Not as good as the previous week's match but I pretty much loved this as well. If nothing else it highlights how Piper is the absolute king of the punch drunk comeback. He has so much energy no matter what he's doing and any time he starts wildly throwing himself into offensive flurries people are hooked. Everything looks frantic, often reckless, never half-baked. It doesn't hurt that he has absurd amounts of charisma. Just fucking lorry-loads of it, so even the most standard of in-ring actions elicits a response. He's also an awesome bumper and I'm not really sure it's talked about enough. His bumping has the same reckless quality his offence has and he about killed himself here with one of the best back drop bumps I've ever seen. It was like an Eddie Guerrero monkey flip bump where his legs would catch the ropes on landing, but it never had the grace of Eddie with the perfect rotation on the flip and instead looked like he was taking a Jerry Estrada bump all the way over the top rope. I have no idea whether he meant it or not and that's really what makes it so crazy. This was a super fun use of the lumberjack stipulation. Piper starts out by just punching Rose in the wrist off a lock-up and obviously that leads to some arm work, because sometimes the simplest course of action is the most effective. Rose takes a huge flat back bump off a kick to the arm and you will hate that if you're a miserable bastard of a person but I, only sometimes a miserable bastard of a person, loved it to death. His big bump into the corner later off a kneelift was also majestic and one that even the most miserable of the miserable can appreciate. Rose backing Piper into the corner over by Wiskowski so Ed can trip him is your first big transition and the first great use of the stip. The second is Rose continually booting Piper out the ring so Wiskowski can throw him back in as roughly as possible, clearly taking some cheapshots while he's at it. When it's Rose's turn you know he's going to milk it for all it's worth. He's one of the all-time great stooges and I love how he goes absolutely all in on ALL of it. None of this "I'll roll out and you can shove me back in there nice and easy" carry on, he actively tries to run and then leap away from danger and the lumberjacks must EARN THEIR KEEP by securing this projectile of a body and flinging it back in the ring. After about six attempts at this he sort of deflates in defeat, rolls over and looks up to notice Piper standing over him, at which point he about shits himself and everybody loses it. It's an easy comedy spot to throw out there, but the timing of it was impeccable, he played the goof to perfection and you ten thousand percent buy a pissed off Roddy Piper as the last guy you want standing over you in an inescapable situation. Finish is one of the most satisfying bullshit finishes ever as the pop for Brooks coming in through the crowd is monumental. Portland is the greatest and Brooks' post-match promo ("I haven't worn these boots since I came back from Vietnam, but I'm wearing them now because I'm here to FIGHT!") is also the greatest.
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