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Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta


Grimmas

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Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Harley Race & Dick Slater 82' Dec Tag League

 

Story here is Baba is an unbeatable force of nature and you won't beat him no matter what! Who is that Jumbo guy? He don't matter! Baba IS.

 

There were certainly other choices that could have been made here to make this more compelling as Race starts off during the handshake building up his inevitable collision with Baba. Unfortunately this narrative string promptly gets deflated as Jumbo tags him in while he has Race in a headlock. So rather than milking the moment and letting the face come in to triumphantly stand off with the heel, Baba only comes in when he has the advantage. That sucks! The second half of the match is a long heat segment on Baba which is somewhat deflated when I thought he kicked out of a backdrop suplex/middle rope headbutt combination at a zero because Lou Thez is a shitty referee and was counting off camera. This was also after a piledriver on the concrete but that move means less than nothing in Japan. Baba comes back from a bunch of punishment by tossing Slater into Race and getting a Russian legsweep. Jumbo should have just taken the night off since he played very little part in this encounter. Slater was in the ring more but didn't really capture your attention in any meaningful way.

 

Watching some more Jumbo and Baba while typing up my thoughts, they come off very much like two guys with little to no continuity. They don't follow normal structure for sure, but that structure works and what they are doing, doesn't.

 

Best part of the match was Slater and Race dropping a double knee, that was pretty swank.

 

Notes in Spoiler

 

 

Race and Baba have a stare down in the prematch handshake and its pretty great

Starting with the other two makes sense if they are carrying that story as two mentor-student teams

They don't do much, Harley, he should dominate

Harley leapfrog and Jumbo cross body

Baba gives advice but doesn't tag in until Jumbo gets a head lock, odd choice

Harley tries a slam but it doesn't work

baba headlock takedown

Harley gets the advantage with a suplex but misses headbutt

Jumbo in with a high knee well executed, front facelock and HArley tries to counter with suplex and gets it

knee drop

tag to Slater, top rope elvow, piledriver delayed and Baba saves

powerslam gets two

elbow off the ropes

ab stretch

Oh hey, Lou Thez is the referee with his prototype Zubaz

Baba chop breaks and Jumbo gets the stretch

Harley gets cut off from the save and Slater gets out

GEts a backbreaker and holds Slater on his knee

Baba BOOT and Slater gets knocked to the outside

Slater takes over, he's not really adding a lot here

Double knee drop, someone should steal that

Harley piledriver, diving headbutt, foot on the ropes

BIG chop

Baba sends Harley over the top and Jumbo jumps him on the outside

Harley goes to the top but gets Flair'd

Slater back in and the USA gets a double punch off the ropes

Spinning toe hold to the figure four

Jumbo tries to save but Thez cuts him off

Baba gets to the ropes

Piledriver on the floor from Race

Jumbo posts Slater

Baba gets back in the ring and sells the knee

belly-to-back from Slater, diving headbutt from Race for a what I though was a 0 count, but Thez counts really badly

suplex from Race for 2

Baba is bleeding

punch flurry from Slater

gut wrench suplex for 2? Thez counts suck

Baba throws Slater into Race and hits Russian legsweep for the three.

 

 

 

 

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