JWA June 1985 - Factions Draft! Festival of Champions!

[gordi]

Really good card in Kyoto as well! Must've been really appreciated by the crowd attending the show!

Yeah, those Kyoto crowds are not quite as boisterous as, say, Osaka or Fukoaka crowds... but I am pretty sure they were into it.

 

What a night for the Americans. Luger, the Nightmares and Funk better be on their toes. I bet not too many Americans leave Japan with victories in the end of their tours

This is a bit of a unique situation, as all of the foreign visiting talent on this tour are champions defending their titles. It would be quite an upset if one of the JWA guys won and took the belt!

[gordi]

JWA Festival of Champions: End of the Tour. June 21st, Tokyo, Ryogoku Kokugikan - Seven Title Matches and Faction Wars II

 

AWA Southern Champion “Playboy” Buddy Rose vs Mighty Inoue

A battle between two kind-of-pudgy guys who are, despite their appearance, actually superb athletes. The story of the match was Rose and Inoue struggling to get dominant positioning behind their opponent. Inoue, in order to hit his Belly-to-Back Suplex, and Rose in order to hit his Belly-to-Back Backbreaker. They ran through over a dozen variations of “one wrestler tries to get behind the other, while the other tries to block or escape that predicament” without ever repeating themselves. It was Pro Wrestling as Art, and it was beautiful. In the end Rose won the struggle, and the match.

 

JWA Heavyweight Champion Black Tiger vs Dos Caras

Once again, the moment that Black Tiger’s opponent had a clear advantage on the middleweight champ, Riki Choshu made an appearance on the entrance ramp. This time, however, before Choshu could call out the reinforcements he was attacked out of nowhere by Dos Caras’ brother, Mil Mascaras! The crowd went crazy as Mascaras held off Choshu and his minions while Dos Caras took care of business in the ring. A couple of Flying Cross Chops and one Sitout Powerbomb later, and JWA had a new middleweight champion.

Mil Mascaras posed proudly with his brother during the belt-awarding ceremony.

 

 

AWA American Champion Lex Luger vs Yoshiaki Yatsu

Luger came to the ring accompanied by Rusher Kimura, who translated as Luger bragged that no wrestler in the JWA is powerful enough to withstand his Backbreaker Hold. Kimura and Luger then strutted and flexed in the ring… until Ashura Hara and Yoshiaki Yatsu came charging down the aisle. All four men brawled in the ring, out of the ring, and around the ring. Hara and Kimura continued brawling on the outside while Luger and Yatsu beat the count back into the ring. Luger got to his feet first, and knocked Yatsu down with a forearm smash. He then hoisted the former Olympian into position for the Argentine Backbreaker, but Yatsu fought his way out with knees and elbows. Yatsu then got Luger in position for a Powerbomb… but Rusher Kimura clobbered Yatsu with a big Lariat before he could hit the move. The ref called for the bell, awarding the match to Yatsu by DQ, and all four men brawled to the back.

 

Continental Heavyweight Champion Bruiser Brody vs Bam Bam Bigelow

For ten solid minutes, Brody ran through his move-set while Bigelow bumped and sold for him. Right at the ten minute mark, the veteran Continental Heavyweight Champion hit the young challenger with a King Kong Knee Drop and the referee counted one… two… only for Brody to pull Bigelow up before the three-count and indicate to the crowd that he was going to dish out even more punishment. Brody whipped Bigelow into the corner and charged at him, but at the last second Bigelow dodged out of the way. Brody hit the turnbuckles full force, and Bigelow rolled him up with a handful of tights for a very close 2.9 count. This enraged Brody, who whipped Bam Bam into the ropes… only to get caught by surprise when Bigelow knocked him off his feet with a dropkick on the rebound. Bigelow then hit a Running Senton and went up to the top corner… but Brody knocked him off, and the two men brawled outside of the ring. Brody went into the crowd, scattering the fans, and came back out to ringside holding a folding chair. This brought Adrian Adonis and Phil Hickerson charging down the hanamichi to defend their stable-mate. As the referee tried to restore order Riki Choshu came out of the crowd with a chair of his own, and absolutely clobbered Brody. He then disappeared back into the crowd, while the ref managed to send Hickerson and Adonis back to the dressing room. Bigelow picked Brody up, tossed him back into the ring, went to the top turnbuckle, and flew onto Brody with a big Diving Splash. Three counts later and the crowd went crazy for Bigelow – despite his heel status – as he became the first JWA roster member to beat a visiting foreign champ in the JWA ring.

 

Faction Wars II: Team Giant Baba vs Fujinami’s Family – Tsuruta, Hara, Sayama, Misawa, and Takada vs Fujinami, Kimura, Koshinaka, Sting, and Kido

The first fifteen minutes of this match were dominated by Fujinami’s Family, with Hara, Misawa, and Takada doing most of the selling and Fujinami and Blade Runner Sting providing most of the offense. The turning point came when Takada made a hot tag to Tsuruta, who got a couple of quick near-falls on Sting. The young American managed to make it back to his corner, where he tagged Osamu Kido in to the match. Kido went straight at Jumbo, but quickly found himself isolated in Team Giant Baba’s corner. A series of quick tags led to Kido eating one big move after another: A Samoan Drop from Hara, a Wrist-Clutch Tiger Suplex from TMII, a Jumping Sole Kick from Esperanza, a Piledriver from Jumbo, and finally a Moonsault from Tiger Mask Sayama to finish things off.

 

***BREAK***

 

JWA Tag Team Champions The Giants vs Abdullah the Butcher and Umanosuke Ueda

Still furious about what had happened in Kyoto, The Giants went straight at Ueda and The Butcher before the bell even rang. Within minutes, all four men were bleeding as they brawled around the ring. Andre mis-timed an out of control charge at Umanosuke Ueda and ended up spilling over the barricade into the front row seats. Ueda and Abdullah took advantage of this opportunity, tossing Baba back into the ring and working him over savagely with throat thrusts and foreign object attacks. Baba fought back valiantly, though and he managed to take back the momentum even before Andre made his way back to the ring apron. Abdullah was trapped in the ring ropes, and Andre punished him with hard chops before allowing the Butcher to tag his partner into the match. Ueda was reluctant to face Andre one-on-one, and with good reason. The 520-pound Giant tossed the blonde heel around the ring and knocked him silly with a huge Head-Butt before finishing him off with a Sitout Splash that looked like it crushed Ueda’s rib-cage.

 

NWA United States Champion and NWA Canadian International Heavyweight Champion Terry Funk vs Bad News Allen

While the Tag Title match was an out-of-control bloody brawl, this was more of an in-control technical brawl. Funk and Allen threw punches, kicks, knees, elbows, head-butts, and chops but the action mostly stayed in the ring and nobody used weapons or performed any manoeuvres more dirty than the occasional eye-poke or forehead bite. There weren’t a whole lot of holds or moves exchanged, this was just two tough men wearing each other down with vicious strikes for almost twenty minutes. This was a completely different match from the one Funk fought with Jumbo in Aichi, but he seemed completely in his element here as well. I guess that’s why so many consider him one of the greatest of all time. Allen more than held up his end and he almost took Funk’s belt after hitting an Enzuigiri… but in the end it was two consecutive Piledrivers that put Bad News down for the count.

 

JWA Champion Tenryu vs Don Muraco

This was almost a minimalist power match, as the two big men bulled each other around the ring, engaged in an epic Test of Strength spot, and traded heavy chops and forearm blows. Muraco proved himself to be one of the very few men who can match Tenryu’s power in the ring. The muscular Hawaiian got near-falls off of a Samoan Drop and a Shoulder-breaker. Tenryu got a near-fall of his own after a Leg-feed Enzuigiri, and Muraco responded to the change in momentum by going after Tenryu’s eyes. That only made the JWA champ angry, however, and he responded by kicking Muraco in the face, taking his head off with a vicious Lariat, and ending things with a Folding Powerbomb.

 

After the matches Luger, Muraco, and Bad News were hanging out backstage when they were confronted by Baba, Tenryu, Kengo Kimura, Yatsu, and Hara. The Japanese wrestlers approached the American heels and… presented them with expensive bottles of sake while thanking them for their hard work and contributions to the promotion.

For his part, Luger handed out scarlet, silver and white Memphis Showboats USFL jerseys. He even had a custom one in Baba’s size. We all wore them that night, at the end-of-tour party, where we ate and drank and traded stories until the sun came up.

 

[SirEdger]

Ah, nice touch with the USFL jersey!

[Jesse Ewiak]

Soon, that jersey will be worth less than the bottles of sake!

 

As somebody catching up with this project, love what you've been doing in Japan when honestly, with the way projects like this work out, it makes sense for their to be one "super promotion," for logistics reasons. Only slight downside is the factions and size of the roster sometimes leads me to having to double check which sides both folks are on, but honestly, I have to do that when looking at RL New Japan results as well.

[kevinmcfl]

Great stuff. Love how you always give the business and backstage side of wrestling. The glimpse into the locker room with the jersey and sake was very realistic but no fan ever thought of it. Many of us write from that fans perspective but you give us a unique look into what wrestling truly was and is.

[GeneJackson95]

What a win for Bam Bam, can't for him to come defend it on the Continental area!

[agentofenton]

I'm just catching up on reading alot of the shows. Finally got to read these three really fun and entertaining shows! I love everything about how you work the matches, the way you write it up and deliver it to the reader.

 

Flair's match was unbelievable. It sets up the rematch in the USA on the Bash tour! Funk is Japan is just awesome.

 

Lex Luger had a real nice run here, showing why he is the American Champion.

 

The stables concept is really fun, looking forward to the future of that.

 

The talent here is incredible. VERY exciting and fun read.

[dexstar]

Funk vs Bad News is a siiiick matchup and one that - almost unbelievably to me since Funk was so well traveled and active at the same time - I can't find any evidence of ever happening IRL.

 

Would grab a videotape of Luger vs. Yatsu too.

 

Assuming Don was in the mood to go, that Tenryu-Muraco match might be the best one on the card IMO.

[gordi]

Ah, nice touch with the USFL jersey!

 

Thanks. Luger would have just been coming off his final season in '85, and the USFL was on the verge of cancelling the '86 season and collapsing... so it felt like a thing that could actually happen.

 

Soon, that jersey will be worth less than the bottles of sake!

 

As somebody catching up with this project, love what you've been doing in Japan when honestly, with the way projects like this work out, it makes sense for their to be one "super promotion," for logistics reasons. Only slight downside is the factions and size of the roster sometimes leads me to having to double check which sides both folks are on, but honestly, I have to do that when looking at RL New Japan results as well.

 

The sake that I drink is generally both delicious and reasonably-priced. However, high-end bottles of "daiginjo" sake that are frequently given as gifts can easily go for $100 or more. You can find replica USFL jerseys for less than that on eBay, but game-worn jerseys are still priced at over $200...

 

One of the reasons that I typed out little descriptions of every member of each faction is to help myself keep the names and personalities straight... so it's definitely not just you. Participating in this project has been (among other things) a real education in 1980s Japanese wrestling for me.

 

Great stuff. Love how you always give the business and backstage side of wrestling. The glimpse into the locker room with the jersey and sake was very realistic but no fan ever thought of it. Many of us write from that fans perspective but you give us a unique look into what wrestling truly was and is.

 

It's certainly not always the case, but the friendship and camaraderie in a pro wrestling locker room can be an amazing thing to see and experience. I'm always trying to get that across in one way or another. I figure that Baba's locker room would be one of the good ones, even with difficult personalities like Sayama, Inoki and Maeda involved.

 

What a win for Bam Bam, can't for him to come defend it on the Continental area!

 

I left him out of next month's tournament so he'd be free to come over whenever it suits you. He might defend the belt once of twice over here, as well.

 

I'm just catching up on reading alot of the shows. Finally got to read these three really fun and entertaining shows! I love everything about how you work the matches, the way you write it up and deliver it to the reader.

 

Flair's match was unbelievable. It sets up the rematch in the USA on the Bash tour! Funk is Japan is just awesome.

 

Lex Luger had a real nice run here, showing why he is the American Champion.

 

The stables concept is really fun, looking forward to the future of that.

 

The talent here is incredible. VERY exciting and fun read.

 

Thank you very much for the kind words. I've got such a loaded roster right now, and people are so generous when it comes to sending talent over here, so hopefully JWA will be able to keep putting on exciting and interesting match-ups. I get a real kick out of being able to book something like Flair vs Jumbo or Buddy Rose vs Mighty Inoue.

 

Funk vs Bad News is a siiiick matchup and one that - almost unbelievably to me since Funk was so well traveled and active at the same time - I can't find any evidence of ever happening IRL.

 

Would grab a videotape of Luger vs. Yatsu too.

 

Assuming Don was in the mood to go, that Tenryu-Muraco match might be the best one on the card IMO.

 

And that's the most fun: being able to book real-life dream matches that may never have happened.

 

Muraco is an interesting one! Great look, real skill, hilarious personality.... but oh boy could he be lazy sometimes. My feeling is that a match-up with Tenryu (and a big Japanese pay day) should have pulled the good stuff out of him.

[Crazymax Jack]

Gordi, I've spent years studying each and every territory, decade by decade, so I appreciate you taking the time to make sure you know all about the guys you're writing for.

 

Also agreed that Tenryu vs. Muraco could steal any show if Don is motivated. Though Muraco opted to be lazy most of the time in 87/88, even then when he felt like working he could. I'm sure a few Tenryu chops will motivate anyone.

My favorite kind of sake is free sake.

[gordi]

Gordi, I've spent years studying each and every territory, decade by decade, so I appreciate you taking the time to make sure you know all about the guys you're writing for.

 

 

 

 

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. It's definitely an unexpected side benefit of participating in this project: I've been motivated to study 80s pro wrestling in Japan (nd elsewhere) and in turn that makes watching 80s wrestling much more enjoyable.

 

 

That's a whole barrel of free sake, courtesy of Asian Cooger/Kuuga

[dexstar]

 

 

Gordi, I've spent years studying each and every territory, decade by decade, so I appreciate you taking the time to make sure you know all about the guys you're writing for.

 

 

 

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. It's definitely an unexpected side benefit of participating in this project: I've been motivated to study 80s pro wrestling in Japan (nd elsewhere) and in turn that makes watching 80s wrestling much more enjoyable.

 

I third this notion - it was the push I needed to order the Puerto Rico set and is probably gonna push me to grabbing the Lucha one as well here shortly.