[1980-05-02-AJPW] Abdullah The Butcher vs The Sheik

[SAMS]

1980-05-02
AJPW
Abdullah The Butcher vs. The Sheik
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Card
★★★★

The match itself didn’t even go 4 minutes but what a wild ride. It started out violent, with Sheik going right for the head with his hammer/spike thing and just viciously stabbing away. The referees tried to install some order but to no avail and both guys were DQ’d. What followed was 15 minutes of two guys just tearing at each other all over the arena. The crowd were soooo into this. It felt like they were a single organism with a hive mind - first they would swarm around the two competitors and then break apart, fleeing contact whenever they got too close. All the while Abby and Sheik were basically just straight up double choking each other. This didn’t feel like a choreographed fight, this felt like two guys in the playground who have snapped on each other being cheered on by the whole school. Every time the other AJPW wrestlers managed to separate them they would come back again and just collide into each other, without it feeling contrived at all. 
I remember being surprised the first time I felt that Abby was being cheered as a face, but this preceded those matches and boy was he really over with the crowd. The triumphant posturing post match that I saw in these two’s match later in November was present here as well, arms aloft in the ring this time as Sheik retreated.