The Cream of the Crop – Episode 3: Dutch Savage & Bull Ramos

<p><strong>The Cream of the Crop – Episode 3: Dutch Savage &amp; Bull Ramos</strong></p><p>Professional wrestling has always been built around a simple idea: create a villain so dangerous and so despised that fans will pay money just to see somebody stop him.</p><p>In 1972, Portland Wrestling found that man.</p><p>His name was <strong>Bull Ramos</strong>.</p><p>But Portland already had somebody waiting for him: <strong>Dutch Savage</strong>. And for much of the decade, these two men would fight for championships, supremacy—and the paying customers who couldn&#39;t wait to see them do it again.</p><p>In Episode 3 of <strong>The Cream of the Crop: The Main Eventers, Money Draws, and Territory Legends</strong>, we revisit one of the rivalries that helped define Portland Wrestling in the 1970s.</p><p>Dutch Savage arrived in Portland full-time in 1970 after wrestling across the country and beyond. With his unmistakable look, charisma and devastating jumping piledriver, Savage became one of the Northwest&#39;s biggest stars. Seven Northwest Heavyweight Championships and 12 Northwest Tag Team Championships followed—but the championships alone don&#39;t explain Dutch Savage. <strong>People paid to see him.</strong></p><p>Then came Bull Ramos.</p><p>On January 8, 1972, Ramos made his Portland debut against a man promoted as perhaps the only wrestler tough enough to face him: <strong>Lonnie Mayne</strong>. Bull broke Mayne&#39;s arm. The fans went crazy, and as Ramos later remembered it, his road from there was <strong>“paved with gold—sellout after sellout.”</strong></p><p>Soon Bull was standing across the ring from Dutch Savage.</p><p>Ramos defeated Savage for the Northwest Heavyweight Championship in April 1972 and dominated the title picture for much of the next year and a half. But this wasn&#39;t a rivalry built around one match or one summer. <strong>Dutch Savage and Bull Ramos battled throughout much of the decade</strong>, becoming one of Portland Wrestling&#39;s classic hero-versus-villain combinations.</p><p>And behind that rivalry was remarkable chemistry.</p><p>Hear the story of Dutch using <strong>salmon oil</strong> to send Bull into a genuine rage during a match—and the even better story of the two eventually becoming friends and going salmon fishing together, only for Dutch to burn through Bull&#39;s fishing line after Bull spent an hour and a half fighting a 40-pound salmon.</p><p>Inside the ring, they convinced thousands of fans they hated each other. Outside the ring... apparently things weren&#39;t always much safer.</p><p>Years later, Ramos recalled Don Owen telling fans that Bull had made him more money than any wrestler in the world. Dutch Savage became synonymous with Pacific Northwest wrestling. One became one of Portland&#39;s greatest heroes. The other became one of its greatest villains.</p><p><strong>And when you put them together, fans believed.</strong></p><p>That&#39;s why <strong>Dutch Savage and Bull Ramos</strong> belong in <em>The Cream of the Crop</em>.</p><p>And next Friday, the series moves into another generation and another unforgettable Portland rivalry: <strong>Billy Jack Haynes and Rip “The Crippler” Oliver</strong>. The hometown powerhouse against the leader of one of Portland Wrestling&#39;s most dominant groups.</p><p>Hosted by Frank Culbertson and based on <em>The Encyclopedia of Portland Wrestlers</em> by Portland Wrestling historian Mike Rodgers, available now on Amazon.</p><p>New episodes of <em>The Cream of the Crop</em> drop every Friday on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.</p><p></p>