Ed Wiskowski vs. Rick Martel (2/3 Falls) (7/12/80)

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Ed Wiskowski vs. Rick Martel (2/3 Falls) (7/12/80)

Disc 1

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First fall: ​This is a much better technical bout than I thought Wiskowski in particular was capable of having. Martel is in total clean-cut face mode here, so he's naturally supposed to be the wrestler, but Big Ed matches him hold for hold and does very little, if any, cheating. The fall comes when Wiskowski gets out of a side headlock by hitting a back suplex, then goes up top and hits a flying headbutt to get the three count and go up one fall to none with about nine minutes of disc time remaining.

 

Why was Martel billed as being from France instead of Quebec? I know that when he debuted in the WWF, he was correctly billed as being from Quebec City. Could Don have thought that saying a guy who had a French accent was from Canada would be too confusing for his fans? If so, he ought to have been ashamed of himself, since he fan base extended into British Columbia. I liked the "French Rocket" nickname, though.

 

There were two cuts during the long double front facelock sequence; I'm not sure if there were technical difficulties with the tape or whether the guy who originally recorded it wanted to minimize what he saw as a boring part. Actually, this was fascinating to me, as I'd never seen a spot quite like it before, especially Wiskowski holding on to his facelock after two separate Martel suplexes. From what I've seen of Big Ed in this set so far, it seems as though the Colonel DeBeers gimmick, as great as it was for getting heat, may have compromised his ring work, and that's a shame.

 

Did Frank actually call Sandy "The Teenage Tourist" at one point? That's what it sounded like to me. I know he wasn't a teenager by 1980, but I'd be interested to know how in the world he picked up a nickname like that in his younger days.

 

The first part of this was cut, but I caught the end of Ed's explanation of why he chose wrestling over football, which is a pretty standard answer, especially for a heel. I wonder how many fans bought it, though, especially since the salary boom in legitimate professional sports was happening by then. Plus, the fame of being a legit pro athlete was greater than that of wrestler, since wrestlers were almost universally written off as freaks and stuntmen by non-fans who wouldn't dream of disrespecting a football player in the same way.

 

How far the legends have yet to rise; even two years later, there's no way Fidel Cortez would come close to a draw against Piper. Four years later, he might have been lucky to get a cameo on ​Piper's Pit.

 

​Second fall: ​Martel gets most of the action here, working on Wiskowski's lower back. He almost gets submissions with both an abdominal stretch and his future WWF finisher the Boston crab, then scores the pin that evens the match with a beautifully executed headscissors/rollup combo. We're tied at a fall apiece with about three minutes of disc time remaining.

 

I think the special Piper interview Frank references here is with the kid who had muscular dystrophy. His first name was Joe; I can't remember the last name. The interview can be found on the extras (Disc 10, I believe).

 

"The Cripplers" is a good name for a tag team, but for whatever reason, Buddy and Ed didn't stick with it, and the next time we heard the nickname in the Northwest Rip Oliver was using it.

 

I didn't like Sandy going to such lengths to make Wiskowski turn loose of the rope when he was in the Boston crab. Shake the rope a little or tap the guy's hand if you want, but don't stand on the rope and bear down on his hand. If Ed loses, he's got a legitimate case (at least in his own mind) for Sandy being in Martel's back pocket.

 

Since there's so little time left, I'm guessing that we're going to a draw, although a lot of my predicitions about such things have been wrong before.

 

Third fall: ​With time running out, there are a few desperate nearfalls on each side, including one where Martel kicks out with such force that Wiskowski's head hits the top turnbuckle. Eventually, Martel rallies and catches Ed with a dropkick. He goes for a second one, but it hits Sandy instead. With Martel down, Ed scurries up top and hits the flying headbutt again, but Sandy's already called for the bell. He rules that although Martel's dropkick hit him, it was Ed who pushed him into the way of it, so Ed's disqualified and Martel wins the match and keeps the Northwest title.

 

There was no instant replay, and I didn't have time to rewind it, but I never saw Ed push Sandy into the path of Martel's dropkick. I don't think they'd have booked Rick to intentionally dropkick Sandy to get himself disqualified and save the title, but if Ed pushing Sandy was going to be such an integral part of the finish, they needed to make sure that it was shown as clearly as possible.

 

Ed could sure bump in his younger days, based on what we saw here. I don't recall DeBeers bumping for anyone at all, so I'm guessing that Ed played him that way to save his body, because some of the bumps he took here were spectacular. After six more years of those kind of bumps, his body must have needed a break desperately.