The only thing worse than an obnoxious braggart is an obnoxious braggart who can back up their words. Buddy Rose tapped into this in the Portland territory, to great success.
Rose doesn’t look like an athlete — so much so that commentator Frank Bonnema regularly calls him the Pillsbury Doughboy of the territory. And yet Rose possessed a nimble quickness and athleticism that belie his frame. Time and time again, Rose finds himself in a seemingly impossible match, and time and time again, Rose escapes with the victory. He loses falls. He bleeds, sometimes in buckets. But he prevails. And it’s that unsinkable quality that simultaneously makes him so reviled by Portland fans of the era and, in hindsight, so valuable to watch, learn from, and enjoy.
Here’s the readily available footage we’re watching in this installment. If you want to make sure you don’t miss anything, I once again encourage subscribing to this Patreon.
5/26/79
For years now, Rose and Ed Wiskowski have been the top villainous duo in Portland. Here, they’re the self-proclaimed world tag champions, holding belts I don’t recognize in a reign I find no record of. This type of thing was common in this era, and something I could see Rose pulling if his career had extended into the Internet age. Show me an online poll where Rose would be one of the chances and I’ll show you the Vegas Playboy trying to gimmick the results for his own aggrandizement. Wiskowski is the highlight here, proclaiming himself a direct descendant of Polish royalty and insists fans in the Pacific Northwest “bow down to the prince.” Rose also brags about winning $600 at the horse track that day, which is a nice real-life detail. He’s easier to hate because of his success.
The centerpiece of this week’s footage is the match between Rose and Johnny Eagles. which, like most main events in Portland, is two out of three falls. There’s minimal footage out there of Eagles, an English wrestler dubbed here as “the Houdini of the mat” and his ability to escape holds is the focal point of this match. Eagles catches Rose unawares to win the first fall in seconds, to the delight of the mainstays in the Portland Sports Arena crowd.
The second fall showcases Eagles’ counters to holds and, if you’ve watched CHIKARA or World of Sport, most of what you see is going to be familiar. Rose plays a willing and at times hapless foil to Eagles, who remains a step ahead of the Vegas Playboy. At one point, Frank Bonnema proclaims Eagles has “more moves than a pound of Exlax.” This is meant to be a positive. Eagles has the slick counters but, here in Portland, Rose is the established ace, even though Roddy Piper still holds the heavyweight championship. It takes rule breaking and brawling, but Rose ties the match at a fall apiece, then makes quick work of Eagles in the third fall to secure the victory. Rose gives up the technical edge, but once again, the braggart backs up his words and scores a win.
And that’s when things get really interesting. Killer Tim Brooks, who’s still seeking revenge from what Rose and Wiskowski did to him back in April and made his big return last week, storms the ring with a dog collar and chain in hand and takes it right to Rose. A couple of punches with the chain wrapped around his fist draw blood from Rose, and we’re just getting started. Brooks wraps the chain around Rose’s neck and drags him from the ring all the way up to the crow’s nest, where he proceeds hammering down blows until Brooks gets what he wants — a “Dog Fight” match on next week’s show. Brooks leaves, and Rose is still selling the chain with some spectacular gags, retches, and heaves.
This brings us directly to…
6/2/79
In the span of a couple months in 1979, Portland has thrown some more match variety at fans in its television than major televised promotions do today. Consider this. In April, we saw a four-on-four elimination tag that is likely the earliest match of its type with surviving footage. Last week, we got Rose and Roddy Piper in a lumberjack match. And now, a dog collar match, a gimmick that Piper made famous a few years later with his amazing and brutal showdown with Greg Valentine at the original Starrcade.
There’s not enough substance here to call this a good match, but a bloody spectacle that is well worth watching. It starts with Rose, who’s determined to stall, run, and do whatever he can to avoid getting that collar around his neck. He threatens to leave the territory forever if this match airs on TV. Then, he tries to bail out only to have Piper block his retreat to the dressing room. Frank Bonnema, meanwhile, adds to the presentation, describing 32 sharpened spikes on both collars. Is this combined? Per collar? Either way it sounds intimidating, as would any quantity of “sharpened spikes.”
When Piper cuts off the exit, Rose backpedals right into the grasp of Brooks, who hooks the collar around him. Rose has some fantastic facial expressions — whether Brooks chokes him with the chain or whips him with it. Anything goes here, including an exchange of low blows. Brooks wraps the chain around his fist and clocks Rose, who comes up gushing blood. Brooks runs the chain around the head wound on Rose, pictured at the top of this piece, and then bites on him. Blood spreads to Rose’s stomach, his legs, and the canvas. There’s a great moment where Brooks decks Rose, and the ensuing torque on the chain tweaks Brooks’ neck injury from a couple months back.
Things break down fully (if they weren’t chaotic enough) when Wiskowski jumps into the ring with a chair. Piper comes to even the odds. Ensuing interviews in the crow’s nest set up a tag team cage match for the following Tuesday in Portland. Add it to the lengthening list of seemingly great matches in this territory that took place on the non-televised Tuesday shows.
Results show that these two teams split cage matches in the ensuing week: that Tuesday in Portland and the next night in Seattle. This is the last time Wiskowski appears in Portland for the near future, leaving Rose in search of a new running buddy… who we’ll meet in the next installment.
In Moore House Wrestling 