Hector Guerrero v Buddy Rose (Portland, 4/14/79) - GREAT
What a hoot. I’ve seen this about five times and always love it. It’s basically Rose doing his established star making lower midcard guy look like a threat match so he gives Hector a ton, which is great because young Hector is megafun. First five minutes is Hector working the arm, although they fit in a Buddy Rose rope-running sequence prior to it for the CULTURE. Hector uses a key lock, then a rolling key lock and Rose continually tries to escape. Second time Hector does the rolling key lock Rose nearly manages to roll him up, then grabs the tights a couple times before Hector has to change it up. It’s a cool touch because it makes Rose look smart and skilled enough not to be getting owned by the same move, plus it makes Hector look good for responding in kind. The wee pensioner lady front row is also livid. Buddy tries to backdrop Hector TO THE RAFTERS but Hector lands on his feet and Bonnema is astonished at a show of such athleticism and I fell out. In another cool moment, the next time Buddy tries something similar he opts to just launch Hector up in the air and drop him face-first with a flapjack, rather than the standard back body drop we all now know Hector can just flip out of. Hector gets to look super slick and Buddy doing the leg press bit in the corner will always be awesome, as Buddy and Terry Funk make that look better than anyone. Rose naturally finds a way to win in the end, maybe a little too easily considering he spent most of the match on the back foot, but Hector looks like a promising young up-and-comer and post-match Rose and Wiskowski try to retire him for his temerity. This was like the best possible first fall of what would’ve been a seven star 2/3 falls match. As it stands it is merely a five and one quarter star match. Get it watched all the same. Post-match Hector gets carried out very clumsily and I assume the wrestlers did not take part in proper training with regard to the handling of neck injuries.
Studio wrestling really is some of the very best wrestling. Memphis studio wrestling might be the best of all studio wrestling, the way they seamlessly thread the matches and angles and interviews together, Lance Russell the conductor of this lunatic orchestra, the perfect pro wrestling TV format that produced some of the most perfect pro wrestling TV. I watched a ton of this Hector run years ago on the DVDVR Memphis set extras (or EXTRA extras, perhaps) and I couldn't believe how great it was. That was before I clocked onto how awesome Hector was as well, so I wasn't even predisposed to loving it going in. He'd comes out selling hair removal cream and calling the white folks in attendance chicken skins with hairy underarms. Every interview segment ruled and Lance would sigh and roll his eyes and try to keep things from veering off the rails and Hector would inevitably play the victim, merely a well-meaning businessman trying to improve lives. He was wearing his Javier Escuella poncho here and this was around the time CWA were selling those Jeff Jarrett posters where he's standing shirtless in cowboy boots and every advert for it sounded like something from a sex line (I assume). Well Hector is not impressed by skinny Jeff Jarrett and in fact thinks he might be a one-trick pony, so Hector convinces him to agree to a no punch stipulation. Which means this is all about them building to that one inevitable punch. Hector will do something different in every match he's involved in, never coasts on signature spots even in a studio match that's used to set up a bigger match down the road, and this time he does some tricked out lucha submissions, or at least tricked out by 1987 Memphis standards. However our uncultured - and downright biased - Tennessean referee counts his shoulders when he applies a bow and arrow, so Hector is pissed and throws a full on temper tantrum. Jarrett mostly controls with an armbar and Hector takes some great armdrag bumps, complains about hair pulling that never happened, and then when he just about convinces the ref' to keep an eye on it he goes right to Jarrett's hair. Eventually Hector's frustration boils over and he slaps Jarrett, baits him into the corner where Jeff threatens to punch him in the face, and as the referee tries to get in between them Hector sucker punches Jarrett in the eye. Sometimes the pro wrestling is pretty simple.
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