Tag: Ed Wiskowski

From the Crow’s Nest: Enter The Piper

From the Crow’s Nest: Enter The Piper

Our journey through the archives of the Portland wrestling territory jumps ahead by more than a full calendar year… from March 4, 1978, to March 31, 1979.

What changed during the year-plus gap in available footage? The big news is that Roddy Piper is now part of the roster. Yes, that Roddy Piper. Before he chewed bubble gum and kicked ass in “They Live”, before he headlined the first WrestleMania, Piper spent a significant amount of time in the Portland territory, starting in the fall of 1978. At the time of the March 31 episode of Portland TV, he holds both the Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title and one half of the tag titles with Killer Tim Brooks. Piper and Brooks are on the rulebreaker side of the locker room, and insist they’re on very good terms with the two long-established villains in Portland: Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskowski.

Really! They get along great!

You see where this is going, right?

I’ve compiled a YouTube playlist with all the footage reviewed in this installment.

Let’s dive in …

3/31/79

Footage from this episode consists of two interview segments from the crow’s nest (catchy phrase, right?) broadcast position, both involving Rose and Wiskowski.

During this one, longtime Portland announcer Frank Bonnema refers to Rose and Wiskowski as world tag team champions, a title with a nebulous legacy at best. Apparently, it stems from the NWA San Francisco territory, which is interesting since in an earlier installment of this series, Dutch Savage craps all over San Francisco even though several Portland regulars worked frequently there. It also seems very on brand to Rose and Wiskowski to just conjure their own NWA World Tag Team Title belts, then bring them to Portland to defend them in a territory they think they can dominate … well, mostly because Rose and Wiskowski dominated in 1977 and 1978.

As per usual, Rose and Wiskowski have a variety of grievances and they’re not shy about sharing them. For one, they feel Piper and Brooks are discriminated against by PNW promoter Don Owen. They’re also unhappy that women’s wrestlers are coming into the territory. Rose proclaims wrestling “a man’s sport”, while Wiskowski, in probably the line of this set of footage, ponders, “Why do they need to bring women in when they have someone as beautiful as me?”

The second interview segment is from the end of the episode. Piper and Brooks, who just wrestled, join Wiskowski. Rowdy Roddy is sweating buckets and I regret we don’t have available footage from the match, which records show had Adrian Adonis and Ron Starr as the opposing duo. The schtick is heavy here. Rose brings a wheelbarrow to the elevated broadcast position to carry all the belts the quartet currently holds.

This is the oldest footage we have with Rose and Piper together in Portland. It’s striking that Piper, who has never been confused for a titan in the ring, has a good couple inches’ height advantage over Rose. Piper is only 24 years old here, and Rose leads him through the interview to some degree, circling him back a couple of times to hype his tag title match on the upcoming Tuesday. Rose also hands out a challenge for an eight-man elimination tag on next week’s program: Rose, Wiskowski, Piper, and Brooks (or “Brooksie” as Piper calls him, which is adorable) against “the four best Don Owen can find.”

4/7/79

We get a real treat here with the full elimination tag match set up on the prior episode. But first, an interview with the heels, who call themselves “the Fearsome Foursome.” They’re taking on Adonis, Starr, George Wells, and Hector Guerrero.

That wheelbarrow for the bad guys’ belts got a lot lighter in the past week. Adonis and Starr dethroned Piper and Brooks as tag champs the previous Tuesday, and have the belts. Meanwhile, Frank Bonnema mentions that Rose and Wiskowski lost their world titles the previous Monday night in Dallas. If you say so …

The match itself is a precursor to the elimination tags that the WWF made well-known with the Survivor Series pay-per-view. The first few Survivor Series consisted entirely of matches with this structure: multiple falls, and the loser of the fall has to go to the locker room. This isn’t the first match of its type in American wrestling history, but there’s a good chance it’s the oldest footage of a match of its kind. It’s certainly the oldest complete footage of a four on four elimination tag. We’re also treated to Adonis and Piper on opposite sides; they famously link up again about eight years later for Piper’s first retirement, at WrestleMania III.

The ensuing match lasts about 30 minutes, and it’s an “all killer, no filler” type of wrestling match. Having so many people involved and the ability to tag in and out means the eight wrestlers maintain a fast pace for the entirety.

Piper’s star shines brightly here, especially early. During introductions, he insists on playing his bagpipes — and Rose appeases the wrestling gods by clapping his hands and stomping his feet like he’s at a hootenanny and not a wrestling show in the Pacific Northwest. Piper starts out against Guerrero, who looks incredibly young, small, and thin here, but none of that matters when the bell rings, as Piper does a fabulous job throwing himself around the ring to make Hector look good. Once Piper does get in a little offense, he promptly whiffs on a dropkick to the delight of the Portland Sports Arena regulars. Guerrero and Wells take turns working on Piper’s arm. The actual holds don’t look like much but Piper’s facial expressions as he sells those holds? They’re everything.

Piper finally makes the tag to Rose, which leads to Wiskowski. Neither is in the match long but what ensues is an effective snapshot of what makes those two so effective in their role in the territory. They win most of their matches that really matter, few of which so far actually have made tape; those get saved more for the non-televised Tuesday shows in Portland. They’re vicious and use those tactics to put various opponents out of action. They’re also willing to lose more on TV than probably most headliners would in that era — definitely in this era — and they’re pretty generous overall in making themselves look foolish to delight the fans and get support behind their foes. There’s a great example of that here. Rose charges headlong into taking a series of bumps from Starr. Addled, he quickly tags out to Wiskowski, who trades strikes with Starr until the fan favorite gets the upper hand, sending Wiskowski sprawling with a blow that sends him flying backward and landing on his face. It’s an exaggerated sell that both defies the laws of physics and makes perfect sense in the context of the match, and Portland.

For all the schtick and the discombobulation on the heel side, Rose and company gain and keep the advantage throughout. Wells gets eliminated first, splashing Rose and going for the pin only to have Wiskowski deliver his diving headbutt — an established sure-fire finisher in the territory by now, leaving Wells easy prey to get pinned by the Playboy. Then Guerrero gets the gate after taking a series of double-team moves from Piper and Brooks, who show good continuity as a pair. The odds are against Adonis and Starr but the newly crowned tag champs come out full of fire in the third fall. After just a couple of minutes of action, Starr hits Brooks with a Russian legsweep. Wiskowski launches with another diving headbutt… why not? it worked in the first fall. This time, Wiskowski mistakenly hits Brooks, who gets pinned.

Piper and Brooks are none too pleased with that outcome, and the friendly collaboration between the two heel tag teams disintegrates. They start brawling with one another, and after Piper gets tossed to the floor, Rose and Wiskowski double team Brooks with a maneuver that looks like an ancestor to Demolition’s tag finisher:

You can see Piper re-entering the ring at the end of that gif, and his reaction upon seeing his partner waylayed is practically Shakespearean. Rose and Wiskowski, meanwhile, celebrate their deed in an interview with Bonnema between falls. “I broke his neck, I heard it snap!” is said with glee. As if they weren’t established enough as villains in the territory, Rose and Wiskowski refuse to go back out for any other falls — with Piper ostensibly tending to the injured Brooks, a fair two-on-two fight loses its luster.

Final word: This is a fantastic match and the best thing yet in this journey of watching Portland footage. Piper is fantastic, Rose is his usual highly entertaining self, and there’s historic value as well given it’s a complete four-on-four elimination tag from 1979. Take 40 minutes out of your day and watch it.

This is just the tip of the iceberg on the footage from 1979, so I’m excited to watch the feud between Piper and Rose develop.

Next Week: More from April of 1979. Until then, we’ll keep watching, From the Crow’s Nest.

Miss an entry? Check out the full index of Portland Wrestling reviews.

From the Crow’s Nest: 1978

From the Crow’s Nest: 1978

Our journey through the Portland Wrestling territory turns the calendar from 1977 to 1978.

Unfortunately, footage from this year is pretty sparse. We’ve got two partial episodes from the first quarter of the year, one interview with Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskowski, and … that’s it. Luckily, all of that footage is available for general consumption on YouTube.

2/18/78

Another partial episode, and once again, the dastardly duo of Rose and Wiskowski take center stage. Jesse Ventura is the hero du jour going against the duo. Most of these Saturday night episodes of TV serve as a vehicle to promote the upcoming Tuesday card happening in Portland, and that’s the case again here. Wins come by pin, submission, or both feet hitting the floor. The hook this time? Ventura is going to take on Rose, and has put up $5,000 against $1,000 for Rose to make the match happen. And Wiskowski is going to be the special referee. I’m not sure how this is fair for Ventura, but …

Our existing footage includes the main event of the episode, with Rose and Wiskowski defending their tag titles against Skip Young and Jerry Oates. It’s been about two and a half months since our last available episode, and there are notable physical changes for the two villains; Rose has leaned up and Wiskowski. Oates, meanwhile, comes out in a drabby sweatshirt that makes him look like a middle school gym teacher.

This marks the last footage of Young in Portland for the next while, and it’s his best yet. I maintain he would have been a great fit in modern wrestling. There’s a great exchange with Rose where they trade slams, then leap frogs, ending with a gorgeous dropkick but Young. Rose looks sharp in this match as well, and he’s back to taking those cartoonish slipping-on-a-banana-peel bumps on his punches.

One quality that stands out in Portland matches, and Rose matches in particular, is that he makes opponents pay for repeating the same move or tactic on him multiple times. There’s a fine instance of that here. Oates spends nearly the entire first fall working in or around a headlock, usually on Rose. On Oates’ third attempt to catch Rose in a headlock takeover, the Playboy blocks it and counters with a back suplex. A kneedrop straight to the face makes for a believable end to the fall, and puts the rulebreakers up 1-0.

In between falls, Frank Bonnema interviews Ventura from the crow’s nest. This is pretty standard fare but it feels like a treasured hysterical artifact, where we get a look at Ventura as a fan favorite in a territory.

In Portland, the wrestlers involved in the previous fall automatically start the next one, and that doesn’t play out well for Oates. Rose quickly seizes the upper hand and Oates spends the majority of the fall getting roughed up by the champs. There’s a fantastic moment in this fall, after Skip tags in, when he hits Rose with a jumping headbutt. Rose instinctively goes to keep over, but Young grabs him to prevent the collapse so he can exact more punishment. Oates ends up back in, avoids a flying knee drop from Wiskowski and then ensnares him in a spinning toe hold to get the submission. The crowd loves it, and Wiskowski sells the toehold like he’s having his lower body fed into a wood chipper. Verily, the Wrestling Gods are appeased …

Time for the third fall. Skip hits a swanky bit of offense when, while standing, he leaps and puts both knees in Rose’s head at once. There’s a move available to bring back for any current wrestlers reading this, who also have the hops to do it. You can feel the war of attrition in this fall. The challengers focus on Wiskowski’s knee, vulnerable after the submission in the second fall. The champions target Skip’s shoulder after he misses on a corner shoulder tackle and collides with the turnbuckles. The fans chant “We want Skip!” with gusto but the combined assault on Young’s arm is too much and referee Sandy Barr stops the match for injury, as Young becomes the latest arm injury casualty at the hands of Rose.

This was a very good match, and one of the better in-ring offerings yet in this journey through the Portland footage.

2/25/78

Next, we get another crow’s nest interview from the following week, with Rose and Wiskowski. The villains are reveling in recent results. Rose got the win over Ventura in that singles match and crows about the result. Later, Rose and Wiskowski come back to the broadcast position, gloating about Skip Young and his dislocated shoulder at their hands. These two are really the engine that propels the territory at this point. Other wrestlers cycle in and out to try and stop them, and ultimately, everyone has come up short to this point. At the same time, Rose and Wiskowski stumble and bumble and, in Rose’s case, bleed to make the protagonists look strong. The three-fall format for TV main events also helps, as the two rulebreakers can eat a pin or submit to drop an individual fall, but without losing the overall match, maintaining their status in the hierarchy while also providing hope that this time, their challengers definitely have what it takes to dethrone them.

3/4/78

Another week of Portland TV and another Tuesday card to hype, this time headlined by Rose and Wiskowski defending the tag titles against Jimmy Snuka and Ventura. There’s a tandem where I really would like to see some footage of that duo in action. Oh well. Ed Wiskowski is still gloating about he and Rose taking out Skip Young. This and the two interview segments from the week before are all fine but they are also rather similar. They’ve had better promos previously on other episodes.

It’s not the main event of this episode, but the other surviving footage puts Rose against Snuka. You had me at hello. This is very much a TV match, in that they’re saving much of the actual fight between them for the crowd at the non-televised event on Tuesday in Portland. The match itself is pretty forgettable, but if you’re a current wrestler, watching what Rose does is highly recommended because he puts on a master class in how to stall and work a crowd. Rose is interacting directly with many of the old timers in the front row, a lot of whom were season ticket holders at these Portland TV tapings. Rose eventually asks the ringside fans to be quiet, so naturally they go louder.

This crowd work lasts about three minutes before Roae finally engages Snuka in the ring, nearly gets caught in a flash in, and then bails out and goes back into a stall. Delicious.

Snuka is still on an ascent at this point and I find it hard to accurately describe how explosive his movements are unless you can watch the matches for yourself. He hits a gorgeous armdrag on Rose, transitions into a hold, and then lifts Rose up off the mat while still having him in the hold and slams him down to the mat. Once the initial gaga subsided, everything was 95% Snuka until Rose cut him off as he ascended to the top rope and slams him off the corner. Any control Rose has is short lived. He tries to come off the top as well and gets caught by Snuka, In the rally, Snuka delivers a jumping headbutt that Rose sells with a wild leaping bump that both makes no sense and is highly entertaining. It’s a peak example of how suspension of disbelief can be a vital component to full enjoyment of this weird, wacky medium.

One factor that makes Rose so effective as a headlining villain is that he has the skills to back up his boasts. He scouts and anticipates repeat attacks, and he has a maddening level of ring awareness. Exhibit A: Snuka delivers a pretty awkward-looking piledriver, but Rose gets a foot in the ropes on the pin attempt. Exhibit B: Snuka applies his full nelson, which submitted Rose back in December, and he immediately scrambles to the ropes, then does so again on a second attempt by Snuka on the hold, barely reaching the bottom rope with his foot.

Time expires in a draw result that let a bit telegraphed, and each man’s partner comes out for a staredown. Rose and Wiskowski against Snuka and Ventura feels like the fever dream of a wrestling game simulator. Frank Bonnema gleefully proclaims “we’re going behind the barn!” as they face off. Not sure what that means, but I like it.

Unfortunately, this is all the footage available in 1978. Rose and Wiskowski drop the tag titles to Ventura and Oates a few weeks later. Rose loses a stretcher match to Ventura and cycles in and out of Portland for the rest of the year. What time he does spend back in Portland later in 1978 is often under a hood, as either The Masked Marvel or The Avenger. Wiskowski remains more of a constant for Don Owen. He loses the territory’s singles title to Oates in May, wins it back, then loses it to Jonathan Boyd in August. Boyd remains the champ as we roll into 1979, when a certain Rowdy Scot is already well-established in the territory.

Check out the full index of entries in the From the Crow’s Nest series.

From the Crow’s Nest: December, 1977

From the Crow’s Nest: December, 1977

Back in the saddle with more Portland action. In this installment, we close the book on 1977 with this footage from December that also serves as a refresh of the roster.

I’ve included what is available on YouTube from the December, 1977 footage. However, if you want to make sure you’ve got access to everything I am watching as part of this project, I highly recommend supporting this Patreon account, which has a veritable treasure trove of old wrestling available.

December 3, 1977

Just a heads up that, depending on where you look online, footage from this episode is mis-listed as from November 26. Also, the video quality from this episode tends to range from “not great” to “piss poor.”

Frank Bonnema interviews returning fan favorite Johnny Eagles from England, dubbing Eagles as the man of a thousand moves. Eagles is one wrestler I have very little familiarity with, and while he came in and out of Portland with some regularity, there is not a lot of surviving footage of him in action — although he will be included on the next installment. Eagles brags on how strong the wrestling is in Portland, which is a recurring theme on commentary and in interviews with mainstays like Dutch Savage. A wrestling company that uses good wrestling as a cornerstone of its marketing approach … bananas!

The other existing footage from this episode catches the tail end of the main event: a two out of three falls match pitting Lonnie Mayne and Sam Oliver Bass (that’s Ron Bass, for those of you who haven’t been following along [and if not, there’s a handy dandy index!]) against Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskowski. The tag titles, which have been vacated since the last episode when Mayne agreed to team with Bass to defend them, are on the line and there are two referees: Savage inside the ring, and Sandy Barr at ringside.

This is also the final available Portland footage we have of Mayne, who dies the following August in a single-vehicle car accident. His manic, reckless-looking style is on display here, both in the ring and later on the mic. Wiskowski Irish whips Lonnie into a neutral corner, and Mayne takes a wild-looking bump to the floor, then comes up bloody. Back into the ring, and Wiskowski unloads on Mayne with a series of diving headbutts (I counted six of them). Rose and Wiskowski aren’t through and start swinging on everyone, including both referees. A melee ensues, during which Mayne opens up an absolute gusher of a cut on Rose. By the time the fight breaks up, Mayne and Bass (and Savage, for some reason) are standing tall while Rose looks like a murder victim.

Frank interviews both teams from his crow’s nest, and we get some of the best promos yet of this time period. Promoter Don Owen sets a rematch for the tag titles on Tuesday, and raises the stakes to make it losers leave town. Rose is absolutely covered in blood for this interview, and it really adds to the interview as Rose and Wiskowski rant and rave at this latest outrage perpetrated against them by management. Frank Bonnema then has an all-timer of a segue to the commercial between interviews, observing the blood that thoroughly coats the floor and then noting “You can clean up if you’re looking for a used car.”

Mayne and Bass are next, and Maybe spends the whole interview chewing on and swallowing broken glass. We’ve seen other wrestlers do this and apparently it’s an established part of Mayne’s schtick because it’s treated with a sense of impending doom, as if to say … “Lonnie’s not screwing around, he’s got the glass out again!”

Mayne and Bass go on to lose the non-televised rematch and cycle out of the territory.

There’s not much meat here as far as the wrestling action, but the blood and chaos and good interviews make for a highly enjoyable watch.

December 10, 1977

All we have from this episode is the second and third falls of the main event. Rose and Wiskowski, tag champs once more, take on Skip Young and Jimmy Snuka in a non-title match. Snuka is another guy who came into Portland several times in the 1970s and, as mentioned on a previous episode, now is going by his “Superfly” moniker. A review of results from 1977 show that Snuka has been in the territory for almost a month on this current run, but this is the first in-ring footage we have.

Snuka spends most of this on the apron while Skip does the bulk of the work and the selling for Rose and Wiskowski. When Snuka does tag in, the heels make him look like a million bucks. Wiskowski takes some big bumps from Snuka when he makes the tag in the second fall, which ends shortly thereafter to tie the match on a slick quick pin by Skip. In the third fall, another hot tag to Snuka sees him put away Rose in fairly short order with the “Fiji Island Full Nelson.”

Rose’s selling is consistently great but he sells beautifully in this match and the following interview. He projects an air of grievance that permeates his words, facial expressions, and physical reactions. It’s as if the world is against him in Portland wrestling, and Rose has to suffer for it almost weekly as a result. A couple of moments I particularly liked… A brief beat between falls where, on his way to the locker room, Snuka pops Rose as he leaves the ringside area and Rose sells it as if he’s just been seared in the face with a hot iron. Then after the match, an anguished Rose seeks out comfort from Wiskowski. Sporting a large bandage on his forehead that is likely the consequence of his artery tapper last week, Rose proclaims “They’d have had to kill me to make me give up” had the titles been on the line. The heels then engage in some casual racism — mostly from Wiskowski, sheesh — before a title match gets set for next week’s TV program. Sadly, footage of that one appears lost to the sands of time.

So 1977 is in the books, and there’s little debate that Buddy Rose is the MVP of the territory. If you are not familiar with Rose, I highly recommend seeking out some of the footage in this and prior installments to get a feel for his matches, his persona and the general atmosphere of Portland wrestling.

Up Next: We tackle what little footage that exists from 1978 in one single review.

Miss an entry? Check out the full list of From the Crow’s Nest series on our Portland Wrestling page.

From the Crow’s Nest: Bass, Mayne Unite

From the Crow’s Nest: Bass, Mayne Unite

Welcome to the third installment of From the Crow’s Nest, a series of articles looking back at Pacific Northwest Wrestling and the history of wrestling in Portland, Oregon.

In this week’s installment, we cover available footage from November of 1977. Most of the footage comes from a pair of episodes, two weeks apart. You can find everything in this installment on YouTube and I’ve embedded a playlist at the bottom of this article.

November 5, 1977

We’re two weeks removed from the rather fantastic angle and turn involving Sam Oliver Bass (aka Ron Bass), Buddy Rose, and Ed Wiskowski. Bass and Rose faced each other on last week’s episode, which is not available, but we get this entertaining rematch., which also recycles the trope of Rose wrestling a match with a fan favorite positioned as the special referee, although Dutch Savage isn’t nearly as entertaining in that role as Jonathan Boyd was for Rose’s match with Jay Youngblood back in September.

Savage promptly kicks out Wiskowski from ringside, on the threat of disqualifying Rose if Ed doesn’t skedaddle. Bass focuses in on the left arm of Rose, who submits to what Frank Bonnema calls an arm scissors. Rose gets minimal offense in this fall, it’s minimal. He spends much of the fall begging off and running away, which only serves to make Bass come off that much stronger.

After the usual mix of live-to-tape and pre-recorded commercials for sponsors (Tom Peterson has 20 Monte Carlos on the lot for $5,400 each!), Bonnema interviews Wiskowski, who has a match on the upcoming loop against Savage for the heavyweight singles title. What ensues is a very good example of how to do a promo as a confident and arrogant heel wrestler without making your foe look weak.

Rose comes out for the second hall and honors the wrestling gods by still selling the arm. He’s back to stalling and running away, before finally getting the upper hand in Bass after a spot you’ve seen thousands of times: the heel lures their foe into a chase around the ringside area, then cuts off his opponent when they go back into the ring. Rose targets the back of Bass and levels the match on his version of the backbreaker, which has been established in Portland as a strong finisher.

Between falls, Bonnema interviews the plucky babyface duo of Skip Young and Gino Hernandez. I found it interesting that, to me, Gino comes off like a long-lost member of the Von Erich family in what footage of him exists from Portland.

The third fall is brief and high energy, like many of these best of three falls main events tend to be as the show is usually running short on time by this point. Bass kicks out of another backbreaker by Rose and makes his comeback, capped by a punch with some extra mustard that Rose sells with his trademark slipped-on-a-banana-peel bump. While Savage scolds Bass for the punches, Rose comes up bleeding. The match ends shortly thereafter, with Wiskowski coming out to attack Savage and add some heat to their upcoming title match.

This is all pretty good, but we’ve already seen much better so far in this project.

After the match, Savage heads to the crow’s nest and tells Bonnema he’s putting Rose in a cage match against Bass the coming Tuesday. He cites “Don Owen’s power of attorney.” Bonnema’s subsequent verbal gymnastics to justify a wrestler having the authority to book this match come off pretty funny, which is likely not the intended effect. Rose’s reaction is pretty great — full of bloodstained outrage as Wiskowski proclaims, “he is a human being!” The promo work by the heels is good enough to make me wish that footage of the cage match existed.

November 19, 1977

The video quality of this episode is pretty poor, so be prepared.

It’s been a busy two weeks in Portland. Wiskowski has dethroned Savage as the heavyweight champ. Bass and Anson remain the tag champs, but in footage from this episode that apparently has been lost to the sands of time, Anson suffers an injury that’s going to put him on the shelf. This plot point anchors what footage survived from this week.

The main event is a rematch of last month’s great bout between Rose and Mayne. This is still good but doesn’t come close to the energy and crowd heat of the October match. After Mayne wins a pretty straightforward first fall with his flying knee drop, which does not evoke vomit this time — Rose just sells like he’s dead — Bonnema reviews the upcoming seven-day (!) loop.

Next we hear from Bass about the tag title situation. He’s down a partner now and championship matches have been booked on the upcoming loop. Bass’ straightforward, relatable delivery works here.

This is an outlier main event for Portland, as it ends in two straight falls. There’s some noteworthy improvisation that takes place around an equipment malfunction, when Mayne fires Rose across the ring and the impact breaks the top rope. Each wrestler attempts to use the dislodged turnbuckle against the other. Rose wins the fall with his back breaker but stays on the attack, to the point Sandy Barr disqualifies Rose and reverses the decision. Bass comes to make the save for Mayne, so you can probably guess where things are leading.

There’s still time in the episode so we get some filler content. First up an interview with Savage, who becomes more unlikable the more footage I watch of him. He engages in some very dry mockery of Anson for his injury, shits on the San Francisco territory, and then starts talking about his son’s high school football team.

These episodes fall into a certain predictable rhythm. As part of that rhythm, Bonnema has one or two plugs a week about how to get tickets. He seems borderline frustrated at having to explain time and time again, but I find it charming how the best way to get them is to go to the referee’s stand at the flea market.

Next, Gino Hernandez wrestles Skip Young in a standby match which, if you’ve watched old wrestling previously, usually means that the competitors go out there and durdle until the time limit expires. This match follows that pattern. Even Bonnema can’t disguise his boredom, referring to the usually vocal Portland Sports Arena crowd as “quiet but enjoying.” This is a snooze for sure, but at least the matchup is unique.

We conclude with Mayne joining Bonnema in the crow’s nest, only for Bass to interrupt and ask the Moondog to be his partner. As simple as much of the storytelling in Portland can be, there’s no attempt to insult the audience’s intelligence. Bass openly acknowledges the past hostile history with Mayne, saying “I thought this day would never come.” Mayne dons Bass’ cowboy hat as the answer, and we’ve got a new tag team.

Up Next: We wrap up 1977 with a look at the available footage from December.

Miss Something?: Check out the full index of articles in the From the Crow’s Nest series.

From the Crow’s Nest: Bloody Brawls from Rose, Mayne, Bass

From the Crow’s Nest: Bloody Brawls from Rose, Mayne, Bass

Welcome to the second installment of From the Crow’s Nest, a series of articles looking back at Pacific Northwest Wrestling and the history of wrestling in Portland, Oregon.

In this week’s installment, we cover available footage from October of 1977. It’s a pretty good haul for this month, with at least some footage from three out of four episodes in the month from the Saturday night Portland TV show. Most of the footage is on YouTube and is embedded at the end of this article. The video quality on some of this is pretty poor, but the action holds up.

October 1, 1977

Gino Hernandez vs. John Anson

We pick up in the early stages of a match between Anson, who is one half of the tag champs with Sam Oliver Bass (you know him better as Outlaw Ron Bass), and a very young Gino. This is, to my knowledge, the earliest existing footage of Hernandez and seeing him as a plucky young babyface is quite the change of pace considering he’s best known from his years as an arrogant heel for various promotions in Texas.

Like the two out of three falls match between Buddy Rose and Jay Youngblood, a good bit of this match is based around the headlock — only there’s far less sizzle as this encounter lacks both the crowd engagement or the type of selling Rose does in the hold. I wouldn’t call this a good match, but it’s decent and gets significant time. It feels like desperation when Anson starts throwing headbutts, and at one point the two start trading fatigued punches from their knees. Gino comes close to scoring the win a few times, reminiscent of a modern-day New Japan match with a young lion going against a wrestler on the main roster. Hernandez and Anson go the distance, and in the aftermath, commentator Frank Bonnema waxes on how much wrestling in the territory has improved in the past decade.

2/3 Falls: Lonnie Mayne vs. Buddy Rose

This is, in my opinion, the first great match in this project. What makes it great? It encapsulates the entire style of the promotion, and, to a greater extent, wrestling in the 1970s. It’s gritty, brutal, and bloody. It also matches up the territory’s biggest fan favorite in Mayne against Rose, unquestionably the most hated man in Portland.

There’s a story here, and you don’t need to have a literature degree to understand it. Rose has kept hurting other wrestlers in the territory. Mayne, who was friends with many of those injured, wants revenge.

Mayne and Rose get right down to business, with Rose trying for a cheap shot while still wearing his entrance robe. Mayne cuts him off and Rose pays the price. Mere seconds later, Mayne launches off the top with a nasty-looking flying knee drop that catches Rose square in the stomach for the pin to end the first fall. Rose doubles over and vomits in the ring after the fact — which is either proof that knee was very snug or a supreme moment of selling by Rose to be able to vomit on cue. I don’t know which is true, and I actually enjoy the uncertainty.

The little touches elevate what happens between the ropes. In the introduction to this series, I wrote about the unique setting of the Portland Sports Arena, with many fans who come out every week for the TV shows. This creates a level of investment from the crowd that is hard to replicate and even harder to truly explain unless you see it for yourself. After the first fall, Mayne picks up some little girl on his way back to the locker room and no one bats an eye at it. Heading into the second fall, one of the several old ladies who sit in the front row starts chasing Rose around the ring with her cane. Then Mayne takes her cane and tries to use it on Rose. After Rose takes the second fall, bloodying Mayne in the process, fans flock to Mayne as he sits slumped in the corner waiting the third fall; encouraging pats on the back ensue and someone even offers Mayne their drink.

By now, blood (and vomit) have been spilled, creating a heat and hatred for the third fall that feels visceral. A mistake by Rose leads Mayne to attack his arm, looking to make good on last week’s vow to break the arm of the Playboy. Mayne is so relentless that he shoves and then punches referee Sandy Barr when he attempts to intercede, getting himself disqualified. The attack continues around the ringside area until Rose retreats to Bonnema’s crow’s nest broadcast position. I enjoyed this quite a bit, while the main purpose is to serve a street fight rematch between the two a few days later that, sadly, was not televised.

October 8, 1977

Buddy Rose vs. Cocoa Samoa

This is a rematch from their TV bout back in August. Rose does his best Gorgeous George impression in the pre-match, meticulously folding his T-shirt as part of an extended stall. Cocoa ensnares Rose in a headlock and wrenches on it, like Youngblood did last month. Once again, the way Rose sells this is everything. When Cocoa takes down Rose, the Playboy tries to reverse into a pin with a handful of tights but the granny at ringside is on the case, hollering at the referee. Rose attacks the arm of yet another opponent and hooks what looks like a modified kimura to get the submission. Neat.

Mayne is set to wrestle Ed Wiskowski, Rose’s partner, in the main event but that match is absent from the surviving footage. What we do get is a 10-man battle royal for $1,000. Considering that promoter Don Owen tended to maintain a tight crew, this is probably the entire active roster in Portland at that time. The highly invested crowd makes this a fun watch and Gino Hernandez gets a chance to shine as one of the final wrestlers left standing — and takes a pretty spectacular plummet to the concrete floor on his elimination.

October 22, 1977

Dutch Savage, Lonnie Mayne & Skip Young vs. Buddy Rose, Ed Wiskowski & Sam Oliver Bass

Frank Bonnema sets the scene, mentioning some issues between Bass and Rose when they teamed together at a recent event. The theme of dissension is established and plays out in what looks more like a comedic farce on stage than a wrestling match at times. Rose and Wiskowski leave Bass hanging to start the match and, on two occasions in the first fall, Bass gets drilled by mistake by one of his partners. Later, when Savage is working over Bass’ left arm, Rose and Wiskowski deliberately pull back as Bass reaches for the tag. The crowd hoots, hollers, and applauds with delight at each of these moments, and Bass’ facial expressions and body language project his increasing sense of frustration and fury. Despite all the issues within their team, the rulebreakers score the first fall when Wiskowski catches Skip Young with his diving headbutt, a strongly established finishing move in the territory.

After the usual round of live-to-tape commercials between falls (buy a Pinto for $1,000!), we’re back and the dissension between Bass and Rose and Wiskowski continues. Another miscue — this time Rose accidentally dropkicking Bass — leaves him prey to get pinned by Skip and even the match at one fall apiece. The heel team falls apart, with Rose and Wiskowski assaulting Bass. What had, to that point, been played often for laughs turns deadly serious as Bass gets turned into a bloody mess.

Make that a very bloody mess.

It’s an effective beatdown, showing there’s no honor among thieves for the heels in Portland — or, at least, when it comes to Rose and Wiskowski. The break between falls really gives this attack time to breathe. Bonnema interviews Mayne, whose disgust at what happened to Bass adds extra zest to a delicious bit of business. I also greatly enjoyed the little touch by Rose before the third fall, smearing Bass’ blood into the mat with his boots. The third fall is reduced to a straight two on two tag, with Savage and Skip the opposition, and time expires fairly quickly in the fall. That’s all precursor to the post match, when Rose and Wiskowski go to the crow’s nest for an interview and a blood-soaked, bandaged Bass attacks! The crowd is molten hot for this as Bass slams Rose on the wooden commentary desk. Bass is out for blood and vengeance and demands a match with Rose on next week’s episode. The footage of that is unavailable, but it makes you want to tune in next week regardless, and isn’t that the point of any wrestling show — or TV show, period?

Somewhat lost in the shuffle of this blood-soaked tale of dissension: this is the debut in the Portland footage of Skip Young. When you think about wrestlers from prior decades who would have succeeded in the current era, Young definitely classifies. I could see him being a great fit for any modern promotion. He gets a few months to shine here: most notably, in the short second fall, when he busts out an impressive high leapfrog, then a sweet standing dropkick, and kips up ready to keep bringing the fight. Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of Skip Young in this territory, but some enjoyable matches lie ahead nonetheless…

Check out the full list of From the Crow’s Nest entries.