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Extras 1982 - 1983


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1982 EXTRAS


Matt Borne + Steve Regal (2/13/82)


Buddy Rose vs. David Schultz (Arena Clip) (2/13/82)


Ric Flair + Buddy Rose (4/10/82)


Buddy Rose + Matt Borne (Breakup Angle) (5/29/82)


David Schultz Interview (5/29/82)


Dizzy Hogan Interview (7/10/82)


Buddy Rose’s Softball Team Interview (7/17/82)


Buddy Rose Interview w/ Arena Clips (7/24/82)


David Schultz Interview (7/24/82)


Buddy Rose vs. David Schultz (Cage Match) (8/21/82)


Buddy Rose Feature (9/25/82)


Buzz Sawyer Taped Promo (9/25/82)


Buddy Rose Interview w/ Vince McMahon (9/25/82)


Announcement of the death of Frank Bonnema (10/9/82)


Buddy Rose w/ Grand Wizard Interview (10/9/82)



1983 EXTRAS


Curt Hennig Interview (w/ Vince McMahon) (3/12/83)


Buddy Rose Promo (From Bed) (4/16/83)


Roddy Piper Taped Promo (4/30/83)


Roddy Piper Promos (5/14/83)


Ric Flair Interview (5/14/83)


Ric Flair & Rip Oliver vs. Roddy Piper & Billy Jack Haynes (5/14/83)


Curt Hennig vs. Buddy Rose (5/14/83)


Billy Jack + Rip Oliver Weightlifting Contest (5/28/83)


Buddy Rose Interview introducing Dynamite Kid (5/28/83)


Portland Wrestling News Feature (6/11/83)


Rip Oliver & The Assassin vs. Curt Hennig & Billy Jack Haynes (Finish Only) (6/18/83)


Curt Hennig + The Assassin (7/2/83)


Buddy Rose - Rip Oliver Confrontation (7/9/83)


Dutch Savage Retirement Announcement (9/24/83)


Buddy Rose Promo (10/1/83)




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  • 2 weeks later...

​Matt Borne and Steve Regal:

 

Almost every heel who wears nice clothes is bound to get them stripped off of him at one point, and it was Matt's turn here. Regal doesn't even say a word beforehand; the clothes just come off.

 

Frank showed more excitement here than he has in any other clip we've seen so far. Of course, maybe that was because he was afraid that KPTV might get in trouble for showing Matt stripped to his shorts (and pink shorts at that!)

 

Matt's certainly embraced the trappings of heeldom with the fancy clothes and the full beard. When he said that he was dedicating himself one hundred percent to Buddy's Army, he wasn't kidding, I liked how Frank assumed that the clothes were either for a wedding or a funeral; it's as if he'd never seen Matt dressed up before.

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​Rose vs. Schultz (2/13/82):

 

​Frank was right about this; there's nothing to say. These two beat the holy living hell out of each other and everyone else who gets in their way within ten miles, period. Quite frankly, I'm surprised KPTV even allowed this much to be shown, considering how bloody it was. The fans were in shock at the brutality, as Sandy Barr got clobbered at least twice by chars and both Buddy and Dr. D took random shots at the wrestlers (at least I hope ​they were wrestlers) sent down to break it up.

 

I remember seeing bits and pieces of this feud on a David Schultz comp I got years ago, but I don't think this clip made it. I can't wait to see if the feud plays out as well as I remember, because on paper it should be a classic.

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​Buddy and Flair (4/10/82):

 

This was a bit strange, as the upcoming match between these two is presented as heel vs. heel, rather than Buddy taking up the cudgel against the incoming champion. Flair's at his coolest and cockiest here, complete with ponytail.

 

This is a hell of a spot for young Curt, both in kayfabe and real life; I (and probably everyone else at the House of Action) thought Piper's name was coming out of that bag. Then again, this is a good way to push Curt into the main event scene. I think he'd just come in from his original WWF run, if I recall correctly.

 

We know from the upcoming disc listings that Buddy's not going anywhere soon. The question is, how did they get out of his "I'll win the belt or leave" boast?

 

I liked Flair offering Buddy a first-class airline ticket anywhere in the country. This is the kind of stuff we lost during the TBS years, when Flair (possibly at Crockett's urging, from what I've read) started trying to outshout Hogan, which was a fool's errand from the word go.

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​Dr. D Interview (5/29/82):

 

​I don't remember Dave coming off as countrified as he does here too often. He's not a hick, but he's certainly not smooth and urbane, which makes him a perfect complement to Buddy.

 

Dave is to "baby" as Hogan is to "brother", at least in this interview. That may have been a deliberate attempt to establish his character as a bit more rough-hewn than Buddy's, but it was also distracting as all hell. I've heard Dave in the AWA and the WWF, and while he's got a noticeable accent, he's a lot more articulate than this.

 

I liked him thanking Frank at the end of the interview, which even most of the faces don't.

 

The back of his ring jacket spells his name "Schults", but I've also seen it spelled "Shults" and "Schultz", which is the way most people spell the name. I think I'll just call him Dave or Dr. D!

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​Buddy and Matt Break Up:

 

​So the whole thing about leaving the Northwest was to cover for a Japan trip by Buddy? Why couldn't promotions just be honest when their guys were going to Japan for a while? Did they see Japanese promotions as any kind of competition, even though none of their fans had access to the matches in any way whatsoever and wouldn't understand ninety percent of what was happening if they did?

 

The sequence where Buddy hands out gifts is truly hilarious. Even though I wasn't quite sure how most of the gifts fit the wrestlers in question (not having watched much Portland), just hearing Buddy go on and on was a treat.

 

The idea of Hogan and Buddy as even a temporary team is a bit hard to wrap my mind around. I don't doubt that they teamed, but I'm sure it would be common knowledge if they'd actually won any tournaments,

 

Sounds like we have a power struggle between Buddy and Matt on our hands. Matt really sounds full of himself here; I'm wondering who's going to end up the babyface out of all this.

 

You know how hated Buddy is in Portland when he's the one who makes the mistake, takes the first shot from his partner, gets attacked with a chair, and is still the heel in the situation. I thought sure that this would end up with at least a short-term face turn for Buddy, but it didn't, at least not at this point.

 

There are a lot of unanswered questions as a result of this. Frank touches on the uncertainty surrounding the tag belts, but just as important: Doesn't Buddy still have Matt's wrestling contract for another six months, according to the terms of the match from November? I can understand wanting to turn Matt face again since he was so popular, but someone has to explain how the contract I'm talking about was dissolved, since the match itself was such a big deal at the time.

 

I liked Frank teasing the idea that any number of things could happen between these two in the coming week. I'm guessing that they still had to team, since contracts were undoubtedly signed before the incident we just saw.

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​Buddy Rose Promo with Vince McMahon (9/25/82​):

 

​I had to skip ahead to this one. The idea of Vince actually promoting an NWA World title match, even one in another promotion, is totally foreign to me, as is hearing the name "Ric Flair" out of his mouth before 1991.

 

The promo itself was pretty standard; Vince didn't interject anything, and Buddy just talked about his upcoming rematch with Flair. Nice touch by Owen already promoting Buddy's October 12th bout with Piper as a potential World title match, although he most likely already knew that Buddy wasn't getting anywhere near the belt. I hope for his sake that it helped ticket sales.

 

Just to isolate this in time, Buddy had already had his shot at Bob Backlund at MSG, and was starting to slide down the card, getting shots at Bscklund in lesser towns and working a lot with IC champ Pedro Morales, including beating him by countout in a televised match from the Spectrum, which was unquestionably the number two building in the territory at the time.

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​Buddy, the Wiz, and Vince (10/9/82):

 

​If seeing Vince doing a Portland interview is weird, seeing Ernie Roth get as much face time as Buddy is doubly so. I wonder what the reason was for this, since Ernie had never worked the Northwest that I know of, and certainly not as The Grand Wizard. Could Owen have been thinking of bringing him in for one match only? It's doubtful, since Ernie only did TV tapings and MSG by now, but it's the best possibility I can come up with.

 

The promo's nothing we haven't heard before from Buddy, which isn't a criticism, just a fact. Actually, there is ​something just a bit different; Buddy trying to paint himself as the babyface by saying that he returns to Portland regularly while Piper doesn't. True as that may be, I'm sure the people of Portland would take Piper over Buddy in about a half a second at this time.

 

Based on the stip of the match, I'm guessing that Piper won somehow or other. Buddy had just had his shot at Flair, and a Piper-Flair title match at the House of Action just seems like too much of a natural for Owen not to book. By the way, it's poetic justice for Buddy and Ernie to complain about Flair getting intentionally disqualified to retain the World title when everyone who's known Buddy for longer than five seconds knows that he would do the same thing if given the opportunity.

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​Vince and the Future Mr. Perfect:

 

​Vince was at his best setting the scene for the interview; his brief recap of Curt's injury was spellbinding, and if it had been seen on WWF TV, the fans would have been clamoring for a match between Curt and Buddy to be at least the semi-main at MSG.

 

There's only one problem: Buddy's never mentioned by name, not once​. Maybe Owen figured that the fans in Portland already knew the story behind the feud, but most promoters would make sure that their fans heard the names Curt Hennig and Buddy Rose together as often as humanly possible. I know Vince certainly would have.

 

Curt was good here, and bringing up the fact that he couldn't play with his children because Buddy hurt his knee so badly was a guaranteed heartstring-tugger. He would certainly get better on the mic as the years went by, and turning heel really freed him, as it did most guys.

 

Nice shot of the "scar" by the cameraman, I could actually see the outline of stitches, which means that Curt had definitely had surgery fairly recently, whether Buddy was actually responsible or not.

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Buddy Rose Interview (7/24/82)​:

 

Five months, and Buddy and Schultz are still trying to kill each other. I'm glad to see we get a full match between them later on the disc, and I hope we get at least one more as part of the top hundred, because the clips I've seen so far look awesome (and I mean that literally).

 

I liked Buddy putting over Dave as much as he did; it really made Dave seem like a threat to him. The more I see of Buddy doing interviews like this, the more I'm convinced that he's one of the top heel promos of all time.

 

You have to hand it to Owen for coming up with new and different stipulations. If Buddy and Dave don't stay in the ring, they don't get paid? You might say that this is the same thing as a cage match, but it's not. They won't have the cage to use as a weapon, and assuming that all the other rules are enforced, we're either going to get an actual wrestling match or a bare-knuckles fistfight. Knowing these two, I'm betting on the latter.

 

I got a kick out of the Fernando Valenzuela T-shirt Buddy wore; this was around the time that he was the best-known baseball player in the country, so it would make sense that a superstar like Buddy would (supposedly) want to hang out with him.

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​Brutus Beefcake (Dizzy Hogan) Interview:

 

​For those who think WWF heel Beefcake or The Barber were brutal, check this out. Beefcake's trying to sound like Hogan here, but unfortunately the Hogan he's trying to sound like is the heel Hogan from his run for Vince the Elder, which is when he was at his worst on the mic. Hogan still had the charisma to draw people to him in spite of that, though; Beefcake doesn't. He sounds more like Dave Schultz than Hogan, truth be told, and he desperately needed Frank to do a Lance Russell and lead him through the interview. Unfortunately, Frank didn't do stuff like that, so we ended up with the slog we saw.

 

Beefcake sounded like he was in a dream as he talked about holding Hogan's money and Hogan's appearance on ​The Tonight Show; it's almost as if he knew even then that being a lackey was basically all he would be good for in the eyes of most people. He spent almost no time talking about himself whatsoever, which only made this whole thing worse.

 

Did Owen actually think Hogan might come in, and as a heel to feud with Rocky Johnson yet? That would have been a giant step backward for him, and it wouldn't have done a whole lot for Beefcake either. Then again, the way this interview was going, it could have been just Beefcake rambling off the top of his head and Frank not knowing how to stop him.

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​Dave Schultz Interview (7/24/82):

 

​Dave can't outtalk Buddy and he knows it, so he doesn't try. He still has the "baby" disease, but he does an excellent job of getting over the potential brutality of the match, and also reminds the audience several times that they won't be able to see it on TV because of that brutality. If an interview like this won't help to sell out the House of Action, nothing will.

 

Interesting that Dave teases a heel turn at the very end of the promo, going so far as to call the Portland fans "beer-bellied sharecroppers". I thought he was in as a face who just happened to be feuding with Buddy, but it looks like he's just the people's choice because ​he's feuding with Buddy. There isn't a thing in the world wrong with that, because Dave's one of the best natural heels this sport has ever seen. But if he can't drive Buddy out, what's left for him? No offense to anyone, but all the top heels are in Rose's Army at the moment, and Dave just doesn't seem like the type who would take orders from a man he just tried to cripple and who tried to cripple him in turn (Buddy).

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​Frank Bonnema Death Announcement (10/9/82):

 

​Even through my (so far) limited exposure to Portland, I've come to like Frank, and I understand why the promotion felt his loss so keenly. I've criticized his lack of excitement at times, but he always seems like a man of class when he's onscreen. Fortunately, I have a few more interviews and almost three years' worth of matches to go through with him as the voice, so this really isn't goodbye for me yet.

 

I'm guessing that all the wrestlers, faces and heels alike, paid tribute to Frank during this show. Does anyone know if the regular card, angles and all, went off as planned, or did almost everything except the matches themselves stop for a week in Frank's memory, just like it did in JCP for Magnum TA's accident?

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​Buzz Sawyer Promo:

 

​A wonderfully emotional promo from Buzz. He's not quite in Mad Dog mode, but he still sounds really, really scary. It looks like we're going to get some tag matches between the Sawyers and Oliver/Assassin sooner rather than later.

 

Was the story of Buzz's near-fatal car accident real, or did he throw it in just to put a little extra emotion into the feud?

 

I'm sure at least some of the Portland fans were still keeping up with Buzz's exploits in Georgia through WTBS (assuming they had cable), which should have made his return even more emotional than it otherwise might have been.

 

I guess Gordon Solie and Freddie Miller weren't available to do this interview, so that's why they used Simmons. I've heard the name, and I always thought he was a wrestler, not a TV personality.

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​Roddy Piper Promo (4/30/83):

 

​This promo had it all: intensity, craziness, nostalgia, humor, and a genuine love for the Portland area. Just from the way Rod speaks here, I can tell why he settled there. It really was home to him, and he gets that across, even more than the particulars of his match with Flair.

 

Wonderful shoutouts to the MD poster boy (whom we saw him with on the last disc) and Frank Bonnema. I'll bet Rod and Frank ​did ​laugh a lot off-camera back in the day; Frank seems like the type of guy who would enjoy hanging with the wrestlers when his schedule permitted. I was also touched by the way Rod remembered Moondog Mayne, who was simultaneously his good friend and his deadliest enemy, depending on which half of California they happened to be in on a given night. (If I'm not mistaken, they were enemies in San Francisco and friends in Los Angeles.)

 

Rod mentioning Kitty and his daughter was another nice touch, and it helped to show how desperate he would be to beat Flair, who was fighting for nothing but himself and a few so-called "bleached blondes".

 

Did they really make such things as diesel Cadilacs, or was that just a figment of Rod's fertile imagination?

 

This promo is repeated for the first five minutes of the Piper clip from 5/14.

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​Roddy Piper Promo (5/14/83):

 

​I've actually seen this one before. It's probably the most effective rebuttal against negative mainstream press coverage of wrestling that I've ever seen. There are too many great lines to sit here and highlight them all, but let's just say that Steve Whatshisname gets as thorough a whipping as any wrestler to ever step foot in a ring, only this one does more damage because 1) It's a thousand percent real and 2) Piper's mouth is a much more dangerous weapon than most physical tools possessed by the average wrestler.

 

I loved seeing Dutch crack up in the background after Rod cut loose with some of his gems. He's probably wanted to tell every smartass reporter who ever questioned his integrity exactly where to go and what to do once he got there, but felt he had to hold back for the good of the business. The funny thing is, Rod probably could have gone on for most of the rest of the program, and I don't even think Don Owen himself could have stopped him.

 

​Line of the Segment goes to the finale. To paraphrase: "Doesn't it make you feel good that an eighth-grade educated wrestler is tellin' you how to do your job?"

 

I've seen a lot of Pits​ and heard a lot of Rod's interviews, but this segment just may be his best mic work ever, and I'm not exaggerating one bit. Not even Flair, who's up next, can possibly follow it.

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​Ric Flair Promo (5/14/83):

 

​This is a real meat-and-potatoes job. Flair only lets his cockiness show briefly as he puts over Portland as one of the toughest areas in the world. Billy Jack and Piper are mentioned by name as the toughest challengers he faced on this tour, and he expects to see both of them again when he returns.

 

Piper's earlier promo isn't even referred to here, and that's a smart move on Flair's part. It couldn't be improved on or topped, so Flair just left it alone and did his own thing.

 

Flair must have been serious about loving to work for Owen, because he made trips to Portland long after he stopped appearing for other NWA territories. In fact, his last non-JCP appearance as NWA World champion came in Portland in the fall of 1988, as most of you know. I can't wait to see him and Billy Jack go at it, and I hope a title match of theirs made the main set.

 

Flair and Oliver are a bit of an odd couple, but their shared attitude makes them two peas in a pod. I'm looking forward to the tag match where they go against Billy Jack and Piper, who don't seem like a natural pairing at first glance either.

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​Buddy and His Softball Team:

 

​At first I thought that this was just a rib, but the softball players seemed sincere enough, and the trophies definitely looked real. Buddy wasn't quite as cocky as usual at first, and seemed as anxious to put over the rest of the team as they were to salute him. Of course, he was back to himself by the end. Somehow, I don't think Dave Schultz is going to be too impressed with Buddy's softball prowess.

 

I loved Buddy getting carried far enough away that he turned the one player's offer to try out for a semipro team into an honest-to-God Major League Baseball tryout. Could you imagine someone like Buddy actually getting a tryout with the New York Yankees (or any other team, for that matter)?

 

I wonder if the real Paul Perschmann was as athletically accomplished as the character he played. Hockey, bowling, softball, Buddy could do it all. It's enough to make one wonder why he wasted his time with this pro wrestling stuff.

 

I think Frank was about to gently suggest just how full of bologna Buddy was at the end of the interview, then decided against it like the gentleman he is. I don't recall raising his voice to a wrestler in any clip we've seen, in fact. As much as I like interviewers like Mean Gene Okerlund, this is a refreshing change of pace. I hope that Don Coss is cut from a similar mold.

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​Dutch Savage Retirement Announcement:

 

​This was a really classy sendoff for an important part of Portland Wrestling. It's hard to be sad under the circumstances, because Dutch was going on to something much more important than pro wrestling ever could be.

 

I liked how he made sure to thank the sponsors as well as the front office people and the fans. Considering the gift he got at the end, I'm guessing that Tom Peterson was properly appreciative of his efforts.

 

Considering how few relationships in the major organizations end on a positive note, this was refreshing to see, and there was a hominess about it that could only have come from a "community" promotion such as Memphis or Portland. Nice job by one and all.

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​Buddy in Bed (4/16/83):

 

​This sounds like a promo that an injured face would give where he promises revenge on the heel that hurt him. And, of course, it is, except that it isn't. Why you'd want to make a heel a sympathetic character in this way is baffling to say the least, even if the heel in question is ​your biggest star. Buddy's tremendous here as always, but the psychology of this setup is way, way off.

 

Also, Buddy makes it sound like the match where he was hurt took place in Portland, but the footage he shows is clearly from a WWF taping, more than likely Championship​. You can hear Vince's voice clearly describing the dropkick Curt hit Buddy with in the chest. How Buddy's supposed to have a major neck injury out of that I can't even begin to guess. It seems like Buddy hurt his neck somehow, and this is the way they chose to cover his absence. That's fine as far as it goes, but their attention to detail could have been a whole lot better.

 

By the way, this puts the lie to Curt claiming that he chased Buddy all the way to the WWF after Buddy hurt his (Curt's) knee, but couldn't get a match with him. Owen and his people must have really been asleep at the switch whenever they taped this segment.

 

Nice use of Buddy's photo collection, although if I'm not mistaken he's getting pummeled by Piper and Andre respectively in the pictures he shows. At least we (presumably) get to see his bedroom.

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​Buddy Rose Promo (10/1/83):

 

​Now we get to see the whimsical side of the Playboy. I watched this way out of order; I haven't even seen Dynamite's debut yet. But that didn't stop me from enjoying Buddy's hijinks with the mop and the (supposed) stick of dynamite. Buddy's quickly becoming one of my favorite talkers of all time because he can do any type of promo that's called for in a given situation: funny, serious, sympathetic heel, racist asshole, you name it. There have been many great talkers in wrestling, but even among the unquestioned best few are this versatile.

 

I have a hard time guessing who's going to win the match being talked about here. Buddy without hair makes no sense, and neither does Dynamite challenging Harley. On the other hand, even from just watching the promos it's obvious that this promotion needs a shakeup. Buddy's carried the load for too long by himself, and Dynamite causing Buddy to be shaved bald, then challenging Harley for the World title (even though he won't get it) might just be that shakeup. I can't wait to see what caused the rift between him and Buddy in the first place.

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​Buddy Introduces Dynamite:

 

​So Buddy and Dynamite started out as partners. Yet another odd couple I would have never thought of.

 

The story here, though, is the tension between Buddy and Oliver. I'm guessing that Rip went out on his own when Buddy was hurt, had a taste of power, and is in no hurry to be second in command again. We all know that they're going to feud at some point; there's not even a real attempt to keep them friendly here. It's just a matter of what's going to cause things to go south and how quickly. They aren't even teasing an alliance to help each other out with common enemies like Curt and Billy Jack.

 

It's a reminder of how different the world is from 1983 that only fifteen thousand dollars, a paltry sum by today's standards, would be enough to lure one of the world's great wrestlers from England. (actually, from what we've already seen in the eighties sets, Japan would be more like it in Dynamite's case.)

 

Buddy's almost too generous for his own good, allowing Oliver to take his interview time. Could the unthinkable be happening? Could Buddy be turning into a.............good guy​?

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​Rose-Oliver Confrontation:

 

​I watched this specifically to see if it was Buddy's face turn, and it wasn't. It's still weird to see him come to the rescue of any other wrestler, though.

 

Whatever else you can say about Sandy Barr, he sure does take pretty big bumps for a ref. Oliver chucked him halfway to Seattle, and he still managed to come down without breaking his neck. I know he used to wrestle, but taking a bump like that only occasionally as a ref is a whole different ballgame.

 

The brawl during Oliver's interview was one of the more spirited I've seen. Most of the time the heel will back off, particularly if there's a match coming up between the men in question. But these two went at it with gusto. I particularly loved the chair-swinging stalemate; it almost made me wish that Owen would have found a way to book a steel chair match (whatever that may have ended up being) between these two. I hope we see at least one match between them on the main set, because I'd like to see who would survive between them!

 

Nice nod to continuity with Buddy's "Sassy Chassi" T-shirt. I guess he really ​does ​play softball after all.

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​Curt and The Assassin:

 

​That was one of the strangest setups to a match that I've ever seen. Not that I'm against the idea of a coal miner's glove match, but to set one up just because Assassin loaded his mask? Wouldn't a match where Assassin has to unmask if he loses, or even a match where Curt could wear a loaded mask of his own, be more fitting?

 

I'm guessing that Curt supposedly couldn't talk due to excessive blood loss and/or head trauma, which is another strange thing considering how many promos wrestlers have given in these first two discs while covered in blood from head to toe.

 

I can't wait to see the reason for Billy Jack's neck brace. He wasn't all that bad of a mouthpiece for Curt, actually. Something tells me that the Billy Jack we see in this set is going to be much different (in a good way) than the one we saw work for Vince.

 

Dutch got a little too personally involved in wanting to see the match signed for my taste, but I'll give him a pass because 1) He's the "inventor" of the coal miner's glove match and 2) He did such a great job conveying his disgust for Assassin's tactics in the clip we saw, which added so much to the atmosphere. I hope he's this good calling full-length matches.

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​Oliver/Assassin-Hennig/Haynes:

 

​I thought I'd seen it all, but this took the cake. Not just Buddy's face turn, but the people's reaction to it. The only face turn that got a pop resembling this one was Nikita joining with Dusty in '87, and that one was just as unexpected. I'm pretty sure that Owen expected a pop when he booked this, considering that Buddy was his biggest star even as a heel, but there's no way he expected a near-riot from pure joy.

 

As ecstatic as they were, the crowd dispersed quickly when asked to. Part of that was for security reasons, but I'm sure most of them were anxious to hear just what had possessed Buddy to do something like this.

 

Dynamite could really fly before his back got so bad. Seeing him make the save for the Clan in the way he did makes me wonder if we didn't miss what could have been his true glory days, or those of the Bulldogs.

 

Buddy's interview was tremendous, but that's really nothing new. What shocked me is how easily Curt and Billy Jack accepted him. Of course, they needed him to fight the Clan, but there was no hesitation on their part and no warning to stay on the straight and narrow or else, like we see in some other similar situations.

 

I don't know if Billy Jack really looked for help from Buddy when he wanted to break into wrestling, but the story behind it is great stuff, especially the part where Billy Jack kicked Buddy's ass at Christmas.

 

I'm not just saying this because he picked Buddy up with no problem, but Billy Jack looked like a real stud here. His arms and shoulders are massive in this clip, and he really stands out because there are so few musclemen in the territory.

 

On a personal note, Billy Jack is the only wrestler I've ever met face to face. I went to the matches twice at the Civic Arena in Pittsburgh in the summer and fall of '86, and prior to the second card I got to shake hands with him. Sadly, he didn't stand out much compared to the other monster types that Vince was pushing at the time, and that may have been part of his problem. He seems to genuinely love being a hometown boy here in Portland, and as I just said above, he's a physical specimen the likes of which this territory hasn't seen in a long, long time.

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