[1980-12-05-AJPW-Real World Tag League] Abdullah The Butcher & Tor Kamata vs The Funks (Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk)

[SAMS]

1980-12-05
AJPW
Abdullah The Butcher & Tor Kamata vs The Funks (Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk)
Real World Tag League 1980 Match
Prefectural Civic Hall, Kochi, Japan
★★
Card

I’m tempted to say that this was actually good, but it suffers from too many flaws to reach that level. Having said that there are a couple excellent elements to this that made it so fun to watch at points.
The aim of the game early for the Funks was keep-away from Abby on the outside. This mostly meant holding Kamata in a standing headlock, but at least Terry made this engaging, showing struggle when Kamata was edging his way to his corner and also kicking out at Abby to fend off any potential tag. When Dory was in however we just got a plain old headlock and his blank stare off into the distance.
Finally they started actually dishing out some double team moves on Kamata to get some action going and Dory busted him open with a series of punches to the head (Dory is 2 for 2 making someone bleed with punches in this tournament. Were his punches the low key most deadly move in AJPW at this time or what?) Terry whiffed on a cross body and took a tumble to the outside which gave Kamata an opening and it wasn’t long before he finally made the tag to Abby. I should mention that Abby got what could almost be described as a face reaction when he was introduced, so I have a sense he wasn’t a straight up heel at this point, and the finish to his match vs the Sheik would play into that narrative as well. Face or no, Abby still loves his forks, and Terry took one right in the eye here for a nasty cut. Dory got juice too, brawling in the crowd with Kamata, but it was the Terry show from this point on, flailing about blinded from the attack and Abby sadistically just took him to pieces before nailing a series of elbow drops. 
In the end Kamata tagged in, found himself on the top rope for some godforsaken reason, Dory took him out with a chair shot before he rounded on Abby and into the crowd they went. Terry was done for after his beatdown from Abby and Kamata wasn’t moving a muscle either, so Joe was forced to count, and to 10 he did count and we finished with a tie.
This stretch has been the most fun I’ve had watching Abby outside of the classic Funks tags in 78/79 but this time round he’s impressing me against different opponents. Dory was fine I guess, and Kamata I can take or leave (I’d rather leave to be honest), but Terry, as always, shone the brightest. The little additions he added in the earlier stages, which otherwise would have been a real bore, were excellent, and from taking that shot to the eye until they went off air he was pure magic.