Showing posts with label matman. Show all posts
Showing posts with label matman. Show all posts

Nov 9, 2025

Who Is The Mat Man? 1989 - Portland Wrestling Mystery

The Matman Mystery....

In 1989, a masked wrestler named Matman joined Portland Wrestling. At first, we just had an interview. Everyone agrees that Scotty the Body was donning the mask and cape that night.
In July of 1989, Moondog Moretti had a match with the Matman, who was, in Moondog's words, "The Shits!" It has been said that Bert Prentice was in Portland at the time, and he had a "friend" or protege with him that took the Matman gimmick to the ring for the first time. No one knows who that might have been. Matman came to the rescue of Rex King on the 8-5-89 episode, and it was clearly a different wrestler. The general consensus is that Pat Tanaka was under the mask this time.
Many members of the Fans of Portland Wrestling group on Facebook thought it might have been Ricky Santana, instead of Pat Tanaka, but Ricky confirmed, in the comments, that it was never him.

Thanks to Mike Rogers for covering this interesting topic in

I was scanning some photos and came across this one. This is marked 6-17-89 on the back, but that date could be wrong. That's not a Scotty the Body chin. Is it a Pat Tanaka chin? Or is this the Bert Prentice protege?


The full episode with Matman.
8/5/89



 

Sep 29, 2025

Portland Wrestling Full Episode 8/5/1989 - Who is the Matman? - You Tube Video

Portland Wrestling Full Episode August 5, 1989.
If you Google who Matman is, it says that it is Scott Levy (Scotty the Body); 
however, this guy is much smaller than Scotty.  If you compare the height between
the two compared to Sandy Barr, you can clearly see that he is smaller.

According to the Portland Wrestling Encyclopedia, by Mike Rogers, it may have 
been a protege of Bert Prentice and was also possibly played by Pat Tanaka.
Some fans remember that there was an interview that Scotty was definitely in the
outfit.  So it's hard to know for sure.


Tonight's lineup: M= Johnathon Boyd & The Grappler VS The Southern RockersSteve Doll & Scott Peterson I= Betelgeuse M= Col. DeBeers VS Carl Stiles I= Carl Stiles M= Loser Leaves Town Coal Miners Glove Match Scotty The Body VS Top Gun (Scott Peterson handcuffed to Johnathon Boyd) M= Rex King VS Al Madril (+Matman) I= Nord The Barbarian M= Betelgeuse VS Rip Oliver I= Scotty The Body, The Grappler, Johnathon Boyd I= Rip Oliver, Al Madril, Betelgeuse, Matman

Feb 5, 2023

Portland Wrestling Program - August 19, 1989 - SOUTHERN ROCKERS FOREVER!!!

1989 was a HUGE year for the Southern Rockers.  They were the hot draw in Portland Wrestling, selling TONS of merch and they both probably signed a million autographs that year!  They broke up and had a feud, which was a BIG crowd draw.  And they were even more popular when they got back together.  Apparently, at some point, Scott decided that he wasn't going to wrestle anymore.  He lost a Loser Leave Town match and moved on from wrestling to work in a mill.  Sadly, as I understand it, he passed away in a motorcycle accident in 1994.  The week after the loser leaves town match, there was a going-away party for Scott at the Sports Arena.  The place was more packed than I had ever seen it.  You could barely move from place to place, and I hope you didn't have to go to the bathroom!  There was a big autograph session with most of the "good guys" and a brand new Southern Rockers shirt to buy.  It was $13 and I stood in line for over 30 minutes to get mine.  After the matches, I heard someone say, "I can't believe they sold a thousand t-shirts!".  I'm not sure if that was an exaggeration but I know they sold a lot of shirts!

This is my shirt, all faded, sun-bleached, and ratty.
I have always wanted another one, so I scanned in the graphics and did a lot of adjusting,
and uploaded it to a print-on-demand site.

Back of the original shirt.
It always bothered me that the lips were upside down and the last 9 was in a different font!

Front of the original shirt.

 


I love it!