Matt D

Honestly, the trick is to do what Watts did in 84 and what Hunter actually did in 2006 and tie himself to a hot talent and just work tag matches.

Or hey, the 88 Demos vs Harts match which is legitimately great.

I don't even like this match.

I'm just sad that no one else wants to come up with Chikara characters based on Dylan.

Part of me is hugely amused by the fact they are destroying the Kane doesn't have ten good matches argument almost singlehandedly.

I usually fall close in line with Dylan (or closer than most) and the strap match is, at least, not in my bottom 30. the handheld Wahoo vs Manny is 149, but that's another story.

Rose vs Pardee - Hair match - 9/15/79 Buddy insists, after all, that this will be on TV since no one thought he'd win. They ban Rip from ringside and the crowd pops. They shake to begin and weirdly that sort of makes this feel like a big deal. Shine stuff is great. Buddy hits one arm drag and Pardee hits three before Buddy takes a powder. Rip comes back out and keeps brushing the hair. Buddy kicks and goes for a turnbuckle shot but Pardee reverses and hits a bunch of stuff before Buddy begs off and gets out. Crowd is super hot for this. Buddy keeps getting a quick advantage but Pardee turns it around including some really good rope running. Pardee works over the arm and Buddy's selling and stooging is amazing. He takes the hugest bump off of an over the top rope drape and makes it (and Pardee) look like a thousand bucks. The transition is Pardee charging into the corner after Buddy and going shoulder first beginning Buddy's armwork. They keep mentioning Louie Pinzelli who's going to do the haircut and he's a former boxing second and local hair-cut guy and just name dropping him like that adds a lot to the local feel of this. Portland always had such a great warm community feel to it. Anyway Pardee punches out of it, making sure to sell the arm still during his comeback and hits some fairly good looking but simple offense including a legdrop to the gut before Buddy tosses him out in true Bockwinkel fashion, leading to one of the first real king of the mountain segments I've seen out of this era's Buddy. It makes total sense here given the stakes and how energetic young Pardee was. Good stuff and a switch up of structure. They keep things interesting while Pardee is out by having Buddy almost get in with it to Barr. Barr actually wants to DQ Buddy here but Pardee, gallant young lion, refuses to take it. He instead reverses a shot into the ring post. Presuming Buddy is going over here they're doing a lot to really make Pardee look good. He hits a revenge spot on Buddy keeping him out and then lets him back in before really laying it in with running turnbuckle shots. This whole thing was kind of neat since it was a real portland twist. He finally misses a third dropkick as Buddy falls backwards for another transition. Pardee gets an immediate hope sunset flip making the crowd go nuts but Buddy starts in on the back and really begins to grind down. They tease another hope spot with Buddy putting his head down, but he hits the inside backbreaker immediately thereafter and picks up the win. I could have used a slightly hotter finish with Pardee getting a few more shots in before Buddy hit the backbreaker out of nowhere but in general this was really good. It had a good number of transitions but they all built to something and made sense. Buddy and Rip are awesome praying to the increasingly bald Pardee as if he was a monk and then saying that Kojak is in the ring. Good match that put over Pardee pretty well even in losing, that put over the gimmick match, that just made Rose look more formidable. And that just ratcheted up the heat on this stuff all the more for the Adonis loser leaves town match upcoming on Tuesday.

Have we done a note about "how wrong we were?"

Ric Flair is the greatest of all time.

I would say that Lance Storm was better than Dustin Rhodes for that sort of cash!

This note ballooned quickly. What was the deal with Snuka in 77. I know I saw him brought into portland around that time already seeming like an established face.

Shouldn't you be lauding him for trying to create quality content to improve the site instead of lambasting him for writing on it?

Duggan got heat on Andre. Come on.

Damn it if that studio audience in 1993 didn't love the Cole Twins

They presented it in a way that it was allowed. I'm okay with it. in another setting other than 1991 WWF it might have bothered me, but the rules are whatever they say the rules are. It's not real. Within the confines of the story they were telling, it worked. I also figured that the ref was just terrified of him, but that's probably more rationalization than it needed. The Jerry Lawler vs Kerry Von Erich match on the AWA set needs rationalization (the ref was a Memphis ref and thus didn't care when he blatantly saw the chain attacks fifty times in the match) because of the setting and how it was worked. This? Not so much.

A match can be all choking/avoidance of a choke and still be good. This match is good in context of Survivor Series where Taker really just goozled and contained Hogan to a huge degree. Here, Hogan plays a sort of scared desperation that I don't remember ever seeing out of him in trying to avoid the choke. Honestly, it's not really worth my time (or yours) to write up both matches, but I will say that I enjoy them both mainly in the context of each other and more broadly in a linear progression of how they laid out Hogan matches over the few years before it.

Ambrose submitting to taker (who then got absolutely demolished, no?) felt like an event and meant a whole lot more than Rollins losing to kane clean in the first match of a random Smackdown with no build. I'm fine with one of the Shield eating a loss but they should build it into a moment. Hell, WCW, for all its faults, made Chris Jericho beating Nick Patrick feel like it mattered since it was one of the first real losses for a NWO guy and they presented it as mattering.

Had Rollins eaten a pinfall yet in a singles match? I might have missed that.

The smackdown results seem like a good start. Shield's first pinfall loss is to Kane on a random Smackdown.

Rose vs Adonis - 2/3 Falls - Rip chained to Steve Pardee This is the last live broadcasted wrestling show, so I assume the sheepherders have been bloodying up people. Owen sounds a little depressed by the idea. I know the legend was that the move to 11:30 actually helped the ratings since everyone rushed home to see themselves on TV. Is that true? Anyway, after the shenanigans from before Rip is chained to "rookie of the year" Steve Pardee. Pardee impacts things immediately by making the heels unable to have a stalling conference, frustrating Buddy to the delight of the crowd. Adonis chucks Buddy into Rip to start off which Buddy made look like a million bucks. Buddy hammers the arm intensely but Adonis comes back and Rose ends up headbutted to the floor again, right into Rip. The crowd is really into this. Buddy puts him immediately into a full nelson which is pretty well worked in the Adonis strength escapes and Buddy pulling the hair to cut it off. There's a great little touch where Buddy slams Adonis' head into the turnbuckle to weaken him enough to bring him down. I'm not a huge fan of a full nelson base but it's done well and when Adonis escapes the fans pop big. He nails Buddy and puts him in one of his own. Buddy tries to escape by lifting up Adrian and we end up in comedy hour with Buddy trying an elaborate escape only to end up back in it and then eating an Atomic Drop that sends him out of the ring. They reset into a test of strength and Buddy knees him immediately only to get totally out finessed. Adonis goes for the spinning toehold but Buddy kicks him over the top rope where he gets stuck which I think is our proper transition in the first fall. Buddy starts to really dismantle the hamstring/leg. And puts on an Indian deathlock. We get a long anklelock that Adonis finally turns out of. It's pretty funny. Buddy just hangs on with the leg until Adonis jams him with it. Adonis sort of shrugs off the leg work a bit too quickly in his comeback having a big comeback before he rolls Buddy up for the fall. This was easily the longest first fall I've seen in Portland and they did a good job of having a back and forth match with some limbwork and some comedy and some real hate. It wasn't my favorite structurally but it was still good. and geez, this second fall is 15 minutes. I may have overwritten that first fall as it was really back and forth. I'll just sum this up. Rip stooges a lot early in the second fall on the outside. We really get a full reset. Buddy's taunt as he charges into the corner is beautiful and of course he misses like he's supposed but then he takes over with a grinding front facelock. Adonis gets some hope spots and Buddy keeps grinding him down. We get some great fan shots during the facelock. And this is pretty much an endless facelock. The hope spots are good but it's just sort of there, to be honest. Buddy starts to go for the fall as they announce the time left but Adonis escapes from the Robinson backbreaker attempt and hits an atomic drop for the real come back. Adonis misses a top rope splash and Rose goes up himself. Pardee shakes the roles though and Buddy stumbles into Adonis who turns him over to win the fall and (I think) transfer the feud from Adonis to Pardee. I have to admit, I didn't love this match nearly as much of some of the stuff I've seen lately. I like that they really varied up the 2/3 falls structure and the first fall was pretty good. I don't mind a single-hold based match which is what we really got with the second fall, but this one sort of fell flat for me. As always they did a great job moving things along and keeping the territory rolling though.

if it's any consolation, the "Told you so" article to be written in 5 months will probably be all the sweeter now?

Buddy Rose vs Sal Martino 2/3 Falls - August 4, 1979 Owen announces they're moving the time slot from 11 to 12:30 to boos. I have no idea who Martino is. Think it's Bellomo actually. He hits an out of nowhere body press for a lightning first fall as the crowd goes nuts. 29 seconds which at the announcement makes the crowd pop more. Start of the second fall they tease a roll up and Buddy takes a powder pissed off.They slow things down with a Martino headlock base. Rose is expert at using the tights to put him in a tight pin position. Stunt granny is pissed off too. Martino grinds as the crowd counts but Rose backs out and takes another powder. Buddy starts to work on the arm but gets pulled into a headlock again. Fun stuff. This reminds me more of an AWA match with the use of a single hold for a base with the heel cheating to getting out only to end up back in it. We get a cut and end up with both guys standing again. Apparently we're in the third fall and the big transition was on a missed body press which sounds like a good comeback. Buddy won that fall. He has the advantage here too, working over the back. Martino sells a bearhug well but Buddy's lean forward head tucked bearhug is not his best stuff. Martino finally claps his way out and reverses a corner toss to do endless shoulder thrusts. They do the Dylan-hated headlock/collission spot but here it at least made some sense as they used the headlock as a base so much. A third cross body but this is just a 2 count tease. Martino goes off the ropes and runs right into a HUGE billy robinson backbreaker. Probably the best I've ever seen; super cocky pin and that's the match. Fun stuff, a totally different structure than most 2/3 fall matches we've seen. Shame for the cut though. The way he did the Robinson backbreaker would stand up to any 2013 finisher in the world, I think. It looked huge. Interlude: Rips promos are pretty brutal still. They're very simple with a lot of Either/Ors but his delivery is the clunkiest thing in the world. Buddy is still amazing though. Rose vs Adonis - 2/3 Falls - August 31, 1979 Don Owen is rocking an awesome suit again, but Buddy's robe is even better. Barr bars Rogers from ringside and they have security taking him away. Buddy stalls to begin. Buddy seems desperate to avoid contact at first and humorously crashes into Barr in the corner. When they finally get into it, he keeps taking cheap shots on Adonis only to get hit back hard and back away. They do some good back and forth including buddy eating a great monkey flip and a huge body slam before getting dropkicked out to the floor.He comes back in and tries a slam only to get press slammed by Adonis. This is a well put together first part of a match and Adonis' babyface work really needs more attention from people. Shine ends with a missed splash and buddy hitting a bodyslam backbreaker and a series of killer double stomps. He hits another elbow to the midsection and does a roll through for the first fall. Pretty awesome pinpoint stuff after the missed splash. Good first fall. As with most Portland 2/3 falls matches the second fall continues from the first with Buddy laying in to the stomach including the awesome stomach claw. This is great and just an example of Rose's versatility, as if we need more of that. Adonis is great making it look like death as he fights back. Buddy breaks a comeback by going to the hair and Granny is pissed again. They're really basing this second fall off the stomach claw and I love it. Adonis then goes to the hair and punches his way out which feels like comeuppance on Buddy. Adonis selling, punches Rose out of the ring. Buddy rabbits but Adonis slips in and does a sunset flip on the outside and Barr counts it which is hilarious. Adonis pulls him in and hits a top rope elbow before putting on his finish, the spinning toe-hold for a submission and the second fall. I'm really liking this match. Buddy starts the third fall selling the leg but all over Adonis. He immediately hits the Billy Robinson backbreaker but on his bad knee and he flails around selling it taking forever to get to Adonis who just gauges the hell out of Buddy's eye with no sign that he's about to let go. Vicious looking stuff. Rip Rogers runs out to break it out for the DQ and they start on Adonis' eye. they sell it that someone from the crowd threw a pen at Rose but Rose gets it instead thanks to Rip and nails Adonis the eye in it. Good match, good angle, sets up the next match. The usual great stuff.

Weirdly, you made the good stuff sound pretty good.

And how many times did Warrior just beat the snot out of her between the two?

I really like Lawler on commentary in 1993. He had a lot to offer between the magistrater being so quick and hilarious, the fact he has a joke for everything and some pretty good heel chemistry with Savage where you could sort of tell they had history even if it was never really drawn upon. And it's obvious how big a hit it was when he left and we were suddenly saddled with poor Stan Lane.