Rip Oliver, The Assassin & Ed Wiskowski vs. Buddy Rose, Matt Borne & Curt Hennig (2/3 Falls) (3/10/84)

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Rip Oliver, The Assassin & Ed Wiskowski vs. Buddy Rose, Matt Borne & Curt Hennig (2/3 Falls) (3/10/84)

Disc 8

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First fall: ​This is the first of the three six-man tags on this disc that will put a cap on the feud between the RBA and the Clan. This one was directly set up by Wiskowski's interference in the tag title match the previous week, which cost Matt and Curt the belts.

 

Rip's the obvious target for the faces as the fall begins, and everyone has a grand old time beating on him. But he starts to work on Curt's injured knee, and before long the Clan's in full command, applying various submission holds plus a few headbutts from Assassin's loaded hood. It's Assassin who scores the fall for his side as well; he gets Curt to submit to a spinning toehold to give the Clan a one fall to none lead with about twelve and a half minutes of disc time remaining.

 

Wise move by Curt to submit; each side had a fall to give, and there's no sense in risking permanent knee damage when you don't have to, especially when you've already been hospitalized with a serious knee injury.

 

The Clan is the better team of the two right now; they were able to trap Curt in their corner and almost destroy his knee. They even applied the same submission hold to wear it down: the spinning toehold. We've seen teams do that before on this set with various holds, and it's a good sign of a team that, to paraphrase Arn Anderson, works individually but thinks collectively.

 

If there's one individual matchup out of all the possibilities that the crowd wants to see right now, it's probably Buddy vs. Big Ed, especially after the comments Big Ed made about Buddy being the Gutless Wrestler of the Year (which is untrue both figuratively and literally, as Mr. Wiskowski of all people should know).

 

Once again Assassin uses his head, both literally and figuratively, as his headbutts help to injure Curt's knee. No other promotion used loaded apparel quite like Portland did, be it Oliver's loaded thumb (among others) or Assassin's loaded mask.

 

I liked Stan talking about the strange new world that will be waiting for Hack when he returns. Hopefully he'll jell with Buddy quickly, because if this fall was any indication the RBA's going to need all the help they can get in this series of matches.

 

​Second fall: ​There's not a lot to this fall; Curt's in the ring the whole time, and the Clan keeps punishing his injured knee. Several times he tries to get over to his corner for the tag, but he's always cut off. Finally, the Clan gets a little too bold for their own good, and while Sandy's in their corner telling them to knock it off, Buddy and Matt run in, fire Rip into the ropes, and blast him with a double dropkick, then push Curt on top of him for the pin. We're even at a fall apiece with about five minutes of disc time remaining.

 

While scoring the fall the way they did got a huge pop, it may not have been the best thing for the RBA, as Curt still needs to tag out desperately and has to start the third fall with an enraged Oliver. Plus, he fell to the outside during the celebration (which the cameras didn't catch; it was mentioned by Coss and Stan) and hit his knee, which has most likely injured it even more.

 

Stupid Line of the Night goes to Coss, after he found out that Curt fell on his knee: "He may be in pain, but at least he's enjoying it more (now that the faces have tied the match)". As usual when announcers open their mouths and insert their feet, Coss was trying to say something halfway intelligent and ended up sounding completely brainless. What's the matter with simply saying, "Even though he's hurt, Curt's glad that his team has tied this match"?

 

​Third fall: Curt tags out quickly, and Buddy comes in to clean house only to get trapped in the Clan corner himself. Eventually the same thing happens to Matt as well. His triple-team beating leads to the deciding fall, as Rip thumbs him in the throat to Sandy's blind side. The leader of the Clan covers, and the faces come in to break up the pin too late. The Clan takes the match, two falls to one.

 

The Clan was never really in danger of losing this fall; they were hardly even put on the run. This may be the first time I've seen all the members of a face team play FIP in a fall lasting less than five minutes, which is mind-boggling.

 

One thing the RBA needs to work on for the next bout is keeping their emotions in check. Borne in particular distracted Sandy numerous times during the first two falls, which only added to Curt's difficulties. Of course, with guys like Hack and Piper coming in, that may be easier said than done.

 

While Hack figures to be an asset to the RBA, I'll be interested to see what a youngster like Dr. Tom brings to the table at this early stage in his career. We already know what Piper's going to bring: mayhem with a capital M. The Clan may have won this first battle, but the war's still up for grabs!