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Rip Oliver, The Assassin & Dynamite Kid v. Buddy Rose, Curt Hennig & Billy Jack Haynes (9/10/83)


goodhelmet

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  • 2 months later...

​First fall: ​The action's a bit faster-paced than in a normal tag team match, as it was in the match on Disc 7. Eventually things settle down with Curt playing FIP. By the grace of "fan power" (TM Don Coss), he makes it to his corner and tags Billy Jack, who cleans house on Oliver. Instead of going for the full nelson to secure the fall, though, he brings Oliver's ribcage down on his own shoulder to knock the wind out of him. Buddy and Curt hit Oliver and Assassin with stereo dropkicks, and Billy Jack gets the pin to put the RBA up one fall to none with approximately sixteen minutes of disc time remaining.

 

The finisher Billy Jack used here looked pretty impressive. It's a shame he didn't use it more often instead of always trying to set guys up for the full nelson, which seldom got a submission in a big match.

 

I think we know the result of this match already, because Oliver's threatened to leave the Northwest if the Clan loses, and it's pretty apparent that he's going nowhere at the moment. Either that or Don has one hell of a bait-and-switch in mind.

 

Nice save by Dutch when Don gets his months mixed up not once, but twice. Going a month behind or ahead is one thing, but to get April mixed up with September twice takes an especially scrambled brain.

 

Buddy does a great job working the apron here, especially when he cheats halfway to the other side of the ring so Curt could try to tag. Unfortunately, Sandy caught him and sent him back to his corner.

 

Dutch must have been getting a lot of flack for no-shows, because this is the second time on this disc that he's had to reassure fans that Portland's wrestlers will be where they're booked to be barring injury or transportation problems. I wonder who was causing all the trouble. If I knew the roster a little better I could take an educated guess, but I don't.

 

Line of the Fall goes to Coss, as he gently (?) pokes fun at Don's mistake: "Next he'll be telling us it's Memorial Day."

 

Second fall: ​The faces control the first part of the fall targeting Oliver's back, but eventually the Clan turns the tide and targets Billy Jack, working on his ​back. Billy Jack kicks out of some awful punishment, but ecentaully succumbs to the combination of an Assassin slam and an Oliver stomp off the top. We're even at a fall apiece with approximately ten minutes of disc time remaining.

 

Billy Jack's getting the hang of being an FIP. He still does an occasional Superman kickout (which the fans expect), but he's also learning how to make some nearfalls close to add to the suspense of a match. Of course, considering how popular the RBA is at the moment and how despised the Clan is, neither side needs to do much to elicit sympathy and scorn respectively.

 

Buddy makes a big deal about not changing his style, but his occasional forays into frontier justice cost his team to the point of setting up pinfalls for the other side, which is what happened here. If Don wanted to, he could instruct the announcers to make a big deal out of that, but turning Buddy back now makes no sense, as this is one of the hottest (and most underrated) feuds in wrestling.

 

I loved this exchange between Dutch and Coss after Oliver got his feet up on a Billy Jack corner charge:

 

Dutch: "What did the spider say to the fly?"

Coss: "Welcome to my feet, or something like that."

 

Third fall: ​The Clan's in control for most of this fall, delivering severe beatings to both Buddy and Billy Jack. Eventually Curt gets the hot tag, and is well on his way to victory against Assassin when Assassin adjusts his hood and catches him with a series of headbutts to both the ribs and the forehead. Then he tags Dynamite, who makes the whole thing look legal with a beautiful flying knee off the top for the semi-clean pin. There's a brief brawl afterwards, during which Billy Jack gets his foot caught between the ropes and has to be helped out by a fan, who is promptly scolded by security.

 

I wish the match with Andre joining Billy Jack and Buddy against the Clan had made tape. If this wasn't his last appearance in the Northwest before he went WWF-exclusive, there only could have been one more at most, since he didn't travel in North America after the spring of '84.

 

Nice explanation by Dutch of how wrestlers can recover in restholds. It seems counterintuitive to the average fan, but Dutch makes it all seem perfectly logical.

 

The promo at the end was great with Buddy trying to destroy the Clan's stretcher. I don't know if Billy Jack was legitimately distracted or what, but he didn't seem to be paying attention to Buddy, as he asked Dutch to repeat almost word for word the details of Andre coming to Portland and teaming with Buddy. If it was a sales technique dome for the fans' sake, it was a pretty clever one. Otherwise, Billy Jack needs to quit daydreaming when he's not being talked to,

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