[1978-01-20-AJPW] Harley Race vs Jumbo Tsuruta

[superkix]

The first two falls of this match are unfortunately clipped, roughly half an hour of footage, but when the first fall opens with Harley in a grounded side headlock, you get the sense that he’s already been through a battle as he’s grunting and sweat-drenched, swigging beer between falls. Jumbo really works that side headlock, releasing at one point to elbow the back of Harley’s head (that facial!) before reapplying it. Race backdrops his way out of the hold and delivers a big vertical suplex for the first fall. The second fall kicks in with Jumbo working Harley’s leg, and turning an atomic drop into a small package to even the score. During the third fall, they start throwing the bombs: suplexes, piledrivers, elbows, and headbutts. I love Jumbo’s beautiful deadlift belly-to-bellies and Harley’s awesome grinding knees. In the end, Jumbo is chasing Harley around, trying to submit him with the spinning toehold before the time limit expires. Based on what’s available, the match seemed like a really good slog but without the complete narrative, it’s hard to really evaluate it.

[Jetlag]

I like this fine, but probably wouldn't recommend it. It was pretty slow and didn't have a any great story to it to keep things together, but Race put a good beating on Jumbo, and there were a few funny bits and bumps. Also those deadlift suplexes. Jumbo seemed to have issues with his selling here. Somehow I get the feeling that they didn't clip anything too exciting from the match.

[Sean Reedy]

30 minutes air out of 60. Its fine, nothing too surprising, slog is the right word.