Buddy Rose & Dynamite Kid vs. Curt Hennig & Billy Jack Haynes (6/11/83)

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Buddy Rose & Dynamite Kid vs. Curt Hennig & Billy Jack Haynes (6/11/83)

Disc 6

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First fall: ​The action here is great as always, and Dynamite's put over as a true fame-changing force despite his small stature. He and Buddy work Curt over for most of the fall, but Curt gets loose and tags Billy Jack, who comes in on fore but gets caught because Dynamite's so quick. Eventually Dynamite uses the tombstone piledriver to score the win, and he and Buddy lead one fall tp none at about the nine-minute mark.

 

Dynamite's hyped as the best of both worlds: both a junior heavyweight threat and a strongman who can keep up with Billy Jack. I'm not positive, but it wouldn't surprise me if Tommy was already on steroids here. We see most of his signature moves, including the dropkick off the top and the snap suplex, which isn't nearly as fast as it would be in the WWF, where it seemed like the guy taking the move barely touched the mat at times.

 

In the prematch promo, Buddy says that Dynamite crippled two wrestlers while in Japan, then left the junior heavyweight championship of the world behind because there wasn't enough competition. What a way to establish a man's credentials quickly, even if the claims made are highly exaggerated at best and complete bullshit at worst. Buddy could have just talked about the legitimately classic matches Dynamite was having with Tiger Mask all over the world, but I guess Don didn't think the Portland fans would know or care who Tiger Mask was.

 

Dynamite's accent adds to his thuggish persona; he sounds like a man who would rip your head off for the right price, then turn around and rip the head off of the guy who'd hired him to hurt you in the first place. Wisely, guys like Buddy and Oliver do almost all of Dynamite's talking here in the Northwest; as helpful as his accent is in establishing his persona, it's also hard as hell to understand after a while.

 

They're protecting Billy Jack, who's still a rookie for all intents and purposes. He's not quite the one-move wonder he was a few months ago when he used the full nelson the first possible chance he got in the match we saw, but he's coming along slowly, which means that we're seeing a whole lot of Curt in this match. He did hit a nice monkey flip on Dynamite, so his lessons are still progressing nicely.

 

I liked Buddy bringing out his softball trophy during his promo to emphasize his point about how he always makes successful investments. If I remember correctly, however, this one's not going to turn out so well for him.

 

​Second fall: ​Billy Jack plays FIP for most of this fall and does it quite well. There's a lot of build to the hot tag, including a false tag that Sandy doesn't see, and when it finally comes Curt's all business, eventually dispatching Buddy with a dropkick off the top similar to the one that sent Buddy out on a stretcher a couple of months before. We're even at fall apiece with about ten minutes of disc time remaining.

 

Even as strong as Billy Jack is, he's still a good FIP because he's so inexperienced and can easily fall prey to the heels' tricks. That said, he's still strong enough to launch both Dynamite and Buddy when he kicks out of attempted pins, which is a bit odd.

 

Dutch mentions that this is his daughter's first time at a live wrestling match. Good for her, because this is the kind of match that makes wrestling fans for life

 

I loved Dutch's incredulous reaction to the fan who challenged Buddy. Actually, even if the guy only weighed a hundred and twenty pounds and had a cigarette in his hand, he could still be dangerous because he could use the cigarette to burn or blind Buddy if he got close enough. That's more likely than Buddy fixing it so the guy blows smoke out of his ear.

 

Even though we didn't see the promo, I liked Curt's reaction to what Dynamite was able to do in the first fall. Any wrestler who can impress his peers that much should definitely be a force to be reckoned with.

 

I don't think Billy Jack and Dynamite ever crossed paths in Calgary; in fact, I don't think Billy Jack ever worked for Stampede. I guess Don could have sent him up there for a match or two to gain experience, but he didn't work there on any sort of regular basis that I know of.

 

Third fall: ​There's dissension from the start of the fall, as Dynamite insists that Buddy do almost all of the wrestling, only coming in briefly himself. Finally, Buddy gets the advantage on Curt and tags Dynamite anyway. With Buddy holding Curt fast, Dynamite climbs to the top for a dropkick........which catches Buddy flush on the jaw! Curt gets the easy three-count to win the match for himself and Billy Jack.

 

Meanwhile, Dynamite and Buddy start to brawl, and Buddy calls Oliver and Assassin to come down and help him beat Dynamite up. The good news is that they come down; the bad news is that it's Buddy who's their victim! The Clan lays Buddy out and busts him wide open while Curt and Billy Jack remain undecided about what to do. At first they try to walk away, but decency eventually compels them to come to the Playboy's aid.

 

We end the package with a pair of promos. Dynamite calls Buddy a loser and officially accepts membership in The Clan, while Buddy somberly promises revenge and says that while the people of the Northwest may not trust him now, he's changing his attitude for good and already has Billy Jack in his corner to help him go after Oliver and company.

 

On the one hand, you could say that this was done far too quickly, that Buddy should never have been accepted by his former enemies until a suitable amount of time had passed. But what chance would even Buddy have had three-on-one? Being an island unto yourself makes no sense in a situation like that. I'm sure that there were plenty of fans who despaired when they found out that Billy Jack was the first one to side with Buddy, given that he and Oliver had a major feud going and that Buddy could have easily been trying to set him up, but it would have made less sense for Curt to befriend him immediately after all that they'd tried to do to each other over the last year or so.

 

Oliver could have stood to be clearer on why he sided with Dynamite over Buddy; "It's money, baby" could have meant any number of things. Still, given the quality of the upcoming matches between the two sides, I'll take this feud whether Oliver had any specific motivation or not. Quite simply, it may be the best match-for-match feud in Portland history, with more classic bouts of all sorts than many more publicized feuds regardless of territory. Those of you watching in chronological order are in for a grab bag full of treats.

 

Line of the Night goes to Coss during the second fall, as he's talking about how Buddy's money brought Dynamite back to the Northwest: "I wished my ​money talked like that; it's got laryngitis."