The 1980s
Wrestling on television became a hot commodity during the 1980s. In 1982, Elton Owen, who had continued working in the family business as his brother Don's right hand man, retired. Elton died a short time later. Don's son Barry Owen began promoting in Washington. He would then take over promoting the weekly Friday night shows in Eugene as well as spot shows, eventually promoting most of the shows which had previously been promoted by Elton.
Frank Bonnema suffered a heart attack in September 1982, just days after taping a Portland Wrestling episode. He would not return to the program, and died on the morning of October 5. On the October 9 episode of Portland Wrestling, veteran announcer Don Coss, who had filled in as host during this time, officially took over the announcing duties. Coss had previously announced televised wrestling matches in Salem, Oregon over the defunct station KVDO.
Many big-name stars appeared in Portland, the most famous of which was Portland native Billy Jack Haynes. Others such as Roddy Piper, King Parsons, Matt Borne, "Gentleman" Chris Adams, Rip Oliver, Buddy Rose, David Schultz, and others competed regularly. Owen had a working relationship with Jack Adkisson's World Class promotion in Dallas, which produced several talent exchanges - the most famous of which was when Adams and Parsons were sent to World Class in 1983. Both wrestlers became two of the most famous non-Von Erich wrestlers in the promotion's history, and became Texas mainstays throughout the rest of their respective careers.
On May 21, 1985, in honor of the Owen family's 60 years of promoting in the PNW, a supercard called 60th Anniversary Wrestling Extravaganza was held at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. The show featured representatives from the NWA, AWA and WWF, including the World Champions of both the NWA and AWA and the World Tag Team Champions of the AWA all defending their titles. The PNW accomplished in this event something the WWF/WWE have yet to achieve, a sold out Coliseum. Barry Owen claimed that this event had the highest attendance ever for a sporting event at the Coliseum.
On January 21, 1986, Portland Wrestling held a followup to the supercard, called Superstar Extravaganza, also at the Portland Memorial Coliseum. The card was limited to NWA talent and was not as large and successful as the first Supercard.
Read more about this topic: Pacific Northwest Wrestling, Don Owen Sports