[1980-08-02-Portland] Buddy Rose & Ed Wiskowski vs Roddy Piper & Rick Martel (2/3 falls)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Buddy Rose & Ed Wiskowski vs Roddy Piper & Ricky Martel - PNW 8/02/80

 

This match is for the vacant Pacific Northwest Tag Team Championship since the Sheepherders left for New Zealand.

 

The one thing I remember most about this match is the call of "Handy Dandy" Sandy Barr looking like a Popsicle. It was probably my favorite moment of doing the Portland Titans shows and had forgotten it happened in this match. This is definitely an all time great Portland match, but that's what stuck with me about this match.

 

The early shine is tremendous and shows Rose & WIskowski at their bumping best. Piper and Martel are kicking ass, the heels are bumping huge and the crowd is lapping everything up with a spoon counting along with every headlock crank. Everytime people say stupid bullshit like the babyface shine does not matter they really ought to watch a segment like this and tell me it does not matter.

Piper runs into a knee and Rose is able to tag out before Piper can tag out. Wiskowski grinds the match to a half with a stomach claw and then a body scissors. The energy may have gone down, but the drama was at a fever pitch because how they played the possibility of a tag. Piper always so close, but it is not to be. My favorite is when Piper is scrambling, clobbers both and dives for the tag and MISSES! You really think he was going to get it. I think the false hot tag can be as as effective or moreso than the false finish. He does get the tag and OUI, OUI RICKY MARTEL~! One of the all time great hot tags shows how it is done, winning the fall with a hurricanarana. Piper & Martel 1-0.

 

Rose & Wiskowski are reeling. Martel catches each one of them in a headlock. Piper & WIskowski get into it on the outside and "Handy Dandy" Sandy Barr sends the Polish Prince to his corner, which allows Piper to switch in without a tag. Cute. Martel misses a dropkicks, which gives Rose enough time to tag out. Wiskowski focuses on the back with simple, but effective clubbering. He applies the bearhug in his corner and then Rose applies the Argentine Backbreaker. Rose gets tired so they transfer Martel in a cool spot. Rose breaks the bottom turnbuckle by jumping on it. Someone get this man on a diet pronto. Of course, he clobbers Martel in the back with the turnbuckle. Deviant genius. Martel is selling so well and he is trying his best to do everything to avoid dropping a decision, but the Rose backbreaker does him in. Tied 1-1.

 

The third fall begins as the second fall began by working on Martel's back. but he wins a suplex struggle. Martel suplexes Rose twice. HOT TAG TO HOT ROD! Two huge knee lifts! I love Wiskowski's bumps. Wiskowski catapulted into Rose who backdrops him over the top. Melee ensues. Martel wants to unmask Buddy Rose. Everyone is on the outside and the babyfaces run the heels heads together and everyone is counted out. The melee continues and each team ends up with one belt. This will have to be settled on Tuesday! Great TV match that makes you want to see the big match. Very close second to the awesome Rose vs Martel match. ****1/2

[JKWebb]

Yeah this was great! Not much to add, but what an awesome brawl through the countout to after the post-match interviews! Loved Piper shouting for "Owen! Oooowen!!Get out here!" Really a great build for the next big match.

[Phil Schneider]

This is for the vacant PNW tag titles and is a master class in tag wrestling. First falls opens with the heels doing some off the charts stooging, both Rose and Wiskowski are great in-ring bumpers and fly all over the ring for both babyfaces. Then the heels take over and Piper has one of the best Face-In-Peril sections I can remember seeing, frantically spinning and tumbling and leaping to try to get the tag, just awesome intense timing. There is a wrestling multiverse where Roddy Piper is the great 80’s babyface tag worker, and Ricky Morton is doing Ricky’s Rountable and smashing Snuka with a coconut. Second fall has the heel team working over Martel’s back, including using the broken bottom rope bolt to jab him in the kidneys, the rings in Portland must have been really flimsy because Rose was a maestro at improv work with a busted ring. Third fall is an awesome wild brawl with it all breaking down and the ref throwing out the match. This had all the parts you want in a great tag match. I could easily see this being a legendary feud which spanned decades like MX v. Rock and Rolls.

 

[Clayton Jones]

Damn what a great match. Little touches surrounding it, particularly the post match pull apart, put it over the top. But what's there bell to bell is indeed just tag team perfection. And that's saying something on Rose's part in particular because Ed Wiskowski didn't bring much of anything other than a big warm body and a punchable face to this feud. And that's plenty when Buddy Rose is your partner in crime and you're opposite two of the all-time babyfaces. One thing I liked about this match in particular was the fire from Martel to close things out. Much of this feud (starting back with the Sheepherders) has built around Piper as the bad kid influence on Ricky Martel, at least how it plays to me. Here Martel was a house of fire by the end which felt very satisfying. 1980s Portland rules.

[SAMS]

1980-08-02
PNW
Buddy Rose & Ed Wiskoski vs. Rick Martel & Roddy Piper
NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match (vacant)
Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA
Card
★★★

With the Sheepherders leaving the territory the belts were held up and after a tag team tournament the final two teams were these two (at least they said there was a tournament. Match listings don’t indicate anything of the sort.). 
The first fall was all about keeping Piper isolated. They did a great job of teasing the hot tag with Wiskoski holding Piper in a body scissors and Piper inching his way across the mat towards Martel. Again and again Rose and Wiskoski were able to thwart these attempts until the last when Martel came in molten, unloaded on Rose and Big Ed, and finished Rose off with a Hurricanrana into a pin.
They started the second fall as a mirror image of the first. This time Piper and Martel isolated Rose and consistently got him in a side headlock with a variety of interesting takedowns to maintain control. An overzealous dropkick attempt by Martel however changed the tide and Wiskoski and Rose really honed in on the back and relentlessly wore Martel down. A particularly devastating looking backbreaker put him away to level things at one apiece.
The compromised Martel had to start the second and once again they built to a hot tag, this time with Piper flying out the gates with fury. This spilt out to the floor and all four men were counted out amidst a wild brawl.
Back up at the interview area, Don Owen announced that due to the no-decision, a rematch would be set for Tuesday. A no time limit, no DQ match with other wrestlers around the ring. When Rose went for Owen things absolutely erupted and again we had chaos with everybody beating down on everyone with Don Owen and Dutch Mantell in the middle. This perhaps was the best non-wrestling segment they’ve had in Portland all year. The wildness of this brawl was off the charts and felt organically unhinged.
For the match itself, I thought it had a very nice story but how they worked towards telling that story was a bit limited. I really enjoyed the focus on Martel’s back, but something like using a body scissors to tease the hot tag in the first for example, isn’t the most interesting visually, and there were a few things like this which give the match ceiling of sorts for me.

[tcg91]

The titles were vacant and this match felt like a fairly big deal. At times the heels' selling was almost ridiculously exaggerated, but the crowd loved it and so who am I to judge. I don't remember seeing much of Wiskoski's work in my life, but he was a good fit and of course Martel ruled as usual, his back selling carried two thirds of the match and the crowd never got tired of chanting his name out loud. Piper had amazing fire during his hot tag, but unfortunately we got a double count-out and the furious brawl continued. A great angle advancement, but a great match by itself as well.
***3/4