[1980-12-09-AJPW-Real World Tag League] Abdullah The Butcher & Tor Kamata vs Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta

[SAMS]

1980-12-09
AJPW
Abdullah The Butcher & Tor Kamata vs Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta
Real World Tag League 1980 Match
Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan
★★
Card

Who would have thought that a match that was 90% standard wrestling fare would still finish with 3 of the 4 competitors bloodied? Well when Abdullah the Butcher is involved you can expect nothing less. The Abby face turn is fully sealed. I can’t pinpoint when it happened, but there have been signs in his most recent matches, but here it was irrefutable. When he and Baba eventually faced off we had a massive Butcher chant from the crowd, and once the mayhem had died down post match, it was Abby, not Baba or Jumbo, who was standing tall in the ring being cheered on by his adoring fans. Really a surreal sight to see.
As for the match, Jumbo held his own, but once Baba was in Abby and Kamata really swarmed him and he hardly had a chance, save a humongous dropkick that nearly killed Kamata. But generally they had their way with him and it was Baba who was the first to bleed after a brief foray to the outside with Abby. But to his credit, Abby was probably the most successful in the ring as well, using his sharp jabs and elbow drops to great effect and really felt like the standout performer. As to be expected, this did break down by the end though, but this time it was the hometown team who went over the edge, battering Abby in the corner with a chair, and with Joe trying to break things up he was sent flying by Baba to the floor outside and ultimately got the the DQ. I think to set up the final match against the Funks, Jumbo & Baba needed to lose here so the result isn’t that surprising, and to a degree they leaned into the strong reaction Abby was receiving from the Osaka crowd and delivered a reasonable climax here.