I've kind of been looking forward to this. I'm not sure why. It might be that Stan has a main event aura to him that a lot of the other guys Buddy's been wrestling with doesn't. This is is a title match and I want to see what Buddy does with it. Hey! the single arm push-ups. I don't think I've seen these in this run of matches. Stan was around 42 here and he definitely had a grizzled look to him. They start with stooging boxing with Buddy praying in the corner, ducking our of the ring, yelling at the crowd and stalling big. Rip comes out to cheer Buddy on. Buddy fears the heart punch and then Dutch comes out to chase Rip away. Buddy gets pissed only to have Adonis get him back in the ring. Once they get Buddy back in he immediately gets punched. It's pretty funny stuff. Buddy takes right over with a cheap knee and starts dismantling Stasiak only to get outpunched again. This is really good Portland First Fall wrestling.
Buddy gets in charge again and works a long draping of Stasiak over his knees which is kind of weird but worked well enough. It builds to Buddy really going over the back with knees and stomps and a big slam on the floor which was a big deal spot. Buddy finally hits a huge Billy Robinson backbreaker for the first fall. Good stuff.
Stasiak is good enough to keep selling the back into the start of the second fall and Buddy targets it almost immediately. Lots of solid backwork and little flourishes like Buddy pulling Stan's tights to get him down after a brief comeback. They go into the catapult set up bow and arrow over the knees again. It's not the world's best looking submission but given the context of the match and the flailing Stasiak selling, it sort of works. Stan hits the rope and a quick knee drop but he's selling like crazy and gets nailed before he can fully recover leading to a Buddy bear hug which is kind of a weird choice. Both guys work it well with Stan going for punches only to get held back by wrenching pain. He finally gets the punch in but Buddy's right back on him. He's selling huge here. Buddy whips him into the corner and hits a huge bodyslam. He goes for it again but Stan reverses it and hits a killer heart punch for the second fall. This is a really good match so far.
Between falls Buddy is selling the heart punch like death, literally. Rip starts giving him CPR at one point. Third fall starts with Buddy selling big. Stan's pretty much recovered from the backwork but he's had time to. Buddy's trying everything to avoid contact here. He heads out but gets fast counted back in. Stasiak's offense is all punches here but they look good and it fits his boxing background. This lasts a couple of minutes until Buddy gets a knee up to counter a back body drop. They do some positively 2013 finisher teases where Buddy almost hits the Robinson backbreaker and Stasiak counters by trying to hit the heart punch but Buddy gets out of the ring at the last second. Rip distracts Stasiak but gets hauled away by Dutch and Adonis. Stasiak hits that back body drop and we have three minutes left. Buddy stooges around the ring but gets caught coming back in. Stasiak goes for a third heart punch but Buddy hits the deck and Stan hits the post. Buddy starts on his hand with Stasiak's comeback being ineffectual as he has to use his left hand. He finally hits Buddy with a right but hurts his own hand in the process and can't hook the leg. They do the headlock double collision spot that Dylan hates in the third act of a match. Stasiak does this awesome counter to get out of the pin by tapping Buddy on the back making him think that it's Sandy Barr breaking up the pin and time runs out leading to the draw.
It didn't have as much zing of hate as some of the other things I've seen but it was a great straightforward TV match. This really highlighted the strength and versatility of the Portland 2/3 falls main event.
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