1970s Recommendations

[Loss]

Whatever form this might take - if it takes one at all - is forever away, but have fun making recommendations now.

[khawk20]

Nick Bockwinkel (AWA Champion) vs. Verne Gagne (2-10-79, Chicago). Aired on on of the Japan Classics shows.

 

Verne Gagne (AWA Champion) vs. Billy Robinson (2 bouts, September 1974 in Chicago and 11/20/74 in Japan).

[Bix]

Stuff off the top of my head that should go on but might not necessarily come up otherwise:

 

Bill Watts & Wahoo McDaniel vs Ernie Ladd & Superstar Graham (1973 AWA from clipped Bob Luce film on his TV show in '89)

Dick Murdoch & Dusty Rhodes vs Ben Justice & The Stomper (1970 Detroit Silent Film)

Steve Grey vs Clive Myers (World of Sport...they had a '70s match and an '80s match)

Johnny Eagles & Ken Lucas vs Billy Spears & Raging' Cajun (1976 Gulf Coast TV)

Jackie Fargo vs Al Greene (1970 Memphis 2/3 falls hair match on film set)

Jerry Jarrett vs Don Greene (1971 Louisville 2/3 falls scaffold match on film set)

Jerry Lawler vs Jackie Fargo (everything)

Jerry Lawler vs Robert Fuller (Lawelr takes bump down bleachers, on film set)

 

I've never watched all of the Memphis '70s films all the way through so there's definitely more to be mined there, plus we have more coming soon (as well as TV arena stuff). There's more complete or nearly complete stuff than you'd expect. Same goes for the Cornette "garbage tapes" of the Crockett films. There are at least one or two pretty complete Flair vs Steamboat matches on those, for starters.

[khawk20]

Blackjack Lanza & Bobby Duncum (AWA Tag Champions) vs. Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell (July 7, 1977, Winnipeg, Title change)

 

Mad Dog Vachon vs. Edouard Carpentier (2/3 falls, Grand Prix, Montreal forum, 1973-ish)

[ohtani's jacket]

WOS

 

Jim Breaks vs. Adrian Street (2/12/72)

Jack Fallon vs. Tibor Szakacs (aired 4/19/72)

Steve Veidor vs. Tony Charles (11/16/72)

Les Kellett vs. Johnny Czeslaw (11/16/72)

Clay Thomson vs. Reg Trood (12/30/72 TV)

Jim Breaks vs Johnny Saint (3/14/73)

Pete Roberts vs. Caswell Martin (4/4/73)

Jim Breaks vs Johnny Saint (5/3/73)

Jackie Pallo vs. Johnny Kwango (5/3/73)

Alan Sarjeant vs. Clay Thomson (6/6/73)

Alan Sarjeant vs. Eddie Capelli (12/13/73)

Robby Baron vs. Peter Szacaks (3/14/74)

Mick McManus vs. Tony St. Clair (3/14/74)

Abe Ginsberg vs. Pete Curry (10/23/74)

Alan Sarjeant vs. Mick McManus (11/20/74)

Johnny Czeslaw vs. Romany Riley (12/4/74)

Sid Cooper vs. Clive Myers (1/23/75)

Tibor Szakacs vs. Prince Kumali (2/13/75)

Steve Grey vs. John Naylor (4/10/75)

Robby Baron vs. Alan Sarjeant (4/17/75)

Steve Grey vs. Ken Joyce (7/31/75)

Clive Myers vs. Steve Grey (10/8/75)

Clive Myers vs. Steve Grey (11/20/75)

Johnny Saint vs. Mick McManus (11/20/75)

Kung Fu vs. Mick McManus (4/21/76)

Steve Veidor vs. Gwyn Davies (5/26/76)

Mark Rocco vs. Marty Jones (6/30/76)

Terry Rudge vs. Marty Jones (11/30/76)

Zoltan Boscik vs. Alan Sarjeant (12/29/76)

Clive Myers vs. Alan Sarjeant (2/21/77)

Steve Grey vs. Mick McManus (5/21/77) [Cup Final Day]

Jim Breaks vs. Vic Faulkner (7/5/77)

Kung Fu/Pete Roberts vs. Johnny Kincaid/Dave Bond (10/4/77)

Clive Myers vs. Steve Grey (12/6/77)

Tony St. Clair vs. Dave Bond (12/6/77)

Mark Rocco vs. Marty Jones (7/26/78)

Bobby Barnes vs. Steve Grey (7/26/78)

Steve Grey vs. Mark Rocco (10/11/78)

Jim Breaks vs. Young David (Davey Boy Smith) (12/3/79)

[FLIK]

Nothing specific to add atm but yeah, 1970's are all about WoS being the best wrestling in the world at that particular time.

[Loss]

What's the best 70s Joshi?

[FLIK]

Haven't seen much myself, prob less then 10 matches. There isn't that much that exist to begin with, mostly 78 & 79 stuff and a handfull of earlier things that aired on AJW classics in highlight form.

 

I know MJH got Dan Ginnety's 70's to early 80's AJW TV Set that came out a while back which I still need to pick up. That has about 4 or 5 disc worth of 70's stuff which is the most i've seen gathered together.

[jdw]

Frank put together a series of 70s Japan dvd's. There were roughly 20 disks, in 2 hour format. Looks like the last one he did was in 2005.

 

He did not do DVD versions of the 1977-79 "years", but did do dvd versions of the AJPW Tag Leagues for those years. He also did earlier video tape versions of 1977-79, so there's a template of some of what would have made 1977-79 when he got to them... however there was a fair amount of interesting stuff that had come out on G+, dvd and also Dan's hunting for those years between the video tape versions and when he would have sat down to do 1977-79.

 

This also predates the flood of IWE stuff that's come out, so there's very little of it on these.

 

I'm not recommending all of these. They're simply a good reference source for folks to use as a base. Frank was thinking in terms of Yearbooks when he put these together, and his concept was very similar to what Will and Loss are doing.

 

* * * * * * * * * *

 

1970

Antonio Inoki vs Dory Funk - 08/02/1970

Giant Baba vs Gene Kiniski - 12/03/1970

 

1971

Antonio Inoki vs Destroyer - 05/19/1971

Giant Baba vs Abdullah - 05/19/1971

Antonio Inoki vs Jack Brisco - 08/05/1971

Antonio Inoki vs Dick Murdoch - 12/04/1971

 

1972

Antonio Inoki vs Karl Gotch - 03/06/1972

Strong Kobayashi vs Andre Roussimoff - 05/06/1972

Giant Baba vs Destroyer - 12/19/1972

 

1973 Disc One

Inoki/Sakaguchi vs Powers/Patterson - 08/24/1973

Destroyer vs Mil Mascaras - 10/09/1973

Baba/Tsuruta vs Dory/Terry - 10/09/1973 (JIP only AFAIK)

 

1973 Disc Two

Inoki/Sakaguchi vs Thesz/Gotch - 10/14/1973

Antonio Inoki vs Johnny Powers - 12/10/1973

 

 

1974 Disc One

Jack Brisco vs Dory Funk - 01/29/1974

Jack Brisco vs Jumbo Tsuruta - 01/30/1974

 

1974 Disc Two

Antonio Inoki vs Strong Kobayashi - 03/19/1974

Antonio Inoki vs Seiji Sakaguchi - 04/26/1974

Giant Baba vs Pedro Morales - 06/13/1974

Antonio Inoki vs Tiger Jeet Singh - 06/26/1974

 

1974 Disc Three

Baba/Tsuruta vs Roop/Backlund - 07/25/1974

Destroyer vs Mil Mascaras - 07/25/1974

Baba/Destroyer vs Kox/Slater - 08/29/1974

Dory Funk vs Jumbo Tsuruta - 08/29/1974

 

1974 Disc Four

Antonio Inoki vs Kintaro Oki - 10/10/1974

Giant Baba vs Jack Brisco - 12/02/1974

Jumbo Tsuruta vs Ken Mantell - 12/05/1974

Antonio Inoki vs Strong Kobayashi - 12/12/1974

 

1975 Disc One

Jack Brisco vs Bobo Brazil - 03/13/1975

Baba/Tsuruta vs Dory/Terry - 03/13/1975

Jumbo Tsuruta vs Bob Orton - 04/10/1975

Antonio Inoki vs Tiger Jeet Singh - 06/26/1975

Destroyer vs Spirit - 07/25/1975

 

1975 Disc Two

Antonio Inoki vs Lou Thesz - 10/09/1975

Destroyer vs Stan Hansen - 10/30/1975

Giant Baba vs Kintaro Oki - 10/30/1975

Antonio Inoki vs Billy Robinson - 12/11/1975

 

1975 Open League Disc One

Opening Ceremony - 12/06/1975

Harley Race vs Dusty Rhodes - 12/06/1975

Abdullah vs Dory Funk - 12/06/1975

Giant Baba vs Baron Von Raschke - 12/06/1975

Hiro Matsuda vs Dusty Rhodes - 12/09/1975

Jumbo Tsuruta vs Horst Hoffman - 12/09/1975

Dory Funk vs Baron Von Raschke - 12/09/1975

Giant Baba vs Harley Race - 12/09/1975

 

1975 Open League Disc Two

Pat O'Connor vs Mighty Inoue - 12/13/1975

Destroyer vs Don Leo Jonathan - 12/13/1975

Jumbo Tsuruta vs Rusher Kimura - 12/13/1975

Giant Baba vs Abdullah - 12/13/1975

Pat O'Connor vs Dick Murdoch - 12/15/1975

Dory Funk vs Horst Hoffman - 12/15/1975

Abdullah vs Don Leo Jonathan - 12/15/1975

Giant Baba vs Jumbo Tsuruta - 12/15/1975

 

1975 Open League Disc Three

Mighty Inoue vs Hiro Matsuda - 12/17/1975

Destroyer vs Horst Hoffman - 12/17/1975

Dory Funk vs Don Leo Jonathan - 12/17/1975

Jumbo Tsuruta vs Abdullah - 12/17/1975

Giant Baba vs Rusher Kimura - 12/17/1975

Jumbo Tsuruta vs Dory Funk - 12/18/1975

Giant Baba vs Horst Hoffman - 12/18/1975

Closing Ceremony - 12/18/1975

 

1976 Disc One

Jumbo Tsuruta vs Rusher Kimura - 03/28/1976

Giant Baba vs Jumbo Tsuruta - 05/01/1976

Antonio Inoki vs Victor Rivera - 05/11/1976

Seiji Sakaguchi vs Pedro Morales - 05/11/1976

 

1976 Disc Two

Terry Funk vs Jumbo Tsuruta - 06/11/1976

Jumbo Tsuruta vs Billy Robinson - 07/17/1976

Giant Baba vs Billy Robinson - 07/24/1976

 

1976 Disc Three

Destroyer vs Super Destroyer - 08/28/1976

Jumbo Tsuruta vs Jack Brisco - 08/28/1976

Antonio Inoki vs Billy Graham - 09/10/1976

Antonio Inoki vs Ivan Koloff - 12/02/1976

Dick Murdoch vs Killer Karl Kox - 12/09/1976

 

1977 Open Tag League Disc One

Opening Ceremony - 12/02/1977

Robinson/Hoffman vs Inoue/Takachio - 12/02/1977

Dory/Terry vs Tenryu/Hata - 12/02/1977

Baba/Tsuruta vs Sheik/Abby - 12/02/1977

Dory/Terry vs Robinson/Hoffman - 12/06/1977

Sheik/Abby vs Oki/Duk - 12/10/1977

 

1977 Open Tag League Disc Two

Baba/Tsuruta vs Kimura/Kusatsu - 12/10/1977

Oki/Duk vs Kimura/Kusatsu - 12/14/1977

Robinson/Hoffman vs Sheik/Abby - 12/14/1977

Baba/Tsuruta vs Dory/Terry - 12/14/1977

Dory/Terry vs Sheik/Abby - 12/15/1977

Closing Ceremony - 12/15/1977

 

 

1978 Tag League

Dory/Terry vs Bockwinkel/Lanza - 12/05/1978

Dory/Terry vs Sheik/Abby - 12/09/1978

Bockwinkel/Lanza vs Abby/Kamata - 12/15/1978

Baba/Tsuruta vs Dory/Terry - 12/15/1978

Commendation Ceremony - 12/15/1978

 

1979 Tag League

Mil/Dos vs Wrestling/Strangler - 11/30/1979

Dory/Terry vs Baba/Tsuruta - 11/30/1979

Mil/Dos vs McDaniel/Hill - 12/03/1979

Dory/Terry vs Mil/Dos - 12/07/1979

Baba/Tsuruta vs Mil/Dos - 12/13/1979

Dory/Terry vs Sheik/Abby - 12/13/1979

Commendation Ceremony - 12/13/1979

 

* * * * * * * * * * *

 

Matches that aren't on the above sets that were on the earlier Video Tape sets:

 

From the 1970-76 sets:

03/21/1974 Antonio Inoki vs Ernie Ladd

10/07/1976 Antonio Inoki vs Andre the Giant

 

1977 Best of Japan (no dvd equiv)

03/05/1977 Billy Robinson vs Jumbo Tsuruta

06/11/1977 Harley Race vs Jumbo Tsuruta

08/25/1977 Jumbo Tsuruta vs Mil Mascaras

09/02/1977 Antonio Inoki vs Stan Hansen

12/01/1977 Antonio Inoki vs Pat Patterson

 

1978 Best of Japan (no dvd equiv)

05/30/1978 Backlund/Garea vs Fujinami/Choshu

07/27/1978 Antonio Inoki vs Bob Backlund

08/24/1978 Baba/Jumbo vs Mil/Dos

12/13/1978 Nick Bockwinkle vs Jumbo Tsuruta

 

1979 Best of Japan (no dvd equiv)

01/05/1979 Brody/Curtis vs Baba/Destroyer

05/18/1979 Andre the Giant vs Stan Hansen

06/07/1979 Tatsumi Fujinami vs El Canek

06/15/1979 Sakaguchi/Choshu vs Saito/Matsuda

10/31/1979 Shohei Baba vs Harley Race

11/08/1979 Antonio Inoki vs Dusty Rhodes

12/06/1979 Bob Backlund vs Antonio Inoki

[jdw]

I also might... *might* suggest that this eventually get broken up into a couple of sets.

 

There are some things like the 1975 Open League that are among the best extant collections of various Gaijin in comlete matches. In 1976 we have the WWWF/WWF starting to have quite a few complete house shows from MSG and Philly available, which are useful for not only mining the Main Events but also some of the other matches for examples of how folks work... such as Patterson vs DiBiase. There's a lot of New Japan available, not just on Classics and dvd but also Dan's hunting. All that IWA is out there. Daniel pointed to a ton of WoS.

 

Might end up finding a split of 1970-73, 1974-76 and 1977-79 gives the space to be more managable and inclusive like you're been with the 90s Yearbooks.

 

John

[Dylan Waco]

Backlund v. Valentine MSG draw from 79. Also Backlund had matches with Duncum and Hussein Arab from 77/78 that are good stuff.

 

I really liked a Dino Bravo v. Super Destroyer II match I recently came across in my watching that is from AWA TV on 10/28/79. Also has the benefit of being a match that furthered the dissension angle with SDII losing his mask and blaming Lord Alfred Hayes for his problems and aligning with Heenan.

 

I'll assume the Portland is well known from the Buddy comp, but don't forget Buddy's San Francisco run, particularly the excellent tv mach v. Mando.

 

That Dundee v. Charles match from Memphis with Lance marking out on commentary is from 79.

[PeteF3]

Backlund v. Valentine MSG draw from 79. Also Backlund had matches with Duncum and Hussein Arab from 77/78 that are good stuff.

And the Texas Death Match with Duncum is for the secretly-vacant WWWF title, with the WWWF acknowledging but not really acknowledging beforehand. It's a must.

 

Bobby Duncum vs. Victor Rivera from the 4/14/75 MSG show is something that I swear jumped out to me as a real sleeper match. Damning with faint praise as it may be but it's a very rare good WWWF match that doesn't involve Backlund. Worth a look just to see if I'm crazy or misremembering.

 

It's been a long time since I went through the Mid-Atlantic films and I didn't keep notes or anything, and another issue is that there doesn't seem to be dates for any of this stuff. All I can think of is cross-referencing the match listings with other results databases like the Mid-Atlantic Gateway or clawmaster's listings. Anyway, stuff that probably should go in that I remember:

 

- Ole & Gene Anderson vs. Ric Flair & Greg Valentine (Cage Match). The Andersons need to be on a Yearbook in some form.

- There are a number of different Ken Patera vs. Tony Atlas matches, all in a row. One of which has the best-executed "pull the tights" finish I've ever seen.

- Johnny Valentine vs. Wahoo McDaniel. Actually I found this disappointing, but it still needs to be there.

- Ric Flair vs. Bobo Brazil. This is the majority of the match (with the finish clipped out--arrgh) and it's Bobo winning the U.S. title. A definite early broomstick performance by Flair, but...it's Flair vs. a pretty historic figure from another time period, and it's useful to see some footage of Bobo even if it's past his prime.

 

The guy who really came off in these clips as the Lost Worker of the '70s, to me, was Blackjack Mulligan. Very Big Boss Man-like once he turned babyface in his ability to sell and project sympathy despite usually being much bigger than his opponent. As a heel he did some advanced stuff like kneedrops off the top that the immobile '80s Mulligan could never do.

 

Also, Cowboy Bill Watts vs. Mr. Wrestling for the Georgia Heavyweight title, from 1973. One of the closest things to a complete Watts match from near his prime (there's also a fairly decent-lengthed IWE match with Kobayashi but this is better, I think).

 

 

IWE that stood out as good/memorable stuff:

 

- Strong Kobayashi vs. Monster Rousimoff (5/6/72)

- Strong Kobayashi vs. Rusher Kimura (7/9/72) - IWE title defense for Strong. I really thought this was pretty good and native vs. native in 1972, outside of a round-robin setting, was very rare. I know Kobayashi was mostly horrible but the IWE Strong seemed to be a lot more motivated.

- Rusher Kimura vs. Blackjack Mulligan (10/10/73)

- Strong Kobayashi/The Great Kusatsu vs. The Hollywood Blonds (1/26/74) - The original Blonds, like the Andersons, have to be on a '70s Yearbook somewhere. I haven't seen much in the way of Florida films so maybe there's something there that would trump this.

- Ashura Hara vs. Mile Zrno (WWU Jr. Heavyweight title, 5/6/79)

- Mighty Inoue vs. Geoff Portz (5/26/75) - Severe clippage but Portz looks incredible. Probably the True Lost Worker of the '70s.

- Mighty Inoue vs. Andre the Giant (7/17/79)

- Ashura Hara vs. The Dynamite Kid (7/21/79)

 

 

New Japan:

- Antonio Inoki vs. Johnny Powers (3/13/77) - I think there are 3 of these bouts and I may not have the right date, but it's the match with Lou Thesz as guest referee.

- Antonio Inoki vs. Roland Bock (12/29/78) - from Germany

- Antonio Inoki vs. Bob Roop (1/12/79)

- Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Jack Brisco (4/27/79)

- Tatsumi Fujinami vs. El Solitario (5/10/79)

[PeteF3]

PWF Heavyweight Title changes:

 

- Giant Baba vs. Tor Kamata (6/1/78)

- Tor Kamata vs. Billy Robinson (6/12/78)

- Billy Robinson vs. Abdullah the Butcher (10/18/78)

- Abdullah the Butcher vs. Giant Baba (2/10/79) - Chicago, shown on AJPW Classics

 

The first two really just need the ending clips plus the Kamata/Robinson confrontation after Kamata's fluke title win. Robinson vs. Abby is fun with Robinson pulling Abby into an actual wrestling match. There's also an earlier Robinson/Abdullah match from '76 that's Abby pulling Robinson into a brawl.

 

NWF Heavyweight title changes in New Japan:

 

- Johnny Powers vs. Antonio Inoki (12/10/73)

- Antonio Inoki vs. Tiger Jeet Singh (3/13/75). Inoki forfeited the title out of refusal to defend against Singh, thus we got Inoki vs. Singh for the vacant title...yeah.

- Tiger Jeet Singh vs. Antonio Inoki (6/26/75)

 

I know it's Singh but God knows this feud has to be represented somehow.

[Ricky Jackson]

The guy who really came off in these clips as the Lost Worker of the '70s, to me, was Blackjack Mulligan.

I recently stumbled upon a WWWF TV match from 6/4 1975 between the Blackjacks (w.Albano) and Dominic DeNucci/Victor Rivera while lurking on DVDVR that turns into what must be one of the wildest, crazy-ass Memphis-style brawls a McMahon-owned wrestling company has ever produced in any era. A must see. Here's the write-up from Cawthon's site:

 

Blackjack Mulligan & Blackjack Lanza fought WWWF Tag Team Champions Dominic DeNucci & Victor Rivera to a no contest in a non-title match at 11:46; at the 5-minute mark, Capt. Lou Albano came ringside, stopping by the announce area to say that the Blackjacks were now his team; minutes later, Albano began physically interfering in the match, leading to a brawl between the two teams on the floor and in the ring; in the ensuing battle, the wooden ring steps were used as a weapon, wrestlers were thrown into the ringpost, Rivera assaulted the Blackjacks with a wooden chair, and Albano broke off part of the ring steps and assaulted Rivera with them; the bell rang as the show was about to go off the air and Rivera was fighting off the Blackjacks on the floor with the chair; after the match, untelevised, a near riot is said to have happened that led police to using tear gas (Albano's surprise debut with the Blackjacks)

[jdw]

- Strong Kobayashi/The Great Kusatsu vs. The Hollywood Blonds (1/26/74) - The original Blonds, like the Andersons, have to be on a '70s Yearbook somewhere. I haven't seen much in the way of Florida films so maybe there's something there that would trump this.

They are at least two matches in NJ that are out there:

 

NJ Classics:

10/02/75 NA Tag Titles: Inoki & Sakaguchi vs. Jerry Brown & Buddy Roberts

1: Sakaguchi (17:31 pin) Roberts

2: Roberts (13:56 pin) Sakaguchi

3: Inoki (4:18 pin) Brown

 

Inoki 50th Anniversay DVD:

08/01/76 Inoki & Sakaguchi vs. Jerry Brown & Buddy Roberts

 

The date on that strikes me as wrong: they didn't face each other on that date. I suspect it's this:

 

Taped 08/01/75 at the Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles

1. North American Tag Title: Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi nc Buddy Roberts & Jerry Brown (13:09, 13:12)

 

I don't know if Dan got that Inoki 50 set given the insane price and the generally thought that most of the stuff was duplicative.

 

It's probably worthwhile to keep *both* the IWE and the 10/02/75 NJPW match. It's a good comp. Kusatsu was pretty much the tag "anchor" in IWE from 1970-78, not unlike Sak was in NJPW. They're paired with the two aces of the promotions, and against what was generally thought of as one of the best US tag teams of the 70s. It's not like they both need to be great~! matches: they're of great historical value to see how the Blondes could go. Probably not a lot of matches out there with them.

 

John

[Bix]

Mulligan vs Jerry Blackwell from the 1978 JCP year in review shows is also really good.

[FLIK]

For IWE I remember thinking Strong Kobayashi vs Don Leo Jonathon from sometime in 72 was really good.

[Rock_Of_Jericho]

Admittedly, I haven't seen much from the 70's, but a few I watched recently that I enjoyed:

 

Terry Funk Vs. Jumbo Tsuruta 6/11/76

The Funk Bros. Vs. Abdullah The Butcher & The Shiek 7/15/79 & 12/13/79

Jerry Lawler Vs. Harley Race 12/77 (One-Hour Draw)