While Don Owen did promote a show at the Portland Sports Arena on Christmas night, it was never the biggest or most important show of the year. However, it’s Christmas time on this week’s edition of the Portland Wrestlecast.
If you ask fans who grew up in the 80s about the most memorable holiday angles, there’s one with a Christmas connection that will definitely be on the nice list: the night Rip Oliver dressed up as Santa Claus and attacked his longtime rival Billy Jack Haynes on December 21, 1985.
While wrestlers dressing up as Santa is nothing new, there was something unique about this angle and the history behind it.
On this episode, I talk to both historian Rich Patterson who was in the “crow’s nest” the night it happened and legendary Portland Wrestling announcer Don Coss, who called the action and has the backstory on everything that unfolded as well as some stories about Christmas in Portland and memories of Oliver, Haynes, and Owen.
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