Buddy Rose & Ed Wiskowski vs. Roddy Piper & Rick Martel (2/3 Falls) (for vacant tag titles) (8/2/80)

- Damn, Buddy Rose does more on the outside of the ring than most people do inside. 1st fall has Piper doing the majority of the work and when the heels are in control, they are working over his injured ribs and back. When Martel comes in, he lights the heels up and disposes of Rose with the huracanrana pin. 2nd fall has Martel in control until a missed dropkick. Ed & Buddy hen proceed to destroy Martel's back. Rose is doing some great moves finding new ways to work on Martel's back including a nice backbreaker to get the 2nd fall. With nearly all Portland tags, the wiiners of the last fall continue to do what worked in the last fall, which is working over Martel's back in this instance. I am only 4 discs into the Portland footage but DAMN if it isn't the most logical and well-worked matches I have seen even if guys who are considered limited like Piper and the Sheepherders. Buddy Rose is also one of the Top 5 heels of the 80s right up there with Tully blanchard and Ted Dibiase. back to the match, Piper gets the hot tag but Buddy and Ed do a cool double team over. Ed slingshots Piper into Rose who proceeds to backdrop him out of the ring. Fucking sweet. This causes the action to spill out of the ring and the match ends in a no-contest but the wrestlers coninue to brawl anyway. In the end, each team claims one of the tag titles and they ontinue to brawl in the post-match interview. Another badass Portland tag!!!

 

(Lynch Vol. 2)

Ok... yeah, I have a disk with this match on it (Lynch 2.2) and maaan on man, you are on point with all this. Something real simple... but that makes a big difference... is that Buddy Rose knew how to make an ordinary bump... EXTRAORDINARY. Martel hits him with a simple shoulder tackle in the second fall and Buddy just takes this legs in the air nestea plunge backwards... kicking on his way down! It's just great and he looks like such an idiot with the mask with the hair on it... he's just a total entertainer.

 

This match is one of my favorite early Piper matches. Rose, as you've noted... was such a pro at just getting mileage out of every bump and rolling out of the ring and selling the back and getting fans to yell at him. It's such a simple aspect of wrestling that so few today take advantage of.

 

I love the Argentinian backbreaker HANDOFF that the bad guys used on Martel.

 

Again, a no contest decision, but I thought stuff like this ADDED to the Portland shows. I couldn't wait for these teams to fight again.

 

Rose singing "We are the Champions" post match and cutting off the song and running when the good guys showed up was great.

 

Awesome deal right here.

I don't have much to add. Piper was pretty clearly the worst guy in the match, but he was super over, so his in-peril segment got the crowd juiced up. Martel's huracanrana was quite the move for 1980. Buddy looked awesome working over Martel's back int he second fall. The Wiskowski-Rose double teams were nifty. The brawl and Buddy's singing made for a perfect TV ending. Easy nomination.

This was just awesome. Martel at this point in time in Portland might be the best blow job baby face for the year. Rose and Wiskowski are a really great team with Rose bringing the sizzle, and everything Wiskowski does is solid and he has a great psychology. Piper was super over and was really energized. martel is the ultimate face. The match was great and the story telling is great here.

God damn the opening face shine in this is so fucking great. This was a tremendously hot period for Portland, arguably the hottest in the history of the territory and you can tell why as Piper was crazy over and Martel was right there with him as a pretty boy. Meanwhile the heels are the rough Portland equivalent of Lawler/Dundee. Well I guess you could argue Rip Oliver as Dundee and not Wiskowski but that just seems wrong. Anyhow the point is this is pretty much THE best Portland heel unit possible v. THE best possible Portland face team possible.

 

So yeah that shine segment rules as we get the Wiskowski face plant bump, Buddy running off in a rage, then bumping around and selling the fuck out of every little thing and Piper busting out a dropkick. Heels take over with a shot to Pipers ribs and go to town working him over. Portland Sports Arena is fucking packed and loud as fuck as the heels manage to work two shockingly great seated body scissor spots. I mean no way in fucking hell these should have worked this well, but they are neat variations of the hold and Buddy even includes a floatover roll up for a near fall at one point. Really great build to the hot tag as they tease it and cut off multiple times and when Piper finally gets it the place comes unglued. Martel is an offensive dynamo and the rana fall was absolutely perfect. Tremendously great fall.

 

Opening of the second fall may have been even better in some ways as you have Buddy scrambling to get away from a hot Martel, tagging in Ed who meets the same fate and then Buddy coming back in to have the faces dominate him with various headlock take downs. Very cool momentum swing as Buddy floats Martel over the top and almost gets caught again but evades a dropkick, with Martel selling his back before big Ed comes in and stomps him in the most dismissively prickish way possible. Buddy locks on an overhead backbreaker and then tags in Wiskowski just passing Martel over into the same hold which ruled. Man the heel control is just great and I lost my shit when Buddy did his slinshot/backbreaker combo thing and Martel countered out with a short knee to the throat before bumping Buddy on his face. At some point in all of this the bottom turnbuckle collapses so when Barr is distracted Buddy uses it as a weapon. Martel sells his ass off for a bearhug, Buddy comes in and he makes to quick escapes, but gets caught with the Robinson backbreaker for the decisive finish to the second fall.

 

FUCK. For some reason the third fall is not on my the Rose Set. Still this is an incredible match up until this point. If the finish as described above is executed as well as it sounds this is not only an obvious pick for the set, it's a serious number one contender.

Decision Match for the vacant Northwest Tag Titles: Rick Martel & Roddy Piper vs. "Playboy" Buddy Rose & Ed Wiskowski (8/2/80)

Gotta love everyone getting flowers entering the ring even the heels. Man that 1st fall was really great as the babyfaces looked like dynamos against this great heel team especially Rose who was bumping and selling like crazy here. The heels would take control though with both using some sweet bodyscissors holds as the fans went nuts for Piper wanting him to get to Martel who was awesome working the corner and then when he comes in the ring he runs fucking wild on the heels before getting a pin on a swank huracarana on Rose. Martel cuts a promo between falls on Rose talking up their singles matches that week. Martel starts the 2nd fall strong working over the heels until he misses a dropkick and the heels take turns relentlessly working over his back. This control section was so damn good man. Rose was amazing working the corner as well on the heel side and even broke the bottom rope because he was standing on it so much. Piper coming in trying to save Martel at every chance he could was also so good. Martel fighting back was fun before Rose dropped him with his swank backbreaker to even the falls. Jonathan Boyd then cuts a promo between falls about being a one man army against Rose. Martel's back continues to get destroyed as the 3rd fall starts but Piper would get the hot tag with 6 minutes left in the match and he just goes nuts teeing off on the heels before the match gets totally out of control and they brawl to the floor for a double countout which doesn't stop them as they continue to fight. The titles are still vacant but each team puts a claim in for the belts afterwards since they split falls and the last one was a draw. Don Owen then sets up a rematch which leads to another wild brawl. Excellent match here and a slam dunk nomination.