Roddy Piper vs. Buddy Rose (2/3 falls) (9/13/80)

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Roddy Piper vs. Buddy Rose (2/3 falls) (9/13/80)

Disc 2

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First fall: ​These two were obviously saving their best for the loser-leave-town match three days later, but their B games were pretty good too. Not much more than a basic brawl, but it was well-done, and Piper won it with a sleeper to go up a fall with eight minutes of disc time remaining. Either we'll get a lucha quick second fall or a draw to set up the following card and truly make it the final showdown.

 

I loved Buddy's three-layered T-shirt ensemble, and now I know where Piper got the idea for the Superman shirts he sometimes wore in the WWF.

 

Buddy's prematch promo was perfect. It put both guys over as almost-equals, not only detailing his own accomplishments but Piper's as well in an even-keeled fashion. He does brag a little about the girls he's been able to attract with his new look, and justifiably so. He looks much better with his natural hair color than he ever did as a bleached blond, and I liked the mustache too. He sounded a bit like the Ric Flair of a few years later when he talked about being "the man", but in the Northwest, he was, ​so why deny it?

 

Don talking about how he was against the loser-leave town match would have sounded a bit strange to me as a mark. You're the promoter, so if you don't want to sign them, then don't. What's Piper going to do, leave anyway? You'd be without him no matter what if he lost, so what's the difference? The part about the price of talent struck me as honest, and ironic too considering where Piper was going (JCP, which is on the East Coast, where Don has to look for talent now).

 

I'm surprised that Piper was allowed to leave without waking Buddy up from the sleeper, especially when a selling point of the hold was that only the wrestler who applied a certain version of the sleeper knew how to bring someone out of it.

 

​Second fall: This one didn't take long either. Buddy jumped Piper before the bell and busted him open, but Piper wriggled out of a slam attempt and rolled him up from behind to take the match in two straight, with a total match time of about seven minutes.

 

Piper bladed in a weird place: over his left eye, the same place he bladed in the Wiskowski match. Most guys do it right in the center of their foreheads so the blood doesn't accidentally run into their eyes and make them unable to see.

 

I didn't quite catch Buddy wiping Piper's blood off all over Sandy, but a spot like that is exactly why blood is curtailed severely in wrestling these days. Could you imagine the scandal if an innocent ref contracted HIV or hepatitis because one wrestler wiped the blood of another wrestler off on him just for cheap heat?

 

The postmatch brawl was as chaotic as you'd expect, with a blinded Piper swinging at everyone and everything in sight and Buddy running like a rat the second Piper got back to his feet. He was still a rat in the ensuing interview, when he all of a sudden refused the loser-leave-town match. I guess being beaten cleanly twice in seven minutes will make any wrestler ponder his professional mortality.

 

Of course, this backfiref on poor Buddy, as Don not only held him to the match, but assigned a second referee at Piper's request (Red Bastien) and threatened Buddy that he'll lose the second anyone in the Army so much as comes to ringside. I love Buddy ordering his people not to try and help him, and also saying that if he loses he'll offer them any amount they name to cripple Piper. He's obviously been rattled by losing in such decisive fashion, and it's rare to see Buddy Rose rattled.

 

I loved the Army telling Buddy to go ahead and take the match when he tried to get out of it. They sounded supportive, but heels being the opportunists that they always are, you can bet that they were thinking that the Army could be theirs with Buddy out of the way. It's a subtle bit of psychology, but it's there if you look for it,