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  1. And we're back with AJPW 1985. We're looking at October. Riki Choshu vs Ashura Hara (10/04 aired 10/12): I noticed I had no Riki Choshu this post. The booking has separated Riki/partner from Jumbo & Tenryu for a little bit. Presumably to build to another encounter for RWTL drama. Anyway this was blazing right out of the gate. Full speed ahead ass kicking. Unfortunately it didn't get too far in before a DQ was called but Damn! this was a blast while it lasted. Dory and Terry Funk v. Road Warriors (10/19/85): Not to be a bummer but, looking at these guys in 1985, it's a shock Dory Jr. is the only one still alive. Not the two muscle bound giants or the crazy bearded brawler but the guy who looks like an old Charlie Brown. I don't consider Road Warriors matches more than novelty outings at this point. ------ Ric Flair v. Jumbo Tsuruta (Non-Title, 10/19/85): These two always have a great encounter and this was no different. Technical and hard hitting so I can't complain. Seeing as this is a non title fight it added a bit of drama (that we don't get in hindsight with big title matches). ----- Shoehi Baba/Takashi Ishikawa/Mighty Inoue v. Ashura Hara/Rusher Kimura/Goro Tsurumi (10/21/85): A really fun match. Although Baba is regularly an excellent 6-manner, it was best when he was out. Ishikawa & Inoue had a really fast paced match going on with the heel team. Kabuki v. Killer Khan (10/21/85): Good brawl but over before it had a chance to be better. Ref saw Kabuki spit the mist in Khan's eyes. Dory and Terry Funk/Tiger Mask v. Billy Robinson/Terry Gordy/Chavo Guerrero (10/21/85): This is a fun match and something you'd dream up for a video game or fantasy booking. I've seen it a few times so I won't review it here. One of the more memorable times was watching this the night before my last day at work before getting laid off. I remember getting drunk that night and after I ran out of beer, I started drinking gin & Gatorade. Threw up. Big surprise! Was super hung over and late to work the next day... what were they going to do? Fire me? Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru v. Road Warriors (10/21/85): Probably the best Warriors match thus far. Not a novelty as this was pretty damn good! They actually sold and wanted to do good wrestling with Tenryu and Jumbo. This was a heavyweight fireworks match for '85. If I'm going to recommend a RW in AJPW '85, it's this one. Holy Shit an actual wrestling hold from Animal! ----- Ric Flair v. Rick Martel (NWA Title v. AWA Title, 10/21/85): Fuck yes! This was awesome! This is the match that I was hoping it would be. The pacing and flow were perfect and I felt like I could have watched this go on all evening. Excellent teases, near falls (even though you probably know the outcome)/..but you really don't know how they are going to get there 38 years later. Classic match for me. Dory and Terry Funk v. Terry Gordy/Art Crews (10/22/85): Good little match here. Art Crews was a good hand it would seem. Everything he did looked crisp but without trying to upstage the stars. Don't think I'll see him again in '85 but this match is a good example of some of non-stars working AJPW at the time. Mil Mascaras v. Norio Honaga (10/22/85): Quick fun match. Cool to see Mascaras. This was a nice exhibition showing. He did a bunch of cool holds and although Honaga never had a chance, he got a 2 count Ric Flair/Rick Martel v. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru (10/22/85): Dream match? Yeah absolutely... no idea this happened but glad it did! And its a great one. It's a terrific match for a Sunday night. Four hall of fame wrestlers in AJPW 1985...it's hard to go wrong here. ----- This was an excellent week of wrestling. Lotsa Rick Martel and I even skipped one, Martel vs Riki Choshu from 10/19/85. It's out there on the Roy 1985 tapes, take a look. We're going onto November '85. Thanks for reading!
  2. 1980-10-18 MACW/MLW Greg Valentine (c) vs. Ric Flair NWA United States Heavyweight Title Match Buffalo Memorial Auditorium, Buffalo, New York, USA ★★★ Card The first long singles match I’ve seen of Flair so far on tape for the year. This definitely had a house show vibe, and a house show finish, but to just go out there and deliver a strong 3 star match shows what these guys could do. This was chunked up into a beefy shine sequence -> heat -> comeback stretch -> finish. Flair seemed to handle Valentine pretty handily for the first 5-8 minutes. He had the bravado and the ADHD energy and after the initial use of punches and forearms to the head, he wrestled Greg down into a hammerlock and maintained his control. Flair had been pretty decent up to this point, but I was concerned about when Valentine was going to show some stuff. He’s always been a subdued seller (face flop spot aside) and often that’s a plus, but I also wouldn’t say it’s his strength either and being rammed face first into the mat for several minutes didn’t give him a lot to work with. I shouldn’t have been worried though, as we got the transition soon enough and boy did Valentine not pull any punches when it was his turn to lay them in. His strikes were fast and vicious and looked fantastic. I love it when the heel can actually dish it out when required. He went to the same well that Flair did and ground Flair down into a hammerlock of his own. This time however they really slow burned the comeback. Flair got to his feet, then back down they went. Once again he managed to get to his feet, but he couldn’t lift Greg, and back down they went. Finally, amid a torrent of crowd noise, he managed to stand for a third time, and it was this time that he managed to lift Greg, dump him in the corner and then the comeback was in full swing. I’ll briefly stop to mention that the crowd were solidly behind Flair all night, but at this point they were thoroughly and totally losing their collective shit. One of the more veracious crowd’s of the year no doubt. Flair ran through his stuff, did his strut and woo’d to the crowd when needed before we had the countout finish with Greg on the wrong side of the apron. Despite being the main event, and part of a pretty heated feud, this felt very meat and potatoes from a structure standpoint. They weren’t trying to reinvent the wheel here, but deliver a satisfying match. The crowd didn’t get the result they were hoping for, but they were completely invested, and at least their guy picked up the win. I would say very good performances from both men in my first long hard look at either in a singles setting. Valentine gets kudos for his offense while Flair’s comes from being a ball of charisma.
  3. I'm just going to jump on in! Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (12/08): An absolute all time classic match in my book. The sense of chaos and animosity is as high as its been in all of 1984 All Japan. Terry and Dory Jr. against Brody and Hansen finally is the culmination of one of the main themes of the year. Dory and Baba have faced the absolutely dominant monsters on a few occasions. They have hung in there but never truly were able to match the intensity and ferocity of Brody & Hansen. Terry has been ringside (or guest ref'd in Jumbo vs Bock) so he's been witness or assisted but not been a direct participant. He's not retired anymore (which would have been booked as a "long-term injury" nowadays) so he is able to go to toe with his foes. And Terry is the one guy crazy and ferocious enough to knock the giants on their asses. Watch Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (08/26) as well. ----- The Funks vs Nick Bockwinkel & Harley Race (12/12, aired 12/22): This is a dream matchup. Unfortunately it is joined in progress about half way in but the second half is pretty great. Somewhere along the line Harley and Terry juice, Nick is selling his knee, Dory comes into the match with taped ribs or lower back...it just would have been nice to see the whole thing. Maybe it's out there now somewhere... but anyways this is just a joy to watch. Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (12/12 RWTL final match, aired 12/22): This is not on my AJ Classics set but I have a compilation of the RWTL finals of the 80's but its also on Lucier's '84 TV tapes. So the thing to get is how OVER Brody and Hansen are with the fans. People are psyched to see Jumbo and Tenryu but when the music plays for the monsters, it's evident how much they love them...even as they get shoved and whipped So this is kinda THE moment for AJPW in 1984. The two biggest forces coming head to head. This is just as an fast paced intense fight as you'd hope for. 2 of the 4 guys are bleeding, you can hear the blows falls even over the roaring crowd, great moves & moments - it is without a doubt classic match. Its the convergence of all of the big stories of 1984 All Japan and brilliantly executed. You know... from entrances to the exits I would call it an all time classic. I don't think it edges out Funks vs Brody & Hansen in terms of intensity and an overall emotional connection from me. So that's where I'm ending the year for 1984 All Japan. But I'm going to go back a couple matches I skipped over: Ric Flair vs Harley Race (05/22): I skipped this as I wanted to focus on matches that featured home AJPW wrestlers as one of the two opponents. Although Race was featured more prominently I still consider this more of an exhibition match than anything. Still, I wasn't going to skip it entirely. This is one that I don't remember a lot of talk about. It looks like it was the top Harley Race match according to the DVDVR Best of AJ of the 1980's. But it barely is in the top 50...Overshadowed by the Kerry vs Jumbo match on the same night? Regardless, this is a great match! It has a nice steady pace and plenty of surprises (I'm sure folks more familiar with their work at this time might disagree). This was a very good match that I thought was going to end one way but they kept going on. That was really more than I expected and made this something great and worth your time. Very happy to see this! These appearances by Harley have been a treat! ----- Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kerry Von Erich (05/22): 2/3 falls match for the World Championship. The DVDVR best of the AJPW 80's list has it as the #6 match of the decade.And that's why I put if off to the end. It's reputation proceeds itself. However it's not the best match of '84 for me after watching everything. That said, it IS probably the best singles match of the year. Each fall feels unique and escalates beautifully. It is superior to the Jumbo vs Bockwinkel matches, as well as vs Brunzell & Gagne in Japan. It's a classic match. I think its closest match in singles is Dory Jr. vs Hansen on 04/26 and Baba vs Hansen. You know I think I'll rank them below. Anyway, this is something you'd want to see if you just want to see if any of this 39 year old wrestling is for you ----- I was going to try for Flair vs Kerry which is considered a great match from 05/24/84 but I ran out of time. I'll come back to it and my review as a comment and add it to the ranking if applicable. Best Singles Matches Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kerry Von Erich (05/22) Dory Funk Jr. vs Stan Hansen (04/26) Stan Hansen vs Giant Baba (03/24) - Giant Baba vs Stan Hansen (07/31) Ric Flair vs Harley Race (05/22) Nick Bockwinkel vs Jumbo Tsuruta (02/23) -Nick Bockwinkel vs Jumbo Tsuruta (02/26) Jumbo Tsuruta vs Greg Gagne (04/19) Jumbo Tsuruta vs Jim Brunzell (04/26) Honorable Mention: Tiger Mask II vs Pirata Morgan (12/08) (I'm clumping the Baba vs Hansen and Jumbo vs Bockwinkel's matches as I can't really pick one over another.) Best Tag Matches Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (12/08) Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (12/12) Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (08/26) Jim Brunzell & Greg Gagne vs Dory Funk Jr. & Kerry Von Erich (04/24) Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (04/24) Atsushi Onita & Masa Fuchi vs Hector & Chavo Guerrero (09/03) Jumbo & Tenryu vs Brody & Jerry Blackwell (09/03) Honorable Mention: The Funks vs Nick Bockwinkel & Harley Race (12/12) Top 5 Matches Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (12/08) Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (12/12) Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (08/26) Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kerry Von Erich (05/22) Dory Funk Jr. vs Stan Hansen (04/26) 1984 has been a fantastic year for wrestling in All Japan. The beginning of the project featured American talent from the AWA and other promotions as Jumbo was AWA champion. There's some great Junior action with Guerreros taking on the best AJPW had to offer. Misawa takes on the Tiger Mask role and adds another dimension to junior action...something that does get overlooked. Brody and Hansen are causing chaos everywhere they go. Tenryu is coming into his own. Mid year and on we get more excitement as Harley Race, Ric Flair and Kerry Von Erich put on some real high quality stuff. The Tag League was an awesome way to end the year and project for me. This has been the longest stretch of 80's AJPW that I've watched. I've been more familiar with New Japan in the 80's so this was fun to really go from January to December. The variety that is present due to the Americans cannot be understated. It is one thing I wish had stayed around during the 90's. It was something Misawa was smart to reintroduce with NOAH. I'm planning on watching 1985 All Japan which I'd like to try later this year (with some assistance from Roy's 1985 AJ TV regarding Riki Choshu matches). It's been a good thing for me to actually go through a good chunk of my DVD backlog and I'm want to keep it up. I've got 1 or 2 projects that are more dependent upon online videos coming soon. After that I'm going to try and get through another block of DVD's. Thanks for reading folks!
  4. Hi folks! Going through my notes and reviews while working on my year end Best Match Watched stuff and found a bunch of AJPW stuff that I never posted. Very interesting stuff. I'd normally do pictures but I think I used some of them from my last wrestling art show thing. Giant Baba vs Stan Hansen (09/08/83): PWF Title match. For a Baba match, this was pretty good. He and Hansen work well together and work with Baby's limitations. Baba also pushed himself a bit. Perhaps I have seen this before but many Baba singles matches can feel the same. Bruiser Brody vs Jumbo Tsuruta (10/14/83): International title fight. Brody surprisingly wrestled a technical match by targeting Jumbo's injured arm. We get blood from both guys and this is really good stuff. The finish or end part of the match is fantastic! Tiger Jeet Singh vs Dory Funk Jr. (12/05/83): Very good bout. You know what you're getting here but I think they worked it very well. Started hot then brought things down and closed with a donnybrook. Baba & Dory Jr. vs Hansen & Brody (12/10/83): This is a short match but the whole thing is fought like the last 10 minutes of an epic tag bout. That's to say, this was intense as hell from bell to bell. Terry is yelling at ringside which makes things even more palpable. It was all so great and felt like a fight between foes (as it is). This was classic stuff (along with the post match stuff). Ric Flair vs The Great Kabuki (12/12/83): For the NWA World Title. Started slow with Kabuki dominating but things picked and the fans really got into the possibility of their countryman winning. It's not the greatest thing ever but it was a lot of fun down the stretch. Would have benefited from being quicker in pace I think. The Jumbo vs Brody and the tag match are highly recommended. Damn I want to rewatch these now...
  5. NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Lex Luger – NWA Starrcade 1988 As great as the Total Package was in this match, Ric Flair was the undeniable man in this match. Understanding who the Nature Boy was in between those ropes as the NWA World Heavyweight Champion. A lot of this was covered verbally during Part 1 of Fair to Flair, but lets go through the minutia using this match as a case study. The match begins with Flair cocky as ever going so far as to taunt the Total Package. At one point, he gets down on one knee and flexes! Flair’s goal early on is psych out the inexperienced challenger and assert himself. You see crowd Luger in the corner, but Luger’s immense power overwhelms him and sends him flying out of the ring. Now, Luger poses to a massive pop, which is a great payback spot as Flair is left doubting himself rather than the other way around. The key to Flair is that he is always going to try to win the match legitimately at first. He is only apprehensive right now, not out and out desperate. The key difference to me between Flair and Harley Race is that Flair makes you earn your shine because Flair is going to apply a hammerlock, throw a chop and try a back elbow, but the challenger fights through this offense and when they gain the upper hand it is more meaningful. Now Flair is going back to the core of his strategy: breaking the rhythm of his opponent. The challenger is going on a fast break and the crowd is hot. Flair uses the ropes like a basketball team would use a timeout. Luger can taunt all he wants, but Flair is in command. Of course, Flair can’t win the match either this way he can only slow Luger down. Now, he moves the second phase of his two-pronged strategy leverage his superior cardiovascular stamina to defeat powerful, muscular Lex Luger. He tries to turn into a track meet by coming off the ropes and we see Luger do a really IMPRESSIVE leapfrog. Luger is ready to use power via a shoulder tackle to thwart the Nature Boy. Big Press Slam! Flair is in the ropes and it is not looking good. Luger begins to try break down Flair via the arm and Flair’s verbal selling is great. He whips Flair hard into the turnbuckles who takes it shoulder first. Here comes Flair with his perpetual motion offense of chops and shoulderblocks to stop the bleeding, but nothing is working on the challenger. Finally, about ten minutes in, Flair finally thumbs Luger in the eye. For ten minutes, Flair try to best Luger and could not. Out of desperation, he finally resorted to nefarious tactics. That’s beautiful storytelling. Flair goes to his number one weapon, the chops. JR gets in a good point about chops as wearing down the opponent. Incredibly, he does NOT take it to the logical football analogy of running up the middle in the first quarter for 2-3 yards, but keep pounding the ball up the gut so that it turns into 5-7 yards in the fourth quarter. The chop is a similar strategy and in addition it is evacuating the air out of Luger’s lungs, which plays into Flair’s overall strategy. Remember, we are only ten minutes into this contest, so when Flair chops Luger they have an effect, but they have taken their true toll on the Total Package yet. The result is one of the MOST ELECTRIC NO-SELLS of all time with Luger coming out of the corner looking like a million bucks and the crowd and me losing their shit. Flair retreats to the outside and admittedly due to small ringside area things do get a little awkward with Luger trying to navigate his way to get Flair and then he wrenches Flair’s arm around the railing. Another Flair strategy is use of shortening the distance like a boxer would or what could be called crowding when he takes Luger from the armbar into the corner. Flair is an underrated puncher and I have always thought his punches look nasty. Flair tries to combat Luger’s power by using the ropes to get a running start to increase his momentum and add some wallop to his blows. Luger at this stage of the game is a Flair-seeking missile and will not be denied. I love the suplex back in the ring as it is just the perfect babyface move. Oh, you want to try to run from me, let me bring you in the hard way. Luger misses his big elbow and lets out quite the yelp. Flair pounces with a short kicks to abs and now using that running start to really topple Luger. He throws Luger to the outside for a hard, hard fall. He attacks Luger using the railing. This is when Flair is at his sadistic best. He slows down the pace and really grinds his opponent down. Kneedrop and double footstomp! This is offense that allows him to recover without expending too much energy, but at the same time non-kayfabe allows the heat to sink in and for Luger to sell. Luger gets his second wind so Flair immediately goes back to trying to create movement, but ends up in a sleeper! Again Luger earns the comeback fighting through his chops and then winning the criss-cross exchange! Flair hits a back suplex counter. He realizes he can not waste anymore time and goes for his one surefire home run, the figure-4. INSIDE CRADLE! Only two. Flair crashes down with a elbow to stymie Luger. You feel his hold on the match is tenuous at best. He wants to go up top to get some free velocity and really crash down on Luger, but he gets caught with the superplex, awesome nearfall. Luger now applies the figure-4 as a slap in the face and as a strong match-ender spot. Flair gets the ropes and now here comes the Luger home stretch. Luger accidentally hit the ref on the backswing of his punch. He gets a top rope crossbody for two only because the ref was out of position. Backslide that’s how Kerry beat Flair. Flair takes the flip in the corner. Luger suplexes him back in and PRESS SLAM! The challenger is pouring it on. Now it is up to JJ to do what Flair can’t break his momentum. Luger is on a fast break so putting himself into harm’s way distracts Luger. Flair trips Luger up and goes full psycho smashing a steel chair into the knee of the Total Package. Flair goes to town on the knee. This is an absolute clinic of how to work the knee and how to sell a knee both psychically and verbally. Flair Figure-4! Time to test the mettle of Lex Luger, who like a real man reverses the pressure. Flair is right back to the knee. He goes up top to try win the match with a cross body, but gets caught in a press slam. Luger was able to fight through pain for that one moment, but the pain is too much has to crawl to Flair and can’t capitalize. Flair desperate just throws him out of the ring. Sunset Flip by Luger! That’s how Garvin won the title. Flair tries one of those running, jumping forearms, but just bounces off Luger! It is hot baby! Luger fighting through the pain hits the clotheslines and powerslams to set up for the torture rack. In my probably my favorite finish of all time, Luger hoists up the champion only to have his knee give out and Flair lands on top, puts his feet on the ropes and wins the match. WOW! Incredible match and one that I hope I did justice. I really don’t think I can in all honesty it is something that needs to be watched. Everybody seems to like the Wrestlewar match, which I think is an all-time classic, but I have this a notch above. Clearly, the Starrcade finish is better than the Wrestlewar finish. This told an absolutely incredible story and just stayed so true to both characters. The selling was just pitch perfect. I have always seen this match ranked ****1/2. I can’t go below ****3/4 and right now I can’t think of a reason not to go the full monty. For my money, this is the perfect Flair vs power wrestler match. It is Flair’s best power wrestler opponent, Luger, putting a great selling and offensive clinic. His timing on those no-sells was great. Flair gave a heel performance in this match that I don’t know has ever been topped. I am going *****, but would love to hear arguments to the contrary.
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