Buddy Rose vs Roddy Piper - 5/19/79 - Lumberjack Match

Fairly heated armwork to begin with Piper in charge. Wiskowski cleverly trips Piper from the outside to lead to the first transition and Buddy taking over and grinding down on Piper. Buddy hammers away on Piper, alternating between corner throws, clubbers and a pretty nasty chinlock. Wiskowski goes for another trip but Stasiak comes around to police him. This is a one fall match so it has a more traditional shine/heat+Comebacks+cutoffs structure. Piper does one of the best wristlocks out of a chinlock I've seen. They really fight for it and Rose's facial expressions are great, and then Buddy takes the hair and puts a headlock back on. They make great use of the lumberjacks with Buddy kicking Piper out over and over again as Wiskowski pushes him back in. Super simple spot but it looks great. Just endless stomps.

Piper has really good haymaker comeback punches and Buddy makes them look great, but a clubber cuts off Piper again and Buddy hits a HUGE back body drop. He goes for another and Piper kicks him. Buddy still goes a pin attempt but it's really the start of Piper's full punchdrunk comeback. Rose goes out to escape it but he keeps getting tossed back in by the lumberjacks. Fun stuff with just no escape for Buddy. Piper had a great act in 79. He's really a perfect foil for Buddy. He just mauls away until he misses a dropkick and they go back and forth for a minute until Piper puts on an airplane spin which is somewhat less impressive than it'd be ten years later. It end up on the floor with all the wrestlers fighting Buddy and Wiskowski in destroying Piper. Killer Brooks comes out of the crowd (he'd been put out in the big turn for Piper) with a chain and clears house as the crowd goes nuts. Huge moment. They roll Buddy back in and Piper wins as Brooks gets the biggest pop possible. Match itself wasn't as good as the previous one but they used the lumberjack gimmick well and Brooks' return worked as well as it possibly could have.