Rose obviously lost the hair match vs Piper as he has a mask with a wig on it. It's amazingly awesome. Buddy takes a powder to begin and they start doing their stuff. Martel out-athleticisms Rose in a wrestling exchange. Buddy jumps outside again and tries to calm the hot crowd down. I love watching these two run the ropes. Buddy gets the advantage with a drop toe hold. He looks ridiculous with the mask and does a really killer elevated leglock before slapping on a nasty cross-legged toehold. He puts his weight down upon it and loads up his forearm for the crowd before nailing him. Martel's really selling this. Buddy's stuff is so good here and the payoff is amazing as Martel goes for the wig to get out only to get punched in the leg. Buddy follows up with a bunch of brutal kicks and leg dives and then an Indian Deathlock. Great stuff. I love that they went almost right to the heat in this first fall. After really working it, Martel rolls over to reverse it and it's a much cooler looking visual than a normal figure four reversal. Buddy flips it back over and locks it in again though he has a harder time keeping his shoulders up this time. Again, great stuff. Martel jams his palm against Buddy's chin to force him down and it's actually a pretty dynamic hope spot, especially once it starts to let him unload and escape. He's selling the leg huge though and it lets Buddy keep right on him. Bonnema goes on about the people Buddy has crippled and it's very effective announcing. Buddy goes for another leglock but Martel rolls him up for a hope cradle. Buddy has ton of varied and solid looking leg offense and this is all quite compelling. Buddy wrenches the leg and Martel desperately goes to anything to get out but can't.
Buddy goes for another butt drop on the leg in the ropes but Martel moves in a good callback spot into what looked like it'd be a transition but Martel goes for an atomic drop and jams his own bad leg in the process selling it like death. Buddy pulls him out and slams his leg twice into the ringpost then hits a beauty of a shin breaker and slaps on an immediate half crab for the fall. This was a great promise for the rest of the match. It wasn't as dynamic as a lot of other first falls I've seen in Portland because there wasn't much of a shine and no real comeback to speak of but it was super focused and created a mood and feel for the next falls.
Second fall starts with an announcement that despite the damage to his leg, Martel will continue the match. He limps down to the ring. Buddy shoots for the leg from the get go and Martel dances back. After a minute or so Buddy scores a great takedown and scissors up the leg. Buddy puts on another half crab but Martel is under the ropes. Buddy's relentless with a damaging blows until he drags Martel out again to slam the leg into the pole but Martel, on the second attempt, grabs Buddy's head and slams it into the pole. Martel, pissed off, rolls out after Buddy instead of taking the sure thing count out and picks him up, slamming his back into the pole. He's selling the leg really well throughout, between every single blow he lays in on Buddy's back. Great performance. He slams his back into the post again and the crowd is unglued here. Martel keeps limping in to break the count so he can do more damage.
He finally rolls him back in and hits some great elbow drops, selling after each one. Crowd is still nuts as Martel does axehandle after axehandle into the spine. He's just demolishing him but he's doing one of the best sell-jobs-on-offense I've ever seen. He finally puts on the Boston Crab on and Buddy gives it up. Awesome, awesome comeback.
Third fall has Martel taking the fight right to Buddy. He whips him into the corner and stumbles around clubbering the back. He hits a big backbreaker but uses his right leg so he doesn't hurt himself like last time. He's still selling after almost every shot though and it slow him down enough that Buddy can try to fight back but Martel hits a belly to back to reverse an attempt at a stalling headlock. Martel is dogged on the back until Buddy rakes the eyes but can't hit a slam due to his back hurting. The crowd goes nuts and even more so as Martel locks on an Abdominal stretch, but Rose grabs the hair and gets out quickly. Martel comes back quickly and wears him down a bit more before going for the mask. They end up with Buddy on the floor and Martel in the ring and he gets it off but the camera cuts to the Sheepherders coming in to cover him up. The live fans get to see it but the TV crowd doesn't. Buddy runs to the back and gets counted out and you know, I like it even if it's not exactly "Sports-driven" and is a little wonky. It was a great story driven finish that played perfectly into Buddy's character and was a very, very clear victory for Martel that sent the fans home wildly happy.
This was tremendous and I'm glad it lived up to the hype. It's really up there with Martel's best AWA stuff. His selling was brilliant and his offense was so fiery and spirited. I think the fact that he wasn't quite as experienced helped in some ways because it meant the match took less tangents. It was extremely focused and that made everything all the more logical and meaningful. That Buddy wrestled this match and really had this performance while wearing the goofy match which is not something he was used to at all can't be overlooked. Ultimately, it used the 2/3 falls structure as well as any match I've seen out of Portland as of yet.
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