Buddy Rose & Matt Borne v. King Parsons & Rocky Johnson (12/5/81)

[goodhelmet]

Buddy Rose & Matt Borne v. King Parsons & Rocky Johnson (12/5/81)

Disc 3

[garretta]

First fall: ​Rocky and Iceman are the Northwest tag team champions when this match takes place, but they're not introduced as such because this is a non-title bout. (Iceman's just referred to as "King" here, but I'll call him Iceman because that's how he's best known.)

 

Rocky dazzles with fancy footwork and quick moves early, but Buddy and Matt ground him by working over his knee. After a while, this is too much for Iceman to take, and on at least two different occasions he comes in to protest to Sandy, which naturally leaves the door wide open for Buddy and Matt to doubleteam. After Iceman's last distraction, Buddy whacks Rocky's leg off the post, then Matt applies the spinning toehold. With a fall to give, Rocky submits, and the heels lead one fall to none approximately ten minutes of disc time into the match.

 

Iceman hasn't legally been in the match yet, and his distractions have cost his team a fall. He must have been green as a forest here. I would guess that he's not able to do a lot, since Rocky's been in all the way so far. He's definitely got a lot more hair than when we saw him in Dallas.

 

I liked the spot early where they teased dissension between Buddy and Matt, but didn't follow through. Especially with reluctant partners, promoters tend to tease dissension to the point where when it actually happens, fans are turned off or bored by it. I kind of like the idea of Matt making the best of a bad situation (he had to join the Army as a result of losing a match to Buddy, if you remember from the extras) by becoming the best scumbag heel he can possibly be,

 

I hope we hear more about Regal's shoulder injury. I seem to remember seeing an injury angle involving him in the extras, but it's been so long since I've seen it that I don't know if it's this one or not. (Incidentally, I liked Frank's quip about "Back Home in Indiana" being a good song title.)

 

I guess Oliver hasn't joined the Army quite yet, because he's not referenced by Frank. Where did he wrestle before Portland, if anyone knows?

 

I seem to recall Masters from the extras as the guy who bragged that his full nelson was so hard to break that Buddy had to use a crowbar to do it. How good of a worker was he outside of that? He must not have been much, since none of his matches made the set.

 

Second fall: ​Rocky tags Iceman in fairly quickly, and contrary to what I said above, Ice looks good in what little we see of him. Late in the fall, the heels get him in trouble, but he manages to tag Rocky, who floors Buddy with a dropkick. Matt gets him down and tries to bang his leg off the post again, but Rocky reaches down and drives Matt's head into the post instead. He then catches Buddy with a beautiful sunset flip. Sandy counts three, and we're even at a fall apiece with about eight minutes of disc time remaining.

 

For the record, one of the ropes breaks again. This time, though, it's the faces who use the broken rope as a weapon, as Rocky gets in a good shot or two on Buddy before the workmen can come in to do repairs.

 

This fall sees Frank as close to displeasure with Buddy as he's gotten so far. It's a pretty impressive rant by his standards, focusing on Buddy always using other Army members to do his fighting for him, either through individual challenges or tag matches. He never once calls Buddy a name or expresses an opinion in so many words, but you can tell he's pretty worked up. He hasn't really gotten angry (or even perturbed) in almost ninety matches so far, which is what made his attitude stand out here.

 

We get another spot where one of the Army accidentally hits the other, this time with Buddy slugging Matt. Considering the circumstances under which they're together, they probably worked that spot at least once a match every time they teamed.

 

Eight minutes is a bit long for a third fall in Portland, so I'd wager that we either have a brawl or an interview coming up.

 

Third fall: ​Iceman shows off a little more of his skill in this fall, including the butt butt (rather primly called a "posterior bump" by Frank), but ends up the FIP briefly. He gets over to Rocky eventually, though, and it all breaks loose. Rocky eventually gets the sleeper on Buddy, but Masters interferes to cause the DQ and award Rocky and Iceman the match. We end up with a wild six-man brawl, as Hack Sawyer comes out to even the sides. At one point, Rocky reapplies the sleeper on Buddy while Hack puts it on Matt, and both heels are almost put out before order is finally restored.

 

We get a third straight miscommunication spot early in this fall, and Frank takes the opportunity to warn us that Buddy won't tolerate many more mistakes of that kind from Matt or any other member of the Army. Frank then goes on to add with just a hunt of anger, "And then he (Matt) blames (Steve) Regal for the mistakes that cost them matches." Nice to see you fired up, Frank!

 

I liked the explanation Frank gave at the beginning of the fall of just how serious Regal's shoulder injury was. In the rush to hype the next big angle or card, most promotions don't often (now or then) take the time to explain competitor's injuries (real or kayfabed) to the audience. Maybe if they did it more often, people would respect wrestlers and the chances they take with their bodies, even if they don't think a lot of the sport itself.

 

Masters must have lost that loser leave town match to Rocky, because Oliver appears on this disc, and he seems like a perfect replacement, if in fact he is ​one.