Thursday, December 12, 2013

Buddy Rose Snippet Reviews #1

Buddy Rose vs Jay Youngblood - 2/3 Falls - 1977 - Special Ref: Jonathan Boyd

First fall is absolutely hilarious. Jay's almost an afterthought in this thing, to the point where the fans are chanting "We Want Jay" when he's right there, in the ring. Boyd stymies Rose at every point. Fast counts against him. Slow counts for him. Allowing hair pulling by Jay. Funniest wrestling you'll see all day. The fall ends with a lightning fast rope running segment. Second fall is Buddy mauling Jay with great looking offense finishing with the Billy Robinson backbreaker. Third fall is an almost immediate DQ as Buddy gets fed up. Hugely entertaining.

Buddy Rose vs Adrian Adonis - 2/3 Falls - 9/8/78 - Rip Rogers is Handcuffed to Steve Pardee

Babyface Adonis is so weird to watch. This is a lot of fun, though. First fall is very back and forth with some holds and reversals, a decent amount of shtick, cool legwork from Rose, Adonis sort of no selling it, Pardee being the equalizer to prevent Buddy from taking a powder after the come back, and a great looking pinfall after a missed haymaker by Rose. Second fall is an extremely long front facelock segment that's worked very, very well. Lots of comebacks and slow and steady wearing down as Buddy finally sets up the Neckbreaker only taking too much time to go for the pinfall afterwards. Finish is Pardee forcing a missed top rope move by Buddy which isn't the best choice maybe, but Rose loses two straight falls in this and STILL ends up extremely protected. Very good stuff.

Buddy Rose vs Moondog Lonnie Mayne - 2/3 Falls - 10/1/77

A blood affair as proto-DeBeers interferes in a great timed spot in the second fall, slamming Mayne's head on the corner. He gets color and Buddy spends the rest of the fall targetting the cut, pinpointing, wearing him down until he gets the pin. First Fall is all lightning quick and all shtick around the fall and last one is all comeback, and all to set up the streetfight the following Tuesday, but it's Buddy so it's all hugely entertaining stuff.

Buddy vs Dr. D David Schultz, Cage match, Maybe 8/21/82?

Buddy just makes every heel a face, huh? Anyway, this is fun. If Buddy loses he's gone forever, plus Oliver is chained to Hack Sawyer outside the cage. Pretty simple stuff at the beginning with Buddy getting mauled, but he makes it look great. Gets color early. The transition is him hitting a low blow which I think is a great, straightforward, logical use of the no dq stip. That's what Buddy WOULD do all the time if given a chance. He uses the cage pretty well and Schultz starts bleeding. That's when Buddy attacks the wound again. He really good at this. Very fun come back as Schultz outsmarts Rose, landing on his feet on a top rope move and just takes it to him. Finish is a bit bullshitty. If there's an enforcer chained to the heel's associate, it's kind of weak to have him made to look like an ass so that the associate can toss his buddy a special weapon. It get that it ratchets up the heat. I assume they were building to some bigger match for the Tuesday show. 

Still, this was good past that.

Buddy vs Cocoa Samoa, Either September or October 8, 1977.

I'm watching this specifically with the little things in mind and he does pretty great with it. Lots of small things. Slamming his own head on the mat an extra time after taking a back flop. Grabbing hold of the hair to get leverage during a kick out. The way his arms move when he's in a headlock. Samoa actually does a good job selling the arm and Buddy's armwork is varied and interesting and he really grinds when he has a hold on and also sells the attempts to fight out of it by Cocoa. It's a simple little heel as protagonist match (act 1: Stalling. Act 2: face catching him and taking over. Act 3: Armwork, cut off come back, submission finish) but well worked, certainly.

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