Through December, Haynes main-evented matches against Jaggers and Oliver. Meanwhile Don Owen continued pushing Zenk. To pull this off, throughout December, the official program, Northwest Wrestling News and Views, ceased to differentiate  'Main Events' and 'Premliminary' matches in its "Schedule of Events".

 "Wrestling is about fighting for spots" - Haynes slides back down the card -"the crowd support simply wasn't there." Eventually Haynes disappeared "on tour to Japan."

Early January 1986 saw Haynes back tagging with Zenk.   By late January, Zenk was headlining as both PNW Heavyweight Champion and PNW Tag Champion (with Scott Doring) while Haynes was back working preliminaries. By late February, Haynes had departed on a sudden tour of Japan.

Zenk's own choice of tag partner was former high school friend Scott Doring, one-time Mr. Teenage America. Doring had been two years ahead of Zenk in college in Robbinsdale and one of Zenk's inspirations for becoming a bodybuilder.Scott had beaten Lee Haney (5 times Mr. Olympia) back in 1980 when Doring took 2nd place in the Mr. USA contest.

Doring and Zenk had both together gone though Verne Gagne's training camp, with Doring going on to work as Rick Steiner's first partner in Montreal in summer 1984.

Doring was staying with his mother's family in Portland and picking up work with PNW when Zenk met him again in late1985.

Their title spell began on December 14, 1985  when Zenk and Doring defeated Mike Miller and Moondog Moretti for the PNW tag team title.

Subsequently, on January 21, 1986, the scenario that Owen had set in motion back in October, reached a climax at the sold out "SuperStar Extravaganza III", Portland Memorial Coliseum.

One of the wrestlers recalls that "the people there really seemed to pack the big arena.  They promoted it as an "Extravaganza"  - bigger than life as they knew it in the bowling alley! " The card was headlined by Ric Flair and Dusty Rhodes (program below) but for many in the crowd the outcome of the feud between Zenk v. Jaggers, that had been building all year, was what they'd come to see. "Ric Flair was watching the match from behind the curtain. The other guys (Dusty,T.A., etc) were just putting in time."

Once again, the finish wasn't clean. Immediately after Zenk's victory, Jaggers and Rip Oliver double-teamed the new champion, 'beating him unconscious.' The Zenk-Jaggers feud had now reached full pitch.  "People in the audience were screaming and crying when Zenk was carried out by stretcher.  Jaggers and Oliver wanted to get heat on themselves because hot heels draw money. And people wanted to see the baby faces really kick ass on heels they hated so badly."
 

 

It was late January 1986. After four months in Portland, Tom Zenk had risen to the top of the PNW. He was the federation's top babyface, he was undefeated and held the NWA's two major Northwest titles. He was over with the crowd, he was doing his job selling tickets, and he had unfinished business with Oliver and Jaggers that would see him through the Spring. He had fended off Billy Jack Haynes and was tagging with his best friend and training partner Scott Doring. His girlfriend was in town and they had found an apartment in Milwaukee, OR about half a mile from town. Tom Zenk was having fun.....

 

Part 4 - 'BIGGER, STRONGER, HAVING FUN' - " Four times a week Zenk would pick up Doring and head off to Lake Oswego to work out in the gym.  Sam Bowie and Clyde the Glide Drexler (from the Portland Trailblazers) worked out in the same gym and were awed by the size the two men had achieved. Zenk and Doring were the heaviest in their careers and the strongest in their lives.  And they were having more fun that Zenk would find again in the business....."

 

Part 1 | Part 2 |  Part 3 |  Part 4