SAMS Posted August 19, 2023 Author Report Share Posted August 19, 2023 1981-02-16 WWF Pedro Morales (c) vs. Sgt. Slaughter WWF Intercontinental Title Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★ Card I loved the opening moments with Slaughter repeatedly gaining a hold on Morales but being distracted by the crowd chanting “Gomer Pyle” sending him into a tizzy. What dragged the whole match down though was that once he managed to push through that initial barrier his main tactic was to latch on a front facelock then…nothing. Morales did little to nothing to break the hold for several minutes, they finally worked towards Morales breaking it, we got a very brief flurry during his hope spot, then back to the front facelock we went for another several minutes. By the time this reached the 15 minute mark we’d probably had only a couple minutes of any action that wasn’t completely static. I increasingly feel like Morales is far too happy to let the heel beat up on him and only when it’s time for his comeback will he up his intensity. Some may say that he’s being really giving but I just think it’s lazy. He’s a willing seller I’ll grant him, but he’s not a very good seller during these stretches and I think it’s just a way for him to eat up time during his matches without having to expend much energy. Finally Morales managed to turn the tables on Slaughter and we got a few intermittent moments of Slaughter doing Slaughter things. His bumping and woozy selling were on full display but it never came together properly. In the end he resorted to using some knuckle dusters and wound up getting caught by the referee for the DQ finish. There was potential here for something pretty good but for one, they could have replaced Morales with any other decent babyface on the roster and it wouldn’t have made a lick of difference, and they just needed a bit more direction during that front half. After this opening sequence they would have had to do something pretty spectacular to reel me back in and this match shows the importance of having a strong beginning, or rather, the detriment of having a bad one. 1981-02-16 WWF Bob Backlund (c) vs. Stan Hansen WWF Heavyweight Title Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★★ Card So interesting how Slaughter and Hansen, two big guys in the 300lb range, both operate so very differently as Backlund challengers within only a matter of weeks. Whereas Slaughter was all too happy to bounce around for Bob and accentuate his own personal deterioration over the bout, Hansen is like this unkillable machine. Backlund would attack, Hansen would sell briefly, then he’d come right back at him. Most of the time a Backlund opponent would allow that space for Backlund to move forwards and capitalise and gain a strong foothold in the match - not with Hansen. He’d give a tiny window and unless Backlund followed up instantly with a second or third move then he’d come right back at him and try and take control himself. It’s decidedly unusual in the context of a Backlund match in ‘81 WWF. One of Backlund’s greatest strengths is, well, his strength. He’s one of the few guys who can work a specific spot that would come across as rudimentary if somebody else did it but it feels like a superhuman act from him. Here Hansen had him in a front facelock and Backlund teased the slam. His arms were in an awkward position due to the hold being applied on him and it didn’t seem like he would have leverage at all to pick the big man up. But after a few moments and repositioning, suddenly Backlund was upright, Hansen in tow, and he made it look so effortless. Backlund’s ability to do these kinds of bonkers strength spots is nothing new but I thought I’d highlight this one as a particularly good example. Hansen hit a sneaky Lariat while Backlund was caught up on the apron which led to Backlund being opened up. They milked this for a long time as Backlund spent an age reeling on the floor. Hansen ended up eating the ringpost himself and we had double juice, then they transitioned into the finish with both men going toe to toe in the ring, before I knew it the bell was ringing and multiple referees were in there trying to break it up. They decided to go for the double blood stoppage here with an eye to future matches, but for those in attendance it must have been deflating. The brawl that led up to it was fine but it didn’t manage to reach the intensity or brutality you’d want, with a few subpar punches flying here and there at points. Overall this definitely beat their previous matchup in New Japan late in ‘80. Hansen’s perpetual forward motion gave this a real tug of war feel. Both men had moments where they showed off their strengths but Hansen’s control segments, where he went with the arm hold as his move of choice, didn’t look good at all. I couldn’t see how he was applying pressure to make it painful, and it forced Backlund to sell something that shouldn’t be working. On top of that the finish was somewhat heated but tapped out at a low simmer rather than a roaring boil. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted August 20, 2023 Author Report Share Posted August 20, 2023 1981-02-20 AWA Jerry Blackwell & John Studd vs. The High Flyers (Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell) St. Paul Auditorium, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA ★★ Card JIP 5 minutes in. Greg was very good FIP, his build and mannerisms lend themselves well to just dying when faced against the mass of his two opponents. Brunzell was fantastic working the apron, giving that energy and cheering on his partner, then when it was his turn with the hot tag he was great, especially his dropkicks, which is probably the only thing I knew about Brunzell going into this. Studd looked a bit better than I expected actually, when he went for clubbing blows he looked pretty mobile and they had zip, but both he and Blackwell were far too eager to lock on a Bear Hug and that sapped any kinetic energy the match had. Studd and Blackwell had Greg tied up for the heart punch behind the referee’s back but he dodged at the last minute and Blackwell took the fist straight to his chest to give the High Flyers the victory. 1981-02-22 WCCW - Star Wars 1981 Mil Mascaras vs. Tim Brooks Reunion Arena, Dallas, Texas, USA ★★ Card Brooks looked like he spent more time dumpster diving than in wrestling rings and he certainly wasn’t a fan favourite here. Mil Mascaras, donning a gold theme this evening, got a warm reception, and 1981’s Star Wars card was underway. This was a neat little opener, Mascaras was keen not to let Brooks get too much in before he went right back at him. Brooks himself was a little more comedic than I was expecting, but without going overboard with it. He took a poor man’s Slaughter bump over the turnbuckle and tried to convince the referee that Mascaras had thrown him over the top rope, which was one example of him trying to pull a fast one. In the end Mascaras came off the top with a fancy looking crossbody and it was light’s out for Brooks. 1981-02-22 WCCW - Star Wars 1981 Fritz von Erich vs. The Great Kabuki No Disqualification Match Reunion Arena, Dallas, Texas, USA ★ Card Now, while this wasn’t really that good at all, it doesn’t mean it didn’t have its merits. Granted, Kabuki came across more like a sideshow attraction, lots of smoke and mirrors to conceal a slightly overweight man, wearing face paint and doing pseudo martial arts, but my enduring takeaway from this match will be how good I thought Fritz was. At 52 or so here, he was slightly younger than Verne Gagne, slightly older than Nick Bockwinkel, and while he’d retire the following year in ‘82, he showed that he still had something in the tank and I’m very keen to seek out matches from his prime. I mean, just comparing him to Kabuki, his selling was lightyears ahead, just little things like registering the pain in his hand after a punch or choosing the right reaction to whichever attack Kabuki had thrown at him. I really hate the Claw as a move, but in one instance they set it up in a pretty interesting way here with Fritz looking like he was trying to drive a stake through Kabuki’s face, his free hand locked onto his wrist and pushing downwards with all his might while Kabuki had to use all his strength to prevent it. I also loved how Fritz would make a landed punch, or even a missed punch, feel like a big spot rather than just a throwaway move. Ultimately, this was dragged down by Kabuki being terrible, the shenanigans with Gary Hart at ringside and David von Erich interfering, but I’ll always have my first Fritz experience to look back on fondly. 1981-02-22 WCCW - Star Wars 1981 Ali Mustafa & Hercules Ayala (c) vs. The Von Erichs (David von Erich & Kevin von Erich) NWA World Tag Team Title Match Reunion Arena, Dallas, Texas, USA ★★ Card The von Erich boys came out and it was like the Beatles had arrived in Dallas. The champions, Mustafa and Ayala, made their entrance with this massive trophy and they barely got a second look. Now this was a world tag team title match, but it’s not clear to me where these belts came from or who actually competed for them. A little digging indicates that Paul Jones and the Masked Superstar were the real “World’s Tag Team” champions around this time, so maybe World Class tried their hand at establishing their own version but it appeared to be short lived. Both David and Kevin look so similar I really struggled to keep track of them throughout. By the end I could tell that the one in white was a little shorter and kept going for the Claw (Kevin) whilst the other in blue was longer and lankier with a Sleeper finisher (David). Both seemed like they had the tools to be able to work as a face in peril excellently, the problem here is that neither allowed the match to breath and build that tension. Whenever either von Erich found themselves in any trouble his brother would dive in and break things up. Alternatively if they seemed threatened and had the chance they would bolt to their corner and tag out. It showed good teamwork between the siblings but the champions couldn’t build any real heat at all and they really came off as generic, throwaway opponents. The finish was spectacular though (in 1981 terms) with Kevin coming off the top rope and absolutely nailing the execution on a sunset flip. 1981-02-22 WCCW - Star Wars 1981 Harley Race (c) vs. Kerry von Erich NWA World Heavyweight Title Match Reunion Arena, Dallas, Texas, USA ★★ Card With all the talk about how it was David who was set to win the NWA Title before his death and with Kerry actually being the 3rd oldest of the von Erich brothers, it’s curious that here it was in fact Kerry, and not David, that got the nod to face the World’s champion. I had always wondered whether Kerry grew into what he became due to the vacuum his brother left, but he is, by a large margin, the most physically imposing of his siblings and was able to marry his physique with the willingness to sell enthusiastically and with gusto, which is a pretty good combination. Much like his brothers though this match also shows him to be pretty green and underdeveloped from a match structure and psychology point of view. The story here was that he’d put Race out with his Sleeper previously in a non-match setup, so that was going to be his weapon of choice here. He went for it early and managed to cause heavy damage to the champion, the issue is they were never able to build on that foundation and progress throughout the match. Within less than 5 minutes both men were out on their feet already and it kind of felt like they sleep-walked to the finish. We got a ref bump on a reverse irish whip, and when Kerry tried to help Bronko Lubich back into the ring, he got hammered from behind and Bronko took the best bump of the whole night, falling sideways straight off the ring steps straight to the concrete below. A power slam and elbow drop combo gave Kerry a pinning opportunity, but with no referee there was no count and Race ended up lying on his back for a good 10 seconds or so before David Manning rushed to the rescue to take over refereeing duties. Race body slammed Kerry onto the time keepers table before going for a diving headbutt (which missed of course) in a proto ECW style sequence. In the end all he could do was cling onto Kerry’s leg and await the double countout. Kerry’s display of disappointment at how things played out was excellent here, unfortunately the actual finish felt like shit and the crowd were clearly in stunned silence after witnessing all that had unfurled before them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted August 21, 2023 Author Report Share Posted August 21, 2023 1981-02-24 Joint Promotions Pat Roach vs. Caswell Martin Derby, Derbyshire, United Kingdom This was a lot closer to how I’d like Roach to work all the time. He was big and burly, far more aggressive than usual, and right from the opening bell. The sound quality on this was atrocious, so I couldn’t gather whether this started from round 1 or 2 but in that first round that we saw Roach just steamrolled Martin and gained the first fall in dominant fashion. Over the next few rounds Martin was able to fashion a strategy of his own, chipping away at the leg when he had the chance, but mostly used his speed to avoid Roach’s attempt at a grounded head scissors again and again, which frustrated Roach no end. Records indicate that Roach ended up winning this 2-1, but the footage cut off before the final round. Martin was decent at what he needed to do, pinballing for Roach’s power and being quick and agile when attacking, but this really did a good job of highlighting Roach’s strengths. 1981-02-25 AJW Yumi Ikeshita (c) vs. Mimi Hagiwara All-Pacific Title Match ★★ Japan Hagiwara was more aggressive than usual from the jump, taking it to Ikeshita, rather than allowing the heel to dictate the tempo. Neither were afraid to transition into boxing sequences, but these didn’t land for me (and hasn’t up to this point) as it just doesn't look credible in any way. I have a strong feeling that a chunk of the middle was clipped here as they very quickly ended up in the final run - Hagiwara went for a cradle and the referee counted 3 despite Ikeshita’s shoulder clearly off the mat. Hagiwara looked happy but confused at the decision, but Ikeshita was gone, no arguing with the referee, no afters with Mimi, just straight back to the locker room, clearly in disgust. The action was fine but I will forever just remember it for the odd finish. 1981-02-25 AJW Nancy Kumi & Ayumi Hori vs. Devil Masami & Mami Kumano WWWA Tag Team Title Two Out Of Three Falls Match ★★★ Japan AJW just love a babyface who can overcome stacked odds. A very bland opening led into Kumi and Hori levelling up and going all Wonder Woman on the heels. Hori tried a sunset flip which failed, but Kumi came out of nowhere to hit one on the interfering Kumano. The referee couldn’t count the pin because neither were legal at the time, but it was a spectacular display of agility. Hori had this rocking side slam which she’s pulled out a few times recently, and both her and Kumi were planting huge powerbombs (in 1981!) on their opponents as well before handily taking the first fall. The heels needed to take drastic action and drastic action they took to level things up. Using what I can only describe as a spanner, they went to town on Hori until she capitulated and she ended up having to be carried to the back leaving Kumi all alone. And here we arrived at the stage where the babyface must overcome the odds. The match continued, but essentially we were in a handicap situation. Masami made a fatal error and took Kumi to the outside for some extra curricular action and ate a series of chair shots for her trouble. Having picked one off it was now womano a womano for the finish and Kumi was able to lock on a Romero Special (seemingly her newest finisher) to claim the tag titles for herself and her injured partner. Perhaps a tad overbooked and the use of the spanner veered into Triple H with the sledgehammer territory, but the faces during their shine and the heels during their heat both showed that they were potentially excellent teams, and this match could have been very good actually if a few more things fell into place. 1981-02-25 AJW Jackie Sato (c) vs. Rimi Yokota WWWA World Title Match ★★★ Japan Jackie carried herself like an ace but she wrestled like the queen bitch. The extra force and torque she put into her moves gave the impression she was trying to inflict pain and not just a means to winning a wrestling match. That suplex into a backbreaker of hers - when she pushes her opponents lifeless body off her knee, she dismissively shoves it off instead of just letting them drop to the mat. She even pulled out a unique move here, a torture rack, which I can’t recall seeing from her before. She bounced around the ring, and with each undulation, wrenched in the hold a little more, such a great offensive display. Yokota herself was no slouch either. She showed off some of her athleticism here, again using a nifty cartwheel to avoid a collision on a rope running sequence, but her defining characteristic was her scrappiness. She wouldn’t take anything lying down, any pin attempt and she was squirming away, and her tenacity paid off when, tussling on the mat for position, Jackie was able to avoid a couple amateur style pin attempts which garnered shrieks from the girls in attendance, but eventually Yokota succeeded, got the shoulders down just long enough to register the three count, get the win and the title. It perhaps was a bit of a damp squib finish for such a passing of the torch event but what preceded it was good enough even if it wasn’t top tier great. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted August 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted August 22, 2023 1981-02-28 IWE Isamu Teranishi & Mach Hayato vs. El Cobarde & Herodes Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan ★ Card Cobarde and Herodes seem to be the new Lucha team brought in for this tour. Compared to the last team they brought in, Cobarde might be a tad better than Doberman and Carlos Plata I think was better than Herodes, but there wasn’t much in it and it felt very much like for like. My partner told me that El Cobarde translates to “The Coward”, which seems like a strange name for a wrestler, especially as he didn’t wrestle in that manner at all, but maybe there’s some deeper meaning that I’m overlooking. In regard to the match, it was pretty boring. Everybody except for Teranishi seemed content to just meander their way through and the finish was another cluster fuck with Mach Hayato going for and failing to execute a sunset flip. He got caught up on Herodes back and received a kick in the back of the head from Cobarde. He and Herodes were both lying on the mat, but Hayato was on his back with his shoulders flat to the mat. The referee began the count despite it not looking like a real pin attempt, Teranishi made to lift up his partner but was too late and the Lucha team got the decision. It was a real WTF moment, as 999/1000 times that would never result in a pin, and the crowd clearly didn’t know how to react as there was literally no response from them until Herodes’ arm was raised by the referee. 1981-02-28 IWE Animal Hamaguchi & Mighty Inoue vs. Ray Candy & Red Devil #2 Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan ★★ Card Ray Candy certainly was imposing. He had some nice clubbing blows, could throw either Hamaguchi or Inoue clear across the ring, but his kicks looked like shit. Definitely looked like he was scared to lay them in and they ended up looking like itty-bitty pecks. I don’t think Red Devil (aka Bill White) did anything of note here so I’m going to ignore him entirely. Hamaguchi and Inoue did their best to get some serious air when they got thrown through the ropes to the floor (which happened a lot here). The key narrative point was Candy colliding with his partner and getting his arms caught up in the ropes Andre style. The native team used that as an opportunity to double team Red Devil but the referee refused to count any pins and continued to assist Candy to get free. Once Candy was free it was like he became some kind of Godzilla, as he went on an absolute tear and eventually he and his team were disqualified for the over-aggression (at least I think that was the reason). 1981-02-28 GCW Kevin Sullivan (c) vs. Steve Keirn NWA National Television Title Match WTBS TV Studios, Atlanta, Georgia, USA ★★★ Card Keirn clearly had gone over the edge here and Sullivan was the man to push him there. Sullivan’s entire heel turn came about when he went to the dark side between a prior TV Title match between these two. Since then he’s won and lost the title to Steve O, and Sullivan and Keirn have been running Boston Street Fights on the house show loop. It being a TV Title match though they were still going to try and keep things civil and the working style was the usual amateur wrestling fare I’ve come to expect from GCW. The work itself was crisp and fluid and both guys acquitted themselves well. The extra sauce though was Keirn peppering in extra slaps and strikes, perhaps to goad Sullivan into an all out fight, but this was a clear departure from Keirn’s usual approach. When Sullivan finally felt the need to fight back though I think it caught Keirn by surprise. He went for another cheeky strike and Sullivan popped him right in the mouth which sent him on his ass and gave Sullivan the clear advantage for a minute or so. Keirn gained a foothold once again once the stars in his head had cleared and looked to have Sullivan on the ropes with one particularly nasty shoulder breaker. Sullivan rolled to the outside and proceeded to repeatedly break the referee’s count, each time frustrating Keirn more and more. Keirn had enough and dove to the outside to get himself a piece of Kevin but when the action returned to the ring the referee tried to get involved and we got the classic babyface is too fired up and shoves the referee to the ground spot and he was forced to DQ Keirn. Another action packed, tightly worked, compact TV match from GCW. They really were on a roll with these TV title matches. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 2, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 2, 2023 February Recap WWF television was all about Sgt. Slaughter and the Cobra Clutch Challenge. Week after week it was the centrepiece of the entire show and they executed it perfectly. These segments were never rushed, but instead lovingly eked out, and Slaughter continued to be elevated to the absolute top of the list of the territory's heels. I quite like Hansen throughout his run here, and he always delivered solid, if xenophobic, heel promos, but nobody generated a crowd reaction like Slaughter. By the end of the month the subtle hints they had been dropping about Patterson’s involvement in the angle were confirmed and Slaughter officially challenged Patterson, offering him, and him only, double the usual reward at a big $10k. As we finished the month the challenge had yet to be accepted. There was both a Spectrum and an MSG show in February as well, with Morales cycling through whichever heel Backlund wasn’t up against that night. Slaughter vs Backlund: Part 2 wasn’t quite as electric as their first encounter, but delivered all the same, and was perfect in setting up the final cage match between them. The opening salvo in the Hansen vs Backlund series at MSG was solid, if unspectacular. In Georgia the two focal points continued to be the DiBiase/Fuller vs The Freebirds feud and all the happenings around the TV title with Sullivan, Keirn, Eaton and Steve O. We started the month with DiBiase and Fuller regaining Fuller’s Lincoln, but they required the help from a newly arrived Junkyard Dog to achieve it. With DiBiase, JYD and the Freebirds all in Georgia it wouldn’t be long before they started running back what happened in Mid-South the previous year. Week by week this feud simmered along but there weren’t any major escalations yet. The TV Title stuff was far more enjoyable, with Steve Keirn in particular able to put on a couple of quality TV matches. While Eaton and Steve O got themselves involved at points, the core struggle was always between Sullivan and Keirn. Sullivan’s tactics slowly got under Keirn’s skin and you could tell that as time went by he was getting to the point of bursting entirely. While Keirn excelled in-ring, Sullivan continued to hit it out of the park as an entire package, delivering excellent interviews and general interactions with Solie whenever given the opportunity. Elsewhere Jim Duggan, recently a mere jobber on WWF television, got some minor prominence, highlighted by a match in which he donned a football helmet during a match. And Atlas unsurprisingly was unable to defeat Race for the World’s Heavyweight Title. In Memphis we were still on the Lawler comeback tour. Ron Bass and Hulk Hogan came in and were easily dispatched, but the big fish was Austin Idol. They’d faced each other back in January, and Idol was still sore at how he felt he’d been treated, and boy did he have a surprise in store. They set up some kind of award ceremony where Lawler received an honour from Mexico, but in fact the luchadore they sent was merely Idol in disguise (okay maybe not that surprising). Idol destroyed Lawler in one of the best angles of the year to set up a run in the territory for the next month or so. The new big tag team was the Bounty Hunter, who were two large burly men with subpar wrestling capabilities, but from what little we saw, Dundee and Rich teaming together was reaping rewards. The 9th February match between them and the Bounty Hunters was clipped, but Rich put on a clinic selling his hand throughout. To round up, Lawler defeated Valiant for the Southern Title, Tony Charles got one over on Billy Robinson, which seemed to conclude their nice little mid-card feud, and we got the addition of Dutch Mantell to the roster by the end of the month. World of Sport was all peaks and troughs for me. The likes of Clive Myers and Sammy Lee, popularising a more martial arts fighting style, failed to deliver any actual good matches despite really strong pushes for both. Dream matches in Grey/Saint and Cortez/Breaks were very good, but not quite great. However the ongoing rivalry between Marc Rocco and Marty Jones delivered an absolute banger of a match that was easily the MOTY up until this point. Another goose egg from New Japan, with hardly any footage of note and All Japan was limited to Harley Race popping up in a couple extremely disappointing matches. For the second month running All Japan Women had the better of it, with the 25th February show acting as a passing of the torch event, Hagiwara taking the All-Pacific title from Yumi Ikeshita and the big one, Jaguar Yokota defeating Jackie Sato in a match that didn’t quite match the peaks of 11/80, but was still very good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 3, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 3, 2023 March 1981-03-01 AWA The East-West Connection (Adrian Adonis & Jesse Ventura) (c) vs. The High Flyers (Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell) AWA World Tag Team Title Match Minneapolis Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA ★★★ Card Classic bumping from Adonis while Ventura brought the psychology, repeatedly targeting Greg’s back with a variety of different attacks. The High Flyers had the energy and verve you’d want from your babyface team, and while Greg comes across a little like an underdeveloped runt in the ring, he’s not unathletic and is pretty fluid around the ring. Brunzell felt like the main man of the team though, bringing all the qualities Greg does but with a more stereotypical “look”. It wasn’t ever explicitly stated, but I’m sure there was a stipulation in place here that if the non-legal man interfered, for example to break up a submission or pin attempt, their team would be disqualified. They teased this a few times with Greg and Brunzell desperate to get in and help their partner but being admonished by the referee and ultimately staying put. It wasn’t enough of a narrative hook though, or they didn’t work the match around it enough, so while the action was good, and I liked all 4 guys in it, it probably will end up being pretty forgettable for me due to the lack of standout moments or story points. The finish had Greg lock the Gagne sleeper on Adonis and they tumbled over the top to the outside. Ventura immediately went in for the attack and Brunzell followed suit. The referee barely gave them a couple seconds to separate and restore order before he threw in the towel and declared a no-contest, which when announced to the audience, received a pretty hearty chorus of boos. 1981-03-03 AJPW Giant Baba (c) vs. Karl Kox PWF Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Chiba Park Gymnasium, Chiba, Japan Card We joined this in progress for both the first and second falls, skipping a lot of the build for each fall. The first finished pretty quickly with things looking 50/50 between the two on the mat then Baba breaking out a neat little cradle to snatch it. In the second, Kox got busted open by a hammer blow of a chop from Baba. After headbutting the turnbuckle several times to psych himself back up he decided his only course of action was to use a foreign object. This levelled the playing field enough for him to drop Baba on his neck with a particularly savage Brainbuster which looked like Kox barely got Baba up off the ground, and Baba landed like a sack of potatoes on the mat. The final fall was pretty nondescript with Kox continuing to use the object but Baba was too strong and put him away with the big boot. This felt like a pretty formulaic Baba ⅔ falls match to me. Kox was on the downswing of his career and his waistline looked like it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 4, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 4, 2023 1981-03-06 Houston Wrestling Abdullah The Butcher vs. Ivan Putski Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA ★★ Card You know the drill by now. Abby uses the fork, makes Putski bleed like a pig, Putski makes a comeback, then we go to the finish. This was totally by the book. Putski’s weapon of choice in retaliation to Abby’s onslaught was the bear hug, and while him lifting the larger man up off the ground was a cool visual, the Bear Hug is not the move of a rousing comeback - it’s far too static and lacks both the impact and cathartic value of a slam or a strike. For the most part Abby was pretty steadfast in hiding his weapon from the referee, but when the opportunity to tie Putski up in the ropes reared his head, he didn’t hesitate. He jabbed the referee in the throat to get him off him, then with Putski incapacitated, he just went to town stabbing him in the top of the head as the crowd looked on in concern. Finally Wahoo came down to make the save, eating a prong or two for his troubles, and the referee recovered to pass down judgement and DQ the Butcher. I find Abby such a fascinating character and I still feel like I’m only starting to peel back the layers to truly understand him. Here it wasn’t about wins or losses, but inflicting bloody carnage on his opponent and striking the fear of God into the paying audience. One thing is for sure, those in attendance will never forget that final savagery on Putski.. 1981-03-07 CWA Bill Dundee (c) vs. Tojo Yamamoto & Wayne Ferris AWA Southern Tag Team Title Two On One Handicap Match WMC Studios, Memphis, Tennessee, USA ★★★ Card I’m not sure whether they set it up this way or whether they were blindsided by a turn of events, but Tommy Rich had to be in Georgia, leaving Bill Dundee to forfeit the titles, fight alone to defend them, or hope that Jimmy Hart would agree to postpone the match to another time when Rich would be available. Dundee chose to go it alone and we got a hell of a match out of it. For the first 8 minutes or so Dundee was in charge. Despite a few tags here and there he was able to get the jump on the fresher man and re-establish control over the match. Fighting against the odds though meant that sooner or later he would make a mistake and Ferris caught him in the gut with a high knee and he was in trouble. The stroke of genius here was to have Dundee work the clock. When he got the chance he bailed out of the ring, checked with Russell how much time he had left, then managed to eat up over a minute by breaking the referee’s count, circling the ring, all in an effort to recover and catch his breath. Once the action resumed Dundee was the stronger of the three but yet again, 2 on 1 is difficult for any man, and Dundee again found himself on the back foot, but yet again he bailed from the ring to eat up more of the clock. This became a war of attrition, trench warfare, and it was fascinating to see how long Dundee could keep this up and whether he would last until the 30 minute time limit to retain those belts. Unfortunately it was never meant to be as a Ferris distraction on the referee gave Yamamoto the opportunity to fling salt in Dundee’s eyes and, despite his best shot, it was too much for him to overcome. Hart, Ferris and Yamamoto gleefully continued the beatdown on a bloodied Dundee until Dream Machine, unhappy with his recent treatment within the Hart stable, came to make the save. In lesser hands this could have been pretty bad. Yamamoto is no great shakes, and while I’ve quite liked what I’ve seen from Ferris so far, he’s not a super worker by any stretch of the imagination. This match’s success hinged entirely on Dundee’s performance, and what a performance it was. From taking the fight to both men, to taking a beating, to making the comeback, to the stalling tactics, it all was quite a masterclass. On a rewatch I might be tempted to go even higher on this one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 5, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 5, 2023 1981-03-07 PNW The Destroyer vs. Jay Youngblood Non Title Indian Strap Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA ★★ Card Buddy was threatened with a suspension by Dutch Savage before the match and a challenge from Youngblood for a strap match of their own was enough for him to turn tail and head back to the dressing room, leaving The Destroyer all on his lonesome. I thought his jittery behaviour beforehand was excellent, clearly overwhelmed by his leader leaving him, the crowd roaring at him, and even Sandy Barr trying to attach the strap to his wrist triggered a massive jump out of him. The match itself was all brawling with Youngblood taking the most of it and using the strap constantly as you would expect. He used the time keeper’s chair at one point, which opened up Destroyer, and after ripping his mask a bit you could see he was bleeding quite a bit. They teased going to all four corners a few times, with the Destroyer even getting to three at one point, but this definitely felt like a foregone conclusion and Youngblood really didn’t have to do too much to secure the victory. My most memorable moment actually was Youngblood’s first attempt to get the fourth turnbuckle and Destroyer thwarted him with a not so subtle kick to the balls. There were two young women in the front row and they couldn’t have been more gleeful at seeing Youngblood hunched over in pain, which I thought was an unusual zag from them considering face/heel dynamics. 1981-03-12 IWE Animal Hamaguchi & Mighty Inoue (c) vs. El Cobarde & Herodes IWA World Tag Team Title Match Fuchu, Hiroshima, Japan ★★ Card This is one of the few occasions where I thought Hamaguchi shone brighter than Inoue. The stronger sections of this involved him and Herodes, who himself was far better than his showing a couple weeks earlier. Herodes was more willing to use his large body mass to inflict damage, was particularly aggressive at times, but also bumped big when required. In contrast Cobarde felt a bit too much like a blank slate who was just going through the motions and I can’t recall much that he did that really pushed the match forwards. Overall my biggest complaint with this was that this lacked any defined structure. Perhaps they were too subtle with it and I was missing key details, but I like big, obvious transitions and switches in momentum, whether that’s in tags or in singles, and this didn’t have any of that. Inoue and Hamaguchi would be on top for a couple minutes, then suddenly Cobarde and Herodes would be in control and there was nothing really that stood out to signpost these changes. Tags were made far too easily, allowing soft resets, and it summed up to make it feel less of a struggle than it should have. The champions won the thing when Cobarde, fist wrapped with brass knuckles, inadvertently nailed his partner in the head, handing Inoue the opportunity for the easy pin. So to compound the issue, the finish was pretty bleh as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 6, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2023 1981-03-12 CWA Austin Idol & Dutch Mantell (c) vs. Bill Dundee & Tommy Rich CWA World Tag Team Title Match Rupp Arena, Lexington, Kentucky, USA ★★★★ Card This was a match that just built and built. The faces got a delayed shine and really were able to show their stuff and get the crowd into it but then we got an extended FIP sequence with Dundee under the collar and he was just so excellent in that role. He’d sell a move like it killed him but you never felt like he was totally down and out. He would be so scrappy and come back with a punch or a kick or something else that made you feel like he was fighting for his life, then he’d get mowed down once again. Idol and Mantell both worked fantastically as a team, keeping the pressure on Dundee and the crowd noise swelled to a cacophony as they continued to put their metaphorical foot to his throat. Mantell just looked like a wolverine, completely covered in that back hair but also how he moved. He had an almost stalking-like quality and certainly came across like a guy you wouldn’t want to mess with. My only quibble would be that I think Idol was maybe a little overzealous with his bumping and selling - he bumped in the corner, did a 360 spin and acted like he’d lost his bearings one too many times for my liking - but he got across his pompous, cocky attitude very well, especially when going for pin attempts, always showing off and preening. Things got a little too rambunctious and the action fell to the outside. Dundee looked to have Mantell pinned in a cradle but the referee was otherwise engaged. After he went to grab him and get him back in I wondered if there was gonna be a swerve, but Dundee saw Mantell coming for him and managed an O’Connor Roll for the win. The crowd erupted and it was one of those pure feel good moments where the faces pull through. Really great stuff all around. 1981-03-13 NJPW Gran Hamada vs. Anibal City Gymnasium, Fukuyama, Hiroshima, Japan ★★ Card Cagematch doesn’t mention it, but I’m pretty sure this was part of a tournament for the WWF Light Heavyweight Title (not to be confused with the Junior Heavyweight version that Fujinami held at this time). Gran Hamada is such a coordinated and dynamic wrestler. Whether he’s doing a move or receiving one he always really makes the most of it. This went a little too short for it to be truly “good” but it was definitely entertaining. After eating not one, but two tombstone piledrivers, Hamada turned himself into a human gyroscope and did a nifty victory roll to put Anibal away. I’ve never seen Anibal before but he looked pretty decent. There wasn’t enough here to make a proper judgement on him but he moved well and had some very good offense so I’d keep my eye out for him in the future for sure. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 7, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2023 1981-03-16 WWF Bob Backlund (c) vs. Stan Hansen WWF Heavyweight Title Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★★ Card The fact that the last match between these two ended in a double stoppage and an all out brawl, I loved the fact that Backlund carried over that energy and jumped Hansen immediately and we went straight back into things, hot and heavy. This is probably the closest Hansen has gotten to wrestling himself. He’s always about forward motion and forcing his opponents to earn their moments on top. Well here Backlund was the immovable object and it was Hansen who again and again ended up getting knocked to the outside or having to reset himself. The action was somewhat seesawed, but Backlund never seemed in trouble for long and always had the fortitude to force Hansen to relent. It was the repeated knocks to the outside though that were Backlund’s undoing. So consumed with taking the fight to Hansen he couldn’t resist following him out there where Hansen finally had opportunities to make a dent. The third time, Backlund’s overzealous pursuit resulted in him eating the ringpost which allowed Hansen to set up the Lariat and he absolutely killed him on the apron with a shot right to the head. It was pretty clear immediately that he wasn’t going to beat the referee’s count and Hansen was all too happy to take that countout victory. 1981-03-16 WWF Sgt. Slaughter vs. Andre The Giant Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★★ Card This is about as good as a match can get without being great with both men putting in absolutely stellar performances. While his matches with Backlund have highlighted his ability to do big bumps over and through the ropes, this time around Slaughter showed that he was a master at the impact bump when taking offense. There must have been at least five separate occasions where he took a punch, kick or headbutt from Andre and made it look like Andre absolutely obliterated him. Sometimes Andre’s offense can look a tad light but this whole match made him look like he was operating with weapons grade equipment. Slaughter didn’t get much offense in but he was able to creatively carve out a few opportunities, but often just the act of attacking Andre, for example trying for the Cobra Clutch, only served to emphasise Andre’s massive size. Andre really is a singularly unique wrestler in wrestling history. He was an attraction and whoever promoted him would get the most bang for their buck by making him come across as special. The opponents that can do that well are his best and Slaughter here undoubtedly did that in spades. This gets dinged a bit for the dodgy finish, Slaughter pulled the referee into Andre’s path on a turnbuckle bump leading to the DQ, but this was never less than wildly entertaining and feels like one of those matches you could chuck on in a pinch and just know 100% you’re gonna have a fantastic 15 minutes watching wrestling. 1981-03-16 WWF Hulk Hogan vs. Tony Atlas Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★ Card They worked this around the battle of strength between the two, with Hogan getting a solid early advantage due to his larger mass. Atlas did a good job bumping on the shoves into the corner or on a few shoulder blocks but slowly he got more and more frustrated and it was clear the comeback was on. Atlas tapped into some hidden reserves and power slammed Hogan and now it was Hogan’s turn to bump admirably for his opponent. When Atlas really got it going he even cupped his ears to the crowd, doing a Hogan before Hogan! They tried to do a mirror crocheting spot on the ropes with Atlas blocking Hogan’s attempts before delivering the move himself, but it all looked a bit awkward and contrived rather than organic. Atlas used this crotch spot to pin Hogan, and while Hogan’s foot was clearly on the ropes the referee gave zero fucks and counted 3 anyway. Hogan decked the ref after the match, and he can’t really be blamed considering the circumstances, before indicating to the crowd that his leg was indeed on the ropes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 8, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2023 1981-03-17 Joint Promotions Clive Myers vs. Young David Ashington, Northumberland, United Kingdom ★★ Considering the size that he eventually became it was initially jarring for me to see Young David so slim in his early years. By this point in time I’ve kind of gotten used to that version of him but here he seems to have levelled up and filled out a considerable amount since he turned 18. Myers looked like he removed basically all of the martial arts strikes from his repertoire since February, limiting himself to the usual wrestling holds or the odd judo throw, and I think he was the better for it. There were some decent sequences in this, and they filled the time without it getting boring, but I think they got far too cute at times; tried too many spots that were overly co-operative or designed merely to pop the crowd in the moment; or overstretched themselves and tried things that they either didn’t have the timing or technique to pull off properly. I think both of these men could very easily have a good match with the right opponent, but between them they weren’t able to construct the match to give it any sort of narrative momentum. It was just things happening in sequence with no rhyme or reason. In the end they looked to have botched a routine back body drop of sorts with David landing awkwardly and lying lifeless on the mat for a few moments. This forced Jeff Kaye to hand down a decision of No Contest. They did get David up on his feet within a few minutes but I wasn’t sure if this was a shoot injury or planned. But with WoS, they run these injury angles so often that I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the intended finish. 1981-03-17 Joint Promotions Keith Haward vs. Mal Sanders Ashington, Northumberland, United Kingdom ★★ This was a cagey one. Perhaps what you could even describe as “scientific”. I thought Haward was really impressive in his series the previous year against Cortez, but while he still clearly has the physical tools, against a relatively lesser wrestler, I didn’t get the sense that he was able to leverage his attributes in the best way. Nothing much really happened until the third round when strategies finally started to emerge. Sanders targeted the left arm, which was nice, but my problem was that Haward already had a bandaged up right arm that was previously injured. I feel like overlooking low hanging fruit like that is just not good. In turn Sanders started focusing his efforts on Sanders’ left hand, and while Sanders’ approach on the arm petered out pretty quickly after a round or so, Haward kept returning to the hand as his best point of attack, which I liked. Sanders, to his credit, was good at selling the hand intermittently, hiding it behind his back to keep it away from his opponent, but with just one arm available he left himself open to other Haward advances which I thought was a nice little touch. They went back and forth with the classic WoS pin attempt sequences but Sanders got a bit too cocky after one escape and ended up being surprised with a backslide which levelled things at one a piece. Reeling from losing his advantage Haward was able to go into his bag and unleash his pet move - according to Walton - which looked like two gut wrench suplexes in a row with the second leading into a pin. Haward perhaps had the more consistent strategic focus but Sanders was overall better at selling and projecting character throughout. Haward still came across like a legitimate athlete who was still finding his feet in this whole “professional wrestling” sphere, which is exactly what he was. 1981-03-17 Joint Promotions The Royal Brothers (Bert Royal & Vic Faulkner) vs. King Ben & Lee Sharron Ashington, Northumberland, United Kingdom ★ I find Vic Faulkner a joy to watch and I’d rather this had been a singles match between him and King Ben than this tag match. Lee Sharron was absolutely terrible. I guess the idea was to have an odd pair of him and Ben together, with Ben the rule abiding face and Sharron the rule breaker. The problem was that Sharron was too inept to heel properly until the latter stages of the bout. I guess Bert Royal wasn’t bothered about changing plans on the fly so he went ahead with the standard “babyface” gets retribution act but it just felt like he was bullying this poor, chubby, ill-coordinated man. Things only got mildly interesting when Royal ended up toppling through the ropes and catching his ankle between them, wrenching it in the process, and this gave Ben, and specifically Sharron, an attack point to exploit. But again, Sharron’s kicks and knee strikes were soooo appallingly bad that I just couldn’t take him seriously. When he did actually decide to heel it up, or show that he was supposed to play the role I expected of him coming in, it was only in arguing with his own partner rather than any underhanded tactics in the ring. Despite operating on only one leg Royal managed to win things for his team with a nice roll up on the big oaf. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 9, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 9, 2023 1981-03-17 WWF Rick Martel & Tony Garea (c) vs. The Moondogs (Moondog King & Moondog Rex) WWF Tag Team Title Match Agricultural Hall, Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA ★★ Card This aired on the 4th April episode of Championship Wrestling. Not a fantastic match or anything but notable for the changing of the belts from Martel & Garea to the Moondogs, and also Martel’s excellent babyface performance. Martel and Garea held the early advantage, which is unsurprising as this was the trend at the time, but slowly the Moondogs gained a foothold and were able to pretty successfully cut Martel off from his partner. Martel from the off had been a burst of energy and he was able to keep those fires burning throughout, but never more importantly than when he was getting worked over. He made being choked seem legitimately threatening and that constant motion was instrumental in building the tension during the back half of the match. The finish was an unsurprising fuck finish, with Garea getting frustrated and accidentally knocking the referee down, allowing the Moondogs to clobber him with their bone and steal the win. 1981-03-21 WWF Bob Backlund (c) vs. Sgt. Slaughter WWF Heavyweight Title Steel Cage Match Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ★★★ Card There were aspects of this that I thought were really great, but it hammered home my opinion that this style of cage match isn’t for me. The very final desperate attempt by Slaughter to escape, with his face a crimson mask and Backlund clinging on for dear life to haul him back in, was pure anxiety filled drama, but the dull tug of war that was the earlier escape attempts stuck the match in a quagmire of sorts. I also never understood why you would try and climb over the top when you could just ask for the door to be opened for you, so any and all over-the-top attempts lack realistic drama. The qualms above are more directed at the general escape the cage match structure than about this match in particular though. Backlund arrived to the ring all smiles, which I thought was strange considering how pissed he was at the finish of their last bout. But perhaps he was just gleeful at the thought of getting Slaughter alone in the cage. As soon as the action started Slaughter was up two turnbuckles and attempting his first escape. Unsurprisingly that didn’t go so well for him. A back bump off the top later and Slaughter was eating steel. Backlund himself took some pretty glorious bumps face first into the steel mesh though and this certainly wasn’t as one sided as I expected going in. There were a couple different occasions where it looked like Slaughter was going to start bleeding, and Kal Rudman was as eager as I was to have the bloodletting begin. Finally Slaughter was opened up and Backlund went through those classic cage match routine moves like raking his face into the mesh. We had the aforementioned final Slaughter escape tease, and he got a solid 80-90% of the way out before Backlund was able to haul him back in which brought the crowd to a fever pitch. A final flurry from Slaughter sent Backlund into the cage and he desperately attempted to climb the turnbuckles once again, but this was the nail in his coffin. Backlund made chase, his attack sending Slaughter plunging to the mat, but he had his leg caught on the top turnbuckle. I honestly don’t know how Slaughter didn’t wrench out his knee. He made the full drop from the tope rope with only his tangled up foot to catch him and it looked pretty grim. Triumphantly Backlund excited the cage and all was right in the world. As far as working this specific stipulation I thought they did an admirable job. Slaughter’s main aim was to escape early and often, which made sense, and his best route to gaining any advantage was to go low and hit Backlund where it hurt. In pure Backlund fashion he returned the favour on Slaughter tenfold and each ball shot in this match felt like a high spot. I would have preferred Backlund to have brought the fire and intensity of his previous match right from the start. This felt a little too carefree from him, especially early on. Overall the idea of having this cagematch was to prevent Slaughter bailing like he did previously and to allow Backlund the opportunity to tee off on him. They sort of played up to that idea but I would have liked some more brutality on Backlund’s part. Call me a sadist but this is what I came to see. 1981-03-21 WWF Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ★★★ Card The two big boys collide once again. We got some dynamic bumping from Hogan off the strikes and headbutts from Andre and he liberally bailed to the outside to recompose himself. I love the spots whenever Andre and his opponent can really emphasise Andre’s size. Hogan tried a double choke in the corner, but instead Andre just did the same back, making Hogan look like a puffed up baby trying to fight with an older sibling. Hogan showed he was the real deal though with a big body slam on Andre, but Andre swept the leg and began to work it over. The weakest part of this match, and the weakest part of Andre’s overall package, is that I don’t think he has enough compelling offense to fill up a middle portion of a match. He has what I think of as “shine” offense, when he overpowers or humiliates the heel, but when you just need to work over a guy, that’s where he starts coming up empty. Here he worked the leg and it was okay - but it was just okay. Hogan felt it was time to go to his secret weapon and he started loading the elbow pad for the Hogan Hammer. Unfortunately for him Andre had it scouted and caught him in the act, ripped off the pad and put it on himself. We essentially got a sneak peak of Andre/Hansen six months before release here, as Andre whipped Hogan into the ropes, nailed him in the top of the head and Hogan was dripping with the red stuff. The beatdown continued until Hogan pulled his final card and went for the body slam again. The problem was that now he was tired, worn out and bleeding, so at the apex of the move his body gave out and he found himself crushed under 470 lbs of Frenchman. 1, 2, 3. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 10, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 10, 2023 1981-03-22 AWA Nick Bockwinkel vs. Pat O'Connor St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA Card It’s hard to know what to make of this. The footage only ran 7 minutes long, and while I couldn’t find any timestamps for the match online, I’m sure at least half of this is missing. It was cool to see O’Connor in action. I can’t recall if I’ve ever seen an O’Connor match before. Commentary mentioned some form of boxing background and that presented itself in a few sequences where he began hitting body shots to Bock in the corner like he was working a heavy bag. He was also pretty liberal at manipulating the referee to get illegal punches in at the head, so I guess the vibe here was fight fire with fire, considering he was up against heel supremo in Bockwinkel. O’Connor went for his patented roll up but Bock was able to roll through, and perhaps with a handful of tights, was able to nab that win from the clutches of defeat. 1981-03-22 AWA The East-West Connection (Adrian Adonis & Jesse Ventura) vs. The High Flyers (Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell) Non Title Steel Cage Tag Team Match St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA ★★★ Card We got some pre-recorded promos from both teams. Gene interviewed the East West Connection first and broke the news that the tag titles won’t be on the line in the cage. They were furious and wondered how they'd been screwed by the top brass at the AWA. This feels so counterintuitive to what I’d expect the setup to be, with now the heels coming across as the hard done party and the babyface champions appear to have had the odds stacked in their favour. I’m missing a lot of context to this so the only reasonable explanation I can think of is if the heels had a series of heinous acts in the bank that the crowd felt they needed punishment for. We joined this JIP. Sometimes this doesn’t seem to hurt matches, but in this case I think it dings it somewhat. Missing the early stages and the slow build to the wild finish felt like it blunted the impact of the finale somewhat. Gagne was already bleeding when the footage starts but it wasn’t long before the rest in turn followed suit. Brunzell looked motivated and each time I’ve seen him he comes across like a solid, credible, fiery babyface. Gagne and Ventura were absolutely fine but there really was nothing to highlight from either. What pushes this match up a level is Adonis though. Just an absolute beast pinballing all over the place. In the WWF they had Slaughter, well, in the AWA they had someone nipping at his heels in the bumping department, and literally everything he did here was golden. No surprises that he was involved in the finish. Gagne took a knuckle duster shot to the back of the head from Ventura and Adonis took the opportunity to climb the structure and make the leap. It looked crazy, but even more so due to the fact this was 1981. I couldn’t quite tell if Brunzell pulled Gagne to safety or if he managed to move under his own strength, but either way Adonis crashed and burned, handing the win to the champions. Watch this for the quadruple juice, a nifty Brunzell display and a fantastic Adonis showing, but I’m not sure this was better than their match earlier in the month to be honest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 11, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 11, 2023 1981-03-23 CWA Terry Funk vs. Jerry Lawler No Disqualification Match Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee, USA ★★★★ ¾ Card Compact and intense. This was so tightly structured, they hit all the main points they needed to and left the crowd aching for more. Terry Funk did Terry Funk things. Within the first minute he managed to oh-so organically trip up over a rope re-entering the ring to garner a massive crowd pop at his misfortune. But he wouldn’t play the fool for long, he was prepared for a fight and both Terry and Lawler were throwing haymakers before long. I loved how they weaved Jimmy Hart into this, giving him only a few cameos, but reframing the match to remind the audience that at the heart of all this was the Lawler v Hart dynamic and Funk was merely the instrument of pain. Any time Hart found himself too close to Lawler on the floor he dove beneath the ring which I thought was fantastic. Those more familiar with Memphis perhaps have seen this ad nauseam, but I don’t remember seeing him do this before. I often find forehead biting to be a somewhat rote wrestling sequence, something people do just because they think they should in a bloody brawl, but often it’s executed so lazily. Here though both men worked together to not only make it look sick as fuck, but also made me think the bite itself was what actually opened up Lawler. Does anybody embody a wild man more than Funk once he’s fully in gear? He kept working that cut and it really stood out was how much he was revelling in it. He leaned back against the ropes and just spat Lawler’s blood into the air once, then twice, and let the horror on show really sink in. Terry perhaps was enjoying tormenting Lawler a bit too much. He beckoned for Calhoun to ask Lawler if he wanted mercy, letting up his attacks to heighten the humiliation and gloat. But it was these moments that gave Lawler a reprieve and gave Lawler the opportunity to recover and then work an absolutely killer comeback sequence, pulling down the strap and everything, but a Jimmy Hart interference and a bright orange chair later, Lawler was suffering. Terry went after the leg, the formerly broken leg, and once again we were playing into the narrative of the feud. Hart wants Lawler’s leg broken once again and Terry will deliver. Perhaps my only critique would be that Terry was perhaps too deliberate when attacking Lawler with the chair. He could have been more fast paced and vicious, to really hammer home the damage he was inflicting. He moved on to wrenching Lawler’s tights apart around the knee, removing the knee pad and going for the Spinning Toe Hold. Lawler held on just long enough to uncork a final, desperate punch which sent Terry reeling. Lawler intercepted Hart, with the chair, and this time it was Lawler’s time to tee off on Terry’s leg. Swinging the thing like a baseball bat, Lawler again and again hit double after double on Terry until he fell from the ring. Lawler followed him and the attack never relented. This was the energy I wanted from Terry earlier when he was swinging the chair. Lawler splattered Funk into the concrete of the Coliseum as those in the front row looked on in shock and awe. Lawler returned to the ring just in time as Calhoun counted the 10. This was my front runner for match of the year and seems to have retained that position for now upon rewatch. Not only is this a match of the year candidate, but a match of the decade candidate as well, and would comfortably make a GME list for me if I ever got round to making a ballot. 1981-03-27 AJPW Abdullah The Butcher vs. Jack Brisco Champion Carnival 1981 Match Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card Abby jumped Brisco during his entrance through the crowd. I’m pretty sure they actually managed to get into the ring very briefly, but before long they were entangled on the floor, wading through the swathes of fans, and we got a double countout. The crowd were heavily for Brisco during the bulk of this, but much like his matches against The Sheik, Abby managed to garner his own strong crowd reactions before it was all said and done. However I do get the sense that he was veering towards the over-familiarity stage with the All Japan audience at this point. They seemed all too keen to get up and close to him while he was brawling amongst them, like the mystique and fear he should have been eliciting had worn off, which explains the babyface reactions he was able to generate, but I’m not sure how good it was from a booking perspective. I thought this dynamic worked wonderfully when he was up against a heel, but against babyfaces everything might get a bit too muddled. 1981-03-30 CWA Dory Funk Jr. vs. Jerry Lawler Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee, USA ★★★ Card If I’d just watched this in isolation I might have enjoyed it a little less, but following up so shortly after Lawler’s match with Terry, seeing how Dory approached this was intriguing and it was a nice change of pace. Lacking the no disqualification stipulation of the Terry Funk match they began this far more measured. Dory used his NWA champion wiles to wrestle Lawler to the mat, wrenching him over a couple times with slow, bruising looking side headlock takedowns. Lawler returned in kind with an armbar of his own. The stakes hadn’t quite been raised yet. For the time being things were pretty civil. The spice level ticked up a notch as soon as Dory started uncorking his patented uppercuts in the corner. They really seemed to rock Lawler so he resorted to what he knew best, the fist. I actually really loved how Dory sold Lawler’s punches here, at least at this early stage in the match. His more subdued demeanour made these punches come across like death blows. He didn’t over bump on them, but they would stagger him and drop him to a knee, giving the impression that they were shaking the very foundations of his being instead of straight up blowing him away. During the final stretch I think that Dory selling in the exact same way may have been a bit detrimental though, where slightly more exaggerated selling would have served the finish better. Things slowly started escalating over the next 5-10 minutes, with Lawler chasing Dory down the aisle with a wooden plank at one point and Dory working over Lawler by the announcer’s table. The referee, Calhoun, increasingly needed to get involved and perhaps my favourite spots were Dory coldly kneeing Lawler in the balls twice while Calhoun was caught up with them in the corner. I forgot to mention that Jimmy Hart was suspended up above the ring, you know, because why not?! He dropped a chain down for Dory who plastered Lawler in the face with it. A near fall later and Dory was lazily caught choking Lawler with it. Lawler came prepared though, knowing Jimmy Hart’s dastardly ways, and pulled out his own chain from his tights. We got the big cathartic right hand straight to Dory’s noggin’ but Calhoun was again right up in the action and was thrown to the floor for his efforts by Lawler before he straight up ate a forearm strike from Dory and that was the final straw. I think this worked on a fair few levels, but it certainly was a step down from the mayhem that was the Terry bout. Dory’s a completely different animal though so I understand why they worked this in the way they did. Dory’s selling was pretty one note, and at times, like during the first third, I thought it was perfect, but his inability to switch things up and exaggerate those reactions later on I think hurt this. Lawler was pretty good in this too but what I’m waiting for though is for him to really imprint himself on a match. So far it feels like he’s the canvas upon which his opponents are carving out the match, and while they obviously heavily incorporate Lawler traits, I want him to really grab a match by the throat and be its defining feature. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 12, 2023 1981-03-31 Joint Promotions Mark Rocco vs. Sammy Lee The Pavilion, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom ★★★ Is this Sayama’s best match as Sammy Lee? I don’t think it’s a surprise that it took a worker like Rocco (who I think is fantastic) to drag Sayama into a well orchestrated match. All the glitz of Sayama’s usual offense was still present but Rocco fed into it properly and made it all come across as organic. I wasn’t bowled over by Sayama’s selling when he actually did it, but I’m sure he was a bit rusty considering he hadn’t had to do any for about 6 months. But those aforementioned big offensive spots, in this context, made him come across like an even bigger star/athlete than he had previously. There’s one thing to just steamroll a helpless opponent, but using these flashy kicks to mow down a calculating and seasoned wrestler like Rocco is a different story entirely. For his part Rocco, as I mentioned, did a fantastic job of sequencing Sayama’s offensive moveset and then peppering in his own attacks to apply the heat. He showed a lot of ass but he also didn’t just lie down for it. He forced Sayama to apply and maintain that pressure before he gave it up. Rocco’s strategy for the most part was to match Sayama’s flash with big home run bombs of his own. The problem was that his backfired more often than not, getting caught on the tope rope and slammed to the mat, which he sold like death superbly, or missing elbow drop, and these ended up breaking any momentum he had built up. Recently there had been a lot of talk about the referees cleaning up matches in WoS and it played into the finish here. Rocco picked up two swift public warnings, one for a pretty nasty suplex in which he just dumped Sayama on the ropes. Then in only the third round, Sayama springboarded off the middle turnbuckle and got a fist straight in the stomach. That was it for Rocco and was handed the DQ. 1981-03-31 Joint Promotions Dave Bond vs. Tom Tyrone The Pavilion, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom ★ Card “Not a tremendous first round but it’s almost done” - Kent Walton. Now just imagine that for four rounds. Tyrone came across like a create-a-wrestler, but when every attribute was left on the default setting. Bond seemed like he gave Tyrone the time in the first 2 rounds or so to “do his stuff” but I guess Tyrone had no stuff to do. Eventually it seemed like Bond was just like, fuck it, and starting applying the pressure, upping the ante on offense, and while Tyrone grabbed a soft equalising fall in the third, this really felt like a run of the mill victory for Bond. This could have been them sparring in the gym in front of zero people for all the energy they put into it. 1981-03-31 Joint Promotions Jon Cortez vs. Bobby Barnes The Pavilion, Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England, United Kingdom ★★★ Card This was such a tonally strange match. Definitely felt like they zagged from my expectations going in and perhaps due to Cortez winning a title from Breaks earlier in the year they wanted to give him a particularly strong showing here. The first couple rounds were quite subdued. No striking or slams. Just chain wrestling through and through. I wouldn’t say Barnes was getting embarrassed but Cortez literally looked like he was floating on air with some of his escapes and transitions, repeatedly handstanding effortlessly out of a manoeuvre, or some other equally fanciful athletic trickery. I was surprised by how on the level things were though, as Barnes just kept going with it and we didn’t get any little aggressive digs in that you’d expect from him. In fact the one to up the ante was actually Cortez. He began playfully swiping at Barnes’ head, rubbing and brushing his hair, as if peppering him with harmless boxing jabs, and even received a little admonishment from the referee for it. Now this did get a rise out of Barnes which led to him making a mental error in the third, resulting in a Cortez fall, and by the end of the fourth he was visibly frustrated. Barnes’ attempts to increase the rough play and really take it to Cortez were mostly for nought though. Everything he tried, Cortez seemed to have scouted, which both made Cortez look even more capable than usual, but also served to cut Barnes’ knees out from under him. Ultimately he had to go the whole nine yards and resort to sneaky punches to the ribs in the referee’s blind spot, and managed to tie things up that way, but he easily succumbed in the sixth and final round to a pretty anticlimactic press slam. From a technical perspective this was very impressive. The early exchanges were incredibly fluid, almost balletic. I just found it incredibly odd how passive Barnes was and that it was Cortez who played the role of antagonist, which felt a bit jarring. Cortez being able to handle Barnes’ colouring outside the lines tactics made him look good from a kayfabe perspective, and added some level of grit to his character that perhaps has been absent before this, but he usually excelled at really selling for his opponent, and here that whole element was essentially missing. I also think Barnes was too good to just be made such a fool of, but I have suspicions there were booking reasons at play here as an answer as to why it played out the way it did. 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SAMS Posted September 13, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 13, 2023 April 1981-04-XX AJW Mami Kumano vs. Tomoko Kitamura Japan ★★ Pretty nondescript match. Kumano handily controlled for the most part, swatting Kitamura’s attempt at fighting back by taking her through the crowd and depositing her in the seats. Kitamura had a little left in the tank though and went for broke and managed to hit the Giant Swing. It only got a two count though and Kumano immediately picked up the intensity with a few mini-powerbomb style slams and locked on a Cobra Clutch variation called the “Gill Special”. 1981-04-XX AJW Jackie Sato vs. Devil Masami Japan I get the feeling this had a chunk of the early match clipped. The announcements of time elapsed over the PA didn’t seem to line up with the video timestamps and I can’t believe that a just being tripped from the outside by Matsumoto (acting as Masami’s second) would be enough to allow Masami to establish such a long heat segment on Jackie. I thought the work during the heat was pretty lacklustre as well and we barely had any sign of a Jackie comeback until way too late in the match. An eventual flurry of offense from Jackie was cut short by an ill advised flying press of the second turnbuckle that she crashed and burned on, then they transitioned to the outside for some light brawling and we finished on a double countout. Pretty uninspiring all round. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 14, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 14, 2023 1981-04-02 AJPW - 9th Champion Carnival - Day 7 Wayne Ferris vs. Bruiser Brody Champion Carnival 1981 Match Civic Gymnasium, Mito, Ibaraki, Japan Card Honky Tonk in All Japan! Brody nailed him with a chained fist right at the bell, busting him open. A few more punches and a couple knee drops later and Ferris was out for the count. The seconds at ringside dove in to try and fend off Brody but he cleared house until one of them decided to come in wielding a steel chair. Nothing Brody actually did conveyed wild violence, but the image of his face plastered in Ferris’ blood and him being warded off by someone with a chair, made him look like a wild animal to say the least and was a cool visual. 1981-04-02 AJPW - 9th Champion Carnival - Day 7 Giant Baba vs. Jumbo Tsuruta Champion Carnival 1981 Match Civic Gymnasium, Mito, Ibaraki, Japan ★★★ Card This was measured and deliberate, a real old school affair. It was a slow burn, but they ramped the heat up for the finish with both men pulling out the stops for that win. I can see how some would find this relatively dull, and at points it might very well have been, I would only really recommend this to a devout disciple of that traditional mat style. But I thought they worked this in a way that the 30 minute time limit draw came off more like Jumbo was really taking the fight to Jumbo and pushing him to the limit, than them merely kicking the can down the road because they couldn’t have either man do the job. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 15, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2023 1981-04-06 WWF - MSG Network Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★ Card This was mildly frustrating as all the elements were there for this to be great. Patterson was itching to go, as soon as Slaughter appeared he was desperate to get his hands on him. He got the shine and Slaughter was deep into his bag on bumps, especially into the corner. I still am baffled how he is able to generate so much zip for a guy his size. The first few minutes were excellent and exactly how they should have worked this based on the feud up until this point. With Slaughter constantly trying to bail and Patterson so over-eager to keep applying the pressure I felt like the perfect transition would have been to use Patterson’s zealous fury against him, make a mistake while pursuing Slaughter or something of that ilk, but instead the shine kept going and the energy began to wane. Instead of a great transition into the heat, we just got Patterson getting caught on a running move and flung to the outside. Then they milked Patterson on the floor for an absolute age and the heat in the building was completely zapped for several minutes. The run to the finish was equally choppy. I loved Slaughter missing a dive off the top and crushing his own knee, Patterson furiously working it over, even going as far as to tee off on it using a chair. Later on Slaughter locked on the Cobra Clutch, harking back to the whole source of this feud, was gold. But both Slaughter and Patterson attacking the referee didn’t ring true to me and felt less like collateral damage amidst wild passion and more like a slapstick comedy routine. Finally, Slaughter deciding to kick the referee in the mid-section just as Patterson was about to break free from the Clutch just had me scratching my head. Great fire from Patterson, great bumping as usual from Slaughter. They carried the heat and resentment over from TV excellently. I just thought they struck out with the match structure. 1981-04-06 WWF - MSG Network Bob Backlund (c) vs. Stan Hansen WWF Heavyweight Title Steel Cage Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★★ Card This just about sneaks into the good category for me as there were enough elements that I liked and would encourage me to revisit this again in the future. I think there’s a certain point though where I just have to concede that WWF cage matches, regardless of era, are always going to skew lower for me. They promise so much and deliver relatively so little. Backlund was delayed coming to the ring and Hansen was absolutely losing his shit. We got a Vince Snr. sighting! Apparently the delay was that Finkel forgot to mention that the only way to win was escaping through the door or out over the cage. I think Vince Jr. spoke for us all when he matter of factly said “We already know that”. As soon as Backlund entered the ring Hansen was on him like a wild bear. Unfortunately for him it would only be a matter of seconds before he would be the one eating steel. They started at 100mph and they never let up. I would have liked Hansen to have had more opportunity to be brutal and really lay it on Backlund, even for just a few minutes, but that’s just not how these WWF Title matches went at this time. Backlund, to his credit, was aggressive and his brawling strikes looked great. A big piledriver put him in the driver’s seat until Hansen resorted to a swift kick to the balls. I do appreciate how Backlund cage matches seem to revolve around low blows, with his matchup against Slaughter almost becoming a low blow duel, but here Backlund got his revenge with a mammoth ball shot on Hansen as he was climbing the turnbuckle in the corner. The two clear moments that stick out to me, and what pushed this up that little notch, were Hansen’s crazy bumps on the top rope and how they executed Backlund leaving the cage. Both men found themselves up on the top rope in the corner of the cage just wailing on each other. Backlund gained the advantage and Hansen began “walking the top rope” before buckling, then plummeting to the mat. He took a following bump, a straight vertical drop where his head whiplashed off the turnbuckle, that was equally unreal. This was the opportunity Backlund needed and he left the cage. Now I’ll emphasise here that he “left” the cage, he didn’t escape the cage. In a blow-off match like this I think it was important for Backlund to have that definitive victory and the way in which Backlund stops, turns and flings sweat or snot in Hansen’s direction, before triumphantly walking through the threshold to receive his WWF Championship belt above his head, was excellent. Post match Hansen was apoplectic and really gave off that wild bear energy. At times like this he came across like the scariest motherfucker on the planet. As good as I thought he was here, I wish that carried over a tad bit more during the body of the match, as his best moments, beyond those wacky bumps he took, were what he did both before and after the match when he was alone in the cage. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 16, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 16, 2023 1981-04-06 CWA Terry Funk vs. Jerry Lawler Empty Arena Match Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee, USA ★★★★ ½ Card There’s not much more to be said about this than what already has. Funk was only what I could describe as completely and utterly unhinged, Lawler played his role perfectly as the stoic and extremely serious foil to Funk’s insanity, and Lance Russell was the rug that ties the whole thing together. Whatever people think of the “match” portion or the actual action, the whole is inordinately greater than the sum of its parts. I loved the pre-match recording with Russell talking to the camera man which gave off such a “found footage” vibe. For a blow by blow account of the events you can just check out the match thread, but wow, just another otherworldly performance from Terry Funk from the moment he swaggered his way into the Coliseum until Russell helped him walk out, his eye an absolute bloody mess. 1981-04-07 Joint Promotions Mick McManus vs. Clive Myers Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom ★★ Card This was all about McManus having to deal with the unorthodox martials arts stylings of Myers and whether his rule breaking would be able to give him enough of an edge to take the victory. Myers leaned hard into the kung fu here, posing a lot and doing various fake kicks and strikes to discombobulate McManus, which worked enough to get him ahead early. McManus controlled much of the middle rounds actually, relying on his wits and a lot of chokes out of the referee’s eyeline, but he wasn’t able to make any real headway until he literally just flung Myers over the top rope and into the crowd. Now I’ll pause here to emphasise that Myers literally flew several rows into the audience in one of the craziest bumps I’ve ever seen. I totally wasn’t expecting it at all. One moment they were locked up in the centre of the ring, the next he just disappeared into a mass of bodies. Without having a few plants there who knew what was coming I have no idea how they could have ensured that he didn’t seriously injure any of the spectators. Anyway, Myers ended up three rows deep and was deemed unable to continue, handing the win to McManus after all. Nothing crazy here but enough to keep me entertained, but what a finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 17, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 17, 2023 1981-04-10 AJPW - 9th Champion Carnival - Day 12 Abdullah The Butcher vs. Bruiser Brody Champion Carnival 1981 Match Hiroshima Prefectural Gymnasium, Hiroshima, Japan ★★ Card Abdullah up against another heel is becoming one of my favourite match types to watch. It doesn’t always deliver a killer match, and often just ends up with him and his opponent smushed together on the ring apron as the seconds desperately try and pull them apart, but I can’t deny that there’s something extra added when he’s allowed to be the sympathetic one, the guy that the crowd roots for. It’s a shame that after a pretty savage beatdown on Abby with the chain which I liked, Brody suddenly decided to become an animated mannequin for several minutes. I don’t know what was up with his selling but he looked like he was being stop-motion animated at points with how stiff and repetitive his movements were. 1981-04-11 PNW Buddy Rose (c) vs. Jay Youngblood NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA ★★★ Card Footage may have dried up somewhat since 1980, preventing me from getting as full a picture, but Buddy Rose’s ‘81 on tape feels like a step forward from the previous year. The surrounding talent feels less - I’m not sure this version of Jay Youngblood quite matches Piper or Martel and the tag division is a lot thinner - but Rose has really stepped things up. Don Owen announced before the match that Rose had won the belt recently in Salem and Rose came down to the ring adorned in Youngblood’s ceremonial headdress. He got on the mic and stated that Youngblood better win this match otherwise the championship belt was going straight into Mt St Helens. This felt like it was primed for a down and dirty brawl but that was almost the complete opposite from what we got. Instead we got a deliberate and calculated wrestling match. Youngblood snuck in a few near falls early and Rose sold them spectacularly, really projecting how relieved he was to not have fallen behind so early and visibly was trying to calm himself down and get back into the zone. Youngblood as well came across as more reserved than expected, perhaps not wanting to make an overzealous error himself and risk losing the title belt forever. The finish to the first was a bit clumsy, with Youngblood trying to roll through an O’Connor Roll but Rose having that scouted and himself hitting another revolution, but they were caught up in the ropes a bit and it wasn’t clear that Sandy Barr had actually counted the three. The second fall had an unusual but perfectly satisfying finish though. Being 1-0 down, Youngblood remained conservative and didn’t try for any home run moves. Instead he went to work with a side headlock. What was fantastic here is that they turned a generic, “please the crowd” but also kill-time move like the head crank, and made it the key hook of the fall and also the finishing move itself. Youngblood began the cranks and the crowd counted along. Something felt different though when we reached 15, then 20, then 25 and finally 30 revolutions and Buddy was out on his feet. Amazing woozy selling from Buddy and Youngblood got a 2.9 nearfall out of it for a huge pop. What elevated this though is that they went back to the head crank a second time. If 30 wasn’t enough, how about 40! Again the crowd were well into it, chanting at the top of their lungs and Rose just collapsed face first into the mat, Youngblood rolled him over and what do you know? We were all tied up. This is something that, if it happened on a semi regular basis, I would find infuriating. However as a neat little wrinkle once in a blue moon I thought this was a fantastically unique fall finisher. The third fall was all about Rose avoiding Youngblood’s bombs. One sunset flip from over the ropes got a 2 count for Youngblood but a second saw him catch nothing but air and crash to the mat. Youngblood set Rose up for the double chops off the ropes but again Rose was able to steer clear of the fateful clash. His lives ran out though when he countered out of a sleeper hold, which itself was a counter out of a backbreaker attempt, only to find Youngblood baseball slide between his legs and contort him into a cradle for the 3. A really slick sequence to finish things off and I thought it bookended the match perfectly considering how close Youngblood was to grabbing a quick fall right at the start using similar moves. Rose sold those so big because he knew that Youngblood had this in his locker and it was to be avoided at all costs, and unfortunately he wasn’t able to at the death here. Rose really was pure excellence here throughout, he was the one that drove the whole match and grabbed my focus. Youngblood I think was a little too passive and the moments when he got fired up felt out of character with the match itself. More and more it feels like he could be replaced with another babyface off the conveyor belt and it wouldn’t make a difference. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 18, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 18, 2023 1981-04-17 AJPW - 9th Champion Carnival - Day 19 Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Bruiser Brody Champion Carnival 1981 Match Municipal Gymnasium, Akita, Japan ★ Card I got the sense that Jumbo was trying his best here. He kind of oversold Brody’s offense for the first half, which meant that when he did get some stuff in later on - like a side suplex and an airplane spin - it carried more weight to it. The problem was that Brody was basically a cork board of bland. He had one fist drop that looked good, otherwise his offense generally looked pretty shit, and I’m really struggling to get over just how stiff his body movements are. The Abdullah match on the 10th was better purely because I’d rather see Brody in a brawl against a good brawler than in a straight wrestling match against someone like Jumbo. I think the brawls might be able to hide his weaknesses a little better. 1981-04-17 NJPW - WWF Big Fight Series II - Day 13 Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Kengo Kimura IWGP Asia Zone Preliminary League Match Kagoshima Prefectural Gymnasium, Kagoshima, Japan Card Okay this appeared to have over half the match clipped. It must have been a chunk at the beginning as initially I just thought they’d skipped the initial lockup and the whole thing just happened to be a mad sprint. With that in mind it’s hard to give it any kind of real rating but I can’t see how it could have been any less than “good” based on what I was able to see. Fujinami was incredibly giving at the start of the footage. Kimura hit him with a huge backdrop suplex and Fujinami was completely rocked by it, rubbing his head and trying to shake the cobwebs for a couple minutes after. The build to the finish packed a real punch as Kimura hit an incredible tope that just wrapped Fujinami’s body over the guardrail. He survived a collision with the ringpost and brushed Kimura off long enough to hit his own signature tope, sad to say this wasn’t as recklessly violent as Kimura’s. I really thought Kimura might have had this in the bag though as he set Fujinami up for a superplex in the corner, only to half botch it, half have Fujinami reverse it in mid-air, leaving him crumpled on the mat and ultimately pinned. I have no idea what the IWGP Asia Zone tournament was, but Fujinami advanced. 1981-04-17 NJPW - WWF Big Fight Series II - Day 13 Antonio Inoki (c) vs. Stan Hansen NWF Heavyweight Title Match Kagoshima Prefectural Gymnasium, Kagoshima, Japan ★★ Card This was just here to stoke the fires for the series blowoff on the 23rd April. I’m not sure if it’s due to watching Backlund go toe-to-toe against Hansen for the last few months or whether Hansen’s offense just got better, but his attacks looked particularly savage here. Any flurries Inoki got in were merely to stave off the beast, but there’s no doubt that Inoki knew how to rile up a crowd, and the few times he projected that his switch had been flipped garnered major crowd reactions. This finished in a weak double countout or no contest finish after a Hansen Lariat over the guard rail. Whenever Inoki managed to get some control and ground Hansen, down moments in any Inoki match really, were this match’s dead spots. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 19, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2023 1981-04-18 IWE - Big Challenge Series - Day 1 Paul Ellering & Terry Lathan vs. Mighty Inoue & Rusher Kimura Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card This was clipped to shit but the big takeaways were Ellering’s fun performance and Inoue’s nutty blade job. The last time I saw Ellering he had returned to Memphis sporting freshly dyed blonde locks, but this is my first exposure to him in Japan and honestly, his gimmick travelled. He has the physique and he was happy to act despicable. He had just enough credible offense to feel like a threat but he showed here that he could do the necessary bumping too, going big during his exchanges with Kimura. The footage jumped ahead multiple times so it was hard to keep track of the run of events, but this finished in a DQ for the foreign team with Ellering and Lathan choking Inoue in the middle of the ring with the edge of a steel chair. Solid way to establish the new foreign team for the tour. 1981-04-18 IWE - Big Challenge Series - Day 1 Ashura Hara vs. Steve Olsonoski Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan ★★ Card Steve O taking time out of his Georgia schedule to turn up in Japan. Back in the US he was hovering around the main event in the mix for the TV and National Titles, but to me he always felt like a step down from the likes of Kevin Sullivan, Steve Keirn and Bobby Eaton. Here though he really didn’t look half bad at all, and in fact, I’d say he came off a little better than Ashura Hara to boot. There was some minor clipping, but I don't feel like too much was missing. The early stuff was mostly exploratory mat work which they slowly built upon to layer in strikes until they finally upped the stakes to the finish, Hara hitting the superplex. Competent and fun, but nothing spectacular. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 20, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 20, 2023 1981-04-18 WWF - PRISM Network Moondog Rex & Sgt. Slaughter vs. Andre The Giant & Tony Garea Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ★★★ Card This should be described in one word, FUN. All four men played their roles to a tee, but really the standouts, and this should come as no surprise, were Slaughter and Andre. What made this fantastic was both Slaughter and Rex got over how desperate they were to avoid Andre from start to finish. Any time he came in and they didn’t have an opportunity to cheapshot him they instantly bailed from the ring, or did everything in their power to escape from the ring. Andre came across like the most dangerous man in the world, and when he got his hands on them they crumpled like wet tissue paper. But instead of this being a mere walkover for the faces, the team of Slaughter and Rex were expert in using underhand tactics to gain some modicum of a breather from Andre, then isolated Garea, which they were able to do for a substantial portion of the match. Confident in the safety of numbers Slaughter would goad Andre on the apron and even spat in his direction at one point, which prompted him to charge across the ring like a wild hippo. The timing of the spots and the excellent way in which they teased Garea being able to make the tag to Andre was so on point. Ultimately Andre got sick of being stuck on the apron and all hell broke loose. Dick Woehrle called for the bell and it was announced he had DQd the heels and handed the decision to Andre and Garea. This was about the only downside to the whole affair because I couldn’t see what they’d done to earn any kind of disqualification. In fact Andre running wild seemed to be the closest thing to rule bending that occurred near the end. But for a bottom of the card tag match, it wasn’t enough to dampen the whole experience. 1981-04-18 WWF - PRISM Network Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. The Hangman Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ★★ Card Yatsu was already good here, he just wasn’t good enough to carry somebody else to a good match. I did like how hyper focused Yatsu was on Hangman’s leg, and in turn his selling of said leg, gingerly walking on it for the rest of the match, was spot on, but they had about half the amount of “stuff”needed to fill the time they had allotted and it resulted in a lot of reused spots. In the end this finished in a 20 minute time limit draw, with Yatsu getting some babyface shine at the finish by turning the table on Hangman and using his own noose against him. But this really should have gone 10 minutes at a push. 1981-04-18 WWF - PRISM Network Bob Backlund (c) vs. Killer Khan WWF Heavyweight Title Match Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ★★ Card Their last match was no great shakes, but that was in New York and this was their first rodeo in Philly. I certainly think that this was a better showing than what they put on at MSG, but there were still enough moments that dragged this down. I’m no big fan of Khan’s TV appearances, and as the calendar year turned to 1981 they didn’t get any better. However I feel like his persona played far better on the big stage as he had the presence that projected well in an arena setting. The extreme crazy (like the drooling) were dialled way back and we got more of the “Killer” part of his gimmick. He had a massive frame and could really lay in some stiff shots, giving the impression that Backlund had his work cut out for him. Early on Backlund was crisp and pinpoint in his attacks, being able to hook the leg and sweep his opponent to the mat three consecutive times. Apparently he had just come off a 15 hour flight from Japan with no sleep, so perhaps that was the secret sauce. However as the match wore on there wasn’t much from Backlund that I felt stood out, especially in contrast to Khan, which lent to the feeling of things dipping somewhat. They worked an unusual groin splitting spot, the kind of thing you’d see far more often on World of Sport, and Khan went all out to sell the pain. By the time Backlund had had his way with him he felt far more like a cartoon villain than the vicious menace he came across as at the start of the match. A last gasp suplex attempt was foiled by Backlund and he was able to do an O’Connor Roll and bridge for the win. 1981-04-18 WWF - PRISM Network Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter Special Grudge Match Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ★★★ Card As much as they lost me at the start, they reeled me back in for the finish. For a special grudge match, so excellently announced by Mr Cappetta, I was expecting a faster and more furious opening salvo. While Patterson seemed eager to get the action going, Slaughter was all too keen to criss-cross the ring and find refuge on the outside, avoiding any contact with Patterson whatsoever. The intention was to build heat due to the constant stalling, but all it did was take the sting out of the match entirely. Once they did get underway we got the usual Slaughter bumps in the corner, but they had no rhyme or reason - they had no purpose. The big transition occurred when Patterson fell to the outside and we had an elongated king of the mountain sequence with Slaughter preventing Patterson from recovering and re-entering the ring. As this unfolded I really wasn’t feeling it at all. Again and again Slaughter would just break the count and quickly pummel Patterson again then return to the ring. It just felt like they had stalled. But as this dragged out longer and longer, and Patterson received more and more abuse, it warped into something completely new. As Patterson increasingly came across as battered and broken on the concrete, Slaughter slowly morphed into an ever increasingly sinister figure in the ring. This made the resulting comeback all the more impactful. Patterson had reached rock bottom and now was clawing his way back up, the crowd’s sympathy fully behind him and as he desperately attempted to break free from the Cobra Clutch once again, they were roaring their support. The comeback didn’t come all at once though. Much like their famous TV segment, Slaughter was the one to actually break the hold, quickly switching to clubbing blows to the back to soften Pat up even further. But when the time came, Slaughter made a fatal error. He came off the top like a ton of bricks and absolutely wrecked his knee on impact. This was the window of opportunity Patterson was looking for and he pounced, locking in the figure four. From here on in it was Patterson abusing Slaughter’s leg, the referee’s having to get involved and ultimately we had to have a pull apart. Amidst all this Slaughter ended up getting DQd for swiping the referee while in the hold. For having such a bland, meandering opening, they finished this white hot. Patterson was on point during his comeback, showing the fire and edge required to really take it to Slaughter and in return Slaughter walked that fine line of dishing out punishment, but showing ass when called for. His selling of the knee, especially during the post match, was exceptional also. He feigned to dive back in and challenge Patterson again, who was riled up and ready to go, but Slaughter decided against it. Jumping down from the apron his knee buckled from beneath him and he had to stumble back to his feet before he made his way to the back. He didn’t overdo it but he was true to the match through and through. 1981-04-18 WWF - PRISM Network Hulk Hogan vs. Tony Atlas Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA ★★ Card This actually was the last date Hogan worked for the WWF during this initial run. Losing both here and at MSG to Atlas, in addition to losing to Andre at the previous Spectrum show concluded a run of jobs before he made his exit. Overall this was what I would describe as “fine”. The finish was a bit wacky but the action delivered enough to be satisfying. My biggest gripe was Atlas’ decision making. Pushing for the big comeback and momentum switch he decided to first go for a bear hug, and then later on a front facelock - talk about crowd pleasing moves! Hogan really had gotten solid form an in-ring perspective by this point. I know he had good matches before but often it felt like he needed his opponent to lead him through the match and he could look a little lost at times. Here it seemed like he’d put it all together to deliver on every aspect. He could sell - he definitely could sell - his offense looked adequate, but the connective tissue stuff was coming together too. He would fill in those dead moments with something, like spitting on Atlas’ prone body, or strutting. These simple things that keep the action flowing even when there is no actual wrestling going on. As I said, the finish was whatever. Ref bump via a stray leg on a body slam. Atlas went to check on him and predictably got clubbed from behind by Hogan. Hogan tossed him to the outside then seemed very invested in checking on the referee himself. I think they were trying to convey that he needed the referee to count Atlas out, but Atlas wasn’t worn down enough that a count out was even remotely on the cards, so he snuck back in and rolled Hogan up for the 1, 2, 3. Not exactly sure what the hell Hogan was doing there, but he needed to do the job and it seemed like they orchestrated the stupidest way for him to do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 21, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 21, 2023 1981-04-23 AJPW - 9th Champion Carnival - Day 25 Jack Brisco & Killer Brooks vs. The Funks (Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk) Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan Card With the match being clipped to the 15 minute mark it’s easier to focus on this as merely an angle rather than a match. When we dove into the action they were already finisher spamming with Brisco trying for the figure four whenever he had the opportunity and the Funks countering with a series of spinning toe holds. As Terry and Brooks spilled to the outside, Abdullah made an appearance and proceeded to annihilate Terry, leaving him a bloody mess on the concrete. They had to help him to the back, leaving Dory to fend for himself. Dory held out long enough for Terry to make a triumphant return, his face still dripping with blood, and Brooks succumbed to the Toe Hold in the end. Seeing as the Funks were busy in Memphis, they were absent from this year’s Champions Carnival, but here, in their first match back, the rivalry with Abby was heated right back up again in a flash, and not that Terry ever needs any extra pushing to get over, but they gave the fans a taste of the classic Terry experience here. The action overall was pretty lacklustre and it certainly seemed like Dory and his opponents were filling time until Terry returned but this served its purpose. 1981-04-23 AJPW - 9th Champion Carnival - Day 25 Abdullah The Butcher vs. Jumbo Tsuruta Champion Carnival 1981 Match Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan ★★ Card For a match where both men desperately needed a win, and neither could afford to lose, the energy for this was weirdly apathetic. We had double juice by the midpoint, but the crowd was so eerily silent throughout it was off putting. Jumbo took it to Abby early, but I didn’t get the sense that the fans were particularly eager to see Abby take a beating. Abby retaliated with some rabbit punches to the head and ended up drawing blood. The energy picked up slightly for the finish as the brawling escalated, and I thought the transition to fighting on the outside of the ring was pretty organic, but the one result both wrestlers absolutely needed to avoid was the one they ultimately had, a double countout. 1981-04-23 AJPW - 9th Champion Carnival - Day 25 Giant Baba vs. Bruiser Brody Champion Carnival 1981 Match Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan ★ Card So this was for all the marbles, with the winner becoming the Carnival champion. The resulting match was just…yuck. Brody didn’t even let poor Baba make it down to the ring before he had him tied up around the throat. They then proceeded to have one of the worst brawls known to man. Neither came out of this looking good at all, but special mention must go to Brody, who excelled in sucking at everything you’d want a wrestler to do. His selling was laughable here, if that’s what you’d want to call it, with the “bump” he took from Baba’s big boot encompassing the problems I’m outlining. This ran for barely 10 minutes, but it felt like 30, and finished - the whole tournament finished - on an anticlimactic Thesz Press from Baba. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 22, 2023 1981-04-23 NJPW - WWF Big Fight Series II - Day 17 Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan ★★★ Card The series of matches between these two has a lot of baggage that comes along with it, but I tried to approach this with as much of a blank slate mindset as possible. Having followed Sayama’s rise through the ranks in World of Sport over the preceding months it’s no surprise at all that he would be the one chosen to don the Tiger’s mask. Some of the same sloppiness he displayed in England is still on display here, but there’s no denying that he possessed explosive athleticism and had a certain unique charisma. Just how he bounced around the ring to begin the match was just so entirely different to anything you would see in a New Japan ring at the time. Having Dynamite Kid be his opponent was integral to this being as good as it was. He was hard hitting, vicious, mean, cunning and kept the whole thing grounded in some form of reality. They clearly wanted to get Tiger Mask over strong and they did a great job of that here, delivering a short and snappy match that announced their new attraction with a bang. The few annoying aspects of Sayama’s work are very much still present, but this gimmick is new enough, and the rest of the match was good enough, that they can be forgiven in this instance. Time will tell if they persist and spoil his future matches. 1981-04-23 NJPW - WWF Big Fight Series II - Day 17 Stan Hansen vs. Antonio Inoki NWF Heavyweight Title Match Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan ★★ Card Their previous match ending in a no-contest meant that the title was vacated and was now up for grabs for both men. I can see how some would think this was good, but I’m certain, like with many of these Inoki vs Hansen matches, that I won’t be able to recall anything that happened in it in a few weeks time. There certainly was struggle, at times it felt like watching two men wrestle through mud, but it was punctuated by highly kinetic moments where either man would have a flurry of offense. Things seesawed throughout and neither were able to gain much, if any, real advantage. Hansen looked like he might have had a chance when he nailed the Lariat, but Inoki was able to kick out. At that point it was clear that it was Inoki’s night. The rest was merely academic, he missed an Enzuigiri, which Hansen expertly no-sold, and Inoki quickly followed up with another that this time did connect. He flew to the top and hit a flying knee to the face before he hammered the nail in the coffin with another knee to a prone Hansen. Hansen had the best of this I thought. He sold big for Inoki’s bombs and his offense, throughout 1981 actually, has been markedly snugger, so he’s certainly on an upward trend for me. Inoki was fine here, but other than hitting the final two aerial assaults, he lacked that world conquering charisma and energy that he can often bring to elevate his matches. Judging strictly by technical expertise he’s always just about adequate so when the intangibles aren’t quite there it leaves a void. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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