SAMS Posted September 23, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 23, 2023 1981-04-24 AJPW - International Champion Series 1981 - Day 1 Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta (c) vs. The Funks (Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk) NWA International Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium, Yokoyama, Kanagawa, Japan ★★ Card This was a handheld and lasted over 50 minutes all in all. Like many matches that last this long, the momentum swings feel more like rolling waves than sudden shifts. The champions contained Dory for a substantial time during the first fall, keeping him contained in a headlock and kicking away at Terry any time he tried to lean over and grab a tag. They actually managed to wear down Terry as well, skipping any real hot tag sequence, so him stealing a pin with a rolling cradle on Baba felt like pulling a rabbit from a hat. He wouldn’t be so lucky in the second, eating a double big boot and a double suplex for a pretty matter of fact equaliser. Then he and Jumbo orchestrated one of the most choreographed double count out sequences I can remember. They did end up adding an extra 10 minutes to declare a winner, but that also went the time limit so we finished with a draw anyway. The high points, the real electric moments, all came from Terry and Jumbo. They were the instigators for their teams the whole way and Baba and Dory merely followed their lead. Coming out of this made me really want to see a match between those two, but this was just too long for what it was. By the finish I was kind of yearning for it to end and the double count out just had me rolling my eyes. 1981-04-26 AJPW - International Champion Series 1981 - Day 3 Giant Baba vs. Terry Funk NWA International Heavyweight Title Tournament Second Round Match Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan ★★ Card This was good for the chunk of it that was a match, but it devolved into an all out brawl with outside interference and in the end felt more like an angle. I will say that this was one of the first times that Baba came across like a puzzle that his opponent needed to figure out rather than just a passenger. He really was able to control and manipulate Terry, forcing him to switch up his approach, and I liked this a lot because it reinforced Baba’s uniqueness and was at least some kind of a signal as to why he should be the top guy. For all of Inoki’s flaws at least he had mega charisma, and when he turned it up to 11 he could generate massive reactions and make a moment feel BIG. Baba so far hasn’t shown that wow factor in the 80s at all, so I was happy to see a little glimpse here. Things were bubbling along nicely, then down the aisle came Brody and Abby. Brody made a beeline for Terry on the floor and Abby snuck up behind Baba (not sure how Abby was able to sneak up on anybody, let alone wielding a massive 2x4) and took Baba out from behind. Joe Higuchi was caught up trying to separate Terry and Brody on the floor while Dory arrived to head Abby off in the ring. Things escalated from there as Brody tied Terry up around the neck, flung him over his shoulder and carried him about like a bindle (I had to look up the name for a bindle). I’m not sure exactly how the decision was made but apparently Joe thought it was fine to countout Terry despite the blatant interference, anyway Baba won the match. It wasn’t over yet though as Dory ran Abby off, who thought it better to fight another day, leaving Brody to fend off Dory, Jumbo and Terry all by himself. Somehow he managed to take shots from each of these men and never leave his feet, but things whittled down to just Brody and Terry again and they brawled a bit in the crowd before Brody high tailed it out of there. Good energy in the post match brawl, which if I bundle into the match raises it up somewhat. Terry vs Baba was a nice little mat based showcase, even if it didn’t blow me away or anything. Booking wise though I just don’t understand the justification to have Baba get the win by countout when there was so much interference. He literally won due to the fact that when he was jumped he happened to be in the ring and he just lay there while Terry was getting strung up. Not a good look for their top star really. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 24, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2023 1981-04-27 AJPW - International Champion Series 1981 - Day 4 Jumbo Tsuruta & Terry Funk vs. Jack Brisco & The Avenger Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan ★★ Card The Terry/Brisco pairing was real nice as they duelled over leg sweep takedowns. Terry got the chance to sell and pinball round the ring while Brisco could show off not just his fluidity but also a hard edge, as he was working more heelish here than what I’ve usually seen from him in the US. Jumbo and Terry worked over the Avenger’s leg for a decent portion but he made this borderline unwatchable with this weird yapping sound he kept making while in any hold. Serviceable but definitely not something to go out of your way to see. 1981-04-27 AJPW - International Champion Series 1981 - Day 4 Giant Baba vs. Bruiser Brody NWA International Heavyweight Title Tournament Semi Final Match Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan ★★ Card Short and sweet and it didn’t wear out its welcome. Baba had his right hand all bandaged up and they really played on the fact that he was carrying an existing injury. It was Baba though who drew first blood, literally, smashing Brody’s head into the ringpost. Baba’s offense from this point on was targeted on the wound above Brody’s eye, all the while making a point of using his weaker, but uninjured, left hand for the chops, which I thought was fantastic psychology. We saw Brody a lot more giving and willing to sell here than usual - unsurprising considering he was up against the boss. A big boot actually knocked him off his feet and sent him sprawled on the mat. In the end though Brody broke out the chain, choked Baba a little and finished him off with a knee drop in what was quite an unexpectedly short match considering the stakes. 1981-04-27 AJPW - International Champion Series 1981 - Day 4 Abdullah The Butcher vs. Dory Funk Jr. NWA International Heavyweight Title Tournament Semi Final Match Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan ★★ Card Dory really came to play, displaying that solid old man “get off my lawn” energy. Abby perhaps pushed his luck a little too far and Dory just snapped and was ready to put him in his place. Abby always had his hidden weapon as an equaliser but Dory held his own and was really putting the boots to Abby for most of this in a way that was thoroughly satisfying. Maybe I would have liked him to have sold getting a weapon shot to the throat a little more vigorously, but that would be picking nits. The finish is what really docks this for me. Dory and Abby got caught up in the ropes and down came Brody. Having already secured his place in the tournament final he clearly had intentions to take somebody out. In this case he hit a running knee into Dory’s exposed back before hightailing it out of there double time. That was enough for Higuchi to call for the bell and declare Dory the winner. Why they so quickly went for the disqualification in this case for a mere knee attack, but literally turned a blind eye at Brody massacring Terry during the Baba match I do not know. Just another in a long line of bizarre booking decisions. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 25, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 25, 2023 1981-04-29 Joint Promotions Mal Sanders (c) vs. Keith Haward European Middleweight Title Match Walthamstow, London, United Kingdom ★★ While Keith Haward is technically proficient and seems to tick the right boxes, it may be a case that his amateur credentials work against him in making him come across too mechanical and he certainly doesn’t exude any real charisma, which means that a lot of what he does is instantly forgettable. Sanders on the other hand delivers those intangibles. I’ve liked how, around this time, he was a babyface, wrestled like a babyface, but it always felt like a heel turn was on the cards. He had an edge that not a lot of the faces in World of Sport had around this time. Sanders started this strongly but a missed knee drop gave Haward a target and target it he did. I wish Sanders had resolved to sell here, like at all, cause he just looked like he was having a leisurely lie down while Haward worked him over. Things always felt like they were on the verge of boiling over though, as both men were more steely than you would expect, perhaps due to the title being at stake, but Sanders took the first fall with a nifty bridge. What I absolutely loved though, was how he celebrated getting the fall. Too often in WoS falls feel just par the course, giving off an exhibition vibe for the most part, and win or lose they pop right back up and shake hands. Here Sanders gave it the old fist pump and wheeled into his corner like he’d just scored in the cup final and I appreciated this raw honest-to-sports moment. He repeated this again, but in reverse, when he lost the subsequent fall to Haward. Not often do you see a face banging their fists to the mat in frustration, mad that his aggressiveness in pushing for that 2-0 win had been his undoing. The round in question was a real doozy and easily the highlight of the match as Sanders upped the pace to 10 as he pushed, hoping that he could force the issue against Haward. Things levelled off somewhat after that and Haward managed a body slam for the win and the title. All in all I could see someone calling this good with no qualms but it was just lacking that little something for me, despite Sanders’ very good performance. 1981-04-30 AJPW - International Champion Series 1981 - Day 7 Dory Funk Jr. (c) vs. Terry Funk NWA International Heavyweight Title Match Sports Park Gymnasium, Matsudo, Chiba, Japan ★★ Card With Brody injured and unable to wrestle, Dory was handed the title. Before this match all the participants of the previous tournament drew straws for the right to face Dory in his first defence. Terry drew the winning card and we got the first, and ultimately only, contest between these two brothers. This was definitely a throwback. They wrestled in that old school mat style and you could tell they were going long. Did Dory love a side headlock? You bet your bottom dollar he did. The first 20 minutes or so were Dory controlling Terry in the hold before we slowly evolved into a tradeoff between Terry working the arm and Dory working the leg. This didn’t really go anywhere and the story developed once again into Dory trying for a suplex. They struggled over a basic standing version, but ended up in the ropes. Dory went for a double arm suplex, but again was foiled. He tried a second time for the double arm several minutes later, and again was foiled. The third time he tried he finally succeeded, aaaaaaaand we got a two count out of it. I mean, they made struggling over a suplex feel like a high spot, which was both impressive and an indictment of the match. After 54 minutes Terry tried a sunset flip over the ropes but Dory rolled out of the pin and managed to fold Terry up for the victory. Any match that is on the brink of hitting the hour mark is always going to push the limits of patience, but this did a good enough job of never dragging too much. While the action was fine it also never really had those moments or sequences that made you feel like a match of this length was warranted. We got some flashes, like the aforementioned suplex struggle. Or a particularly vicious uppercut from Dory that made Terry woozy, and instead of dealing with Terry’s wild jabs and swings, he instantly just bailed from the ring in the perfect example of “I know this guy too well and this just isn’t worth my time”. But beyond this it was pretty stale and unless you’re wooed by the occasion (the re-introduction of a prestigious and historically significant title into the promotion) or the unique circumstances (the Funk brothers colliding) then it probably isn’t worth your time. I will say as a side note that there was an interesting fan sighting in this match. I believe Jim Crockett was the NWA President at this time and they’d flown him over to add to the prestige. Occasionally they would cut to him blankly staring at the match, but behind him were two boys, kitted out in sports gear and wearing backwards facing baseball caps. It was almost as if they’d been time warped from the mid-90s for this event. Just an interesting tidbit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 26, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 26, 2023 May 1981-05-02 CWA - Memphis Championship Wrestling TV Bill Dundee & Dream Machine (c) vs. Kevin Sullivan & Wayne Ferris AWA Southern Tag Team Title Match WMC Studios, Memphis, Tennessee, USA ★★ Card A quick paced, fun studio tag title match, but this was all about Dundee, who gave another absolute masterclass here. The first half was him taking it to his opponents, great offense, great punches. As the bout wore on though the challengers gained a foothold and started to wear Dundee down. Just like that Dundee switched to selling mode and he got over the change in momentum and the danger he was in just so well. He mounted a final flurry with a fired up comeback but Hart intervened by pulling down the middle ropes and Dundee fell to the outside. He barely made it, but made it he did before Calhoun’s count, but all that greeted him on the other side of the ropes was Sullivan cradling him for the win. And just like that Dundee and Dream Machine lost the belts. As Sullivan, Hart and Ferris celebrated, Dundee just lay there spent on the mat. 1981-05-04 MLW Jimmy Snuka & Roddy Piper vs. Dewey Robertson & Ric Flair No Disqualification Tag Team Match Brantford, Ontario, Canada ★★★ Card This was one of those barn burner matches. Very good for a TV match with a super brisk pace underpinned by Flair trying to get his hands on Piper and Piper doing anything he could to avoid him. If the crowd reactions were anything to go by then the US Title Flair/Piper feud was still raging on at this point because while there weren’t that many in attendance, the ones who were created an electric atmosphere. Flair just pops off the screen in the early 80s in comparison to what else was going on at the time. Not necessarily to say he’s better or a cut above, but whether it’s the scarcity of the footage or just how original he feels, it always feels like an event when he shows up. Piper and Snuka were great here too, able to get serious heat and both Flair and Robertson went through face in peril sequences culminating in fantastic hot tags. There was never a second of wasted motion and never a dull moment. Just constant action bell to bell. Flair got caught as Snuka went for a slam but a clutch Dewey dropkick sent Snuka to the mat with Flair crushing him from above and Piper was held up in the corner just long enough that they got that 3 count. Really fun match that people should go out of their way to see. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 27, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 27, 2023 1981-05-04 WWF - MSG Network Bob Backlund (c) vs. Angelo Mosca WWF Heavyweight Title Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★ Card This felt like it was going to be a run of the mill victory for Backlund. That kind of match in basketball where the champions come in, they’re down by 5 after the first quarter, but end up winning comfortably by 10. Backlund definitely exuded that certain champion quality (I know that kind of is a redundant thing to say after being 3 years as champion), so in that sense this was successful, but neither he nor Mosca did anything that would make me want to watch any kind of rematch. How they set up any such potential future collision left a lot to be desired as well, with the finish that Backlund went for a forearm and missed, inadvertently nailed the referee instead, resulting in a DQ for Mosca, but obviously the title wouldn’t change hands. Felt very weak to me, and if I were a paying customer another Backlund/Mosca match at MSG would be an event I would be inclined to skip. 1981-05-04 WWF - MSG Network Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter Alley Street Fight Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★★★ ¼ Card This went 15 minutes in total and, broken down into thirds, consisted of a very good start, a somewhat pedestrian middle, and a masterpiece of a finish. I loved Patterson’s fire right from the off. As soon as Slaughter was up on the apron he took the fight to him. He didn’t hesitate to up the ante either, pulling off his belt, laying those first nasty lashes right onto Slaughter’s back and then right in his face. My issue with Patterson here is that he was too easy to then ease off the gas and by the time Slaughter turned the tables and got some heat the match was really yearning for that transition. Slaughter’s attacks were mean and gritty, using Patterson’s belt against him, he ripped off that famous I Love NY shirt and used it to choke Pat in front of thousands of New Yorkers. The middle was a real lull for me. This is the kind of match where you want the crowd to be on the edge of their seats for the duration and they gave them too many opportunities to put their bums back in their seats. If they’d just worked at a slightly faster pace, even just 15%, I think it would have made a massive difference. Perhaps it was as simple as having Patterson being 4 or 5 years younger, who knows. Either way, the crowd energy dipped, the action slowed way down and this is where, if I’m nitpicking, I’d dock this match. From the bump into the corner until the finish though this is just a classic. Immediately after hitting his head on the ringpost Slaughter was bleeding, and when I say bleeding, I mean BLEEDING. The first few squirts out of his forehead were visible from the cheap seats like they’d been rigged up for a B movie horror flick. Slaughter was out on his feet, stumbling around the ring, wobbling like an idiot, giving the whole arena the chance to see the gruesomeness on show. His only shot was to go low and he nailed it, getting Patterson right below the midsection. He dug deep into his arsenal and pulled out the brass knuckles and cracked Patterson in the face. He didn’t even have the energy to capitalise on this usually most definitive of KO blows and by the time he’d made it to his feet to try again Patterson was up, recovered and was able to block his follow up attempts. Before long Patterson had pulled off one of his cowboy boots and was using it as a weapon, leathering Slaughter repeatedly in the face and sending him tumbling to the concrete. As Slaughter tried to claw his way back in he met a barrage of further blows, prompting the Grand Wizard to do the unthinkable, but ultimately the right thing, and throw in the towel. I loved the ending. There’s nothing like a true heel digging really deep, finding a morsel of humanity, and acting in the best interest of another - and that’s what the Grand Wizard did here. After getting pretty much humiliated by Backlund during their series together (in Philadelphia I know), Slaughter needed a strong showing, even in defeat. Despite the gallons of blood lost, he was still fighting back, still trying to take it to Patterson, and we left this with him almost being dragged from the ring by his manager for his own wellbeing. I’m not sure I’d be this high on the match without the blood though, as it often goes with matches with incredible gushers, but nonetheless Slaughter pulled an incredible one here that is etched in the memory of all who’ve seen it. 1981-05-04 WWF - MSG Network Gorilla Monsoon, Rick Martel & Tony Garea vs. Captain Lou Albano, Moondog Rex & Stan Hansen Best Two Out Of Three Falls Six Man Tag Team Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA ★★ Card Whatever expectations you’d have of a match like this, with a hodgepodge of talent chucked together, tacked on to the end of the card back, those involved barely strived to match them. Lou Albano did everything in his power to never tag in, and in fact I’m pretty sure he succeeded, Monsoon was described as “coming out of retirement” for this, and he certainly looked like he’d been enjoying the leisurely life of retirement looking at his waistline. As you would expect from those involved, Martel and Hansen were the best two guys and while I know it eventually would happen, I would have loved a match between these two at this time. Their interactions with each other here were easily the highlights of the match. The heel team were disqualified in the first fall for triple teaming Martel in the corner then Monsoon splashed Moondog Rex for the straight falls victory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted September 28, 2023 Author Report Share Posted September 28, 2023 1981-05-04 CWA Jerry Lawler vs. Jerry Blackwell Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee, USA ★★★ Card Loaded the footage up, match started rolling and BAM Jerry Blackwell, all 470 ish pounds of him, was airborne and hit a picture perfect standing dropkick right in Lawler’s mug. What a way to start a match. This isn’t something to watch when you’re looking for a deep narrative story or interesting strategy, this was Blackwell beating up on Lawler, Lawler getting in a hope spot or two, Blackwell cutting him off, rinse and repeat a few times before the final, real comeback where Blackwell missed a splash and Lawler grabbed the pin. What you DO come to this match to see is two guys with fantastic punches just wailing on each other and both selling said punches to an absolute tee. Blackwell in particular had a whole arsenal of moves that looked killer, and I know this is nothing new to anybody already familiar with Blackwell, but what a sight to see him move about the ring, especially during those early moments. Hot damn. 1981-05-08 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 1 Sgt. Slaughter vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara City Gymnasium, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan ★ Card Only 5 minutes long and essentially a Slaughter squash, but I don’t think this worked at all - the styles of the two men clashed like oil and water. Fujiwara seemed insistent on trying to grapple with Slaughter and Slaughter looked like he wasn’t interested in the slightest. By the end of this Fujiwara was throwing some weak punches into Slaughter’s midriff and he was just straight up no-selling them looking bored by the whole thing and it felt like a mercy when he finally applied the Cobra Clutch and put Fujiwara out of his misery. 1981-05-08 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 1 Tiger Mask vs. Black Cat City Gymnasium, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan ★ Card I could have watched these two smash themselves into each other all day. Does that mean that this was good? Not at all. They crammed more botches into a measly 5 minutes stretch than I care to recall, but it was perversely enjoyable to watch Tiger Mask try, again and again, moves that clearly he wasn’t even 70% likely to pull off, but go for them anyway. It really felt like avant garde wrestling, but you know, when avant garde is really just code for weird and not very good. 1981-05-08 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 1 Antonio Inoki & Riki Choshu vs. Bobby Duncum & Stan Hansen Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match City Gymnasium, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan Card Hansen felt like he was really motivated here. He was eager to take any opportunity to get his hands on Inoki, literally running around the ring at one point to get some shots in on him when he fell to the floor outside. In return, Inoki and Choshu’s strategy was to target Duncum. They couldn’t have their way with Hansen but they certainly seemed to have no problems with Duncum, easily cutting off any of his attempts at offense and working over his leg pretty strongly. I wouldn’t have expected him to be such a weak link here but there clearly was a hierarchy and he was a solid notch below Choshu in it. This would have been much better if Duncum had been motivated to actually sell the leg work some, as he just kind of made his way over and tagged out when he could and he never projected that he was in any real kind of a bind. Eventually at the end of the first fall we got the Inoki/Hansen collision and Hansen was almost moving double speed, button mashing his offense and looking to swarm Inoki, who’s only recourse was to bail from the ring. This resulted in the usual double count out whatever-ness, but a decent first fall. Unfortunately the footage started showing the listings for the upcoming cards and the show seemed to end just as the following fall was about to begin, so that’s all I got for this. I like what I saw of Choshu, less so from Duncum, but Inoki and Hansen both brought the intensity. If this is a sign of what’s to come between them then we’re in for good things. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted October 2, 2023 Author Report Share Posted October 2, 2023 1981-05-08 ICW Randy Savage vs. Ronnie Garvin Steel Cage Match Cape Arena Building, Cape Girardeau, Missouri, USA ★★★ Card I’m kind of on the fence in terms of how I felt about this. In regards to the actual work, aspects like how liberally they used rope breaks or the referee signalling for 5 counts, just didn’t make sense to me considering the stipulation. But more damaging I think was Lanny Poffo’s commentary. If I’d watched this sans-commentary, or just on mute, I’m pretty sure I would have come away with a far greater appreciation of the match. His delivery was just so deadpan and emotionless that it projected that the action in the ring was also dull and uninteresting, when really they could have been blowing the roof off the place. I can see how somebody could enjoy the opening struggle, because a struggle it was, but I would have appreciated less angling for pins this early in the match and more focus on actually breaking down their opponent. As the match wore on though the fatigue and accumulated damage really came through and both men were excellent at selling, with Garvin’s staggered bumping being a particular highlight. Savage showed flashes of his athleticism, scampering across the mat for a desperation pin attempt ust one great example, but I wish he’d come through with a bit more volume of offense here. The finish was really fantastic though, Garvin got caught on the top rope, crotched himself on the turnbuckle then fell forwards into a piledriver, a piledriver they’d teased all match and he’d frantically avoided. Ultimately though, this ended up being the kill shot. 1981-05-09 AJW Devil Masami vs. Tomoko Kitamura All Japan Title Match (vacant) Omiya, Saitama, Japan ★★★ Masami was such a details wrestler, and this was elevated due to most of it being shot from ringside and getting those close ups of her face throughout. I believe that Kitamura was the Juniors champion at this point, so she was clearly in the midst of a push, but she came across so much better here than when I’d seen her last and I’d err on the side of saying that Masami did a great job of making Kitamura come across like a big deal here. When Kitamura locked on any kind of hold, like a body scissors and especially the figure four late on, Masami did an unparalleled job of projecting pain, which isn’t something I think a lot of wrestlers do well actually. Her grimacing in agony really made me feel like Kitamura had a chance here and thoroughly added to the drama. I liked the mat work at the beginning, even if it wasn’t anything overly flashy or exceptional, and once Masami transitioned to the heat, she was just so good at bending the rules and interacting with the referee, indicating how she was “just” using the ropes or “just” using her hands on an eye gouge. Nothing better than a competent, intelligent heel. It’s a shame that the finish was so lame, with Masami getting a cradle of sorts and the referee counting to three despite Kitamura’s shoulder being so clearly up off the mat, even from the count of one. But I did appreciate the display of emotion from Masami as she received the belt, tears welling up in her eyes, it almost made you forget that she was a heel. Really solid performances all round and certainly what I’d call a good match. 1981-05-09 AJW Hitomi Okumura, Mimi Hagiwara & Nancy Kumi vs. La Briosa, La Bruja & Betty Clark Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match Omiya, Saitama, Japan ★ This was just trash. Betty Clark was perhaps one of the worst wrestlers I’ve seen pop up for the entirety of 1981, her strikes were honest to God some of the absolute shittest stuff I’ve seen. Her tag partners weren’t much better to be fair, giving the heel team a grand total of zero competent workers. What made it all the worse is that we once again were lumped with a heel referee. By actively working against the faces they directed all the heat towards the referee (and perhaps the promotion) instead of on the heels. They were pretty much inconsequential and you could have swapped them out with literally any generic heel group under masks and it wouldn’t have made an iota of difference. I think the way that they put obstacles in front of their faces is honestly such a hindrance to the AJW style in the early 80s and I hope they pivot away from this sooner rather than later. We saw in the Masami/Kitamura match from earlier on this same show that, left to their own devices, these women could go, but they keep getting chopped off at the knees. Really frustrating. 1981-05-09 AJW Rimi Yokota (c) vs. Peggy Lee WWWA World Title Match Omiya, Saitama, Japan ★ No matter how good Yokota was individually at this stage, she clearly wasn’t quite good enough to take somebody as useless as Peggy Lee and drag her to even a decent, let alone a good, match. She tried to up the selling to generate sympathy but unfortunately Peggy Lee’s offense was about as lacklustre as Betty Clark’s (who also happened to be at ringside). Literally nothing she did looked like it was consequential at all so Yokota might as well have been wrestling a broomstick. At the finish Clark handed Lee a spanner or a wrench, which she flailed at Yokota a few times without being able to connect. Yokota got her up for a nice looking tombstone piledriver and that was it. Shockingly, despite winning the title back in February, this was only her first title defence. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted October 3, 2023 Author Report Share Posted October 3, 2023 1981-05-09 CWA - Memphis Championship Wrestling TV Dutch Mantell (c) vs. Kevin Sullivan CWA Television Title Match WMC Studios, Memphis, Tennessee, USA Card ★★ Solid TV match from both these guys. It just never rose above that. Sullivan and Hart’s strategy was to goad Mantell into making a mistake, primarily with open handed slaps to the face. If this had really escalated then they could have wrung something really special here but things came off the boil and I was honestly expecting a time limit draw here. In the end Hart got up on the apron to cause a distraction and Sullivan got the roll up for the win, which felt cheap, but I guess that was the point. I’m also starting to consider whether Mantell lost a little something when he turned face. Something to look out for in the future but his aura, what I almost think of as werewolf energy, seemed a tad diminished when he flipped to become a good guy. 1981-05-10 AWA Larry Hennig vs. Adrian Adonis St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA Card What a load of fun this was to watch. I’m really a big fan of Adonis, at least of the early 80s stuff that I’ve seen before. He was able to make anybody look fantastic on offense, but here I’m not sure it was even necessary. Larry Hennig may have been a bit over the hill, but he was still big, with ham hocks for hands, and he didn’t look like a stiff in the slightest. If anybody inferred that he was a solid to good worker back in his day I could easily get on board with that. This was joined in progress, so we didn’t get all of this and what we do have only went 6 minutes, but it was mostly Adonis getting pummelled, cutting corners and getting some sick offense in of his own, only to get absolutely overpowered on the apron, smashed repeatedly into the corners and generally pounded into oblivion. But he pulled it out of the bag with a foreign object in the elbow pad and really, there was nothing to fault here. 1981-05-10 AWA Verne Gagne (c) vs. Nick Bockwinkel AWA World Heavyweight Title No Disqualification Match St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA Card ★★ This was Verne’s last title defense and actually his retirement match. His goal, to leave the sport on top in a manner nobody had done previously. This gets a boost for the occasion and the historical significance, and while the work was fine, it’s good, it’s serviceable, I did find it quite dull. This only went 15 minutes but they played it like they were going 45. A heavy emphasis on arm holds to start with both men having significant periods where they were in control. Bockwinkel’s bumping throughout the match was probably the standout characteristic. Eventually we came down to a battle of the sleepers. Verne locked on his famous Gagne Sleeper but Bockwinkel managed to counter and lock on a version of his own. This could have been lights for Gagne but he dug deep and managed to haul Bock into the air for a back body drop and that was enough to seal it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted October 4, 2023 Author Report Share Posted October 4, 2023 1981-05-10 NWA St. Louis - Wrestling At The Chase Ric Flair vs. Pat O'Connor Chase Park Plaza Hotel, St. Louis, Missouri, USA Card ★★★ Looks like Flair and DiBiase were on a collision course to fight it out for the No. 1 contendership for Race’s World Title. With that being said, a win here could have catapulted O’Connor right into the mix as well. Lovely little TV match here, went about 12 minutes but they cut a quick pace, which I would probably attribute to Flair, but what really pushed this up a notch was the technical capabilities on display of O’Connor. Not too surprising that a former World Champion was technically excellent, but coming up to 57 years old he was even older than Verne Gagne, and he certainly still had it. Beautiful snap suplexes, reversals and generally keeping things ticking along and never he never stuck in a sequence too long, and generally gave a brilliant mini-demonstration of that older style. They may have telegraphed the transition to the outside a little too blatantly for my taste, the same for Flair catching O’Connor and smashing his leg against the ring post, but they finished things hot, for a countout finish, with Flair being busted open from a succession of punches to the face, and while O’Connor had staved Flair off his softened up leg for a few minutes, Flair was on it like a hound when they ended up on the outside and this put O’Connor down long enough for Flair to casually take the countout victory. 1981-05-12 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 4 Tiger Mask vs. Chris Adams Civic Gymnasium, Natori, Miyagi, Japan Card I’m not sure whether it’s because they’d worked together before in the UK or if it was just a more natural overlap in style, but this was one of the more technically sound Tiger Mask matches so far. By that I mean the execution of moves was almost 100% and the timing from both parties were on point, enough to practically eliminate any awkward spots or botches. Adams decided that his best approach would be to match Mask’s offense with bombs of his own and unleashed his full arsenal. This resulted in a pretty fun little 5 minute match with a lot of action. In the grand scheme of things it was pretty inconsequential but I thought both guys came out of this looking pretty good. Tiger Mask won with a roll up however he still was able to whiff on the bridge he clearly intended. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted October 5, 2023 Author Report Share Posted October 5, 2023 1981-05-12 Joint Promotions Jim Breaks vs. Steve Grey Croydon, London, United Kingdom ★★★★ This is a perfect example of Breaks doing what he did best - being a right shit cunt. We all know he wasn’t shy to bend the rules, but here he layered on some fantastic stalling to save himself in the third, frustrating Grey no end and riled up the crowd something fierce. Both men furiously targeted their opponent’s arm, but Breaks likely had the better of it throughout. By the end Grey looked like his limb was about to drop off with some excellent arm selling, which itself mirrored Breaks’ excellent verbal selling earlier in the bout. The main hook here was Grey getting annoyed and upping the intensity, moving away from his usual calm, technically focused approach, but Breaks dug into his bag of tricks to stymie him at every turn. While this did a great job of highlighting Breaks’ strengths, I do wish that Grey had been given more opportunity to have a strong run at Breaks or at least an extended shine leading into the initial fall, however Grey just seemed to snatched the first fall a bit out of nowhere, which I feel lessened the impact of him taking the lead in the first place. Ultimately the damage to Grey’s arm was too much to overcome and Breaks was able to apply the Breaks Special in successive rounds for the victory. Breaks shit talking the champion after the match was great for keeping the heat going for a future matchup but I think this individual match would have been better served if Grey had been booked a smidge stronger. 1981-05-12 Joint Promotions Pat Roach vs. Pete Roberts Croydon, London, United Kingdom ★★ Roach was leaning more and more into using his large frame as a useful tool, rather than wrestling like all the smaller guys on the circuit. He really seemed to be developing a strong big man persona while still being able to give to his opponent and allow them to get their stuff in without it feeling unearned. He basically bullied Roberts here for the most part, slipped on a banana peel and allowed Roberts to equalise with a cheeky cradle, but I think we were robbed of an emphatic Roach finish when Roberts injured his back, another in a long line of slightly underwhelming injury finishes in WoS. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted October 6, 2023 Author Report Share Posted October 6, 2023 1981-05-14 AWA Tito Santana vs. Sheik Adnan Al-Kassie Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Card ★ Some lame brawling from Adnan and Tito, who outside of a few wistful hope spots, just took the beating. This was one of those classic situations where the referee was incompetent, let the heel get away with far too much, and by the time they actually try and intervene, the babyface has seen red and you can just see a mile off that we’re heading for a DQ finish or a no contest. That’s what happened here and it didn’t feel organic or natural, and the action was nowhere near wild enough to warrant such a finish. 1981-05-14 AWA Nick Bockwinkel & Ray Stevens vs. The High Flyers (Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell) AWA World Tag Team Title #1 Contendership Match Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Card ★★ I couldn’t really point to anything Greg did here that was worthwhile. Stevens’ best contribution was when he choked Brunzell with the tag rope, but anything glowingly positive stopped as soon as he actually stepped through the ropes. Brunzell was solid, but everything good about this match stemmed from Bockwinkel. In the early part, Greg and Stevens lay around on the mat doing absolutely nothing, and I mean NOTHING, so Brunzell and Bockwinkel took it upon themselves to have a little sideshow with Bock getting caught teetering on the ropes. I loved Brunzell accidentally ending up in the wrong corner and Bock kind of lured him by reaching out to him out for a tag that would never come, and then sucker punching him once he’d been reeled in. Nothing mindblowing but there were tons of these little moments sprinkled throughout. They built to the finish pretty well and in the end Brunzell went on a rampage and delivered his killer dropkicks and picked up the win. While Brunzell had a great dropkick against anybody, Bockwinkel is spectacular at feeding for them, even making some of Greg’s attempts look weighty. I was shocked though that it was Bock who ate the pin and not Stevens. With Verne retiring, the world title belt would soon be passed to him (within the week actually), so it’s an odd decision. This never would have happened in Japan for example. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted October 7, 2023 Author Report Share Posted October 7, 2023 1981-05-16 IWE - Big Challenge Series - Day 17 Paul Ellering & Terry Lathan (c) vs. Ashura Hara & Mighty Inoue IWA World Tag Team Title Steel Cage Match Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ It took all of 30 seconds for Hara to start bleeding. Lathan soon followed and by the time Inoue turned the tables on Ellering and used his foreign object against him, all four men were busted open. I didn’t really love anything the champions did, and Lathan in particular was quite poor overall, but Hara and Inoue had enough strong moments on offense and displayed the fire needed to get the crowd really behind them for the finish. Ellering and Lathan working on top was a bit dry at times but the action never dragged and there was enough chaos to lift this up into the “good” category. More specifically the finish, where Inoue took Ellering’s foreign object, used it against him to draw blood, then suddenly the second rope exploded, Ellering ended up getting essentially strangled in the middle of the ring. After a minute or so he was flapping around like a dead fish, eyes glazed over, his tongue hanging out of his mouth and the referee was forced to make the call. The final few minutes really pushed this over the top for me as things descended into absolute mayhem and there was a real sense that they were vanquishing these foreign outsiders. A strong example of how satisfying a decisive blowoff can be. 1981-05-16 IWE - Big Challenge Series - Day 17 Rusher Kimura (c) vs. Steve Olsonoski IWA World Heavyweight Title Match Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ I really liked the way they started this, Kimura grabbed a headlock and really wrenched it. Steve tried to dive to the ropes, but he got yanked back in. He managed to get back to the ropes a second time, and even escaped to the outside, but still the headlock was tightly applied. He struggled around the entire circumference of the ring before heading back in, but the whole while Kimura wouldn’t relent and the headlock remained locked on. The eventual backdrop that dislodged Kimura felt like a big deal because of all the buildup. It was a shame that Steve O basically shrugged all of this off immediately and they transitioned into some pretty meh matwork afterwards. Kimura had moments where he really rocked Steve, and Steve sold accordingly, but Kimura just wasn’t bothered or wasn’t quick enough to capitalise and these cool, exciting moments quickly dissipated. Everything they did was solid and competent, but missing those opportunities to really go for something special passed them by and I was almost surprised by how quickly the finish came (despite the match lasting 17 minutes in total). Kimura locked on a figure four and Steve O simply just gave up. In the end it just felt like a rudimentary title defense for Kimura. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted October 8, 2023 Author Report Share Posted October 8, 2023 1981-05-21 AJW Devil Masami vs. Ayumi Hori Japan ★★ In a big picture sense this was a bit of a nothing match that hovered along until suddenly we were at the 20 minute time limit and I was left kind of wondering what happened. But delving into the details, while Hori was perfectly adequate she was ultimately forgettable, but Masami really imprinted herself all over this match, excelling at the fringes in ways I like - great facial expressions, exuding character, the small acts and movements to keep things ticking along nicely during down time from the real “action”. In terms of actual wrestling and wrestling moves this was kind of just there, but another strong evolution in Masami as a worker I feel, just needed a bit more focus to drive the match forward. 1981-05-26 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 17 Hulk Hogan & Stan Hansen vs. Antonio Inoki & Dusty Rhodes Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan Card ★★ I quite like the tandem of Hogan and Hansen here. Hogan with a beard always made him look a bit edgier than when he was rocking just the moustache. However, just like when he teamed with Backlund, Antonio teaming with Dusty just feels off. It seems far more natural for him to be with Fujinami, Choshu or Sakaguchi instead. The heels started strongly, throwing their weight around until they decided to work Dusty over using a nerve hold on his shoulder, then the match ground to a halt somewhat. Dusty showed some fire later on but it was all moot after Singh arrived on the scene with his sword, attacked Dusty, who furiously started blading his arm, and Singh inadvertently caught Hogan with a wayward swipe that he was none too pleased about, so perhaps a face turn was on the cards? For this match though it ended in a no-contest with Singh and Hansen wading through the crowd, Dusty crumpled in the corner in a pool of his blood and Inoki in his own world, strutting around the ring, triumphant as always. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted October 9, 2023 Author Report Share Posted October 9, 2023 1981-05-26 CWA Kevin Sullivan & Wayne Farris (c) vs. Bill Dundee & Dream Machine AWA Southern Tag Team Title Match Louisville Gardens, Louisville, Kentucky, USA Card The footage joins this in progress and I’m not sure how far long the match already was, but this was great for two reasons. One, it was another example of Dundee’s excellent selling and ability to take a beating in a compelling manner, and two, the unbridled chaos that was the finish. The majority of the actual match was Sullivan and Ferris just destroying Dundee, who at this point has got to be one of my favourite guys to watch just get his ass handed to him. The way he would take a punch and just die on his feet to me was just perfect, but he would never forget to sprinkle in those little feisty stretches where he tried to make a comeback or make it for the tag just to keep things competitive. In the end Hart got a little over-zealous and got caught using the cane to trigger the DQ. With the match lost and finished with, it seemed like he said, fuck it, and they leant straight into the the numbers advantage to beat down on the faces. Lawler ran in to make the save, but he was shortly followed by both the Nightmares, then finally Mantell arrived and we just had complete bedlam with all the guys spilling out of the ring onto the arena floor and even into the upper row seating. 1981-05-29 AJPW - Super Power Series 1981 - Day 6 Jimmy Snuka & The Destroyer vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Ricky Steamboat Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match Omiya Skate Center, Omiya, Saitama, Japan Card ★★★ This was a ton of fun. The main throughline from a narrative perspective was the simmering feud of Steamboat and Snuka. Stylistically they seem like opposite sides of the same coin, both big, dynamic bumpers with similar style offense. I enjoy them as a pair of opponents for each other. Jumbo was solid, but he purposely played more of a support role for Steamboat to facilitate the story they wanted to focus on and Destroyer did the same for his team. Speaking of the Destroyer, he was around 51 at this point and wow, he still could really go. Everything he did in there was on point, crisp, his timing was excellent, he still had very good athleticism. He must be on the shortlist of best ever wrestlers over 50? A real sneaky standout performance from him here. Steamboat vs Snuka ate up a large chunk of the first fall, Steamboat dominated with exuberant arm drags. Destroyer got the tag to save his partner but he was similarly controlled and Jumbo came in to close it out with a piledriver. The second flipped the script and the heels targeted Jumbo’s leg expertly, brutalising it until the moment came to go for the kill and Destroyer locked on a figure four, wouldn’t relent, and Jumbo was forced to submit. Fun final stanza with an uptick in action but wouldn’t you know it, we had a double countout finish! Is there an example where a wrestler hopping up onto the top rope, latching a body scissors on their opponent, flipping backwards and dragging both over the ropes to the outside doesn’t immediately end up in a countout? All Japan was very fond of this finish at this time and they choreographed this a mile away. Pretty lazy way to round off a pretty great match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted October 10, 2023 Author Report Share Posted October 10, 2023 1981-05-29 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 20 Hulk Hogan & Stan Hansen vs. Bob Backlund & Dusty Rhodes Civic Culture Center, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan Card ★★ The Hogan & Hansen vs Dusty & Partner matches continue to disappoint. This was never bad per se, and with the talent available you wouldn’t expect it to be, but they just can’t seem to find that magic formula to make any of it really pop. Dusty continues to befuddle me in Japan and any Hansen/Backlund matchup felt like watching a car crash you couldn’t avert your eyes from. Working in WWF Hansen would adjust just a touch to accommodate for how they booked Backlund, but back in Japan Hansen was the boss and Backlund just didn’t seem to get the memo. In my head I read it as him thinking, “Hey I’m the WWF Champion, I’m the most important guy in this match, I should be the one looking strong”. This resulted in a lot of exchanges where neither Hansen or Backlund would cede the advantage and ultimately things went nowhere. You might as well get action figures and smash them into each other. It didn’t help that we got another lazy countout finish. Just another night on tour I guess. 1981-05-29 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 20 Antonio Inoki vs. Tiger Jeet Singh MSG Series 1981 Match Civic Culture Center, Takamatsu, Kagawa, Japan Card ★★ Singh had been causing havoc all evening. He bloodied up Fujinami before his match with Chris Adams and Inoki had been caught in the crossfire as well, so he came to the ring all patched up. This had a really cool opening where Singh was literally being restrained in the corner by the other wrestlers and Inoki was crouched down opposite poised to pounce once the bell rang. It gave it this big event, mighty showdown vibe. Unfortunately this was a Singh vs Inoki match and neither man was ever afraid of lying around in a hold on the mat. I find this even more frustrating with Singh considering his gimmick. He throws in a choke here and there to stay honest, but mostly it seems like his whole shtick falls apart as soon as he actually begins to wrestle. Inoki pulled out the big moves when required, which was just enough to keep it interesting. He gets a lot of grief for his Enzuigiri insta-kills, but it does feel like the great equaliser, and when he times it correctly it comes across like a wow moment in a match. This ended in a slightly more forgivable double countout, but a double countout nonetheless. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted October 13, 2023 Author Report Share Posted October 13, 2023 1981-05-30 PNW Buddy Rose vs. Tony Borne Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon. USA Card ★ It’s been a while since any Portland footage popped up, but the gist was that Rose was in the middle of a feud with Matt Borne, and somehow had ended up in this match with his dad, Tough Tony. Tony was a squat little man, he had that rugged look of a man who might have worked in a mine or on the docks, I’m not sure how old he was but it was clear he was pretty limited by this point and his offense consisted mostly of punches straight into the midsection. Having said that, those punches looked pretty damn good. I just couldn’t get behind how they decided to deliver the structure of this match, Rose gave Borne essentially the entire first half of the match, but instead of him being over-confident or arrogant and making a mistake, or even just presenting it like he had underestimated his opponent, Borne just took over from the start and began working Rose’s arm, punching him in the stomach and Rose bumped around like a madman for him. I can only imagine Rose saw what he was working with and thought that the only way to get the match over was to selflessly show ass, but I couldn’t get my head around Rose being handled so easily by this old man. Once Rose finally started to get serious and take control things made a lot more sense, but it didn’t really improve the match much. As limited as Tony was on offense he was more limited in the bumping and selling department. I really liked the fact that once Rose had clearly put Tony away he wouldn’t pin him and continued to dish out the punishment, what I didn’t like was that that earned him a DQ. Sandy Barr should have called the match then and there as a TKO or something, but I guess Northwestern sportsmanship felt otherwise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted October 17, 2023 Author Report Share Posted October 17, 2023 June 1981-06-XX AJW Nancy Kumi vs. Mami Kumano Japan ★ Nancy demanded the microphone beforehand to point out something about Kumano, probably that she had a concealed weapon. Instead of hiding this fact, Kumano decided to dive out the ring and start choking Nancy with a tag rope. And that essentially sums up this match. The referee was wearing some god awful purple trousers and he was blatantly biased towards Kumano. I’m not sure I’ve seen such an obvious heel referee performance outside of the American they brought in for the Guam tour last year. Masami and others would openly interfere and the referee would just turn his back, he might as well have been idly whistling to himself for how useful he was. If their aim was to frustrate the audience, then they succeeded. In fact I thought that Nancy did an excellent job at displaying her own frustration with the whole situation. So at least they were acknowledging the ridiculousness of it all. Eventually the seconds at ringside supporting Nancy were pushed over the edge and they came in to assist, hitting a double team gut buster on Kumano which put Kumano down long enough that even with the referee’s slow counting he still made it to three. He was annoyed, but not as annoyed as those seconds and he got flung around the ring some before he fled the scene. I feel like I could see what they were going for here, and it’s certainly not the first time we’ve seen this kind of booking in AJW before, but the crowd didn’t seem overly engaged in the action, so while they may have been frustrated like I was it didn’t then translate into actual heat. I’m sure I’m missing a ton of context and I couldn’t glean anything useful from the commentary but, as it stands I pretty much hated this. 1981-06-XX AJW Ayumi Hori vs. Tomoko Kitamura Japan ★★ Solid, competitive showing from both women here. Nothing flashy but they displayed struggle and both got opportunities to work on top. I’d say that Hori got the most of it, particularly throughout the first half, and despite a flurry of offense from Kitamura at the end, she was able to pull out the win with an O’Connor Roll. I think it’s pretty telling however that commentary spent more time explaining wrestling as a general concept to a celebrity guest than actually talking about the match, which indicates how unspectacular the whole affair was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted October 18, 2023 Author Report Share Posted October 18, 2023 1981-06-XX AJW Yukari Omori vs. Hiroe Ito Japan ★★ Very similar to the previous Kitamura vs Hori match but elevated by Ito’s heelish corner cutting and Omori’s scrappiness in overcoming that gambit. They lost a bit of steam by the end but a nice little match from two women who haven’t popped up on tape that often up to this point. 1981-06-XX AJW Rimi Yokota vs. Mami Kumano Japan ★★ Kumano was all too happy to cheat as usual and she had Kaoru Matsumoto at her side to regain the advantage whenever Yokota looked to be gaining any momentum. Kumano was somewhat pedestrian here but the match chugged along, I was always just waiting for the next Yokota moment of athleticism, but unfortunately they were pretty sparse here. The way Kumano worked her meant that Yokota spent most of the time with her back on the mat, selling some kind of hold, which she’s fine at, but I wouldn’t say it’s a strength of hers yet. As Yokota came on stronger near the finish, Matsumoto’s interferences became more common, but it wasn’t enough to keep Yokota at bay, as a kick off the top and a suplex was all it took to put Kumano down. This felt a bit more like the opening 10 minutes of a longer match than a fully developed match in and of itself really. 1981-06-XX AJW Devil Masami & Leilani Kai vs. Mimi Hagiwara & Nancy Kumi Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match Japan ★★★ Mimi really reminds me of Lucy Kayama. They both have really slender builds and lean into that to generate their reactions from the crowd. Her patented punches aren’t as good as Kayama’s neckbreakers though. Kai and Masami were a great team. Kai had the mass. She was that stabilising force, but Masami was all King Kong energy here and just tore through the faces, especially during that first fall. I loved the build and execution of the final two falls. The heels had dominated up to that point but the faces made a spirited comeback, and dished out enough punishment to grab the second fall via countout. Now, this wasn’t a quick dash to the ring to beat the count, they put Kai, and Masami specifically, on their asses and decisively won the fall. Masami sold the living hell out of the beating she’d taken throughout the break between falls and into the third, before finding her feet again and body checking the bejesus out of Mimi. At this point the faces had come up against an obstacle and overcome it, but by the heels gaining an advantage in that decisive final fall it meant all the more when they were able to climb that mountain once again and finally secure victory with a pinfall on Kai. Nancy was a bit in the background due to Mimi playing FIP for the majority of this, but the moment she had the chance to hot tag she was all energy and fire. However this was the Devil Masami show through and through, and if you’d replaced her with almost any other woman on the roster this wouldn’t have been nearly as good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted November 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 12, 2023 1981-06-03 AJPW - Super Power Series 1981 - Day 10 Jimmy Snuka vs. Ricky Steamboat Nakajima Sports Center, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan Card ★★ I expected this to be better than it was. This came across more like a dress rehearsal, with everyone running through the production at three quarters speed, than the real thing. Snuka was channelling his inner early 90s Undertaker with how slow and deliberate he was moving around the ring and Steamboat suffered from never pressing hard when he got the advantage, mostly going for headlocks and sleepers as his tactic of choice. This had its moments, Snuka would suddenly burst to life and do something draw-droppingly athletic, and Steamboat would swing between really great selling and going a bit overboard and it, reading as melodramatic. I think this match definitely would have gotten over better in the US than in Japan, at points Steamboat seemed like he was almost desperately yearning for the crowd to get behind him and they were somewhat reluctant to do it. The finish was worked as if they had had this wild, out of control, nasty battle, as Steamboat lost his cool, attacked Joe Higuchi then continued to pummelled Snuka in the corner, but it just fell flat to me, as if everybody was just going through the motions and they couldn’t really be bothered. That kind of finish really needs to be earned through the narrative of the match and it certainly wasn’t here. 1981-06-03 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 25 Bob Backlund (c) vs. Hulk Hogan WWF Heavyweight Title Match Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan Card ★★ Not enough here to truly recommendable, but another great example of Hogan rounding out as a worker. He really felt on the level with Backlund here, and in terms of a Japanese context he perhaps felt like he was positioned as higher in the overall hierarchy. The middle-to-end stretch lost some steam, too long in a bear hug which sapped some of the energy, but the early exchanges were relatively crisp and lightyears better than they’re showing the previous summer where numerous mistimed spots drew actual laughs from the crowd. Considering this wasn’t even the main event on the card and the tour was building towards the MSG Series Final, which neither of these men would be involved in, it was no surprise they weren’t necessarily going all out to deliver that big-time classic. But given the right motivation I think these two, at this point in time, would have been very capable of delivering something really good. 1981-06-03 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 25 Antonio Inoki & Dusty Rhodes vs. Bobby Duncum & Sgt. Slaughter Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, Nagoya, Aichi, Japan Card ★★ Definition of a throwaway match, filled with just “stuff” from each guy involved, with no real focus or destination. Duncum I think has proved that he was pretty useless in Japan, Slaughter doesn’t seem to really be “Slaughter” across the Pacific either, I’ve always had my reservations about how Dusty’s act travels, and Inoki is as good as his motivation, and he was pretty happy to mail it in here until it came for the finish. Okay enough but nothing worth seeking out and I’m surprised it was Slaughter who ate the pin, following a backdrop suplex from Inoki, and not Duncum. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted November 13, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 13, 2023 1981-06-04 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 26 Tatsumi Fujinami & Tiger Mask vs. Chris Adams & Mike Masters Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ This was surprisingly fun for a match where Adams and Masters were merely serviceable and Fujinami receded into the background. This felt like the most complete performance from Tiger Mask as of yet, like he was slowly ironing out the kinks, dropping or tightening up the stuff that wasn’t working and leaning into what was. He was as fluid as ever here, his offense flashy as always, but it all felt a little more like it had a purpose, even if that purpose was to get over the concept of “Tiger Mask” perhaps more than the match itself. I will say there were glimpses of selling here, and he had all the tools to be an excellent face in peril, so it will be interesting whether that aspect of his work develops at all down the line. Thinking on the gimmick though, it might be one of the harder gimmicks in wrestling history to pull off, bringing a comic book character to life in a somewhat believable way. This wasn’t late 80s WWF where anything goes, this was early 80s New Japan. The level of difficulty to get the audience to buy in must have been sky high. And while he definitely does things that he shouldn’t even attempt, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was being urged to push the boat out and overextend himself as well, in ways that other wrestlers in the roster weren’t. Anyway, in regards to this match specifically, I dare say it was a good performance by him and he was by far the most interesting aspect of the match overall. 1981-06-04 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 26 Bob Backlund & Dusty Rhodes vs. Bobby Duncum & Sgt. Slaughter Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ By far the most over I’ve heard Dusty be in Japan and by far the best performance I can remember him having in the country as well. In fact I’d say he was the standout amongst all four men here. Not to labour a point, but Duncum might as well not have even been there for how little he did. Slaughter and Backlund did their usual stuff, but it’s disappointing that during this tour Slaughter has felt more like just another guy than the awesome worker he showed he was back in New York. Rhodes had the most entertaining offense, the most expressive and effective selling and generally was the only one to get the crowd invested, so he’d be my vote for MVP. Backlund hit Slaughter with an O’Connor Roll and bridged for the win. Side note: Dusty’s name when translated to Japanese seems to have been based on the assumption that his surname was pronounced Row-Dess. Was it not somebody’s job to find out how the wrestler’s names were actually pronounced and figure out a more true to life translation? 1981-06-04 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 26 Antonio Inoki vs. Tiger Jeet Singh MSG Series 1981 Semi Final Match --------------------------------------- Antonio Inoki vs. Tiger Jeet Singh Lumberjack Match Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★ I like Inoki when he’s throwing hands and is all fired up, when he’s lying around trying to do mat work, not so much. This had a big fight feel, but he spent way too much time doing the latter than the former to elevate this. It would have helped if Singh’s offense consisted of anything more than just chokes and a head scissors. After 20 long minutes the first match ended in a double countout. Riveting stuff. I’m sure that at this point Inoki and Singh were still level on points and therefore they still needed a decision as to who would face Hansen in the MSG Series final. So they decided to have a Lumberjack match, which would prevent a further countout finish. What it didn’t prevent was a bullshit DQ finish, when Singh just punched Inoki right in the balls. I was almost, just a tiny bit, expecting them to give Inoki a decisive finish over Singh here, considering that they went through the whole ordeal of setting up an entire second match, but no, a simple ball shot was what they came up with and Inoki advanced to the final. 1981-06-04 NJPW - 4th Madison Square Garden Series - Day 26 Stan Hansen vs. Antonio Inoki MSG Series 1981 Final Match Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ This started so well. Inoki, worn down from his previous exertion against Tiger Jeet Singh earlier in the night didn’t exactly look pumped at the start here. The pleasantries were still under way and Inoki was in the process of taking off his robe when BL:AM, Hansen levelled him with a Lariat. Inoki was dead, out, lifeless on the mat and had to be rolled to the floor by the seconds at ringside. Hansen was eager to get the match underway, and who could blame him, but the referee had other ideas and we had to wait for Inoki to compose himself. This seemed to be the wakeup that Inoki needed though with Hansen having rocked him to his senses. Inoki pumped his fist to the crowd and got Sakaguchi to give him a solid slap to the face for good measure before he climbed back into the ring and we were back underway. The intensity from the off here was a level above what we’ve seen from New Japan recently. Hansen was having none of Inoki’s attempts at a lock up so Inoki resorted to his low kicks, which he could unload from a distance. Hansen was all forward motion all the time, but he wasn’t able to deal that final blow. Inoki’s opportunity came when the action tumbled to the outside, first getting the advantage and slamming Hansen’s leg against the ringpost, second when he dodged a Lariat and Hansen collided with the ringpost yet again. Perhaps not the finish I yearned for, but Inoki hit the armbreaker, got out in front of Hansen as the referee’s count grew, and managed to fend Hansen off long enough to secure the countout victory. With 5 more minutes of action and a more decisive victory, this could have slid into the great category, as it stands it’ll have to settle for being very good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted November 14, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 14, 2023 1981-06-06 PNW Matt Borne vs. Buddy Rose Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★ Where this really excelled was in the details. Rose won the first fall with a backbreaker and followed up by relentlessly targeting the back to begin the second. Just before that backbreaker however, Borne had gone for an airplane spin and Rose was able to slip it. In the second fall Borne went for the backbreaker again and this time Rose wasn’t able to slip it and he succumbed to the move. Rose jumped on the microphone between falls and highlighted that fact, suggesting that Borne had pulled his trunks to be able to deliver the move and therefore should be disqualified. He then proceeded to blatantly pull the trunks several times on pin attempts of his own. Just small little things dotted throughout that, all driven by Rose, that gave this match character. Borne however felt a little bland, his shine at the beginning a bit pedestrian, and the intensity didn’t ratchet up until Borne drew blood and Rose was essentially out on his feet with thick dollops of blood smeared above his eye. Borne went for the spin again but Oliver rushed down and I guess a DQ loss is better than a clean loss in Oliver and Rose’s eyes. I did love how Rose sold the blood loss. He had the upper hand at one point, went to attack a doubled over Borne in the corner, but backed off and had to regroup. I’m not sure I’ve seen that style of selling before, really impressive. 1981-06-08 WWF - MSG Network The Magnificent Muraco vs. Rick Martel Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA Card ★★ After the first flurry by Martel in the opening moments I was dead sure this was going to be awesome. Martel was a whirling dervish of fire and energy and the crowd were hyped. Then they settled into a 5 minute long side headlock and the energy just seemed to vanish. Seeing how evidently Martel had his working boots on I can only surmise that Muraco was the one calling things and he was the one pushing to slow the pace down. The tedium of the headlocks aside I can’t fault anything Martel did all match. He was spectacular. Great offense when they actually got into it, great selling when Muraco got some heat. Just really excellent stuff from him. For Muraco, hmmm. I know he’s got a reputation for being boring on occasion, but I was really quite disappointed here. He’s good on the microphone and his pre-match shenanigans where he got on the turnbuckle and worked the crowd indicated that he was motivated for this one, but when push came to shove he fell flat. Muraco was still within his initial run in New York (this was his first MSG appearance for example) so it was no surprise that he went over, crotching Martel on the ropes and winning via countout. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted November 15, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 15, 2023 1981-06-08 WWF - MSG Network Dusty Rhodes vs. Killer Khan Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA Card ★ This was just about passable. It operated more like a platform for Dusty to do Dusty things than working towards delivering an interesting or engaging match. For somebody working a monster foreign heel gimmick, Khan is surprisingly happy to do generic heel stuff like pulling hair or tights, I almost feel like he’d rather just go all out and be a full on stooge. This ended with Khan getting disqualified for choking Dusty for too long while caught on the ropes. That wasn’t the finish to Khan’s match against Backlund earlier in the year but I have a suspicion that they have gone to this finish before and I’m not a fan. 1981-06-08 WWF - MSG Network Bob Backlund (c) vs. Angelo Mosca WWF Heavyweight Title Match (Special Referee: Pat Patterson) Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA Card ★ The run of God-awful finishes in this series continues. How they expected punters to keep stumping up to watch these two go at it is beyond me. The fact that fans clearly did is even more confusing. The first half was dull, but at least it was focused. Backlund grabbed onto the arm and he wouldn’t let go. Yanking on it, punching it, wrenching it. Mosca was a bit too on the nose at dangling the limb out there, clearly asking Backlund to attack it, but at least there was strategy. The transition was decent as well, with Mosca finally grabbing hold of Backlund and hot-shotting him onto the ropes. It’s a shame his own offense was so plodding and generic. The final half wasn’t much of anything, Mosca got into it with Patterson a few times and Patterson was all too eager to deliver a quick count despite Mosca’s foot being on the rope. I’m not sure exactly how this was supposed to make Backlund look good at all and it certainly made Patterson look completely incompetent. In fact, why was Patterson even refereeing this match in the first place? The first finished with Backlund inadvertently striking the referee in that one, so is Pat supposed to be invulnerable to getting hit himself? Doesn’t make much sense to me at all. And there’s still one of these to come yet. Sheesh. 1981-06-08 WWF - MSG Network Tatsumi Fujinami & Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. The Moondogs (Moondog Rex & Moondog Spot) Non Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA Card ★ Watch this if you love arm drags and armbars. The first ten minutes consisted of nothing else, just two chubby men getting flipped over again and again by two Japanese guys. For me this was just painfully dull. When the Moondogs finally did get on offense all they wanted to do were chinlocks and basic strikes. And this went on for 30 minutes! Fujinami showed flashes of what he’s capable of, and by the time he came in for the hot tag the crowd were falling out of their seats willing something - anything to happen. Yatsu showed some nice funky aggression towards the finish, but I think it was clear that these two teams had their wires crossed all match and this never came together to be anything remotely resembling a cohesive whole. Moondogs were disqualified in the first fall for using a rope and Fujinami won the whole thing with a pinfall, but not even he or Yatsu seemed to have realised, adding to the general messiness of the match. I do get the sense though, especially in regards to Yatsu and the Moondogs’ contributions, that if this had taken place in Memphis, it would have at least been fun. 1981-06-08 WWF - MSG Network Pedro Morales (c) vs. Sgt. Slaughter WWF Intercontinental Title Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA Card ★★ Another mediocre match to conclude a mediocre show. This was a solid to good performance from Slaughter, we got the standard bumps into the ringpost over the turnbuckle, his selling of Morales’ punches was excellent and I was digging his woozy exhausted selling at the end, but there was too much work around the loaded elbow pad for my taste and Morales was just “there”. The finish as well, with Slaughter punching the referee, just felt so very weak. An argument could be made that in his dazed state he attacked the wrong man, but I’m not buying it, felt like another fuck finish to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted November 16, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2023 1981-06-10 AJPW - Super Power Series 1981 - Day 16 Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. The Von Erichs (David von Erich & Kevin von Erich) Hiraka Wide Area Gymnasium, Yokota, Akita, Japan Card ★★ This felt like a match out of its time. Everything from the grain of the film, to the venue, to the ring, made it feel like this match happened in the mid-70s rather than 1981. The von Erich’s, despite being the brother tandem, had the most mishaps, nailing each other inadvertently a couple different times through this. They didn’t really give the vibe of being a top tier tag team, but they did have the Claw, which felt like the great equaliser. Tenryu had the chops down and his selling of the Claw was pretty great. I can’t tell if it was because most of the time they applied the move to the stomach, but it looked way cooler here than usual. Do I actually like the Claw now? Jumbo felt like the big boy on campus, but it never seemed like he felt the need to ramp things up beyond 2nd gear and it was more as if he and Tenryu were allowing the Erich’s to hang around before they finally decided to put them away than they were actually being challenged in any meaningful way. And they were put away in a rather lacklustre fashion as well, Jumbo nailing a run of the mill dropkick and Kevin had no answer. 1981-06-10 AJPW - Super Power Series 1981 - Day 16 Jimmy Snuka vs. Ricky Steamboat Hiraka Wide Area Gymnasium, Yokota, Akita, Japan Card ★★ The opening action was quick and dynamic, but the timing wasn’t quite there and I’m not sure these two actually have the best chemistry together, at least in a singles setting. I really expected this, and their previous match, to be far better than they actually ended up being. This followed a lot of the same patterns as the first, and suffers from a lot of the same problems. Once they transitioned to the heat the pace slowed way, way down. Steamboat did the selling thing, but it didn’t draw me in, and there wasn’t any particular hook. He was just taking Snuka’s offense for the most part, threw a few karate chops in for hope spots, and it was that essentially until the finish. They teased a countout but tumbling back into the ring Steamboat got his leg all tied up in the ropes. Snuka began laying in the kicks, the referee did the normal thing, which was to start the 5 count, Snuka didn’t like that and just headbutted him, then we got some weak chair offense on a prone, defenceless Steamboat before finally all the seconds piled in to break things up. Yet again it felt like they were trying to project some wild finish, and especially from Snuka’s part, he could have been more pointed and vicious with his beatdown at the end, but it all felt very, meh. Both of these guys have the physical tools, and the elements for a great match appear to be present, but it looks like they just couldn’t put it all together. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted November 17, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 17, 2023 1981-06-11 AJPW - Super Power Series 1981 - Day 17 Ricky Steamboat vs. The Sheik Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ Sheik stalled to start, eventually Steamboat was able to grab a side headlock and took Sheik to the mat. They did that for 5 minutes until Sheik said fuck it, pulled his little pencil thing from his boot, stabbed Steamboat in the head a couple times and we transitioned to the brawl finish. This gets a few bonus points for Sheik beating Steamboat with an old-school witch's broomstick that he found under the ring, trying to choke him with it and simultaneously bleeding all over Steamboat’s face. Also the utterly unhinged finale of Sheik trying to murder Steamboat with a broken glass bottle. 1981-06-11 AWA Jim Brunzell vs. Nick Bockwinkel Winnipeg, Arena, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Card ★★★ From the AWA footage so far, Brunzell has looked like a decent little worker. He could sell a beating like you’d want a babyface to, he had fire and intensity and that killer move, his dropkick. What he was lacking was that extra dimension or certain intangibles. When Bockwinkel missed a shoulder charge into the corner he sold his arm beautifully and I was begging Brunzell to really go for it, but he merely grabbed a standing armbar, which eventually transitioned into a boring old hammerlock, and that was that. If he’d had more in his locker to really work over that arm it would have added a whole lot to what he brought to the table. Bockwinkel though was full of excellent moments. The aforementioned selling of the arm being one. Later, when he worked to escape the resulting hammerlock, I thought him baiting Brunzell to the ropes before tripping him during the rope break and savagely attacking the leg was absolutely fantastic. Finally, the transition to the finish was Brunzell whacking Bock’s leg into the ringpost, and Bock showed that he could not only sell the arm but he could also sell the leg with equal pizazz. That led to a Ray Stevens interference gone wrong, then several awesome dropkicks later, Bock was flat on his back as the referee counted the 1, 2, 3 for Brunzell’s huge victory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted November 19, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 19, 2023 1981-06-18 Joint Promotions Alan Kilby vs. Terry Rudge Wembley Arena, London, United Kingdom ★★★ The first round was mostly them feeling out their opponent, but Rudge showed signs of what would come later. The big takeaway from this was what a total bastard Rudge was. As his shithousery built and built, this started to veer towards shoot territory, with a sense of uncooperativeness that was rare in WoS. Kilby was none too pleased with Rudge’s tactics, but as was the norm, the referee was unwilling to dish out the public warnings too quickly, which gave Rudge the strategic edge as he could lean into the underhand tactics to gain the advantage. As the rounds went along there was an undercurrent of real violence as Rudge continued to just be a total prick, but despite the odds seemingly stacked against him, Kilby managed to dig deep and slam Rudge in the final round to at least pull a draw out of the bag. Not a technical masterpiece but a rough, grind it out affair that I thoroughly enjoyed. 1981-06-18 Joint Promotions Mark Rocco vs. Mal Sanders Wembley Arena, London, United Kingdom ★★★ Not as weighty and gruelling as the Kilby/Rudge match that came before it but this actually surprised me by how good it was. I was looking forward to this match before it came up, but running at just 12 minutes, I’m not sure it ever had the chance to be anything truly special. This probably is as close to a spotfest that a WoS match can be, but despite the relentless pace and constant action, they both managed to fit in that sweet sweet character work and not make it seem like they were just blowing through their “stuff”. Rocco was just so fantastic at selling impact, clutching an arm or his ribs and making you feel like NOW, this is the moment for Sanders to capitalise. Here he tweaked his arm early and absolutely whiffed on a turnbuckle collision later on for two really interesting wrinkles. Sanders was by no means a passenger here either. Perhaps he’s a bit more generic and tops out at the B+ range, but nobody celebrates a fall like Superstar Mal and he’ll throw in enough neat little details to prevent his work being by the numbers. This was a big show, being at Wembley Arena, and this clearly was short on time so they felt the need to rush a bit, but I think they made great use of the time they did have and delivered a quality, extremely fun match. 1981-06-18 Joint Promotions Dalibar Singh vs. Pete Roberts Wembley Arena, London, United Kingdom ★★ This was just lacking that little something. We got three pretty exciting falls that I thought they executed really well (which isn’t always the case in WoS) and when they leant into the physicality this was really good, but too often they veered away from that and we ended up with generic holds and generic matwork. Despite Roberts being a big man Singh still had him beat in the height and weight departments, and the times Singh started throwing his uppercuts you could sense that he was threatening to overwhelm Roberts. To counter, Roberts resorted to his speed advantage, and for a heavyweight Roberts was pretty fluid, and he was able to use this to surprise Singh and nail a shuddering clothesline for the first fall. Singh grabbed a flash pin immediately in the following round to tie things up. Roberts making a miscalculation, which opened him up to a big slam to ultimately lose the bout, was a really neat finish I thought, but there were things they left unexplored that dragged this down. I’ve mentioned the somewhat meandering “body” of the match, but just before Singh’s flash pin he tweaked his knee, and even as the referee was raising his hand between falls he was heavily favouring it, and I thought that would be a narrative thread that they would follow, but they blew that off right away. Missed opportunities like that kind of gave this a ceiling of sorts. 1981-06-18 Joint Promotions The Royal Brothers (Bert Royal & Vic Faulkner) vs. Bobby Barnes & Sid Cooper Wembley Arena, London, United Kingdom ★★★ This was in essence a comedy match with an edge. The Royal Brothers specialised in comedy it seems. It’s not my favourite match type, but when the people involved know how to execute, you’ve got to put your hands up and give credit where credit is due. They worked this at a frantic pace and the timing from all four men was absolutely on point. The first fall was all about Barnes and Cooper chasing shadows and getting shown up. They were made to look a little bit too foolish for my tastes but I think Barnes’ offense was good enough and gritty enough to keep things in check. Cooper was happy to play the clown from start to finish but Barnes would show ass one second then be a killer the next. In fact I think it’s safe to say that this whole match rests on his performance. In the second the heels finally got serious and Faulkner got caught in the wrong corner and they really brutalised his arm. We saw heel antics at play, laying in a hold too long when they should have broken, but the crowd got heated, Faulkner laid the selling on thick and this fall was the highlight of the match. The third I wish had leaned further into building off of the third, with Faulkner just getting his arm destroyed even more, but clearly they wanted to send the fans home happy so Barnes slipped on a banana peel and the babyfaces survived. I’ve been a big fan of Faulkner from what I’ve seen so far, but his matches have too light hearted a tone for my tastes. Barnes on the other hand may not be in the top tier of heels like a Mark Rocco, or have the reputation of Rudge, but I wouldn’t think twice about putting him at the top of that next tier down and he has rarely put in a subpar performance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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