[1980-06-22-AWA] Nick Bockwinkel vs Jumbo Tsuruta

[paul sosnowski]

Ughhh...this match is NOT complete.... Filmed exclusively for Japanese TV. Giant Baba is on commentary. One Fall match.

 

We are deep in the heart of the AWA, Minneapolis Minnesota. Nick Bockwinkel is accompanied by Bobby the Brain Heenan. Verne Gagne steps into the ring and says he wants to challenge the winner of this match, in the very near future. (He will get it July 18th in Chicago) Heenan gets in Verne's face, and gets slapped and hurled out of the ring. Mean Gene announces Jumbo as being "from the Orient"....ugh. Heenan is carried out.

 

They aggressively lock up three times. Jumbo gets Bockwinkel down with a headscissors...and we are CLIPPED. Less than one minute into the match.

 

We return with Bockwinkel in control of Jumbo's arm down on the mat. Jumbo gets up, whips Bockwinkel into the ropes and hits the high flying knee for a one count. He staggers Bock with uppercuts and a big elbowsmash to the back. He knocks Bockwinkel down again with a double hammer fist to the chest and kicks him hard in the back twice. The Minnesota crowd is solidly behind the young Japanese babyface star. He stomps on Nick's back five more times and goes for the camel clutch, but Nick quickly makes it to the ropes. He nails Jumbo with three elbows to the gut, but Jumbo lands a big overhead chop to Bock's head. He picks up Bockwinkel and twice hits the over the knee backbreaker, but only gets a one count. He stomps Nick's back three more times and hits a double sledgehammer. Jumbo looks to the crowd and rallies for support. Bobby Heenan has returned to ringside, as Jumbo hooks a deep single legged crab. Bockwinkel makes it up the ropes for a break, but then begs off in pain. Jumbo stomps Nick's back again, but Bockwinkel answers with two elbows to the midsection. Jumbo attempts to grab a headlock, but Bock pounds him with more elbows to the stomach. Bock fires a big punch to the head, and both men collapse to the mat. Bockwinkel is up first and goes for a bodyslam, but Jumbo falls on top for a two count. Jumbo grabs Bock for a high atomic drop and goes for the pin, but Nick's foot is on the ropes. Jumbo hits a double underhook and the crowd roars with glee. He whips Bockwinkel into the ropes and comes back with an abdominal stretch, but not for long...both men tumble between the ropes to the floor. Heenan comes over to help his man back in the ring.

 

Bockwinkel gets Jumbo in the corner and appears to rake his eyes, followed by a throat punch which the ref does not see. He underhandedly punches Jumbo twice again. I wonder if Heenan handed Nick something for the assist? Jumbo is woozy as Bock gets a two count. Bockwinkel goes for a piledriver, but Jumbo back body drops him. He whips Jumbo into the ropes, but Jumbo counters with a sunset flip for a two. The crowd is on its feet. Jumbo hits a piledriver on Bockwinkel and covers for one, but Bockwinkel comes back with another suspicious looking punch. Jumbo whips Bock to the ropes and drops down to the mat, but Nick leaps over him and both men collide and bonk heads, knocking each other silly.

Jumbo falls to the floor and the ref starts counting, but Bockwinkel reaches over and slams Jumbo's head on the apron twice. Bockwinkel won't let Jumbo back in the ring, hits four big punches and posts his head on the buckle. He then kicks Jumbo a few times and hits a high backbody drop for antoher two count. He whips Jumbo across the ring, but Jumbo answers with a knee to the face. Jumbo goes nuts and starts stomping Nick in the back eight times, before hooking the abdominal stretch. Bockwinkel doesn't stay in it long and flips Jumbo over...onto the referee. Jumbo gets a visual three count. Jumbo hits a dropkick and almost lands on the poor ref. Another three count as the crowd screams for the ref to wake up. Jumbo slams Bockwinkel and goes for another pinfall, but suddenly Bobby Heenan jumps on Jumbo and Bockwinkel gets DQ'd at 20:05. Jumbo stomps Bock a few more times but the ref continues to ring the bell. Bock gets up and takes a swing at Jumbo, but is overwhelmed by his chops and tumbles to the floor. Bockwinkel and Heenan slink away, but keep the title.

 

Now, I said this match was not complete. Only 14:45 of 20:05 is shown. But the ring announcer also says the time of the match is 23:17, so either the AWA was padding time and the Japanese TV called them out on it. I can't rate the match higher than 3 1/2 *** due to the clipping and also the shitty finish. But it was good for awhile.

[SAMS]

1980-06-22
AWA
Nick Bockwinkel vs Jumbo Tsuruta 
AWA World Heavyweight Title Match
Minneapolis Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
Card
★★★

Whereas Baba looked like he couldn’t give a shit in his match, Jumbo looked extremely motivated to capture Bockwinkel’s AWA Title. Jumbo was mostly on the offensive and Bockwinkel really didn’t have many stretches of offensive control but I loved how he sold here for Jumbo, pretty understated, exhaustive selling that worked really well in context.
Jumbo here really seemed to be able to connect to the crowd, likely that they were cheering more for Bockwinkel to lose than for Jumbo to win, but he was able to harness that energy to generate strong reactions at several points. 
This didn’t have any real standout moments to speak of but I thought it was solidly entertaining bell to bell. By the end Jumbo had beaten down Bockwinkel to the point where he had him pinned multiple times over, however an errant hip toss had incapacitated the referee and he wasn’t able to count the pin. Just when I thought they were going to do the classic reverse with Bockwinkel stealing it at the last, the referee actually gave Jumbo the win as he saw Heenan interfering in an earlier pin attempt. The finish felt a little cheap, but to be expected if they weren’t going to have the title change hands. 
Baba was actually on commentary and early in the match I’m certain he and his co-commentator had discussed that in this match specifically the title would change hands on a DQ. They seemed very confused by the finish as they waited for Okerlund’s official announcement that in fact Bockwinkel had retained the title.

[tcg91]

This was technically decent, not a bad match at all, but it was kind of disappointing knowing what these two can do in the ring. Part of the reason is that Jumbo wasn't super over with the American crowd, even though he gradually won them over towards the end of the match, which is good news. Bock was efficient as usual in his heat segment on the challenger, working on Jumbo's arm and then selling his comeback in a very believable way. Bock was definitely better than Tsuruta here, but he was involved in one of the worst referee bumps I have ever seen, so we get a predictable non-finish to boot.
***