Introduction To Wrestling In The Pacific Northwest

For some it’s just entertainment; for others it’s hard hitting soap opera. But make no mistake about it, professional wrestling is a hard hitting athletic exhibition that has no definitive description. First though, a little history on the wrestling scene in the Pacific Northwest.

For nearly seventy years, debuting in 1925, the Pacific Northwest was home to a weekly event in North Portland every Saturday night. In a converted bowling alley on North Chataqua which began in 1968, the stars made famous on KPTV as of 1953 and print would bring alive the cavernous venue with the slams and holds that would be known as Portland Wrestling. The Owens family, Herb and later, his son Don, would bring the best from around the world to compete in the ring in front of incredible crowds.

In the late 1980’s, the scene changed a great deal with “talent raids” by the World Wrestling Federation now known as World Wrestling Entertainment and the loss of many of the local area “stars”. Through the past twenty years or so, there have been many individuals who have tried to rekindle the interest in “Portland Wrestling” and wrestling in Portland, but to no avail. Most of the issues centered around money or lack thereof and the inability to air their product on television.

In addition, the local wrestling scene was nearly wiped out by an over zealous commissioner for boxing and wrestling named Bruce Anderson. Anderson, who was Director of the Oregon Boxing and Wrestling Commission which debuted in 1987, seemingly forced out local boxing and tried to do the same to local wrestling with archaic out of date rules and regulations forcing many promotions north into Washington. Despite the tough regulations in Washington, they were easier to work with than what Anderson had in place in Oregon.  To his credit, Anderson did allow a couple of boxing events in Southern Oregon to take place and two other boxing promoters were licensed prior to him leaving the commission. However, such dislike for Anderson and the commission rules left pro wrestling on the outs. The commission became absorbed by the Oregon State Police and would be led by Executive Director Jim Cassidy in 1999. Once on board, Cassidy seemingly opened the doors to all and boxing and wrestling returned with several local and statewide companies flooding in. Even the WWE which had taken no interest in Oregon during Anderson’s tenure, brought a big show to the Rose Garden which drew incredible interest and they have returned on several occasions since.

Cassidy would be replaced by Brad Darcy in 2004 following issues with adhering to rules and regulations. Darcy had been involved with the Siletz Tribal Gaming Commission and Chinook Winds Casino Resort, but left the post to assume the Director position. Darcy has followed the protocols set forth by the Oregon State Police and there are now just a handful of wrestling promotions in the state and all fall under the commission guidelines.

Three of these promotions run very close by to each other in the city of Portland with one running in a couple of other cities. DOA Pro Wrestling operates out of its training facility in Troutdale (909 N Dunbar Sundays 3pm) and hopes to bring its events to other cities in the not too distant future. DOA is an acronym for “Don’t Own Anybody,” which is in reference to companies past and present that refused to allow some of their talent to be seen on any other local area events.

Several stars on DOA events also appear at WCWC  (West Coast Wrestling Connection), which runs Portland at a venue behind the Oregon National Guard by the Portland Airport on a semi-monthly basis. This venue is used as a stop point for its television tapings airing late night weekly. The show then jaunts to Las Vegas on a semi-monthly basis for television tapings under the banner PPW. (Paragon Pro Wrestling). Their regular monthly live event is in Salem, Oregon.

The other company is known as NWA/ BCW (Blue Collar Wrestling). It operates under the membership of the National Wrestling Alliance. This company operates a weekly event every Sunday in North Portland at the Fraternal Order of Eagles Hall (7611 N. Exeter) at 6pm and airs on YouTube in hopes to air cable access shows soon. The weekly BCW events have been featuring what has been termed “Old School” done “The New School Way.”  DOA has had a few of its talents appear on the BCW shows as they have changed their start time to 3pm on Sundays to allow the talent to travel to the other event at 6pm. There was the hope of a partnership a month ago, but it was unable to sustain and with it, changes were made to allow both promotions to have as much exposure as possible along with the talent.

Blue Collar Wrestling, through its connections with the National Wrestling Alliance, is bringing in blasts from the past; stars who have made worldwide appearances and are coming in to assist in talent development and training along with actually wrestling on the shows. This Sunday will mark the second appearance by Chaz Tayor, who is the son of former WWF star “Tugboat” in Portland. He will compete in a six man tag team event which carried over after last week’s “War Games” cage match. He will also host a seminar on Monday and Tuesday on wrestling and more at the Eagles Hall. Details and reservations can be found at Sunday’s event.

All promotions have Facebook pages and Twitter feeds and hope that they will be the source of alternatives to World Wrestling Entertainment.

Each week, we’ll highlight the matches from around the Northwest and what’s on tap for upcoming bouts.

Stuart Kemp is the matchmaker for NWA/Blue Collar Wrestling and occasional announcer for DOA Pro Wrestling. He was also a former announcer and play by play announcer for WCWC.