It'd be fascinated to hear about Continental (Alabama's) last days. I remember from the Apter mags that Flair visited for a short program with Wildcat Wendell Cooley. Im 99.9 % this would be the last place he visited as traveling world champion and if that's the case it really is historically significant. 👍
The Portland Territory was incredible. Piper, Hennig, and Buddy Rose. The Sheepherders and the Kangaroos. Stan Stasiak and Matt Borne. After it folded, Sandy Barr (the erstwhile ref) sorta kept it going for a few more years and used to run shows all over OR and WA. I remember he ran one locally and Matt Borne showed up in Doink gear. We all thought it was some lame guy stealing the gimmick, but no... years later I realized it was actually Borne, back home soon after being booted out of the WWF. Anyway, It's awesome to hear Jim talk about the Portland Territory, as it's a point of particular fascination for me. Buddy Rose's tape library of the weekly show was saved and have all been digitized. Many are on youtube now. These days the local matches are at the Lion's club, and the old venue is now a church.
It was great that Buddy Rose had that thought of doing that. "Testosterone Overload" is a RUclips channel where you can find a lot of film of Portland Wrestling broadcasts from KPTV channel 12 in Portland.
Just about. A common week was Portland Sports Arena every Tuesday night and Saturday night for TV. Eugene was Friday night and Salem I think was usually on a Thursday. The rest of the days were small towns and either Roseburg or Coos Bay. Then they'll do a week where they go east to Pendleton or north to Washington State towns.
@@lonardgetchell-bm9lcThey were running Seattle, Tacoma, Chehalis and Longview regularly for years. Dutch Savage promoted those and it ended when he parted ways with Don Owen. Owen ran that decrepit building in North Portland, and big shows at the Expo Center further north, because he wanted to attract Washington residents to his shows but wanted nothing to do with actually promoting in the state. The shows in Yakima, Walla Walla and surrounding area in later years were likely promoted by Sandy Barr.
@@MisterBeauJanGels I knew that Dutch Savage was running those shows. Just didn't hear it much in the mid 80's when I was watching it. Just the years before that yes. Thanks for the info. Good stuff.
Pampero Firpo was one of the few wrestlers my dad ever referred to by name. He grew up on the west coast and remembered Firpo from television. My dad has never been a big fan, but he was always trying to show an interest in the things we liked. So when wrestling became a thing for us, he would occasionally ask something like "Whatever happened to Pampero Firpo?" Makes sense. You don't forget a guy like that :).
I lived in Klamath Falls from 1977 to 1985.. My parents took us up to Portland twice to watch Portland Pro Wrestling...awesome times. The Portland Sports Arena was an old bowling alley, wild place to cut your teeth on watching your first live Wrestling program. ✌️
Many wrestlers back in this era from Portland,went to different territories,and became big stars Portland was a great territory for many reasons. I would love to see the territories back.
Rip the Crippler Oliver was one of my favorite “bad guys”. Loved his “free carry out stretcher” service. I heard he passed away a year or 2 ago. RIP Ripper. Thanks for the entertainment.
For anyone out there that is interested in watching coverage of the Portland (NWA PNW) territory from the late 70's through their closing in 1991. The RUclips channel "Testosterone Overload" has about 99.9% of coverage. Weird name for channel, but it's there. Enjoy.
For sure. I've been watching several matches from his channel involving Roddy Piper over the last month probably. So much great content. And the great Tom Peterson even makes several appearances for those of us who remember him in the NW
I wish I would have grown up in Eugene, I lived in Lebanon Oregon and remember going to 1 show when I was little. Not sure which year it was maybe 88 or 89, I remember getting to see Southern Rockers and Beetle Juice Art Barr.
I feel the same. I grew up in Florence and wished I would've seen some Friday night shows at the Lane County Fairgrounds. Florence had them like once every 3 years for a spot show. Had front row seats one time. Main event was Rip Oliver vs the Assassin who later changed it to Top Gun.
*Cornette is woefully out-of-touch. He lost all credibility when he jumped on the anti-Meltzer bandwagon. It's so satisfying whenever Dave calls CUCKnette out for being pathetically out-of-touch. CUCKnette's "everything was better back in my day" is utterly insufferable.*
2:43 - I was going to assume that Cornette meant by population, but then he compared how far the state is n/s and e/w. Based on area, Oregon is the 10th largest state. You can claim a relatively small territory or small amount of wrestling business, but in no way is Oregon a "small state." I know. I'm nitpicking on this. Oh, and m-freewater is Milton-Freewater. Small town in Eastern Oregon.
I agree. We already know the shows are gonna be awful, no need to go into detail (unless it’s SUPER bad) I’d rather hear about history and what it was like back then
I concur, I really can care less about any and all modern wrestling, sometimes that's all he does is review those so I go without jim cornette videos for awhile cause those are all automatic skips
@AlasdairMacAoidh Never said we’d stop listening??? This is just more interesting then whatever BS was going on at AEW last week. Plus, I think Jim cares what we think since he asks his fans what we want to see.
Being able to wrestle almost every night and avoid major injuries.....a lot of young wrestlers could learn a thing or two about how they managed to do that...
Oregon is not one of the smallest states. Had to listen to that part twice as I thought Jim may have been referring to territory size but is sounds like he was actually talking about the size of the state itself.
I always loved Don Owens' in-ring announcements of wrestlers weights during the introductions. He only had about 5 different weights that he assigned to wrestlers depending on their relative size. 212, 225, 237, 268, etc. Just amazing that so many different guys were working at the same weight.
I may have been at the Yakima show Jim mentioned , we got the full roster , Oliver , mean mike miller , kendo as heels and tom pritchard and bret sawyer were the faces. In person both the dynamite kid and sheephearders made it look so real
Harley Race said good things about Don Owens. He said you always got accurate attendance and gate figures from Don so the champ wasn't getting screwed on his percentage.
I was born in Yakima and have lived here for almost 37 years and I have very seldom heard the Portland territory decisions so this is a breath of fresh air. This is great old time wrestling...when it mattered.
Portland/PNW would have made more money if they would have done more shows in Washington State and stuck to the I-5 corridor. Towns like Everett, Seattle, Tacoma Olympia, Portland, Salem, Eugene and Medford weekly.
Growing up in Oregon and watching that territory as a kid I didn't seem to understand why they weren't addressing much interests in doing shows in Washington State towns. The other territories like Vancouver BC and Stu Hart's Stampede in Calgary didn't address it either. They say that Dutch Savage was pushing it but I really don't think he did a lot of that with Don Owen.
@@lonardgetchell-bm9lcRemember that the Owen family had been around the game for a really long time. The late J. Michael Kenyon (Seattle-based wrestling historian) often told the story of a referee who died of a heart attack while a wrestler had his hands on him. The wrestler wasn't deemed at fault for the death in the end, but it wasn't good optics for the public. There's also Owen's relationships with Harry Elliott and Dean Silverstone, who both promoted the state and obtained talent through Owen. Owen's main day-to-day concern wasn't wrestling, but rather his farm. Abandoning his farming duties because of the headaches of dealing with another athletic commission and a broader geographic reach of his shows may not have appealed to him.
I'm from a small town in England called kirkby in ashfield our school did a teacher swap with a school in Seaside her name was sandy wentzel she was truly lovely I've never forgotten the town of Seaside ❤❤❤
“They’re in Prineville, Oregon.” My father lived in Prineville. If it was anything then like it is now, I can’t imagine those shows drew more than a thousand people.
No Coos Bay. I was there for maybe the last Portland Wrestling event in the town (iirc within the year they shuttered) and even though the territory was dead there was a decent crowd.
By June 87 they were probably near or at the end of their run. I remember reading about Portland in the Apter mags ...would have loved to have seen this territory in its heyday of late 70s and early to mid 80s 👍
@@aceldamia9114i meant more the end of their run as an NWA or AWA territory or affiliate...just curious do you remember the last NWA or AWA champ to visit and who they faced ...I think Flair defended against Ricky Vaughan but that is the last I remember reading about in Apter mags 👍
I finally made it to a live show in Eugene in 1990. My impression was that most of the boys had day jobs (I guess Mike Miller was known for moonlighting as a strip club bouncer) and worked for $50 a match at places within reasonable driving distance from Portland.
Loved hearing this. Thought I'd mention that portland wrestling started coming to roseburg oregon in 1945 every Saturday night up until 1957 at the old roseburg armory. Then it was when they could get a building at the fairgrounds . Then from 1975 to 1980 they were at the community building at the fairgrounds every other Tuesday night. Had great stars like buddy rose,Jesse Ventura.,Johnny Boyd, Roddy Piper and even Andre the Giant when he was on tour. And more stars including bob remus who you know as Sgt. Slaughter. Just too many to mention.But it was cool to see these stars in person.i grew up in the 1970s and went as much as possible. I do have all the match ads,articles,and results from 1945 to 1991. If you are interested.
As a Portlander, I appreciate Jim talking about the Portland territory. I was born four years after Don Owen sold the territory to Sandy Barr. Barr ran it until 2007. Don ran the longest weekly wrestling television show in the United States, for 38 years. RAW will overtake it in 2031. The territory was perfect for wrestlers looking for stability - you could be home with your family every night, and Don always paid you exactly what he said he was going to pay you. Don may have been the most fair territory booker. I was very glad to see him go into the Observer Hall of Fame.
@@johngallagher72 I just googled and it said The movie Beetlejuice released in 1988 and Beetlejuice the wrestler debuted in 89' He was very popular back then! Lol.
They always had to have one wrestler that kids fall in love with and that was Art Barr as "Beetlejuice." Credit to Piper on that one. The heel for kids was Al Madril. Loved what he did at that time.
A lot of wrestlers wanted to wrestle in Portland during the Territory days, the payoffs weren't what you'd call great but it was a small territory geographically consisting of Oregon, Washington, and occasionally western Idaho, so it was easy travel, and Don Owens was considered one of the best payoff men in the business. Don was a cantankerous old bastard who in the 80s looked like your doddering old grandpa but backstage could cuss you out like a drunken sailor, but he paid you every penny that he promised, usually not a penny more, but never a penny less. His brother Elton Owens however was a different story, Elton ran Eugene and southern Oregon, and he was the very definition of Cheap, from his suits that looked like they came off of some grandma's couch to his ugly cigars, and he cheated the talent with both hands.
After Jim (as Benjamin Franklin) signed the Declaration of Independence, he turned to Vince Russo (as Thomas Jefferson) and said "Are you happy now, Sir Shitstain??"
Anyone know who held the main title (The Pacific Northwest Title ) in the summer of 87 ...im guessing this would be approx the time of Ricky Vaughan (who may have already left to become Lance Von Erich), Art Barr or Diamond Timothy Flowers . I think Rip Rogers was in and out of Portland around this time as well. 👍
I don't recall any 'managers' in Portland Wrestling up to the mid 80s, but their TV, Big Time wrestling / Portland wrestling was such a small set (crow's nest), and it was packed on the floor. I would have loved to have seen Corny or "Playboy" Gary Hart up in the Northwest. By the mid 80s, watching World Wide Wrestling on cable was so much more exciting to me, that Portland seemed not as exciting as the 'bigger' promotions.
That's pretty messed up that the wrestlers didn't get paid for TV tapings. Those appearances probably did more to sell tickets for the house shows than anything else.
@@InvisibleHotdog I totally understand but that doesn't mean the boys shouldn't have been compensated for their work. I really think the promoters pulled one over on the wrestlers in order to save a buck.
@@thomas_2285 promotions used to have to pay to get TV time, instead of making so much off TV rights fees. Indy promotions still have to do it like that
Portland wrestling also went to Seattle and North (Sedro Woolley) on occasion. When I was a teenager in the Seattle area, Portland Wrestling on Saturday afternoon was a must watch on TV. I can’t watch today’s wrestling.
Until 1986, the promotion held cards at the Seattle Center Arena every other Wednesday - at its peak, the attendance averaged between 2,000 to 3,000 for the Seattle events. By 1986, it was less than 500 and they ended it.
The reason they could do a show every night because what the F are you doing to do in rural Oregon in the evening than go to a wrestling show or hump the dog and get drunk
At that time there would have still been a lot more small to mid size cities with local promoters running shows. If 25 was a stretch it was only slightly. He was just trying to make a point about how much wrestling was available to the American public in large swaths of the country even towards the end of the territory days.
@@jordan_8329 go listen again...I missed Kansas city that makes 12. Anything regarding the past he inflates or misrepresents. Indies were not a thing in 1987. There were 8 territories running barely in 1987 and beside WWF and Crockett none of them were drawing anything. Ten years earlier different story
This is one of the times, where I want a Japanese wrestling historian made a guest appearance. It would be very interesting to hear or read (if the hearing is not possible) about the Japanese wrestling scene in the 70s and 80s.
The job guys got paid $50-75 for a tv taping, and now your local indy main eventer wishes he could make $75 when he works once a month. But I hear wrestling has never been more successful, so maybe he’s okay with that.
This topic is very interesting this is 10X more entertaining than anything currently happening in modern wrestling and i learned so much since this was way before i was born Jim's knowledge of old wrestling is very interesting to me.
If you think about it guys, again we're talking about the territory days. When Verne in my AWA did shows like this constantly. Corny even said it. Think about what he tried with Smokey Mountain, or Ring of Honor, it was an attempt to go back in the hey days. Now... No way Jose Jalapeno on a Steek 🤠
@@tempestfennac9687a Canadian version of Memphis with no Lawler, Russell or visiting big stars ...really bad acting and really bad gimmicks. It was actually an NWA affiliate and I believe Harley Race even visited at one point so it might have been actually good. By the time I got it in 85 or 86 it was total cheese. Instead of King Kong Bundy there was JR Bundy ...lol. But it did launch / Raven and Mauro Renallo
I've watched that territory on RUclips. The wrestling there wasn't near to par as Portland or Stu Harts Stampede. Their promoter was usually the champion, and Wayne Ferris was starting his "Honky Tonk Man" gimmick up there before heading to WWE.
@@lonardgetchell-bm9lcyup it was semi awful ...not sure if you noticed Rick Davis ...he was the Canadian George Gulas ...he was promoter Al Tomko''s son.
![BLACK BAG - Official Trailer [HD] - Only in Theaters March 14](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Du0Xp8WX_7I/mqdefault.jpg)
More of this please. Portland,Kansas,Alabama,Tennessee,Florida,San Francisco,all of it!!
It'd be fascinated to hear about Continental (Alabama's) last days. I remember from the Apter mags that Flair visited for a short program with Wildcat Wendell Cooley. Im 99.9 % this would be the last place he visited as traveling world champion and if that's the case it really is historically significant. 👍
@@johngallagher72Continental wrestling was good Flair vs Bullet Bob Armstrong was epic.
I'd love to hear about the San Francisco territory since I'm a Bay Area native.
Living in Medford I love hearing when we get some love
Born and raised in Portland. I’m so glad to hear Jim talk about some good old Portland Wrestling
Hearing Jim talk about a territory my dad worked security in is wild to me.
Your mom goes to college
U need to send any stories that your father could have told you about those days.
@seereadnhear I'll need to talk to him about it but he escorted Andre to and from his transportation to the arena in the early 80s.
That must have been a crazy and fun time!
I'm glad Wardlow wasn't a thing yet... Then again they should have all had decent pay outs
Also, M Freewater stands for Milton-Freewater, which is in the Umatilla/Pendleton neck of the woods.
The Portland Territory was incredible. Piper, Hennig, and Buddy Rose. The Sheepherders and the Kangaroos. Stan Stasiak and Matt Borne. After it folded, Sandy Barr (the erstwhile ref) sorta kept it going for a few more years and used to run shows all over OR and WA. I remember he ran one locally and Matt Borne showed up in Doink gear. We all thought it was some lame guy stealing the gimmick, but no... years later I realized it was actually Borne, back home soon after being booted out of the WWF.
Anyway, It's awesome to hear Jim talk about the Portland Territory, as it's a point of particular fascination for me. Buddy Rose's tape library of the weekly show was saved and have all been digitized. Many are on youtube now. These days the local matches are at the Lion's club, and the old venue is now a church.
Love these stories, and Portland produced/had some stars n studs back then
I only weigh 217 pds ...Playboy Buddy Rose.
@@johngallagher72 slim and trim
Loved the Playboys gimmick ...he was great in AWA with Doug Sommers 👍
It was great that Buddy Rose had that thought of doing that. "Testosterone Overload" is a RUclips channel where you can find a lot of film of Portland Wrestling broadcasts from KPTV channel 12 in Portland.
Jim as Ben Franklin is hilarious. Travis strikes again.
The Portland territory was basically the “I-5 Territory” you just basically drive up and down I-5 to make just about all of the towns.
Just about. A common week was Portland Sports Arena every Tuesday night and Saturday night for TV. Eugene was Friday night and Salem I think was usually on a Thursday. The rest of the days were small towns and either Roseburg or Coos Bay. Then they'll do a week where they go east to Pendleton or north to Washington State towns.
@@lonardgetchell-bm9lcThey were running Seattle, Tacoma, Chehalis and Longview regularly for years. Dutch Savage promoted those and it ended when he parted ways with Don Owen. Owen ran that decrepit building in North Portland, and big shows at the Expo Center further north, because he wanted to attract Washington residents to his shows but wanted nothing to do with actually promoting in the state. The shows in Yakima, Walla Walla and surrounding area in later years were likely promoted by Sandy Barr.
@@MisterBeauJanGels I knew that Dutch Savage was running those shows. Just didn't hear it much in the mid 80's when I was watching it. Just the years before that yes. Thanks for the info. Good stuff.
Speaking of selling tickets....90,000 tickets already sold in Philly for WrestleMania
Pampero Firpo was one of the few wrestlers my dad ever referred to by name. He grew up on the west coast and remembered Firpo from television. My dad has never been a big fan, but he was always trying to show an interest in the things we liked. So when wrestling became a thing for us, he would occasionally ask something like "Whatever happened to Pampero Firpo?" Makes sense. You don't forget a guy like that :).
Wild Bull of the Pampas!
This is great! More of this pease!
Things like this is why I love listening to this show
I lived in Klamath Falls from 1977 to 1985..
My parents took us up to Portland twice to watch Portland Pro Wrestling...awesome times. The Portland Sports Arena was an old bowling alley, wild place to cut your teeth on watching your first live Wrestling program. ✌️
Many wrestlers back in this era from Portland,went to different territories,and became big stars Portland was a great territory for many reasons. I would love to see the territories back.
I live in Roseburg. Yes,you're right,it's 200 miles.
Rip the Crippler Oliver was one of my favorite “bad guys”.
Loved his “free carry out stretcher” service.
I heard he passed away a year or 2 ago.
RIP Ripper. Thanks for the entertainment.
For anyone out there that is interested in watching coverage of the Portland (NWA PNW) territory from the late 70's through their closing in 1991. The RUclips channel "Testosterone Overload" has about 99.9% of coverage. Weird name for channel, but it's there. Enjoy.
Ty for heads up . .I will def check out 👍
Legend
The Playboy Buddy Rose was my favorite
For sure. I've been watching several matches from his channel involving Roddy Piper over the last month probably. So much great content. And the great Tom Peterson even makes several appearances for those of us who remember him in the NW
@@WilliamWiest1959 a great promo and a great worker. His size was very deceiving
Piper in Portland is Heel 101.
Also Playboy Buddy Rose
Yeah, but Buddy Rose and Ed Wiskoski in Portland are a heel PhD.
He also did very well as a babyface in Portland.
I loved Portland wrestling and the Piper Buddy Rose feud was great !
I never considered Oregon a "small" state, but when you put it like that...
Never thought I see a thumbnail of Jim as Benjamin Franklin
Definitely prefer this stuff, mainly because I can tell Jim loves talking about it rather than what stupid shit Tony Khan booked this week.
I wish I would have grown up in Eugene, I lived in Lebanon Oregon and remember going to 1 show when I was little. Not sure which year it was maybe 88 or 89, I remember getting to see Southern Rockers and Beetle Juice Art Barr.
I feel the same. I grew up in Florence and wished I would've seen some Friday night shows at the Lane County Fairgrounds. Florence had them like once every 3 years for a spot show. Had front row seats one time. Main event was Rip Oliver vs the Assassin who later changed it to Top Gun.
Lebanon native myself! Small world.
I always enjoy the enthusiasm Jim has for the old days.
*Cornette is woefully out-of-touch. He lost all credibility when he jumped on the anti-Meltzer bandwagon. It's so satisfying whenever Dave calls CUCKnette out for being pathetically out-of-touch. CUCKnette's "everything was better back in my day" is utterly insufferable.*
2:43 - I was going to assume that Cornette meant by population, but then he compared how far the state is n/s and e/w.
Based on area, Oregon is the 10th largest state. You can claim a relatively small territory or small amount of wrestling business, but in no way is Oregon a "small state."
I know. I'm nitpicking on this.
Oh, and m-freewater is Milton-Freewater. Small town in Eastern Oregon.
More like this please. It's better than hearing about Vince or Tonys weekly abortions
I agree. We already know the shows are gonna be awful, no need to go into detail (unless it’s SUPER bad) I’d rather hear about history and what it was like back then
I concur, I really can care less about any and all modern wrestling, sometimes that's all he does is review those so I go without jim cornette videos for awhile cause those are all automatic skips
@AlasdairMacAoidh Never said we’d stop listening??? This is just more interesting then whatever BS was going on at AEW last week. Plus, I think Jim cares what we think since he asks his fans what we want to see.
Facts!
Ffs your all terrible human beings
Being able to wrestle almost every night and avoid major injuries.....a lot of young wrestlers could learn a thing or two about how they managed to do that...
Oregon is not one of the smallest states. Had to listen to that part twice as I thought Jim may have been referring to territory size but is sounds like he was actually talking about the size of the state itself.
It looks small from Kentucky.
2/3 of the land area in Oregon is not heavily populated and greatly divided politically.
I wish Jim can talk more about Stampede.
Karachi Vice was way ahead of its time. 👍
I always loved Don Owens' in-ring announcements of wrestlers weights during the introductions. He only had about 5 different weights that he assigned to wrestlers depending on their relative size. 212, 225, 237, 268, etc. Just amazing that so many different guys were working at the same weight.
They really pioneered weight classes
I'm from the Warm Springs Indian Rezervation in Central Oregon. I love that Jim made this. My uncle's all loved Portland Wrestling.
I may have been at the Yakima show Jim mentioned , we got the full roster , Oliver , mean mike miller , kendo
as heels and tom pritchard and bret sawyer were the faces. In person both the dynamite kid and sheephearders
made it look so real
Harley Race said good things about Don Owens. He said you always got accurate attendance and gate figures from Don so the champ wasn't getting screwed on his percentage.
Hawk of the Road Warriors said the same thing about Don Owen as well. I
I was born in Yakima and have lived here for almost 37 years and I have very seldom heard the Portland territory decisions so this is a breath of fresh air. This is great old time wrestling...when it mattered.
Portland/PNW would have made more money if they would have done more shows in Washington State and stuck to the I-5 corridor. Towns like Everett, Seattle, Tacoma Olympia, Portland, Salem, Eugene and Medford weekly.
Growing up in Oregon and watching that territory as a kid I didn't seem to understand why they weren't addressing much interests in doing shows in Washington State towns. The other territories like Vancouver BC and Stu Hart's Stampede in Calgary didn't address it either. They say that Dutch Savage was pushing it but I really don't think he did a lot of that with Don Owen.
@@lonardgetchell-bm9lcRemember that the Owen family had been around the game for a really long time. The late J. Michael Kenyon (Seattle-based wrestling historian) often told the story of a referee who died of a heart attack while a wrestler had his hands on him. The wrestler wasn't deemed at fault for the death in the end, but it wasn't good optics for the public. There's also Owen's relationships with Harry Elliott and Dean Silverstone, who both promoted the state and obtained talent through Owen. Owen's main day-to-day concern wasn't wrestling, but rather his farm. Abandoning his farming duties because of the headaches of dealing with another athletic commission and a broader geographic reach of his shows may not have appealed to him.
Ah my home state. Love it
The world literally stopped for a whole second cos I was born in June 87. True story.
What's crazy is seattle is only 4 to 5 hours depending on traffic on I 5, but they got by in Oregon.
As someone living in salem oregon this was awesome. Love to hear more about the wrestling territories
I love this, it's a comfort blanket at night. I'm enjoying thism
0:19 He's got Jim snorting like a pig lmao
1987 Good Year
I'm from a small town in England called kirkby in ashfield our school did a teacher swap with a school in Seaside her name was sandy wentzel she was truly lovely I've never forgotten the town of Seaside ❤❤❤
I lived in Roseburg. And all I can tell Roseburg to Eugene is about an hour drive.
“They’re in Prineville, Oregon.”
My father lived in Prineville. If it was anything then like it is now, I can’t imagine those shows drew more than a thousand people.
No Coos Bay. I was there for maybe the last Portland Wrestling event in the town (iirc within the year they shuttered) and even though the territory was dead there was a decent crowd.
I’d like to hear Jim talk in detail about Playboy Buddy Rose. He was such a HUGE name up there.
Piper said that Raven got Don Owen on a rib during a booking meeting with a plastic spider dangling prank that got huge laughs according to the story.
M-Freewater is Milton Freewater, Oregon
By June 87 they were probably near or at the end of their run. I remember reading about Portland in the Apter mags ...would have loved to have seen this territory in its heyday of late 70s and early to mid 80s 👍
They got a few more years in after this. Basically closed up shop at the end of 2001.
@@aceldamia9114i meant more the end of their run as an NWA or AWA territory or affiliate...just curious do you remember the last NWA or AWA champ to visit and who they faced ...I think Flair defended against Ricky Vaughan but that is the last I remember reading about in Apter mags 👍
@@johngallagher72 I'm pretty sure Flair was defending the NWA title in Portland as late as 89.
@@chico1680yeah I think those were probably WCW shows
I finally made it to a live show in Eugene in 1990. My impression was that most of the boys had day jobs (I guess Mike Miller was known for moonlighting as a strip club bouncer) and worked for $50 a match at places within reasonable driving distance from Portland.
The lady that sent this in is named jodi arias. The man who does the drawings is named Travis. How is no one else picking up on this lol
Loved hearing this. Thought I'd mention that portland wrestling started coming to roseburg oregon in 1945 every Saturday night up until 1957 at the old roseburg armory. Then it was when they could get a building at the fairgrounds . Then from 1975 to 1980 they were at the community building at the fairgrounds every other Tuesday night. Had great stars like buddy rose,Jesse Ventura.,Johnny Boyd, Roddy Piper and even Andre the Giant when he was on tour. And more stars including bob remus who you know as Sgt. Slaughter. Just too many to mention.But it was cool to see these stars in person.i grew up in the 1970s and went as much as possible. I do have all the match ads,articles,and results from 1945 to 1991. If you are interested.
His name was Don Owen, not Owens. And Oregon is nowhere as small as Delaware.
How did Jodi Arias get involved? Isnt she in prison?
Pampero Firpo: "...I weel take care of beezness...OOOOOOOHHHHYEAAAAAHHHH!!!"
As a Portlander, I appreciate Jim talking about the Portland territory. I was born four years after Don Owen sold the territory to Sandy Barr. Barr ran it until 2007. Don ran the longest weekly wrestling television show in the United States, for 38 years. RAW will overtake it in 2031. The territory was perfect for wrestlers looking for stability - you could be home with your family every night, and Don always paid you exactly what he said he was going to pay you. Don may have been the most fair territory booker. I was very glad to see him go into the Observer Hall of Fame.
Would love to hear a schedule from Louisiana.
Al Madril was a fantastic heel in Portland
I'm in Salem! I used to always go to Portland Wrestling! Beetlejuice!!!
what year was it Art Bart started with that gimmick ? ...87 or 88?
@@johngallagher72 I just googled and it said The movie Beetlejuice released in 1988 and Beetlejuice the wrestler debuted in 89' He was very popular back then! Lol.
They always had to have one wrestler that kids fall in love with and that was Art Barr as "Beetlejuice." Credit to Piper on that one. The heel for kids was Al Madril. Loved what he did at that time.
A lot of wrestlers wanted to wrestle in Portland during the Territory days, the payoffs weren't what you'd call great but it was a small territory geographically consisting of Oregon, Washington, and occasionally western Idaho, so it was easy travel, and Don Owens was considered one of the best payoff men in the business. Don was a cantankerous old bastard who in the 80s looked like your doddering old grandpa but backstage could cuss you out like a drunken sailor, but he paid you every penny that he promised, usually not a penny more, but never a penny less. His brother Elton Owens however was a different story, Elton ran Eugene and southern Oregon, and he was the very definition of Cheap, from his suits that looked like they came off of some grandma's couch to his ugly cigars, and he cheated the talent with both hands.
After Jim (as Benjamin Franklin) signed the Declaration of Independence, he turned to Vince Russo (as Thomas Jefferson) and said "Are you happy now, Sir Shitstain??"
I think Vince Russo should be Benedict Arnold😮😂
I didn't think that comparison through. On my way to the tallest building in town to jump off. Sorrreeeeeeeee
Anyone know who held the main title (The Pacific Northwest Title ) in the summer of 87 ...im guessing this would be approx the time of Ricky Vaughan (who may have already left to become Lance Von Erich), Art Barr or Diamond Timothy Flowers . I think Rip Rogers was in and out of Portland around this time as well. 👍
By '87, Vaughn had been gone a couple years. Most of '87 was different members of Oliver's Clan holding the title.
@@aceldamia9114you could be right ...assuming Kerry's accident was 86...World Class probably brought Lance in mid to late 86 👍
I don't recall any 'managers' in Portland Wrestling up to the mid 80s, but their TV, Big Time wrestling / Portland wrestling was such a small set (crow's nest), and it was packed on the floor. I would have loved to have seen Corny or "Playboy" Gary Hart up in the Northwest. By the mid 80s, watching World Wide Wrestling on cable was so much more exciting to me, that Portland seemed not as exciting as the 'bigger' promotions.
That's pretty messed up that the wrestlers didn't get paid for TV tapings. Those appearances probably did more to sell tickets for the house shows than anything else.
That was the point. TV was an ad for house shows where the real money was made.
@@InvisibleHotdog I totally understand but that doesn't mean the boys shouldn't have been compensated for their work. I really think the promoters pulled one over on the wrestlers in order to save a buck.
@@thomas_2285 promotions used to have to pay to get TV time, instead of making so much off TV rights fees. Indy promotions still have to do it like that
Oregon is the ninth largest state by geographical area. The Portland wrestling territory may be small but the state itself is pretty big.
For the record, Oregon is the 10th largest state in the country. Just FYI
Portland wrestling also went to Seattle and North (Sedro Woolley) on occasion.
When I was a teenager in the Seattle area, Portland Wrestling on Saturday afternoon was a must watch on TV.
I can’t watch today’s wrestling.
30 shows in 30 nights, I remember jesse ventura was talking about working 65 nights in a row, was that referring to his time in oregon? sounds like it
I'm shocked they didn't announce a show in Seattle. Who controlled that?
They hardly ever or never did shows in the Seattle-Tacoma area, unfortunately. Don't know why.
Until 1986, the promotion held cards at the Seattle Center Arena every other Wednesday - at its peak, the attendance averaged between 2,000 to 3,000 for the Seattle events. By 1986, it was less than 500 and they ended it.
WWF/WWE has been on TV for over 50 years.
VANCOUVER, KELSO/LONGVIEW OLYMPIA TACOMA AND SEATTLE NOT INCLUDED IN THIS PARTICULAR MONTH.
The reason they could do a show every night because what the F are you doing to do in rural Oregon in the evening than go to a wrestling show or hump the dog and get drunk
Portland is where Raven got his start
Scotty the Body. Loved picking his nose. He had a fun gimmick in Portland but got much better later doing Raven.
In Hood River OR, the rodents are called Hood Rats.
WWF 4 Crockett 2 UWF 1 World Class 1 Portland 1 Florida 1 Memphis 1= 11 shows a night. Cornette says 25 shows a night. Laughable
At that time there would have still been a lot more small to mid size cities with local promoters running shows. If 25 was a stretch it was only slightly. He was just trying to make a point about how much wrestling was available to the American public in large swaths of the country even towards the end of the territory days.
@@jordan_8329 go listen again...I missed Kansas city that makes 12. Anything regarding the past he inflates or misrepresents. Indies were not a thing in 1987. There were 8 territories running barely in 1987 and beside WWF and Crockett none of them were drawing anything. Ten years earlier different story
@@jeremiahch you missed the AWA, and probably others too
Milton-Freewater
Jim “Ben Franklin” Cornette.
Oregon is the ninth largest state by area.
THE WILD BULL OF THE PAMPAS
This is one of the times, where I want a Japanese wrestling historian made a guest appearance. It would be very interesting to hear or read (if the hearing is not possible) about the Japanese wrestling scene in the 70s and 80s.
Oregon is the ninth largest state in the US
🎨🖌️
These are the segments The Cult come for!! No onr gives a S##$ about modern WWEor AEW. Just give us these old stories and histories !
The job guys got paid $50-75 for a tv taping, and now your local indy main eventer wishes he could make $75 when he works once a month. But I hear wrestling has never been more successful, so maybe he’s okay with that.
This topic is very interesting this is 10X more entertaining than anything currently happening in modern wrestling and i learned so much since this was way before i was born Jim's knowledge of old wrestling is very interesting to me.
@AlasdairMacAoidh LMFAO Yeah Dummy lol LA Knight is the best
If you think about it guys, again we're talking about the territory days. When Verne in my AWA did shows like this constantly. Corny even said it. Think about what he tried with Smokey Mountain, or Ring of Honor, it was an attempt to go back in the hey days. Now... No way Jose Jalapeno on a Steek 🤠
The one forgotten territory that needs a deep dive . Al Tomkos BC All Star Wrestling . .it was so bad it was actually good ...😂👍
What was it like exactly?
@@tempestfennac9687a Canadian version of Memphis with no Lawler, Russell or visiting big stars ...really bad acting and really bad gimmicks. It was actually an NWA affiliate and I believe Harley Race even visited at one point so it might have been actually good. By the time I got it in 85 or 86 it was total cheese. Instead of King Kong Bundy there was JR Bundy ...lol. But it did launch / Raven and Mauro Renallo
I've watched that territory on RUclips. The wrestling there wasn't near to par as Portland or Stu Harts Stampede. Their promoter was usually the champion, and Wayne Ferris was starting his "Honky Tonk Man" gimmick up there before heading to WWE.
@@lonardgetchell-bm9lcyup it was semi awful ...not sure if you noticed Rick Davis ...he was the Canadian George Gulas ...he was promoter Al Tomko''s son.
@@johngallagher72 yeah, I don't have the biggest knowledge of that territory. But thanks.
Love wen Jim talk wrestling history