[1980-05-31-Portland] Rick Martel & Roddy Piper vs The Sheepherders

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[JKWebb]

By this point, the Sheepherders have the belts. Buddy Rose is told to leave ringside, and things pick up with a call back to the 05/03/80 match as Piper and Martel work over the left arm of Williams. Things quickly change as Roddy Piper's right knee becomes the focus. Piper does a great job throughout all three falls of this match selling the knee. To me, this is one of those segment vs. match type moments. Kind of like Flair/Dibiase and Lawler/Flair, this is just a great 40 minutes or so of television. This is a much longer match than those other two, but I just mean I feel like the entire segment is what makes it so classic. Butch and Luke take the first fall, and Buddy Rose takes the microphone and talks about how he brought them here (Portland) and is basically responsible for their success. Piper has to start the second fall because he lost the first fall, so he limps out to the ring. There is great suspense built here as Piper tries to desperately find a way to tag in Martel. Martel is fantastic after the tag, and you see the excitement level of the crowd. They eventually have Williams tap due to the damage of his left arm. The next interview is in the back with Piper and he discusses an upcoming title shot he has with Martel, but it's all respect, pure babyface. The third fall, Rose tries to attack with a stick of some kind (watched it last night, so I can't remember exactly what type of weapon/stick he has here), and he nails Williams on the head. This busts Williams open and allows for Piper and Martel to get the pinfall. There is some great back and forth between Rose and Butch here, as Butch turns to the crowd to see if Rose did it on purpose, and Rose decides to throw in some more licks on Williams when Butch isn't looking. He finally gets busted, which leads to Butch probably cutting the best promo of his career on Buddy Rose. He wants revenge and the match is set for the following Saturday. This was a really good match, and very heated and awesome moment all around. Great stuff here.

[Clayton Jones]

Great babyface performances from Martel and Piper, especially considering Piper's red herring in the promo between falls and the commentator subsequently calling him "mysterious." I love a lot about this feud but the booking and execution of this kind of pulled it in so many different directions it wore a little thin. There are great moments but Butch Miller yelling promos are not among them. The good by far outweighs the not so good though and most of this is indeed great television.

[SAMS]

1980-05-31
PNW
The Sheepherders (Butch Miller & Luke Williams) (c) vs. Rick Martel & Roddy Piper
NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match
Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA
Card
★★★

Poor Luke Williams. Every time these four were matched up Martel and Piper would brutalise his left arm and this was no different. The structure of this match was very similar to their previous bouts against each other but I thought here Martel and Piper did a far better job of working the arm and keeping the momentum flowing. A lot of this was all about the man working underneath trying to get a tag, and in the first fall that was mostly Miller. Interestingly enough though, this time around the Sheepherders sussed out a weakness on Piper as he had a bandage around his left leg beneath his usual knee pads, and once they swooped in on it, it was lights out for Piper and he couldn’t fend them off.
Piper was forced to submit in the first and thus was then forced to begin the second. The Sheepherders were confident in their ability to continue their strategy and it looked to be working pretty well for them early on. Piper’s selling of the leg was good, but what really worked for me was Piper’s “offense is the best defence” strategy that was completely in tune with his character. Knowing that they were going to target his leg, he went on the offensive with frantic punches and kicks in an attempt to fend them off. Ultimately he was able to make it to Martel and he had a few monster hot tags in this. Martel and Piper didn’t sway from their own strategy of attacking Luke’s arm and this paid dividends in this fall when he was eventually posted by Piper and then Martel furiously wrenched on a hammerlock to get the submission, not relenting until well after the bell had gone and Sandy Barr had insisted he break the hold.
Much like how Piper was forced to start the second fall injured, Williams was forced to start the third and he looked in really bad shape. I was pretty sure we’d see Rose at some point, and wouldn’t you know, just as Martel had Williams in the sleeper, he came crashing off the rope with the flag pole and accidentally nailed Williams right in the noggin’. Despite striking his own man, Piper and Martel took the victory which I never fully understood. But this was all about the post match. Miller hadn’t seen the indiscretion, but was apoplectic when he heard from Barr what had happened. Rose feigned ignorance, but eventually the jig was up and he laid in a few more shots on a corpsing Luke while he still had the chance. Furiously Miller rushed him and we had ourselves a brawl with Rose bumping all over the place for him. Rose’s Army had finally imploded and we now pivot to Miller vs Rose down the line. All the while Luke bled buckets out onto the mat (I’m pretty sure he had Piper blade him, which resulted in such a deep cut).
This was definitely the best of the tag matches between these four as they brought together all the elements that I thought worked in their previous matches and shaved off the stuff that didn’t. Piper having the injured leg was a nice touch which likely will play a factor down the line, the consistent arm work on Williams was the best it’s been, and the finish with Rose blowing up his own creation was the only way this could have gone down.

[tcg91]

This was better than the previous match between the two teams, their chemistry improved and, as usual, the Portland crowd was just so great. The babyfaces' heat segment on Miller's arm was excellent and also a throwback to their previous bout, it's was good that the fans screamed for Martel to break his opponent's arm. Martel was the best man in the match once again, Piper did well in his unusual role of babyface in perils anyway. I am not a fan of cutting promos between a fall and another though, that looks quite silly. The non-finish was not too shocking and it seemed to be leading to a Sheepherders babyface turn, but the match was nice anyway.
***1/2