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SAMS

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  1. SAMS
    1981-01-19 AJPW Abdullah The Butcher & Mark Lewin vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Verne Gagne Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match Ojigaoka Park Gymnasium, Otsu, Shiga, Japan ★★ Card I believe they were building towards Jumbo challenging Abby for the United National Title on an upcoming card (looks to be the 22nd Jan) but I can’t find that anywhere. They could have gone in a lot of interesting directions with this match. They could have worked some kind of story that bled into the aforementioned title match, they could have had something around the duelling sleeper holds of Lewin and Verne, but they kind of did none of that. There were moments where it seemed like Jumbo was eager to target Abby specifically, but they blew those off pretty quickly and they never amounted to much. Overall the dynamic in All Japan feels off-kilter. Jumbo is challenging, and being the native wrestler you’d presume he would be the favourite, but I get no sense that he’s generating strong positive reactions from the crowd. In fact it’s Abby, unsurprisingly bleeding profusely here from a knee shot to the head, that curried the crowd’s favour and who had the match’s most exciting stretch, where he almost seems to have a babyface comeback of sorts, but it was short lived. In terms of the actual match specifics, we got a double countout in the first fall when Abby and Verne wouldn’t quit it, brawling on the outside, leaving us with a winner take all third fall. I actually liked the finish as Abby and Lewin are able to cut Jumbo off, hit him with a really nice double team where Lewin dove off the top with a flying chop while Abby held Jumbo in a fireman’s carry, then transitioned that straight into a back suplex. He followed up with a nice elbow drop to pick up the clean win going into that title match, giving the sense that the odds were stacked against Jumbo being able to claim the belt. 1981-01-23 Houston Wrestling The Funks (Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk) (c) vs. Ivan Putski & Wahoo McDaniel SWCW World Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA ★★ Card A rather slow burn opening fall, but despite it revolving almost entirely around Wahoo and Putski controlling the Funks with headlocks, I thought it was far more interesting than it sounds. There was intensity and all involved did their best to work the holds well and keep things interesting. I wanted to praise Putski, as he gets a lot of shit, however I have to admit that his penchant for a rest hold dragged down this fall. The early headlocks were fine, but his major imprint on this match was the bear hug he grappled onto Dory, which took the sting out of the fall entirely after Wahoo had come in and stoked the fires. Despite being completely worn down from the hold though, Dory, with a little help from Terry, was able to grab a sneaky pin on Wahoo to steal the first. The second was entirely clipped except for Dory diving to the outside to avoid the restart then jogging back and forth while clutching his back, trying to loosen it up after the beating it’d taken earlier. From commentary it seemed that Wahoo went back to working over Dory’s back and submitted him with an Abdominal Stretch. The final fall had Terry desperately trying to make his mark after Dory had been worked over so thoroughly. This one had the most action, Terry as usual was excellent, they just never managed to pull it together properly. Putski and Wahoo felt like an odd pair and they didn’t have the best chemistry. The finish felt a bit shitty too, with Terry trying to break up another submission on his brother but being held back from the outside by Putski, his only course of action it seems was to straight up punch one of the referees in the face, thus accepting the DQ loss but retaining the titles. Felt weak to me but the crowd were losing their minds. I’m not sure I’ve seen the Coliseum rocking so much. I guess the faces got their heat back immediately after too as they took the Funk’s giant tag team trophy (one of those you win in Japan) and obliterated it in the middle of the ring despite the pleas from the Funks.
  2. SAMS
    1981-01-18 AJPW Giant Baba (c) vs. Verne Gagne (c) AWA World Heavyweight Title / PWF Heavyweight Title Two Out Of Three Falls Match Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan ★★ Card This was apparently part of a series celebrating Baba’s 3000th match. Gagne came out to a disco version of the Star Wars theme which was amazing. The first fall was clipped between the 1st and the 10th minute. They never really worked this with the urgency you’d want from a double title match, but felt more like an exhibition due to it being a Baba landmark. Considering he was solidly in his mid-50s at this point, Gagne still moved about the ring extremely well and just exuded the energy of a “true” wrestler. Just the little ways how he would dodge a lock up stick out compared to the younger guys. So while he didn’t wow me per se, the more I see of Verne the more impressed I am and the more keen I am to check out his earlier stuff. This match was all about Gagne trying to get the sleeper on Baba and Baba trying to use his bombs to counter. The first fall finished with Verne slapping that bad boy on and Baba, after some initial struggle, was down and out. In the second and third falls that was his go to move once again, but now Baba had it scouted and was able to escape. After getting over zealous and going for one too many dropkicks, Verne left himself open and Baba managed to hit the Russian Leg Sweep before planting his big boot right in Verne’s face for the second fall. That boot connected big time with Verne’s face and he went above and beyond selling it throughout the fall intermission. The final fall, unsurprisingly, ended in a double countout. Baba hit the boot again but, for some reason, Joe was overly eager to keep Baba away from Verne in the ropes, and that erratic referee behaviour foreshadowed some booking shenanigans. Promptly Verne got the time needed to clear his head, lock on the Sleeper again, but this time Baba escaped to the ropes and instead of relinquishing the hold they both tumbled over and the writing was on the wall. Nice fun match but that’s all really. 1981-01-18 CWA Jerry Lawler vs. Joe LeDuc (w/ Jimmy Hart) Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee, USA ★★ Card The stipulation was that the loser would receive 10 lashes, with the option of quitting wrestling if they couldn’t take them all. Hart was losing his mind throughout praying that LeDuc could pull it out the bag. Slow start but Lawler unfurled a few dynamite punches to set the tone. To be fair LeDuc came back in kind with some hammer blows of his own. LeDuc was fucking massive here as well. Unfortunately we got a big chunk clipped in the middle, only returning for the finish. Lawler made his comeback but Hart distracted the referee allowing LeDuc to piledrive Lawler. Lawler managed to kick out, but when he ended up returning the favour, Hart made sure that Paul Morton was looking and he had no choice but to DQ Lawler. Lawler took his 10 lashes from Hart, but LeDuc took over for the last and proceeded to absolutely wail on Lawler while he was still handcuffed to the corner. Dundee and Rich dove to the ring to try and make the save and in the chaos Lawler ended up with the strap and he and LeDuc brawled to the back.
  3. SAMS
    Most of what I've seen from Dory has been his tags with Terry, so I haven't had as much exposure to his singles work, which seems to be the most derided. But I thought for sure he brought a lot of good stuff to this match. I was a tad disappointed with Robinson during 1980. Yes, he had the Bockwinkel match, but I wasn't high on his Jumbo matches from earlier on in the year. He popped up in Memphis, which at the time felt really incongruent to me, but now that I'm more used to him in that context I think the main issue was probably that he never seemed to work TV at all, and in '80 there's basically none of his Omni matches that weren't heavily clipped. So far this year he's had a really fun mini-feud going on with Tony Charles in Memphis, within which he's essentially been the heel, that I feel highlights his particular strengths in the ring far more than I'd seen before (in the 80s at least). This match in Houston adds to those Charles matches in Memphis, in showing more of an edge and a grittiness than I remember seeing at all in his 70s Japan work, but that very well could be me misremembering them as it's been a fair few years since I last saw them.
  4. SAMS
    1981-01-16 Houston Wrestling Scott Casey & Tiger Conway Jr. vs. The Dynamic Duo (Gino Hernandez & Tully Blanchard) Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA ★★★ Card What a shot in the arm Tully has been for Houston Wrestling. Within a week he’s been involved in two of the best wrestling they’ve had since the decade started. He and Gino were a killer team here, their strategy revolving around blind tags and gaining man advantages rather than isolating either of their opponent’s or targeting any body parts. In the first fall especially they were able to really lay it in on Tiger Conway. The faces rallied though and Casey got the hot tag. It was interesting that Tiger and Casey excelled at each other’s weaknesses. Tiger I feel was much better on offense, when he was dishing it out, but could be pretty wooden when asked to sell. As much as I liked the Dynamic Duo when they worked him over, he didn’t do much to enhance the beating. In contrast Casey was almost comically bad during his hot tag, his strikes were some of the absolute worst I’ve seen, but as soon as Tully turned the tables on him I thought that his selling was superb. It wasn’t over the top, but he made Tully’s offense look fantastic and he was able to generate great sympathy (from me at least). An against the run of play diving headbutt off the top from Tiger sealed the first fall. As much as the heels dominated the first fall, the faces dominated the second. And in the same manner, they were unable to convert that control into victory. The face team had finally got into a groove of their own, got the tags going at a fluid rate and this gave Tully the opportunity to show off his selling chops. Tully overall was just fantastic here in all aspects, offense, defence, psychology, the whole shebang. The finish of the second fall was a bit underwhelming with Tiger missing a shoulder charge into the turnbuckles and Tully merely having to cover him for the pin though. The third was a step up in chaos, as you would expect, and Gino used this to his advantage. Both referees were tied up with Tiger and Tully, allowing him to send Casey flying over the top rope to deal some serious damage. Once they dumped him back in he was vulnerable and Gino nailed his patented diving elbow drop for the win. This had three good performances and one excellent one in Tully. Both teams had moments of great psychology and it was a real joy to go through. I was initially a bit hesitant looking at the matchup and the runtime of 25 minutes, but it was well worth it. 1981-01-16 Houston Wrestling Dory Funk Jr. vs. Billy Robinson Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA ★★★★ Card I fucking loved this and could be persuaded to go higher on rewatch. Honestly a little surprised to see a somewhat lukewarm reaction to it from other reviews. This was a 20 minute time limit single fall match, not prizes for predicting the result, a draw which anybody could have seen a mile off. The second ten minutes certainly weren’t as good as the first, but it was never less than compelling. I guess some people might find it a tad boring but I thought there was oodles of goodness to pick out from both guys here. Robinson was the main man early on. Dory, who’s usually a blank slate, showed a little bit of character, shoving Robinson away and trying to provoke him, and provoke him he did. Robinson really is a 1:1 wrestler, executing little hold variations that you just don’t see other wrestlers try. Everything felt tense, everything carried weight, and all of it was pure struggle and I was revelling in it all. As the tide turned more in Dory’s favour he began pulling out his old friend, the uppercut. In fact it seemed like the uppercut was the only move he had. But combined with his dead blank expressions and just nailing uppercut after uppercut ad nauseam, it began to feel like he was the terminator, and those strikes certainly looked like they were causing serious damage to Robinson, who was looking loopier by the minute. The pace picked up slightly as we began getting time updates, but it never reached the absolute frenzy the best time limit finishes do, so I can see why somebody would ding this for that. I would have liked this to have been 30+ minutes actually as I felt both guys had much more in the tank. Overall though it is gems like this that I expected when I started delving into the Houston footage. 1980 may have been a bit of a downer, but in 1981 business was starting to pick up!
  5. SAMS
    I don't think I've seen the Philly match. I had a Landover, Maryland Lumberjack match which I remember being good as well. So looking forward to revisiting them. Looping back around to the Backlund/Slaughter series, and Slaughter in particular, in the wrestler of the year thread for '81 Elliot stumps for him as the number one choice. From what I've seen so far I'd give you pretty good odds that that may end up being true by the year's end. But there's still a long way to go.
  6. SAMS
    1981-01-13 AJPW Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta (c) vs. Abdullah The Butcher & Mark Lewin NWA International Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match City Gymnasium, Shimabara, Nagasaki, Japan ★★ Card Fascinating to see Lewin in a different environment and I’m interested to see whether his act will travel East. They entered the ring and I can’t tell if it’s just the way the light bounced off his head, but Abby looked like he was bleeding already. This was pretty muted for the first two falls and the challengers had control for almost 80% of it. For the first fall in particular, Baba didn’t even tag in, Jumbo just got swarmed and eventually they wore him down. Abby and Lewin looked like a smart little team actually, isolating Jumbo, efficient tagging and Lewin was very enthusiastic when asked to just chop away, coming off the top several times to nail Jumbo in the head. We finally got a Baba sighting in the second, but apart from winning a brief chop exchange against Lewin (longer limbs = more force generated. Physics!) he mostly got his hand worked over some. This all felt like a bit of a mess. Energy was middling and it definitely had the “we’re out in the sticks so let’s go half speed” kind of vibe. The champions mounted a mini rally and managed to pummel Lewin for the equalising fall. The final fall was the “wild” brawl we all paid to see, but the crowd decidedly didn’t care when Jumbo was getting his face torn open, Abby felt like the biggest babyface in the whole match, so the champions managing to grab the weapon and use it on their foes fell extremely flat. In the end Abby gave Joe a little shove and by God THAT was apparently the step over the line and he got disqualified. Obviously jabbing a weapon into your opponent’s head repeatedly for the previous 10 minutes was absolutely fine though. So some nice little moments here. I can’t say it was bad, but it only just made the cut for serviceable. Lewin was actually pretty fun, but we didn’t get to see the best out of Abby or Jumbo, and Baba was almost a no-show. 1981-01-13 Joint Promotions Bobby Barnes vs. Pat Patton Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, United Kingdom ★★★ Fantastic example of how to really utilise the allotment of public warnings and really work the crowd. Barnes took his sweet time to untangle himself from submission holds at the end of rounds or while in the ropes, elongating the damage to his opponent. He was able to pick up the first fall with a nasty double arm submission and then, when finally Patton was able to make his comeback, it was very clear that they were cheering Barnes’ failure rather than Patton’s success. He really had them in the palm of his hand. On the flip side Patton didn’t have much character beyond being the martial arts guy who wrestles barefoot. Barnes dominated much of this and I felt the finish was particularly harsh on him, both from a kayfabe and non-kayfabe perspective, as a dropkick sent Barnes over the top, Patton somehow injured his arm in the process of doing said dropkick, and the double countout by the referee resulted in a draw. I think that Barnes, already being a fall up, should have been awarded the match 2-1 or at minimum given a referee’s decision. But being a heel I guess that was never on the cards. 1981-01-13 Joint Promotions Big Daddy & Sammy Lee vs. Grand Vladimir & Mel Stuart Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, United Kingdom ★ Crowd were really up for it this evening. Vladimir and Stuart made it down to the ring first and Vladimir had barely taken off his robe before a housewife in the crowd was giving him two fingers. Then it was time for Big Daddy’s entrance and he had a full-on chorus line of women in top hats. Quite the spectacle. In fact seeing Sammy Lee line up next to him in his Bruce Lee outfit was bizarre. They were quite the pair. I saw Big Daddy in a match tag involving Mark Rocco in ‘80 and he didn’t look terrible, clearly his opponents did a fantastic job of polishing him up. He was pretty terrible here. I still will never understand the phenomenon of him or how he got so over when he looked like an oversized baby wearing adult diapers. Things didn’t get too much better when Sammy Lee was in, he was very much all sizzle and no steak. Can’t argue that he was very over with the crowd and I can sort of see why. He moves at a million miles an hour, but all too often it’s too fast for what he actually is trying to do and he doesn’t give his opponent a chance to sync up and help him out and the whole thing just looks a little more awkward than it should. He also didn’t seem particularly interested in selling either, blowing off a good chance to gain a little sympathy after a nice punch to the face from Vladimir. In the end, after we got a little cameo from some more housewives in the front row who took it upon themselves to start attacking the heels as they hung out on the apron, Big Daddy and Sammy decided enough was enough and they picked up two quick falls to secure the 2-0 victory in around 7 minutes of action. 1981-01-13 Joint Promotions Johnny Saint vs. Jackie Robinson Light Heavyweight Knockout Tournament Heat Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, United Kingdom ★★ The four participants in the tournament were present in the ring and the MC had members of the audience select numbers between 1-4 to decide the matchups. Saint and Robinson were selected, meaning that Steve Grey and Bobby Ryan would be in the other heat. Each match would be over one ten minute round and first to a fall. One additional tidbit dropped by Kent Walton was that Jackie was actually Billy Robinson’s cousin. This was very exhibition-esque, Saint felt like he was merely messing around while Jackie didn’t give me the vibe that he would have been able to ratchet up the intensity to be a credible challenger to Saint, even if he’d wanted to. After 5 or so minutes Saint caught Jackie for a pretty easy cradle pin. Saint moved on and Jackie was bounced. All in all it was fine, but yeah, add this to a long list of throwaway tournament preliminary matches. 1981-01-13 Joint Promotions Bobby Ryan vs. Steve Grey Light Heavyweight Knockout Tournament Heat Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, United Kingdom Well this was MUCH better than the Saint/Robinson heat, but didn’t even hit the 3 minute mark. The setup was the same - stick a top guy in with somebody a few rungs lower down the totem pole - but in this case Grey was far more willing to give to Ryan than Saint was for Robinson. Ryan managed to get a couple really close two counts early and hit a huge enzuigiri that connected with Grey with an almighty crack. I would have loved this to have gone at least the 6-8 minute range but it wasn’t to be as Grey reversed a sunset flip pin attempt into a forward press of his own and the match was won and done. 1981-01-13 Joint Promotions Johnny Saint vs. Steve Grey Light Heavyweight Knockout Tournament Gold Medal Match Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, West Midlands, United Kingdom ★★★ This went the full 10 minutes, prompting Jeff Kaye, the referee, to have to make the decision. From a kayfabe perspective I think this was presented fantastically. Walton was playing up how tight it was and how he wouldn’t want to be in Kaye’s shoes, and I would have to agree. The way they worked this it felt awfully tight and I honestly had no idea which way he was going to go. Ultimately Saint received the silver medal, giving the gold to Grey. The best part of the match was the first few minutes. Saint controlled with a side headlock and all the struggle revolved around Grey trying to escape. As they transitioned into the middle portion things got perhaps a bit too co-operative, and I could be wrong but it did feel like Saint was leading things here, and one particular sequence comes to mind where they were just going through the motions leading into a tricky Saint pin attempt which I didn’t care for. But as they turned the corner onto the home stretch the intensity upped once again and they managed to pull it together. A lot of near falls, more desperation, a few uppercuts even and the time limit finish felt very organic compared to how these things can sometimes be pulled off. With these two facing off I would have expected a tad more, but considering the stipulation this was very entertaining and certainly a good match.
  7. SAMS
    I'll admit this one came out of nowhere a bit for me. Their previous match at MSG in October '80 was good but not that memorable, however this blew that out of the water. Not to spoil any future posts but I've already watched the second one in this series and while it's good it's doesn't reach the heights of this one but it does an excellent job of setting up the final match. I did watch the cage match a few years ago and from my notes it seems that I thought favourably of it, so hopefully with added context it least holds up to my last watch. It's some ways off, but in terms of Backlund series during his title reign, I remember originally really loving some of his matches against Adonis from '82. Again it's been years since I've seen them, and I'm a god chunk of time away from getting to them chronologically, but those are the ones I'm really interested in seeing whether I think they are still as good with fresh eyes.
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    1981-01-07 IWE Rusher Kimura vs. Mighty Inoue Lou Thesz Preliminary Block C Match Civic Center, Tateyama, Toyama, Japan ★ Card It felt very on the nose to have Lou Thesz referee a match within a tournament bearing his name. At least this time he didn’t involve himself in the action too much, maybe he was finally beginning to feel his age. Surprisingly Inoue was allowed to take the majority of the match here, working over Kimura’s leg for the first 10 minutes or so. I repeatedly asked for Inoue to get a more prominent showcase in ‘80 and finally I got it. What can I say, it was disappointing. I don’t think I can really blame Inoue to be fair, he was clearly trying his best, but for the most part it felt like he was wrestling a piece of cardboard, with Kimura only visibly showing any emotion or character, or even the ability to not look like geriatric pensioner, when he was on offense himself. I think the match would have been better served with Inoue having to struggle more and push himself to the limit against the champion. Overall this just felt sad. The arena was mostly empty, crowd enthusiasm, from start to finish was pretty much non-existent and the finish, with Kimura countering a spinning toe hold into a cradle. Instead of this feeling like the wily veteran getting one over the younger upstart, which I think is what they were going for, it felt like a slap in the face after Inoue controlled most of the match. 1981-01-09 Houston Tully Blanchard (c) vs. Tiger Conway Jr. Southwest Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA ★★★ Card Arguably the best match of the ‘80s in Houston to this point. Granted, coming from me that’s damning it with faint praise. Tiger I thought was more competent than good here, lacking the flourishes needed to really get the crowd behind him and merely doing the “expected” thing at each logical point. It was Tully who was what elevated this, great understated selling, a little facial expression here, a well timed bump there. Was a very good performance from him. Overall they built each fall upon the previous until they reached a crescendo in the third. I wasn’t buying Tully losing his title in Houston, and he did in fact pull it out the bag with a sneaky O’Conner Roll and a handful of tights, but there was a flurry at the end there where it felt like anything could have happened and that’s a testament to these two guys. 1981-01-10 WWF Bob Backlund (c) vs. Sgt. Slaughter WWF Heavyweight Title Match Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ★★★★ Card Nobody bumps like Slaughter. Right from the off he dived at Backlund, caught nothing but air and took a full scale drop over the ropes to the floor outside. He just set the tone on his end for this match. In comparison, apart from the final flicker of fire Backlund showed before the finish, I thought he was pretty one dimensional. His selling style doesn’t resonate with me and, his piledriver aside, didn’t show anything offensively here that got me excited. I won’t dwell too much on Backlund though because this was the Slaughter show through and through. Great facial expressions, great bumps, great punches. He constantly worked the headlock, jawing at the crowd the whole time to keep things ticking along. Legit nasty offense on the outside, including a backbreaker on the railing. Jumping around like an excited schoolboy when he realised Backlund was busted open (Backlund did an excellent blade job here to be fair). I loved how the moment Backlund dove under the ring to blade Slaughter was up in the ropes to draw the referee’s count and that constant interaction would work to divert the fans attention away from Backlund and make the blading less obvious. During one of Backlund’s comebacks they were exchanging punches and Slaughter’s became weaker and weaker until he was loosely flailing at air. Just so many moments to pick out and I’m sure I’m missing a few more. Can’t express how good I thought Slaughter was in this match. Yes, they had the cheap countout finish. They were kind of slugging it out on the apron and Slaughter happened to enter the ring a split second earlier, picking up the win. This kind of thing is more frustrating because it doesn’t seem like either guy is even aware of the count, so Slaughter winning isn’t even him being more observant than Backlund, it felt like pure luck. So a bit deflating there. But they redeemed themselves afterwards with top tier post match action - Slaughter grabbing the belt, absolutely clocking Backlund in the head with it and then following up with a home run on the referee for good measure. He dumped the belt on Backlund’s broken body before bouncing. Just fantastic.
  9. SAMS
    1981-01-04 AJW Tomoko Kitamura vs. Noriko Kawakami Junior Heavyweight Title Match Japan ★ This was at its best when Kawakami was doing her heel stuff, learning from the Black Pair didn’t hurt it seems. But as soon as they settled down and actually tried to do a straight up wrestling match this kind of fell apart. They completely lost the audience, who were totally disinterested down the home stretch, and they didn’t find a hook to make the match work. These two I guess were pretty green and I just don’t think this should have been near the roughly 20 minutes it actually lasted. Kitamura won with a pin out of nowhere and was declared the new champion. 1981-01-04 AJW Devil Masami & Wendi Richter vs. Ayumi Hori & Hitomi Okumura Japan ★ Masami was feral and vicious when given the opportunity, but Richter felt like she’d regressed slightly from her last appearance back in August, looking far more lumbering than before; Hori had some moments early on but her offensive range felt really limited, in the end seemingly repeating the same moves over and over; and Okumura was merely a warm body to be beaten down on and eat the pin. 1981-01-04 AJW Nancy Kumi vs. Lucy Kayama Japan ★★ Poor VQ and the fact they made the decision to wear pretty similar turquoise outfits made this a distracting watch. I spent 70% of the time trying to figure out who was who, especially now Lucy has ceased to be the tiny waif she was before. This was pretty meandering regardless. Nancy laid on a nasty looking crucifix leg scissors submission around midway and finally won the thing with a Romero Special which I thought was pretty cool. There was a lot left to be desired with this but competent enough. 1981-01-04 AJW Rimi Yokota, Jackie Sato & Mimi Hagiwara vs. Mami Kumano, Yumi Ikeshita & Leilani Kai Best Two Out Of Three Falls Six Person Tag Match Japan ★★★ This suffered from the same fate a lot of multi-person matches do, as it often felt like they had to run through each person and give them an opportunity to showcase themselves a little but without a broader sense of creating a cohesive whole. For two falls Yokota felt like an afterthought as she faded into the background and Hagiwara’s lone standout contribution was breaking out her unique boxing style and throwing a few jabs at Leilani. Leilani herself also really felt like an odd one out, sticking out like a sore thumb amongst the other five women. BUT, I thought the Black Pair were consistently good and I can’t help but enjoy watching Kumano work every time she appears on screen. Yokota did level up in the final fall as things started to go off kilter, and Jackie once again showed why she was the ace. It kinda felt like her team were outgunned and she was the leveller, coming in and cleaning house when she needed to and giving her team that edge they needed to compete. I wasn’t crazy about the way they worked the first two but the final stanza was a real doozy, including the post match afters. Yokota got a chair wrapped around her neck, and Jackie and Ikeshita in particular really were going at it, potentially foreshadowing an upcoming encounter? The chippiness between the two teams flirted with being “real”, and whether it was all a work or if they actually let their emotions get the best of them doesn’t really matter to me, I was here for it either way.
  10. SAMS
    You are completely right there! Initial copy and paste bug that my brain never registered
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    1981-01-03 GCW Les Thornton (c) vs. Kevin Sullivan NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title Match WTBS TV Studios, Atlanta, Georgia, USA ★★★ Card Sullivan, during this new heel run of his, adapted his working style perfectly for his character. Week by week he became sleazier and sleazier; he cheated his way into the TV Title and would do whatever it took to keep hold of it. Here though, matched up against a more technical, “British” style wrestler, he showed that he could at least hang with him and the first ¾ of this match was competitive, worked in an amateur style, and he certainly didn’t look outmatched. When the opportunity arose though, and perhaps he felt the momentum slipping away, Sullivan cold-cocked Thornton in the mouth and suddenly switched to a rough and ready brawling attack then consistently kicked Thornton back to the outside as time expired, building on his recent penchant of surviving his own title defences by any means necessary. 1981-01-03 PNW Buddy Rose vs. Jay Youngblood NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls No Time Limit Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA ★★★★ Card A little truncated due to the booking, and I would have liked a little more from Youngblood when he was asked to sell, but narratively this was absolutely airtight and Rose gave a tour de force performance bell to bell here. It might be my favourite Rose performance yet actually. This was ALL about the arm. Rose was in the ascendancy early on and he was relentless. His offense was crisp and vicious. I think overall the offense on display in Portland, from all the guys, can lack a certain “weightiness”, but that certainly wasn’t the case here. The entire first fall was Rose cranking the arm and Youngblood trying, and initially failing, to turn the tables. When he did manage to get it right though his energy levels jumped through the roof and now it was his turn to work the arm. Rose sold the shit out of it and a savage series of chops to his twisted arm forced him to submit in the first fall. The second fall had Rose try and level things by posting Youngblood’s arm but ultimately it wasn’t enough and it appeared he would suffer a similar fate to the first. Calculating that the only way to prevent Youngblood from winning the vacant title was to lose via DQ he outright clocked Sandy Barr in the head. There was confusion for a few moments while Barr seemed to weigh his decision, but he did in fact end up disqualifying Rose, giving the match, but not the title, to Youngblood. Youngblood I thought came on stronger as the match wore on, but his selling in general was a tad lacklustre and he definitely seemed more engaged when it was his turn to dish it out. Rose however was clearly putting in 110% regardless and had, as I mentioned earlier, the best offense I’ve seen out of him, but also an excellent display of selling the arm. This certainly was a Buddy Rose match through and through and he shone very brightly indeed.
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    1981-01-02 Houston Wrestling Wahoo McDaniel vs. Gary Young Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA ★★ Card They worked this short and sweet, it being only the second match on the card and all. Young tried his best to work the referee and chip away at the edges to gain some sort of advantage, even getting a few entertaining moments out of it, but his fate was inevitable. As soon as Wahoo got the opportunity to shift into third gear it was lights out for Gary and a swift chop had him down for three. 1981-01-02 Houston Wrestling Tully Blanchard vs. Don Diamond Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA ★ Card Don Diamond has the physique, the looks and the right attitude, but I just can’t see how anybody could look past that daft hairstyle. The perm he was rocking here made him look like he had a hedgehog on his head. He was serviceable as a babyface here I guess, but everything felt learned rather than natural - all faux fire. Tully did Tully things, and really seemed like a dog with a bone working over Diamond’s leg, but there just wasn’t enough meat here to make it any good. 1981-01-02 Houston Wrestling Andre the Giant vs. Tank Patton Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA ★ Card A classic example of how Andre’s size works against him. Patton’s a big man himself, but immediately he just didn’t seem like a threat. Ideally I would have liked to have seen Andre just blast through this guy, but with the ⅔ falls stipulation that wasn't going to be the case. Andre tried his best to give Patton some moments, and him wearing a cast and using it as a weapon was a neat little wrinkle, but Patton is no Stan Hansen, and he couldn’t bring the heat like he needed to to make this compelling. Andre won in straight falls.
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    Another year, another thread. Just managing to finish 1980 is a milestone I initially wasn't 100% sure I'd reach but it turned out to be a good starter year to find my footing on a project like this. As I delve further into the decade the task only becomes more daunting as more promotions have more footage exposure, and the sheer quantity of matches is about to explode in a few years. But that's a problem for another day. For 1981 I'm thankful that we seem to be getting more matches from the Mid-South Coliseum, AWA footage takes a big jump, by the end of the year we have both Mid-Atlantic and Mid-South TV, and the Network has finally started uploading Championship Wrestling episodes. On the down side, WCCW footage doesn't seem to take off until 1982, I only have one Puerto Rico match and maybe no Lucha matches at all lined up in my watch list, so will have to wait until future years to begin on those. Just as a recap for anybody who actually cares, I try not to go too deep in the play-by-play of each match, but I'll cover the key moments for context and it helps my memory when I go back and look at my reviews, otherwise I try and focus on the individual wrestlers, their performances, and how that weaves into a general GWE discussion. I know not everybody does star ratings, but for me it helps just demarcate stuff into general tiers. I'm much more picky and granular at the top level, so I do quarter stars for those that I think are 4 stars and above, but otherwise I just pool matches into three tiers for simplicity: 1 star = not good, 2 stars = fine, 3 stars = good. January 1981-01-XX AJW Mimi Hagiwara vs. Lucy Kayama Japan ★★ It’s been a long while since Hagiwara made tape and it felt like she’d put it all together here a bit more than her last time around. There weren’t so many dead spots where she seemed a little lost. I can’t say that she made a strong impression on me though, she still just feels a bit like the pretty girl of the roster that the guys come to see. And there certainly were some leering looks from the front row for this one. Kayama herself appeared decidedly older here despite it only being a few months since her last taped match. She definitely looked more mature. I’m not sure what effect this’ll have on her work as I thought one of the most endearing qualities she had was how her Bambi-ness made her offense feel more earnest and made her eminently more rootable than most of the roster. If she loses that moving forwards then I’m not sure she necessarily has the tools to compensate. She still has a beautiful looking neckbreaker though which she pulled out a couple times here. The match itself was completely forgettable really. Not a good sign when the most notable event was Hagiwara braining Kayama with a giant yellow melon that one of the commentators had inexplicably brought to ringside. It went the full 20 minutes for a time limit draw, but I can’t really remember any point where either girl looked like they were properly in the driver’s seat and pushing for the win. A real placeholder match that didn’t seem to elevate either woman. 1981-01-XX AJW Devil Masami, Mami Kumano, Wendi Richter vs. Yukari Omori, Mimi Hagiwara, Tomoko Kitamura Best Two Out Of Three Falls Six Man Tag Match Japan ★★ As to be expected with these six person matches, it was all a bit chaotic. AJW isn’t noted for its coherent match structures and this was no different. The face team of Omori, Hagiwara and Kitamura were so nondescript as to almost fade away entirely, and perhaps it shouldn’t have been a surprise to me that the heels won the thing in two straight falls. All the best parts of the action were driven by the heel team. I much preferred Richter when she showed up in the Guam footage from August ‘80 - here her actions felt much more clumsy, but Masami and Kumano displayed their chops and kept this ticking along just enough to make this somewhat enjoyable. Despite being the smallest of the bunch Kumano certainly felt like the team leader and I wouldn’t be hesitant to say that at this point she’s a little further along than Masami as a worker as well, as she does a few little things each match that it feels nobody in the company is doing, especially in terms of heel psychology and characterisation. That said, I would absolutely be down to watch these two partner as a permanent tag team. I feel that they would have excellent chemistry together and I have a hunch Ikeshita isn’t long for AJW. 1981-01-XX AJW Jackie Sato vs. Mami Kumano Japan ★★ Both women had their entourages at ringside, and we know that means the faces will stand around and do nothing while the heels will interject themselves into the match with impunity. Kumano’s main ally was of course Masami, and she liberally interfered, to the extent that this may as well just have been a handicap match. It feels like a lot of Jackie’s run on top over the past year has been booked similarly, giving her insurmountable odds that she, you know, surmounts. From a match quality perspective I think it definitely hurts her matches, as the push to get her over with the crowd comes from booking rather than through her actual performances, when I feel they could have got the same result by just letting her do her thing. Kumano had several neat little moments, like shadowing the referee and using him as a human obstacle, that added some nice flavour to the match, but the aforementioned interferences broke up the flow of the match. Jackie was forced to work underneath for nearly the whole thing, but wasn’t given the room to sell due to just being swarmed most of the time, so it lacked that narrative hook you’re looking for. That said, the stretches when Jackie was on offense just consolidated my view that nobody had better offense than her in the world at this point in time. Things finished with an awkward pin that the referee seemed to botch for a very anticlimactic Jackie victory. This could, and should, have been so much better than it was. Increasingly I feel like AJW are getting in their own way.
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    Thanks! That would definitely explain it. The 60 min versions I've been watching often have the Louisville Gardens upcoming card announcements and specific interviews for that area so I was assuming it was going to be something along those lines, but wanted to confirm that I wasn't barking up the wrong tree there. I didn't know that the Memphis version was 90mins though! This probably was going on throughout 1980 but without the Mid-South Coliseum footage to compare against it wasn't as noticeable. After 1981 starts the arena footage picks up a ton so them being out of sync jumps out so much more.
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    Quick Memphis question: 1980-01-18 Mid-South Coliseum - Jerry Lawler vs Joe LeDuc with the lashes stipulation 1980-01-24 Memphis TV - They are promoting the upcoming match between....Jerry Lawler and Joe LeDuc with the lashes stipulation. I've tried cross checking the dates of the TV and the Mid-South Coliseum shows at this time but they all appear to be consistent wherever I've looked. This isn't the only example either where the TV appears to be lagging behind the arena shows but I can't identify where the discrepancies stem from. Anybody able to shed some light on this?
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    1980-04-04 NJPW Stan Hansen vs. Antonio Inoki City Gymnasium, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan Card ★★★ The day after Inoki won back his NWF Title. I don’t know what I expected from this really considering there was nothing tangible on the line. Either way the heat was still there. Inoki set upon Hansen immediately, his hand wrapped in his blue towel, wailing away on the big man with some strong rights. It wasn’t long before Hansen found some footing in the match though and he was impressive putting pressure on Inoki. Not quite a sprint, but they worked a quick pace and this didn’t go longer than 10 or so minutes. The crowd were really into it and popped massive for a couple spots, including Inoki getting suplexed over the top rope to the outside. Nothing crazy memorable but gritty and intense. Hansen went for the Lariat, missed and caught the ringpost, which is becoming a pet spot, then the bell rang for the double countout as the brawling continued.
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    1980-04-04 NJPW Mike Graham (c) vs. Tatsumi Fujinami NWA International Junior Heavyweight Title Match City Gymnasium, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan Card ★★★ Graham was rocking this spectacular 70s afro perm complete with the porno moustache. He tried his best but he didn’t quite match the sleaze factor Steamboat managed with his moustache at this time. Fujinami must have taken around 90% of this, working over the arm again and again and thoroughly controlling Graham every step of the way. The pacing was very staccato, Graham trying to make comebacks every once in a while but each time Fujinami would efficiently cut him off. The fact that this dynamic continued through ⅔ of this match was a bit much though. It would have served it better if they’d cut bait, shaved off the additional 5 minutes and transitioned into the finish earlier or just decided to go in a different direction. After teasing it a few times and commentary mentioning it relentlessly all match, Graham finally had the opportunity to lock on his version of the figure four. Fujinami missed a knee drop off the top and Graham went to work. I liked how they built the necessary tension this way but they weren’t able to milk it for all it was worth though and Fujinami somewhat easily made it to the ropes. The finishing stretch had a nice plancha from Fujinami and he teased his tope but Graham continuing to go after the leg opened him up to receiving a German Suplex and Fujinami bridged perfectly to seal the win and snatch the title from the Floridian.
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    I originally skipped over this card because Hansen and Inoki had a big title switch the night before and followed up here with a basic singles which screamed "Don't Bother". But hey, I've got some time and Hoshino is in the mix so I'll give it a whirl. I'm not sure whether it's because it's 7am and I'm a bit sleep deprived but this was shockingly good. I mean, I don't want to go overboard, I think you pitched it perfectly, but I am pretty sure I've never seen either Yamamoto or Oiyama before and Goro Tsurumi hasn't wowed me at all when I've seen him in IWE, so I had no expectations at all coming in. What was the story they were trying to tell? I have no idea. Were there a bunch of cool moments that made this a fun mid-card tag match? Absolutely yes. Hoshino is like a billionaire's Ivan Putski, his rabbit punching here was a true highlight. But we also got a crazy diving headbutt whiff from Yamamoto on which he didn't flinch in the slightest and ate it full force. The frog splash to finish it was excellent as you said. If I'd seen more of him and that was his usual finisher, then he very well may have ended up winning my High Flyer of the Year award for 1980! (against pitiful competition but still) Also great thread. Love reading your reviews, always a blast to read.
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    I'll hold my hands up and admit that I made a terrible oversight on that one! Actually I just listened to @Superstar Sleeze 's excellent podcast series with @Ricky Jackson where they run through their greatest WWF matches 78-87 (Pro Wrestling Love #36 to #40) so it might be more apt for me right now to just quote Kelly, "I totally snoozed on that one!"
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    After completing my watch project for 1980 I'd pretty comfortably say that Terry Funk would be my vote for wrestler of the year. However I would break down the rest into the tiers below. I think the first two are pretty self explanatory but the third tier is a mixture of people who were great when I saw them but they had limited footage, or those who were occasionally great, but also had issues with inconsistency. All tiers are alphabetically ordered. Best In The World Larry Zbyszko Tatsumi Fujinami Terry Funk Great Workers Andre the Giant Bruno Sammartino Buddy Rose Jim Breaks Ken Patera Mark Rocco Flashes of Greatness Abdullah the Butcher Antonio Inoki Bill Dundee Billy Robinson Bob Backlund Dynamite Kid Jackie Sato Jaguar Yokota Jay Youngblood Johnny Saint Jon Cortez Mami Kumano Mighty Inoue Nick Bockwinkel Rick Martel Ricky Steamboat Steve Grey Vic Faulkner
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    1980-12-29 WWF Rick Martel & Tony Garea (c) vs. The Moondogs (Moondog King & Moondog Rex) WWF Tag Team Title Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★ Card What early on felt like it would be a straight up squash for the champions ended up following a pretty tight match structure. The shine at the beginning went on for a while though. The Moondogs were unbeaten on TV up until this point, easily dispatching the jobber teams they’d been up against, but here the Martel and Garea tandem were making mincemeat out of them, and as is often the case, the heel team looked incredibly foolish. I’m not the greatest fan of shine segments, especially long ones, unless the face team does something really nifty, but I’ll give Martel props here as his offense hasn’t looked this crisp before. Finally we got a switch up and the Moondogs made some headway into the match. Moondog King got in and managed a couple audible chops on Martel that drew gasps from the MSG crowd. From there they were able to isolate Martel and he did a great job of being in peril. A quick shout out to Moondog Rex though, after getting his leg worked over pretty heavily during the shine he displayed some very subtle limping after they had taken control that I really appreciated and added a certain level of verisimilitude that you don’t always see.. The Moondogs on offense were decent, nothing too flashy, which was to be expected. In fact they remind me a lot of the Sheepherders, who if they had been brought into WWF at this time would occupy the exact spot on the roster that the Moondogs did here. It wasn’t long though before Garea managed to finally get himself into the action and both he and Martel looked to put the Moondogs away. However, with Garea locking on an Abdominal Stretch, he was bonked with one of the Moondog’s bones, busted open and that was that, the referee was forced to DQ the Moondogs. Not the best finish, but they managed to avoid a clear defeat, drew blood on their opponent and the aftermath was a bit wild, so it didn’t feel like a complete letdown, but surely there’s a better way to navigate this kind of booking decision than the logic of, “Oh we’re about to lose, okay let’s just get blatantly disqualified instead”.
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    1980-12-29 WWF Ken Patera vs. Pat Patterson Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★ Card Nice start and a good final few minutes but missing any significant middle portion and had a weak as shit finish. I wish we’d gotten more from Patterson this year, as he looked really good here when he was on offense. He just displays so much charisma and character at all times, making him extremely watchable. After a hot start where he took it right to Patera, he ended up getting dumped to the outside and I think he spent a tad too long selling there as it took the heat out of the match. Like my complaints during some of Backlund’s matches, within the WWF in general it feels like they jump from one end of the extreme to the other on the selling scale, and despite the match having been going for only 5-10 minutes, they start selling like they’ve been going at it for 30+ minutes. Just feels a bit jarring to me. Patterson had a fun comeback though but that was cut short and Patera ended up being disqualified while he repeatedly clubbed Patterson in the chest while they were both in the ropes. The finish kind of just came out of nowhere and it certainly didn’t seem to elevate either man, so really disappointing on that front.
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    1980-12-29 WWF Bob Backlund (c) vs. Killer Khan WWF Heavyweight Title Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★ Card This ended up feeling like a generic Backlund title defence in the end, but it started off with fireworks. Khan’s TV appearances up until this point have been exclusively squash matches, and pretty terrible ones at that. Here he dialled up the intensity so that those exaggerated screeches he delivered on his chops came across as threatening instead of goofy. Things calmed down a bit as Khan settled into his nerve hold routine and they built to Bob’s comeback. I still consistently feel like Backlund sells being totally out of it far too early in his matches, which makes his comeback just feel “less”. If I don’t actually feel like he’s taken a lot of punishment then a) why does he seem so fucked up and b) why is it impressive that he managed to mount a comeback in the first place. He did manage a pretty amazing 2.9 kickout, bucking the trend of usually kicking out at 1. This came off a top rope knee drop from Khan which had Vince calling the match then and there. The crowd were pretty hot for this throughout but I was surprised by how little reaction that kick out actually received. Pushing for the final blow Khan gave Backlund an opening which he happily took, hitting him with a German Suplex and picking up the win. The finish didn’t do much for me as I think Backlund should have been required to have dished out a bit more to put his monster foe away but hey ho we move on. The crowd erupted and were happy to cheer their hero in his victory.
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    1980-12-27 PNW Buddy Rose (c) vs Jay Youngblood NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA ★★ Card Buddy was back in “Playboy” mode, reverting to his bleached blonde look. Both guys focused their offense around using the arm. First Rose but then Youngblood to far greater effect in the second fall. Youngblood caught Rose with an O’Connor Roll to get the first fall and then he was up against the TV time limit to seal the deal and win the belt. Youngblood was all over Rose for essentially the whole second fall and Rose had to resort to serious stalling at the death to cling on. Eventually the bell rang, and due to not securing that second fall, Youngblood was unable to win the belt, but Sandy Barr wasn’t having any of Rose’s shenanigans and he decided to hold up the belt so we’re gonna do this all over again next Saturday. I think I would have liked more from Youngblood here. It was a pretty rudimentary performance from him. He hit the spots he needed to but he didn’t exude much character and he certainly lacked the exuberance that I’ve seen from him before. He feels like the kind of guy who has his peaks and valleys. He’s never bad but he can fade into the background at times. Rose however was really good here. He was feeling himself, after going back to blonde look and you could sense his confidence early on. Then he transitioned into some great prolonged selling and he avoided any of the big “bouncy” bumps which I feel are the weakest part of his work. Overall, due to the booking, this was never destined to be a true banger, but it definitely piqued my interest for the rematch and they avoided the iffy finish being any kind of turn off.
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    1980-12-13 WWF Rick Martel & Tony Garea (c) vs The Wild Samoans (Afa & Sika) WWF Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ★★★ Card Maybe Martel’s best performance of the year. Certainly the best Samoans match of the year by a mile. They had shed some of the “impervious” aspects of their gimmick which allowed them to show a bit more vulnerability and avoided what was a major issue with their matches, which is that they were incredibly DRY. The Samoans jumped the champions to start and pummelled Martel in particular. He took some brutal attacks to his back, and generally this style of offense suited the Samoans, just clubbing and headbutting Martel in the back repeatedly. The referee tried his best to establish some order but the Samoans wouldn’t relent so within the first 30 seconds they were DQd and the champions were 1-0 up in a flash. Martel didn’t look in good shape to start the second fall but he endured long enough to get the tag to Garea. It was from here that we saw the good stuff from the champions. In terms of booking I’m sure the idea was to give them a strong win here to firmly establish them as the champs, make it clear that winning against the Samoans in the first place wasn’t a fluke, and it can’t be long now before the Samoans run in New York was up. Either way, Martel and Garea worked like a finely tuned machine, in and out, quick tags, and worked relentlessly on the leg. Martel in particular had some hellaciously kinetic elbow drops on the knee and I was wondering where on earth a Samoan leveller was going to come from. I shouldn’t have bothered as it wasn’t forthcoming and in fact it seemed like Martel actually secured the fall a few times, confusing both commentary and myself, before an eventual Samoan collision allowed him to seal the deal. Bit of a messy finish, but a pretty fun match all round up until that point.
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