Jay Youngblood/Joe Lightfoot vs. Buddy Rose/Rip Oliver 2/3 - Rematch from the previous week. Youngblood and Lightfoot dominated the early minutes, working headlocks and armdrags. Decent stuff but not dynamic. The match picked up when Rose and Oliver took control. Youngblood took some huge bumps off Buddy press slams, and worked a few nifty hope spots trying to chop his way out of a neutral corner. The Rose backbreakers to end the first fall looked nasty. Second fall was almost entirely Youngblood in peril, with more solid work on the back and teased comebacks. Youngblood has always been overshadowed by Steamboat, but he was a heck of a babyface in his own right. Lightfoot didn't really hold up his end of the bargain when he finally took the hot tag. Youngblood also recovered awfully quickly, so the end to the second fall felt a little too easy. Oliver and Rose tried to take the action outside in the third fall, slamming Youngblood's back into the ringpost a few times. The faces showed some nice fire in fighting back, with Youngblood repeatedly posting Buddy's arm. They brawled to the time limit. The match followed classic Portland formula, and the Youngblood-in peril stretch was excellent. The opening and the end of the second fall, with the bayfaces on offense, was less inspired. On balance, I'll call it a low-end nomination.

 

New Portland #4

Man, this went really, really really long. It's not the work was bad but it was so slow paced. I'll give Jay Youngblood credit... the girls loved him and they kept up their energy when he was in trouble. Still, they used a lot of rest holds since they had an easy time generating heat and moved so so so slow with a few fluries of action (like the flash Sunset flip on Rose in the first fall). If Childs used a personal pick on this, I wouldn't object but I don't want to watch it again either.