[1970-08-04-JWA] Giant Baba & Antonio Inoki vs Dory & Terry Funk

[Superstar Sleeze]

NWA International Tag Team Champions Giant Baba & Antonio Inoki vs Dory & Terry Funk - JWA 8/4/1970 Two Out of Three Falls

Cagematch has Baba & Inoki listed as B-I Cannon which I dont know how I feel about, but a cool piece of trivia. We only get 12 minutes or so of a 32 minute match so no rating, but this has a lot going for it. Terry Funk with bright blond hair definitely stood out, took me a second to recognize him. The Funks worked as very American heels. Loved Terry taking the Ray Stevens bump into Dory Funk as Dory was hanging in the Tree of Woe. It is interesting that Baba was the one who liked to sell more and play that sympathetic role while Inoki brought the piss & vinegar on the hot tag. Baba did come roaring back. The Funks needed to double up all their moves on the Giant, double fists and double butterfly suplex. When Baba & Inoki look like they have things going their way, The Funk clobber the ref and throw him out. This triggers the DQ in the first fall. Missing 20 minutes of the first fall. The second fall is complete. It features a great Terry Funk bump to the floor and some badass Baba offense. He starts red-hot against Dory and then just dismantles Terry's bandaged knee. If we had the full thing, I bet this would go down as an all-time great tag team match!

[Rjhabeeb]

B-I Canon (Baba & Inoki) are defending their NWA International Tag Team championships. What we have here is clipped but what we see is a fantastic sprint of a tag match. Terry is making his tv debut in Japan and may look a lot younger but works like you’d imagine. Dory is still the lead of the team and the vastly superior worker here but together they are great. The Funks lose the first fall by DQ after Dory tosses the referee out of the ring. The second fall is just a pure sprint with all four men in and out until Baba gets a submission from Terry Funk with a boston crab. N/R