Billy Jack vs. The Assassin (4/26/86)

[goodhelmet]

Billy Jack vs. The Assassin (Coal Miner’s Glove Match) (4/26/86)

Disc 9

[garretta]

The action here was a step above what we've seen on the set so far, which makes sense given the type of match this was. But the finish dragged this down for me.

 

First, Billy Jack was an idiot for going for Assassin's mask instead of the pin. You've got the guy knocled silly, Billy Jerk, and you supposedly want revenge, so why not beat him first and then ​work on the mask? It really makes no sense.....unless we consider point number two.

 

I thought that the coal miner's glove match was the ultimate stip match in Portland, but I guess I was wrong, because now we've got a mask vs. hair challenge for the following week. So why should the coal miner's glove mean as much going forward? Why was it so important to see this match on TV? If it isn't going to solve anything, and in fact it just ends in another beatdown on Billy Jack, why go through all the rigamarole?

 

I suspect that what we saw was sanitized for TV, because most matches of this type feature lots of blood from both guys and more than one glove shot. Why nit reverse the matches and do mask vs. hair (which can ​be bloody, but certainly doesn't need​ to be) on TV, then do the coal miner's glove as a dark match? I don't mean to come off as an expert; I'm just going by what I've always heard about how Portland feuds were booked. If what I've heard is true in most cases, then this was booked backwards.

 

That said, it was a hell of a brawl, and Coss really put over how exciting it was by talking about how he was perspiring even in his tuxedo. You don't hear announcers in any sport talk like that every day, so it really resonated here. As I said, most of this was probably the sanitized version of a coal miner's glove match, so I'm looking forward to seeing one from a handheld, if one exists.

 

I loved the dueling crotch shots, and it would have been something if Billy Jack had hit Assassin in the crotch with the glove instead of the head. Then again, if that had happened we wouldn't have seen the blood, which was at least part of the point of the match being on TV in the first place. Well, that and the "request" of Tom Peterson. I wonder if sponsors were actually able to request that certain matches be put on TV in local promotions like Portland and Memphis.

 

The postmatch brawl was a hoot, but what happened to fighting in the Crow's Nest being forbidden?

 

Interesting that Snuka was supposed to come in for the 5/20 card, but didn't; in fact, as I mentioned in the Piper-Rose thread, he was in the very tag match that Piper blew off to come to Portland. In light of how Vince might have kept him out of jail when his girlfriend was killed, I'm guessing that Vince won any gratitude contest that Jimmy might have had over Don.