Portland Wrestling (Sandy: buy, movies, college)

[Bondurant]

One of my time killers during COVID-19 has been watching territory wrestling on YouTube. Portland Wrestling is one of the few territory libraries that Vince McMahon does not own (Houston Wrestling being another). It is my understanding that the Owen Family and Sandy Barr did not pay to archive their broadcasts any many tapes were recorded over. This makes Portland Wrestling harder to find. Even on YouTube it is a territory not represented in detail. There was one channel that did have a nice archive that has since been deleted. There is a current channel but it is not quite as deep.

What is out there is fun to watch. Especially the videos that have been uploaded with commercials in tact. I have never lived and never been to Portland but I know all about Peterson's electronics store! I wish there was more Portland Wrestling material out there. Roddy Piper is one of my all-time favorites and he made a huge splash in Portland is said to have had so much respect for Don Owen that he refused to work WWF shows in the territory. I would love to see more of his work.

Any fans lurking here? Did you attend the matches or watch on television?

[texasdiver]

I went to some matches when I was in college in the early 1980s. Back then Portland was a MUCH more blue collar town. Like a west coast Cleveland or something. And Portland wrestling was pretty popular. It was on local cable if I recall. Not something that I ever actually watched on TV.

Tom Petersons was something else. I bought some electronics there because it was near my college. The local TV ads were kitsch classics. And Tom Peterson's head was sort of a local icon. I remember seeing Tom Peterson stencil graffiti show up places. It must have closed years ago. I'm guessing that Best Buy did them in.

[take57]

There's a fairly good Wikipedia entry on what is termed "Pacific Northwest Wresting".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pacifi...west_Wrestling

With respect to it being televised, my greatest recollection was it's long run on KPTV. The show was unique in that it was relatively rare to have a regularly scheduled program produced live from a remote location, let alone a converted bowling alley in a mid-60's North Portland. IIRC, KPTV's remote truck was a converted Greyhound passenger bus, but it handled the chore admirably. The show was hosted by an often droll Frank Bonnema who did yeoman's work juggling the duties of keeping the live broadcast moving forward, paying due acknowledgements to longtime program sponsor Tom Peterson and avoiding wayward blows from wresting talent that often acted out the mayhem a little too seriously.

Good times.



Frank Bonnema with, I believe, Rocky Johnson, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's father

[pnwguy2]

In the 70’s Portland wrestling ran on KTNT channel 11 in Seattle-Tacoma which became the current KSTW. As a 12 year old I enjoyed it but always wondered why we were watching Portland wrestling in Seattle. Today I realize it was because it was a “thing” in Portland and they marketed it very well.

[leastprime]

In the 60's it was on KPTV. GI Joe's was also a sponsor, IIRC.
I tried to avoid Portland Wrestling because it was on late night Saturday nite.

[Bondurant]

Originally Posted by pnwguy2

In the 70’s Portland wrestling ran on KTNT channel 11 in Seattle-Tacoma which became the current KSTW. As a 12 year old I enjoyed it but always wondered why we were watching Portland wrestling in Seattle. Today I realize it was because it was a “thing” in Portland and they marketed it very well.

You were watching wrestling from Portland because of how the NWA was structured. Owen controlled the "territory" which was Oregon and Washington. The promotion was called Pacific Northwest Wrestling. Portland Wrestling was the name of the televised wresting program. I think the name just stuck over time. The good ol' days!

[pnwguy2]

Originally Posted by Bondurant

You were watching wrestling from Portland because of how the NWA was structured. Owen controlled the "territory" which was Oregon and Washington. The promotion was called Pacific Northwest Wrestling. Portland Wrestling was the name of the televised wresting program. I think the name just stuck over time. The good ol' days!

That makes sense! I really enjoyed it for a few teen years, but it seemed to disappear in the late 70's, or maybe I grew out of it...who knows? Never was into the big Wrestlemania years to follow.

[doity]

Being as I grew up in Portland during the 70’s Portland Wrestling was a constant. Remember we only had 5 channels back then and night time was usually adult oriented with talking head news shows, Lawrence Welk, old movies, etc.

So basically it was all we had at that time of night so a lot of people watched. What always cracked me up were the old ladies that were always ringside who would yell and shake their fists at whatever wrestler that they disliked. And the TV announcer Frank who always seemed like he had the enthusiasm of a man on death row.

Later when I got into my late teens I would routinely crash on the couch after a night of hard partying only to be woken up by Tom Peterson and his “Wake Up!” commercials which was very surrealistic. Good times.

[Bondurant]

Originally Posted by doity

What always cracked me up were the old ladies that were always ringside who would yell and shake their fists at whatever wrestler that they disliked.

This reminded me of a Portland Wrestling documentary I watched on YouTube last year. Crowd in Portland was really into it. Classic marks. Still real to them. Near the beginning of the video there's an elderly woman talking about all of the baked goods she makes for the wrestlers.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dgXAXF-MaF0&t=223s

[tommy64]

I grew up in Portland, 1970 thru 1977. Every Saturday nite on channel 12 was Portland Wrestling with Frank Bonnema. I was a Dutch Savage fan! He teamed with Jimmy Snuka.

My dad took me to the arena in North Portland a few times. It was awesome for a 10 year old kid. Those wrestlers were real life hero's.

I rooted against The Kangaroo's, and Baron Von Krupp & Kurt Von Steiger. "Tough" Tony Borne, Lonnie Mayne and Ripper Collins. Andre The Giant came around a few times too.

The crowds were just fanatical, people were so into it.