Category: Portland Wrestlecast
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Portland Wrestlecast: Growing up as Rip Oliver’s son
On this special edition of the Portland Wrestlecast, Jim Valley talks with Larry Oliver, son of the late northwest legend Rip “The Crippler” Oliver. Larry talks about what it was like growing up and going to school in a time when wrestlers and their families had to protect the business. For Larry it wasn’t unusual for…
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Portland Wrestlecast: Johnny Mantell on Roddy Piper, funny ribs and more
The Portland Wrestlecast is back with even more stories from the Pacific Northwest wrestling scene that you have never heard before. This week’s guest is Johnny Mantell, the former wrestler probably best known for working in World Class, Mid South, and Los Angeles while hIs brother, Ken, booked in Dallas. Johnny wrestled in Portland in…
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Portland Wrestlecast: Johnny Mantell on Roddy Piper, funny ribs and more
The Portland Wrestlecast is back with even more stories from the Pacific Northwest wrestling scene that you have never heard before. This week’s guest is Johnny Mantell, the former wrestler probably best known for working in World Class, Mid South, and Los Angeles while hIs brother, Ken, booked in Dallas. Johnny wrestled in Portland in…
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Portland Wrestlecast: Jimmy Snuka’s early career in the Pacific Northwest
On this week’s Portland Wrestlecast, we dive into “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka’s Pacific Northwest career. You probably know about his national career and the very serious allegations revisted against him recently on the Dark Side of the Ring documentary. While he didn’t start wrestling in Portland, Oregon, the Northwest territory played an important role in Snuka’s career.…
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Portland Wrestlecast free podcast: Remembering Dean Silverstone
While Dean Silverstone technically ran his “Superstar Championship Wrestling” promotion in the northwest against Don Owen, his legacy is such that we have to dedicate an entire episode to Dean and his accomplishments. Jim Valley talks with one of Dean’s good friends — historian and Defy Wrestling promoter Matt Farmer. Matt talks about what it was like for Dean running…
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Portland Wrestlecast free podcast: The Iron Sheik’s real shoot match
On this new and free edition of the Portland Wrestlecast, it’s part two of our interview with former Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Champion Jerry Oates. Part one is available for subscribers. Oates talks about his tag team title run with partner Jesse Ventura in 1978, dealing with booking issues and politics with promoter Elton Owen and Dutch Savage while…
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Portland Wrestlecast: Former PNW Champion Jerry Oates
This week’s Portland Wrestlecast features one of the best interviews I have ever had on the show: former PNW Champion Jerry Oates. Oates wrestled in the Pacific Northwest in 1978, the same time as Jimmy Snuka, Jesse Ventura, Buddy Rose, and others. He held the tag team titles with Ventura and feuded with Ed Wiskowski…
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Portland Wrestlecast free show: Rip Oliver’s big 1980s run
Editor’s Note: This is a free show. Just click the red button below to listen. When fans talk about Portland Wrestling in the 1980s, Rip Oliver is one of the first names that come to mind. In a podcast scheduled before this week’s announcement of Oliver going into hospice care, myself and historian Rich Patterson…
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Portland Wrestlecast free show: The biggest crowds & shows in territory history
Editor’s Note: This is a free edition of the Portland WrestleCast. With a huge crowd for Sunday’s NXT TakeOver: Portland, this week’s episode of the Portland WrestleCast looks at some of the biggest wrestling crowds in Portland from 1968 to present day WWE. After looking at a some of the key events from the modern era, we…
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Portland Wrestlecast: Rocky Johnson’s Pacific Northwest run
You know Rocky Johnson from WWF, Memphis, Hawaii and California, but he also had a very successful run in the Pacific Northwest in 1981-82 with heavyweight and tag team title reigns. In this episode of the Portland Wrestlecast, I look at one of my favorite babyfaces who came through Portland when I was a kid. Johnson had…
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Portland Wrestlecast: Don Owen and the WON HOF, Carl Styles part two
**Editor’s Note: This is a free show. Just click the red button below to listen. On this week’s Portland Wrestlecast, I look at how longtime Portland booker Don Owen came within just two votes from being inducted into the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame. I’m still shocked, but we have to talk about the 2019…
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FREE SHOW! Portland Wrestlecast: Carl Styles vs. Portland’s bullies
FREE SHOW! In the late 1980s, Portland Wrestling completely changed its presentation that was virtually unchanged for decades. Booker Len Denton modernized the product by adding things like entrance music, improved production values, and theatrical storylines. Carl Styles benefited from those changes. In the past, he probably would have arrived as a heel in Portland and been…
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Portland Wrestlecast: Why Austin Idol abruptly left Portland Wrestling
You probably associate Austin Idol with his famous matches and angles in Memphis or the Fuller’s Continental territory. Before he made history, Idol had a very brief run in Portland in the summer of 1978. The northwest was only the second territory for Idol. The wrestler himself had been around earlier as “Iron” Mike McCord.…
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Portland Wrestlecast: A look at the PBS wrestling doc ‘Savage’
It may be hard to imagine, but PBS once filmed a documentary at the Portland Sports Arena in the late 1970s for a fairly well-known movie called “Savage” that profiles Dutch Savage, Jesse Ventura, and The Iron Sheik. There’s no narrator or reporter. Rather, you simply see the angles unfold, the wrestlers in total kayfabe…
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Portland Wrestlecast: Remembering The Royal Kangaroos
The Royal Kangaroos (the late Norman Frederick Charles III and Jonathan Boyd) were one of the most dominant tag teams in Portland Wrestling history, dominating the Pacific Northwest in the early 1970s. In this week’s Portland Wrestlecast, we talk to photographer Lloyd N. Phillips, who was in high school when he picked up photography as…
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Portland Wrestlecast: The case for Don Owen in the WON HOF
If you are a voter in the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame, listen to this show before you cast your ballot. On this episode of the Portland Wrestlecast, I talk to three very well respected voices in wrestling who make the case that you should vote for Don Owen. Tom Prichard worked for Don in…
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Portland Wrestlecast: The night Art Barr broke John Rambo’s face
Editor’s Note: This is a free show. Just click the red button below to listen. On this episode of the Portland WrestleCast, wrestler and trainer John Rambo tells the story of the infamous night in 1994 when Art Barr, who was working in Mexico as American Love Machine at the time, came back to work…
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Portland Wrestlecast: Piper-Rose in depth with historian Rich Patterson
It was arguabably the biggest money-drawing feud in the history of Don Owen’s Pacific Northwest territory. This week on the Portland Wrestlecast, I talk with historian Rich Patterson about his memories of the famous Buddy Rose-Roddy Piper feud. Rich was there for many of their matches. Not only that, Rich knew Buddy Rose. He talks…
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Portland Wrestlecast: The legendary Roddy Piper-Buddy Rose feud
Roddy Piper once told me that his feud with Buddy Rose in Portland made both men. And when Piper turned babyface and went after Rose, it set Portland and the Pacific Northwest on fire. On this edition of the Portland Wrestlecast, I’ll take you through the botched finished that started it all the way to…
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Free Show! Portland Wrestlecast: Tonya Harding’s controversial wrestling appearance
This year marks the 25th anniversary of the only time the late Perro Aguayo wrestled in the pacific northwest. Not only that, he was also on the same show where the very controversial Tonya Harding made her first public appearance since the 1994 Nagano Olympic Games and the very publicized attack on rival skater Nancy Kerrigan. The Kerrigan…