Buddy Rose !

[WingedEagle]

When do u anticipate the Lawler set will come out? After hearing you two him up and seeing his Memphis stuff pv the 80's set I'm ready for that to come out

No later than early summer. Maybe sooner. Gotta knock out MX first. Then another yearbook and LAwler will be my spring break projects along with the MOTYC set (probably) aqnd maybe another DVDVR 80s set (lucha).

 

That's how marriages end.

[jpchicago23]

While we're pimping sets The Hart Foundation set is a must get for anybody that liked that era. Fucking awesome set with all the promos, builds, and great matches.

[goodhelmet]

When do u anticipate the Lawler set will come out? After hearing you two him up and seeing his Memphis stuff pv the 80's set I'm ready for that to come out

No later than early summer. Maybe sooner. Gotta knock out MX first. Then another yearbook and LAwler will be my spring break projects along with the MOTYC set (probably) aqnd maybe another DVDVR 80s set (lucha).

 

That's how marriages end.

 

The extra money has taken my wife on vacation for the last 4 years, the kids to Disneyland last year and a bunch of free concerts and stuff through making friends while indulging in this hobby. I love wrestling.

[goodhelmet]

Back to Buddy rose... you guys can show me some man comp love in the shilling folder

 

3 best feuds...

 

I am going off vague memory... Adonis, Piper and Hennig. Still, can't go wrong with the Army tags and 6 men or the Matt Borne stuff either. All great stuff.

[WingedEagle]

When do u anticipate the Lawler set will come out? After hearing you two him up and seeing his Memphis stuff pv the 80's set I'm ready for that to come out

No later than early summer. Maybe sooner. Gotta knock out MX first. Then another yearbook and LAwler will be my spring break projects along with the MOTYC set (probably) aqnd maybe another DVDVR 80s set (lucha).

 

That's how marriages end.

 

The extra money has taken my wife on vacation for the last 4 years, the kids to Disneyland last year and a bunch of free concerts and stuff through making friends while indulging in this hobby. I love wrestling.

 

Ha. I meant my marriage and presumably others who spend hours watching them. No doubt it does you a solid.

[jpchicago23]

Yea the borne stuff has me wanting it the most. I'll debate for a day or two but I'm leaning towards buddy

[Dylan Waco]

Back to Buddy rose... you guys can show me some man comp love in the shilling folder

 

3 best feuds...

 

I am going off vague memory... Adonis, Piper and Hennig. Still, can't go wrong with the Army tags and 6 men or the Matt Borne stuff either. All great stuff.

 

I would rate the Martel feud over the Adonis feud, but that is splitting hairs.

[shoe]

The Martel feud was outstanding. One of their matches I thought was one of the best of all time. They had great chemistry with one another.

[Exposer]

Martel, Adonis, Hennig, and Borne are my personal favorites. Any multi-man tag with Buddy Rose in it is going to be awesome. I've said before that Buddy is the greatest multi-man tag wrestler in the US ever. I'm not sure I can say all time because I haven't seen enough Lucha to compare just yet.

[Matt D]

Buddy Rose vs Jay Youngblood - 2/3 Falls - 1977 - Special Ref: Jonathan Boyd

 

First fall is absolutely hilarious. Jay's almost an afterthought in this thing, to the point where the fans are chanting "We Want Jay" when he's right there, in the ring. Boyd stymies Rose at every point. Fast counts against him. Slow counts for him. Allowing hair pulling by Jay. Funniest wrestling you'll see all day. The fall ends with a lightning fast rope running segment. Second fall is Buddy mauling Jay with great looking offense finishing with the Billy Robinson backbreaker. Third fall is an almost immediate DQ as Buddy gets fed up. Hugely entertaining.

 

Buddy Rose vs Adrian Adonis - 2/3 Falls - 9/8/78 - Rip Rogers is Handcuffed to Steve Pardee

 

Babyface Adonis is so weird to watch. This is a lot of fun, though. First fall is very back and forth with some holds and reversals, a decent amount of shtick, cool legwork from Rose, Adonis sort of no selling it, Pardee being the equalizer to prevent Buddy from taking a powder after the come back, and a great looking pinfall after a missed haymaker by Rose. Second fall is an extremely long front facelock segment that's worked very, very well. Lots of comebacks and slow and steady wearing down as Buddy finally sets up the Neckbreaker only taking too much time to go for the pinfall afterwards. Finish is Pardee forcing a missed top rope move by Buddy which isn't the best choice maybe, but Rose loses two straight falls in this and STILL ends up extremely protected. Very good stuff.

[Matt D]

Buddy Rose vs Moondog Lonnie Mayne - 2/3 Falls - 10/1/77

 

Apparently young Will was in Portland and convinced Dutch Savage to book this second fall, because proto-DeBeers interferes in a great timed spot in the second fall, slamming Mayne's head on the corner. He gets color and Buddy spends the rest of the fall targetting the cut, pinpoint, wearing him down until he gets the pin. First Fall is all lightning quick and all shtick around the fall and last one is all comeback, and all to set up the streetfight the following Tuesday, but it's Buddy so it's all hugely entertaining stuff.

[goodhelmet]

Phil and I love that match. I am pretty sure we put it on a Schneider comp.

[Matt D]

Buddy vs Dr. D David Schultz, Cage match, Maybe 8/21/82?

 

Buddy just makes every heel a face, huh? Anyway, this is fun. If Buddy loses he's gone forever, plus Oliver is chained to Hack Sawyer outside the cage. Pretty simple stuff at the beginning with Buddy getting mauled, but he makes it look great. Gets color early. The transition is him hitting a low blow which I think is a great, straightforward, logical use of the no dq stip. That's what Buddy WOULD do all the time if given a chance. He uses the cage pretty well and Schultz starts bleeding. That's when Buddy attacks the wound again. He really good at this. Very fun come back as Schultz outsmarts Rose, landing on his feet on a top rope move and just takes it to him. Finish is a bit bullshitty. If there's an enforcer chained to the heel's associate, it's kind of weak to have him made to look like an ass so that the associate can toss his buddy a special weapon. It get that it ratchets up the heat. I assume they were building to some bigger match for the Tuesday show.

 

Still, this was good past that.

[ohtani's jacket]

Managed to catch the 4/26/80 Rose/Martel match where Buddy is wearing the wig. The skeptic in me still can't see how Rose was the best worker of the 80s/early 80s, but I did think this was an excellent match for the first two falls. The final fall and finish wasn't what I was looking for in terms of watching an isolated match, but more importantly I'm still waiting to see Rose do all these amazingly little details that he gets pimped for.

[Matt D]

Either September or October 8, 1977. Buddy vs Cocoa Samoa.

 

I'm watching this specifically with the little things in mind and he does pretty great with it. Lots of small things. Slamming his own head on the mat an extra time after taking a back flop. Grabbing hold of the hair to get leverage during a kick out. The way his arms move when he's in a headlock. Samoa actually does a good job selling the arm and Buddy's armwork is varied and interesting and he really grinds when he has a hold on and also sells the attempts to fight out of it by Cocoa. It's a simple little heel as protagonist match (act 1: Stalling. Act 2: face catching him and taking over. Act 3: Armwork, cut off come back, submission finish) but well worked, certainly.

[Matt D]

Oct 22, 1977 Savage/Mayne/Skip Young v Rose/Wiskowski/Sam Bass 2/3 falls

 

Sandy Barr's kid does the ring announcing and couldn't be more nervous. First fall is great with tons of schtick. Rose keeps trying to come in when they have an advantage on Savage, but he slips the lock right after the tag. After Rose accidentily kicks Bass in the corner we get a ton of dissension to the point where Bass goes to a neutral corner. The first fall ends with him taking a tag from Ed and they double team Skip Young to set him up for Wiskowski's diving headbutt. Very amusing stuff like always. Really great character work too. Mayne doesn't even come in.

 

Second fall starts with some babyface domination before the heels take over on Skip Young. Buddy's offense is great. Just nasty little stuff. Fall ends with Buddy dropkicking Bass by accident and Young getting the pin. Buddy and Ed almost immediately take over on an irate Bass in order to save their skins including the diving headbutt and a gusher of a bladejob. It's just a wildly bloody mauling with great flailing selling by Bass.

 

Mayne flips a coin with the others and sits out for the third fall so it's 2 on 2. The heels keep on Young until they make the mistake of slamming his head in the corner which allows the faces to take over. They maul the heals until Buddy and Ed are squirming together in the corner, Dutch shouting for one of them to come out and wrestle. It's a bit back and forth til the end where Young is in control of Rose leading to the time limit draw. Strong stuff again with a great mid match angle/turn.

[Matt D]

Nov 5, 1977 Buddy Rose vs Sam Bass 2/3 Falls

 

This is pretty awesome. First fall is Bass just dissecting Buddy's arm. They had a match the week before so this is hateful but not in a brawling sort of a way. It's more to show Bass' superiority and to keep Rose from running away. Just a brutal mauling of the arm til he gets the first fall. Second fall is Buddy running while selling. Cheapshotting while selling. And then starting to work over the back. He's really good at that and it sets up the Billy Robinson Backbreaker for a completely believable second fall despite the first fall's mauling. Third fall is Buddy getting busted open and stumbling around on the outside while scratching his head dazed. It's actually really great and ends with special ref Dutch Savage tossing him in repeatedly til Ed comes out and nails Savage leading not just to a DQ but more importantly letting Dutch offer Bass his newly created cyclone fence cage. Great storytelling to set up the blowoff cage match.

 

Really great Wiskowski promo postmatch complaining about the cage.

[NintendoLogic]

I watched Rose/Martel and Rose/Bass and was quite impressed by both, particularly the Martel match. Some folks have uploaded a ton of Portland wrestling onto Youtube the past few months, so I'm looking forward to checking out more of Rose's work. However, he did come across to me like something of a poor man's Ric Flair. The fact that I also watched Flair vs. Brett Sawyer probably contributed to that feeling.

[Matt D]

Rose vs Lonnie Mayne 2/3 Falls Nov 19, 1977.

 

I really like this first fall. Mayne follows up on what Bass did and is really dogged on Buddy's arm. But he loses focus being a moondog and all, allowing Buddy to take over working on Lonnie's arm. Lonnie gets him to the outside and takes back over as it's his natural habitat. He gets Buddy back in and hits the bombs away for the fall. It's straightforward stuff but really well worked.

 

Second fall has the turnbuckle fall apart creating a fun aura of craziness, which lets Buddy take over. There's a bit of a KOTM with Buddy not letting Mayne back in. He wears him down with some pretty good looking offense until he hits the Billy Robinson backbreaker for the pin. After the fall, Buddy keeps on Mayne until Sandy Barr (the ref) tries to stop him. Buddy nails him leading to reversed decision. Buddy keeps punishing Mayne until Bass runs in.

 

What I think we're getting from this the most is how great a TV wrestler Buddy was at this time. He wasn't just doing this but he was doing it week in and week out setting up arena matches, carrying on feuds through his ring work, and wrestling some very different opponents.

[Dylan Waco]

I watched Rose/Martel and Rose/Bass and was quite impressed by both, particularly the Martel match. Some folks have uploaded a ton of Portland wrestling onto Youtube the past few months, so I'm looking forward to checking out more of Rose's work. However, he did come across to me like something of a poor man's Ric Flair. The fact that I also watched Flair vs. Brett Sawyer probably contributed to that feeling.

This will sound like trolling or intentional contrarianism, but I honestly can't think of a single thing Flair does better than Buddy. There are areas where I would consider them lateral, but nothing where I think Flair is better at least in the ring

[Matt D]

Wiskwoski/Rose vs Mayne/Bass - 2/3 falls - 12/3/77

 

All I saw was the third fall and the post match but man it's awesome. It starts with Rose and Ed dissecting Bass' back (presumably they had just gotten the second fall with the Robinson backbreaker; that's how these often go). Bass is really good at making things look like a fight. He gets the hot tag and Mayne gets opened up on the outside after his crazy corner bump. They REALLY target the wound. REALLY target. Wiskowski hits something like seven falling headbutts in a row and eventually they get DQed for hitting the ref during a double team. After that it totally breaks down with all four guys killing each other AND the refs (one of which being Dutch Savage so he fights back). It ends with Savage holding up the belts and Buddy cutting a great promo talking about how he's catching his own blood in his hands. This sets up a final match where the losers leave. I also saw a bloody Moondog chewing on glass.

 

Wiskowski/Rose vs Skip Young/Snuka 2/3 falls 12/10/77

 

This is non title. A lot of great heel teamwork on Young. Good southern style stuff. Rose and Wiskowski were really a force here. The ref would look away for a second and that's all the time they'd need to do something heinous. Young comes back with some real fancyfoot work to take a fall. The second fall has a hot tag to Snuka and him doing his thing before picking up the win with a full nelson. Post match has Ed being a pretty dull racist heatseeker Rose being a quick on his feet racist heatseeker.

[Matt D]

Snuka vs Rose - January(?) 1978

 

I love the stalling in this because there's a level of cowardly desperation you never see from the usual suspects. Rose just DIVES out of the ring at top speed to get away. When we finally get in the ring we get lots of Snuka athleticism (Which is a little more impressive in 78 than a few years later) and Rose eating a bunch of arm drags and rope running for him. Rose does such great little things. He'll get a "hope" spot, by subtly grabbing the hair. He doesn't get an edge up on Snuka without some little factor working into it. He's so good at both showing ass and seeming devious. Or being devious and THEN showing ass. Snuka does a surprisingly good job really wrenching the arm and Rose makes him look like a million bucks in the selling. This is basically a comedy match where Rose keeps getting a leg up only to get immediate comeuppance. It climaxes with Rose tossing Snuka off the ropes when he goes for the Superfly splash too early only to get tossed off himself a moment later. i thought for sure that was going to be a transition so it was a funny, surprising moment.

 

They pull the real transition a minute later with Snuka missing a cross body, though at this point there's only two minutes remaining on the time limit. Rose hits a lot of offense quickly but still sells the earlier punishment. He's really selling everything Snuka does here too, whether it be a kick out or a snap roll up. It makes everything have more meaning in this setting. Snuka takes back over and keeps trying to go for a finish whether it be the full nelson or a cradle, but the time runs out.

 

This isn't what i'd rank against other more competitive matches as a great match, but Rose and Snuka basically did everything that they were supposed to and they did it well and it had exact effect it was supposed to which was to whet the crowd's appetite for the Buddy/Ed vs Snuka/Ventura match on tuesday.

[Matt D]

Buddy/Ed vs Skip Young/Jerry Oates 2/3 falls match, 2/18/78

 

first fall: Basic early stuff. Babyface would get on a hold (generally a headlock). Heel would try to get out. Babyface would snap it right back on. This worked with the tags too. Wiskowski would tag in and Oates would eat him right up with a headlock. Buddy's great on the apron as a presence trying desperately to find a way to help out his partner. He also does a lot if really interesting stuff working from the bottom and trying to fight out desperately. This is heel in peril stuff, down to the hope spots but they make it really interesting and it also works more because we're looking at vulnerable champs vs plucky underdogs here. Rose and Wiskowski are portrayed as extremely savvy but lacking the zing of the faces. Young does this delayed dropkick which is a thing of almost impossible beauty. They keep things interesting and varied with the heels using all sorts of different ways of escape or get a temporary advantage only to get immediately shut down through simple fundamentals and superior, singleminded speed.

 

Buddy inally takes over on Young with sheer persistance, but they do a good job drawing it out. Some nasty double stomps from both heels. Young fights back and gets through the legs for a hot little tag. Oates clears house until he goes for the turnbuckle running headlock takeover, which he'd done twice already. Wiskowski reverses it into a belly to back and that's the first fall. Fun stuff. Almost all faces but they were kept doing really simple things while the heels made the match. The finish was foreshadowed well and logical.

 

second fall: Wiskowski has a great flying knee. Nice reversal of the first fall as Buddy desperately tries to hold on a front facelook. Great facial expressions here and a very strong sense of fight. Wiskowski distracts the ref and Rose grabs the trunks to pull Oates back to his corner. Solid heeling. They're getting so much out of so little. Oates gets well built hope spots but the heels do quick tags and cut him off. This fall is all front facelock but it's really well worked. Second half of the second fall has the heels trying to put Oates away with cradles and thudding offense but he manages to makes it to the corner and Young blows Rose away with headbutts. Oates comes back in way too early. Fun but a little weird finish with Wikowski missing a kneedrop off the top in order to try to break up a pin and Oates using a spinning toe-hold to force the submission. I'm not sure he ever tagged in but I suppose that's what the heel gets for trying to cheat so brazenly.

 

third fall: Oates starts on Wiskowski's knee but Buddy interferes enough he can break it up. Oates tags out and the match moves back to faces beating on Buddy. Highlight is his selling of an Oates Atomic drop. Fairly back and forth in this fall until the heels get Young in the corner and swarm him. Wiskowsi has this weird lanky offense including a body drop and rapid fire falling headbutts to the arm, which ultimately look just cool enough that you buy them stopping the match due to damage to Young's shoulder. Ref calls the match. This was good stuff but very much a "TV match." the third fall was there to put over the heel champs at the end, but I think the faces come out of this looking pretty strong, past, y'know, Young being injured.

[Matt D]

Piper/Rose/Wiskowski/Killer Tim Brooks vs Ron Starr/Adonis/George Wells/Hector Guerrero Elimination Tag. April 7, 1979

 

Well, THIS is pretty cool. Buddy doing a jig to Piper's bagpipes is awesome (There's also this great little 20 second segment later on where Rose and Piper are kneeling whispering strategy with each other). Shine has all the faces working on basically all the heels' arms. Piper is very much stand out here and he really adds something to the Rose/Wiskowski act (even if it's already great). Heels come back once or twice (Especially Ed who was particularly good at mixing vulnerable and dangerous), but the face stay dominant until we get some tomfoolery and a long, pretty good heat segment on Ron Starr with a lot of comebacks, dickish heel cutoffs and offense, and a great hot tag where Starr desperately avoided Rose around the ring for a minute first. The desperation made it okay he wasn't selling as much as he could, but even then, there was something punch drunk about how he did it and Rose was brilliant stooging while trying to stop him. They hit a cheap diving headbutt on Wells after the hot tag and he gets eliminated though.

 

Second fall starts with Adonis trying desperately to get out of the heels corner as they do roundabout clubbering on him. The fight out of the corner is really good here and while it's still a bit surreal to see Adonis as a face, he owns the role here. It opens up a bit and we get a few solid cut offs. He eventually gets the hot tag to Guerrero and Hector takes on everyone until he gets double teamed and it's really just a mauling with a double dumping onto the top turnbuckle, a huge toss in the air and multiple double gutbusters. nasty stuff and eventually they pin him much to the remaining faces' chagrin.

 

Third fall is basically the faces getting revenge on Brooks. Rose takes this visceral flying leap off the apron for a punch. Heels keep breaking up pins and what note until Wiskowski misses the diving headbutt(great call back to the fall on Wells) and nails Brooks, letting him get pinned. Piper thinks it's intentional and the heels explode as the crowd goes nuts They take Piper out with a Billy Robinson backbreaker/knee off the ropes combo and eventually, while ranting, eat the count out.

 

Really good stuff which makes sure to protect the guys who should be protected and make the guys who look strong strong, but really, once again, everyone comes out looking great.

[Matt D]

Buddy vs Hector Guerrero, April 14, 1979

 

This should be fun. I don't think I've seen Buddy against someone this much smaller than him in this run. We get a lot of rope running and arm drags. Guerrero works the arm and seems honestly happy that the crowd is behind him. Rose would keep getting a move and quickly go for an elbow drop or something and miss, only to hurt his arm in the process and keep the shine going. Or Buddy will grab the hair to get a mometary advantage but get tossed through with the momentum. This is all babyface in control by numbers but Hector's got some fun stuff (rolling short arm scissors) and Rose's reactions and expressions are great. This sort of thing goes on and on as they switch between holds and rope running and it might go on a little long for the length of the match but Hector's whole sthick here is speed and techniue so I'm ok with it. Buddy takes a powder, goes for the handshake but Hector kicks him with the cheapshot and keeps it churning. You really feel for Buddy here because he's getting out classed no matter what he tries.

 

Finally, Rose hits an elbow out of nowhere and starts to really dismantle Hector using his light frame for all he can get out of it. There are some really gritty looking knees to the side of a prone hector as well. Guerrero gets a flash sunset flip with his speed and starts to take back over (which seems a little much to me, but the flip side is that Buddy is so built up that you know if head more than 2-3 minutes of offense in a row he'd win the match just like that), including this awesome repeated upward mule kicks onto Buddy hanging over the top turnbuckle. Eventually, Hector goes for a cross body and gets caught. Buddy does this awesome little touch of bouncing back against the ropes in order to steady himself before hitting the ribbreaker. Billy Robinson backbreaker and the pin. Wiskowski comes in and they hit the Billy Robinson Polish Doughboy Decapitation again causing Barr to reverse the decision.Hector getting so much offense isn't so bad when Buddy gets the pin so decisively and then they break him in half post-match, but I think I would have liked to see a longer heat segment here.

 

Buddy vs King Parsons, April 21, 1979

 

This is cut off at the end but Parsons is a hugely different opponent than Guerrero, so let's see what Buddy does a week later. Buddy has a superman shirt on, claims that Stasiak's heart punch can't get through his chest. Rip is seconding Buddy so I find this timeline a little dubious, but I will trust in youtube. Buddy takes an early control with deliberate, cheaty armwork while a very angry granny looks on. Parsons reverses and Buddy pops the crowd by selling his hand huge after he tries to hit Parsons' in the head. They're working the crowd pretty well in this opening. Rose gets a toe on the rope and Sandy Barr goes into business for himself stooging and then kicking it off. For all the crap Buddy puts Sandy through I suppose it's vaguely forgivable. One thing I love about Portland is how much of a family it all seems, whether it's selling the tickets at Sandy Barr's flea market or here, pointing out the news anchor's brother in the crowd. Buddy takes over, hones in on the back and then they start playing up the head again with a big turnbuckle shot that fails utterly. They curtail it quickly enough though and it actually works ok as a hope spot instead of a transition. It's a little back and forth until Rose very dramatically grabs the rope on a dropkick. He starts driving the knee back into the spine which is the only thing that's really worked against Parsons so far and what I'm watching ends. Both of these matches had a lot of comedy and Rose showing ass but they're both quite varied in the actual spots and techniques used. I don't know if I'd call either close to the best of what I've been watching lately though.