Tag: Roddy Piper

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: Adios, Hector

From the Crow’s Nest: Adios, Hector

When you’re watching territorial wrestling footage from nearly five decades ago, located in a relative distant outpost for the business, you’ve got to take what source material you can get. Given that the vast majority of the surviving footage from Portland wrestling in the late 1970s came from the actual tape collection of Buddy Rose, that means that there’s a hearty helping of Rose on these episodes.

That’s not a bad thing. I feel like I’ve waxed poetic on the greatness of Rose, who I consider among the best wrestlers of all time, and maybe the most underrated.

The bulk of the footage available from the April 14, 1979 episode of Portland TV, sees Rose take on a young Hector Guerrero. It’s an undercard match, so it’s one fall to a finish unlike the usual two out of three fall format for main events on the Portland program.

This is also the final match for Hector in Portland, period, for reasons that are made quite clear after the match. He still looks like a kid thanks to that haircut (pictured below) but he’s actually about six years into his career.

This might be the Portland exit for Guerrero, but Rose seems determined to send him out looking strong, because the Playboy spends the vast majority of the match selling and feeding. For all the fat jokes about Rose, to the point he goes into some deep schtick about it later in his career when he is substantially heavier, he’s in great ring shape. He runs the ropes and feeds into arm drags more effectively than hundreds of wrestlers I can think of who look more athletic.

Hector works the left arm of Rose relentlessly, with everything from an arm wringer to an arm scissors to, briefly, the setup for a modern-day mixed martial arts armbar. On one of the few occasions where Rose gains the upper hand and flings Guerrero for a backdrop, Hector nimbly lands on his feet to oohs and ahhs from the Portland crowd, in a spot that had to feel spectacular by the standards of 1979 and was still pretty nifty by the standards of 2026. Nothing Rose does seems to keep Hector down for long… until he catches a flying cross body and drops Guerrero across an outstretched knee for a backbreaker. An inside backbreaker follows, and Rose scores a decisive pin. After the bell, Rose and his running buddy Ed Wiskowski double team Guerrero and hit the same knee drop from a backbreaker setup that put Killer Brooks on the shelf the previous week. The referee disqualifies Rose, who doesn’t seem bothered. He grabs the house mic from Don Owen and proclaims, with no small amount of glee, “I heard his neck snap!” as Guerrero is carried out of the arena, never to be seen again in Portland.

There are entertaining nuggets in this, and several things young wrestlers can borrow (the word we use instead of “steal” in any creative or performative endeavor), but the structure is too disjointed to call it a good match.

Up next, we get a Roddy Piper interview from the Crow’s Nest, and Piper is beside himself after seeing Rose and Wiskowski take out someone else with the same tactic they used to injure Brooks, or, as Piper calls him, “my Brooksie.” Adorable. Piper is borderline manic here. He’s talking way too fast but you already see the presence that goes on to make him one of the major stars in wrestling during the pop culture boom of the mid 1980s, and arguably the first major crossover star in American wrestling. It’s in the eye contact, and the conviction of his words. Even here, years before his peak fame, Piper stares into the camera, using it as a vessel to connect to the viewer, doing everything but reaching through the screen, grabbing you by the shoulders, and throttling you until you believe.

Piper also spends some of this time running down the women’s wrestlers passing through the territory and Vicki Williams in particular. There’s an interesting level of nuance here, a shade of grey usually absent from the black or white, hero or villain booking of traditional wrestling. While Piper continues to position himself as the next nemesis to Rose, he simultaneously with his words on Williams embodies unfiltered, ugly misogyny with a microphone — and taking that stance to a much higher level in our next installment.

A couple of other interviews from the Crow’s Nest wrap the footage from this episode.

First up, current tag champs and fan favorites du jour Adrian Adonis and Ron Starr. I appreciated the continuity here — they find Brooks’ injury last week unfortunate, but it’s from the company he chose to keep — and Starr in particular had a good delivery, but the other material is so cringe-worthy I won’t even summarize it.

Finally, Rose and Wiskowski return to the Crow’s Nest with Wiskowski selling the heart punch from Stan Stasiak, a former WWWF (the predecessor to WWF or WWE) world champion who’s been appearing sporadically in Portland since the mid 1960s. Rose has Stasiak one on one next week. After seeing several Stasiak matches from earlier this decade when he was younger and presumably more spry, the prospect of a Stasiak singles match here doesn’t excite me, even if it is against Rose. We do get a tag match featuring Stasiak and Rose on opposite sides, and that’s the centerpiece of our next review.

Check out all our reviews and articles on Portland wrestling.

365 Wrestling, Day 5: 8 Man Tag (Pacific Northwest Wrestling, 1/5/80)

365 Wrestling, Day 5: 8 Man Tag (Pacific Northwest Wrestling, 1/5/80)

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

Do you enjoy watching good wrestling? Are you a wrestler looking to improve? If you can answer yes to either question, then I have one piece of advice: watch more Buddy Rose.

Today, we’re taking a look at a two out of three falls tag match from Portland in January 5, 1980 featuring Rose — Pacific Northwest Wrestling’s top heel at the time — teaming with the Kiwi Sheepherders, Butch Miller and Luke Williams (you may know them better as the Bushwhackers), and Sam Oliver Bass (better known as Outlaw Ron Bass). Their opponents are the quartet of Roddy Piper, Rick Martel, Dutch Savage, and Stan Stasiak. You can find this match on YouTube, or embedded below:

Part 1
Part 2

The Match

Portland weekly TV at the time was structured around long matches, many of them two out of three falls with sponsor plugs and interviews between falls. This match follows that formula. It’s also the latest chapter in a feud between Rose and Piper that began the prior spring. Rose has recruited Bass and the Sheepherders to his “Army.” The shenanigans between Rose and Piper in 1979 included Rose, in an act of sublime dastardly heeldom, setting fire to Piper’s kilt from the Crow’s Nest broadcasters’ position while the Rowdy Scot was part of a tag match. Fun fact, PNW pre-taped its TV show at the time, but fans watching thought it was happening live and called the fire department.

Piper’s team consists of Martel, who is new on the scene in Portland; Savage, a mainstay in PNW and one of the promoters of the territory; and Stasiak, best known for his “heart punch” and being the man who dropped the WWF Title to Bruno Sammartino to begin Bruno’s second reign as champion. By this point, Stasiak is in the twilight of his career.

The booking here accomplishes three goals, which is an impressive juggling act. First, building Martel for an imminent shot at Harley Race and the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Title. Second, to advance the feud between Piper and Rose. Third, to establish Rose’s Army as a force.

Most of the action is basic pro wrestling you’ve seen a thousand times, but it’s all done well and the crowd is red-hot for the first fall, which lasts more than 20 minutes. Rose is involved on the three big highlights of the match: a rapidly-paced exchange with Piper in the opening minutes, taking a Martel Irish whip into the opposite corner where he throws himself headlong above the turnbuckles to smash into a long pole extending from the ringpost, and then, in the second fall, feeding into a late hot tag by Martel, who busts out a huracanrana (in 1980!!!) as part of his comeback.

Rose sells for everybody in this one, whether it be an exaggerated bump on the apron after Savage punches him, or reacting to Stasiak’s “reverse pumphandle armbar”, as Frank Bonnema calls it, like he’s being interrogated in a medieval torture device. This match loses quite a bit of steam heading into the second fall and the intensity continues to diminish — the opposite of what you want — with the minute-by-minute calls of ring announcer Don Owen (the promoter of the territory), making a time-limit draw finish as obvious as a flashing neon sign.

Final Rating: 6.0

This one is definitely worth seeking out to watch. You get a good look at a highly-energized Piper, the Sheepherders with a distinctly different look, and Bass in his prime. The star, though, is Rose. Rose shines in the style of the Portland territory, thanks to his combination of tremendous promos, meticulous mannerisms in the ring, and bumping heedlessly to make his opponents look like a million bucks. I assure you, this won’t be the only time you see Rose on this list.

What’s Next

Two of the top female wrestlers of the 2000s battle in a No DQ brouhaha.

Here’s the complete, ongoing list of matches in this project.

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