[1980-04-04-AJPW] Jumbo Tsuruta vs Terry Funk

[SAMS]

1980-04-04
AJPW
Jumbo Tsuruta vs Terry Funk
Champion Carnival 1980 Match
Tendai Town Gymnasium, Chiba, Japan
Card
★★★

Terry is often described as the Gaijin babyface ace of All Japan but I wanted to see how the crowd responded when he matched up against somebody like Jumbo and it was pretty clear from the start, and throughout the match, that Terry was, in fact, the fan favourite between the two and he generated far stronger reactions at various points.
I think they spent far too long on the mat-work portion of the match, and what they did was rather poor. It felt at times that they were completely out of sync and it was hard to figure out what they were going for at various points. Things picked up a lot in the final 15 minutes or so when they just started throwing bombs at each other and we had a strong stretch where things reached a fever pitch. Ultimately they ran out of time and we had the predictable time limit draw.
Funk really stood out between these two as he just about did everything you’d want a wrestler to do better than Jumbo here: selling, bumping, facial expressions, great offense. Jumbo’s offense, especially his slam and suplexes, are great but that’s about the only thing he was able to match Terry on. There are glimpses here and there that I find promising but I think it’s obvious, especially when matched up against such a great babyface like Terry Funk, that Jumbo isn’t the kind of guy who’s inherently lovable. I think he could be likeable and obviously he wasn’t a heel that was looking to be disliked, but he didn’t have that loveable quality. Instead I feel like he works best when he leans into being more smug and more entitled. When he transitioned into his Grumpy Jumbo phase it was these qualities more than anything else that really solidified his persona. He was fighting to retain his top spot, he couldn’t believe that these young guys were trying to usurp him and those were the defining characteristics of late Jumbo. Either way, in 1980 he was still more of a bland generic babyface than any clearly defined character and I think it would have served him well if he’d leaned into those aspects of his personality sooner.

[tcg91]

This is slightly clipped, we get 24 minutes out of 30. I was disappointed with the match and so I had to watch it twice, but sadly I still am. I think Jumbo is the one to blame here; Terry is so much over than him and the crowd doesn't buy his matwork, especially because he doesn't do anything to effective or special. Funk sells, but nothing really good happens until they start throwing bombs in the last 10 minutes, which is understandable but all the limbo work goes out of the window in an instant. Funk is saving the match with his selling and the way he kicks out from Tsuruta's near falls, we get a predictable time limit draw before Terry can come back and bring his experience to the table.
***