Rip Oliver vs. Billy Jack Haynes (2/3 Falls) (4/20/85)

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Rip Oliver vs. Billy Jack Haynes (2/3 Falls) (4/20/85)

Disc 9

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First fall: ​Here we go again with the "I didn't wanna show this" routine. At least we had a better reason this time, with Oliver threatening to go back to Texas if the match wasn't televised. They need to stop doing this almost every week, though.

 

This fall was actually pretty civilized, considering that Oliver was acting as a hired gun for his pal Miller. There were certainly some fisticuffs and a few illegal maneuvers, but mostly Billy Jack worked over Rip's arm until a coupe of shots from the taped thumb turned the tide, then Rip spent the rest of the fall pounding Billy Jack until he got the win with a nifty-looking flying clothesline to go up 1-0.

 

Billy Jack biting Oliver's taped thumb was interesting, but it might have inadvertently killed the gimmick. If the thumb was loaded like it was supposed to be, wouldn't he have broken his teeth on the foreign object inside?

 

There were quite a few good lines from Coss here, but my favorite was "We should show this to 20/20​ and let them say that these guys aren't doing what they're doing." That incident must have struck plenty of nerves all through the business, because most of the other promotions picked up on it somehow, from what I've been able to see. About the only promotion that didn't ​refer to it somehow was the WWF, for obvious reasons.

 

I know they're trying to put over Rip as really bad news, especially for Billy Jack, but "two Road Warriors in one", as Coss put it, was a little too much even for hyperbole's sake. It might have been a plausible comparison if Rip had been more muscular, but he was nowhere near as fearsome looking as Hawk or Animal. Even Precious Paul was a stretch, at least at this time.

 

We all know that Miller's going to involve himself somehow before this is over, neck injury or not. All that remains to be seen is how.

 

Second fall: ​Oliver takes most of this one, but Billy Jack manages to sidestep him and send him out through the ropes, Oliver takes a hard bump on the floor, and from there on it's all Billy Jack, who evens things up with a flying clothesline off the top, which I never saw him use for Vince.

 

We're starting to hear time calls; the last one was nine minutes, so if we give Billy Jack another minute to wrap up the fall, plus a two-minute break, that leaves about six minutes for the third fall.

 

Coss spends a lot of this fall putting over the May 21 card, which is understandable. I guess Martel and Flair's opponents hadn't been determined yet, even though the card was only a month away.

 

Oliver the most powerful man Billy Jack's wrestled to date? I suppose it's possible, but he simply isn't the first guy I think of when it comes to power wrestlers.

 

Miller hasn't interfered yet, but the match isn't over yet either. They've set it up too well for it not to happen somehow.

 

Third fall: ​Not exactly a fresh finish, but an unexpected one under the circumstances. I thought Miller would stop Billy Jack from getting the winning fall on Oliver and we'd have a two on one beatdown. Instead, Miller clotheslines Oliver off the top, and Billy Jack capitalizes to score the winning fall. They briefly tease dissension between Oliver and Miller, but the two heels hug it out as we go to break.

 

Coss does an excellent job putting over Oliver's prowess with the taped thumb, and also its versatility; it can be used to equally devastating effect on the head, throat, or midsection of an opponent. I'm not kidding when I say that he might have done the best sell job of the damage a given foreign object can cause of any announcer I've heard yet.

 

Billy Jack bleeding was almost done as an afterthought, but given that the match was supposed to be too violent for TV anyway, maybe it was just as well.

 

Oliver must have been going back to Texas anyway, because Billy Jack makes clear in his postmatch interview that Miller is still his main target. Anyone want to bet that that match somehow made it to TV too, despite Billy Jack himself saying that he didn't want it to be televised?

 

There was only one tease of the full nelson from Billy Jack in the entire match, which was a bit surprising. Maybe they wanted to save his use of the hold for his main target of the moment, Miller.