How good was Rose, well, the Sheepherders, the Butch and Luke variety, went FACE against Rose and it worked, and these guys were, IIRC career heels, except for their dreadful Bushwhacker run.  After the Kiwis left, a young upstart named Matt Borne was starting out.  Matt was the son of Tough Tony Borne and he had grown up at the Sports Arena, so now he was wrestling in front of people who had watched him grow up.  Rose got him over, turned him heel, turned him face and back again so many times that it made a person dizzy trying to keep up, but anyone who has ever seen Borne wrestle knows that he is very underrated, and is always a good show.  Well, it was Rose who first got him over and showed him how to be a heel.

One of my personal favorite runs for a face in the NW was when Jay Youngblood returned in the early 80's.  Youngblood had been here before, and he had a decent run, working mostly in the middle of the card.  When he returned, after having tremendous success elsewhere he was put into a program with Rose.  This was a classic, in fact during this period the Northwest got a new belt, the story was Rose paid for it, because he threw the old belt off a bridge rather than surrender it to Youngblood.  Of course when he presented it to Youngblood, he cracked him over the head with it. Rose also took to mocking Youngblood's heritage by wearing a war bonnet to the ring himself.  There was also a memorable triple piledriver angle, where Rose and the army  triple piledrove Youngblood's dad three separate times one night.  Then mocked the family from the Crow's Nest while Jay waited for a stretcher.  IIRC this was the most successful single run Jay ever had in his career.

There were other great feuds, Adonis, Starr, Rocky Johnson, later with the Southern Rockers and Beetlejuice, to fully tell the story of Rose one would HAVE to write a book, which ain't a bad idea, hint, hint.  But Buddy, wherever you are, and whatever you are doing, thank you a million times over.

NEXT MONTH:

For my man Jeff, The Al Madril Story