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SAMS

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  1. SAMS
    1981-05-30 PNW Buddy Rose vs. Tony Borne Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon. USA Card ★ It’s been a while since any Portland footage popped up, but the gist was that Rose was in the middle of a feud with Matt Borne, and somehow had ended up in this match with his dad, Tough Tony. Tony was a squat little man, he had that rugged look of a man who might have worked in a mine or on the docks, I’m not sure how old he was but it was clear he was pretty limited by this point and his offense consisted mostly of punches straight into the midsection. Having said that, those punches looked pretty damn good. I just couldn’t get behind how they decided to deliver the structure of this match, Rose gave Borne essentially the entire first half of the match, but instead of him being over-confident or arrogant and making a mistake, or even just presenting it like he had underestimated his opponent, Borne just took over from the start and began working Rose’s arm, punching him in the stomach and Rose bumped around like a madman for him. I can only imagine Rose saw what he was working with and thought that the only way to get the match over was to selflessly show ass, but I couldn’t get my head around Rose being handled so easily by this old man. Once Rose finally started to get serious and take control things made a lot more sense, but it didn’t really improve the match much. As limited as Tony was on offense he was more limited in the bumping and selling department. I really liked the fact that once Rose had clearly put Tony away he wouldn’t pin him and continued to dish out the punishment, what I didn’t like was that that earned him a DQ. Sandy Barr should have called the match then and there as a TKO or something, but I guess Northwestern sportsmanship felt otherwise.
  2. SAMS
    1981-05-29 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 20 Hulk Hogan & Stan Hansen vs. Bob Backlund & Dusty Rhodes Civic Culture Center, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan Card ★★ The Hogan & Hansen vs Dusty & Partner matches continue to disappoint. This was never bad per se, and with the talent available you wouldn’t expect it to be, but they just can’t seem to find that magic formula to make any of it really pop. Dusty continues to befuddle me in Japan and any Hansen/Backlund matchup felt like watching a car crash you couldn’t avert your eyes from. Working in WWF Hansen would adjust just a touch to accommodate for how they booked Backlund, but back in Japan Hansen was the boss and Backlund just didn’t seem to get the memo. In my head I read it as him thinking, “Hey I’m the WWF Champion, I’m the most important guy in this match, I should be the one looking strong”. This resulted in a lot of exchanges where neither Hansen or Backlund would cede the advantage and ultimately things went nowhere. You might as well get action figures and smash them into each other. It didn’t help that we got another lazy countout finish. Just another night on tour I guess. 1981-05-29 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 20 Antonio Inoki vs. Tiger Jeet Singh MSG Series 1981 Match Civic Culture Center, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan Card ★★ Singh had been causing havoc all evening. He bloodied up Fujinami before his match with Chris Adams and Inoki had been caught in the crossfire as well, so he came to the ring all patched up. This had a really cool opening where Singh was literally being restrained in the corner by the other wrestlers and Inoki was crouched down opposite poised to pounce once the bell rang. It gave it this big event, mighty showdown vibe. Unfortunately this was a Singh vs Inoki match and neither man was ever afraid of lying around in a hold on the mat. I find this even more frustrating with Singh considering his gimmick. He throws in a choke here and there to stay honest, but mostly it seems like his whole shtick falls apart as soon as he actually begins to wrestle. Inoki pulled out the big moves when required, which was just enough to keep it interesting. He gets a lot of grief for his Enzuigiri insta-kills, but it does feel like the great equaliser, and when he times it correctly it comes across like a wow moment in a match. This ended in a slightly more forgivable double countout, but a double countout nonetheless.
  3. SAMS
    1981-05-26 CWA Kevin Sullivan & Wayne Farris (c) vs. Bill Dundee & Dream Machine AWA Southern Tag Team Title Match Louisville Gardens, Louisville, Kentucky, USA Card The footage joins this in progress and I’m not sure how far long the match already was, but this was great for two reasons. One, it was another example of Dundee’s excellent selling and ability to take a beating in a compelling manner, and two, the unbridled chaos that was the finish. The majority of the actual match was Sullivan and Ferris just destroying Dundee, who at this point has got to be one of my favourite guys to watch just get his ass handed to him. The way he would take a punch and just die on his feet to me was just perfect, but he would never forget to sprinkle in those little feisty stretches where he tried to make a comeback or make it for the tag just to keep things competitive. In the end Hart got a little over-zealous and got caught using the cane to trigger the DQ. With the match lost and finished with, it seemed like he said, fuck it, and they leant straight into the the numbers advantage to beat down on the faces. Lawler ran in to make the save, but he was shortly followed by both the Nightmares, then finally Mantell arrived and we just had complete bedlam with all the guys spilling out of the ring onto the arena floor and even into the upper row seating. 1981-05-29 AJPW - Super Power Series 1981 - Day 6 Jimmy Snuka & The Destroyer vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Ricky Steamboat Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match Omiya Skate Center, Omiya, Saitama, Japan Card ★★★ This was a ton of fun. The main throughline from a narrative perspective was the simmering feud of Steamboat and Snuka. Stylistically they seem like opposite sides of the same coin, both big, dynamic bumpers with similar style offense. I enjoy them as a pair of opponents for each other. Jumbo was solid, but he purposely played more of a support role for Steamboat to facilitate the story they wanted to focus on and Destroyer did the same for his team. Speaking of the Destroyer, he was around 51 at this point and wow, he still could really go. Everything he did in there was on point, crisp, his timing was excellent, he still had very good athleticism. He must be on the shortlist of best ever wrestlers over 50? A real sneaky standout performance from him here. Steamboat vs Snuka ate up a large chunk of the first fall, Steamboat dominated with exuberant arm drags. Destroyer got the tag to save his partner but he was similarly controlled and Jumbo came in to close it out with a piledriver. The second flipped the script and the heels targeted Jumbo’s leg expertly, brutalising it until the moment came to go for the kill and Destroyer locked on a figure four, wouldn’t relent, and Jumbo was forced to submit. Fun final stanza with an uptick in action but wouldn’t you know it, we had a double countout finish! Is there an example where a wrestler hopping up onto the top rope, latching a body scissors on their opponent, flipping backwards and dragging both over the ropes to the outside doesn’t immediately end up in a countout? All Japan was very fond of this finish at this time and they choreographed this a mile away. Pretty lazy way to round off a pretty great match.
  4. SAMS
    1981-05-21 AJW Devil Masami vs. Ayumi Hori Japan ★★ In a big picture sense this was a bit of a nothing match that hovered along until suddenly we were at the 20 minute time limit and I was left kind of wondering what happened. But delving into the details, while Hori was perfectly adequate she was ultimately forgettable, but Masami really imprinted herself all over this match, excelling at the fringes in ways I like - great facial expressions, exuding character, the small acts and movements to keep things ticking along nicely during down time from the real “action”. In terms of actual wrestling and wrestling moves this was kind of just there, but another strong evolution in Masami as a worker I feel, just needed a bit more focus to drive the match forward. 1981-05-26 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 17 Hulk Hogan & Stan Hansen vs. Antonio Inoki & Dusty Rhodes Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan Card ★★ I quite like the tandem of Hogan and Hansen here. Hogan with a beard always made him look a bit edgier than when he was rocking just the moustache. However, just like when he teamed with Backlund, Antonio teaming with Dusty just feels off. It seems far more natural for him to be with Fujinami, Choshu or Sakaguchi instead. The heels started strongly, throwing their weight around until they decided to work Dusty over using a nerve hold on his shoulder, then the match ground to a halt somewhat. Dusty showed some fire later on but it was all moot after Singh arrived on the scene with his sword, attacked Dusty, who furiously started blading his arm, and Singh inadvertently caught Hogan with a wayward swipe that he was none too pleased about, so perhaps a face turn was on the cards? For this match though it ended in a no-contest with Singh and Hansen wading through the crowd, Dusty crumpled in the corner in a pool of his blood and Inoki in his own world, strutting around the ring, triumphant as always.
  5. SAMS
    1981-05-16 IWE - Big Challenge Series - Day 17 Paul Ellering & Terry Lathan (c) vs. Ashura Hara & Mighty Inoue IWA World Tag Team Title Steel Cage Match Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ It took all of 30 seconds for Hara to start bleeding. Lathan soon followed and by the time Inoue turned the tables on Ellering and used his foreign object against him, all four men were busted open. I didn’t really love anything the champions did, and Lathan in particular was quite poor overall, but Hara and Inoue had enough strong moments on offense and displayed the fire needed to get the crowd really behind them for the finish. Ellering and Lathan working on top was a bit dry at times but the action never dragged and there was enough chaos to lift this up into the “good” category. More specifically the finish, where Inoue took Ellering’s foreign object, used it against him to draw blood, then suddenly the second rope exploded, Ellering ended up getting essentially strangled in the middle of the ring. After a minute or so he was flapping around like a dead fish, eyes glazed over, his tongue hanging out of his mouth and the referee was forced to make the call. The final few minutes really pushed this over the top for me as things descended into absolute mayhem and there was a real sense that they were vanquishing these foreign outsiders. A strong example of how satisfying a decisive blowoff can be. 1981-05-16 IWE - Big Challenge Series - Day 17 Rusher Kimura (c) vs. Steve Olsonoski IWA World Heavyweight Title Match Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ I really liked the way they started this, Kimura grabbed a headlock and really wrenched it. Steve tried to dive to the ropes, but he got yanked back in. He managed to get back to the ropes a second time, and even escaped to the outside, but still the headlock was tightly applied. He struggled around the entire circumference of the ring before heading back in, but the whole while Kimura wouldn’t relent and the headlock remained locked on. The eventual backdrop that dislodged Kimura felt like a big deal because of all the buildup. It was a shame that Steve O basically shrugged all of this off immediately and they transitioned into some pretty meh matwork afterwards. Kimura had moments where he really rocked Steve, and Steve sold accordingly, but Kimura just wasn’t bothered or wasn’t quick enough to capitalise and these cool, exciting moments quickly dissipated. Everything they did was solid and competent, but missing those opportunities to really go for something special passed them by and I was almost surprised by how quickly the finish came (despite the match lasting 17 minutes in total). Kimura locked on a figure four and Steve O simply just gave up. In the end it just felt like a rudimentary title defense for Kimura.
  6. SAMS
    1981-05-14 AWA Tito Santana vs. Sheik Adnan Al-Kassie Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Card ★ Some lame brawling from Adnan and Tito, who outside of a few wistful hope spots, just took the beating. This was one of those classic situations where the referee was incompetent, let the heel get away with far too much, and by the time they actually try and intervene, the babyface has seen red and you can just see a mile off that we’re heading for a DQ finish or a no contest. That’s what happened here and it didn’t feel organic or natural, and the action was nowhere near wild enough to warrant such a finish. 1981-05-14 AWA Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens vs. The High Flyers (Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell) AWA World Tag Team Title #1 Contendership Match Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Card ★★ I couldn’t really point to anything Greg did here that was worthwhile. Stevens’ best contribution was when he choked Brunzell with the tag rope, but anything glowingly positive stopped as soon as he actually stepped through the ropes. Brunzell was solid, but everything good about this match stemmed from Bockwinkel. In the early part, Greg and Stevens lay around on the mat doing absolutely nothing, and I mean NOTHING, so Brunzell and Bockwinkel took it upon themselves to have a little sideshow with Bock getting caught teetering on the ropes. I loved Brunzell accidentally ending up in the wrong corner and Bock kind of lured him by reaching out to him out for a tag that would never come, and then sucker punching him once he’d been reeled in. Nothing mindblowing but there were tons of these little moments sprinkled throughout. They built to the finish pretty well and in the end Brunzell went on a rampage and delivered his killer dropkicks and picked up the win. While Brunzell had a great dropkick against anybody, Bockwinkel is spectacular at feeding for them, even making some of Greg’s attempts look weighty. I was shocked though that it was Bock who ate the pin and not Stevens. With Verne retiring, the world title belt would soon be passed to him (within the week actually), so it’s an odd decision. This never would have happened in Japan for example.
  7. SAMS
    1981-05-12 Joint Promotions Jim Breaks vs. Steve Grey Croydon, London, United Kingdom ★★★★ This is a perfect example of Breaks doing what he did best - being a right shit cunt. We all know he wasn’t shy to bend the rules, but here he layered on some fantastic stalling to save himself in the third, frustrating Grey no end and riled up the crowd something fierce. Both men furiously targeted their opponent’s arm, but Breaks likely had the better of it throughout. By the end Grey looked like his limb was about to drop off with some excellent arm selling, which itself mirrored Breaks’ excellent verbal selling earlier in the bout. The main hook here was Grey getting annoyed and upping the intensity, moving away from his usual calm, technically focused approach, but Breaks dug into his bag of tricks to stymie him at every turn. While this did a great job of highlighting Breaks’ strengths, I do wish that Grey had been given more opportunity to have a strong run at Breaks or at least an extended shine leading into the initial fall, however Grey just seemed to snatched the first fall a bit out of nowhere, which I feel lessened the impact of him taking the lead in the first place. Ultimately the damage to Grey’s arm was too much to overcome and Breaks was able to apply the Breaks Special in successive rounds for the victory. Breaks shit talking the champion after the match was great for keeping the heat going for a future matchup but I think this individual match would have been better served if Grey had been booked a smidge stronger. 1981-05-12 Joint Promotions Pat Roach vs. Pete Roberts Croydon, London, United Kingdom ★★ Roach was leaning more and more into using his large frame as a useful tool, rather than wrestling like all the smaller guys on the circuit. He really seemed to be developing a strong big man persona while still being able to give to his opponent and allow them to get their stuff in without it feeling unearned. He basically bullied Roberts here for the most part, slipped on a banana peel and allowed Roberts to equalise with a cheeky cradle, but I think we were robbed of an emphatic Roach finish when Roberts injured his back, another in a long line of slightly underwhelming injury finishes in WoS.
  8. SAMS
    1981-05-10 NWA St. Louis - Wrestling At The Chase Ric Flair vs. Pat O'Connor Chase Park Plaza Hotel, St. Louis, Missouri, USA Card ★★★ Looks like Flair and DiBiase were on a collision course to fight it out for the No. 1 contendership for Race’s World Title. With that being said, a win here could have catapulted O’Connor right into the mix as well. Lovely little TV match here, went about 12 minutes but they cut a quick pace, which I would probably attribute to Flair, but what really pushed this up a notch was the technical capabilities on display of O’Connor. Not too surprising that a former World Champion was technically excellent, but coming up to 57 years old he was even older than Verne Gagne, and he certainly still had it. Beautiful snap suplexes, reversals and generally keeping things ticking along and never he never stuck in a sequence too long, and generally gave a brilliant mini-demonstration of that older style. They may have telegraphed the transition to the outside a little too blatantly for my taste, the same for Flair catching O’Connor and smashing his leg against the ring post, but they finished things hot, for a countout finish, with Flair being busted open from a succession of punches to the face, and while O’Connor had staved Flair off his softened up leg for a few minutes, Flair was on it like a hound when they ended up on the outside and this put O’Connor down long enough for Flair to casually take the countout victory. 1981-05-12 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 4 Tiger Mask vs. Chris Adams Civic Gymnasium, Natori, Miyagi, Japan Card I’m not sure whether it’s because they’d worked together before in the UK or if it was just a more natural overlap in style, but this was one of the more technically sound Tiger Mask matches so far. By that I mean the execution of moves was almost 100% and the timing from both parties were on point, enough to practically eliminate any awkward spots or botches. Adams decided that his best approach would be to match Mask’s offense with bombs of his own and unleashed his full arsenal. This resulted in a pretty fun little 5 minute match with a lot of action. In the grand scheme of things it was pretty inconsequential but I thought both guys came out of this looking pretty good. Tiger Mask won with a roll up however he still was able to whiff on the bridge he clearly intended.
  9. SAMS
    1981-05-09 CWA - Memphis Championship Wrestling TV Dutch Mantell (c) vs. Kevin Sullivan CWA Television Title Match WMC Studios, Memphis, Tennessee, USA Card ★★ Solid TV match from both these guys. It just never rose above that. Sullivan and Hart’s strategy was to goad Mantell into making a mistake, primarily with open handed slaps to the face. If this had really escalated then they could have wrung something really special here but things came off the boil and I was honestly expecting a time limit draw here. In the end Hart got up on the apron to cause a distraction and Sullivan got the roll up for the win, which felt cheap, but I guess that was the point. I’m also starting to consider whether Mantell lost a little something when he turned face. Something to look out for in the future but his aura, what I almost think of as werewolf energy, seemed a tad diminished when he flipped to become a good guy. 1981-05-10 AWA Larry Hennig vs. Adrian Adonis St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA Card What a load of fun this was to watch. I’m really a big fan of Adonis, at least of the early 80s stuff that I’ve seen before. He was able to make anybody look fantastic on offense, but here I’m not sure it was even necessary. Larry Hennig may have been a bit over the hill, but he was still big, with ham hocks for hands, and he didn’t look like a stiff in the slightest. If anybody inferred that he was a solid to good worker back in his day I could easily get on board with that. This was joined in progress, so we didn’t get all of this and what we do have only went 6 minutes, but it was mostly Adonis getting pummelled, cutting corners and getting some sick offense in of his own, only to get absolutely overpowered on the apron, smashed repeatedly into the corners and generally pounded into oblivion. But he pulled it out of the bag with a foreign object in the elbow pad and really, there was nothing to fault here. 1981-05-10 AWA Verne Gagne (c) vs. Nick Bockwinkel AWA World Heavyweight Title No Disqualification Match St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA Card ★★ This was Verne’s last title defense and actually his retirement match. His goal, to leave the sport on top in a manner nobody had done previously. This gets a boost for the occasion and the historical significance, and while the work was fine, it’s good, it’s serviceable, I did find it quite dull. This only went 15 minutes but they played it like they were going 45. A heavy emphasis on arm holds to start with both men having significant periods where they were in control. Bockwinkel’s bumping throughout the match was probably the standout characteristic. Eventually we came down to a battle of the sleepers. Verne locked on his famous Gagne Sleeper but Bockwinkel managed to counter and lock on a version of his own. This could have been lights for Gagne but he dug deep and managed to haul Bock into the air for a back body drop and that was enough to seal it.
  10. SAMS
    1981-05-08 ICW Randy Savage vs. Ronnie Garvin Steel Cage Match Cape Arena Building, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, USA ★★★ Card I’m kind of on the fence in terms of how I felt about this. In regards to the actual work, aspects like how liberally they used rope breaks or the referee signalling for 5 counts, just didn’t make sense to me considering the stipulation. But more damaging I think was Lanny Poffo’s commentary. If I’d watched this sans-commentary, or just on mute, I’m pretty sure I would have come away with a far greater appreciation of the match. His delivery was just so deadpan and emotionless that it projected that the action in the ring was also dull and uninteresting, when really they could have been blowing the roof off the place. I can see how somebody could enjoy the opening struggle, because a struggle it was, but I would have appreciated less angling for pins this early in the match and more focus on actually breaking down their opponent. As the match wore on though the fatigue and accumulated damage really came through and both men were excellent at selling, with Garvin’s staggered bumping being a particular highlight. Savage showed flashes of his athleticism, scampering across the mat for a desperation pin attempt ust one great example, but I wish he’d come through with a bit more volume of offense here. The finish was really fantastic though, Garvin got caught on the top rope, crotched himself on the turnbuckle then fell forwards into a piledriver, a piledriver they’d teased all match and he’d frantically avoided. Ultimately though, this ended up being the kill shot. 1981-05-09 AJW Devil Masami vs. Tomoko Kitamura All Japan Title Match (vacant) Omiya, Saitama, Japan ★★★ Masami was such a details wrestler, and this was elevated due to most of it being shot from ringside and getting those close ups of her face throughout. I believe that Kitamura was the Juniors champion at this point, so she was clearly in the midst of a push, but she came across so much better here than when I’d seen her last and I’d err on the side of saying that Masami did a great job of making Kitamura come across like a big deal here. When Kitamura locked on any kind of hold, like a body scissors and especially the figure four late on, Masami did an unparalleled job of projecting pain, which isn’t something I think a lot of wrestlers do well actually. Her grimacing in agony really made me feel like Kitamura had a chance here and thoroughly added to the drama. I liked the mat work at the beginning, even if it wasn’t anything overly flashy or exceptional, and once Masami transitioned to the heat, she was just so good at bending the rules and interacting with the referee, indicating how she was “just” using the ropes or “just” using her hands on an eye gouge. Nothing better than a competent, intelligent heel. It’s a shame that the finish was so lame, with Masami getting a cradle of sorts and the referee counting to three despite Kitamura’s shoulder being so clearly up off the mat, even from the count of one. But I did appreciate the display of emotion from Masami as she received the belt, tears welling up in her eyes, it almost made you forget that she was a heel. Really solid performances all round and certainly what I’d call a good match. 1981-05-09 AJW Hitomi Okumura, Mimi Hagiwara & Nancy Kumi vs. La Briosa, La Bruja & Betty Clark Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match Omiya, Saitama, Japan ★ This was just trash. Betty Clark was perhaps one of the worst wrestlers I’ve seen pop up for the entirety of 1981, her strikes were honest to God some of the absolute shittest stuff I’ve seen. Her tag partners weren’t much better to be fair, giving the heel team a grand total of zero competent workers. What made it all the worse is that we once again were lumped with a heel referee. By actively working against the faces they directed all the heat towards the referee (and perhaps the promotion) instead of on the heels. They were pretty much inconsequential and you could have swapped them out with literally any generic heel group under masks and it wouldn’t have made an iota of difference. I think the way that they put obstacles in front of their faces is honestly such a hindrance to the AJW style in the early 80s and I hope they pivot away from this sooner rather than later. We saw in the Masami/Kitamura match from earlier on this same show that, left to their own devices, these women could go, but they keep getting chopped off at the knees. Really frustrating. 1981-05-09 AJW Rimi Yokota (c) vs. Peggy Lee WWWA World Title Match Omiya, Saitama, Japan ★ No matter how good Yokota was individually at this stage, she clearly wasn’t quite good enough to take somebody as useless as Peggy Lee and drag her to even a decent, let alone a good, match. She tried to up the selling to generate sympathy but unfortunately Peggy Lee’s offense was about as lacklustre as Betty Clark’s (who also happened to be at ringside). Literally nothing she did looked like it was consequential at all so Yokota might as well have been wrestling a broomstick. At the finish Clark handed Lee a spanner or a wrench, which she flailed at Yokota a few times without being able to connect. Yokota got her up for a nice looking tombstone piledriver and that was it. Shockingly, despite winning the title back in February, this was only her first title defence.
  11. SAMS
    I totally second the endorsement of this. For my money it was the first truly great 80s match of the Houston footage, and an excellent showing from both guys. Dory's blank steeliness was perfect for how they worked this.
  12. SAMS
    1981-05-04 CWA Jerry Lawler vs. Jerry Blackwell Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee, USA ★★★ Card Loaded the footage up, match started rolling and BAM Jerry Blackwell, all 470 ish pounds of him, was airborne and hit a picture perfect standing dropkick right in Lawler’s mug. What a way to start a match. This isn’t something to watch when you’re looking for a deep narrative story or interesting strategy, this was Blackwell beating up on Lawler, Lawler getting in a hope spot or two, Blackwell cutting him off, rinse and repeat a few times before the final, real comeback where Blackwell missed a splash and Lawler grabbed the pin. What you DO come to this match to see is two guys with fantastic punches just wailing on each other and both selling said punches to an absolute tee. Blackwell in particular had a whole arsenal of moves that looked killer, and I know this is nothing new to anybody already familiar with Blackwell, but what a sight to see him move about the ring, especially during those early moments. Hot damn. 1981-05-08 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 1 Sgt. Slaughter vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara City Gymnasium, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan ★ Card Only 5 minutes long and essentially a Slaughter squash, but I don’t think this worked at all - the styles of the two men clashed like oil and water. Fujiwara seemed insistent on trying to grapple with Slaughter and Slaughter looked like he wasn’t interested in the slightest. By the end of this Fujiwara was throwing some weak punches into Slaughter’s midriff and he was just straight up no-selling them looking bored by the whole thing and it felt like a mercy when he finally applied the Cobra Clutch and put Fujiwara out of his misery. 1981-05-08 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 1 Tiger Mask vs. Black Cat City Gymnasium, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan ★ Card I could have watched these two smash themselves into each other all day. Does that mean that this was good? Not at all. They crammed more botches into a measly 5 minutes stretch than I care to recall, but it was perversely enjoyable to watch Tiger Mask try, again and again, moves that clearly he wasn’t even 70% likely to pull off, but go for them anyway. It really felt like avant garde wrestling, but you know, when avant garde is really just code for weird and not very good. 1981-05-08 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 1 Antonio Inoki & Riki Choshu vs. Bobby Duncum & Stan Hansen Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match City Gymnasium, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan Card Hansen felt like he was really motivated here. He was eager to take any opportunity to get his hands on Inoki, literally running around the ring at one point to get some shots in on him when he fell to the floor outside. In return, Inoki and Choshu’s strategy was to target Duncum. They couldn’t have their way with Hansen but they certainly seemed to have no problems with Duncum, easily cutting off any of his attempts at offense and working over his leg pretty strongly. I wouldn’t have expected him to be such a weak link here but there clearly was a hierarchy and he was a solid notch below Choshu in it. This would have been much better if Duncum had been motivated to actually sell the leg work some, as he just kind of made his way over and tagged out when he could and he never projected that he was in any real kind of a bind. Eventually at the end of the first fall we got the Inoki/Hansen collision and Hansen was almost moving double speed, button mashing his offense and looking to swarm Inoki, who’s only recourse was to bail from the ring. This resulted in the usual double count out whatever-ness, but a decent first fall. Unfortunately the footage started showing the listings for the upcoming cards and the show seemed to end just as the following fall was about to begin, so that’s all I got for this. I like what I saw of Choshu, less so from Duncum, but Inoki and Hansen both brought the intensity. If this is a sign of what’s to come between them then we’re in for good things.
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    1981-05-04 WWF - MSG Network Bob Backlund (c) vs. Angelo Mosca WWF Heavyweight Title Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★ Card This felt like it was going to be a run of the mill victory for Backlund. That kind of match in basketball where the champions come in, they’re down by 5 after the first quarter, but end up winning comfortably by 10. Backlund definitely exuded that certain champion quality (I know that kind of is a redundant thing to say after being 3 years as champion), so in that sense this was successful, but neither he nor Mosca did anything that would make me want to watch any kind of rematch. How they set up any such potential future collision left a lot to be desired as well, with the finish that Backlund went for a forearm and missed, inadvertently nailed the referee instead, resulting in a DQ for Mosca, but obviously the title wouldn’t change hands. Felt very weak to me, and if I were a paying customer another Backlund/Mosca match at MSG would be an event I would be inclined to skip. 1981-05-04 WWF - MSG Network Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter Alley Street Fight Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★★★ ¼ Card This went 15 minutes in total and, broken down into thirds, consisted of a very good start, a somewhat pedestrian middle, and a masterpiece of a finish. I loved Patterson’s fire right from the off. As soon as Slaughter was up on the apron he took the fight to him. He didn’t hesitate to up the ante either, pulling off his belt, laying those first nasty lashes right onto Slaughter’s back and then right in his face. My issue with Patterson here is that he was too easy to then ease off the gas and by the time Slaughter turned the tables and got some heat the match was really yearning for that transition. Slaughter’s attacks were mean and gritty, using Patterson’s belt against him, he ripped off that famous I Love NY shirt and used it to choke Pat in front of thousands of New Yorkers. The middle was a real lull for me. This is the kind of match where you want the crowd to be on the edge of their seats for the duration and they gave them too many opportunities to put their bums back in their seats. If they’d just worked at a slightly faster pace, even just 15%, I think it would have made a massive difference. Perhaps it was as simple as having Patterson being 4 or 5 years younger, who knows. Either way, the crowd energy dipped, the action slowed way down and this is where, if I’m nitpicking, I’d dock this match. From the bump into the corner until the finish though this is just a classic. Immediately after hitting his head on the ringpost Slaughter was bleeding, and when I say bleeding, I mean BLEEDING. The first few squirts out of his forehead were visible from the cheap seats like they’d been rigged up for a B movie horror flick. Slaughter was out on his feet, stumbling around the ring, wobbling like an idiot, giving the whole arena the chance to see the gruesomeness on show. His only shot was to go low and he nailed it, getting Patterson right below the midsection. He dug deep into his arsenal and pulled out the brass knuckles and cracked Patterson in the face. He didn’t even have the energy to capitalise on this usually most definitive of KO blows and by the time he’d made it to his feet to try again Patterson was up, recovered and was able to block his follow up attempts. Before long Patterson had pulled off one of his cowboy boots and was using it as a weapon, leathering Slaughter repeatedly in the face and sending him tumbling to the concrete. As Slaughter tried to claw his way back in he met a barrage of further blows, prompting the Grand Wizard to do the unthinkable, but ultimately the right thing, and throw in the towel. I loved the ending. There’s nothing like a true heel digging really deep, finding a morsel of humanity, and acting in the best interest of another - and that’s what the Grand Wizard did here. After getting pretty much humiliated by Backlund during their series together (in Philadelphia I know), Slaughter needed a strong showing, even in defeat. Despite the gallons of blood lost, he was still fighting back, still trying to take it to Patterson, and we left this with him almost being dragged from the ring by his manager for his own wellbeing. I’m not sure I’d be this high on the match without the blood though, as it often goes with matches with incredible gushers, but nonetheless Slaughter pulled an incredible one here that is etched in the memory of all who’ve seen it. 1981-05-04 WWF - MSG Network Gorilla Monsoon, Rick Martel & Tony Garea vs. Captain Lou Albano, Moondog Rex & Stan Hansen Best Two Out Of Three Falls Six Man Tag Team Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★ Card Whatever expectations you’d have of a match like this, with a hodgepodge of talent chucked together, tacked on to the end of the card back, those involved barely strived to match them. Lou Albano did everything in his power to never tag in, and in fact I’m pretty sure he succeeded, Monsoon was described as “coming out of retirement” for this, and he certainly looked like he’d been enjoying the leisurely life of retirement looking at his waistline. As you would expect from those involved, Martel and Hansen were the best two guys and while I know it eventually would happen, I would have loved a match between these two at this time. Their interactions with each other here were easily the highlights of the match. The heel team were disqualified in the first fall for triple teaming Martel in the corner then Monsoon splashed Moondog Rex for the straight falls victory.
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    May 1981-05-02 CWA - Memphis Championship Wrestling TV Bill Dundee & Dream Machine (c) vs. Kevin Sullivan & Wayne Ferris AWA Southern Tag Team Title Match WMC Studios, Memphis, Tennessee, USA ★★ Card A quick paced, fun studio tag title match, but this was all about Dundee, who gave another absolute masterclass here. The first half was him taking it to his opponents, great offense, great punches. As the bout wore on though the challengers gained a foothold and started to wear Dundee down. Just like that Dundee switched to selling mode and he got over the change in momentum and the danger he was in just so well. He mounted a final flurry with a fired up comeback but Hart intervened by pulling down the middle ropes and Dundee fell to the outside. He barely made it, but made it he did before Calhoun’s count, but all that greeted him on the other side of the ropes was Sullivan cradling him for the win. And just like that Dundee and Dream Machine lost the belts. As Sullivan, Hart and Ferris celebrated, Dundee just lay there spent on the mat. 1981-05-04 MLW Jimmy Snuka & Roddy Piper vs. Dewey Robertson & Ric Flair No Disqualification Tag Team Match Brantford, Ontario, Canada ★★★ Card This was one of those barn burner matches. Very good for a TV match with a super brisk pace underpinned by Flair trying to get his hands on Piper and Piper doing anything he could to avoid him. If the crowd reactions were anything to go by then the US Title Flair/Piper feud was still raging on at this point because while there weren’t that many in attendance, the ones who were created an electric atmosphere. Flair just pops off the screen in the early 80s in comparison to what else was going on at the time. Not necessarily to say he’s better or a cut above, but whether it’s the scarcity of the footage or just how original he feels, it always feels like an event when he shows up. Piper and Snuka were great here too, able to get serious heat and both Flair and Robertson went through face in peril sequences culminating in fantastic hot tags. There was never a second of wasted motion and never a dull moment. Just constant action bell to bell. Flair got caught as Snuka went for a slam but a clutch Dewey dropkick sent Snuka to the mat with Flair crushing him from above and Piper was held up in the corner just long enough that they got that 3 count. Really fun match that people should go out of their way to see.
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    1981-04-29 Joint Promotions Mal Sanders (c) vs. Keith Haward European Middleweight Title Match Walthamstow, London, United Kingdom ★★ While Keith Haward is technically proficient and seems to tick the right boxes, it may be a case that his amateur credentials work against him in making him come across too mechanical and he certainly doesn’t exude any real charisma, which means that a lot of what he does is instantly forgettable. Sanders on the other hand delivers those intangibles. I’ve liked how, around this time, he was a babyface, wrestled like a babyface, but it always felt like a heel turn was on the cards. He had an edge that not a lot of the faces in World of Sport had around this time. Sanders started this strongly but a missed knee drop gave Haward a target and target it he did. I wish Sanders had resolved to sell here, like at all, cause he just looked like he was having a leisurely lie down while Haward worked him over. Things always felt like they were on the verge of boiling over though, as both men were more steely than you would expect, perhaps due to the title being at stake, but Sanders took the first fall with a nifty bridge. What I absolutely loved though, was how he celebrated getting the fall. Too often in WoS falls feel just par the course, giving off an exhibition vibe for the most part, and win or lose they pop right back up and shake hands. Here Sanders gave it the old fist pump and wheeled into his corner like he’d just scored in the cup final and I appreciated this raw honest-to-sports moment. He repeated this again, but in reverse, when he lost the subsequent fall to Haward. Not often do you see a face banging their fists to the mat in frustration, mad that his aggressiveness in pushing for that 2-0 win had been his undoing. The round in question was a real doozy and easily the highlight of the match as Sanders upped the pace to 10 as he pushed, hoping that he could force the issue against Haward. Things levelled off somewhat after that and Haward managed a body slam for the win and the title. All in all I could see someone calling this good with no qualms but it was just lacking that little something for me, despite Sanders’ very good performance. 1981-04-30 AJPW - International Champion Series 1981 - Day 7 Dory Funk Jr. (c) vs. Terry Funk NWA International Heavyweight Title Match Sports Park Gymnasium, Matsudo, Chiba, Japan ★★ Card With Brody injured and unable to wrestle, Dory was handed the title. Before this match all the participants of the previous tournament drew straws for the right to face Dory in his first defence. Terry drew the winning card and we got the first, and ultimately only, contest between these two brothers. This was definitely a throwback. They wrestled in that old school mat style and you could tell they were going long. Did Dory love a side headlock? You bet your bottom dollar he did. The first 20 minutes or so were Dory controlling Terry in the hold before we slowly evolved into a tradeoff between Terry working the arm and Dory working the leg. This didn’t really go anywhere and the story developed once again into Dory trying for a suplex. They struggled over a basic standing version, but ended up in the ropes. Dory went for a double arm suplex, but again was foiled. He tried a second time for the double arm several minutes later, and again was foiled. The third time he tried he finally succeeded, aaaaaaaand we got a two count out of it. I mean, they made struggling over a suplex feel like a high spot, which was both impressive and an indictment of the match. After 54 minutes Terry tried a sunset flip over the ropes but Dory rolled out of the pin and managed to fold Terry up for the victory. Any match that is on the brink of hitting the hour mark is always going to push the limits of patience, but this did a good enough job of never dragging too much. While the action was fine it also never really had those moments or sequences that made you feel like a match of this length was warranted. We got some flashes, like the aforementioned suplex struggle. Or a particularly vicious uppercut from Dory that made Terry woozy, and instead of dealing with Terry’s wild jabs and swings, he instantly just bailed from the ring in the perfect example of “I know this guy too well and this just isn’t worth my time”. But beyond this it was pretty stale and unless you’re wooed by the occasion (the re-introduction of a prestigious and historically significant title into the promotion) or the unique circumstances (the Funk brothers colliding) then it probably isn’t worth your time. I will say as a side note that there was an interesting fan sighting in this match. I believe Jim Crockett was the NWA President at this time and they’d flown him over to add to the prestige. Occasionally they would cut to him blankly staring at the match, but behind him were two boys, kitted out in sports gear and wearing backwards facing baseball caps. It was almost as if they’d been time warped from the mid-90s for this event. Just an interesting tidbit.
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    1981-04-27 AJPW - International Champion Series 1981 - Day 4 Jumbo Tsuruta & Terry Funk vs. Jack Brisco & The Avenger Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan ★★ Card The Terry/Brisco pairing was real nice as they duelled over leg sweep takedowns. Terry got the chance to sell and pinball round the ring while Brisco could show off not just his fluidity but also a hard edge, as he was working more heelish here than what I’ve usually seen from him in the US. Jumbo and Terry worked over the Avenger’s leg for a decent portion but he made this borderline unwatchable with this weird yapping sound he kept making while in any hold. Serviceable but definitely not something to go out of your way to see. 1981-04-27 AJPW - International Champion Series 1981 - Day 4 Giant Baba vs. Bruiser Brody NWA International Heavyweight Title Tournament Semi Final Match Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan ★★ Card Short and sweet and it didn’t wear out its welcome. Baba had his right hand all bandaged up and they really played on the fact that he was carrying an existing injury. It was Baba though who drew first blood, literally, smashing Brody’s head into the ringpost. Baba’s offense from this point on was targeted on the wound above Brody’s eye, all the while making a point of using his weaker, but uninjured, left hand for the chops, which I thought was fantastic psychology. We saw Brody a lot more giving and willing to sell here than usual - unsurprising considering he was up against the boss. A big boot actually knocked him off his feet and sent him sprawled on the mat. In the end though Brody broke out the chain, choked Baba a little and finished him off with a knee drop in what was quite an unexpectedly short match considering the stakes. 1981-04-27 AJPW - International Champion Series 1981 - Day 4 Abdullah The Butcher vs. Dory Funk Jr. NWA International Heavyweight Title Tournament Semi Final Match Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan ★★ Card Dory really came to play, displaying that solid old man “get off my lawn” energy. Abby perhaps pushed his luck a little too far and Dory just snapped and was ready to put him in his place. Abby always had his hidden weapon as an equaliser but Dory held his own and was really putting the boots to Abby for most of this in a way that was thoroughly satisfying. Maybe I would have liked him to have sold getting a weapon shot to the throat a little more vigorously, but that would be picking nits. The finish is what really docks this for me. Dory and Abby got caught up in the ropes and down came Brody. Having already secured his place in the tournament final he clearly had intentions to take somebody out. In this case he hit a running knee into Dory’s exposed back before hightailing it out of there double time. That was enough for Higuchi to call for the bell and declare Dory the winner. Why they so quickly went for the disqualification in this case for a mere knee attack, but literally turned a blind eye at Brody massacring Terry during the Baba match I do not know. Just another in a long line of bizarre booking decisions.
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    1981-04-24 AJPW - International Champion Series 1981 - Day 1 Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta (c) vs. The Funks (Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk) NWA International Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium, Yokoyama, Kanagawa, Japan ★★ Card This was a handheld and lasted over 50 minutes all in all. Like many matches that last this long, the momentum swings feel more like rolling waves than sudden shifts. The champions contained Dory for a substantial time during the first fall, keeping him contained in a headlock and kicking away at Terry any time he tried to lean over and grab a tag. They actually managed to wear down Terry as well, skipping any real hot tag sequence, so him stealing a pin with a rolling cradle on Baba felt like pulling a rabbit from a hat. He wouldn’t be so lucky in the second, eating a double big boot and a double suplex for a pretty matter of fact equaliser. Then he and Jumbo orchestrated one of the most choreographed double count out sequences I can remember. They did end up adding an extra 10 minutes to declare a winner, but that also went the time limit so we finished with a draw anyway. The high points, the real electric moments, all came from Terry and Jumbo. They were the instigators for their teams the whole way and Baba and Dory merely followed their lead. Coming out of this made me really want to see a match between those two, but this was just too long for what it was. By the finish I was kind of yearning for it to end and the double count out just had me rolling my eyes. 1981-04-26 AJPW - International Champion Series 1981 - Day 3 Giant Baba vs. Terry Funk NWA International Heavyweight Title Tournament Second Round Match Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan ★★ Card This was good for the chunk of it that was a match, but it devolved into an all out brawl with outside interference and in the end felt more like an angle. I will say that this was one of the first times that Baba came across like a puzzle that his opponent needed to figure out rather than just a passenger. He really was able to control and manipulate Terry, forcing him to switch up his approach, and I liked this a lot because it reinforced Baba’s uniqueness and was at least some kind of a signal as to why he should be the top guy. For all of Inoki’s flaws at least he had mega charisma, and when he turned it up to 11 he could generate massive reactions and make a moment feel BIG. Baba so far hasn’t shown that wow factor in the 80s at all, so I was happy to see a little glimpse here. Things were bubbling along nicely, then down the aisle came Brody and Abby. Brody made a beeline for Terry on the floor and Abby snuck up behind Baba (not sure how Abby was able to sneak up on anybody, let alone wielding a massive 2x4) and took Baba out from behind. Joe Higuchi was caught up trying to separate Terry and Brody on the floor while Dory arrived to head Abby off in the ring. Things escalated from there as Brody tied Terry up around the neck, flung him over his shoulder and carried him about like a bindle (I had to look up the name for a bindle). I’m not sure exactly how the decision was made but apparently Joe thought it was fine to countout Terry despite the blatant interference, anyway Baba won the match. It wasn’t over yet though as Dory ran Abby off, who thought it better to fight another day, leaving Brody to fend off Dory, Jumbo and Terry all by himself. Somehow he managed to take shots from each of these men and never leave his feet, but things whittled down to just Brody and Terry again and they brawled a bit in the crowd before Brody high tailed it out of there. Good energy in the post match brawl, which if I bundle into the match raises it up somewhat. Terry vs Baba was a nice little mat based showcase, even if it didn’t blow me away or anything. Booking wise though I just don’t understand the justification to have Baba get the win by countout when there was so much interference. He literally won due to the fact that when he was jumped he happened to be in the ring and he just lay there while Terry was getting strung up. Not a good look for their top star really.
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    1981-04-23 NJPW - WWF Big Fight Series II - Day 17 Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan ★★★ Card The series of matches between these two has a lot of baggage that comes along with it, but I tried to approach this with as much of a blank slate mindset as possible. Having followed Sayama’s rise through the ranks in World of Sport over the preceding months it’s no surprise at all that he would be the one chosen to don the Tiger’s mask. Some of the same sloppiness he displayed in England is still on display here, but there’s no denying that he possessed explosive athleticism and had a certain unique charisma. Just how he bounced around the ring to begin the match was just so entirely different to anything you would see in a New Japan ring at the time. Having Dynamite Kid be his opponent was integral to this being as good as it was. He was hard hitting, vicious, mean, cunning and kept the whole thing grounded in some form of reality. They clearly wanted to get Tiger Mask over strong and they did a great job of that here, delivering a short and snappy match that announced their new attraction with a bang. The few annoying aspects of Sayama’s work are very much still present, but this gimmick is new enough, and the rest of the match was good enough, that they can be forgiven in this instance. Time will tell if they persist and spoil his future matches. 1981-04-23 NJPW - WWF Big Fight Series II - Day 17 Stan Hansen vs. Antonio Inoki NWF Heavyweight Title Match Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan ★★ Card Their previous match ending in a no-contest meant that the title was vacated and was now up for grabs for both men. I can see how some would think this was good, but I’m certain, like with many of these Inoki vs Hansen matches, that I won’t be able to recall anything that happened in it in a few weeks time. There certainly was struggle, at times it felt like watching two men wrestle through mud, but it was punctuated by highly kinetic moments where either man would have a flurry of offense. Things seesawed throughout and neither were able to gain much, if any, real advantage. Hansen looked like he might have had a chance when he nailed the Lariat, but Inoki was able to kick out. At that point it was clear that it was Inoki’s night. The rest was merely academic, he missed an Enzuigiri, which Hansen expertly no-sold, and Inoki quickly followed up with another that this time did connect. He flew to the top and hit a flying knee to the face before he hammered the nail in the coffin with another knee to a prone Hansen. Hansen had the best of this I thought. He sold big for Inoki’s bombs and his offense, throughout 1981 actually, has been markedly snugger, so he’s certainly on an upward trend for me. Inoki was fine here, but other than hitting the final two aerial assaults, he lacked that world conquering charisma and energy that he can often bring to elevate his matches. Judging strictly by technical expertise he’s always just about adequate so when the intangibles aren’t quite there it leaves a void.
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    1981-04-23 AJPW - 9th Champion Carnival - Day 25 Jack Brisco & Killer Brooks vs. The Funks (Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk) Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan Card With the match being clipped to the 15 minute mark it’s easier to focus on this as merely an angle rather than a match. When we dove into the action they were already finisher spamming with Brisco trying for the figure four whenever he had the opportunity and the Funks countering with a series of spinning toe holds. As Terry and Brooks spilled to the outside, Abdullah made an appearance and proceeded to annihilate Terry, leaving him a bloody mess on the concrete. They had to help him to the back, leaving Dory to fend for himself. Dory held out long enough for Terry to make a triumphant return, his face still dripping with blood, and Brooks succumbed to the Toe Hold in the end. Seeing as the Funks were busy in Memphis, they were absent from this year’s Champions Carnival, but here, in their first match back, the rivalry with Abby was heated right back up again in a flash, and not that Terry ever needs any extra pushing to get over, but they gave the fans a taste of the classic Terry experience here. The action overall was pretty lacklustre and it certainly seemed like Dory and his opponents were filling time until Terry returned but this served its purpose. 1981-04-23 AJPW - 9th Champion Carnival - Day 25 Abdullah The Butcher vs. Jumbo Tsuruta Champion Carnival 1981 Match Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan ★★ Card For a match where both men desperately needed a win, and neither could afford to lose, the energy for this was weirdly apathetic. We had double juice by the midpoint, but the crowd was so eerily silent throughout it was off putting. Jumbo took it to Abby early, but I didn’t get the sense that the fans were particularly eager to see Abby take a beating. Abby retaliated with some rabbit punches to the head and ended up drawing blood. The energy picked up slightly for the finish as the brawling escalated, and I thought the transition to fighting on the outside of the ring was pretty organic, but the one result both wrestlers absolutely needed to avoid was the one they ultimately had, a double countout. 1981-04-23 AJPW - 9th Champion Carnival - Day 25 Giant Baba vs. Bruiser Brody Champion Carnival 1981 Match Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan ★ Card So this was for all the marbles, with the winner becoming the Carnival champion. The resulting match was just…yuck. Brody didn’t even let poor Baba make it down to the ring before he had him tied up around the throat. They then proceeded to have one of the worst brawls known to man. Neither came out of this looking good at all, but special mention must go to Brody, who excelled in sucking at everything you’d want a wrestler to do. His selling was laughable here, if that’s what you’d want to call it, with the “bump” he took from Baba’s big boot encompassing the problems I’m outlining. This ran for barely 10 minutes, but it felt like 30, and finished - the whole tournament finished - on an anticlimactic Thesz Press from Baba.
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    1981-04-18 WWF - PRISM Network Moondog Rex & Sgt. Slaughter vs. Andre The Giant & Tony Garea Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ★★★ Card This should be described in one word, FUN. All four men played their roles to a tee, but really the standouts, and this should come as no surprise, were Slaughter and Andre. What made this fantastic was both Slaughter and Rex got over how desperate they were to avoid Andre from start to finish. Any time he came in and they didn’t have an opportunity to cheapshot him they instantly bailed from the ring, or did everything in their power to escape from the ring. Andre came across like the most dangerous man in the world, and when he got his hands on them they crumpled like wet tissue paper. But instead of this being a mere walkover for the faces, the team of Slaughter and Rex were expert in using underhand tactics to gain some modicum of a breather from Andre, then isolated Garea, which they were able to do for a substantial portion of the match. Confident in the safety of numbers Slaughter would goad Andre on the apron and even spat in his direction at one point, which prompted him to charge across the ring like a wild hippo. The timing of the spots and the excellent way in which they teased Garea being able to make the tag to Andre was so on point. Ultimately Andre got sick of being stuck on the apron and all hell broke loose. Dick Woehrle called for the bell and it was announced he had DQd the heels and handed the decision to Andre and Garea. This was about the only downside to the whole affair because I couldn’t see what they’d done to earn any kind of disqualification. In fact Andre running wild seemed to be the closest thing to rule bending that occurred near the end. But for a bottom of the card tag match, it wasn’t enough to dampen the whole experience. 1981-04-18 WWF - PRISM Network Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. The Hangman Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ★★ Card Yatsu was already good here, he just wasn’t good enough to carry somebody else to a good match. I did like how hyper focused Yatsu was on Hangman’s leg, and in turn his selling of said leg, gingerly walking on it for the rest of the match, was spot on, but they had about half the amount of “stuff”needed to fill the time they had allotted and it resulted in a lot of reused spots. In the end this finished in a 20 minute time limit draw, with Yatsu getting some babyface shine at the finish by turning the table on Hangman and using his own noose against him. But this really should have gone 10 minutes at a push. 1981-04-18 WWF - PRISM Network Bob Backlund (c) vs. Killer Khan WWF Heavyweight Title Match Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ★★ Card Their last match was no great shakes, but that was in New York and this was their first rodeo in Philly. I certainly think that this was a better showing than what they put on at MSG, but there were still enough moments that dragged this down. I’m no big fan of Khan’s TV appearances, and as the calendar year turned to 1981 they didn’t get any better. However I feel like his persona played far better on the big stage as he had the presence that projected well in an arena setting. The extreme crazy (like the drooling) were dialled way back and we got more of the “Killer” part of his gimmick. He had a massive frame and could really lay in some stiff shots, giving the impression that Backlund had his work cut out for him. Early on Backlund was crisp and pinpoint in his attacks, being able to hook the leg and sweep his opponent to the mat three consecutive times. Apparently he had just come off a 15 hour flight from Japan with no sleep, so perhaps that was the secret sauce. However as the match wore on there wasn’t much from Backlund that I felt stood out, especially in contrast to Khan, which lent to the feeling of things dipping somewhat. They worked an unusual groin splitting spot, the kind of thing you’d see far more often on World of Sport, and Khan went all out to sell the pain. By the time Backlund had had his way with him he felt far more like a cartoon villain than the vicious menace he came across as at the start of the match. A last gasp suplex attempt was foiled by Backlund and he was able to do an O’Connor Roll and bridge for the win. 1981-04-18 WWF - PRISM Network Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter Special Grudge Match Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ★★★ Card As much as they lost me at the start, they reeled me back in for the finish. For a special grudge match, so excellently announced by Mr Cappetta, I was expecting a faster and more furious opening salvo. While Patterson seemed eager to get the action going, Slaughter was all too keen to criss-cross the ring and find refuge on the outside, avoiding any contact with Patterson whatsoever. The intention was to build heat due to the constant stalling, but all it did was take the sting out of the match entirely. Once they did get underway we got the usual Slaughter bumps in the corner, but they had no rhyme or reason - they had no purpose. The big transition occurred when Patterson fell to the outside and we had an elongated king of the mountain sequence with Slaughter preventing Patterson from recovering and re-entering the ring. As this unfolded I really wasn’t feeling it at all. Again and again Slaughter would just break the count and quickly pummel Patterson again then return to the ring. It just felt like they had stalled. But as this dragged out longer and longer, and Patterson received more and more abuse, it warped into something completely new. As Patterson increasingly came across as battered and broken on the concrete, Slaughter slowly morphed into an ever increasingly sinister figure in the ring. This made the resulting comeback all the more impactful. Patterson had reached rock bottom and now was clawing his way back up, the crowd’s sympathy fully behind him and as he desperately attempted to break free from the Cobra Clutch once again, they were roaring their support. The comeback didn’t come all at once though. Much like their famous TV segment, Slaughter was the one to actually break the hold, quickly switching to clubbing blows to the back to soften Pat up even further. But when the time came, Slaughter made a fatal error. He came off the top like a ton of bricks and absolutely wrecked his knee on impact. This was the window of opportunity Patterson was looking for and he pounced, locking in the figure four. From here on in it was Patterson abusing Slaughter’s leg, the referee’s having to get involved and ultimately we had to have a pull apart. Amidst all this Slaughter ended up getting DQd for swiping the referee while in the hold. For having such a bland, meandering opening, they finished this white hot. Patterson was on point during his comeback, showing the fire and edge required to really take it to Slaughter and in return Slaughter walked that fine line of dishing out punishment, but showing ass when called for. His selling of the knee, especially during the post match, was exceptional also. He feigned to dive back in and challenge Patterson again, who was riled up and ready to go, but Slaughter decided against it. Jumping down from the apron his knee buckled from beneath him and he had to stumble back to his feet before he made his way to the back. He didn’t overdo it but he was true to the match through and through. 1981-04-18 WWF - PRISM Network Hulk Hogan vs. Tony Atlas Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ★★ Card This actually was the last date Hogan worked for the WWF during this initial run. Losing both here and at MSG to Atlas, in addition to losing to Andre at the previous Spectrum show concluded a run of jobs before he made his exit. Overall this was what I would describe as “fine”. The finish was a bit wacky but the action delivered enough to be satisfying. My biggest gripe was Atlas’ decision making. Pushing for the big comeback and momentum switch he decided to first go for a bear hug, and then later on a front facelock - talk about crowd pleasing moves! Hogan really had gotten solid form an in-ring perspective by this point. I know he had good matches before but often it felt like he needed his opponent to lead him through the match and he could look a little lost at times. Here it seemed like he’d put it all together to deliver on every aspect. He could sell - he definitely could sell - his offense looked adequate, but the connective tissue stuff was coming together too. He would fill in those dead moments with something, like spitting on Atlas’ prone body, or strutting. These simple things that keep the action flowing even when there is no actual wrestling going on. As I said, the finish was whatever. Ref bump via a stray leg on a body slam. Atlas went to check on him and predictably got clubbed from behind by Hogan. Hogan tossed him to the outside then seemed very invested in checking on the referee himself. I think they were trying to convey that he needed the referee to count Atlas out, but Atlas wasn’t worn down enough that a count out was even remotely on the cards, so he snuck back in and rolled Hogan up for the 1, 2, 3. Not exactly sure what the hell Hogan was doing there, but he needed to do the job and it seemed like they orchestrated the stupidest way for him to do it.
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    1981-04-18 IWE - Big Challenge Series - Day 1 Paul Ellering & Terry Lathan vs. Mighty Inoue & Rusher Kimura Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card This was clipped to shit but the big takeaways were Ellering’s fun performance and Inoue’s nutty blade job. The last time I saw Ellering he had returned to Memphis sporting freshly dyed blonde locks, but this is my first exposure to him in Japan and honestly, his gimmick travelled. He has the physique and he was happy to act despicable. He had just enough credible offense to feel like a threat but he showed here that he could do the necessary bumping too, going big during his exchanges with Kimura. The footage jumped ahead multiple times so it was hard to keep track of the run of events, but this finished in a DQ for the foreign team with Ellering and Lathan choking Inoue in the middle of the ring with the edge of a steel chair. Solid way to establish the new foreign team for the tour. 1981-04-18 IWE - Big Challenge Series - Day 1 Ashura Hara vs. Steve Olsonoski Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan ★★ Card Steve O taking time out of his Georgia schedule to turn up in Japan. Back in the US he was hovering around the main event in the mix for the TV and National Titles, but to me he always felt like a step down from the likes of Kevin Sullivan, Steve Keirn and Bobby Eaton. Here though he really didn’t look half bad at all, and in fact, I’d say he came off a little better than Ashura Hara to boot. There was some minor clipping, but I don't feel like too much was missing. The early stuff was mostly exploratory mat work which they slowly built upon to layer in strikes until they finally upped the stakes to the finish, Hara hitting the superplex. Competent and fun, but nothing spectacular.
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    1981-04-17 AJPW - 9th Champion Carnival - Day 19 Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Bruiser Brody Champion Carnival 1981 Match Municipal Gymnasium, Akita, Japan ★ Card I got the sense that Jumbo was trying his best here. He kind of oversold Brody’s offense for the first half, which meant that when he did get some stuff in later on - like a side suplex and an airplane spin - it carried more weight to it. The problem was that Brody was basically a cork board of bland. He had one fist drop that looked good, otherwise his offense generally looked pretty shit, and I’m really struggling to get over just how stiff his body movements are. The Abdullah match on the 10th was better purely because I’d rather see Brody in a brawl against a good brawler than in a straight wrestling match against someone like Jumbo. I think the brawls might be able to hide his weaknesses a little better. 1981-04-17 NJPW - WWF Big Fight Series II - Day 13 Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Kengo Kimura IWGP Asia Zone Preliminary League Match Kagoshima Prefectural Gymnasium, Kagoshima, Japan Card Okay this appeared to have over half the match clipped. It must have been a chunk at the beginning as initially I just thought they’d skipped the initial lockup and the whole thing just happened to be a mad sprint. With that in mind it’s hard to give it any kind of real rating but I can’t see how it could have been any less than “good” based on what I was able to see. Fujinami was incredibly giving at the start of the footage. Kimura hit him with a huge backdrop suplex and Fujinami was completely rocked by it, rubbing his head and trying to shake the cobwebs for a couple minutes after. The build to the finish packed a real punch as Kimura hit an incredible tope that just wrapped Fujinami’s body over the guardrail. He survived a collision with the ringpost and brushed Kimura off long enough to hit his own signature tope, sad to say this wasn’t as recklessly violent as Kimura’s. I really thought Kimura might have had this in the bag though as he set Fujinami up for a superplex in the corner, only to half botch it, half have Fujinami reverse it in mid-air, leaving him crumpled on the mat and ultimately pinned. I have no idea what the IWGP Asia Zone tournament was, but Fujinami advanced. 1981-04-17 NJPW - WWF Big Fight Series II - Day 13 Antonio Inoki (c) vs. Stan Hansen NWF Heavyweight Title Match Kagoshima Prefectural Gymnasium, Kagoshima, Japan ★★ Card This was just here to stoke the fires for the series blowoff on the 23rd April. I’m not sure if it’s due to watching Backlund go toe-to-toe against Hansen for the last few months or whether Hansen’s offense just got better, but his attacks looked particularly savage here. Any flurries Inoki got in were merely to stave off the beast, but there’s no doubt that Inoki knew how to rile up a crowd, and the few times he projected that his switch had been flipped garnered major crowd reactions. This finished in a weak double countout or no contest finish after a Hansen Lariat over the guard rail. Whenever Inoki managed to get some control and ground Hansen, down moments in any Inoki match really, were this match’s dead spots.
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    1981-04-10 AJPW - 9th Champion Carnival - Day 12 Abdullah The Butcher vs. Bruiser Brody Champion Carnival 1981 Match Hiroshima Prefectural Gymnasium, Hiroshima, Japan ★★ Card Abdullah up against another heel is becoming one of my favourite match types to watch. It doesn’t always deliver a killer match, and often just ends up with him and his opponent smushed together on the ring apron as the seconds desperately try and pull them apart, but I can’t deny that there’s something extra added when he’s allowed to be the sympathetic one, the guy that the crowd roots for. It’s a shame that after a pretty savage beatdown on Abby with the chain which I liked, Brody suddenly decided to become an animated mannequin for several minutes. I don’t know what was up with his selling but he looked like he was being stop-motion animated at points with how stiff and repetitive his movements were. 1981-04-11 PNW Buddy Rose (c) vs. Jay Youngblood NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA ★★★ Card Footage may have dried up somewhat since 1980, preventing me from getting as full a picture, but Buddy Rose’s ‘81 on tape feels like a step forward from the previous year. The surrounding talent feels less - I’m not sure this version of Jay Youngblood quite matches Piper or Martel and the tag division is a lot thinner - but Rose has really stepped things up. Don Owen announced before the match that Rose had won the belt recently in Salem and Rose came down to the ring adorned in Youngblood’s ceremonial headdress. He got on the mic and stated that Youngblood better win this match otherwise the championship belt was going straight into Mt St Helens. This felt like it was primed for a down and dirty brawl but that was almost the complete opposite from what we got. Instead we got a deliberate and calculated wrestling match. Youngblood snuck in a few near falls early and Rose sold them spectacularly, really projecting how relieved he was to not have fallen behind so early and visibly was trying to calm himself down and get back into the zone. Youngblood as well came across as more reserved than expected, perhaps not wanting to make an overzealous error himself and risk losing the title belt forever. The finish to the first was a bit clumsy, with Youngblood trying to roll through an O’Connor Roll but Rose having that scouted and himself hitting another revolution, but they were caught up in the ropes a bit and it wasn’t clear that Sandy Barr had actually counted the three. The second fall had an unusual but perfectly satisfying finish though. Being 1-0 down, Youngblood remained conservative and didn’t try for any home run moves. Instead he went to work with a side headlock. What was fantastic here is that they turned a generic, “please the crowd” but also kill-time move like the head crank, and made it the key hook of the fall and also the finishing move itself. Youngblood began the cranks and the crowd counted along. Something felt different though when we reached 15, then 20, then 25 and finally 30 revolutions and Buddy was out on his feet. Amazing woozy selling from Buddy and Youngblood got a 2.9 nearfall out of it for a huge pop. What elevated this though is that they went back to the head crank a second time. If 30 wasn’t enough, how about 40! Again the crowd were well into it, chanting at the top of their lungs and Rose just collapsed face first into the mat, Youngblood rolled him over and what do you know? We were all tied up. This is something that, if it happened on a semi regular basis, I would find infuriating. However as a neat little wrinkle once in a blue moon I thought this was a fantastically unique fall finisher. The third fall was all about Rose avoiding Youngblood’s bombs. One sunset flip from over the ropes got a 2 count for Youngblood but a second saw him catch nothing but air and crash to the mat. Youngblood set Rose up for the double chops off the ropes but again Rose was able to steer clear of the fateful clash. His lives ran out though when he countered out of a sleeper hold, which itself was a counter out of a backbreaker attempt, only to find Youngblood baseball slide between his legs and contort him into a cradle for the 3. A really slick sequence to finish things off and I thought it bookended the match perfectly considering how close Youngblood was to grabbing a quick fall right at the start using similar moves. Rose sold those so big because he knew that Youngblood had this in his locker and it was to be avoided at all costs, and unfortunately he wasn’t able to at the death here. Rose really was pure excellence here throughout, he was the one that drove the whole match and grabbed my focus. Youngblood I think was a little too passive and the moments when he got fired up felt out of character with the match itself. More and more it feels like he could be replaced with another babyface off the conveyor belt and it wouldn’t make a difference.
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    1981-04-06 CWA Terry Funk vs. Jerry Lawler Empty Arena Match Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee, USA ★★★★ ½ Card There’s not much more to be said about this than what already has. Funk was only what I could describe as completely and utterly unhinged, Lawler played his role perfectly as the stoic and extremely serious foil to Funk’s insanity, and Lance Russell was the rug that ties the whole thing together. Whatever people think of the “match” portion or the actual action, the whole is inordinately greater than the sum of its parts. I loved the pre-match recording with Russell talking to the camera man which gave off such a “found footage” vibe. For a blow by blow account of the events you can just check out the match thread, but wow, just another otherworldly performance from Terry Funk from the moment he swaggered his way into the Coliseum until Russell helped him walk out, his eye an absolute bloody mess. 1981-04-07 Joint Promotions Mick McManus vs. Clive Myers Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom ★★ Card This was all about McManus having to deal with the unorthodox martials arts stylings of Myers and whether his rule breaking would be able to give him enough of an edge to take the victory. Myers leaned hard into the kung fu here, posing a lot and doing various fake kicks and strikes to discombobulate McManus, which worked enough to get him ahead early. McManus controlled much of the middle rounds actually, relying on his wits and a lot of chokes out of the referee’s eyeline, but he wasn’t able to make any real headway until he literally just flung Myers over the top rope and into the crowd. Now I’ll pause here to emphasise that Myers literally flew several rows into the audience in one of the craziest bumps I’ve ever seen. I totally wasn’t expecting it at all. One moment they were locked up in the centre of the ring, the next he just disappeared into a mass of bodies. Without having a few plants there who knew what was coming I have no idea how they could have ensured that he didn’t seriously injure any of the spectators. Anyway, Myers ended up three rows deep and was deemed unable to continue, handing the win to McManus after all. Nothing crazy here but enough to keep me entertained, but what a finish.
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    1981-04-06 WWF - MSG Network Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★ Card This was mildly frustrating as all the elements were there for this to be great. Patterson was itching to go, as soon as Slaughter appeared he was desperate to get his hands on him. He got the shine and Slaughter was deep into his bag on bumps, especially into the corner. I still am baffled how he is able to generate so much zip for a guy his size. The first few minutes were excellent and exactly how they should have worked this based on the feud up until this point. With Slaughter constantly trying to bail and Patterson so over-eager to keep applying the pressure I felt like the perfect transition would have been to use Patterson’s zealous fury against him, make a mistake while pursuing Slaughter or something of that ilk, but instead the shine kept going and the energy began to wane. Instead of a great transition into the heat, we just got Patterson getting caught on a running move and flung to the outside. Then they milked Patterson on the floor for an absolute age and the heat in the building was completely zapped for several minutes. The run to the finish was equally choppy. I loved Slaughter missing a dive off the top and crushing his own knee, Patterson furiously working it over, even going as far as to tee off on it using a chair. Later on Slaughter locked on the Cobra Clutch, harking back to the whole source of this feud, was gold. But both Slaughter and Patterson attacking the referee didn’t ring true to me and felt less like collateral damage amidst wild passion and more like a slapstick comedy routine. Finally, Slaughter deciding to kick the referee in the mid-section just as Patterson was about to break free from the Clutch just had me scratching my head. Great fire from Patterson, great bumping as usual from Slaughter. They carried the heat and resentment over from TV excellently. I just thought they struck out with the match structure. 1981-04-06 WWF - MSG Network Bob Backlund (c) vs. Stan Hansen WWF Heavyweight Title Steel Cage Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★★ Card This just about sneaks into the good category for me as there were enough elements that I liked and would encourage me to revisit this again in the future. I think there’s a certain point though where I just have to concede that WWF cage matches, regardless of era, are always going to skew lower for me. They promise so much and deliver relatively so little. Backlund was delayed coming to the ring and Hansen was absolutely losing his shit. We got a Vince Snr. sighting! Apparently the delay was that Finkel forgot to mention that the only way to win was escaping through the door or out over the cage. I think Vince Jr. spoke for us all when he matter of factly said “We already know that”. As soon as Backlund entered the ring Hansen was on him like a wild bear. Unfortunately for him it would only be a matter of seconds before he would be the one eating steel. They started at 100mph and they never let up. I would have liked Hansen to have had more opportunity to be brutal and really lay it on Backlund, even for just a few minutes, but that’s just not how these WWF Title matches went at this time. Backlund, to his credit, was aggressive and his brawling strikes looked great. A big piledriver put him in the driver’s seat until Hansen resorted to a swift kick to the balls. I do appreciate how Backlund cage matches seem to revolve around low blows, with his matchup against Slaughter almost becoming a low blow duel, but here Backlund got his revenge with a mammoth ball shot on Hansen as he was climbing the turnbuckle in the corner. The two clear moments that stick out to me, and what pushed this up that little notch, were Hansen’s crazy bumps on the top rope and how they executed Backlund leaving the cage. Both men found themselves up on the top rope in the corner of the cage just wailing on each other. Backlund gained the advantage and Hansen began “walking the top rope” before buckling, then plummeting to the mat. He took a following bump, a straight vertical drop where his head whiplashed off the turnbuckle, that was equally unreal. This was the opportunity Backlund needed and he left the cage. Now I’ll emphasise here that he “left” the cage, he didn’t escape the cage. In a blow-off match like this I think it was important for Backlund to have that definitive victory and the way in which Backlund stops, turns and flings sweat or snot in Hansen’s direction, before triumphantly walking through the threshold to receive his WWF Championship belt above his head, was excellent. Post match Hansen was apoplectic and really gave off that wild bear energy. At times like this he came across like the scariest motherfucker on the planet. As good as I thought he was here, I wish that carried over a tad bit more during the body of the match, as his best moments, beyond those wacky bumps he took, were what he did both before and after the match when he was alone in the cage.
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