Buddy Rose vs. Curt Hennig (6/26/82)

[goodhelmet]

Buddy Rose vs. Curt Hennig (6/26/82)

Disc 4

[Lee Benaka]

This was a serviceable little match to build up a feud. Before the match, Don Owens, the human narration box, tells the crowd how bad Curt's knee is, and that he told Curt he shouldn't wrestle, etc. As the match begins, Buddy announces that he will be going after the knee, and Buddy tries some entertainingly stealthy moves to try to get at the knee in the opening couple of minutes. Curt rebuffs them and ends up going to work on Buddy's knee for quite a long time. This sequence dragged a bit for me because of its length, but it was enlivened by Curt trying to make Rose "eat" his own boot. Buddy eventually turned the tide and dominated for a while (interrupted briefly by a nice leg-punch escape by Curt) and ended up banging Curt's bum knee against the ring post to set him up for a half-crab submission. They both did nice jobs selling their knees throughout the first fall. When the second fall started, it was announced that there were only four minutes left in the match, which I guess foreshadowed the abbreviated but effective ending of the match. Buddy took advantage of Curt's knee again to start the second fall, but before long Curt had Buddy's legs wrapped around the post and wailed away on them until he was disqualified. Curt continued to abuse Buddy's legs for a bit after the DQ, and Buddy did a great job of being helpless and selling the beating. This was solid storytelling and fine work, but the match was not as hateful or intense as the previous Borne matches.

[garretta]

First fall: ​Buddy gets on the mic before the match starts and promises that someone will get hurt tonight. He's right; the fans are hurt by the lack of action in this fall. Each man works on the other's left leg, but neither puts much pizzazz into it. Buddy gets the submission with a half crab to go up one fall to none, but there are just three minutes of disc time remaining (four minutes of wrestling time).

 

The story behind this fall has to be that Curt's injury was legit and he couldn't do much, so he and Buddy did the best they could. Otherwise, why was this fall so boring? There's only so long that I can watch one wrestler twist another's foot, no matter what interesting ways said foot is being made to bend. Each guy throws in some punches and kicks for variety's sake, and Buddy posts Curt's leg twice, but it's too late to keep my mind from wandering.

 

As good as Frank is, this is the type of match that hurts him. He's not a hype artist like Vince, doesn't claim to know anatomy like Gordon or Gino, and he doesn't have a heel commentator to play off of. All that's left is to say "Rose (Hennig) working on Hennig's (Rose's) left leg." Again, that's not his fault; his strength is describing action, and there isn't a whole lot to be had here. He might have filled the time by going back over the history between these two, but that's hard to do when he didn't even know which of Curt's legs Buddy hurt, which he should have never admitted in camera. This was just badly done on all fronts, and I can't say that about much of the stuff on the set.

 

One thing that was confirmed for me was that Dave Schultz was booked as a heel except when he wrestled Buddy; he's going against Hack Sawyer later that night in a match that most likely won't make it on TV. I don't know why they didn't try Dave against Oliver, which could conceivably have produced matches every bit as wild as the series with Buddy, if not more so.

 

I'll go out on a limb here and say that we're not getting two more falls in three minutes unless someone literally gets in the ring and lays down for the second fall right off the bat.

 

​Second fall: ​We don't get two falls in three minutes, but we finally get some good action as Curt goes crazy, banging Buddy's leg off the ringpost repeatedly, attacking the leg with punches, and even applying a ringpost-assisted figure-four. He's eventually disqualified, which gives Buddy the match in two straight falls, but even that doesn't stop him. We're not told what finally conbinced Curt to back off, but we're told by Frank that Oliver's making his way to ringside from the Crow's Nest, so that may have had something to do with it.

 

This fall was most likely the reason why the following week's match (which is next on Disc 4) was no-DQ. It'll be interesting to see how that match unfolds, and specifically whether Curt's up to working a match at anywhere close to full speed.

 

From Borne to Curt to Schultz all in a row, Buddy hasn't missed a beat that I can tell. It's not easy being the centerpiece of so many hot feuds in a row, but Buddy's pulling it off without a hitch so far.