[1980-05-03-Portland] Roddy Piper & Rick Martel vs The Sheepherders (2/3 falls)

[JKWebb]

*PNW* Roddy Piper & Rick Martel vs. Luke Williams & Butch Miller (2/3 Falls) - 05/03/1980 - Tag Team Championship Match

 

"Talk about it here."

[JKWebb]

This was a ton of fun. Piper and Martel take the edge early working over the left arm of Williams. Piper and Martel are great as a team, just two guys that really know how to fire up the crowd. The Match goes three falls ending in controversy as each team has one member pinning another member of the other team at the same time. The ref isn't sure who the legal man is, so we're told the belts (Martel/Piper were defending champs) will be held until the following Saturday when a real winner can be determined. Portland is really on fire during this time from what I've seen of 1980, and this did not dissapoint. This is a nice building to a feud I look forward to seeing more of. Really good stuff here. I enjoyed some of the little things Piper did, like knocking Martel's feet off the ropes when the ref wasn't looking (saving him from a top rope maneuver from Butch or Luke). He shows off his skills as the cheating babyface the crowd can rally behind.

[SAMS]

1980-05-03
PNW
Rick Martel & Roddy Piper vs The Sheepherders 
NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match
Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA
Card
★★

Much like their previous matches the first fall here was Williams getting isolated and Martel and Piper working over the shoulder. I wasn’t particularly enthralled to see the same thing again and I don’t think that they did anything very interesting in terms of actually working the arm. However, I did like the fact that this constant work actually led to the fall, as Williams eventually just relented as he couldn’t withstand the pain any more. Yes, the work wasn’t that good, but having a constant focus on the arm ending up with an actual submission is good match layout regardless, so credit where credit is due.
The high spots of the match were probably Piper’s hot tag in the second fall and Martel’s in the third. This showed both off in their element and I wish they had more opportunities to work in this manner. The second fall ended on a strange count as it looked like it might have been broken up before the count of three. The finish saw Sandy Barr take a really crazy bump right over the ropes of an accidental Martel dropkick, then Barr counted both Williams and Piper for pins simultaneously. After some deliberation the decision was made to hold up the tag belts once again.
There were flashes in this for sure but the structure didn’t do it for me. Every time I see Miller hit his reverse elbow I love it even more; Piper, when he’s allowed to go into a frenzy, is a joy to watch; and Martel really does have moves galore, but they weren’t able to harness these elements here into something that I found really satisfying.

[tcg91]

Good match, helped by a very hot crowd and so maybe everything seemed better than it actually was. Throughout the years, I was happy to find out the Sheepherders were actually a decent team, but here they made a couple of awkward mistakes, while Martel was again just too good to be believed. I found it bit weird for the babyfaces to benefit from a blind tag, rather than the heels but, it was a fun bout and the champions shined all along. The crowd was mad about Martel's final comeback. The finish was quite creative and well explained by the announcer, so kudos to them.
***