Rip Oliver, The Assassin & Dynamite Kid vs. Curt Hennig, Billy Jack & Buddy Rose (6/25/83)

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Rip Oliver, The Assassin & Dynamite Kid vs. Curt Hennig, Billy Jack & Buddy Rose (6/25/83)

Disc 6

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First fall: ​The atmosphere in this fall is unlike anything on this set so far; all the respect everyone's had for Buddy over the years but couldn't show because he's been such a slimeball is gushing out, and the House of Action's so loud that Coss legitimately wonders a few times if anyone can hear him. It's hard, believe me. Buddy fans the flames of adoration by running out into the crowd at least twice and borrowing banners for the whole arena (except, oddly, for the TV cameras) to see. This reminds me a lot of Piper's turn in the WWF in the fall of '86, except that in this case Buddy's basking in the love unashamedly.

 

Meanwhile, the Clan has the unenviable task of trying to keep Oliver away from Buddy at all times and all costs. Rip tags out any time Buddy breathes on him until late in the fall, when the Clan finally gets the advantage with Buddy in the ring. Even then, Rip hits a knee to the midsection and quickly tags out before Buddy can make a comeback on him. It says something about the hatred Buddy has for Rip and how afraid Rip is of Buddy that Rip willingly faces Billy Jack (his other sworn enemy) rather than deal with Buddy at all. Before the match starts, Buddy tries a few cheap shots, and watching Rip scramble to get out of his (Buddy's) way before he can be touched drives the crowd even more wild.

 

As far as the action goes, the faces get most of it, and the arena goes wild for every move. Both Buddy and Billy Jack are put in peril briefly, but that only slows their momentum slightly. Eventually Curt gets the fall by hitting a high monkey flip/flying bodypress combination on Dynamite, and the RBA is up 1-0 with just a little over thirteen minutes of disc time remaining.

 

Coss is alone for this fall; Dutch returns between the first and second falls. There's not a whole lot of time for funny lines or pungent observations, but he does a wonderful job of getting this very special atmosphere across. Sometimes that's all you need to do.

 

​Second fall: ​This fall is just as wild as the first one, especially the ending. Dynamite and Curt are legal in the ring, and Dynamite brings Curt out of the corner to set up a tombstone piledriver. But instead of simply executing the move, he calls on Oliver and Assassin to help him, and they make it a triple spike tombstone. Dynamite gets the easy pin, and we're even at a fall apiece.

 

After the fall, it's obvious that Curt's badly injured. Buddy and Billy Jack each try to communicate with him, but get no response. Finally, Buddy grabs the mic and says that as much as he hates to do it, he's asking for a stretcher, since Curt can't leave the ring on his own. After a minute or two, the Clan's special "Carryout Service" stretcher appears, and Buddy and Billy Jack reluctantly put him on it. All the while, Oliver's yelling at them to hurry up and get Curt out of there, and he's so obnoxious that Coss suggests that someone take the mic away.

 

Then, Oliver and Assassin, who have each been sitting on the top rope in opposite corners, create a distraction while Dynamite climbs to the top and drops a flying knee on Curt's throat (which leads to Curt selling a throat injury), then knocks out Sandy with a vicious headbutt for good measure. Eventually Curt's loaded on the stretcher, and after Dutch yells at the fans to clear the aisle, Curt's carried back to the locker room. Coss says that they'll find someone to sub for Curt in the third fall, but apparently they were short on time, because the bout ends in a 1-1 draw.

 

In the postmatch interview, Buddy asks for and receives a match with Oliver, who was originally supposed to wrestle Curt for the Northwest title, on the following Tuesday, while Billy Jack asks for and receives a match with Assassin. Don also breaks the news that Dynamite's been suspended for a month as a result of his actions. This angle was so detailed that I felt it needed a long recap.

 

The atmosphere for this whole match was off the charts, and hasn't been replicated in any of the many subsequent RBA-Clan matches that we've seen on the set. The fans had been waiting for years for Buddy to see the light whether they knew it or not, and now that he finally has they can cheer him as lustily as they ever booed him. Strangely enough, things were never quite the same for him after he turned back in the spring of '84; Oliver remained the hottest heel in Portland, and eventually Buddy left to go to the AWA.

 

On a broadcasting note, can someone please tell Coss to stop with the constant references to explosions when Dynamite's in the ring? We know he's called the Dynamite Kid, Donald. We don't need your bum jokes to hammer the point home every ten seconds. Who do you think you are, Vince McMahon?

 

Before I close, I have to mention the insane armdrag Billy Jack gave Dynamite during the second fall; he almost threw him clean out of the wring by the wrist. I saw it happen earlier tonight in a lucha match from Will's 1993 Yearbook, and considering the circumstances I thought Billy Jack did it better.