Rip Oliver, The Assassin & Ed Wiskowski vs. Buddy Rose, Hack Sawyer & Tom Pritchard (2/3 Falls) (4/14/84)

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Rip Oliver, The Assassin & Ed Wiskowski vs. Buddy Rose, Hack Sawyer & Tom Pritchard (2/3 Falls) (4/14/84)

Disc 8

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First fall: ​Chronologically, this is the third of the three six-mans featuring the RBA and the Clan on this disc, but it's the second one I'm watching.

 

The RBA starts out fast, working on Oliver's arm and Assassin's back and using rapid-fire tags, but eventually, Dr. Tom is exposed as the weak link in the Army's chain, and he takes a tremendous pounding, although he occasionally gets in a shot of his own to keep hope alive. He finally gets the hot tag to Hack, who starts off on fire but is brought back down to earth when he misses a dropkick on Big Ed. Eventually he falls victim to a Wiskowski powerslam plus a loaded headbutt off the top from Assassin, and the Clan leads one fall to none approximately sixteen minutes (disc time) into the match.

 

As I expected going in, Dr. Tom is the FIP, as he's great at it. He takes his lumps, but he also shoes just enough fire to tell the fans that he's still into the match. It's kind of weird watching him in this role when I'm used to seeing him as a heel in the nineties with the Heavenly Bodies, but it's also a nice change of pace.

 

I wasn't aware that Hack's return lasted long enough for him to form a regular team with Dr. Tom; I thought he was just passing through for a couple of weeks, kind of like Piper (although Rod only returned for one card that I know of).

 

it was strange to see Wiskowski slam all three members of the RBA; before this, I've only seen strongman faces perform a spot like that. Ed looked good, though, especially when he threw Buddy (who's not exactly small, remember) into the corner as if he weighed almost nothing.

 

There was a lot of hype about the upcoming handicap match for the following Tuesday featuring Andre. My question is, who's going to be the fourth for the Clan? The only other heel even loosely associated with them is Mike Miller, and Rip's gone out of his way on at least one interview we've seen to say that there are three and only ​three official Clan members. (It ​was​ Miller, according to Wrestling Data.)

 

Interesting that Stasiak mentioned that Andre would try to get out of his booking in Texas in order to be part of the following Saturday's battle royal in Portland. If Fritz got wind of him saying that, I'm sire it really made his day, assuming that he was booked in Dallas to begin with. (According to Wrestling Data, Andre didn't wrestle anywhere on April 21, although that site's data is notoriously incomplete.)

 

A note to Sandy Barr: Please stop trying to find the object in Assassin's mask after ​he's already used it and gotten a pinfall. It makes you look a day late and a dollar short. Make a bigger deal of searching him ​before ​the match instead.

 

Second fall: ​The Clan continues to dominate, first working over Hack, then Dr. Tom. But despite their best efforts, the faces don't go down, and eventually Hack gets the hot tag. After a few moments, he flattens Assassin with a Thesz press and holds on for the three count. We're even at a fall apiece with about seven minutes of disc time remaining.

 

We haven't seen a whole lot of Buddy in this match; was he hurt, or are they just saving him for that last super-hot tag in the final fall. Normally, he's in there a lot more, since he's the one most of the crowd came to see.

 

Coss and Stan had a nice little discussion about Andre at the beginning of the fall. They referenced Stan supposedly knocking Andre out with the heart punch (he may have, but I don't recall hearing about it) and talked about Andre never being slammed. I was always curious to know how many territories promoted Andre; in other words, how many of the McMahon myths about him did they use? I guess that him being unslammable was one of the basic ones; what better way to draw a crowd than to have someone try to do what's known the world over to be almost impossible?

 

That Thesz press from Hack looked just a bit high, but that could have just been the camera angle.

 

I loved Big Ed's rather twisted history of Oregon. He doesn't fit too well with Oliver and Assassin promo-wise; they talk tough and scream, while Ed's smoother and sounds classier, if you can call a heel not named Nick Bockwinkel classy. He and Stasiak have good chemistry, as we saw when Stan teased him about his ranch.

 

I felt bad for Coss when I heard that it was his picture of Andre that Oliver ripped up. Darn those heels anyway! When will they learn to respect a hard-working announcer's property?

 

​Third fall: ​This fall seems to be a reset at first, with the faces working over Oliver's arm. But eventually Buddy gets trapped in the ring and busted wide open by the Clan, who beat him thoroughly until Hack and Dr. Tom can take no more. Before long, we have bonzo gonzo, but things don't end happily for the RBA, as Oliver takes advantage of the chaos to thumb Buddy in the throat. Buddy goes down, Oliver covers, and the Clan has its second straight six-man win. Matt Borne comes in to clean house with a chair, but it's much too little and far too late.

 

Even though the fall was so short, a complete story was still told, and we even got blood from Buddy. I'm not sure I'd have had the Clan go over here, though I guess they did it to set up a situation where only Andre can turn things around for the RBA. We on this disc will have to settle for Piper (who isn't too bad of a consolation prize if I say so myself).

 

The interview at the end with Matt and Buddy where Buddy hit himself in the head with a chair was another classic Rose promo in a set full of them. Matt was great too, especially when he made fun of Big Ed's "history lessons". I liked the subtle buildup for a confrontation between Big Ed and Andre, including the possibility of Ed slamming Andre. They've really made this into the ultimate battle in the RBA-Clan war, and I hope they were rewarded with a sellout for their efforts, because they sure deserved one. As for me, I can't wait to see the Hot Rod and the Playboy on the same side!

 

I forgot to mention that one of the ropes broke again. This has to be at least the third match on this set where part of the ring broke. Come on, Don. If you don't have the money to buy more than one ring, at least make sure that the one you have is completely safe before the matches start.