Tag: George Wells

From the Crow’s Nest: Piper Gets Heat

From the Crow’s Nest: Piper Gets Heat

Here’s some of the footage we’ll be covering in this installment, all from the April 21, 1979 episode of Portland Wrestling. If you want to make sure you have access to all the Portland wrestling covered in these pieces, I recommend signing up for this Patreon. Tons of Portland and other great old-school wrestling content.

Roddy Piper finds himself in a curious spot in Portland. He remains the Pacific Northwest Wrestling Heavyweight Champion — the top singles title in the territory. He still, in many ways, wrestles and acts like a heel. He’s also seeking revenge on Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskowski for injuring “his Brooksie”, Killer Tim Brooks, a couple of weeks ago.

On this episode of Portland TV, Piper is a villain, through and through. For at least a week, the rivalry with Rose and Wiskowski is forgotten.

All thanks to Vicki Williams.

Women’s wrestlers were much fewer in number in the late 1970s, for various reasons. Portland’s been promoting them throughout the past month of TV as a special touring attraction. In this case, Williams and Judy Martin have been making the rounds. The first footage from the episode sees Piper and Vicki in the middle of bickering from the crow’s nest broadcast position. Piper (and Rose, for that matter) went on record for weeks prior how women didn’t deserve to be in the ring. The segment opens in mid-argument, with insults flying and fingers pointing. The crowd is rowdy and rambunctious, the usual for Portland Sports Arena, until Williams calls Piper a boy.

And that’s when Piper snaps. He lunges and grabs Williams by the hair and the crowd goes stone silent. Every ensuing word from Piper, every syllable is clearly audible as he throttles Vicki in his grips and ultimately throws her down. The most surprising thing about this entire segment is that Frank Bonnema, the broadcaster, doesn’t intercede or even say one negative word about Piper’s actions.

This is a short segment but it’s worth studying in detail, especially if you’re in wrestling, or act, or any kind of performance art. Watch how, once Piper grabs Williams, he makes the most out of every gesture. Every motion. Every word. He projects a sense of bullying malice that makes you want to see him face revenge — a violent one, exacted with swiftness.

Later in the episode, we get another fragment of a segment, this one with Piper, Williams, and Ron Starr. He’s got a problem with the way Piper treated Vicky and lays down the challenge for a mixed tag match. Piper lunges at Vicky again, only this time Starr grabs Piper from behind, leaving him vulnerable to a big slap from Vicki. The crowd loved this, and the mixed tag match evidently is made for the following Tuesday in Portland, which is where the territory sets several of its key matches — all, sadly, not televised.

The rest of this episode’s footage includes Rose and Wiskowski. First up, an interview about their simmering rivalry with Stan Stasiak. Wiskowski, who’s made a habit of making some uncomfortable comments in his promos (especially by 21st century standards), proclaims he learned Stasiak isn’t Polish; he’s Yugoslavian.

Burn, I guess?

In the only match on this episode, Rose and Wiskowski face Stasiak and George Wells two out of three falls. The match itself is not great, but it’s a fun snapshot of Portland Sports Arena crowds, and how easy they are. I’ve yet to encounter another wrestling audience that does some of the things Portland fans in this era do: such as count along like punches in the corner or face first turnbuckle smashes when a fan favorite wrestler is wrenching a hold on the heel.

Rose has so much personality here. There’s a legitimately funny beat early in the match when Stasiak has Wiskowski in a hold, Rose wanders down the apron to jaw at some of the grannies in the front row, and misses an attempted tag by his partner. Generally speaking, the Portland crowd in these 1970s episodes is highly engaged. They also really understand wrestling. They recognize holds and, in this match, they’re howling for blood when Rose and Wiskowski switch in and out without making an actual tag. It’s a level of investment that is refreshing.

Stasiak as a fan favorite here is certainly a change from his work in the Northeast this decade for WWWF. He seems to be legitimately enjoying himself, and shows fire and motivation. Late in the second fall, he slugs away on Wiskowski like it’s last call at the Double Deuce. The match goes to a third fall, as per usual, and time is short, also per usual, but the footage ends without the conclusion of the match.

While this contest takes up the bulk of the surviving content from this episode, the segments with Piper and Williams — especially the first one — steal the show. In this case, less definitely is more.

On to the next episode, and the month of May 1979, where there’s a good amount of available Portland wrestling to watch.

Check out all full index of content on Portland wrestling.

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.