- Steve Petersen  

One fan's Portland Memories Top 10 List Pt. 2

5. PIPER VERSUS LUKE WILLIAMS IN A HAIR MATCH
 
Piper and Martel were involved in a war with Buddy Rose and his army.  Finally, Piper agreed to meet one of them in a hair match.  Luke Williams got the assignment and of course Rose and his cohorts were ringside.  Good match, a ref bump, allows Rose to give Williams a chair, and when Williams goes to hit Piper, Piper counters with a dropkick, covers, and ref Sandy

Barr makes the count from outside of the ring. Pandemonium and a haircut follow.  The Sheeps at the time had very long hair and the facial expressions of Luke as the wrestlers held him down and shaved his hair were priceless.  Soon Butch and Buddy would lose their locks to Piper as well. 

Number 4  SCHULTZ-ROSE TOO VIOLENT FOR TV  

In a memorable heel versus heel feud Rose and Schultz were going at each other hammer and tong, with blood running like a river.  The viewers were tipped off that there would be some videotape evidence of the intensity of their feud, but the entire match could not be shown on TV.  Right before the clip aired, Dutch Savage came out and once again warned people that this clip was too violent to be shown on TV, and he warned the viewer that it was a little bloody.  Announcer Frank Bonnema said that he had nothing more to add and said roll the tape.  For once the clip lived up to the hype.  It was bloody and most of the fight was on the floor where they bashed each other with chairs, Schultz piledrove Rose on the concrete and nearly all of the undercard came out to break it up and were greeted by chairshots.  The last shot was of Rose sitting on the concrete in a pool of his own blood, Sandy Barr and security all looking disgusted, and some large women yelling at Buddy Rose to 'Call his mother."  

Number 3 SNUKA & SAVAGE-ROYAL KANGAROOS BLOODBATH 

When I was twelve, we moved from the town I had lived in my whole life to a new town.  In my old town Sixth Grade was the highest grade in elementary school.  In the new town, Sixth Grade was the lowest rung on the middle school ladder.  Needless to say, it was an adjustment.  Two good things came out of this.  One, I discovered Bruce Springsteen and two I found Portland Wrestling.
 
I had seen Portland Wrestling before.  I was, however, much more used to the Superstar Wrestling promotion of Dean Silverstone.  When we moved to our new town there was another 'new' kid starting school the same day as I.  The difference was he was merely switching schools, he had been asked to leave the other middle school in the district, over anger issues.  We became friends, a friendship we maintain to this day.  One Saturday he had me over with a bunch of other kids to play football.  The day went on and I continued to hang out at his house and after our game was over we moved on and played strat-o-matic baseball and then the old electronic football with the vibrating field.  Day moved into evening and he asked a couple of us to spend the night. 

Sorry for the digression, the kids at this sleepover were true marks and they were all talking about Big Time Wrestling.  When it came on there was a warm up match of one fall and then the main event.  This was a feud that was going on for quite a spell and this night did not disappoint and we were into the match from the start.  Blood flowed and the match several times

worked its way out into the crowd, which was rare at the time and practically non-existent in this territory.  Snuka and Savage got the first fall and the Kangs took the second.  The third fall was back and forth, every time the faces took control the heels would do something sneaky and cheap to wrest control back.  At one point with all four men battling in the ring, ref Sandy Barr was returning Savage to his corner, when Jonathon Boyd pulled out a boomerang, as Norman Frederick Charles held Snuka, Boyd brought it down, not once, not twice, but three times, knocking Snuka cold and Charles fell on him for the one, two, three.  More...