weird feelings about it and no desire to revisit it.

How would he fit in with the current New Japan style?

I think the smackdown six are remembered fairly favorably now. In fact, I'm not sure how that stuff would age considering Edge's limitations, Angle's limitations, and the general ickiness surrounding Chris Benoit matches. I find it extremely unlikely that it'd match up to the tags and six man matches we've gotten this year.

I loved Bryan kicking out the AWA legwork in that match. Did he get the set or something?

So in my manic attempt to learn more about lucha a couple of months ago, I convinced Devon (a better spanish reader than I) to parse through this DJ Spectro post on Cota (http://djspectro.blogspot.com/2010/03/de-mis-apuntes-el-mocho-cota-rudo-unico.html), mainly because I wanted to know why the hell Cota was dressed up like Darth Vader. What he got was the general gist that he was driven out or banned or something and he kept coming back every week with a different costume to piss off the fans and that this somehow led to the Los Infernales feud. If even a little bit of that is spot on it just makes him all the cooler.

And really, it wouldn't matter if he was a great wrestler. I mean look at this guy from the same era. He looks about the same as Watts, not far off, maybe a little thicker, but it's like night and day.

I kind of want to see a Ziggler/AJ Styles tag team getting beat up by Mark Henry/Big E. Does that count?

Someone should remind Parv that this is what an athlete looks like.

In a year and a half when I finish all the Buddy there is, I am totally going to watch Terry Rudge.

I love that WWE has decided to fill 3 hours with tag matches. And we don't even have Sid breaking them up.

I actually like later career Erik Watts more than most people but

I actually mostly believe that, because you can see a huge difference in the Race vs Martel match from the very beginning of 1980 and the Buddy series. You can also see a huge difference in Martel between 80 and what we've seen in 83 onward but the Buddy matches are still so damn good.

Why the hell doesn't anyone like Stan Stasiak? I'm watching him vs Brett Sawyer here and he's king-sized in it. Sawyer's just a physical mess when it comes to coordination and Stasiak is great as this lumbering old bastard who just walks around the ring locking trapezius claws that would be boring if he wasn't such a looming presence and getting pissed off everytime Sawyer does a goofy Leaping Lanny taunt. There's one of the best jerkiest king of the mountains I've seen in Portland with a really good payoff. He's also pretty great at focusing on a body part with really, really simple but effective stuff. He's like my father in law if he was a wrestler. I really liked him as a face vs Buddy too. He's just a great Mean Old Bastard, like Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino or something. The first fall is something like fifteen minutes and it just flies by because Stasiak is such a pissy old codger. I mean he was only forty something but he seemed like he was going on sixty, but in a good way. Old man has great facial expressions. He also sort of sells like Popeye with this great little bobble of his head but is also willing to bump over the top. Also the sideburns make him look like some 18th century British highwayman that'd be a side villain in some Dick Turpin story. When he has the mustache he's kind of like one of those 1910s strongmen and his posture is downright simian. Also, he's got the best heart punch ever. I want to see him wrestle Sangre Chicana or something. also, Brett Sawyer is the biggest doofus ever to wrestle. I can't really put it in a non-offensive way. I guess, alright. You could commentate over his matches with a funny commentary and people watching would get uncomfortable thinking that Hack Sawyer was probably not "in on the joke."