Moondog Moretti vs. Scott Peterson - This approached half-decent when Moretti was pounding on Peterson, but Peterson's babyface offense sucked ass. Quick match that Peterson won with a flash roll-up.

 

The Grappler vs. Art Barr - Barr was tiny at this point. He jumped Grappler, who had been forced into an unexpected title defense, at the bell. So the match was exciting for about 30 seconds but quickly turned into a squash.

 

The Grappler & Avalanche vs. Mike Miller & The Assassin - OK action with the Assassion doing some lucha-influenced stuff, but this was broken up by outside interference before it could develop into anything noteworthy.

 

Joey Jackson vs. Steve Doll - Doll looked good with some slick armdrags and a lot of sharp punches. Jackson did his basic heel stuff well enough. I liked the way he was a dick and wouldn't let Doll back in the ring only for Doll to sneak around the other side and roll him up for the first fall. This could have turned into a legit good match, but the presentation was unbelievably awful. They took a long break between falls to show a video from Curt Henning. The commentators talked about everything but the match (it was Nitroesque.) And then time ran out in the middle of the second fall, without anyone acting remotely urgent about it. It seems that in four years, Portland went from producing some of the best wrestling TV I've seen to producing some of the worst. Does that difference come down entirely to Buddy Rose?

Dutch let's us know that Tom Peterson is in the house tonight! No commercials this time - no, Tom is in house and he wants to talk something more serious than t.v.'s. It's a young woman who is dying and needs a liver transplant. Tom notes that they have raised 70k, but hey need double that. He brings out her son Evan, then gives an addy where money can be sent. It's really neat that they did this and is incredibly Portland.

 

Moondog Moretti v. Scott Peterson

 

Holy fuck Don Owen getting in the ring to what I think was supposed to be Moretti's music was one of the best things I've ever seen in wrestling. God I love Don Owen and he is running down a card that is probably more interesting than anything that will happen in this match. This match was relatively inoffensive, but not very good. Peterson sucks. I get the feeling Moretti could have good matches against the right opponent but Peterson ain't it.

 

The Grappler v. Art Barr

 

Don Owen says Grappler is so happy about his coming World title shot v. Curt Hennig that he's decided to wrestle anyone from the back. He calls out a young Art Barr. Barr runs in with the fast babyface spots early, but The Grappler cuts him down with some really good deliberate punches and a rib breaker. Barr makes another run and Grappler loads up the boot and kicks him for the finish. Nothing match.

 

Rip Oliver/Grappler promo.

 

The Grappler/The Avalanche v. Mike Miller/The Assassin

 

Avalanche is this unbelievable looking fat guy, who is wearing some strange psychedelic looking pants and headgear with what looks like a bandana. The early work in this isn't anything special, but the crowd is pretty into it which keeps my interest. I did like Avalanche's full body weight clothesline. Miller works FIP and it's not bad, but not particularly compelling. Avalanche loads up the head gear after Assassin gets the hot tag and whacks him. Avalanche goes up top to dive off onto Assassin and Brian Adams working his American Ninja gimmick shows up and whacks the fat guy off the top for a pretty good bump. Not unwatchable, but not good.

 

Tom Peterson with more on the lady who needs a liver.

 

Abudda Dein promo with Avalanche. Brian Adams shows up and complains about the headgear.

 

Abdullah The Arab v. Coco Samoa

 

Abudda Dein was announced as Abdullah The Arab by Don Owen god bless him. Coco is working your rope running, big impact foreign spots here and this is actually a decent little match and then The Grappler runs in. Billy Two Eagles hits the ring for the save and from there all hell breaks loose.

 

The Assassin/Samoa/Two Eagles promo. Assassin asked for a penalty box match v. the heels that hit the ring in the previous segment.

 

Joey Jackson v. Steve Doll - 2/3 Falls

 

Don Owen forgets Doll's name for a second during the intros. I love it. Jackson is a poor man's Buddy Landell, which is almost as bad as Pretty Boy Chuck Simms working a Doug Somers tribute gimmick in 1987 Montreal. The openig spot with Jackson charging and Doll leap frogging over before taking Doll down and going to work on the arm was actually really cool. I liked the early bit with Jackson trying to find ways to counter out of the arm work and Doll hanging on. I also dug the ay Jackson sold the wrenching of the arm. Jackson goes to the eyes and then attacks Doll's arm including a single arm DDT. Jackson goes for a corner charge and ends up taking the Morton style bump into the post on his previously worked over arm. Doll dropkicks him up over the top for a nice big bump, but when Doll chases after him he gets hit with an atomic drop on the floor. Jackson is working a KOTM spot, but Doll crawls under the ring and catches him with an O'Conner roll for the first fall. This was pretty good.

 

This opens up with a slugfest spot, but Jackson pulls Dolls forward whacking him into the turnbuckle. Jackson goes for a series of elbows to the arm, but misses the big one. I really like how they are staying with the armwork from the first fall as Jackson hits an Anderson bodyslam on the arm. Doll fights back to his feet and hit's a one armed slam which I thought as a pretty cool spot. Jackson stays on the arm, including a ridiculously douchey spot where he slaps up under the arm and rips Doll down by his hair. Doll keeps making these escapes and Jackson keeps cutting him down, including a knee that I thought looked pretty stiff. Doll hits a big sunset flip for a near fall and a twisting back elbow for another. Doll is unloading his offense which doesn't look that great, but they have built the match well enough, here I'm enjoying it. Time ends up running out, which was a shit way to end a pretty good match. With the non-finish and the relatively bland personalities I think this would be a bottom feeder on any set, but it was not bad wrestling at all.

 

Clips of Curt Hennig from AWA TV to set up him coming in to defend the AWA title in between falls.

 

Grappler/Rip Oliver promo. Grappler is fired up about his title match with Hennig. Dutch Savage shows up and calls the Grappler an idiot for agreeing to the penalty box match.