Piper in Portland

Roddy Piper, Buddy Rose, Ed Wiskowski & Killer Brooks v Adrian Adonis, Ron Starr, Hector Guerrero & George Wells (Elimination Match) (Portland, 4/7/79) - EPIC

I love late 70s/early 80s Portland. It feels like I've still only really scratched the surface with it (I think I'll start the 80s Portland set this weekend), but they were running awesome, lengthy main events on TV - usually with the 2/3 falls format - and most of them were built around Buddy Rose. So like, giving one of the ten best wrestlers ever half an hour on free TV every week is quite the treat for us, the gentle viewer. And this pretty much ruled all ends up, with a first fall that would've been great as a standalone match. Piper was incredible here. All four heels were good during the opening babyface shine, but Piper (who was in there the longest) was the standout, while Rose (who was in there the briefest) was your runner up. Everyone was playing all the way to the backest of the back rows, everyone working big and exaggerated and bumping like crazy. For the most part the babyfaces worked the arm(s) so there were lots of armdrag bumps, lots of heels getting launched around then begging off and Adonis hitting a top rope elbow to Piper's outstretched arm looked amazing. Rose's quick stint was a million miles an hour and it's always sort of astounding how he basically moves like a cruiserweight. At one point Starr and Adonis yank Piper into the ring post and I love Piper selling his junk for about five minutes afterwards. There was a bit where he was kneeling on the apron in visible distress and Rose had to rally him around, which was such a cool, understated touch. When the heels finally take over on Starr they really cut the ring off, constantly making quick tags, not letting Starr get close to his corner, always keeping hold of an arm or leg so he can't make a break for it between tags. It's real jarring to see energetic face in peril Ron Starr after all the Puerto Rico footage. His hair is even more majestic in '79 but it's hard to picture him as anything other than the scuzzy bastard punting people in the balls. Wells coming in hot - after a great cat 'n' mouse bit with Starr and Rose - ruled, but the heels finally seize their moment behind the ref's back as Wiskowski hits a diving headbutt for the Wells elimination. The fall lasted about fifteen minutes and it played out like an awesome southern style tag. The heels swarm Adonis to start the next fall, probably having learned from how the first fall started, and Adonis always trying to burst over to his own corner gave it a real nice gritty feel. Hector's short little FIP spell was pretty great as well and his big flapjack bump was an easy 9 out of 10 on the Marty Jannetty scale. What's also great about these Portland matches is that, whether they're 2/3 falls or elimination rules, you can experiment a little with the notes. The shine doesn't always need to lead to the heat which doesn't always need to lead to the hot tag and so on. Sometimes it does and that'll be great too, but it's not a given. Here, the heels take over on Hector, they swarm him and use their numbers advantage, and in the end Hector is just overwhelmed. Piper and Brooks murder him with a few double teams and the ref' can only keep so much control. The heels turning the gun on each other at the end was a nice callback to the end of the first fall and this was really just all kinds of awesome.


Complete & Accurate Hot Rod