Portland Wrestling - Frank Bonnema Passes Away 10/9/82

This is quite possibly the saddest moment from the glory days of "Portland Wrestling"....the announcement of the death of Frank Bonnema. Frank had suffered a heart attack a few weeks earlier. Word was that he was getting better & would be returning to the show. "Portland Wrestling was NEVER the same after Frank's death on Oct. 5, 1982. His style was perfect for the show...he got excited when it was called for, no matter if it was for heels or faces.

This clip also shows the Portland debut of Paul Ellering. After a big build up, Ellering would stay in the Northwest for only a few weeks.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Portland
• Wrestling
• Dutch
• Savage
• Frank
• Bonnema
• Paul
• Ellering
• Stan
• Stasiak

[hawkeystud]

Any chance you can post this whole match? Ellering didn't stay in Portland very long.

[musicguy64]

Unfortunately, I didn't save it way back when. I do have Ellering's first Portland interview, which was after this match with Stasiak.

[Reg197844]

Emotional stuff. What year was this from?

[musicguy64]

October 1982

[bradley825]

Frank Bonnema was to Portland Wrestling what Gordon Solie was to Georgia Championship Wrestling. I miss them both. God bless them both. Hope to see them in Heaven. RIP Don Owen, Stan The Man Stasiak.

[WrestlingStandard]

This video was very tough to watch even though it's from 1982. I truly realize what a huge part of Portland Wrestling Frank Bonnema was. I hope to come up and do commentating and I hope I can be just as good an announcer as he was.

[mfarmer99]

Frank Bonnema was one of the all time great commentators! I say that not because I grew up on Bonnema but because he really was that good!

Don actually wore a nice suit for this evening?

[aceldamahotel]

@klimber1000 Heh. I'm pretty sure you are talking abuot Ringside Rosie (to be honest, can't remember if that was her real name or just a nice nickname since she was always ringside in the Rose City). They also announced her death on TV after it happened.

[mike72988]

Interesting that when Stasiak wrestled in Oregon he was billed as being from New York, and when he wrestled in New York he was billed as being from Buzzard's Creek, Oregon

[kresshawk1]

@musicguy64 I miss Frank he was cool.

[kresshawk1]

i grew up with him. RIP and god bless

[phildirt3]

frank was cool

[lockenjr]

@lockenjr oh yeah, I got billy jack's autograph on a few occasions. True story after a match between oliver and haynes here in coos bay guess who was behind us in a black trans am in the wendy's drive thru? Billy and rip imagine what my young mind was thinking. Yeah tna is okay I hate wwe, I wish tna would build a regional territorial system like the nwa used to have...but with the internet it will never be the same again...

[Kroder]

@lockenjr I'm going to order as many dvds as I can from musicman64. It will be sweet to be able to watch the matches again. BTW if you are still into wrestling, you should check out TNA on Spike TV, it's pretty close to old school and exciting to watch. I can't stand WWF anymore.

[Kroder]

@lockenjr Yeah man, Don't forget Billy Jack and his short lived success in the WWE. I to this day have not seen an outfit that compares to PW. I remember seeing a chain match between Rip Oliver and "The Clan" VS three other guys, can't remember who here now in Eugene. We were in the front row and we swore to god they were really hitting each other what that chain wrapped around their fists. Of course they weren't but that's how damn good they were.