Going Old School: Portland Wrestling – The Owen Family 60th Anniversary Extravaganza 5.21.85

May 21st 1985 was the most important day in Pacific Northwest Wrestling history. The Northwest had seen its share of exciting things pertaining to professional wrestling and had broken ground and paved the way for many promotions across the country. In 1949 Don Owen, the son of Herb Owen, who had been promoter of Portland Wrestling since 1925 taped the very first professional wrestling program ever to hit the airwaves anywhere in the world. It was a landmark achievement and led to the formation of many other professional wrestling television shows, but it was one of very few that was broadcast live. Portland Wrestling had been a part of the NWA since it’s inception in 1947 and would be the last remaining of the original member promotions, lasting five years longer than the next longest when it closed its doors in 1992. Don Owen brought Portland Wrestling into its golden age during the 1960’s, 70’s and early 80’s but not without the help of his sons Barry and Mark or his brother Elton. In 1985, to celebrate the contributions of the Owen family to professional wrestling in the Pacific Northwest, Portland Wrestling put on this show. It was the biggest super card in the history of the promotion, and the very last time that wrestlers from the AWA, WWF and NWA would wrestle together on the same show and just two months after WrestleMania.

May 21st 1985 from the Portland Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon in front of an estimated crowd of 13,000 fans.

Portland Wrestling – The Owen Family 60th Anniversary Extravaganza

The host of the event is Don Coss.

Roddy Piper vs. “Playboy” Buddy Rose

Rose came out first accompanied by the “Playgirls” who are nothing but average looking broads with cheap bunny ears on. “A” for effort though because it worked for the weirdness of Rose at the time. Piper was second out and got a huge reaction from the fans, I’m talking a Von Erich’s in Dallas level pop. Normally this type of thing isn’t that unusual, but remember, it’s May 1985, two months after WrestleMania and Roddy Piper is the most hated man in the entire wrestling world. Portland LOVES him here however and mauls him as he makes his way to the ring. Rose was also under WWF contract at the time as he had also wrestled at WrestleMania under a mask as The Executioner. The Rose vs. Piper feud goes all the way back to 1979 when Rose and Ed Wiskoski turned on Piper and “Killer” Tim Brooks setting up what would become the most legendary feud in the history of Portland Wrestling. The two would feud for the better part of 1979 and 1980 before going their separate ways. This would turn out to be their last match against one another and no doubt the biggest in terms of importance.

The match itself started with classic Buddy Rose style stalling, including the removal of his robe by the “Playgirls”. It took all of 5 seconds after the robe was off for Piper to move in on Rose and turn it into a classic Roddy Piper style brawl and honestly one of his best. The crowd was Dallas level hot for this match and didn’t let up. It seemed to me watching this match that Piper and Rose picked up right where they left off in the early eighties. Eventually they make their way to the floor where they end up finding a water pitcher and turning that into a weapon. The match really did exactly what it was supposed to do; capitalize on the heat and popularity of the Piper vs. Rose feud with a good old fashioned grudge style brawl. The match comes to an end when Rose goes for a superplex, but Piper turns it into a flying body press for the three count. A really fun match that energized the crowd and both Rose and Piper clearly knew that this was the best way to work this match.

Winner: Roddy Piper
Match Rating: **½

Don Coss is out with Tom Peterson who was the top sponsor of Portland Wrestling for over 20 years. It would be his unfortunate turn into Bankruptcy that would ultimately lead to Portland Wrestling losing it’s TV contract and thus folding six months afterward.

Kendo Nagasaki vs. Sgt. Slaughter

This was the classic patriot vs. foreigner xenophobic type booking we saw all across North America during the 1980’s, thankfully that card was not played on Coss’ commentary as it was in other promotions. At this point in time Slaughter was working for Verne Gagne and the AWA while Nagasaki was working for Eddie Graham and Championship Wrestling from Florida. Huge USA chants bring Slaughter out. You’d think he was Bill Walton or Clyde Drexler the way the crowd is reacting. At one point Coss says there’s “excitement in the air” which to any fan of Portland Wrestling is a nice little tribute to Moondog Lonnie Mayne (who ATE GLASS at a show once), who used to use that as his catchphrase before his death in 1978. Nagasaki is accompanied by Mega Maharishi, who is an “enlightened” Ed Wiskoski in a robe.

The match itself starts off extremely slow as both of them appear to blow up rather early on and take a heck of a lot of breaks. The overall feel of the match is blown when they take turns outside of the ring. This isn’t a seesaw guys, get with it. Eventually once things started rolling it was all Nagasaki with Slaughter selling the beat down fairly well, which was a nice change of pace considering the first part of the match. They worked in a few rest holds and Nagasaki beat him down some more. My happiness quickly faded however when Slaughter does one of the sloppiest recoveries I’ve seen from him and magically starts no selling all of Kendo’s offense. Speaking of “kendo’s” Mega Maharishi jumps in the ring with a kendo stick… living the gimmick right? He goes to hit Slaughter with the kendo stick, but in true old school fashion, Slaughter ducks and Nagasaki takes the blow and Slaughter hit’s a mean looking clothesline for the three count. Match was very uneven and they looked really lazy at points which was too bad. You can tell the fans felt it too as their reaction to the finish wasn’t what it should have been.

Winner: Sgt. Slaughter
Match Rating: *¼

Don Coss interviews another worthless guy who means nothing to wrestling. They really blew it with this stuff as they could have had interviews with mic-work genius’ like Piper, Rose, Slaughter and Flair. This one is KPTV Program Director Gordon White who talks about the history of Portland Wrestling on that channel and makes mention of a 70th Anniversary show in ten years. It’s too bad that would be three whole years from happening.

AWA Tag Team Championship: The Road Warriors © w/Paul Ellering vs. Larry “The Ax” and Curt Hennig

Interesting thing is that around this time, Verne Gagne had as of yet failed to see the promise of The Road Warriors as faces for the AWA, but it’s very clear listening to the reaction of the crowd that they are the baby faces in this match and the Hennig‘s the heels. Verne would, lucky for him, come to his senses soon after this, but not entirely as he actually tried to push the Freebirds as the baby faces in their feud before seeing the writing on the wall and changing things around a bit. It’s interesting to see the ring as the crowd has basically stormed the ring and are pressing up against it like a mob to get closer to the Road Warriors. Gagne must have really been paying attention.

The match was a standard Road Warriors match complete with no selling and tests of strength, specifically with Larry Hennig, who plays a game of “who’s the toughest” with Hawk. Curt Hennig was the real MVP of this match as he did a phenomenal job of selling and made Hawk and Animal look like monster when he sold their offense like it was death. A really great spot happened as Curt went for a victory roll and got an unbelievable amount of air and almost botched the move, but was able to pull off the move like a real pro. It didn’t take long before the match would get into formula territory, but it would be a good formula. Eventually Curt Hennig starts to get somewhat of an advantage, so Ellering rushes in and a triple team beat down commenced on Curt while Larry was recouping on the outside. Referee Sandy Barr DQ’s the Road Warriors for this heel-like move, proving yet again that Gagne really believed The Road Warriors should have been heels. Billy Jack Haynes comes in and saves Curt from further attacks to a huge reaction from the crowd. Good match, and about as good a Road Warriors match as there was to be had in 1985. They’d learn how to work a match a little better about a year down the road from this show, but their beat down were just brutal here and they were obvious stars.

Winners: The Road Warriors
Match Rating: **¾

Don Coss is out with another sponsor and they blow another opportunity to showcase the amazing level of talent that they had on this show.

AWA World Heavyweight Championship: Rick Martel © vs. “Mean” Mike Miller

“Mean” Mike Miller was the top heel in Portland Wrestling at the time of this show and the NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Champion. Rick Martel was no stranger to Portland as he had wrestled in Portland during the earliest part of his career, a good five years before this show. He was a top baby face and well liked at that time and actually managed to become a three-time NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Champion with Roddy Piper as his partner. His time in Portland ended when he lost a “Loser Leaves Town” match to Buddy Rose in August of 1980. It’s a regular reunion of that era of Portland Wrestling.

Miller starts the match by stalling, which is something I normally enjoy as it can become quite the art (see Michael Hayes, Buddy Rose and Larry Zbyszko for how to stall), but Miller just isn’t convincing in his stalling. He stalls and stalls until finally Martel is able to connect with him at which point Miller no sells Martel’s offense. Martel ends up being on the receiving end of what would become his finisher later in his career with a Boston Crab. It’s strange seeing him on the receiving end of that move. Despite Miller’s lack of selling, Martel tried very hard to make the match work, but Miller was just obviously not at his level. It was actually during this period that Miller was on top in Portland that would see it take it’s first real downturn. Is there a connection between the two? Small Package wins the match for Martel. Not a great match, but Martel was still perfecting his craft and he was paired with somebody who wasn’t prepared to put on a match at the level Martel was.

Winner: Rick Martel
Match Rating: *

NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Ric Flair © vs. Billy Jack Haynes

This was just before Billy Jack Haynes would go on to his greatest fame with the WWF. Flair of course was about a four time champion by this point, so it was still early and really the 80’s might have been the in-ring peak of Flair’s career and we’re smack dab in the middle of it here. Haynes was Portland’s current top baby face and you can tell by how the crowd reacts to him. Strangely I would have just cringed, because Haynes comes to the ring to the worst entrance music I’ve ever heard. Seriously, I cannot from all the wrestling I’ve seen in my life remember a song worse than this being used as ring entrance music. Yes, even all of the stuff WCW had in around 1992 was better than this. It may even be a popular recognizable song, if so, wow, just… wow. Enough of the theme music, this match has a 45 minute time limit.

Haynes does a fantastic job at working in the power game against the dirty tactics of Flair while making the entire exchange look believable. Flair was the perfect guy to work against Haynes’ style at this time. He worked a style much like a Nikita Koloff. Flair is classic Ric Flair and wrestles like it was Starrcade and it meant something. I like the way that the match flowed as Haynes was able to get in his power moves but Flair always seemed to have a counter. It was very back and forth and I’d say that if there was a formula I’d like to see for power vs. technical, this match would be one that is a must-see. Flair gets busted open late into the match around the 35 minute mark while Haynes works on the leg and neck. Flair sells the areas Haynes focuses on brilliantly. It’s matches like this, where Flair wasn’t around those that mattered to his career, that he was still wrestling these awesome matches that shows why he was so great in his prime. The ring announcer announces one minute left on the clock as Haynes locks in the full nelson. Flair battles and the time limit expires. This version of the match is cut down a bit from the full match, but I can see the greatness written on it.

Winner: Ric Flair
Match Rating ***¾

The 411: This show gets a strong recommendation from me simply because of the historical significance. No longer would be see the cooperation between the three biggest pro wrestling companies in America. Aside from the historical significance, the show has one really good match in the main event and the last of the classic Rose vs. Piper feud which is plenty to make it worthwhile. The rest is interesting simply as old school spectacle, but nothing that is can’t miss besides the bookends of the show.

Final Score:  7.0   [ Good ]