Buddy Rose Snippet Reviews #2

Savage/Mayne/Skip Young v Rose/Wiskowski/Sam Bass 2/3 falls - Oct 22, 1977 

Sandy Barr's kid does the ring announcing and couldn't be more nervous. First fall is great with tons of schtick. Rose keeps trying to come in when they have an advantage on Savage, but he slips the lock right after the tag. After Rose accidentily kicks Bass in the corner we get a ton of dissension to the point where Bass goes to a neutral corner. The first fall ends with him taking a tag from Ed and they double team Skip Young to set him up for Wiskowski's diving headbutt. Very amusing stuff like always. Really great character work too. Mayne doesn't even come in.

Second fall starts with some babyface domination before the heels take over on Skip Young. Buddy's offense is great. Just nasty little stuff. Fall ends with Buddy dropkicking Bass by accident and Young getting the pin. Buddy and Ed almost immediately take over on an irate Bass in order to save their skins including the diving headbutt and a gusher of a bladejob. It's just a wildly bloody mauling with great flailing selling by Bass.

Mayne flips a coin with the others and sits out for the third fall so it's 2 on 2. The heels keep on Young until they make the mistake of slamming his head in the corner which allows the faces to take over. They maul the heals until Buddy and Ed are squirming together in the corner, Dutch shouting for one of them to come out and wrestle. It's a bit back and forth til the end where Young is in control of Rose leading to the time limit draw. Strong stuff again with a great mid match angle/turn.

Buddy Rose vs Sam Bass 2/3 Falls - Nov 5, 1977 

This is pretty awesome. First fall is Bass just dissecting Buddy's arm. They had a match the week before so this is hateful but not in a brawling sort of a way. It's more to show Bass' superiority and to keep Rose from running away. Just a brutal mauling of the arm til he gets the first fall. Second fall is Buddy running while selling. Cheapshotting while selling. And then starting to work over the back. He's really good at that and it sets up the Billy Robinson Backbreaker for a completely believable second fall despite the first fall's mauling. Third fall is Buddy getting busted open and stumbling around on the outside while scratching his head dazed. It's actually really great and ends with special ref Dutch Savage tossing him in repeatedly til Ed comes out and nails Savage leading not just to a DQ but more importantly letting Dutch offer Bass his newly created cyclone fence cage. Great storytelling to set up the blowoff cage match.

Really great Wiskowski promo postmatch complaining about the cage.

Rose vs Lonnie Mayne 2/3 Falls - Nov 19, 1977.

I really like this first fall. Mayne follows up on what Bass did and is really dogged on Buddy's arm. But he loses focus being a moondog and all, allowing Buddy to take over working on Lonnie's arm. Lonnie gets him to the outside and takes back over as it's his natural habitat. He gets Buddy back in and hits the bombs away for the fall. It's straightforward stuff but really well worked. 

Second fall has the turnbuckle fall apart creating a fun aura of craziness, which lets Buddy take over. There's a bit of a KOTM with Buddy not letting Mayne back in. He wears him down with some pretty good looking offense until he hits the Billy Robinson backbreaker for the pin. After the fall, Buddy keeps on Mayne until Sandy Barr (the ref) tries to stop him. Buddy nails him leading to reversed decision. Buddy keeps punishing Mayne until Bass runs in.

What I think we're getting from this the most is how great a TV wrestler Buddy was at this time. He wasn't just doing this but he was doing it week in and week out setting up arena matches, carrying on feuds through his ring work, and wrestling some very different opponents.