SAMS

1981-12-03 AJPW - Real World Tag League 1981 - Day 7 Terry Funk vs. Ashura Hara Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan Card ★★★ Hara is the type of hard hitting opponent that meshed really well with Terry. They both exchanged some hard hitting chops early on, but Hara was the one out of the two to really lay those strikes in hard and you could see Terry’s chest turning red. Things mellowed out a bit after the hot start, but it got no less interesting. The throughline was Hara working Terry’s arm, and Terry tried everything he could to wrestle free, but Hara was not relinquishing the hold. They went outside the ring, back into the ring, Terry even managed to counter into his Spinning Toe Hold, but at the end of it all, Hara was still left clinging onto that left arm for dear life. I thought this was a really interesting and unique gambit. Perhaps it wasn’t a match winning strategy, but to get 5-10 minutes out of it and keeping it engaging throughout was fantastic. Terry switched to a more direct approach and despite the residual damage it inflicted, he resorted to punching his way out, nailing Hara right in the face several times. From there they switched things up and the go-home stretch began. Both men escalated the affair and Hara once again proved he had quite the arsenal of attacks under his belt. It was Terry though, cheered on by an army of shrieking fans, who managed to deal the deciding blow, using the unassuming backslide to steal the win. But by booking such a finish, it was clear the intention in this match was to elevate Hara in the eyes of the All Japan faithful and I thought that this would have gone a hell of a way towards doing so. He was scrappy and resourceful and came off every bit a worthy challenger to Funk here, and presumably a lot of credit should go to Funk as well for enabling Hara to look so good. 1981-12-03 AWA Jerry Blackwell vs. Billy Robinson Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Card ★★★ A bit on the fence about this one due to the weird and hesitant finish. But I loved the initial run where Blackwell was out-wrestling the wrestling master. And this wasn’t some showmanship stuff either, Blackwell looked incredibly nimble and smooth with his delivery of the moves as well. Robinson decided it was time to show the fans what’s what and slowly gained the upper hand again using his wrestling expertise, only for Blackwell to sidestep the whole friendly sportsmanship vibe they had going on entirely and went straight for the underhanded shots. He leveraged his head, the same head he’d been smashing nails into boards with, and directed it straight into Robinson’s gut, liberally. Robinson got majorly heated from a cheapshot Blackwell dished out in order to escape a leg lock and it seemed like Robinson might just have the momentum to take Blackwell out. But a mixup in the corner allowed Blackwell to use his massive frame to pin Robinson (with the help of the ropes) and Robinson was apoplectic, dishing out a savage beating post match to vent his frustrations. It was an interesting route they took to have Blackwell legitimately outdo Robinson early on. It didn’t escalate into an all out slugfest until much later but here I appreciated the slow burn. The finish was awkward and Blackwell was slow and hesitant to apply the pin so Robinson came across more like a chump than they probably anticipated.

December 1981-12-01 NJPW - 2nd Madison Square Garden Tag League - Day 12 Tatsumi Fujinami & Tiger Mask vs. El Canek & Super Maquina Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan Card ★★ While Fujinami and Super Maquina underwhelmed, Canek and Tiger Mask brought the goods to bring this filler match up into the entertaining category. Tiger Mask solidly looks the star while Fujinami remains in the background. But while Tiger Mask was far more hit and miss earlier in the year, at this point it looks like the rough edges have been smoothed out, the formula has been refined, and here his timing was great and he didn’t put a foot wrong. Super Maquina doesn’t seem to be more than a big body in a faux American football uniform, but Canek at least displayed some character. Emphasising the (admittedly minimal) size difference between he and his opponents, then mimicking rolling Tiger Mask into a tiny ball and kicking him into the stands. On offense as well though he was crisp and showed off some power moves. I thought he was a good foil for Tiger Mask. A flashy little sequence culminating in a Plancha by Tiger Mask onto Canek allowed Fujinami the chance to suplex Super Maquina for the victory. 1981-12-01 NJPW - 2nd Madison Square Garden Tag League - Day 12 Stan Hansen vs. Killer Khan Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan Card ★★ Killer Khan is so much better on offense than defence. He’s got all the tools to really dish it out but I just don’t find him interesting when he’s forced to work from underneath. Maybe a bit harsh to say that Hansen looked like he kind mailed this one in, considering it barely lasted 5-7 minutes, but it did feel like they were trying to kill time until they rolled to the outside, Hansen nailed an admittedly thudding Lariat on Khan, then rolled back in to pick up the countout victory. Fine - was a match - but buried deep in the midcard they weren’t out there to bring the house down. 1981-12-01 NJPW - 2nd Madison Square Garden Tag League - Day 12 Andre The Giant vs. Tiger Toguchi Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan Card ★★ Another short match, but this at least got a little more time to breathe. I wish Toguchi had had more of a go at Andre though, even if it would have just been a futile attempt to challenge him. He did have a little flurry at the end, but 80% of this was Andre ragdolling him around. In the sense that this just reiterated the force Andre was, this completely did the job. During that aforementioned final flurry from Toguchi at the end, his decision to go for a risky second knee from the top was his undoing, but he knew that a single dive wasn’t going to be enough to finish the job. Andre caught him up the top, slammed him, squashed him, and that was all she wrote. 1981-12-01 NJPW - 2nd Madison Square Garden Tag League - Day 12 Hulk Hogan vs. Antonio Inoki Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan Card ★★ They did a great job of giving Hogan a kind of “final boss” aura for this one. Inoki spent more time working from underneath than I think he has at any other point this year. Perhaps at another time Hogan would have struggled given the responsibility of controlling the majority of a match like this, but I think he did an admirable job for the most part. This didn’t have many spectacular fireworks, but was solidly laid out and very well executed. They built up to the eventual comeback from Inoki pretty well, even if the actual finish felt a bit premature. A combo of dropkicks were followed by consecutive Enzuigiris. I wondered what the next move from Inoki could be seeing as he’d emptied the chamber, not once but twice, of his favourite move, but he went with an Octopus Hold, and to my great surprise, Hogan submitted in pretty quick fashion. I guess he’s not a New Japan regular at this point, but it feels like a very un-Hogan thing for him to have done. Easily the best match on a pretty underwhelming card.

1981-11-30 AJPW - Real World Tag League 1981 - Day 4 Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Ashura Hara & Genichiro Tenryu Real World Tag League 1981 Match Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan Card ★★★ More of this please. Jumbo is finally starting to look like “the man”. Yes, he’s still teaming with Baba, but while Baba pops into the ring here and there to get a rise out of the crowd, it’s Jumbo who’s doing the heavy lifting and securing the wins for his team. It helps that he seemed doubly motivated matched up against Tenryu. Ashura Hara, in his first match against either Jumbo or Baba (according to the commentary), was no slouch either, but he and Tenryu both seemed to be on one level, but Jumbo was just that rung above. We got a really hot start with Jumbo and Tenryu going toe to toe and Tenryu catching Jumbo by surprise with an Enzuigiri to the back that forced him to take a powder. Once they’d cycled through all the matchups the fizzle died out and the middle was a drag. But they managed to pull it together at the end, with Jumbo upping the gears and his adversaries just weren’t able to keep up and a backslide put Hara away. The general gist of this was that the team of Tenryu and Hara were able to be competitive, and they weren’t going to be walked over, but Baba and Jumbo were too formidable a duo and it really was only a matter of time until they got the win. Everyone other than Baba, who again just felt like a passenger, seemed to raise their stock with this one. Nothing out of this world and by no means a classic, but a solid tournament match. 1981-11-30 AJPW - Real World Tag League 1981 - Day 4 Terry Funk vs. Bruiser Brody Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan Card ★★★ For a match with this much blood it was interesting that the blood was more incidental than an actual core aspect of the narrative. Both men just sort of, started bleeding? But they both bled buckets. Funk was deep in his bag in regards to his selling. A missed knee attack into the corner took its toll and Brody’s follow up attacks had Terry stumbling all over the ring. Brody was backdropped onto Higuchi, giving Snuka the opportunity to jump in and they proceeded to lay a double team beatdown to just add fuel to the fire of their eventual collision in the tag league. Blood plus Terry Funk basically ensures at minimum a good match, but this would have been better served if they’d switched up speeds more often, as they just kept the same pace from start to finish. Just when Terry was at his most vulnerable, we never got the sheer desperation you’d expect from him to fight off or fight back against Brody, and Brody just doesn’t appear to have that extra gear to ratchet up the intensity when he’s in the ascendancy.

1981-11-27 AJPW - Real World Tag League 1981 - Day 1 Tiger Jeet Singh & Umanosuke Ueda vs. The Funks (Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk) Real World Tag League 1981 Match Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ They kind of followed the All Japan heel playbook here without really pushing the boat out to do anything overly interesting or original. I thought it was telling that despite Terry bleeding quite a lot and getting some vengeance by absolutely nailing Ueda in the head with a proto-ECW chair shot, the crowd seemed relatively subdued by the time they got to the finish, maybe because he inadvertently took Joe Higuchi out with a wild swing in the process but who knows. They were electric to start the match so it felt like the match content was what brought them down. Worth seeking out just to see Terry stumbling around and selling the blood loss but not for much else. 1981-11-27 NJPW - 2nd Madison Square Garden Tag League - Day 8 Andre The Giant & Rene Goulet vs. Dick Murdoch & Stan Hansen MSG Tag League 1981 Match City Gymnasium, Tokushima, Japan Card ★★ I really came into this expecting it to be awesome, but a combination of things, including a dead crowd and Murdoch in particular coming across as disinterested, just prevented this from ever escalating into its full potential. We started with a wild, if somewhat sloppy brawl. Which should have been a good start. It didn’t quite work though as everybody came across pretty hesitant. Hansen and Andre were matched up, which was to be expected, but Murdoch seemed to want in on that action rather than pairing up with Goulet, so he ended up caught in the middle in no-man’s land doing not much of anything. Then things settled down and we began a pretty normal match, which didn’t vibe at all with what they’d presented just before it. The actual body of the match revolved around Andre constantly tagging in, the referee missing it, and him having to be forced back to the apron. They ran this sequence in the previous tag match Andre and Rene had, and it worked just as well here. Andre’s indignation at being repeatedly rebuffed was great and in general he was pretty awesome. As a group though they just couldn’t get the action to build properly. Hansen had flashes, but just flashes, where it looked like he might crank up an extra gear, and Andre’s final hot tag was a fun ride, but it wasn’t long before they inexplicably tumbled to the outside and the double countout was on. 1981-11-28 PNW Buddy Rose & Stan Stasiak (c) vs. King Parsons & Rocky Johnson NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★ This was only really good for Rose’s stalling antics to start, desperately staying away from Rocky Johnson as he’s done with numerous other faces over the last few years, and how he slowly riled Johnson up as the falls progressed with his cheap shots on Parsons, particularly after the conclusion of the second fall. Otherwise this felt fairly pedestrian, probably directly due to the faces both being pretty pedestrian. They worked Rose’s arm pretty heavily in the first fall but they weren’t able to conjure up that excitement and energy you’d want from a face team. The arm work did the trick though and Rose submitted in the first. They returned the favour in the second, forcing Parsons to submit in kind. Then Johnson surprised Stasiak with a flash pin in the third to win the belts. Fine, decent, perfunctory, but nothing more. Good Rose and not much else here. 1981-11-29 WWF - USA Network Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito (c) vs. Rick Martel & Tony Garea WWF Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Capital Center, Landover, Maryland, USA Card ★★★ If there ever was proof that Garea carried his end of this tag team, it would be this match. Considering Martel literally never tags in from bell to bell, this match should have no chance of being as good as it is. But Garea was the workhorse here, delivering a pretty solid, exciting shine to start, then being pretty great as the FIP. It takes two to tango though, and in this case three, as both Fuji and Saito were excellent at executing a heat sequence. Little cheap shots, underhand tactics, manipulating the referee, goading Martel. They did it all as they slowly took Garea apart piece by piece. This wasn’t Andersons level of dissection, but it was very effective. They built to the massive hot tag which Fuji managed to break up JUST in time for a massive dramatic moment and that probably was the last straw. Martel dived in once again, but this time wouldn’t be so easily cajoled back to his corner by the referee. This allowed the champions to double team Garea and body slam him. The referee glimpsed this out of the corner of his eye and ended up DQing them for an undeniably pathetically weak finish, but the body of work up until that point was so good. Fuji and Saito are establishing themselves as easily the best heel team the WWF have had in the 80s to this point. Not just from a work perspective, where they are already head and shoulders above the others, but also from a character point of view as well. With every action they take what they represent as a team shines through.

Cool! I'll star that matchup so that when I come round to it I make sure I don't skip over it!

1981-11-20 Houston Wrestling The Dynamic Duo (Gino Hernandez & Tully Blanchard) (c) vs. Dos Caras & Mil Mascaras SWCW Southwest Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA Card ★★ I’m sorry but Mil Mascaras is just boring. Having such a weak link hindered this a great deal. Caras actually was far more involved early, which was certainly a good thing, and while his funky antics and questionable dancing weren’t to my tastes, they injected some character into the proceedings and Gino’s constant bailing to the outside set the tone for the match. The challengers’ shine though just wasn’t dynamic enough, perhaps their offensive repertoire isn’t to my liking. The finish to all three falls weren’t anything to write home about either, coming sort of out of the blue and not particularly in conjunction with the rest of the action. I guess Mil and Caras were never going to actually win the belts, but the double countout didn’t hit home for me and rendered the feud somewhat redundant (if this is in fact the final chapter). Tully, Gino and Caras all had their moments but overall this was so-so. 1981-11-20 Houston Wrestling Tito Santana vs. Nick Bockwinkel Gold Cup Trophy Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA Card ★★★★ The first 15 minutes or so are a slow burn, Bockwinkel more often than not controlling Santana, but there was always struggle, even if the deliberate nature of the matwork isn’t my favourite style. The crowd weren’t right there with them to start, but it always felt like they were being sucked in as the action kept building and by the time they reached the climactic final stretch of the first fall, at around the 20 minute mark, the Coliseum had a football stadium atmosphere, with horns blaring all around in addition to the general vocal swell of the crowd. It was at this point where they really sucked me in. Santana had been able to apply a hammerlock for a significant period of time and Bockwinkel had taken to leaving his left arm limp, basically hanging at his side as he went back on offense. Such an interesting and unusual narrative choice that really stood out. Once he’d taken the first fall, capitalising on a missed crossbody from Tito that sent him sprawling into the turnbuckles, Bock unveiled a new, more cocky and sinister side to him, as he became more underhanded with his approach. It’s at the margins like this that Bockwinkel really separates himself from the pack as it was these little hooks that underpinned what came after and seeded my investment until the finish. For the most part Santana had delivered in being a worthy babyface adversary for Bock, but it was Bock who seemed to be doing the heavy lifting. The final fall however saw Santana up his own game, and despite getting his head cracked open, he was able to muster some reserves and nail a flying forearm over the ropes to nab the victory to absolute scenes. The hometown crowd became completely unglued and descended on the ring. I think I slightly preferred the AWA title match against Brunzell, for the subtle strategies that were at play there, but with this match Bockwinkel has two matches of reasonably long duration that are absolute bangers to put on his resume for ‘81. And for Tito, I think this looks to be his coming out party, at least in my eyes. Given the platform to really stretch his legs and show what he was capable of he really delivered. 1981-11-23 WWF - MSG Network The Magnificent Muraco (c) vs. Pedro Morales WWF Intercontinental Title Texas Death Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA Card ★★ Well Muraco finally lost the belt, and it was Morales of all people who regained it. I had looked this up before but I can’t believe his second reign with the belt will end up lasting longer than an entire calendar year! The MSG crowd were still hot for Pedro, but damn. I just don’t see how they could justify running with him as their number two babyface for so long. This definitely wasn’t bad. Great atmosphere as I mentioned and Muraco had upped the sleaze factor by at least double since his last appearance. Slicking back his hair and adding a stubbly beard to his look. Brief shine for Pedro to start, Muraco took control, including a heavy dose of railing on the outside, Pedro fought back, opened up the bandaged cut Muraco had on his head, then managed to wrangle the brass knuckles Muraco pulled out and nailed him in the head with them for the 1, 2, 3. Ultimately an okay layout and so-so execution, but I think at this point it’s a foregone conclusion that a Morales-Muraco match is only going to elicit so much emotion from me. 1981-11-23 WWF - MSG Network Bob Backlund vs. Greg Valentine WWF Heavyweight Title Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA Card ★★★★ Backlund really was terrific at jumping his man at the bell. Usually in the blow-off match when enough was enough, he’d come in hot and really go hell for leather on his man. Bob’s shine here lasted a full 5 minutes before Valentine was able to put up any kind of resistance. Taking a leaf out of Greg’s book the attacks were all focused on the leg and Valentine’s selling here was tremendous. Several times they’d give the moment time to breath and Valentine would just shout out in pain, the same way you would when you stub your toe. That angry, pain fuelled, guttural yell. Not a selling style you see that often but very effective. Finally, after taking all that abuse, Valentine managed to claw his way back into the match. And, of course, it was via targeting Backlund’s leg in response. More than I can remember the near falls that Greg pulled out here felt massive. In the sense that it was believable that he might actually snatch the win. I’m not sure if I’d feel the same on rewatch but in the moment it upped the stakes for me and had me hanging on every move. Valentine went for his figure four and the two had a momentous struggle over it. This was one of the best struggle sequences I’ve seen for a long time and Backlund excelled at projecting the energy and effort required to break out of the hold, and later on reverse it. The visual of him having turned Greg over onto his front to reverse the pressure, his face strained to the nth degree is an all timer. Backlund pulled it out in the end, a lovely German Suplex managed to put Valentine away to the delight of the MSG crowd. Their previous match here I felt was carried more from Valentine’s performance, but here Backlund really held his own in what might very well have been his best performance of the whole year.

I'm just happy somebody enjoyed it as much as I did! Felt like I was going out on a limb being so high on this considering I'd never heard anything about it period, let alone whether it was good or not. Definitely wasn't expecting much but I'm a sucker for the Spectrum, I was riding a real Valentine high when I watched this and Garea really pulls his weight. Anybody who's interested in pre-Hogan WWF should definitely check this out.

1981-11-20 NJPW - 2nd Madison Square Garden Tag League - Day 2 Killer Khan & Tiger Toguchi vs. Dick Murdoch & Stan Hansen MSG Tag League 1981 Match City Gymnasium, Shiki, Saitama, Japan Card ★★ Came across very much like a warm up match. Almost an appetiser for future battles. Seemed like the plan was just to get in the ring, hit each other hard, Hansen and Murdoch gain the edge, then when the time came dive to the outside, Toguchi gets up on the apron, Hansen hits the Lariat, then Toguchi lays around long enough for the countout. Very aimless. Having said that, for four men just throwing shit at the wall and seeing what sticks, I don’t think anybody came out of this looking bad. It wasn’t a good match, but the wrestlers individually all looked pretty good. I haven’t been a fan of Killer Khan in WWF at all really, but here it feels like he’s able to stand his ground more and lean into the gimmick that he’s actually supposed to be portraying. And Hansen and Murdoch have proven their bona fides, it was just that here we only saw flashes of what they were capable of rather than getting the full works. 1981-11-20 NJPW - 2nd Madison Square Garden Tag League - Day 2 Andre The Giant & Rene Goulet vs. Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami MSG Tag League 1981 Match City Gymnasium, Shiki, Saitama, Japan Card ★★★ This was the gift that kept on giving. I guess it was inevitable that neither team would be able to secure a victory here, saving any clear decision for the final, but other than that moment where the double countout became obvious I think they really nailed what they set out to achieve here. Andre and Rene are a great team, specifically because Rene can play the weak link and the vulnerability he provides to the unit allows there to be drama, and a certain level of verisimilitude, which otherwise wouldn’t exist if Andre had a more formidable partner, like Stan Hansen for example. They also leveraged Andre being Andre to the greatest extent, presenting him as this unbelievable force that the combined forces of Inoki and Fujinami could just about contend with. I loved how whenever Goulet was the legal man, Fujinami would pounce on him with unreal urgency, knowing that he was the weak link and this could be the only chance they have at securing the victory. But the whole time Andre was looming on the apron and Fujinami was desperate, absolutely desperate, to have no part of Andre 1v1. They teased their confrontation once, with Andre leaning over like only he can to tag Goulet while he was being held in a headlock, but the referee intervened, ruling that Andre wasn’t holding the tag rope, saving Fujinami this one time. Andre managed to tag in a few minutes later though and Fujinami had to hot foot it around the ring to avoid contact, eventually opting to dive out the ring, climb the turnbuckle hoping to get a surprise aerial attack in. Unfortunately for him Andre was ready and waiting, so Fujinami, perched atop the ropes, thought about it for a second and then said “What the hell?” and dived off anyway, only to get caught in a bearhug. Stupid decision? Sure. Fun moment from the plucky underdog? Hell yes! Inoki showed his best tendencies here as well. He somehow managed to get an armbar applied to Andre, and despite Andre managing to power out, Inoki switched his attention to really target that arm for the next few minutes. Then, following a double team slam, Andre began to favour his back. Inoki noticed this and switched up his approach again, this time limiting his offense to clubbing blows to the giant’s back. He was also game to play his part in those spots where Andre overpowered both he and Fujinami, to great effect. There was some miscommunication from both teams between partners, where certain double team attempts clearly were botched somewhat, but otherwise I thought this was incredibly well executed, and while it maybe wasn’t a solid gold classic, it was incredibly entertaining, and most importantly I think laid a perfect foundation for their rematch in the final of the tag league.

1981-11-18 Joint Promotions Dalibar Singh vs. Bret Hart Queen Elizabeth Hall, Oldham, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom Card ★★ Really solid, in the sense that it was executed extremely well, but there was just no heat to this, like at all. Singh controlled early, Bret made a mini run in the middle, before he was comfortably put away by the heavier and more experienced man. I thought this would have been a smidge better if Hart had actually been a bit more heelish, just to add some character to the proceedings, but they never quite got it to work with both men being so straight-laced. 1981-11-18 Joint Promotions Dynamite Kid vs. Mark Rocco Queen Elizabeth Hall, Oldham, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom Card ★★★★ They almost started too fast this time, with Rocco leaning into the dark arts from literally the first bell, giving the impression they may have been short for time and they were forced to microwave this. What saved this, and grounded the match, was how willing Dynamite was to fight fire with fire and it was he, in the first round no less, who got the first public warning. For the four rounds they wrestled here it was full intensity with neither man giving much of a thought to the rules or the referee. Rocco took the first after a series of hellacious moves, including a hyper-kinetic clothesline, dropping Dynamite straight down onto the ropes and then finishing him off with a suplex. In the process of clawing his way back into the bout, Dynamite essentially crushed Rocco’s head with a knee drop from the top rope which drew blood from Rocco’s mouth, but it was a backdrop suplex, which practically folded Rocco up like an accordion, which dealt the decisive blow. I was almost certain that this was going to end with a disqualification for one of them, but it was Dynamite who was able to seal the deal, and apparently seal a title shot for next year. I think by this point the referee had given up as the deciding move was immediately preceded by Kid picking Rocco up off the mat, thus shouldn’t have been allowed, but given what they both had gotten away with up to this point already it was a pretty minor infraction. Maybe not a match with the most substance in the world, but non-stop action, incredibly stiff, and a real sense that both men were out there to hurt the other, which is the aspect that pushes it over the top for me. 1981-11-18 Joint Promotions Johnny Saint vs. Vic Faulkner Queen Elizabeth Hall, Oldham, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom Card ★★ There was an incredibly lighthearted tone to this, with both men approaching the match with an eye for the exhibition rather than a real contest. It’s become quite a trope by now that when Walton begins to wax lyrical about how sportsmanlike the proceedings are going to be and how the referee will have “no trouble keeping control in this one”, the match is very likely to be disappointing. Faulkner was as guilty of this as Saint, but at least he had moments where he tried to add some struggle. Saint on the other hand, seems to never give off the vibe that he’s actually competing with his opponent. They worked an entire full nelson escape and reapplication sequence and not once did Saint show a single sign that the hold was affecting him in any way. His only thought was to show off how he was going to try and escape it. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I saw Saint sell at all, full stop. In the middle rounds, with the roles reversed, we had a long sequence with Saint applying a wrist lever to Faulkner, and in addition to the exertion displayed to escape the hold, Faulkner at least sprinkled in moments where he got across that the hold was at least uncomfortable for him and that the effort put into unsuccessfully escaping had taken its toll on him. To pile on Saint with additional criticisms, when he lost the first fall, he immediately sprung back up, patted Faulkner on the back and then gleefully wandered back to his corner. I know in kayfabe he’s supposed to be this gentlemanly maestro who’s supremely confident in his ability to make amends and get back into the match, but it just felt to me like he didn’t really care about the score. If he doesn’t care, then why should I? This ended up going the whole 6 rounds and ended in a 1-1 draw. Faulkner gets the edge for a slightly better showing, and while there were some extremely frustrating aspects to this, I can’t say it was ever boring or dragged, so it would be unfair to lump it into the bad category. 1981-11-18 Joint Promotions Pat Roach vs. Ray Steele Queen Elizabeth Hall, Oldham, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom Card ★★ Finished 2-1 to Roach, but this was plain sailing for Pat the whole way. He does a decent job of allowing his opponent to get stuff in but Steele wasn’t really knocking anybody’s door down and Roach is just too physically imposing in comparison to make it seem like there ever was a legitimate contest going on. In the context of World Of Sport, other than Giant Haystacks and Big Daddy, Roach is the giant. His nickname is even the “Giant of Birmingham''. I still find it frustrating that, at least at this point in his career, he’s so reserved and is nominally a face. Andre can pull it off, but being a friendly giant in wrestling is a fine balance that is extremely tough to walk. This may be more of a personal problem for me than anything with Roach, but I just would plainly prefer to see him be a dominating giant who can’t help but bend the rules. That would allow him to retain the dominating aura he already has, but at least make the bouts a bit more interesting, give them some edge, but more importantly, his rule breaking would give his opponent a lane to which they could carve out a victory. Recently it has just felt like he’s been handing his opponent a fall and it's a formality that he’ll end up with two of his own and the victory. 1981-11-18 Joint Promotions Pat Roach vs. Wild Angus Queen Elizabeth Hall, Oldham, Greater Manchester, United Kingdom Card ★ This actually was the first of the two Pat Roach matches on this card, but I watched it second. Seems like there was some kind of super heavyweight tournament going on and this was the semi final and the final was Roach vs Steele. Angus, in keeping with his moniker, looked like a wild man who had got lost looking for the nearest McDonald’s drive-thru. He wasn’t shy about cutting corners, which I thought might lead Roach to come out of his shell a bit. But he was as stoic as ever and this kind of trundled along until he put Angus away with a pretty basic backdrop. Not really what I’d call bad, but really bland compared to what it could have been and one of two disappointing Roach matches back to back. He’s a guy who I’m aching to really like, but there’s just something missing.

1981-11-09 GCW The Masked Superstar (c) vs. Mr. Wrestling II NWA Georgia Heavyweight Title Match William Bell Auditorium, Augusta, Georgia, USA Card ★ I was looking forward to seeing something that might bolster Superstar’s case, but that was NOT what I found here. Out of the 20 minutes the match lasted, I’d say at least 15 of them revolved around Wrestling II applying a headlock to Superstar to keep him grounded. They didn’t really do anything interesting with this either so it just dragged on and on and on. They kind of saved this with a reasonably hot finishing run; Superstar finally managed to get some heat before Wrestling II made a feisty little comeback, but that all merely resulted in a scuffle on the apron as they clawed at each other’s masks and the referee called for the DQ when Superstar gave him a little shove. Really very disappointing as I was hoping for a lot more from one of the few long arena matches to come out of Georgia this year. 1981-11-14 WWF - PRISM Network Greg Valentine vs. Tony Garea Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★★★★ This is very much like the Zbyszko/Putski match from ‘80 in that it’s a Spectrum match with a great heel, the face brings fantastic energy to hold up their end of the bargain and generally it came out of nowhere and hit me in the mouth. Valentine was all over Garea to start, to the point that I wouldn’t have been surprised if this had ended up merely being an extended squash. He was relentless, destroying Garea’s arm with clubbing blows and yanking it against the ropes. Then a little error, a knee drop that took a smidge too long, allowing Garea to roll free, and the tables well and truly turned. Garea gave just as good as he got, this time focusing his energies solely on Valentine’s knee. Caught up in the corner and with his leg draped over the second rope Valentine had his knee stomped again and again and again until he was hobbling around the ring. Unfortunately for Garea, Valentine doesn’t need much of an opening to get in a killer shot and after a little back and forth his big mitt caught Garea on the noggin sending him sprawled on the mat. Valentine went for the cover, pulled Garea’s leg off the rope at the opportune time and stole the victory from right out from under Dick Weorhle’s nose. Martel has been the shining light in their tag team, but Garea has had his moments in the sun too, and this match showed that Garea wasn’t merely riding Martel’s coat tails and he could bring the business when asked as well. But I’m not sure he could have delivered to this extent against just anybody and it required somebody of Valentine’s calibre to really get to this level. Valentine, for his part, just showed the whole package in terms of great offense and great selling. The only thing stopping him from being in the best in the world discussion for ‘81 is a lack of footage really. 1981-11-14 WWF - PRISM Network Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito (c) vs. SD Jones & Tony Atlas WWF Tag Team Title Match Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★★★★ I feel like I’m going a bit crazy being so high on a tag match involving Tony Atlas and SD Jones, but what can I say, this has got to be one of the most well crafted matches of the whole year. It’s still early in the run of Fuji and Saito, but they’re coming across as significantly better than I expected when they showed up, however I’m pretty familiar with Atlas and Jones at this point, and this match worked to hide their weaknesses and expand on their strengths. The fact that this lasted around 25 minutes and wasn’t a dud is an absolute miracle. The champions showed that they’ve got a much more developed routine than the two major heel teams that preceded them in the Samoans and Moondogs. They’ve got schtick for days, which really helped here during the babyface shine, as Atlas spent most of his time doing Backlund’s armbar-rowboat move, but they managed to keep that engaging for several minutes. Then when they transitioned to the heat they just are far more cutting and devastating than those aforementioned teams, here absolutely overwhelming Atlas, culminating in him getting cut open by Fuji on the outside. This leads into what I was referring to with the structure. We got a great shine, then a really good heat sequence on Atlas, but it was him getting cut and what followed that took this to the level of wrestling melodrama, in the best way. Atlas’ cut was pretty deep and his face was slowly becoming engulfed with blood. Fuji and Saito gleefully gnawed away at the cut with Fuji in particular looking like some kind of mad man with his goatee smeared in red. Jones became more and more irate as his partner continued to take a beating but eventually Atlas mounted enough of a comeback to make the hot tag. Just when you expected Jones to clean house, he did the complete opposite. He was so concerned with Atlas’ well-being that he instead helped him out of the ring, as Fuji and Saito made lunges at them, then implored the referee to wait a second while he took Atlas to the back. I can’t remember seeing anything similar to this and it was strangely wholesome to see Jones essentially take a timeout due to concern for his partner’s welfare. Jones returned, got on the mic and announced that he was going to take them both down on his lonesome. He made a valiant effort but 2 v 1 were not good odds for him and it was only a matter of time before he couldn’t struggle against the tide any longer. Fuji essentially had him beat after a couple of Samoan Drops but they wanted to extend the suffering. And just at that moment Atlas came charging back into the ring, head all bandaged up, and he swept the floor with the champions. The poor referee ended up getting squished by a dazed Saito in the corner, however the final decision was a DQ on Atlas for the initial shove. But this was one of those times where the DQ didn’t feel deflating, instead the final flurry of action came across as triumphant. 1981-11-14 WWF - PRISM Network Andre The Giant vs. Killer Khan Stretcher Match Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★★ Very much like a Coffin match, the whole gimmick around the stretcher sounds better on paper than it turns out to be in reality. Every time they had to get the stretcher out to try and roll either Andre or Khan onto it just sapped the momentum of the match and made it feel extremely choppy. I did like Khan’s spirited attacks on Andre, stomps to the leg and knee drops to the head while Andre had his leg caught in the ropes, but otherwise we got a pretty standard set of Andre moves on Khan, and by the end of it he was just spamming his sit down splash and finished things with the full body splash to completely incapacitate Khan. Decisive victory for Andre, which allowed him to clearly emerge victorious from the feud, but as far as blow offs go, this felt really milquetoast. There wasn’t really any heat and the lumbering gimmick didn’t help things at all. 1981-11-14 WWF - PRISM Network Bob Backlund (c) vs. The Magnificent Muraco WWF Heavyweight Title 90 Minute Time Limit Match Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★ Dull. So very, very dull. Backlund’s shine, which lasted forever, just had zero juice whatsoever. Thank God that this didn’t last the 90 minute time limit, but instead “only” went 21 minutes. Things didn’t get much better when Muraco took over. There was a triangle hold on the arm, some hair pulling, and that was about it. Considering how molten the crowd was for some of the matches that took place earlier on this show, they did a great job of sapping all the energy in the building. Which is no mean feat in a place like the Spectrum. They recycled the finish from MSG as well with Muraco getting pinned with his foot on the ropes and the referee missing it.

1981-11-09 AJW Devil Masami vs. Princess Mohawk Wrestler vs. Boxer Match Onoyama Gymnasium, Naha, Okinawa, Japan ★★★ Perhaps I was taken in by the novelty, but this was far better than it had any right to be. Maybe it isn’t really a 3* match, but I thought both women put on a selling clinic given the restrictions they were working within, and they managed to construct a compelling back and forth struggle, in a match with rounds, which is an anomaly for AJW, and with one of the wrestlers forced to wear boxing gloves to boot. By all accounts this should have been a shitshow, but instead it felt like a bruising slugfest with Masami nailing Mohawk with a piledriver for the knockout victory. Round of applause for all involved. 1981-11-09 AJW Jaguar Yokota vs. Wendi Richter Onoyama Gymnasium, Naha, Okinawa, Japan ★★★ Yokota came out at lightspeed, only for Richter to grab hold of her, dump slam her to the mat like a sack of potatoes and proceed to batter her for the next five minutes. Richter had the heel schtick down, in addition to the bruising offense she had all the necessary character work, like dismissively brushing away Yokota’s hand at the start, then coming back later and offering to shake. A simple thing that happens in a lot of matches in the States, but here it felt more genuinely dickish and less just a thing to do because it’s on the heel checklist. Yokota took quite a beating for the most of this, but I loved how she baited Richter to the ropes, then in a flash yanked her down, rammed the leg against the apron and then tossed her into the seats, revenge for the couple times she had received the same treatment. She came out on top as well, locking on a figure four that looked real snug and Richter had no chance of escaping to the ropes and was forced to submit. I’d say this was an incredibly strong performance from Richter, who carried the weight of driving the narrative of the match. Yokota is a jitterbug, who moves so fast compared to all the other women on the roster, and probably any other man on the planet at this point, but she still embodies more of the go-go-go attitude that Joshi gets lumbered with, and doesn’t quite have the psychology yet in my opinion that somebody like Masami has for example. 1981-11-09 AJW Nancy Kumi & Ayumi Hori (c) vs. Mimi Hagiwara & Yukari Omori WWWA Tag Team Title Match Onoyama Gymnasium, Naha, Okinawa, Japan ★★ Mimi leant into what she does best, selling, but up against nominal faces, that kind of dynamic just didn’t work as well as it would have against two dastardly heels. Hori, Omori and Hagiwara fumbled around, but as soon as Nancy hit the ring it felt like we finally had a fully fledged professional in action. Everything Nancy did was done with purpose and her compared to the other three just felt like worlds apart. Hori felt a little “off” for the whole match. She lacked any urgency and oomph in her work, but her de facto opposite, Omori, did grow on me as the match went along. I think she’s got a slightly cooler look, a more interesting face that perhaps would be better suited to being a heel, I really enjoyed her enthusiastic apron work while Mimi was working FIP and the sequences between her and Nancy were by the far the best portions of the match. The challengers managed to capture the titles after Mimi hit an extremely loose and dangerous looking backdrop suplex on Hori.

1981-11-07 PNW Buddy Rose vs. King Parsons Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★ This was a great deal of fun. Rose displaying what, when he’s on, makes him so good. I’ve felt that throughout the year he’s been happier to take a backseat in a lot of the tag matches, but here he had enough time in 10 or so minutes to show both the stooging heel aspects of his work whilst also getting in a solid ass kicking on Parsons. The timing was on point, the little schemes he was trying to pull over Sandy Barr were all hilarious, they worked a fantastic full nelson spot with Rose unsuccessfully trying to escape again and again. Really what this suffered from was a real flat ending. Rocky Johnson made his Portland debut and if that floats your boat then there really wasn’t much to dislike here, but he looked awkward, giving Rose a series of jabs that sent him tumbling to the floor, and the subsequent countout of Rose, unable to make it back into the ring, felt really weak. Parsons did his part but this was a real great Rose performance. 1981-11-07 PNW Rocky Johnson vs. Buddy Rose Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★ Following his run-in during the Rose/Parsons match, Rocky managed to get a quick and decisive victory over Stasiak before challenging Rose just before the main event, the justification being that if Rose lost to Borne the following Tuesday and was forced to leave the territory, Rocky would never get a shot at him. Don Owens seemed to think it was a good idea and forced Rose into the match. They clearly were putting their eggs in the Rocky Johnson basket as they positioned him as incredibly strong this evening, but I’ll admit to being incredibly underwhelmed from what I saw. He had the physique, and he certainly was athletic, but he looked stiff moving around the ring and I don’t think he showed off any kind of real wrestling craft. The match itself hovered around the 10 minute mark and Rose bumped around for Rocky, but on the whole it was just not very good. The key narrative beat of the match being Rose applying a bearhug, pulling the trunks somewhat, then Rocky getting the victory with a roll up with a bridge and Rose crying about how Rocky must have used the tights. 1981-11-08 AWA Andre The Giant & Hulk Hogan vs. Jerry Blackwell & The East-West Connection (Adrian Adonis & Jesse Ventura) Three On Two Handicap Match St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA Card ★★★ Like jackals, the three heels would try and ruthlessly isolate one of their opponents and use every trick in the book to maul them in their corner. When Andre was the man on the apron they went one step further to lure him away from the action so that he couldn’t break things up and prevent Hogan from getting overwhelmed by the numbers disadvantage. Andre charging around the ring while scared opponents flee in terror is one of the best things in wrestling, and we got a couple sequences of that here. Ventura, Blackwell and Adonis were great with their timing, and with so many men in the ring they were able to keep the action constantly flowing, Adonis in particular always somewhere doing something, whether it was dishing out damage or positioning himself for a big bump. Hogan was already crazy over, so all he needed to be successful was to be functional in the ring, which is what he was here. In the end Andre was able to run interference long enough for Hogan to hit the leg drop and cover Blackwell for the win. Andre vacated the ring area and the heels ganged up on Hogan once again for a post-match beatdown to get their heat back.

NOVEMBER 1981-11-04 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 28 Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka vs. The Funks (Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk) Prefectural Gymnasium, Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan Card ★★★ Joined in progress at the 5 minute mark and Snuka and Brody had already managed to gain control, working Terry over. It was Dory however who made the first inroads, eventually tagging in and sending Snuka flying to the floor outside with a couple thundering uppercuts. They settled back into their holding pattern again, but this time with Dory as the face in peril, and surprisingly this worked extremely well. Dory tapped into that sympathetic selling but also had that steely resistance, throwing an uppercut here and there so as not to get completely overwhelmed. As they built to the finish it was time for everybody to bail from the ring and it was a race to see who could get run into the ringpost and start bleeding the fastest. Dory had a bandage from a previous injury that had opened up earlier, but it wasn’t long before both Snuka and Brody had their faces covered in the red stuff. Sometimes match finishing brawls can feel extremely played out and come across like they’re just killing time until the bell rings, but here it actually felt like an escalation of action: first everybody started bleeding, then Brody accidentally whipped Terry into Snuka on the apron taking him out, then Dory tried to clamber back into the ring to eat a huge dropkick from Brody as well. Finally the referee felt enough was enough and called for the bell but it came on a high rather than giving that deflated feeling. Brody grabbed a chair and he and Terry conspired to give Terry about 25 chair shots to the head before the heels stormed off. Ironically Terry was the only one of the four who came out of this match without having bled. The start was perhaps a bit drab, but Dory’s performance during that stretch kept it afloat, then how they built to the finish and executed the climax was really good considering there’s the classic tag league match coming up at the end of the year and maybe they wanted to keep some bullets in the chamber for that. Dory was the standout, in my opinion showing some vulnerability that we don’t always see from him, but a solid showing all round from the others as well. 1981-11-04 GCW Tommy Rich vs. Austin Idol Municipal Auditorium, Columbus. Ohio, USA Card ★★★ Great to finally see both Rich and Idol in a full-length arena show match considering how infrequently they’ve popped up so far. They introduced this as a Bounty Match, so I’m assuming Idol was here to cash in on the bounty Masked Superstar had put on Tommy Rich’s head in recent weeks. Idol put on an absolute clinic here from a heel’s perspective. He wrung out a solid couple minutes around the towel that he brought to the ring. Reluctant to hand it over to the referee to get checked he worked the crowd into a frenzy, eventually Rich snatched it from him and wouldn’t you know, it was just a towel. Any time Rich gained some kind of momentum Idol would bail from the ring to gather himself and at one point he concealed a mini hammer in his trunks, which again riled the crowd up. Rich showed off his selling chops here without a doubt, but looking at the match as a whole I think Idol took too much of it. Considering Rich had a bounty on his head I’d have expected him to show a bit more urgency and he had no real shine or extended hope spots in this at all, with his entire offensive output consisting of tiny little flurries. Rich did in fact win the match, narrowly escaping a Sleeper while tied up in the ropes causing Idol to get counted out at the last second, but Ray Stevens hit the ring in due course and Rich looked to be in for a beating before some more wrestlers from the back saved him. The booking worked in the sense that it felt like Rich was really up against it, and it got over the concept that having a bounty on your head is a gruelling business, but for this to go up a gear Rich needed a little more intensity to convey that he was really fighting for his life, but it was far too easy for Idol to control things for the most part. 1981-11-05 NJPW - Toukon Series 1981 - Day 24 Tiger Mask vs. Gran Hamada Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★★ Hamada might be the perfect opponent for Tiger Mask. Somebody who he’s worked with and tagged with before, a credible opponent who will edit out the chaff and hone a match into something tight and cohesive. And after feeding on mostly small fry up to now, Tiger Mask certainly was primed for a real challenge. Hamada really is the business. He let Tiger get the best of the first half, but when he turned it up for the home stretch he put the masked hero on his back foot in a way I can’t remember having seen before. Crushing backdrop suplexes and vicious strikes, all culminating in a beauty of a tope. This wasn’t some glancing collision, Hamada got his head to plant dead centre in Tiger Mask’s chest. Unfortunately for Hamada, this was the moment of his undoing. He went up top for a second aerial attempt, crashing and burning on the dive, allowing Tiger Mask to roll back in just before the count and to survive. Easily one of Tiger Mask’s best matches, and while I would say he held up his part of the match, it did come across like Hamada was the one running the show and driving it to be as good as it ended up being. Just an absolute pocket dynamo and I wish he showed up more consistently on tape. 1981-11-05 NJPW - Toukon Series 1981 - Day 24 Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Animal Hamaguchi Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ This was so much fun. Shame that the first five minutes were clipped and we got a relatively dud finish, but the core meat of the match was a blast. Hamaguchi used his weight advantage and lower centre of gravity to try and ground Fujinami, while Fujinami was all piss and vinegar and ended up having to go for the big home run shots. Fujinami went for the most over, but absolutely useless move I can think of, the bow and arrow/ But Hamaguchi obviously escaped, snatched Fujinami up and they went for an airplane spin followed by a Samoan Drop, which the commentator’s called a Samoan Suplex. First time I’ve heard it being referenced as a “Samoan” anything up to this point, either in Japan or the US. But whatever they wanted to call it, this particular one was fantastic, with Hamaguchi’s legs ending up way above his head and absolutely planting Fujinami into the mat for a near fall. Fujinami ended up sending Hamaguchi to the outside and then hit his electrifying Dragon Rocket. Clambering back into the ring though Hamaguchi caught him with a suplex, but instead of the usual reverse back bump execution, he planted Fujinami face first into the mat. Fujinami locked on a Sleeper, they tumbled to the outside, the Sleeper remained firmly applied and Hamaguchi was forced to dump Fujinami over the railing at ringside for the automatic DQ. A dud finish really and I’m still not 100% sure what the reasoning behind that rule is. But it’s no worse than the DQ for throwing a guy over the top rope that existed in the NWA at the same time. In terms of booking I feel like they didn’t want to bury Hamaguchi, or the IWE guys in general, so this kind of finish allows him to save face to a certain degree. Fujinami is really heating up after a lacklustre first several months of the year. Hamaguchi, free from the circus that was the final few months of IWE and with a fresh crop of more talented opponents to work with, looks to have a new lease on life. I’m loving the variety of offense that he displayed here, which made him look like a real threat to New Japan’s number 2. 1981-11-05 NJPW - Toukon Series 1981 - Day 24 Abdullah The Butcher vs. Dino Bravo Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ There was a lot of dead time to start as they finalised who was actually going to be in the match. Originally I assume this was billed as a tag match between Bad News Allen and Abdullah against Bravo and Dick Murdoch. Allen had a broken finger and was wearing street clothes so Murdoch and Bravo had to decide amongst themselves who was going to take on Abby. Murdoch teased leaving the ring several times to a massive crowd reaction, and I think it was clear he was the one they wanted, but ultimately it was Bravo who stepped forward and issued the challenge. Abby gave so much of this to Bravo I was honestly surprised. I mean the main chunk of the match barely lasted five minutes, but Bravo must have been on top for at least 85% of that. His punches are glacially slow, so execution isn’t in his favour, but he was great at projecting that babyface fire you’d associate with a Martel or Santana, and he managed to rally the crowd behind him. It wasn’t long at all before Abby was bleeding, quite profusely, and Bravo actually looked like he might be on the verge of winning after a bodyslam and an atomic drop. But Allen got up on the apron for the distraction and smashed a big bag of flour in Bravo’s face for the DQ. I’m not sure where Murdoch was at this point, but probably at the back chilling, which allowed Allen and Abby to double team Bravo and he suffered a savage attack, getting stabbed in the head with a fork several times leading him just as bloody as Abby after it was all said and done. 1981-11-05 NJPW - Toukon Series 1981 - Day 24 Antonio Inoki vs. Rusher Kimura Lumberjack Match Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ I remember loving this when I first watched it a few years ago but it lost some of its lustre this time around. They managed to carve out some special moments here, but it was the connective tissue and general psychology that was lacking somewhat. Kimura connected with a questionably low knee to take Inoki down then went for the armbar right from the start. Inoki escaped but again Kimura’s strategy was to go for the arm. This would have been cool if he’d persisted with this, but after he broke the armbar for that second time I don’t think he looked at Inoki’s arm ever again for the whole match. The best, and most hype, moments were when they both stood their ground and just wailed on each other. Inoki wasn’t having any of Kimura’s chops and kept blocking them, signifying his superior martial skills, but he could do nothing with the follow up headbutts that sent him to the mat. The lumberjacks didn’t have much to do, a minor coming together distracted enough to allow Kimura to blade following him getting run into the ringpost. Inoki smelt blood and he took a leaf out of Kimura’s book from earlier and went for the same armbar. They really milked the hell out of this, with Inoki revving up every now and again, mean mugging the crowd to get them into it, then wrenching back down to apply more pressure to the limb. Kimura’s face was literally dripping with blood, with it all pooling onto the mat, and despite getting to the ropes the one time, it wasn’t long before he was back on the mat and suffering the same fate once again. The IWE guys seemingly felt enough was enough and tossed in the towel, literally chucking a white towel into the ring which landed right on Inoki’s face while he was still applying the hold. Kimura was pissed afterwards, he technically hadn’t submitted, and perhaps that was the only way they could have agreed to have this feud in the first place, but after some fractious moments, Inoki and Kimura were able to shake hands, some sort of mutual respect gained. This was great when they were able to dot in those epic moments. The strike exchanges and that final sequence with Inoki applying the armbar and really hamming it up for the crowd’s benefit. But in general the mat work left a lot to be desired, Kimura is extremely limited and the weaknesses I saw from him that hurt his IWE title run over the past few years were glaringly on show here as well. But even more than that, the lack of any strong period with Kimura legitimately on top and getting Inoki on the ropes is what docks this. Other than the first few moments, Inoki never seemed like he was ever in any real trouble, so we lacked the drama that a potential loss from him would have garnered. They had the very same problem in their previous match, but I guess Inoki was in the driving seat and if he wanted to come across like the all conquering hero then Kimura was in no position to argue. 1981-11-05 AWA Bobby Duncum vs. Billy Robinson Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Card ★★★★ This kind of came out of nowhere like a punch in the face. I had no expectations when I started watching this, just always happy to catch a bit of Billy Robinson, but damn this was awesome. They began this with Duncum trying to push Robinson’s buttons, hoping perhaps that angering him would cause him to make a mistake, but Robinson was able to keep his cool and methodically took Duncum apart piece by piece. When Robinson is allowed to just go off and be his virtuoso self it really doesn’t get much better. He was able to go through his repertoire of moves and counter moves and Duncum didn’t have an answer. Excellent transition as a freak thudding collision injured Robinson’s shoulder allowing Duncum to finally gain some measure of control, and Duncum held up his end of the bargain with some hefty arm work of his own. Robinson proved that he wasn’t just an offensive spot monkey with some top tier selling of his own and it was time for the momentum to swing to and fro as Robinson tried to reclaim the advantage he held earlier despite the lingering shoulder issue. It did seem as if he had enough to put Duncum away but instead of a clean finish we got Duncum losing by DQ for body dropping Robinson over the ropes. Honestly this might be my only criticism of the entire match, as it would have been the icing on the cake to have a decisive and triumphant finish. The whole match was expertly crafted with each section having its distinct purpose and both men executed their roles perfectly. Duncum probably has never looked better in my eyes, but he started off from a pretty low bar on that front. Robinson though has continued to elevate for me each time I see him. I’m now itching to get back and watch his prime 70s stuff, and while I recall a lot of them being classics, but I’m not sure now if this US version of him might be my favourite.

1981-10-30 NJPW - Toukon Series 1981 - Day 19 Kengo Kimura & Tiger Mask vs. Los Misioneros de la Muerte (El Signo & Negro Navarro) City Gymnasium, Anjo, Aichi, Japan Card ★★★★ The first of this had almost two singles matches run in parallel. Tiger Mask was matched up with Navarro, while Kimura was paired with Signo. The former pairing was the better one, Navarro clearly good enough to roll with Tiger Mask’s flourishes to make them look good, or reining him in to prevent him from going overboard. The Mexicans decided to steal the advantage by taking Kimura to the outside and ramming him into the railing. Tiger Mask went to make the save but ended up eating steel as well before, back in the ring, getting hot shotted for his troubles. There were moments here where, in an American match they would have kept the same two in the ring and milked a sequence for all it was, but tags were too easy to come by and therefore too frequent, constantly resetting and stalling the momentum. They managed to build to some high intensity peaks, and the crowd were completely amped, but I feel they may have left some juice on the table. But I know that this is the style, so there’s not much point complaining about it. Tiger Mask almost forced Signo to start eating through a straw with a devastating dropkick to the face, which prompted Navarro to go for the mask to cause some disarray. Tiger Mask frantically dived to tag out before they could finally rip it off, but Kimura held his own, got a nearfall on a piledriver and a neat sequence which teased some friendly fire on a missile dropkick attempt from Tiger Mask actually ended up being a diving sunset flip for the finish. Everybody came out of this smelling like roses, but Navarro in particular looked ace. Tiger Mask again displayed an ability to generate electric responses when he’s able to avoid those awful botches. The Japanese team took the dirty haymakers their opponents threw at them, gutted through it and rose to victory. All round an excellent upper-mid card tag match. 1981-10-30 NJPW - Toukon Series 1981 - Day 19 Abdullah The Butcher & Bad News Allen vs. Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi City Gymnasium, Anjo, Aichi, Japan Card ★★ The heat was a bit lacking here. Just your standard stuff really from the heels. Things got more fun and interesting when Abby and Inoki were rolling around on the mat trying monkey flips on each other before an Enzuigiri floored Abby and some follow up stomps drew blood. Inoki and Sakaguchi took him to the corner to gain the numbers advantage, but as soon as Inoki tagged out you knew Sakaguchi wouldn’t be able to contain Abby for long and right on cue a swift thrust to the neck and a headbutt swung the momentum once again. Disappointing that they pivoted to the finish so soon after this. Allen tagged in and was promptly swarmed by Sakaguchi. Abby, clearly over the pretence of this being a wrestling match, got a glass bottle from under the ring and proceeded to clean house. The referee ate glass and we got the dull DQ. We did get to see Allen smash the bottle and attempt murder on Inoki, but he ducked and Abby ate the brunt of the attack leaving him running to the back and Inoki standing tall. 1981-10-30 Houston Wrestling - Gold Cup Tournament - Day 1 Mike Graham vs. Tully Blanchard Gold Cup Tournament Match Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA Card ★★★ Tully was cruising along, containing Graham with a tightly locked in armbar when suddenly Graham sprung to life, applied the figure four, and had Tully scrambling for the ropes. From that moment Tully was over this wrestling competition malarkey and he was going to cut corners. As soon as he was back in the ring for the following lock up he used the referee as a human shield, then from behind him nailed a diving punch to the midsection and the dark arts never stopped. As good as I thought Tully looked, it did feel like he took way too much of this match. I can’t figure out who to assign the blame to here, but Graham’s hope spots were unbelievably brief and Tully had far too easy a time cutting him off and going back to the heat. I’m assuming that Tully was calling the match, so if that were true it would be his fault, but at some point you need to plant your foot in the ground and stand your ground and Graham was just never really able to do that. Being a tournament match with a time limit, the draw finish was always on the card, and the way they were working with around 5 minutes to go it was a foregone conclusion that we actually were going to get that draw. I thought they managed to keep the action ticking along though and sprinkled in enough fairly believable near falls to keep the crowd invested.

1981-10-19 WWF - MSG Network Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito (c) vs. Rick Martel & Tony Garea WWF Tag Team Title Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA Card ★★★ I don’t want to overstate this by saying this was the one man Rick Martel show, but he was bloody fantastic here. Garea is a decent face in peril, and the new champions have good chemistry and timing, but Martel is what gelled everything together and elevated this to the heights it got to. While the TV title switch was all about Martel working the apron and then coming in as the hot tag, this time it was all about the shine. Martel was all over Mr. Fuji and began stomping on him like he owed him money. When it can sometimes feel like guys are going through the motions, it’s nice to get the feeling that somebody is emotionally invested, and I got the sense from Martel that he was here to reclaim those stolen belts! The opening shine from the challengers was great but of course we got the obligatory hot tag from Martel again and it felt like he was literally everywhere doing everything. The champions deserve credit here though as there were two or three multi man spots that they were able to execute flawlessly without it coming across as contrived. Saito was working a Boston Crab in their corner and Fuji was applying leverage, then as Martel powered out Saito went flying into Fuji headfirst. The other was a lovely slingshot on Saito that sent him once again on a collision course with an onrushing Fuji which was timed so well that I didn’t even see Fuji coming from off camera until the connection happened. Both these sequences could have looked clumsy or pantomime, but it all worked within the context here. Fuji sent Martel to the outside and then Garea took the brunt of a nasty double team beatdown. This was enough for the referee to call for the DQ but the heel champions survived with their belts intact. 1981-10-19 WWF - MSG Network Bob Backlund (c) vs. Greg Valentine WWF Heavyweight Title Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA Card ★★★★ Valentine has got to be one of, if not the best, Backlund opponent. His constant forward motion, hard hitting, no-nonsense approach brings an air of credibility and really forces Backlund to dig deep and come back with equal intent. A rugged Backlund is the best kind of Backlund. I’m not sure how much psychology there was to this match, Valentine focused on the leg a lot, but that’s to be expected considering he’s always working towards locking on that figure four, but there wasn’t much else that you’d call nuanced here. But both men went toe to toe and the clash between them felt like it was growing to epic proportions. I would have preferred if they didn’t go to the timber sell so many times. Once, maybe twice, is okay, but it appeared to be the go-to sell style throughout which I felt was the wrong choice. The finish was interesting to say the least. Most will be aware of it already, but a groggy referee counted Backlund’s pin, then Valentine shot up and began celebrating and the referee raised his hand by accident, Valentine grabbed the belt and walked out forcing it to be held up for the rematch. Not the best but certainly unique and I for one would have been pumped to see a rematch between these two with Backlund having to win back his title instead of just defending it, so I can’t shit on the decision that much. 1981-10-23 NJPW - Toukon Series 1981 - Day 12 Osamu Kido & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Animal Hamaguchi & Isamu Teranishi Onoyama Gymnasium, Naha, Okinawa, Japan Card ★★★ Hard nosed, balls to the wall action. Kido locked on a headlock at the midway point for them to catch their breath briefly, but for the most part this was all four men in high gear from bell to bell. New Japan isn’t a promotion I would call soft by any means, but they were exceptionally stiff here. I’m not sure if it was due to the interpromotional aspect of the match that they felt they needed to lay it in extra hard, but it felt like they’d upped the ante here. All four men got the opportunity to gain an advantage on their man. Much like in his match against Fujinami, Teranishi felt a little sloppy or loose, and while I liked Kido’s feisty energy, he wasn’t quite up to Fujinami or Hamaguchi’s standard. It’s been a while since Hamaguchi popped up on footage, but he looked doubly motivated here. Maybe emerging from the sinking ship that was IWE had given him a new lease on wrestling life. This boiled over to the point that the referee just called for a no contest. Rusher Kimura came in to beat down on Fujinami and then the New Japan crew, including Choshu and Inoki, came in for a standoff and some more brawling. More of a vehicle to keep the promotional feud on a high simmer than anything else, but highly effective for its purpose. 1981-10-24 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 19 Alexis Smirnoff & Bruiser Brody vs. The Funks (Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk) Sports Center, Chitose, Hokkaido, Japan Card ★ B- showing for Terry and a flat D- for everyone else. Definitely felt like they were going through motions. They beat up on Terry a lot, escalated to some brawling, Brody went overboard with his blade job and ended up with a full-on mask of blood, then Dory reversed a piledriver from Smirnoff into an anticlimactic pin. 1981-10-24 PNW Buddy Rose vs. Steve Regal NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls No Disqualification With Mike Masters And Stan Stasiak Locked In A Shark Cage At Ringside Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★★ I’m torn on this match. On the one hand the first two falls were slow and drawn out with very little heat considering the feud surrounding it and the actual stipulation of the match. Both falls mirrored each other with Rose laying in the ball shots on Regal followed by Regal returning in kind. But when they weren’t trying to take each other’s manhoods, they were casually sitting in headlocks, working the clock. The third fall however managed to project the expected violence levels, and all without resorting to bloodletting as well. Rose laid into Regal on the outside with a chair and one thunderous swing was dodged at the last second by Regal, only to shatter the upper portion of the chair as it cracked against the ringpost. Regal eventually wrestled the chair away from Rose, and despite some resistance from Sandy Barr, he really went to town on Rose. I wish the cage, and Masters and Stasiak within it, were utilised more often here. They were basically a non-factor until the finish when they finally managed to cling onto Regal to try and choke him out or force him to be counted out. Barr however was having none of it and climbed right on top to start kicking both men in the face. Borne was forced to come out from the back to assist and in the disarray Regal was able to catch Rose by surprise with a rollup to win back the held up title. The first two falls were what I’d call pedestrian, however I can appreciate the structure in how they mirrored the action. This was saved by the final fall though. If they felt they couldn’t get away with a bloodbath then they managed to pull off something slightly more PG, but still with enough violent intent behind it. 1981-10-24 Joint Promotions Wayne Bridges vs. Pete Roberts Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, United Kingdom ★★★ Started with the weightiness that you’d expect from a heavyweight contest. Bridges picked up the first fall with a neat clothesline and everything seemed cordial and above board, then suddenly everything kicked off when Roberts levelled things up. Firstly, Roberts showed why he’s a unique case in the heavyweight division, nailing a springboard flip out of a hip toss and then executing a gorgeous schoolboy pin for the fall. Roberts went to shake Bridges hand in the intermission and Bridges was having none of it. Walton commented on how unusual this behaviour from Bridges was. Well he never cooled off, instead his attitude became increasingly petulant over the subsequent rounds, dialling up the grittiness and forcing Roberts to match his intensity. It all boiled over when Bridges channelled his inner Randy Orton and hit a running knee, basically punting a prone Roberts in the temple, prompting the referee to call for the disqualification. 1981-10-24 Joint Promotions Marty Jones vs. Peter Wilson Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, United Kingdom ★★ Despite taking a surprise lead in the second round, it never seemed at all likely that Wilson would get a scalp here. Jones looked like he was going for a stroll in the park and matter of factly picked apart his opponent for an extremely more comfortable in reality than on paper win in the fifth round.

1981-10-17 WWF- Championship Wrestling Rick Martel & Tony Garea (c) vs. Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito WWF Tag Team Title Match Agricultural Hall, Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★★★ This was a classic “greater than the sum of its parts” match. They worked a really traditional structure, but keeping the whole thing within a tight 10 minute window, no section was laboured or dragged on. Martel was a house of fire from the opening bell and the crowd were scorching for the champions. Eventually the heels made some inroads and worked over Garea. The heat was functional rather than anything special but Martel was losing his mind on the apron and a couple times was compelled to come in to try and do something to help his partner. Fantastic hot tag from Martel and the famous finish with Fuji flinging salt into his eyes as he tried to execute a flying crossbody off the top rope. Fuji deserves a ton of credit for his timing and accuracy on that throw. The salt looked like it caught Martel perfectly in the face for a memorable visual and Martel sold the hell out of it for a couple minutes afterwards. Martel was the real standout, no surprise there, but I’d say they nailed the “what to do and when” aspect of constructing this match. I was on the edge of my seat for the near falls and the build to the hot tag. Overall I’d say this was a clear home run for a tag title switch on TV. 1981-10-17 WWF- PRISM Network Andre The Giant vs. Killer Khan Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★ Hmmmm. I really thought this would at least be good. Andre has been on a real run lately (admittedly most of that has been in Japan) and considering this was a grudge match, following Khan breaking his leg, I had reasonably high expectations. My biggest issue with Khan in general is the disconnect between his gimmick and how he works. I haven’t seen his stuff from Mid-South or Japan (yet) so this could be a WWF specific thing, but they presented him as this uncivilised monster from Mongolia who you think would be tearing people apart, then whenever he enters the ring against anybody who isn’t a jobber he’s stooging like he’s the Honky Tonk Man. Andre spends a lot of time dragging Khan around by his trunks here, and I thought I could see a glimmer of annoyance on Khan’s face after a while, as I’m sure that couldn’t have been fun. Considering this was a grudge match, and at the Spectrum no less, it’s surprising how little heat this match had. I feel like they just worked so slow between sequences it never seemed to be building towards anything coherent and just felt like it dragged on and on and on. Khan felt far too weak most of the time, but then a mere double chop to the head took Andre down instantaneously. Just all over the place. My favourite part of this was Khan actually trying to figure out how to focus on Andre’s previously broken leg. Getting down on his ass and peppering the giant with kicks. If they’d leaned into that dynamic a bit more this would have been far better. In the end Khan tried to flee, Andre chased him down, we got some blah brawling at ringside and the bell rang for a double countout. Looks like we’re getting a rematch on November 14th, but what could have been a fantastic build up match for that one ended up just coming across like a big waste of time. 1981-10-17 MACW Roddy Piper vs. Jay Youngblood WPCQ-TV Studios, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA Card ★★★ Electric studio match. Unlike in Memphis for example, where the heel is always outclassed and has to do some devious shit to get ahead, here they allowed Piper to almost go toe to toe with the face and he was able to display some toughness and wrestling skill, while sprinkling in some more subtle heel tendencies, like rolling to the outside to buy time or calling for a timeout. They started with some fast paced amateur style mat wrestling and Piper did a great job of riding Youngblood before gaining the advantage. Youngblood did the same in return, a couple of reversals and the tone was set. Youngblood wasn’t shy of laying in the chops, and one in particular was caught beautifully by the studio microphone and almost gave David Crockett and orgasm. Piper gave as good as he got in this hard hitting affair. They were building towards a 10 minute time limit, and Caudle got the 30 second warning wrong, which deflated the ending somewhat, but they threw in enough believable near falls without overdoing it and the level of exhaustion they displayed matched the effort and exhaustion they’d put into the previous 10 minutes.

1981-10-09 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 7 Ashura Hara, Genichiro Tenryu & Terry Funk vs. Alexis Smirnoff, Don DeNucci & Harley Race Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ Pretty throwaway match, but sort of to be expected as an undercard match on a pretty stacked show (at least on paper). We did get to see DeNucci in Japan though which is pretty bizarre. The Terry vs Race bits were fun with both men able to show off their impressive suplexes and Tenryu stood out once again when he was called upon. Everybody else was just in the background. They cycled through a few different pairings and eventually Tenryu hit a Sunset Flip off the top against Smirnoff for the win. 1981-10-09 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 7 Dory Funk Jr. (c) vs. Bruiser Brody NWA International Heavyweight Title Match Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ There were moments where Dory would ramp things up and he would tap into that stone faced killer persona that weirdly resonates with me. It didn’t take long for Dory to bleed and Brody wasn’t far behind, the cuts on both men pooling around the eye like a ghastly pirate-y eyepatch of blood. The issue I had was that neither is Dory a dynamic enough seller or Brody a convincing enough ass-kicker, so the actual meat and potatoes action of it all lacked the necessary conviction to get across the intended levels of violence. The structure was there, the crowd was behind it, but what should have been at least good failed to hit the mark for me. The finish involved some awkwardly telegraphed ref bumps from Joe Higuchi. Brody grabbed the chain, which Dory managed to tear from him. Joe finally recovered to intervene, just to eat metal to the face and the match was thrown out. The best part of the whole thing was actually Terry coming down in a tweed jacket and cowboy boots, getting said jacket torn from his body by Brody and Buck Robley, then wildly swinging fists and basically showing the boys how it’s done. 1981-10-09 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 7 Ric Flair (c) vs. Jumbo Tsuruta NWA World Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ The first half of this was plain boring. Jumbo showed some fire, and he clearly was emotionally up for this, but apart from a tiny sliver of intensity around a headlock, not much actually happened throughout the entire first fall. I didn’t think that Flair’s begging off routine worked in this context, it just made him look a bit like a chump. Once he switched his tact and began selling his back as a vulnerability I liked his performance far better. As soon as the second fall began though this became miles better. The intensity overall just ratcheted up several notches and both men found their groove. We had some neat little near falls but ultimately Flair managed to tie things up with a figure four. Jumbo had to be dragged, his body lifeless, across the mat by a second at ringside between falls which I thought was pure gold. He then started the third really selling that leg hard which again I thought was amazing. Flair’s cockiness worked better considering he was in the ascendancy, and I did like his elbow strike offense far better than the bland knee offense he was using earlier in the bout. We got some more referee wonkiness, this time old man Lord Blears was acting as the referee and I feared for his safety when he got crocked. The finish was a bit of a mess, with some subpar execution, but Jumbo went for a big bomb in the corner, whiffed completely and Flair capitalised, diving on his prone body, for the victory. I just can’t overlook the first half of this to give it a higher rating, it was just too lacklustre. But the second and third falls were very good and a great Jumbo performance, at least in the context of his output during this early 80s period. 1981-10-09 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 7 Bruno Sammartino & Giant Baba vs. Tiger Jeet Singh & Umanosuke Ueda Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★ The heels dragged this down for me. I thought the combination of Baba and Bruno was actually pretty inspired and I would be really interested in seeing them team again given an alternative set of opponents. Baba took most of the heat, getting constantly double teamed, but as per usual with a Singh match, the work was unimaginative. It was great to see Bruno again since he pretty much disappeared off the map since the previous year. His kind of rough, brawling style actually translated perfectly to these All Japan brawls. I wish we’d gotten to see him against an Abdullah, or even a Sheik, in a singles match rather than this though.

1981-10-07 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 5 Ric Flair (c) vs. Terry Funk NWA World Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium, Yokoyama, Kanagawa, Japan Card ★★★ Really interesting to see Flair work two title matches on back to back nights against two different opponents. Maybe it’s not fair, but it’s pretty hard to not directly compare the two against each other. Here the first fall was probably worse than anything that happened in the Tenryu match, but the second fall in this one was the best fall hands down across the two as well. It took until the announcer’s 10 minute call before anything actually happened and Flair tossed Funk to the outside. He capitalised with a suplex and then the figure four to submit Funk in short order. As I said, this fall was really underwhelming and bland. Tests of strength, headlocks, that sort of thing, but with no rhyme or reason, just to kill time. After winning the first fall though, a switch flipped in Flair and he turned into a wild man. I would have put money on Funk being the one to push the envelope but Flair mounted Funk and uncorked some savage punches to the head that got the crowd all riled up. This continued for a couple minutes until Funk weathered the storm and made his comeback. I wish Flair had held out a little longer and made Funk really earn it, cause all it took was a couple headbutts and he ceded control entirely, but Funk was in his groove, as glorious as that always is, and finally he returned the favour and submitted Flair with his spinning toe hold. The third fall was good, if nothing special. The order of the day was “how do we get out of this without either Terry or Flair doing the job?”. The answer always seems to be a double countout. They did manage to orchestrate a killer near fall with Funk reversing a double arm suplex and it looked like he had it made before Flair got his leg on the rope at the LAST second. Immediately after Funk did my least favourite move, the one where a guy hops up to sit on the top rope, wraps his legs around his opponent and rolls backwards to pull them both over the ropes to the outside. It serves no purpose other than to transition outside the ring and telegraphs 100 out of 100 times that we’re going for a countout finish. Just hate it. 1981-10-07 Joint Promotions Marty Jones vs. Johnny South Preston, Lancashire, United Kingdom ★★★ Brought everything to the table you’d want out of a heavyweight contest and a masterclass in keeping the momentum going while being in a defensive position from Jones. It may seem like a weird thing to praise, but they both really used the loud bang on the mat that reverberated around the arena every time either man delivered a move, or did a bump, to establish a nice rhythm to the action and convey the weight and impact of their moves. It never swung too far but there was always an underlying aspect of tension and frayed temper throughout which I felt the grit they established early laid a great foundation for. Jones was great here in never just lying in a move and waiting for South to transition to something else or to make his counter move. Often you’ll see someone sit in a headlock for 30 seconds, then nonchalantly just counter it but standing up, pushing the guy off and triggering a rope running sequence or something. Other than the excuse that they are catching their breath, it just doesn’t make sense why they would wait so long to counter. Here Jones was always grabbing for an arm or a leg, even resorting to kicking South in the back and legs while lying prone on his own back at one point. These attempts weren’t really to reverse the hold, but merely to disrupt what South was doing and often resulted in South giving up on his approach entirely, which I thought was fantastic. South snuck in a backslide to go 1-0 up which was entirely against the run of play. Jones looked to be firmly in control and was going for the kill himself. Jones, the classy champion that he was, didn’t get ruffled though, calmly went about his business and put South away, eventually executing a backslide of his own for some nice symmetry. South was really game here, just as bruising as Jones, but he lacked at the periphery all the little things that Jones did to tie the action together. But they managed to pull together a real slugfest of a bout that put on display what hard hitting British wrestling was all about. 1981-10-08 NJPW - New Japan vs. IWE Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Isamu Teranishi Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ I felt that Teranishi was a little slow off the mark here. His timing was a smidge off and Fujinami looked like he was running uphill to get engaging sequences going. Teranishi began aimlessly working the arm and Fujinami turned Super Saiyan and just began uncorking outrageous strikes that rocked Teranishi to his core. He futilely tried to cling onto the arm but it didn’t help and Fujinami planted him firmly on the mat. Teranishi did manage to make a late surge, hitting a nice backbreaker and making some sort of advance, but Fujinami always gave as good as he got, culminating in the best stretch of the match where both men were unfurling open handed strikes straight to the face repeatedly. Pure bedlam. The intensity was pushing maximum but Fujinami always had the aura of a dam that was about to break and Teranishi was facing the inevitable. Indeed that came to be true when Teranishi managed to roll through an O’Connor Roll only to be stuck with a German. With Inoue and Ashura Hara jumping ship to All Japan, IWE were left with Teranishi and Kimura (and maybe Hamaguchi) as their top guys. It’s hard to say whether this should have been booked more evenly, but I did find the subtle superiority of Fujinami to be an interesting hook. 1981-10-08 NJPW - New Japan vs. IWE Tiger Mask vs. Masked Hurricane Mask Vs. Mask Match Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ Hurricane looked like an extra from The Watchmen with his vibrantly green mask. He was game for some cheeky entertainment, his best moment was doing that spot where you just repeatedly kip up over and over again, which just resulted in him eating a massive dropkick to the face. This was about as run of the mill as you could get for a Tiger Mask match but while there weren’t any real high moments there weren’t any low moments either. After just under 10 minutes Hurricane ate a backbreaker, let out a massive howl of pain and it was time for him to unmask. 1981-10-08 NJPW - New Japan vs. IWE Dino Bravo & Riki Choshu vs. Hulk Hogan & Stan Hansen Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ Fun little match. Again it didn’t last longer than 10 minutes but each man had a moment here or there to do something interesting. The key hook, and the most engaging aspect by far, was Choshu’s plucky attempts to fight fire with fire against Hansen. There’s something I love about Hansen going up against these Japanese light heavyweight types: it works against Fujinami and it works against Choshu. Choshu came across so earnest in his attempt, he didn’t back down for a second, but he was so clearly outmatched. After they cycled through this matchup for the third time it was all too much for him though and Hansen hit the Lariat for the definitive and comfortable win. 1981-10-08 NJPW - New Japan vs. IWE Antonio Inoki vs. Rusher Kimura Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ This is the kind of match that Inoki really excels in. The big man, the champion of IWE, Rusher Kimura, is coming into his house, so you’ve got to ramp up the spectacle. And there aren’t many out there who could deliver ‘spectacle’ as well as Antonio Inoki. He was dialled in 100% here and he sprinkled all these little actions and moments that he really doesn’t do often in his matches to just keep building the intensity. I thought it was great that he went for the Enzuigiri from the bell. Trying for the KO shot immediately instead of going through the usual formalities. Inoki showed off some technical wrestling skills I didn’t know he had. Yes, he always tries to portray an aura of being a legitimate martial artist, but here he was actually transitioning between moves and countering with holds. Maybe if it was somebody other than Inoki doing them I would have been less impressed but it worked for me here. Kimura’s counter was his headbutt. Inoki tried his best to struggle through but Kimura’s skull proved too strong. This allowed Kimura to finally take some control and in fact, it was almost like Inoki had a traditional shine sequence to start, which just made Kimura’s ability to survive and then comeback against Inoki feel all the more of a big accomplishment. Inoki ate a ringpost but he didn’t commit to the bladejob enough so they had to go for it a second time. But he nailed it that time around, with blood pouring down his face for a phenomenal visual. Inoki wasn’t going to cave though and he went to his patented series of arm moves, the armbreaker into the armbar and despite Kimura having his leg on the rope he refused to break and the referee was forced to DQ him. I really loved the finish, as they are clearly building towards a second match and giving Kimura the initial win, even via DQ, goes a long way to setting that up in a strong way. All the other IWE wrestlers dived into the ring to jump on Inoki, which in turn prompted the New Japan wrestlers to do the same and we had ourselves a brawl. If it had finished there I would have said that they absolutely nailed the match from a booking standpoint. My issue, and what left a sour taste in my mouth, was that Inoki just continued to punk Kimura for the next few minutes. He put on the armbar a second time while the IWE seconds just looked on helplessly, then Kimura had to stand around while he got his arm treated and Inoki was cutting a promo on him in the ring. It felt a little like they were undercutting all the good work they had just done.

1981-10-06 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 4 Buck Robley & Umanosuke Ueda vs. The Funks (Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk) Miyagi Prefectural Sports Center, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan Card ★★★ After not having him around for a large chunk of the year, I forgot how much fun it is to just have Terry around. He immediately energises any match he’s in and makes what would be a nothing moment if done by another wrestler, suddenly feel important, interesting, meaningful. Ueda looks like the guy out of Ichi the Killer, to the point that the character must have been inspired by him to some extent. He doesn’t have the same aura of a guy like Abdullah, but I liked the disruptive strategy of constantly trying to shift the action to the outside where he and Robley could gain an advantage rather than just going toe to toe with the Funks in the middle of the ring. The tactic almost paid off as well, Joe Higuchi was characteristically lenient, allowing Ueda to go ham with the chair attacks, and Terry came out of it with his ear a complete mess. Robley kept working on it, biting it, mauling it, and they worked towards the hot tag, which isn’t always a thing in Japan. When they did make that tag, Dory came in like a house on fire, which isn’t a phrase I think I’ll write too often, but he was out there to kill, uppercuts galore for everyone, with even Ueda eating a stiff shot while chilling on the apron. There was enough chaos afterwards to allow Dory to execute an O’Connor Roll and grab the win, but then it was time for him to get ambushed by Bruiser Brody. Brody was eventually repelled but not before he attacked Dory’s son (I don’t think Terry had any sons so it must have been Dory’s, but I’m not sure which one). The knee apparently drove into his throat and he was coughing up blood and they had to stretcher him out of the ring. Not a bad angle. We’re a long way off the tag league final but the Funks vs Brody/Snuka is on the horizon. 1981-10-06 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 4 Ric Flair (c) vs. Genichiro Tenryu NWA World Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Miyagi Prefectural Sports Center, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan Card ★★ It only took winning the World’s Title and heading to Japan for Flair to finally get a long form singles match on tape in the decade. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite worth the wait. I don’t think the fans were familiar with Flair at all as it seems like the last time he appeared in All Japan was back in ‘78, so they needed to establish him and his persona early on. It just felt tentative and meandering for a good chunk of the first fall with no real purpose. Flair is an instinctual wrestler, but this felt more like he was hoping something would spring to life rather than actually going about making it happen. Things only started to get going when Tenryu made a push, targeting Flair’s leg and having the audacity to put the figure four on him. In fact throughout the whole match the action was always better when Tenryu was on offense and Flair was working from underneath. Flair admirably low-key sold the leg all the way late into the second fall and then after Tenryu’s offense switched to be more back-focused, his selling changed accordingly. So there were praiseworthy elements no doubt. Against the run of play Flair got the first fall with a suplex followed up by an elbow drop. Tenryu snatched the second with a suplex of his own. Then as they headed into the finish Flair projected enough vulnerability that in a vacuum it seemed possible that Tenryu could pull it out, which I think Flair deserves some real credit for. In the end though Flair locked on the figure four and showed Tenryu how it was done, submitting the challenger and retaining the belt during his first defence in Japan.

October 1981-10-02 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 1 Genichiro Tenryu vs. Ashura Hara Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ Seems like IWE finally collapsed, with Hara and Mighty Inoue arriving in All Japan and the rest of the roster heading to New Japan. This was exciting and wild, a little crazy, but also disjointed, completely peppered with weird high spots, like Hara dropkicking Tenryu off the top turnbuckle, both men repeatedly taking super awkward bumps through the ropes and Hara trying to suplex Tenryu over the ropes to the floor and just dumping him on the ropes instead. Whenever it looked like things were going to completely kick off they reigned things back in and went back to a hold on the mat, which felt like a big ol’ tease. With Abdullah gone and Terry not around for most of the year, All Japan has the tendency to get a bit bland, I think at this point it’s solidly behind New Japan in the pecking order, and Stan Hansen can’t arrive fast enough, but if this clash between Hara and Tenryu is a sign of things to come then maybe they might have turned a corner of sorts. 1981-10-03 PNW Matt Borne & Steve Regal (c) vs. Buddy Rose & Stan Stasiak NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★ Felt like Rose and Stasiak cruised through this match in 3rd gear. Really fun headlock exchanges early on between the two, showing some nice tag team synergy. It was nice to see Rose flex a little on the wrestling front rather than leaning so much into the stooging aspect of his work. It didn’t help them grab that first fall though as the faces were able to run a sequence together of their own and hit a sunset flip on Rose for the pin. The second fall devolved into more of a slugfest and despite being on the ropes somewhat the heels were able to get a double team Heart Punch to equalise. Regal missed a running knee into the corner and Stasiak (with some help from Rose) grabbed a Boston Crab for the win and the titles, or so they thought. Firstly, the finish was fine, Rose seemed a bit caught out of position, but applied enough of a push to get across the idea that he was providing extra leverage to Stasiak’s Boston Crab. Felt a bit weak for Regal to be submitting so close to his title match against Rose the following Tuesday though. And then they pulled the reverse decision card which I thought was a real cop-out. Sandy Barr heard voices from the crowd and the complaints from Borne and reversed the decision and handed back the belts to Regal and Borne. When it’s a huge match and the offense committed is grievous then there's a time and a place for this kind of thing, but here it just felt cheap and self serving for the faces to get the belts back in such a manner. So I wasn't a fan of that. Secondly, I can’t really point to anything specific, but Borne and Regal just don’t pop, like at all, as the crowd pleasing faces of the territory. I guess when your biggest point of comparison is Martel and Piper then almost anybody is going to fall short but still, I wish they stirred up a bit more in me. This was really, really solid, I just don’t think this is something I’d ever feel the need to revisit. 1981-10-04 MLW Sgt. Slaughter (c) vs. Jay Youngblood NWA United States Heavyweight Title Match Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Card ★★ Did a bit of research and it seems like Slaughter had just won the US Title. And by recently, I mean on the same day, winning a tournament for the vacant title down in the Carolinas. This wasn’t a long match, lasting just over 10 minutes., which hamstrung them a bit from having a real barnburner. Youngblood had a lengthy shine to start, lots of arm drags and backdrops to make Slaughter look the fool. This was brisk and full of energy but a bit one note and I wish Youngblood had been able to pull something out the bag that was slightly more interesting. This only got good when they transitioned to the heat and Slaughter was finally able to get some offense in. This allowed Youngblood to do what he does best, sell, and for Slaughter, to be a mean bastard. Again, there wasn’t much time to work with, so this wasn’t mind altering stuff, but he capped off a nice sequence with a killer clothesline and the Cobra Clutch to, surprisingly, get a decisive and clean victory over Youngblood to retain the title. 1981-10-04 AWA Hulk Hogan vs. Jerry Blackwell Minneapolis Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Card ★ This just never got going how you’d want. This is the first house show match I’ve seen from Hogan since he made the switch, and maybe it was because he was working face here, but there was no forward motion at all. The narrative of the match revolved around Hogan wanting to bodyslam Blackwell, and apart from teasing a slam right at the start, it bore no impact on the match until right at the end when two body slams kind of came out of nowhere because it was time to go home. There were flashes that Hogan was learning, and quickly, how to garner that famous crowd reaction, and he received incredible responses for those body slams, but much like most of ‘80 where he was learning how to properly work as a heel, it looks like there’ll be an adjustment period as he does the same for the other side of the coin.

1981-09-29 Joint Promotions Mark Rocco vs. Chris Adams Croydon, London, United Kingdom ★★★★ Mark Rocco is the new World’s Middleweight Champion, upgrading from his usual regional championship, but he was still up against a lightweight here in Chris Adams, which almost made him the underdog, a relatively novel dynamic for a Rocco match. Usually in catchweight matches the larger man is of lesser standing, but Adams was an established name, returning from a foray over the Atlantic in the States, so it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that he’d just roll over. Real fast energy and intensity right from the opening bell and then in the second round they pivoted into one of my favourite narrative choices, the limb injury. Adams whiffed on an arm drag and yanked his arm in the process and Rocco was like a shark who had smelt blood and was on it in a flash. He almost gleefully tore into the arm and it couldn’t have been more than 30 seconds before he succeeded in drawing a submission out of Adams. Adams demonstrated throughout this match that he was more than the superkick monkey he had been before his departure to the States. He was great at prolonged selling here, mostly on the arm, but they transitioned to a leg injury later on which he got across just as adeptly. Rocco was savage on the leg, just as he’d been on the arm, and I love love loved how he used the ropes as a weapon, just dumping Adams with reckless abandon again and again for some really nasty looking bumps. Just as I was thinking that a criticism that could be levied against Rocco is that he relies on his opponent’s selling and his own rule breaking to generate drama most of the time, Adams dumped him on his head to level things up, and coming out of the round break, Rocco looked like a spent force. More than I can recall he really looked to be on the ropes and it was his selling that drove the narrative in a really cool way. Adams tried for a backdrop but Rocco managed to kick off the ropes and Adams landed badly on his head, leading to the finish as he wasn’t able to beat the count. A pretty flat finish for such a hot match. Yes, it could probably be described as a 1981 version of a spotfest, but it had grit and it had purpose, with a better finish it could have been pretty fantastic.

1981-09-24 AWA Tito Santana vs. Billy Robinson Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Card The version I watched was joined in progress at the halfway mark, around 10 minutes in and things had already heated up. Tito footage has been sparse to say the least and when he has popped up he’s shown only flashes of what he could be. This here felt like the first time Tito was “TITO SANTANA”, mixing fiery intensity with crisp execution. Robinson, not that it needs to be said, was no slouch here either and the first five minutes of this was excellent. As they circled around and headed towards the time limit draw it was a curious decision to go back to the mat and slow the pace down, which I felt took the sting out of things. There’s just something about a draw that throws wrestlers out of whack it seems. 1981-09-25 Houston Wrestling The Junkyard Dog & Tiger Conway Jr. vs. The Dynamic Duo (Gino Hernandez & Tully Blanchard) Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA Card ★★★ It would be an understatement to say that JYD was popular. There were absolute scenes during his entrance with fans pushed up against the apron just to get close to him. This had the classic formula of the heels pinballing around for the faces to start before gaining an advantage, applying the heat then transitioning to the finish. Gino and Tully were exceptional at the pinballing part, making Conway and JYD look formidable with their reactions to merely being in the wrong corner near them. Gino broke out a new faux-boxing routine I’ve not seen from him before but it ended up being a fun little sequence with Conway outclassing him entirely and Gino looking the fool. When the heels did finally make some inroads, they did a great job of cutting Conway off from JYD, working at least two great missed tag spots where, with the referees distracted, they missed JYD tagging in and thus blocked him from getting in, then we got a surprise appearance from Nick Bockwinkel, who temporarily took JYD out of the picture, which only put Conway deeper in the hole. Obviously this all led to the inevitable JYD hot tag and he took both members of the Dynamic Duo out in due course before grabbing the pin on Tully. The referees didn’t seem to care that Tully wasn’t in fact the legal man and JYD had in fact tugged him into the ring from the apron and no tag had been made. I haven’t mentioned much specifically about what Conway or JYD brought to the table here, and that’s because while I thought they were perfectly fine, it certainly felt like a heel led match with Gino and Tully being the driving forces. Conway was the workhorse for his team, and he was a pretty decent FIP, but JYD hit a couple powerslams early, did the hot tag finish and otherwise just chilled on the apron for the whole match.

I wonder if the AWA thought they had a molten heel on their hand who they wanted to shunt into the main event, but they weren't prepared to take the belt off Bock yet, so instead they tried to thread the needle, almost running heel vs heel. Do we know how successful this feud was relative to the other main event ones in the AWA around the same time?

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1981-09-19 PNW Buddy Rose, Kim Song & Stan Stasiak vs. King Parsons, Matt Borne & Steve Regal Best Two Out Of Three Falls Six Man Tag Team Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★★ This falls short of being great just on the account of the face team being a bit bland and not really holding up their end. Rose, Song and Stasiak were all absolutely killer here, whether taking it to the faces or eating shit in return, it certainly felt like it was their actions that were driving the whole thing. The heels controlled much of the first fall - and a great fucking fall it was - until they botched the finish somewhat when Stasiak, Borne and Regal all got their wires crossed but eventually a double team body slam anticlimactically put Stasiak away. Stasiak was the workhorse in this fall and I’m beginning to grow a soft spot for him. He’s older here and his timing can be off sometimes, but he’s so damn expressive, obviously his punches look great, he still bumped around so dynamically for a man his size, just such a fun wrestler to watch. The heels controlled most of the second fall as well, this time with Song and Rose getting more time to shine. Whereas Song looked a little lost in his debut, being slotted into a team of three this time relieved him of some more responsibility and allowed him to just focus on what he did well. Nice looking strikes, fun expressive stooging and bumping, he displayed some surprising athleticism as well, including a standing flip out of a backdrop, and most importantly his timing was on point throughout, hitting all the spots to eke the most out of the faces comeback spots. Rose often seems to take a backseat more and more in these tags, allowing his partners to take the bulk of the matches, but he’ll always have a moment or two. Here he had a fantastic sequence where he cartwheeled away from Regal to avoid a move and he was more than pleased with it, going over to his corner to get over the top high fives from his partners, only to immediately end up in the wrong corner eating knuckles as a reward for his lack of hubris. It was fun to see the cocky and overconfident Rose rather than just the cowardly version. A triple team Stasiak heart punch to Regal secured the equalising fall which directly led into the finish to the whole match, They started with Regal still in the back, raising the question of whether he was injured, but he returned with both of his fists taped, a la Stasiak and went to town on him to the point of running him all the way back to the dressing leading to the double countout finish, which I didn’t mind at all considering the circumstances. Regal, Borne and Parsons all seemed like they could have been replaced and it wouldn’t have made a difference, but despite that this was still an absolute blast which is a testament to Rose’s team. 1981-09-21 WWF - MSG Network Bob Backlund (c) vs. The Magnificent Muraco WWF Heavyweight Title Texas Death Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA Card ★★ I could see how someone could come away thinking this was really good but it just didn’t hit the right notes for me. You could break this up into three distinct chapters: Muraco being a dick opening, Backlund working the arm and controlling Muraco in the middle, and a hot stretch at the end with Muraco teetering on the edge of victory, with each having standout moments, but overall this match was just too damn long for what it was. Backlund veered from great work on the arm to just sitting in an ambar sucking the energy out of the bout. Being a WWF style Texas Death match I never expected this to be a blood filled brawl, but I wish they’d pushed the bout out a bit more on the violence. This felt much more like a really strong opening match in a series than the middle or end of a feud. 1981-09-23 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 29 Tatsumi Fujinami (c) vs. El Solitario WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match Denen Coliseum, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ All very gentlemanly and sporting as they went through the perfunctory opening mat exchange portion of the match. As per usual this was fine but, as often happens in New Japan matches, these sections just bleed into one another and are rarely memorable. Watching side by side with World of Sport for example the matwork just doesn’t pop as much. Once Solitario went off script and got a bit rougher this picked up. He smashed Fujinami into the steel railings to get the blood flowing a bit but by that point they’d already transitioned to the finishing stretch. This stretch was great though. Solitario hit a lovely plancha and tried to follow up with a crossbody off the second rope, but even as he was going for it you could tell they’d got their wires crossed and Fujinami went for a dropkick counter and ended up potato-ing Solitario right in the face. They quickly recovered though as Fujinami managed to nail one of his best Dragon Rocket’s in a while and finished Solitario off with a brainbuster from the apron into the ring. I really wish they’d extended the finish by about 4-5 minutes, because that was when the match really started to roll and had some character. The opening was just too much colouring within the lines and was bland and forgettable for it. 1981-09-23 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 29 Stan Hansen vs. Andre The Giant Denen Coliseum, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★★ ¾ For years this has always been a match that failed to resonate with me as much as I thought it should. I knew its broad reputation but it never connected to me on that level for whatever reason. If there ever was going to be a time where I would have some sort of revelation on this match it would be now, after watching a bunch of Andre and seriously turning the corner on him. And wouldn’t you know it? That’s exactly what happened! I even had to watch this twice just to make sure. I’m not sure it's worth running through the particulars of the match as I’m sure many others have done it to a far better level than I could, but the classic description of this match as a clash of titans really holds true. Absolutely exquisite selling from the both of them fully got across the power each man was capable of wielding. This was a fantastic match before the countout finish, and the decision to restart just escalated the drama tenfold. I loved Andre grabbing the referee and shepherding him over to Skaaland in the corner to cajole him into the restart. He just dwarfed the man but he still somehow came across like a child getting his parent to talk to his teacher for him. Everybody’s heard about the “Andre donning the elbow pad” sequence, and it delivers in spades all the way up until the referee gets decked right out of his shoes. I can’t fault the finish, I just wish that Andre had somehow managed to get in a Lariat on Hansen while wearing the pad at some point during the melee.