Tag: Gino Hernandez

From the Crow’s Nest: October, 1977

From the Crow’s Nest: October, 1977

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…

365 Wrestling, Day 27: Chris Adams vs. Gino Hernandez (World Class, 1/27/86)

365 Wrestling, Day 27: Chris Adams vs. Gino Hernandez (World Class, 1/27/86)

365 match reviews, one for each date on the yearly calendar? Challenge accepted. Welcome to 365 Wrestling.

Some wrestlers are just meant to be the bad guy. Gino Hernandez is one of them.

Hernandez is in my personal pantheon of the most effective heels in wrestling. He oozed arrogance, wasn’t afraid to let his opponent get their comeuppance (working multiple head-shaving angles during his career), and had one of those intrinsic qualities in a wrestling villain: he made you want to see him take an ass-kicking.

Much like another standout of the territorial era of wrestling, Hernandez doesn’t get his just due. He’s best known for his work in three territories — World Class, Southwest Championship Wrestling and Mid-South — and while all three definitely are worth watching, they have less following than other major promotions of the era: the WWF, Jim Crockett Promotions and the AWA. Had Hernandez not died suddenly at the age of 28 (and more on that later), I feel his joining one of these companies would have been inevitable, and then, who knows?

Today we take a look at Hernandez’s final match before his death, a grudge match against former partner Chris Adams from World Class’ Wrestling Star Wars event on January 26, 1986.

You can find this match on YouTube.

The Match

As the Dynamic Duo (a team name Hernandez also used for his pairing with Tully Blanchard in Southwest), Adams and Hernandez won the NWA American Tag Titles in World Class on two occasions. They replaced the Freebirds as World Class’ top villains in 1984, moving right into a feud with the Von Erichs and headlining at the Cotton Bowl in the fall of 1985, where they lost a hair vs. hair match. Soon thereafter, Gino turned on Adams, setting the stage for a feud between former partners. This was their first match –and, as it turns out, only match — since the split.

The psychology around this match is great, and something modern wrestling should look at. In a grudge match, it generally doesn’t make sense to come out and lock up collar and elbow with your hated rival. Or chain wrestle. This match has none of that. Adams comes at Hernandez with fists flying before the official starting bell. Gino begs off as the Fort Worth crowd howls for blood, as he keeps taking a beating. I especially love his woozy punch-drunk swing at nothing after getting thrown headfirst into the top turnbuckle.

Rage quickly trumps discretion. Each man goes for bigger moves off the second rope and, each time, that backfires. One of these misses sets up the finish, as Adams hits a back body drop (have I mentioned I’m a sucker for a good one of these), then clocks Gino with his superkick. The crowd erupts and Hernandez sells it like he got clocked on the jaw with a hammer, rolling semi-conscious out to the floor. Did I mention all this happens before the five-minute call in the match?

Adams has the match won but pulls up Gino from a decisive pin attempt twice. After this second reprieve, following a piledriver, Hernandez goes for the shortcut… a bottle of “Freebird hair cream” at ringside. This is a great example of long-term storytelling, a well-established piece of the World Class mythos with an unknown list of ingredients but powerful hair-removing quality. Gino takes the cream and puts it into the eyes of Adams, who drops to the mat like he’d been burned with wildfire. There’s a nice touch where the referee promptly removes his shirt, trying to rub the licentious lotion out of the eyes of the Englishman. This is a repeat of the same angle the Freebirds had run with Junkyard Dog in different territories

Final Rating: 6.8

This match is an excellent example that, sometimes, less is more. Not every major match has to be a lengthy epic containing multiple false finishes. Bell to bell, this match is well under the 10-minute mark but Adams and Hernandez make the most out of every second they have in the ring. The stage is set for a tantalizing feud between the former partners but Hernandez died just a few days later, with his body being discovered February 4 in his apartment after he missed several dates for World Class.

His cause of death was listed as a drug overdose but the circumstances have remained under scrutiny, especially after the “Dark Side of the Ring” episode on Hernandez.

Up Next

We head to the Los Angeles territory.

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