Buddy Rose vs. Butch Miller (2/3 Falls) (6/7/80)

[goodhelmet]

Buddy Rose vs. Butch Miller (2/3 Falls) (6/7/80)

Disc 1

[Willninho]

Thought this was allright; the first fall all Miller was fun but I didn't think there was a ton to the 2nd and 3rd fall. The brawl after the match was really good though. It all felt like to set up another match but not great standalone.

[garretta]

First fall: ​This one interests me because I've never seen one of the Sheepherders in a meaningful singles match before. Apparently this one came after Buddy had turned on Luke Williams at the end of the previous week's tag match (which is also on this disc) and beaten him bloody with the Sheeps' flagpole. Butch is now seeking revenge.

 

There's not much action here; Buddy stalls for most of the fall before Butch hits a couple of rights and whips him into the interior ringpost (the one sticking up from the corner). A few elbowdrops later, Butch scores the three count to take a one fall to none lead about seven minutes into the bout.

 

There's a cut right in the middle of Frank's setup for the match and the resulting feud, and it's really annoying, even though I know it's not Will's fault. At any rate, I enjoyed the rundown of the matches that had taken place throughout the week in the various towns, and the subplot of Buddy being all alone in the big upcoming battle royal ought to be very interesting. I guess Wiskowski hadn't come into Portland yet.

 

I wonder who Frank means when he references "Volkoff" here. Nikolai was in Florida, and Igor (otherwise known as Yukon Lumberjack Pierre) was supposedly retired, at least according to Wrestlingdata.com. I even checked on the "original" Nikolai Volkoff from the 1950's to be sure it wasn't him. My guess is that it's Igor and that Wrestlingdata simply doesn't list the match.

 

(Edited to add: I checked for the wrong Igor Volkoff. Even though the particular show Frank's talking about isn't listed, there was an Igor Volkoff wrestling in the Northwest around this time whose real name is Danny Babich. He's the one who was most likely Buddy's partner.)

 

I liked Buddy trying to assert his authority with his "City of Roses" T-shirt, and Butch ripping it up really got the crowd going. As Frank said in the first Martel-Buddy match, the Portland crowds may not always be the biggest, but they're certainly among the loudest, particularly when Buddy's getting his hat handed to him.

 

Second fall: ​This fall's a straightforward brawl, which Buddy has the most of. Toward the end, Butch starts to unload with right hands, whips Buddy to the corner, then tries to follow up. Seeing an opportunity, Buddy hooks Butch's legs to take him down, then puts his feet up on the top turnbuckle to score the pin that evens the match at a fall apiece. Naturally, Dandy Sandy Barr suspects nothing.

 

I thought that Buddy could possibly pull a decent match out of Butch, but such isn't the case. It's not that I wanted a five-star classic or anything, but one or two moves not often seen out of the Sheeps would have been a nice surprise. Kudos to Buddy for adapting so well to the Sheeps' style of bout and going toe-to-toe with Butch believably. The Playboy's a heel, but he's not a dirty wrestler for the most part, even in grudge matches. He makes an exception here, though, and proves to be as nasty a brawler as you'd ever want to meet.

 

The promo between falls can't be described; it has to be seen to be believed. If ever a wrestler told the world what he was about in one promo, Buddy did here. The best part of the whole thing is, Buddy did what he set out to do, as Piper, Martel, and the Sheeps were all out of the Northwest by the end of 1980. Few heels that I know of have been so successful in such a short period of time, and it only added to Buddy's vaunted reputation as a man who eliminated his competition no matter what it took.

 

The list of wrestlers that Buddy's run out of the Northwest up to this time include many of the sport's biggest names. He truly turned out to be the King of Portland; the only other man who defeated almost everyone who got in his way and ran them out of his town to boot was Lawler.

 

I liked Frank reminding the audience that no-calls happen in other sports besides wrestling, using a baseball game that had aired that day on television as an example. It was a great way to get most of the heat off of Sandy and on to Buddy where it belonged. (By the way, where does Sandy get those godawful shirts?)

 

Third fall: ​There's not much to this fall; it quickly ends up outside the ring and stays there. The match is eventually ruled a no-contest due to a double countout in this fall. Butch is busted open in the brawl afterward, and Sandy has to get help from a whole slew of jobbers to keep Butch and Buddy apart. At one point Luke jumps into the fray and gets a few shots in on Buddy before he's ​pulled away.

 

Butch demands a no-DQ, anything goes match for the following Tuesday in the postmatch promo. He says that the no-contest was Don's doing, as he doesn't like the sight of blood on TV (can you blame him, especially in 1980?) He also says that he doesn't want to win the battle royal; all he wants is a piece of Buddy's hide. Not bad work from a man who's best known for screaming "WHOOOOOA!" at the top of his lungs.

 

I've seen the Sheeps in Mid-South, Memphis, and Puerto Rico (among other places), but it's here in Portland that I've really gotten a glimpse of their entire skill set. They were never great, or even good, technical wrestlers, but allow them to be the brawlers they are and they're not terrible. They're also good on the mic, particularly Butch, whose accent is slightly thinner than Luke's. It's a shame that their bodies were too broken down to allow them to be the Sheeps in the WWF, as they would have been a breath of fresh air in the tag division. Even as they were, they might not have been seen as such a joke if they'd been allowed to talk like actual people. I can't wait to see their matches against Piper and Martel on this disc.