Buddy Rose vs. Jay Youngblood (2/3 falls) (4/11/81)

[goodhelmet]

Buddy Rose vs. Jay Youngblood (2/3 falls) (4/11/81)

Disc 2

[garretta]

First fall: ​This is a totally different match than the first one; as Frank points out, they're more concerned with getting a decision as quickly as possible than trying to hurt one another. There are a lot more nearfalls than there usually are in any one fall of a Portland main event, and some of them are quite close, too. Buddy gets the win with a clean rollup to take a 1-0 lead with about twelve minutes of disc time remaining.

 

Buddy's entrance has to be seen to be believed. I can't think of any other wrestler who could get away with to coming to the ring with a Native American headdress on and Diana Ross' "I'm Coming Out" as his entrance music. To their credit, Frank and Don don't bat an eyelash between the two of them, though both of them were probably wondering, "What the hell is this territory coming to, anyway?"

 

It's interesting to me that the few times that there's been cheating so far, Jay's been the one doing it, most notably when he nailed Buddy with a double chop on a break after Buddy had broken cleanly just seconds before. Of course, considering all the crap that Jay's had to put up with from Buddy over the last few months, it's hard to blame him, and the people certainly don't.

 

The big moves of the fall were the slingshots. Buddy's looked like a bit of a botch, but Jay's was picture perfect. Do any wrestlers use a simple move like the slingshot anymore, and how old are the most of rest of us that we can appreciate a move like that?

 

After the finish of the Piper match, I'm hesitant to predict how this one will go. There's apparently a strap match the following Tuesday, and given Jay's performance in the matches we've seen here, it's a safe belt that he's getting the belt back then, so I'm predicting a Jay victory with the third fall coming by DQ so Buddy keeps the belt.

 

Second fall: ​Gorilla Monsoon was wrong. You ​can ​beat someone with a side headlock, and that's what Jay does here, cranking on it no less than seventy-three times (that's an exact count, by the way) and knocking Buddy senseless, then getting the easy pin. We're even at a fall apiece with about six minutes of disc time remaining.

 

I'm rapidly becoming a huge Jay Youngblood fan just from watching him work with Buddy. In the first match, he almost tore Buddy's arm off, and here he almost decapitates him, both times using basic moves like forearm smashes and a headlock. I've never seen such basic moves used in an effort to legally cripple someone during a match like I have in these two matches. "Any move can be a finisher" would have been a hell of a gimmick for Jay to take with him if he wasn't already a Native American. What's next, thirty or forty turns on a spinning toehold?

 

In other news, Frank's really putting over the Borne-Oliver feud that's going on at the same time, comparing their matches to Buddy's. I know we have plenty of matches between these two from later in the decade, but do we have any from "81?

 

After seeing what Jay did in this fall, I'm not sure about the prediction I made above. I wouldn't think that they'd put the belt back on Jay after just two days with a strap match in just three more, but how can Buddy possibly come back from nearly having his head crushed?

 

Third fall: ​Before I forget, what about the threat by Buddy to throw the belt into Mt. Saint Helens if he was able to successfully defend it? If throwing it off a bridge caused a traffic jam, can you imagine the pandemonium if he'd tried to throw it into an actual ​volcano?​ (I'm sure it wouldn't have actually happened, but they sure would have drawn a big crowd in anticipation of it happening.)

 

The theme of this fall is Buddy having Jay scouted. He escapes the headlock (there should actually be another name for what we saw in this match) twice by going to the hair, and moves out of the way of Jay's second attempt at an over-the-top sunset flip after the first one almost cost him the match. But he's so concerned with avoiding the headlock a third time that he drops his guard, and Jay rolls him up for the win and the title.

 

I'm all for a good postmatch attack, but could we please stop beating on poor Sandy Barr without consequences? This has to be the third time on this disc that Buddy not just touches Sandy, but beats on him with nothing done about it. I don't recall ever seeing a ref nailed with a belt before like Buddy did here, and that should be a major suspension if we're going to have any type of rules enforcement in Portland. Seriously, there have been some pretty vile heels in wrestling over the years who haven't gone this far. Why allow Buddy to do it without some type of storyline comeuppance other than a paltry fine?

[El McKell]

Gotta give these guys enormous props for finishing a fall with a side headlock and making it seem like a believable and dramatic finish.

Also, this is almost definitely the best Buddy Rose singles match i've seen