[1980-03-05-AJPW] Jumbo Tsuruta vs Dick Murdoch (2/3 falls)

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Superstar Sleeze]

NWA United National Champion Dick Murdoch vs Jumbo Tsuruta - AJPW 3/5/80

 

Dick Murdoch just gets pro wrestling. He is a total pro in terms of offense and selling. In the first fall, he tortures Jumbo's arm with a ton of armbar variation and grinding his elbows and knees into the arm. He is also great at cutting off Jumbo. He is not just going to let Jumbo throw him in the ropes, he delivers a blow to the midsection and then nails him with an elbow. When it comes time to sell for Jumbo is so incredible. They way sells shots to the face, especially the high knee is great. The grappling in this fall is some of the best, most engaging pro style grappling I have seen. Really liked Jumbo's escape of an armbar to hoist into the airplane spin and then FU. Proves that with right presentation that you get anything over as a finish because nobody really bought the FU as a finish in 1980, but in 2005 it was. Murdoch's verbal selling is so great. He does get a couple more heel hope spots, but eventually succumbs to the gutwrench suplex. Nothing flashy about this fall, but really, really well-worked. I loved the basic, fundamental approach. Jumbo 1-0.

 

Second fall is usually a quick a fall and this is no exception. Jumbo looks to press his advantage with a big atomic drop that Dicky Murdoch sells beautifully. He lures him into the corner by begging off only kick him in the Jumbo Jewels. This is not the transition to heat, which I don't care for. Respect the ballshot! Especially since Murdoch was going over in this fall and in short order. The eventual transition is punches in the corner, just seems weird. Murdoch rides him down from the top with a knee and then his brainbuster to even the score. Tied 1-1.

 

Third fall is way shorter than I expected! For shame. Murdoch is in control riding his wave of momentum with elbows to the throat and then an elbow drop from the top rope. Jumbo is gasping for breath and looks unlikely that he will regain his championship. Until, he actually hotshots Murdoch! Jumbo finally gets it on someone else. I did not watch the match where he lost the title a couple weeks before this, but I wonder if he lost on a hotshot. He cradles him up for the win. I really liked the finish.

 

Murdoch was awesome in this and just an exhibition of why he is an all-time great. Jumbo felt like a wrestler with something to prove. He had not grown into his ace role yet. He needed to regain his title so he came in with a challenger mindset. Plenty of great offense and he sold well. This was a really strong, meat and potatoes match, just disappointing that second and third falls were not longer. ****

[JKWebb]

I also like how Murdoch grinds his elbow into the face and neck of Jumbo when he's working the armbar. Jumbo does a nice job selling the arm while on offense. I like this match a lot more than the match from the previous month between the two. I love how violent Jumbo starts the second fall. He smells blood and wants the belt back. In the previous match, Murdoch won the first fall with the BB, and eventually Jumbo started working over his neck. It's a little reversed here because Jumbo wins the first fall and the second fall is won by Murdoch with the BB. Murdoch then works over Jumbo's neck, but Jumbo gets the win with the small package. To answer your question Marty, he didn't lose it on a hotshot. In the previous match Jumbo went for a flying knee off the top, connected, but landed weird and sold a knee injury. Murdoch went after the knee, and pinned him by pushing down on the injured knee. It's a good match, but I liked this one better.

[SAMS]

1980-03-05
AJPW
Dick Murdoch (c) vs. Jumbo Tsuruta
NWA United National Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match
Civic Auditorium, Kuroiso, Tochigi, Japan
Card
★★

Here’s the title rematch with Murdoch now the NWF champion. In contrast to their previous match where I thought that Murdoch had the far better performance, here I felt that Jumbo came to play much stronger. He just seemed more engaged and this certainly was his best performance of the year so far. His offense had nice energy to it, looked really good and I liked how he sold when asked to.
Murdoch however didn’t have the same snap to his offense that you would expect and he was too happy to just sit in holds for my liking. Usually he’s a blast to watch when he’s working from on top, but here something was lacking. The turnbuckle bump he ate at the death was pretty brutal though and this allowed Jumbo to get him into a small package for the win. Also will say that the 1st fall was heavily clipped and we lost a few minutes in the rest of the match also which couldn’t have helped things, but with what we’ve got of it, it was an okay match but really had nothing special to it.

[tcg91]

Once again, an All Japan match gets clipped and we get only 20 minutes of a match that actually lasted 30 minutes. But, to be fair, this was solid and never became anything special, so this is not a tragedy. The crowd didn't help much, as they sat back for most of it. Murdoch looked good when he got to dictate the pace of the match, while Jumbo seemed to be a bit off at the beginning, before changing gear in the last few minutes of the match and also managing to wake up part of the crowd. It's still a solid match and the best part of it is Murdoch trying to break Jumbo's neck, before Tsuruta finally gets a reaction. I liked the small package from Jumbo at the end, fighting from underneath to make Murdoch look good in defeat
***1/4