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Matches From 1975


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>>1975

>>#1 - Harley Race v Giant Baba (AJPW, 12/09) ****3/4

One of the greatest matches of all time. I don't really know what to say about it beyond that. I think Race is better at putting over Baba as a serious threat than anyone ever was. Some may have had slightly better matches with him, but the end result of Baba looking like a million bucks is something where no one can really touch Race.

 

>>#2 - The Destroyer v Hiro Matsuda (AJPW, 12/15) ****1/4

Destroyer does most of the work, Matsuda does a little, and they have a great match that's basically a one man show. Beautiful, defined build that is carried almost completely by Beyer. A must on a Destroyer comp, if one is ever done.

 

>>#3 - Stan Hansen v The Destroyer (AJPW, 10/30) ****

Here we go again. The most basic, great match that probably ever happened. Wrestlers with six months of training could do this, but won't.

 

>>#4 - Abdullah the Butcher v Dory Funk Jr (AJPW, 12/06) ***1/2

I remember nothing about this except that it was a pretty good brawl, or at least it seemed that way at the time. Need to watch again.

 

>>#5 - Jumbo Tsuruta v Horst Hoffman (AJPW, 12/06) ***1/2

Another match I don't remember much about. December of '75 seemed to have a lot of matches that were fundamentally pretty good that bored me to tears (except Baba/Race).

 

>>#6 - Jerry Lawler v Jack Brisco (CWA, 09/16 - Memphis, TN) ***1/2

Stands out like a sore thumb because it's basically an 80s-style US heavyweight match without the bumping, which is usually a strong suit for Lawler. Lots of cheating and shortcuts. Fun match.

 

>>#7 - Ric Flair v Wahoo McDaniel (Mid Atlantic, July) ***1/4

I always thought Flair and Wahoo worked well together, even early on. Mostly punching and kicking and little else, but fun to watch with lots of heat and energy.

 

>>#8 - Harley Race v Dusty Rhodes (AJPW, 12/06) ***

Another good match that I was expecting more out of because I wanted more of a face/heel line in the sand. Still solid stuff.

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  • 2 weeks later...

That Destroyer-Hansen match was really fun. Hansen looks like an extra for Land of the Lost. They work a good snug bout. My main complaint was I wasn't expecing the finish. It seemed they were building for a longer match. They do a great job of protecting Beyer's finisher as death.

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>>1975

>>#1 - Harley Race v Giant Baba (AJPW, 12/09) ****3/4

One of the greatest matches of all time. I don't really know what to say about it beyond that. I think Race is better at putting over Baba as a serious threat than anyone ever was. Some may have had slightly better matches with him, but the end result of Baba looking like a million bucks is something where no one can really touch Race.

 

 

Baba was really good in this, but Harley was phenomenal. The first 5 minutes Harley works hard enough for 2.I mean Harley just works his ass off in jumping into moves and holds for Baba. This is an all-time classic, and I agree with your rating.

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I enjoyed the Brisco-Lawler match. It seems you either love or hate Lawler. For the most part I have enjoyed his work. Sometimes when he worked heel he would stall too much in an attempt to get heat. For the most part his selling was great, took big bumps, timing was excellent, and had great heat in his matches. Just another really good match for both guys.

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AJPW, 12/13/75 - The Destroyer vs. Don Leo Jonathan

I know I had seen Jonathan before in MSG film because I remember his spots and being impressed by his agility. This may be the first time I see him in a full match. This was such a basic match (the first half of the match was just headlock and full nelson exchanges) and I imagine this was just all Destroyer, but the way Jonathan's 4-5 great visual "agile giant" spots were inserted into it was just perfect. Also, it shows you Destroyer is a 100 times better comedy wrestler than anybody in the US indies, because he does his subtle spots to get a chuckle the crowd, but doesn't take the crowd away from the competitiveness of the match like "LOLZ!!!!111 hes so funny" workers like Colt Cabana.

 

There are full Jonathan matches vs. Thesz and Gagne out there, so I'm interested in seeing how those compare to this, especially considering Jonathan was 20 years younger.

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Don doesn't look much better in any other matches.

 

There are other Don matches from the Open League that makes it clear that his Agile Giant spots are pretty much the same spots in every match, a bit like Taker walking the ropes. They start coming across as staged as Flair taking the corner bump or being tossed off the top. There really isn't much beyond them.

 

There's a 60s match with Bill Miller where he shows more working of holds in a single match than Don shows in all of his matches-on-tape combined. Don ends up being one of the more disappointing guys on tape.

 

 

John

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Mentioned before that these are recommended for Loss:

 

1975 Disc One

03/13/75 Jack Brisco vs Bobo Brazil

03/13/75 Baba/Tsuruta vs Dory/Terry

04/10/75 Jumbo Tsuruta vs Bob Orton

06/26/75 Antonio Inoki vs Tiger Jeet Singh

07/25/75 Destroyer vs Spirit

 

1975 Disc Two

10/09/75 Antonio Inoki vs Lou Thesz

10/30/75 Destroyer vs Stan Hansen

10/30/75 Giant Baba vs Kintaro Oki

12/11/75 Antonio Inoki vs Billy Robinson

 

1975 Open League Disc One

12/06/75 Opening Ceremony

12/06/75 Harley Race vs Dusty Rhodes

12/06/75 Abdullah vs Dory Funk

12/06/75 Giant Baba vs Baron Von Raschke

12/09/75 Hiro Matsuda vs Dusty Rhodes

12/09/75 Jumbo Tsuruta vs Horst Hoffman

12/09/75 Dory Funk vs Baron Von Raschke

12/09/75 Giant Baba vs Harley Race

 

1975 Open League Disc Two

12/13/75 Pat O'Connor vs Mighty Inoue

12/13/75 Destroyer vs Don Leo Jonathan

12/13/75 Jumbo Tsuruta vs Rusher Kimura

12/13/75 Giant Baba vs Abdullah

12/15/75 Pat O'Connor vs Dick Murdoch

12/15/75 Dory Funk vs Horst Hoffman

12/15/75 Abdullah vs Don Leo Jonathan

12/15/75 Giant Baba vs Jumbo Tsuruta

 

1975 Open League Disc Three

12/17/75 Mighty Inoue vs Hiro Matsuda

12/17/75 Destroyer vs Horst Hoffman

12/17/75 Dory Funk vs Don Leo Jonathan

12/17/75 Jumbo Tsuruta vs Abdullah

12/17/75 Giant Baba vs Rusher Kimura

12/18/75 Jumbo Tsuruta vs Dory Funk

12/18/75 Giant Baba vs Horst Hoffman

12/18/75 Closing Ceremony

 

They are *not* all great or good matches. The one nice thing about them is that it does give you quite a few comps. You get to see what Dory does against Don Leo, Abby and Von Raschke to compare with what others did with Don Leo, Abby and Von Raschke. His match with Hoffman is a direct comp with Hoffman's matches with Destroyer, Jumbo and Baba. In general, Dory wins in all the comps and the Open League might be the most definative group of matches out there that show his skills as a top worker. Considering all the jokes I've aimed at Dory over the years, that's a pretty high compliment from me.

 

On the "fun" scale, O'Connor vs Inoue is quite a bit of fun for matwork, and a good contrast to Inoue vs. Matsuda (and through it to Destroyer vs. Matsuda) and why some of us poke at the quality of Matsuda's matwork. O'Connor vs Murdoch heads in an entirely different direction (Stooge Dick), which can be entertaining in its own way.

 

There are matches on these sets that "just don't work" that offer great contrasts to later match ups that show what happens when they're more in synch. I'm thinking of the Jumbo-Baba and Jumbo-Kimura here that contrast to the 1976 matches that, for whatever hiccups here and there than they might have, really kick the living shit out of their 1975 pairings. In directly, the same would go in comping the 1975 Baba-Rusher and Jumbo-Rusher with the 1977 Open Tag League Baba & Jumbo vs. Rusher & Kasatsu match, since that later tag match offers a fuller picture of a "heated interpromotional league match" done right that's only hinted at in the 1975 singles matches.

 

It also puts the Billy-Inoki into its era context, which is even more refined by watching the 1976 matches Billy had with Baba and Jumbo. What you see is Billy and Inoki doing a fair amount of "cool stuff", but it also being disjointed with hard resets and Billy tending to work to his own drummer, especially when he seems to strongly go off the script down the stretch. I think interesting contrasts are the Dory-Horst match, where you have two wrestlers with widly different styles and Dory being forced to work very much out of his comfort zone. But in contrast Billy-Inoki, Horst and Dory seem to reach across their differences in style and working philosophy to craft a whole match that fits well together. And of course the Baba-Billy from 1976 is a match where the two lay out a wonderfully structured match that has plenty of time to breath (9:24, 6:08, 5:45), but remains nicely focused and tight.

 

I could ramble on more about those various 1969-76 disks, along with the 1977-79 AJPW Tag League disks, and the original version of the 1977-79 non-league. They get a little confusing since sells both the older/original version of Frank's 70s video comps, and also the newer versions. I suspect that on some trader's lists there get all mixed up. :) But they are chalk full of a shitload of both quailty matches and also matches that are useful for comparing.

 

 

John

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I will get to all of this eventually. I got burned out on 70s wrestling and need to watch a different style of wrestling for a while until I get tired of that. Right now, I'm watching more 80s WWF than anything else.

 

And I have all of those discs and will watch them all in full.

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Cool. I find the 1975 Open League and the 1977 Open Tag League as always being good sets to get me back into 70s wrestling. There's that variety of wrestlers, styles and quality of matches that starts getting my mind bouncing around. They also a certain arc to them because of the league format building to a "winner", so they're both a self contained unit but also make you think back to earlier match ups to watch, and later ones.

 

John

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