Sunday, April 15, 2007

Classic Portland Wrestling Disc 1: Part 2

This is a famous match because it is the impetus for the legendary Rose/Piper feud.

4/7/79 8 man tag elimination match:The heels, Buddy Rose, Ed Wiskowski. Tim Brooks, and Roddy Piper vs the baby face team of Hector Guerrero, George Wells, Ron Starr and Adrian Adonis:
Roddy Piper plays the bagpipes to rile up the fans. The bout starts with Roddy Piper
and Hector Guerrero in the ring(these two were familiar with each other from Pipers days in Southern California) The two lock up, Guerrero executes a hip toss and a rolling head scissors, Piper rolls out of the ring to regroup. Piper gets in and tries to return the favor he gets the hip toss, but misses the rolling head scissors. Guerrero takes over. Guerrero splashes Piper off the ropes and then applies and arm bar. Guerrero then tags in George Wells. Wells works on the arm with a couple of leg drops and then tags in Starr who continues the attack on the arm. Starr tags in Adrian Adonis Who comes in with a flying elbow drop off the top rope on too Pipers arm(these two would meet almost exactly 8 years later in front of 90,000 fans at Wrestlemania III). Adonis Tags Starr back in who continues the psychology of working on Piper's arm, Piper eventually is able to reach over and tag Buddy Rose. Starr executes three arm drags on Rose then Rose tags out to Wikowski. Wiskowski and Starr exchange punches. Star gets the better of the exchange. Wiskowski regroups and lands a knee and tries to whip Starr into the corner but Starr's Partner cushions his impact and Starr bounces out of the corner with a drop kick that floors Wiskowski, Starr then tags in George Wells. George wells does a leg drop on the arm. Wiskowski stumbles into the corner and Guerrero does some more work on the arm. Wells then applies an arm lock,but Wiskowski is able to make a tag to Piper who grabs a headlock and tries to punch Wells, but Wells no sells it and gives Piper a punch of his own that floors send him to the canvas. Piper finds himself in the wrong corner and receives punishment from Adonis and Starr. Starr tags in and lands a leg drop and a body slam, but Piper turns the tables with a thumb to the throat and then tags in Killer Brooks. Brooks throws Starr into the turnbuckles then does a snap mere and a leg drop and the applies a chinlock then he tags in Wiskowski who applies the same hold. The four heels then take turns tagging in and doing one offensive move then tagging out. Finally Brooks is back in the ring applying the chinlock. Starr fights out of the chinlock, but Brooks reaches Piper for a tag. Piper gets in some punishment but Starr reverses with a takedown and some punches but Piper is able to punch back and make a tag to Wiskowski who stomps on Starr. Starr gets up to his feet and the two exchange punches Starr wraps up Wiskowski in a cradle for a two count. Wiskowski gets up and tags in Rose. Starr gets a foot sweep and an arm drag on Rose and makes the HOT TAG two George Wells who starts to beat on the playboy, Piper tries to run in and help Wells knocks him out of the ring, Brooks runs in and get thrown out, Wiskowski runs in and get dropped kicked out, Brooks runs back in and gets dropped kicked out. Wells grabs Rose and lands a series of head butts executes a body slam and a splash off the ropes and goes fore the pin, but Wiskowski nails a flying head but off the second turnbuckle that knocks Wells silly and allows Rose to make the pin. This gives the heels the first fall and eliminates Wells for the evening.
Second fall: Not near as much back and fourth action in the second fall Rose and Adonis lock up Adonis ends up in the heel corner and gets pummeled. then their is a long heat segment on Adonis as all the heels tag in and beat on him as he periodically tries to drives threw his opponent into his corner. Finally he makes the HOT TAG to Hector Guerrero who cleans house on the heels and Pummels Piper until he goes for a pin, but he is to close to the heel corner and Brooks makes the save and pulls Guerrero into the heel corner where he takes a beating. From that point on Piper and Brooks tag in and out and beat on Guerrero until They double team him by throwing him into the air dropping him across their knees. Guerrero team tries to interfere to buy him some time but it's to no avail, he is still pinned by Piper.The fearsome foursome takes the second fall and Guerrero is done for the evening.
Third fall:Frank Bonnemma reminds us that this bout is too a TV TIME LIMIT. The fall starts with Roddy Piper and Ron Starr locking up. Starr gets in some punches, but Piper brushes them off and whips Starr into the ropes. Starr comes off the ropes and does a sunset flip for two. Piper tags in Brooks. Starr Greets Brooks with some hard punches. Killer Brooks stumbles into the wrong corner. Adonis Grabs Brooks while Starr executed and flying shoulder block. Then Starr executes a sunset flip and tags in Adonis. Adonis comes in and cleans house landing drop kics on every body. Brooks gets back up and Adonis and Brooks exchange elbows. adonis lands a chop and whips Brooks into the rope. Starr tags in and tries to back flip Brooks, Brooks grabs Starr's uppper body and pulls him down(I have never seen that before,I don't know if that was planned or a botched move) Brooks rolls over and ends up on top of Starr. Adonis retains the advantage for the babyface team as he is in with an elbow.Starr is back up and lands a couple punches and goes for a pin and get a two count.He then pick up Brooks and does a snap mere and tags in Adonis who whip Brooks into the ropes Brooks tries to come off with a drop kick but misses. Adonis goes for a spinning toe hold, but Piper breaks it up. Starr recovers and land some punches on Brooks followed by a side Russian leg sweep. Starr goes for the pin.
Wiskowski sails off the top rope trying to repeat the finish from the first fall. This time the baby face team get out of the way and Wiskowski knocks out his own partner. Starr quickly goes for the pin and gets the three count. Now there is dissension in the ranks. Brooks attacks Wiskowski as Rose goes after Piper. Rose throws Piper out of the ring. Wiskowski and Rose then do a streacher job on Brooks as
Rose hold Killer Tim while Wiskowski does a knee drop off the second rope onto Brook's neck. While Brooks is being carried out of the ring. Rose and wiskowski go to the interview area and complain that no one can get along with Piper and Brooks.
Then they say they are not going out for the next fall. Next We see Adonis and Starr in the ring Stirring up the crowd as Rose and Wiskowski reiterrate that they are not going back into the ring and are not going back to the dressing room where Roddy Piper is. Sandy Barr rings the bell and Rose and Wiskowski get counted out.

Interestling I find that Pro Wrestling is similar to other "real" sports like pro basketball. I see many NBA basketball player who are dynamic athletes, they can do amazing high flying rim rattling 360 slam dunks, but they can't execute simple passes that make thier team better. I see the same thing in Pro wrestling, guys who are tremendous athlete who can do spectacular eye popping moves, but can't do basic thing like throw punches and kicks that look credible. While their are exceptions to the rule, many of today stars are unable to transition from one move to the next in a way that makes sense

What makes the bout above great is not just the Roddy Piper turn. The fans add to the atmosphere buy constantly buzzing and being into the action all the way though. All 8 wrestlers work their tuchuses to put on a good show. Everyone in the bout had the ability to throw punches and kicks that looked credible. More importantly everyone involved did the little things that advanced the storyline and made themselves and their opponents look good.

If anyone out there is interested in seeing this classic action email Rich at
musicguy64@yahoo.com. Rich is a great guy to deal with.

Classic Portland Wrestling Disc 1 : Part 1

This footage was recorded by Buddy Rose in the 1970's on a format that predates Beta called the Quasar Great Time Machine. The footage was headed for the trash basket when local portland wrestling fan Rich convinced Rose to give him the tapes to see if he could restore or salvage some of the classic footage. Rich ran into several problems. The first was finding a machine to play the tapes back on.
He finally found a couple on the east coast that needed to be repaired. He was able to repair one. The next problem was that the tapes were covered with mold and other gunk. This caused the machine to continually break down. After several years and over a thousand dollars Rich Salvaged 26 hours worth of classic 1970's Portland wrestling.

It is an era that is long gone. The days of the local weekend wrestling show died for the most part by the late 80's. Thanks to Rich and Buddy Rose I am now able to relive those childhood memories. I am really enjoying watching this old footage.

3/31/79 interview:Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskowski are in the crows nest with the tag team title belts from San Francisco. They are claiming that they are the world tag team titles belts and that they will be defending them Monday in Texas?? They go on to promote the lady wrestlers coming in April. Wiskowski say that he and Rose are better looking than the lady wrestlers and that they have more finesse(ok). Buddy Rose says that women don't belong in wrestling.

3/31/79 interview: Latter in the same show Rose and Wiskowski are joined in the crows nest by Roddy Piper and Killer Tim Brooks. They have a wheel barrow With five Title belts Piper and Brooks are the northwest tag team champions, Rose and Wiscowski and the SF tag belts and Piper has the nw title belt. The four brag about having all the belts and controlling the NW territory.

4/7/79 interview: Rose, Piper, Wiskowski and Brooks are in the crows nest.Sometime in the previous week Rose and Wiskowski have lost the SF titles and Piper and Brooks have lost the NW titles to Adrian Adonis and Ron Starr. Piper talks about taking on Ron Starr on the next card while Wiskowski talks about a match with former wwwf champion Stan Stasiak.

Sunday, April 8, 2007

The UFC on ESPN

I started realizing pro wrestling was a work when I was very young because they did not show pro wrestling highlights on the local sports news.

Fast forward 25 years, the Ultimate fighting championships were getting significant tv ratings, had tremendous athletes and was very real and was getting no main stream sports coverage.

That has changed now. Last night ESPN showed a short highlight of Matt Serra winning the ufc welterweight title from Georges St Pierre.

Not to long ago Mike Tyson had a "big fight" 4 or 5 customers during the day started discussing the bout with me. I explained that I wouldn't watch Mike Tyson if he were boxing In my backyard. I then went on to say I was a big fan of mixed martial arts. When I would try to explain the sport to them they would look at me like I was some kind of a nut.
Nowadays customers come in and their all excited and they will ask me my opinion on this or that fighter.

So to help you be conversational when the subject of the UFC comes up around the water cooler here are the ufc champions.

Heavyweight (205-265): Randy "the natural" Couture
Light heavyweight(186-205):Chuck "the ice man" Liddel
Middleweight (171-185: Anderson "the spider" Silva
Welterweight(156-170): Matt "the terra" Serra
lightweight(under 155): Sean "the Muscle shark" Sherk

And as a public service to my brother who asked me the other day.
Here are the (4) heavyweight boxing champion

Wladimir Klitchko
Nicolai Valuev
Oleg Maskaev
Shanon Briggs

Monday, April 2, 2007

Back to reality: Ladies first!: Gina Carano and Laila Ali

Womens mixed martial arts and womens boxing are both fortunate to have star that are both highly skilled and extremely marketable.

The star of womens Mixed Martial Arts is Gina Carano.
Ms. Carano has been the show stealer on every card she has appeared on.
Including the debut of mixed martial arts on showtime back in February.

Showtime's excellent video profile of Gina Carano Here

Gina Carano's fight of the night with Julie Kedzie HERE

Laila Ali is the daughter of Muhammad Ali. So far she has lived up to her fathers legacy, remaining undefeated in boxing. I recently saw her doing in studio commentary on Friday Night Fights. She spent more time talking about Dancing With The Stars then she spent talking about boxing. Never the less she is very talented.

Laila Ali in a very cute Adidas commercial with her dad HERE

Laila Ali on Dancing With The Stars HERE

Oh Yea she can fight too, here she is knocking out Valerie Mahfood HERE

Sunday, April 1, 2007

WWE Hall of fame on USA

What i enjoyed:The inductions of Jim Ross, Dusty Rhodes, and the late Curt Hennig"Mr. Perfect"provided genuine emotion.

what I didn't like: They chose William Shatner to introduce Jerry "the king" Lawler.
Shatner was awfull as he read from a script and his eyes never looked up.

here are some clips from you tube that capture the essence of these performers who were being honored.

Jim Ross: Ross was fired by WTBS for sounding to southern. they have tried to replace him in the WWE three different times but the fan have always demanded that they bring him back.
The WWE put together a very nice video package here

Jerry Lawler:here are a couple of famous Jerry lawler clips
with Andy Kaufman on Letterman here
versus Hulk Hogan in Memphis here

Dusty Rhodes: I Never much like Dusty in the ring, but he was great on interviews
classic Rhodes clips here and here

Curt Hennig:One cool thing about this blog is that I have a link where you can see Hennig
in the ring with the Dynamite kid and now I have a link where you can see Hennig in with Chris Benoit here

Nick Bockwinkle: heres a Nick Bockwinkle clip from the early 60's. here