[1980-11-08-Portland] Buddy Rose & Rip Oliver vs Jay Youngblood & Joe Lightfoot (2/3 falls)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[SAMS]

1980-11-08
PNW
Jay Youngblood & Joe Lightfoot vs Buddy Rose & Rip Oliver
Non Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match
Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA
★★
Card

Lightfoot was really feeling himself in the first fall. High energy, high impact offense. He didn’t need much help at all from Youngblood at all to dispatch Oliver and Rose. Thought this all was pretty fun and Rose teaming with Oliver was definitely an upgrade on the Cuban. However in the final two falls the pace of the match slowed WAY down. Lots of headlocks, lots of chin locks. Because of how much Lightfoot took the first fall on offense and because Oliver and Rose targeted him throughout the following two falls we really didn’t see Youngblood at all, and the short section he was in matched with Oliver we had a pretty boring and poorly executed headlock/trunk grabbing pin sequence which went on for far too long.
The best part of the match was Rose by a large margin. This was the most interesting and most fun he’s been in a good few months, with some of his lustre wearing off after Martel and Piper’s departure. I loved the dynamic of him doing anything to avoid Youngblood unless his team had the advantage. He would immediately tag out if they were matched, forcing Oliver to carry the burden for his team. Later on when he and Oliver were firmly in control with Lightfoot we finally saw all the little flourishes that he can add to a match. Hard to describe but things like choking Lightfoot behind Sandy Barr’s back and then delicately applying a chin lock when he turned around. I feel like it’s been a while since we’ve got the full Buddy Rose experience but we got it here. It was just a shame that the match as a whole didn’t equal his performance. It went on for far too long and for my tastes it seriously lacked enough action in the final two falls to keep in engaging considering the run time.