[1980-01-04-Houston Wrestling] Mr Hito vs Nick Kozak

[shoe]

I loved the opening stuff. The salt ceremony always works. JJ Dillon was great in his role. The crowd was into this as an undercard bout. Kozack saluting the flag got the crowd really behind him. I really like Hito's work on top. The leg work was well done and set up the narrative of the match. Kozack was solid as a babyface and seemed solid in his role as fired up babyface. So for what they were doing on the card it worked. 2 1/4*

[Jetlag]

Kozack was pro wrestling af in this match. Awesome mustache, saluting the american flag, looking like your sports teacher etc. This looked like a bullshitfest to start, but turned into a wrestling match with Hito bringing some leg work. Kozack kind of reminded me of Axel Dieter here, his exaggerated movements and passionate charisma being really endearing. Long chinlock grinds the match to a halt before Kozack goes down to a bunch of those dreadful japanese chops.

[drew wardlaw]

Hey its Bret Harts trainers! Kind of a neat moment there. The opening ceremony is GREAT and JJ taking forever to roll up the flag, combined with his outfot is pure gold. Kozack gives a ceremony of his own and really gets fired up st the beginning of the match, nice stuff. I thought Hito brought the match down a bit, he didnt seem to match the energy that Kozack had. I like the idea of slowing him down and keeping him in holds but it stared to feel rest hold-ish rather than working a hold. I liked the strike exchange building up for the finish though, with the quick shot, which Paul Boesch speculates about fingers to the throat of Kozack.

[soup23]

JJ was highlight to me and good to see pre JCP stuff from him. Work drug even at ten minutes. Chop finish by Hito looked good. *1/2