Matt D

Rose/Wiskowski vs Piper/Martel - Tag Titles - 2/3 Falls - Aug 2 1980 They'd been playing up how Piper/Martel would get flowers before the matches from fans for months. This match, Rose and Wiskowski get them too. There better damn well be a foreign object in one or something. Anyway, this is because the Sheepherders left the territory after losing that double hair match with the Army. The belts were vacant and Owen put them up between the two logical teams. They're also building to a no DQ title match between Martel and Rose the upcoming Tuesday. Piper and Rose to start. Stooging right from the get go as Wiskowki holds Piper from the outside but Roddy ducks and Buddy nails his partner. This is followed immediately by a ridiculously awesome Rose somersault bump off of a turnbuckle treatment in the corner and both heels bumping huge for Piper's punches to the fans' delight. Bit of back and forth before Martel tags in to a huge pop and he starts unloading on a begging off Buddy. Martel grinds a headlock to a ten count and tags in Piper who's about to grab Rose when he does a slow fall backwards.The timing on this stuff is great. Piper slaps on the headlock, repeats the ten grinds as the fans count along and then hits a dropkick knocking Rose out of the ring. Buddy's falling all over the place on the outside selling, stumbling, and asking for time out. He rolls in to a flying mare, that cool double stomp face split, and a head drop from Piper but manages to get a knee up in the corner and a quick enough tag to Wiskowki that they stop the tag to Martel and we get the beginnings of a heat segment. Great shine. Wiskoski is going back to the double stomach claw he used vs Boyd which is a good visual move for him given his size. Ah, Piper's left side of the back was injured in an attack by the Army apparently, so they're honing in on that especially. Piper's great in the hold, struggling and trying to get over to make the tag. Rose runs around to nail Martel with a cheapshot delaying it and allowing Ed to snap on a nice looking bodyscissors roll to get Piper away from the corner. He keeps the hold on, continuing on the ribs/side while Piper tries to work towards the corner again. Great sense of struggle here as the fans go nuts in support and Martel reaches for all he's worth from outside. At one point, Piper gets his foot over and Martel grabs it, trying to drag him over, but Barr breaks it up. Then Piper starts flailing wildly with his arms to make a potential tag (still in the body scissors) until Wiskowski uses his side to scoot back to the center of the ring and it's all top notch stuff. Rose tags in and slaps the hold on again, doing some big leverage moves to sort of atomic drop Piper on the ma and tries to turn it into a pin. Piper scrambles for the corner, but Rose quickly tags Ed and they cut him off. Piper goes through the legs but Wiskowski manages to position himself between Roddy and Rick. Piper fights his way out of the heel corner, DIVES for the tag with a whipped out arm, but Wiskowki grabs his foot at the last second and pulls him back and then quickly grabs the clawhold again, with a added jab, to stop Piper long enough for Rose to come back in, but Piper's just too determined and he manages to roll away at the last second for the hot tag. That was one of the best hot tag sequences I've ever seen and Martel has almost Promethean fire empowering him as he cleans house, with punches, an awesome looking hip through, a few quick, tight dropkicks, and a 'rana into a pin for the fall. This was one of the best single falls I've seen in Portland and that's saying a lot. Second fall starts with Wiskowski trying to start, but Barr disallows it. Heels conference in the corner and Martel slams their heads together. They do some quick rope running and after a backslide, I thought they were going to keep it up and do Savage/Steamboat near falls for a second. Instead, Rose rolls out and stalls to work the crowd. He walks around the ring, rolls in and tags Wiskowski from a prone position. His mannerisms are really great. Martel and Wiskowski start working a headlock base (Martel in charge). Rose blind tags in after a minute or two but ends up in a headlock too. Martel's very good at working this. His diving reversal of Rose's hairpull is particularly good. Buddy keeps trying to cheat his way out, by grabbing the hair or tights. Piper goads Wiskowki around the apron and then does a blind switch with Martel while Barr is distracted. Barr catches the end of it and looks bemused. It's kind of weird to see Piper do running headlock takeovers off the turnbuckles. Piper positions Buddy into the corner for the tag they do a cute little spot where Piper lets go of the headlock, Buddy rears back, and Martel catches the hand from behind and puts him right back into the headlock. Martel does a great backflip off the turnbuckle and then that corner hiptoss of his I really like. Buddy ducks away from a dropkick though and it's one of the best missed dropkicks I've ever seen. There's this super fast element of flailing feet that's just great. Rose makes it to the corner and Wiskowski starts on Martel's ribs (where he landed after the dropkick). Martel's selling is so good, as in "one of the best ever" good in this. Wiskowski is both methodological and dogged, keeping his offense varied and giving it time to breath as he stalks the selling Martel around the ring. using the ropes as a prop and switching stomps with a slam with a bearhug. He controls ring positioning with the bear hug, which lets Rose cut off a the beginning of a hope spot and tag in, using an argentinian backbreaker, which I've not seen him use before. He marches Martel back into the corner and drops his head onto the turnbuckle before just exchanging it with Wiskowski in a cool looking moment. Piper rushes in to break it up but Wiskowski just slaps on the bear hug again. This is a great heat segment and very different than the Piper one from the first fall. Rose, cheerleading on the outside, jumped on the bottom turnbuckle and broke the rope. I assume that was a mistake. Anyway, Piper gets fed up again and comes in. Barr gets distracted. Buddy comes in without a tag. He clotheslines Piper on the top rope with a catapult and lands him on his knees, working int into a backbreaker hold. Martel bridges up to the ropes and drops a knee. Rose cuts him off and tries to slam his head onto the mat, but Martel reverses it, so Rose desperately punches Piper off the apron to prevent a tag. Great moment. Buddy rolls Martel up but Piper rushes in and starts pounding on him. Barr restrains him. Wiskowski runs in and Rose grabs the broken turnbuckle and smashes it across Martel's back. Wiskowski puts the bear hug back on and drives him down to a pinning situation but Martel tries to fight his way on top out of it. I'm amazed that wasn't the end of the fall. They really protect Martel in this. Barr breaks the hold and Wiskowski clubbers and hits an atomic drop but Piper breaks up the pin. Rose comes in. Martel leap frogs him off the ropes but Buddy turns it around catching him in basically a boss man slam Robinson backbreaker variation that looks awesome and I'm not sure anyone had ever seen before. This time Wiskowski comes in to cut off Piper and that's the second fall. Great stuff, with a finish way ahead of its time in both details and complexity. Third fall has the rope fixed. Martel is still reeling. They start on Martel but he reverses a Wiskowski suplex. Rose gets a phantom tag and tries to cut him off, but Martel reverses a gutwrenchsuplex and then a headlock into a back suplex. He's not able to follow up at all though due to the hurting back and how he keeps using his back to reverse. Rose tags out to Wiskowski who cuts him off but Martel fights back with punches in the corner, selling huge as he does. He's basically using the ropes to stand up and to even help with a forward kick that knocks Wiskowski down. The heels are so dogged in keeping him from tagging though. Wiskowski uses his superior size to drag him back to his corner and Rose comes in. Martel fights his way out of the corner again and this time finally gets the molten hot tag. I'm not sure I've ever seen a hot tag that was harder to work for. It was almost too hard, but not quite. Piper wailing away on Rose in the corner is pretty amazing. The crowd has come unglued. Piper hits some big knee lifts on both heels. Wiskowski begs off but gets a double eye poke for his trouble. Roddy tosses him out but Barr stops him from going after. Rose tries a sneak attack to Piper's back but Piper shrugs it off and just nails him off the apron. It's distraction enough (and just really smart, detailed oriented wrestling, of which Portland might have the distinction for having more of than anywhere else ever) for Wiskowski to come back in and get a cheap punch in. They do a cool combo slingshot, back body drop with Rose coming in and chucking Piper over the top. Buddy tries to go after Piper on the outside but Martel chases him around the ring, pummeling him. This lets Wiskowski work on Piper with all four guys outside of the ring. Piper fights back and they slam the heels together. They're brawling like madmen here with the faces just wailing away and the bell ringing repeatedly and the crowd screaming. Faces finally lock on double sleepers in the center of the ring but they all crash into each other and just end up a mass of humanity. Rose grabs the belts and start using them as weapons. Then Martel grabs one from Barr and uses it a weapon too and it ends up with each team having one belt as the heels take a powder. It ends as a double countout and obviously sets up a money match to come (they push the singles match between Rose/Martel to Saturday and do a lumberjack match on Tuesday). It breaks down AGAIN after they announce it. Definitely a top 10 Portland match from what I've seen and maybe one of the best tag matches I've seen in the whole decade.

Rose/Wiskowki/Fidel Cortez vs Sheepherders/Jonthan Boyd - 2/3 Falls - July 19, 1980 No idea who Fidel Cortez is. They're still running Rose/Wiskowki vs Sheepherders at the top of the card and hyping a potential double hair match (Wiskoski AND the Sheepherders want nothing to do with it. Buddy would have to take off the mask). Apparently the 'herders at this point are selling gimmick photos of Rose without hair. Brilliant. How is Don Owen not a great promoter? There's a great promo before this where Rose offers Wiskowki his purse money if he goes along with the match. He finally convinces him. Anyway, Cortez has your typical Cuban Assassin Castro look down to the hat and cigar. Boyd gets a HUGE reaction. Cortez and Boyd starts and Cortez is not bad at stooging and has pretty good facial expressions here in the early shine armwork, which is pretty good and moves along nicely. Finally, he forces his way to the corner, tags in Buddy and the crowd pops big for Buddy vs Boyd, so, of course, Rose immediately tags out to Wiskowki and the two of them go at it. Boyd gets the better of it and the crowd is hugely into this. They go back to armwork on Wiskowki and it's all very solid. They cut off Ed getting to the corner a few times, but he finally snatches a leg between his own only to get kicked off right into Rose in a fun comedy spot. Poor Ed finally (and dramatically) reaches Cortez. Buddy tries to interfere immediately thereafter but Boyd runs around and stops him to the crowd's delight. Cortez finally gets lucky and puts a chinlock on Luke, but the fans chant him up and he nails a hart attack clothesline off the ropes and goes right back to armwork. Cortez fights back again, this time on Miller, but Butch reverses a corner whip and ambles to his corner letting Boyd come in. The heels triple team Boyd, with Rose finally getting his chickenshit hands on him, but Boyd comes back huge on Wiskowki, slams him, and hits the big bombs away knee from the top to take the fall. Really entertaining first fall. I wonder if Barr was the only ref in the territory. Past Dutch Savage, occasionally, I haven't seen anyone else ref. That had to be tiring. Anyway, heels tried to sneak another guy in to start the second fall but it had to be Wiskowki. Boyd does this kind of neat nipple nerve lock thing. Heels menace from the outside but faces counter. Miller tags in. Faces double team and Wiskowki stooges back into his corner. Cortez comes in and hits a butt attack to reverse a shoulder throw. Miller starts to sell the shoulder from this and the ensuing stomp to the outside. Cortez looks pretty good to be honest. I'm not sure why I haven't heard of him before. Heels do a King of the Mountain with Barr continuously distracted before finally letting Miller in. This is a perfectly fine heat segment. I like Cortez' overblown stomps, which send Miller out the ring the other side. Heels get him on the outside again as Cortez faces off against Williams on the apron to distract. Miller's back in the ring and they're keeping him from the corner effectively, cutting off the ring and grinding down with pedestrian holds. Miller gets a hope spot off of an eye gough escape but the heels tag quickly and cut it off. He works from underneath, literally with good looking strikes but Buddy gets the tag and cuts him off. They sort of stumble through a back elbow reversal spot and Boyd gets the hot tag and finally gets in with Rose. He keeps tossing Buddy out and dragging him back in but Buddy makes it to his corner to Cortez who gets a quick clothesline or two on Williams, followed by a nice looking grounded cobra clutch and that's the second fall. It's really amazing how Williams is positioned below Miller. You don't think of the Sheepherders like that. Third fall starts with Cortez clotheslining Williams (who was still on the apron heading back in) on the top rope). He sells the throat and the heels keep on it cheaply while distracting the ref. Buddy uses a nice cravat. He grinds it and wrenches it well as Williams sells. Then Wiskowki does the same. Most of Luke's hope spots here are eyerakes and bites but the crowd is into them and the cut offs are well timed. Williams' works well from underneath, working towards his corner while in a neck vice. Wiskowski runs around and pulls Miller off the apron to help prevent a hot tag. This is sort of interesting. It's something that I hadn't seen at all in 79-80 and now they've done it two times in a month or so. It was very similar to when they started to implement the ref missing hot tags after never doing that before. You wonder if Wiskowski saw it in another territory and brought it in or what. Anyway, hot tag to Boyd. Crowd goes nuts. He charges into the corner too quickly though and Rose gets his knees up. Considering how hot he's been for Rose all match this was good. Heel start to dismantle him, with Wiskowski and then Cortez doing a revenge claw hold from how Boyd did it to them earlier. This is instead of targeting the shoulder and it's a mistake as Boyd gets out and to the corner for a sort of heatless tag to Williams as Rose comes in. Williams gets some revenge for the long heat segments, but he jams his arm on a missed knee drop and has to roll over for Miller who gets a big pop and immediately starts to beat on Rose. Cortez comes in to break up a pin and everything breaks down. Boyd chases Cortez back to the dressing room, but in the chaos Wiskowski (who had put on the wig and was NOT the legal man) sneaks into the ring and rolls up Miller, grabbing the tights, for a three. Pretty strong finish with the end result being that the Sheepherders are so pissed off they accept the hair tag match, which is now in a cage. Really good six man. Boyd brought a lot to the table and I rather liked Cortez actually.

I am a big advocate of the "Warrior can take direction." argument. I think you can see it in his other big Mania matches and even in the well laid out Andre SNME match. It also is wrong to think he does not bring anything to the table even if there are some basic things he is terrible at. He has both energy and the crazy charisma.

How much credit should Chyna get for even how over Hunter was in 97-98?

I never heard about Lawler intending breaking away in 83. Is there more written online about that?

I like watching Warrior but only in specific situations. I love Warrior in tag matches on the apron. He's nuts. I kind of like watching Warrior matches and seeing how well you can pick out that he's following direction. I haven't seen a Mongo match in years but he's a guy that honestly loved wrestling. It's hard to hate that.

I think there are elements that I am drawn to in every match and it comes down, in the end, to "good, consistent storytelling." But I'm not a robot. That's just one element of one element of pro wrestling. I will say this. I've been catching up on NXT and I just saw the promo for the april show where Dusty books four title matches and the fact that they called it Clash of the Champions made me outright GIDDY. Just seeing that on the screen.

It feels like a Dick Ebersol sort of decision to me.

Matt Hardy vs Edge?

I'd be curious if he felt stifled creatively in WWF. It had such a different pacing to it. They'd run 2/3rds of a year of house shows off of basically one angle. In Crockett he had to come up with ideas almost constantly. WWF was such a slow moving train in comparison.

John, I know you posted on how you don't have time to watch wrestling right now since you are watching so much other stuff, etc. As blisteringly entertaining as this was, I still would have rather seen you watch some stuff you haven't seen before and write about it. Might I suggest the 79-80 Portland that's currently online.

All of that would be a much bigger issue if we weren't getting really good matches every week on TV right now and didn't have so many B-C shows where they can dump good stuff like Main Event right now.

I think Bret's early tv defenses are very interesting. Berzerker, Shango, Kamala, Virgil all within a few week period, all in pretty short matches that I actually don't think did him any favors though they were supposed to make him look like the most fightingest champion ever.

I was thinking the same thing.

I watched as much AWA TV as I could find, all the way into 86-87 or so. Full years, really. When I got to 88-89, it was available, but I just gave up.

Portland - Martel vs Wiskowski - 2/3 Falls - July 12, 1980 Buddy is sent to the back at the beginning. They start with a cool criss cross I haven't seen before where Wiskowki falls vertically and Martel runs over him the long way before going down into a Wiskowski headlock base. Martel hopes out with rope running and a headscissors but crashes hard into the ropes/corner on a body press and Wiskowski puts it back on. Second hope spot is rope-running, two leapfrogs and a sunset flip but Wiskowski kicks out and slaps on a headlock takeover and another headlock. Third hope spot is Martel turning it into a top wristlock but he ends up in a headscissors. He headstands out, but Wiskowki is right on him in the corner. He dismantles Martel for a minute and then goes for a suplex but Martel counters with a front facelock and reverses it into a suplex of his own. Wiskowki hangs on to the facelock though and Martel sells it huge. Martel gets back to his feet but Wiskowski is grinding the hell out of the headlock. This is slow steady stuff, a lot of jockeying for position. Martel hits another suplex but Wiskowski doesn't let go. It's almost like a reverse cravat here. It's a little dubious, selling-wise, but it's really just hanging on and I'm generally okay with it, especially because on the third one he finally breaks it and takes over for a moment with a backbreaker. Martel puts his head down and pays for it, but reverses again soon after and fires away on Wiskowksi in the corner. Martel puts on a headlock of his own but gets a back suplex for his trouble. Ed goes up to the top rope, hits the swandive headbutt and that's the first fall. Basic but well-worked stuff. Good heel-driven first fall. Ed starts the second fall with a full on cravat. Martel bodyslams out but sells his head and back. Ed gets up selling his own back, just enough for Martel to fight back against the ropes. He's still groggy enough that Wiskowki recovers, punches him down and puts on a leaning chinlock. Martel fights out and goes for a cross body block but gets caught and slammed and knee-dropped. Wiskowki covers but Martel gets both knees up and claps them on his head, taking back over. This is pretty back and forth. Martel beats on him a bit and goes for another cover but this time Wiskowki does the head clap. Martel reverses a pile driver. They do some more stuff. Martel puts on an abdominal stretch. Wiskowki flips out of it. This has a lot of action but none of it means all that much. Martel finally targets in on the back. Wiskowki goes for a sort of lame dropkick, gets caught and Martel puts it into the crab but Wiskowki gets to the ropes. Sandy bar steps on him since he's only touching it and Portland is weird that way but he pulls himself back. Wiskowki gets an eye poke in, tosses Martel into the corner. Martel reverses it, hits a 'rana into a pin and that's the fall. This wasn't what I'd call a great fall. The come out quick with the third fall with Martel getting the advantage and a few near falls. Wiskowki does a roll up out of the corner, with tights but just gets a two count. Martel does a couple of weirdly missing dropkicks the second one hitting Barr in a weird but kind of interesting visual. Then Wiskowki hits this great elbow on Martel while he's on all fours then hits a headbutt off the second rope onto the back of Martel's had. While he's going up, Barr calls for the bell saying that he was pulled into the dropkick. Martel retains the belt. This had good action at times and some good storytelling here and there but ultimately, I don't think it was a great match, just like I don't think that Martel vs Race from the very end of 79 was a great match. The Rose matches absolutely are. I think that says more about Rose than Martel in 1980.

88 JCP is a total blind spot to me. I just went to Graham's list and scanned for names that were there for any decent amount of time that would make sense. Brad Armstrong made some sense to me too. Or even Sullivan who could have had fun with it was an outlet for spreading his message. He'd want to keep the belt so he had TV time each week, etc.

Who'd be better, Al Perez or Rotunda?

You have to remember that in late 93-early 94, business was so bad that they were advertising little tiny bumpkin house shows on Raw, not with a list at the bottom of the screen but worked right into the main commentary of Raw, not in the old syndicated way. Some of the shows they spent a decent amount of time talking about surprised me.

Especially when it's your audience, the people who give you your livelihood, your flock.

Kotter aged great. It's all about wordplay and Marx Brothers' influence.

That wasn't a typical crowd but both they and the announcers were into it. That said, Titus got a pretty big bark chant last week when people thought he'd be the one to hit his finisher at the end of Raw.