Billy Jack Haynes v. Rip Oliver (11/24/84)

[goodhelmet]

Billy Jack Haynes v. Rip Oliver (11/24/84)

Disc 8

[garretta]

After seeing this one unfold, I wouldn't be a bit surprised if Billy Jack didn't plan to be gone long. Wrestlers who are supposedly leaving a territory for good don't start brand-new feuds on the way out, as he did here with Nagasaki. They also don't leave their original issue, the one they planned to settle before they left, completely unsettled, never mind being stretchered out of the arena. Maybe he knew even as he was leaving that he didn't really want to go, and thus he planned to be back after taking whatever bookings he'd already signed for in the WWF (where he was heading). Of course, he only lasted one TV taping.

 

I've never seen Nagasaki before on tape, and if ever a receding hairline killed a gimmick, it was here. I know he was always pushed as a master of the martial arts and a dangerous crippler, but he looks like a CPA who hit the lottery, retired early, and went to wrestling school on a lark. Maybe seeing him actually wrestle will give me new respect for him, but I wouldn't count on it.

 

Oliver looked like a sure loser here early on, as Billy Jack opened up a whole crate of whoop-ass on him to the point where he was using his taped thumb just to avoid being beaten to death. I thought at one point that he wouldn't get one offensive move in the whole match, and the crowd and the announcers thought so too, especially after Billy Jack threatened to break his neck in his prematch promo.

 

Who was commentating with Coss here? It was a guy named Johnny with a British accent, so could it have been Johnny Saint the junior heavyweight? I didn't know he'd ever gotten to Portland. If Coss hadn't called him by name I would have sworn that it was Billy Robinson.

 

I might have been wrong up above; I remember that Billy Jack had nice runs in both Florida and Texas early in '85. Still, there was nothing stopping him from returning as a special guest every once in a while to continue his feud with the Clan, just like nothing stopped Oliver from taking the feud to Billy Jack in both Florida and Texas. Knowing what I know now, I'd have laughed if Oliver had shown up out of nowhere in the WWF and gone after Billy Jack. That would probably have been a better feud than Billy Jack-Hercules was, and it might have also saved Oliver from having to do the job to The Ultimate Warrior on SNME ​in that ridiculous Black Ninja outfit.