[2001-01-28-AJPW] Terry Funk & Atsushi Onita vs Abdullah the Butcher & Giant Kimala II

[GSR]

I’ve not seen much FMW, so when I hear ‘Wild Thing’ I automatically think of Rick Vaughn been called upon to bowl ‘heaters’ for the Cleveland Indians.  Onita, band aids on his face, looks cool as fuck in his leather jacket, cigarette hanging from his mouth and swamped by photographers as he makes his way towards the ring.  Funk grabs the microphone from Onita yelling “I’m home.  All Japan is my home, I started here and I want to die here.  All Japan and Shohei Baba is number one”.  Abby and Kimala don’t even make it to the ring, Funk and Onita going out to meet them on the floor.  ‘The Funker’ is bleeding before their opponents music has stopped as Abby uses what looks like a broken bottle on him.  The bottle gets used on Onita too while Funk’s white T-shirt rapidly turns red.  Kimala chokes Funk with a wire clothes hanger and Abby pulls out a fork that he jabs into his upper arm (which you see Funk blade).  Onita tries to help his partner but every time he gets near he’s thrown out the ring.  Running splash in the corner.  Kimala II heads upstairs however is caught by Onita who superplexes him to the mat.  Onita nails the Butcher, causing him to drop the fork, ‘the Funker’ picking it up and digging it into Abby’s scarred forehead.  Kimala saves Abby from a Funk spinning toe hold and gets a near fall following a splash.  Funk’s blade job is approaching ‘sick’ territory.  He avoids the Kimala big splash off the top, spinning toe hold and, with Onita preventing Abby from making the save, Kimala submits.  Post-match Onita joins Funk in making it a double spinning toe hold and the four continue to go at it until order is restored.  Onita puts his leather jacket back on as he and Funk once more address the crowd, an emotional Funk reiterating that “All Japan is number one”.

I remember Giant Kimala II from his ECW stint as Uganda and was surprised at how agile he was, a couple of years late he still has that agility.  A four way juice fest that without the bloody wouldn’t really be any good.  Not that it’s that good anyway, but it’s not offensive and Funk bleeds way more than you’d expect.  I have a hunch they were playing off previous Funk/Abby battles with the bottle, the carving up his arm, although not sure whether that was fully picked up on.

[soup23]

A spectacle that isn’t good but still worth watching. Funk is easily the best person here bleeding buckets and generally trying. Kimala is actively bad and all Abdullah is going to be doing at this stage of his career is a stalk and pry type attack with sharp objects. Onita just back and hanging out in AJPW didn’t feel as big as I thought it would in the dome atmosphere. Overall, a curious match to watch for historical purposes but it did have some fight at the nursing home vibes. **