Buddy Rose vs. Rick Martel (2/3 falls) (5/10/80)

[goodhelmet]

Buddy Rose vs. Rick Martel (2/3 falls) (5/10/80)

Disc 1

[garretta]

First fall: ​This one starts out hot when Buddy destroys a bouquet of flowers given to Rick by a female fan. According to Frank, Sandy's so disgusted by this that he throws the Northwest belt out of the ring and snaps to the timekeeper, "Ring the damn bell!" Once he does, Rick controls most of the fall with a side headlock, but Buddy hits a back suplex to get out and turn the tide of the action for good. From then on, Buddy's in control, working over Rick's back. Eventually, he hits a Dick Murdoch-style calf brander followed by his patented side backbreaker to get the three count and take a one fall to none lead with about thirteen minutes of disc time remaining.

 

Sandy's letting Buddy get under his skin too much here. It's not so much his reaction to Buddy at the start that I'm talking about; it's how he acted when Buddy was in the side headlock. Most referees will accept a foot over the bottom rope as a reason to break a hold, or at most knock a guy's foot off the bottom rope once. Sandy does so repeatedly here, which is about as clear a sign of bias as a ref can possibly get away with. As awful as Buddy could be at times, he often had a point about the powers that were in Portland being biased against him.

 

Speaking of the side headlock, Buddy must love to be in one (as much as a wrestler can, at any rate), because Rick's the third wrestler that I've seen in this set who controlled most of a fall with it during his match with Buddy. I know other wrestlers use it as a control hold too, but not for the better part of ten minutes, even in a long match. About the only thing missing was the repetitive cranking that Jay Youngblood and Curt Hennig used to work the hold, and we may get that in one of these next two falls.

 

I've never considered Rick a strongman type of wrestler, but Frank correctly pointed out that it takes a tremendous amount of strength to hold on to a side headlock for as long as Rick did here. I never thought of Jimmy Snuka as a strongman either, but once Frank made the analogy between him and Martel, it made me realize that he was right about them both being strongmen in their own way. Frank's really making a run at my top five play-by-play guys of all time list, right up there with Lance, JR, Gino, and Gordon. The person he'd nose out right now? Vince, who was only really good before he bought the WWF.

 

I wish Frank had had time to tell us about the boxing glove match Rick and Buddy had in Salem. It probably wasn't a boxing match per se, from what I could gather. Was it another version of a coal miner's glove match, or did it have a set of rules all its own?

 

I got a kick out of Frank apologizing to his blind listeners for not being able to describe some of the moves Rick was doing because he was moving so fast. My favorite didn't require a whole lot of speed: ramming the back of Buddy's head into the mat to keep him in the side headlock. If I've seen it done the way Rick does it here, I certainly don't remember it.

 

​Second fall: ​Buddy spends most of the fall working on Rick's back both inside and outside the ring, but it's Rick who almost gets a submission with an abdominal stretch, then reverses two of Buddy's suplex attempts. Eventually a slam aggravates the back, and Buddy pounces, ready for the kill. But he gets caught in the sleeper by Rick, and the champion holds on to put the Playboy out and even the bout at a fall apiece with about five minutes of disc time remaining.

 

Buddy's back work has been superb, just like the work he did on Rick's leg in their first bout. Verne missed an opportunity to bring Buddy in a bit earlier, because I think he'd have been a wonderful challenger against Rick for the AWA belt if he'd been allowed to work to his full potential and not just use cheap heel tactics.

 

Rick never used the sleeper anywhere but Portland that I know of, and that's a shame because the version we see here is lethal. I'm surprised he didn't at least use it when he was doing the Model gimmick in the WWF, but they may have thought that using the sleeper or a similar hold as a finisher should be the exclusive right of Ted DiBiase (who, of course, used the Million Dollar Dream).

 

I found it interesting that Rick refused to wake Buddy up after he got the knockout. For a second I thought that Sandy would disqualify him and give the match to Buddy in two straight, but Rick reluctantly agreed to wake Buddy up in time. The only other face I know who refused to wake up their opponent in a timely fashion was Brutus Beefcake, and that was because he was going to cut his victims' hair as part of the Barber gimmick.

 

Third fall: ​This fall never really gets going, as after a brief brawl Rick catches Buddy in the sleeper again. He's fading for the second time when one of the Sheeps (I think it was Butch, but I'm not sure) comes in and blasts Rick in the back of the head with the flagpole, which is an automatic DQ. The Sheeps and Buddy figure to have a field day, but Piper and Dutch come in to even up the sides. The faces then challenge the Army to a six-man tag the following week.

 

This is only the second outside interference DQ that I can remember on the set, which is something when you consider that I've watched eighty-one matches so far.

 

I wish the six-man had made the set, if for no other reason than I would have liked to see what Dutch was like as an active wrestler, even if he was a bit past his prime.

 

I keep forgetting to give a tip of my virtual hat to the guy who designed Buddy's mask-wig combination. I've never heard of a mask being sewn into a wig before; it's a pretty ingenious setup if you ask me.

 

How many times is it now that a fan's tried to get involved? Fortunately, the camerapeople been smart enough not to show the idiots in question so far.

[AJS]

This match gets off to a wild start when Rose destroys Martel's flowers and Rick makes him pay, giving him a real battering and taking control of the match for most of the first fall. Buddy eventually gains the advantage after a back suplex. The way they transitioned to this was very impressive and you could tell that it really took the crowd by surprise. Buddy, logical and brilliant as ever goes right to work on the back and it is beautiful to watch. He finishes off Martel with the backbreaker to win the first fall. The back work continued in fall two but Martel turned things around and won with a sleeper. Between falls rick has to bring Buddy back around. i'd never seen this done until i watched Portland but I think it really adds legitimacy and realism to the matches.

 

I didn't find the third fall quite as compelling as the first two, and I would of preferred one guy pinning the other over the DQ ending, but this was a great match overall with a super heated crowd and excellent performances from both wrestlers. ****1/4