Buddy Rose vs. Brett Sawyer (2/3 Falls) (2/13/82)

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Buddy Rose vs. Brett Sawyer (2/3 Falls) (2/13/82)

Disc 3

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First fall: ​Hack outwrestles Buddy for most of the fall, working a side headlock to maintain control. But Buddy turns things around with some high-impact maneuvers including two extremely high vertical suplexes, one of which comes with added leverage from the bottom turnbuckle. Buddy then finishes things off with the side backbreaker, and he leads one fall to none with a little more than thirteen minutes of disc time remaining.

 

I mistakenly said that Buddy slipped in the aisleway during the Regal match I reviewed earlier. It turns out that this was the match where it happened. That'll teach me to switch matches in the middle. Anyway, great camera work showing Buddy going down like a ton of bricks I wish they'd shown the moron who went to challenge him and ended up in a heap too.

 

They're really pushing Borne-Regal as a blood feud. I've never seen a wrestler rake another wrestler's face all the way along the apron like Matt did here. I just hope he didn't forget himself and go too hard, because something like that could have seriously injured Regal legit.

 

I love how the heels constantly shout up to Frank in the Crow's Nest, and also how Frank acknowledges their comments on the air without sounding offended that they dared talk to him instead of focusing on the match, as some announcers would. That practice stopped almost completely once Coss took over.

 

I think Buddy really did ​plan to superplex Hack, but he must have gotten dizzy, as he looked legitimately mixed up after some of the bumps he took on the back of his head. He still managed to make that move look good by using the bottom turnbuckle, though.

 

I get a kick of how Sandy often lets the wrestlers demonstrate holds and positions on him without saying a word. Most other refs won't allow anything of the sort. Maybe Sandy agrees to do stuff like that because he's a former worker and knows that the boys won't take advantage of him.

 

Second fall: ​Buddy continues to work on Hack's back with various power moves, and except for a brief flurry has all the offense. He hits another side backbreaker and goes for the win in two straight.......only for Hack to hook him in a small package and hold on for three to tie the match at a fall apiece with about eight and a half minutes of disc time remaining..

 

Buddy's not really known as a power wrestler, but his press slam is one of the best I've seen. He really puts height into it, which makes the bump his opponent takes all the more spectacular, particularly when it's a great athlete like Hack. He gets a tremendous amount of height on his vertical suplexes too.

 

I liked the idea of Frank being so desperate to give the audience an update on Regal's condition that he asked Matt, of all people, if he'd ​heard anything from the babyface dressing room. Journalistic dedication or foolishness? You make the call

 

Third fall: ​We get another really wild ending. Hack and Buddy hit head to head coming off the ropes and are sprawled flat. Matt and Regal each make their way to ringside, and while Sandy's trying to stop Regal from getting revenge for what happened earlier, Matt pushes Buddy on top of Hack. Sandy counts three, and there's a riot brewing at the House of Action.

 

But just as we're about to go to break, Sandy gets the brainstorm of the century and goes into the crowd. After conferring with several ringsiders who saw what happened, Sandy swipes the belt back from Buddy, who was about to make tracks with Miatt's help. Buddy's naturally livid, and Sandy explains himself on the mic: "I didn't see it, but I'd trust these people over you any day!", he gleefully informs the Playboy.

 

That tears it; not only do all four wrestlers get into it, but one prime example of evolution steals the belt and tries to run away. Another tries to challenge heaven knows who, and Frank's about ready to really let loose if only he wasn't on the air. In the end, the belt ends up back in Sandy's hands, and it's held up pending a decision by the Oregon State Athletic Commission.

 

This finish clinches it; Portland's the wildest territory I've seen yet. Others may have stiffer and bloodier ring action, but the fan involvement pushes Portland into a class by itself. Some of these yahoos (very few of whom were shown on camera. thank God) would have been too active for ECW a decade later. When you the fans have a mild-mannered man like Frank Bonnema about ready to tell you as a collective where you can go and how long you can take to get there, you're not exactly behaving like ladies and gentlemen.

 

In all seriousness, the idiot who tried to steal the belt should have gone to jail. Maybe that ​would have convinced the rest of the poor suckers to stay in their seats or else. Nothing else seems to work, that's for sure.

 

On an actual wrestling note, Buddy's back work during the early part of the fall was stupendous, as was Hack's selling of it. I especially liked the spot where Hack went for a piledriver, couldn't get it, and turned it into a backdrop instead for a close two-count.

 

That was a nasty-looking scrape under Regal's eye. I'm not sure if it was real or not, but it certainly looked ​real enough. It may have been an actual scrape from a non-wrestling incident, which they covered for by having Matt run Steve's face down the apron and into the post.