[1977-07-28-AJPW] Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kintaro Oki

[KinchStalker]

This is a defense of Jumbo's NWA United National and of Oki's All Asia Heavyweight titles. It's also the ninth match of Tsuruta's ten-match Trial Series, which began with his March 1976 match against Verne Gagne and would end in the first week of 1979 with a victory over Fritz von Erich. I thought that this, alongside the fifth match in September 1976 against Bobo Brazil, would never see circulation again; however, this match finally entered my radar through a (now-deleted, but I backed it up) Japanese YouTube upload at literally the very end of 2020 (in my timezone, anyway). [EDIT 2021.08.19: Another YouTube channel has stepped in to preserve this match.]

One should at least watch the pair of 1976 tag matches between Baba/Jumbo and Oki/Kim Duk before seeing this, as there's necessary context there. Oki stalls on the outside at the beginning, clearly sending a message about his regard for Tsuruta. When we go to the working holds they're well done, with Oki's performance and Tsuruta's selling getting over his strength. He gets some stiff shots in, including his signature headbutt, after which he hits a scoop slam for a kickout. Jumbo recovers before him and hits the jumping knee, before getting the butterfly suplex for the first fall.

We then clip to five minutes into the second fall, where both men appear to be selling their thighs a bit. Jumbo grabs Oki's leg and even gets one spinning toe hold spin in before being pushed off. A few headbutts stun Jumbo, and Oki gets a headbutt to the solar plexus to set up a vertical suplex for a kickout. He stays the course though, and a second-rope jumping headbutt and one more standing gets him the second fall. The final fall is presented uncut. Neither man can get the big moves they go for so it's back to working holds at first, but then the tension finally spills over, and we end in a predicted but effective double countout after a nice back-and-forth finishing stretch. Baba at the commentary table finally gets into things after the match ends.

This isn't as essential as the aforementioned 1976 tag matches, but even with the five-minute trim it's a 70s Jumbo match that's worth seeing. After we only got the last few minutes of their 1976 Champion Carnival draw I'm grateful we have a much fuller chunk of this match, and I think it's also the only 2/3-falls singles title match from Oki's All Japan run on tape.. And it makes me even sadder that footage of Oki and Kim's tag title victory over Baba and Jumbo four months later, in South Korea, has not surfaced. ***1/4