SAMS Posted November 20, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 20, 2023 1981-06-20 WWF - PRISM Network Pedro Morales (c) vs. The Magnificent Muraco WWF Intercontinental Title Match Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★ A lot of this was first Muraco applying a chinlock, once Pedro had powered out of that we switched to Muraco applying his thumb to Pedro’s throat. The referee deemed that it was not a choke, so he was allowed to sit in that for several more minutes. Finally Pedro made his comeback, but the referee got flattened, and Muraco used a pair of concealed brass knuckles to knock Pedro out and win the title. I was looking forward to Pedro losing the title and moving onto some fresh faces in the IC title picture, but from what I’ve seen from Muraco I’m not sure there will be any improvement at all on that front. This was a classic example of Pedro happy to dog it until it was his turn to go on offense, but even then he didn’t have that stereotypical fire he usually does. Muraco looked equally lazy in this, far too happy to apply a static hold and just sit on the mat. 1981-06-20 WWF - PRISM Network Sgt. Slaughter vs. Rick McGraw Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★★★ I absolutely loved this. Barely 5 minutes long but jam packed with action. Slaughter started this by goading McGraw, this little chump in his mind, who stood a good several inches shorter than him. He playfully started whipping him with his riding crop and caught McGraw right in the face. McGraw didn’t like that one bit and it was on. Clearly Slaughter wasn’t taking his opponent seriously and a second whip attempt was blocked, McGraw got control over the crop and proceeded to punch Slaughter in the face. I’m not exactly sure what did it but Slaughter was immediately opened up and once again we had a classic Slaughter gusher on our hands. McGraw was like a little terrier, frantically applying the pressure while he still had the advantage. He tried the best he could but a Slaughter backdrop over the ropes cut him off and from then on it was ALL Slaughter, and he was pissed. His body and ego both bloodied and bruised, Slaughter began laying McGraw out with pure venom, including a killer clothesline that took McGraw’s head off. Savage. Even after the match was done and dusted, Slaughter wasn’t finished by a long shot. He locked on the clutch not once but twice, adding insult to injury and leaving no doubts in the audience’s minds who the better man was. For a guy like Slaughter who had to work relatively weak against the other top babyfaces in the company, he needed matches like this where he could be presented like a killer and he certainly had the goods to deliver when the time came. 1981-06-20 WWF - PRISM Network Bob Backlund (c) vs. George Steele WWF Heavyweight Title Match Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★★ Steele really had his gimmick down pat. When he walked around on the floor his sudden violent bursts of movement were enough to cause audience members to recoil and flee in terror and his general animalism worked both during the initial King of the Mountain spot they did to start this off, and the subsequent stalling sequence with Steele prowling the outside. The problem was when they actually got down to brass tacks and had to wrestle, Steele’s entire arsenal could be whittled down to 1. Punch without foreign object 2. Punch with foreign object 3. Shoulder nerve hold. Backlund sold the foreign object shots really well, but it’s hard for anybody to continuously sell a nerve hold to the shoulder. Steele’s time on top lasted just far too long. They did however get over the sense that Backlund took a real beating here and it did feel like a triumph when he grabbed the victory after a turnbuckle bump gone wrong for George. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted November 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 22, 2023 1981-06-20 PNW Roddy Piper & Steve Regal vs. Buddy Rose & Rip Oliver Best Two Out Of Three Falls Texas Tornado Match (Special Referee: Lou Thesz) Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★ Roddy Piper was back in Portland and he certainly looked fired up to be back in his old stomping ground. Being a Texas Tornado we had all four men in the ring at once, and it felt a bit of a disjointed mess for the first 5 minutes or so. They tried to give Regal and Piper a chance to tee-off on the heels, but this didn’t really get going until Rose and Oliver took over and they definitely felt like a more cohesive unit with a more definitive plan of how they were going to approach this match. They were successfully able to divide Piper and Regal and worked Piper over enough to grab the first fall. On the flip side, the face’s big avenue to victory was Piper going full throttle and overpowering his opponents. His boxing style punches had never looked better and he was really working double time to take it to Rose and Oliver. The faces levelled things up in due course but it felt a little rote and predictable. The final third descended into more chaos with the action spilling out onto the floor and Rose bringing a steel chair into the mix. Thesz (who might as well have not been the referee for how much of a non-factor he was here) looked intent on counting out both teams and when Regal rolled back in I was certain that it was going to be a countout victory for Piper and Regal, but no apparently it was a DQ. Ultimately the same result but it feels like somebody got their wires crossed somewhere. This was a fun, rambunctious match carried by Rose being the ring general and Piper bringing the energy. Oliver and Regal were kind of just there to make up the numbers and I wished that they’d leant into teasing a Piper loss a little bit more to build the drama as the crowd were molten for his return and couldn’t have been more behind him in this one. 1981-06-24 NJPW - 10th Anniversary Tiger Mask vs. Villano III Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ I was really taken with Villano here. Tiger Mask’s matches were always a little bit more style than substance, but given the right opponent who would serve to ground the action, they seemed to turn out better than when he was given complete free licence. In this case Villano was that such opponent. I loved how he sold Tiger Mask’s hammerlock and the figure four, really on point with the verbal selling but without going overboard with it. They worked an excellent hammerlock sequence with reversals on reversals that really popped the crowd. This was competitive but there was always the sense that Tiger Mask could uncork some wacky and wild move that could catch Villano by surprise so you could never tell when the knockout blow would happen. They lost their way a bit with the test of strength stuff in the middle, or at least I didn’t care for it, but Villano’s bumping perfectly set up the finish. He went for a dive in the corner, whiffed completely, bumbled his way to a big drop off the top to the outside which drew a wide round of laughs from the audience. Tiger Mask pounced and faked a plancha, hit a stiff kick right to Villano’s face before nailing a second plancha from the apron that finished the luchador off for good. Given the right dance partner Tiger Mask was thoroughly entertaining. He had his flaws no doubt, but I can see where the popularity comes from. The more opponents he’s fed like Villano the better, because we’ve seen what can happen when the other guy can’t pull his weight. 1981-06-24 NJPW - 10th Anniversary Abdullah The Butcher & Stan Hansen vs. Antonio Inoki & Yoshiaki Yatsu Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★★ This was the first match for both Yatsu and Abby back in NJ, so I should have guessed that something wild was about to go down. Yatsu looked like a scared little puppy as they set to start. Inoki was raring to go but Yatsu kept pathetically prompting Inoki to step back through the ropes and offered himself up as sacrificial lamb to the slaughter. Inoki finally registered Yatsu pawing at him, looked him square in the eyes, then straight up just slapped him in the face. On you go son, good luck and all that. The slap must have triggered something because up against Hansen, Yatsu was able to get the better of the earlier exchanges, an arm drag here, an arm drag there. Things were looking pretty great for young Yatsu until BLAM. Hansen absolutely crushed him with a high knee to the face. Down went Yatsu, and with it any chance of him being competitive in this match. I’ll give the guy all the credit in the world, Yatsu never for one second stopped scrapping and clawing to get back into it, but he was thoroughly and completely outmatched. Four punches to Abby’s gut would be definitely cut off by a single headbutt. Abby, debuting in NJPW himself, was clearly motivated to bring his ‘A’ game as well. Full of effort, his strikes were clean and crisp and he worked at a faster pace than normal. Hansen and Abby worked Yatsu over expertly and it was no surprise when they went to the outside, like sharks honing in for the kill, and drew blood. Yatsu tried his best, but back in the ring all that awaited him was a stonking Lariat that took his head right off. Inoki was too slow to make the save and the foreign team had the first fall. Hansen wasn’t finished and Inoki was next in line, eating a Lariat of his own and things looked really bad for them. In fact, the second fall didn’t work out any better for them apart from the result. Hansen ran interference while Abby continued to just maul Yatsu over by the railings. Inoki seemed all too content to just chill in the ring or on the apron, as if he was seeing whether Yatsu would be able to pull himself out of this mess. The referee called for the DQ and things were level and finally Inoki came to life. It felt a tad too late, Yatsu was already a bloody blob of a man at this point, but Inoki was pissed, grabbed a bottle and things were about to get serious. The referee’s (yes there were two for some reason hovering around) tried their best to get the weapon out of his hands but Inoki was not to be deterred. In the end the final decision was a DQ against Inoki and Yatsu, but it didn’t seem to matter as things just completely fell apart and descended into chaos. All the seconds piled into the ring, Hansen was clubbing whoever moved, Abby broke the bottle and used the jagged edge to stab Inoki in the head and amongst the maelstrom, Yatsu appeared, like a zombie back from the dead, merely to be promptly dismissed by Hansen and flung once again from the ring, a large smear of his blood all over Hansen’s chest the only remnant that he was ever there at all. Hansen and Abby were fantastic here in being brutal on Yatsu, and even the moments where either matched up with Inoki they stood their ground and delivered the goods. Yatsu was perfect for his role. The young pup who had no chance matching up with the two titans opposite, but full of pluck and courage. We had chaos, we had carnage. Such fun all round. However, to nitpick some, Inoki just seemed far too passive when Yatsu initially got cut open in the first fall, awkwardly hanging around on the apron on his side of the ring while these guys ruthlessly worked over his partner. Then between falls, they did the same thing again, and he did the same thing again. It didn’t ring true to me when he finally went to Yatsu' aid and got all stroppy. It felt a little too much like faux anger and the timing was all off for me, which dings the match as a whole. But this is definitely something I would thoroughly recommend anybody watch. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted November 24, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 24, 2023 1981-06-24 Joint Promotions Marty Jones vs. Dave Bond Shrewsbury, Shropshire, United Kingdom ★★ This was right on the cusp of being something good. The first few rounds were pretty aimless from a matwork perspective but they tried to convey discontent between the competitors, but it didn’t come across as more than handbags really. Bond throughout tried to get cheap shots in and bend the rules, but I always got the sense that he was more playing heel than being a heel. The Roccos and Breaks of the world embody that attitude completely, for Bond it felt somewhat halfhearted and for me at least wasn’t anywhere as effective at generating a reaction. There were moments where Jones looked like he was putting it together, such as a few sudden tugs on the arm which made Bond wince, but they never went back to it. It was the same for Bond, who was the first to throw an uppercut, but he never fully transitioned to the power game at any point, so things kind of meandered. The build to the first fall was nice, with Bond slingshotting Jones into the ring post, trying again but getting caught. The frustration getting to him caused him to become overly aggressive and sloppy with his next few attacks and Jones capitalised with a nice O’Connor Roll. Bond’s equaliser came a bit out of nowhere and didn’t feel earned at all which was disappointing. But the final flurry by Jones to win the thing was excellent, and was the match's high point no doubt. Jones peppered Bond with a couple dropkicks before crushing him with a flying crossbody. The impressive part was the dropkicks though, delivered with pinpoint precision right in Bond’s face, they absolutely came across like killer blows in a way you don’t normally see due to the move usually being reserved for mere transitions. Overall a decent match with some good aspects but generally far too inconsistent for me. Skip to the end for Jones’ absolutely dynamite dropkicks though. 1981-06-24 Joint Promotions Johnny Saint vs. Ken Joyce Shrewsbury, Shropshire, United Kingdom ★★ They finished off the card with a flashy exhibition style match designed to show that the older Ken Joyce still had the goods but not quite enough to upset a champion like Johnny Saint. Saint definitely had a bag full of tricks and they slickly worked through holds and reversals and counters. They would try a cheeky move and laugh together when it didn’t come off. Suitably entertaining, and there was a woman in the crowd shrieking at the top of her lungs who certainly found it so, but there was no struggle at all. Also, increasingly in Saint’s matches, and most glaringly here, I’ve found the artifice of the wrestling painfully evident. A couple times here I saw Saint guiding Joyce’s hands or even putting himself in a headlock. Fun little match, and a comfortable win for Saint, but by no means his best. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted November 27, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 27, 2023 1981-06-25 IWE - Dynamite Series - Day 14 Ashura Hara & Mighty Inoue (c) vs. Carl Fergie & Gypsy Joe IWA World Tag Team Title Match Shimizu, Shizuoka, Japan Card ★★ Fergie was pretty much dead wood unless he was bumping around, which to be fair he did so cartoonishly that it was quite endearing. Gypsy Joe, while limited, had credible offense, mainly focused around headbutts and chops. The headbutts in particular looked great, unrelenting and could end up targeting any part of his opponent’s body. My favourites being a series that drove straight into Hara’s chest. There wasn’t much in the sense of psychology, the two teams just sort of collided and the guys had to make the most of it. The foreign team took over from the start and worked over Inoue, then after the eventual tag to Hara they did the same to him. But none of this was orchestrated in any meaningful or memorable way. Hara and Inoue though did a great job of keeping this watchable. Great selling and most importantly peppering in those hope spots with enough fire and dynamism to keep things engaging the whole way. Considering the circumstances I thought those two did a pretty solid job here. In the end Joe brought a steel chair into the mix, only for that to bite him in the ass. It ended up in Inoue’s hands and he blasted Joe in the back several times, enough to bend the chair frame itself. A mix up in the corner between Joe and Fergie was enough of an opening for Hara to sunset flip his team to victory. 1981-06-27 WWF - USA Network Bob Backlund (c) vs. Angelo Mosca WWF Heavyweight Title Match Capital Center, Landover, Maryland, USA Card ★ As down as I was on this match, I don’t feel like Backlund comes out of it looking that bad, all things considered. Mosca was terrible, far worse than he was in either of their MSG bouts. All of his offense seemed to revolve around containing Bob in the centre of the ring. Even when he threw Backlund to the floor outside, he was far too content to play king of the mountain and keep him there rather than capitalising and making a run at victory. To compound things, this ended in a tame blood stoppage (considering this happened in Maryland should I have been surprised?) and it made Mosca look like he still had a chance, rather than giving Backlund that decisive victory. Not that the fans cared, they were rapturous afterwards as Bob paraded his belt around the ring. As I said though, Backlund was the lone plus. He was in the ring first and very eager to get his hands on Mosca. He pounced the first chance he got and the energy he injected prevented this from being a complete trainwreck. Unfortunately we didn’t get any of those trademark Backlund power spots, and the highlight of the match was actually Mosca running himself into the ringpost. 1981-06-27 WWF - USA Network Andre The Giant, Rick Martel & Tony Garea vs. Captain Lou Albano & The Moondogs (Moondog Rex & Moondog Spot) Best Two Out Of Three Falls Six Man Tag Team Match Capital Center, Landover, Maryland, USA Card ★★ This was one of Andre’s first matches back after his broken leg and they used him pretty sparingly here. The first fall was more comedy, with Albano desperately trying to avoid tagging in, backing further and further down the ring steps to give the illusion he couldn’t reach for the tag, and the faces picked up the fall with a trademark Sunset Flip from Martel. The Moondogs flipped the script in the second, isolating Garea for a long stretch, making phantom tag switches behind the referee’s back and frustrating Martel and Andre in particular. Martel got a pretty decent hot tag but more double team chicanery put him at a disadvantage and the Moondogs put him away with a double backbreaker. We finally saw Andre in action for the finish, cleaning house and creating a big enough opportunity to splash Rex through the mat for the decisive pin. As I mentioned, Andre wasn’t involved too much here. I always enjoy him as an apron worker, and he had a few moments here doing things only Andre really could do, but they didn’t capitalise enough to make the moments he did get in the ring feel as momentous as I’ve seen in other matches. Martel as well had his little moment during his hot tag, but he felt like an onlooker for most of this as well. Moondog Spot certainly was an upgrade on King, and I’d say he’s comfortably better than Rex here too. I liked what little I saw of Latham in the Blonde Bombers and he continued to shine in a good light as a Moondog as well it seems. Overall this was pretty fun but ultimately skippable. 1981-06-27 WWF - USA Network Mil Mascaras vs. Sgt. Slaughter Capital Center, Landover, Maryland, USA Card ★★ This wasn’t much of anything either really, capping off a pretty lacklustre show. Mascaras gets a lot of grief for being uncooperative, but other than in the early moments, he gave Slaughter enough breathing room to put in a solid beating, and Slaughter’s offense as always looked great. As Mascaras made his comeback though this got a bit woolly, as if stylistically, if not literally, these two were speaking a different language. It wasn’t clear what direction they were going and it all felt very stop-start, and more like a showcase for Mascaras’ Lucha spots, than to serve the match itself. These spots may have been novel to the crowd at hand, and they responded as intended, but the execution was clunky in my opinion and it didn’t really work. Perhaps with an eye to his eventual departure from the territory Slaughter did the job here in rather uncontroversial fashion. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted November 28, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 28, 2023 1981-06-27 AWA Jim Brunzell vs. Adrian Adonis St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA Card ★★★ Only the second match on the card, and they clearly didn’t set out to steal the show, but what a fantastically understated gem this was. Joined in progress with Brunzell controlling Adonis in an unassuming leg lock, but the way they worked this sequence, with Adonis nearly escaping but getting pulled back in, then Adonis breaking the hold, mounting offense of his own, only to suffer some more damage to his leg later on, allowing Brunzell to get back on top was expertly executed. Even when Adonis finally did manage to free himself from Brunzell’s clutches he continued to sell the leg superbly and I loved how Brunzell’s final gambit, after a long stretch with Adonis on offense, was to go back to that leg and try and get that figure four. A distraction from Ventura on the apron and a handful of the tights gave Adonis the victory, but Brunzell’s strategy throughout was incredibly sound. The standout performer however was Adonis. Brunzell played his role to a tee, with the great psychology that I already mentioned and peppering in moments of fire to liven up the action at the right moments, but Adonis was the one to tie it all together. It’s a refreshing change to see a competent heel. Yes, he cheated to win, and yes he showed a lot of ass throughout, but for long stretches he dominated this matchup, and he didn’t necessarily use underhanded tactics to get into that position either. His offense looked fantastic and the way he tied all the aspects of the match together just completely works for me. He really excels in the connective tissue aspect of constructing a match. Really really good. 1981-06-27 AWA Nick Bockwinkel (c) vs. Baron von Raschke St. Paul Civic Center, St. Paul, Minnesota, USA Card I think as much as 10 minutes of this was clipped at the start so this might be less than half of the actual match. Bockwinkel was flying solo with Heenan absent from ringside and I liked the moments where he showed his desperation with his safety blanket gone, resorting to blatant choking in the ropes for example. But this ultimately fell into a holding pattern of Raschke going for the Claw and Bockwinkel going for his Sleeper. I’m predisposed to dislike Claw-based offense, and here was no different. I also find Raschke’s goofiness off putting in general, especially as a face. The finishing stretch to this was pretty by the numbers, and the fact that Bockwinkel retained merely due to Raschke missing an ill-advised dive off the second rope, allowing him to grab the tights and sneak the win, just made Raschke look foolish and made Bockwinkel look weak. I’m not sure how either man really came out of this looking any better than they did going in. 1981-06-29 CWA Jimmy Hart vs. Jerry Lawler No Disqualification Lumberjack Match Mid-South Coliseum, Memphis, Tennessee, USA Card ★★★ The fact that they got over Hart credibly being on top and in control for over half of this match is a testament to Hart, but specifically to Lawler, who’s selling throughout this was pitch perfect. To start, the First Family were banned from ringside, leaving Mantell, Dundee, Keirn and Rogers as the lone Lumberjacks, which already put Hart at a major disadvantage. But he had a few tricks up his sleeve, flinging a bag of powder into Lawler’s eyes being his first gambit. When the dust had cleared, literally, it looked like it was all over for Hart, but no, he had a chain down his tights and a few well timed jabs took Lawler down once again. But I knew, the fans knew, hell, Hart knew, that this was just staving off the inevitable. Lawler recovered and it was time for the lumberjack gimmick to come into play for the first time. Lawler gave Hart the chance to try and make his escape, knowing full well that he’d get dumped right back into the ring time and time again. It was such a fun and entertaining way to include the match stipulation without it dominating the narrative. In the end Lawler got his vengeance, taking the chain and returning those punches in kind, then switching to the leg and really worked over Hart’s knee with a spinning toe hold. Hart submitted but Lawler wasn’t through, tossing Calhoun to the floor to deliver a bit more punishment before finally calling it a day. Honestly, if they’d managed to drag this out a little longer I could have gone even higher on this match, I thought it was truly excellent for what it was. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted November 29, 2023 Author Report Share Posted November 29, 2023 JULY 1981-07-XX AJW Mami Kumano vs. Mimi Hagiwara Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan ★★ Kumano, with the help of Masami at ringside, dominated Hagiwara for the majority of this, using her long hair against her, liberally tugging and yanking at it to keep her under control. I liked the savageness of Kumano’s approach, even if the referee was as completely useless as usual to curb the rule bending. Hagiwara made a nice little feisty comeback though, even if the finish did kind of feel premature - she hit a backdrop suplex as her first major move of the match, then followed up with a good looking splash from the top rope, which was enough to put Kumano away. 1981-07-XX AJW Rimi Yokota vs. Hiroe Ito Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan ★★ Essentially a workrate sprint. Both women were up to the challenge though and Ito certainly was able to keep up with Yokota’s relentless pace. I wouldn’t say that either woman displayed a clear strategy in the traditional sense. This was more the case of Ito trying to swarm Yokota, using her bruising and aggressive style, and Yokota using her speed to counter and apply pressure of her own in return. This gave the match more of a formless feel than I usually prefer but there was enough energy and intensity here to keep things engaging. Looking at the big picture I think this did an excellent job of presenting Yokota as a champion. Sure she took a beating from Ito here and there, but ultimately she was able, using her skill and athleticism, to soundly defeat her opponent. I’m not sure they’ve done a great job with Yokota at all since she won the singles title but this was a good first step. For Ito, she definitely has been learning well at the feet of Kumano and Masami, slotting right into their ethos and adopting their rough and ready working style. Kumano in my eyes has dropped off somewhat since ‘80, but maybe it’s time for Ito to supplant her? 1981-07-XX AJW Nancy Kumi vs. Devil Masami Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan ★★★ We had the usual heel ref bullshit to start this with Nancy getting ganged up on. They gave this a little more room to breathe than usual so it didn’t feel so egregious but there’s a ceiling on how far this type of thing goes with me. Things really went up a level though when Masami started targeting Nancy’s knee. She had a bandage support on it, so she may have been carrying a previous injury, but regardless this was the turning point of the match for me. Masami was focused and relentless on the joint, and with help from Kumano was able to remove said support and really dig in with her attacks. The standout aspect though, and what really got this over for me, was Nancy’s superlative selling. When she was being attacked, she got over the pain and damage she was receiving, when she managed to wriggle free, she got over the desperation of the situation she found herself in. Essentially operating on one leg she darted about the ring, frantically trying to evade Masami, even diving to the outside and circling the ring at one point, only to get swallowed up by Kumano. All this meant that when she finally did manage to mount some kind of comeback it felt earned and had that strong emotional underpinning. The action spilled to the outside again and she managed to lay into Masami and smash her into the ringside chairs. She was unable to beat the referee’s count however and the match ended in a double countout. Instead of this feeling deflating, it actually made it feel like a moral victory for Nancy. She fought against the odds, didn’t take it lying down and showed real guts and determination to fight back and finish in the ascendancy. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted December 2, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2023 1981-07-03 AJPW - Summer Action Series 1981 - Day 1 Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Bill Robinson & Dick Slater Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match City Gymnasium, Kumagaya, Saitama, Japan Card For a fall and a half this just felt like all four men were going through the motions, putting in just enough effort to give the fans what they paid for. Disappointing, but these things happen. The reason for the lack of focus was revealed though when Tiger Jeet Singh hit the ring, accompanied by Bobby Heenan, and proceeded to cause mayhem. With Abdullah making the switch to New Japan it looks like Tiger Jeet Singh went the other way, perhaps in an attempt to keep both their acts fresh. I’m pretty sure this ended up in a no contest, but this match really just served as a prelude to the Singh angle anyway. 1981-07-03 NJPW - Summer Fight Series 1981 - Day 1 Tatsumi Fujinami (c) vs. Les Thornton WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ Nothing really to gripe about with this match, but it just didn’t connect with me and I had a few nits to pick. They structured this around the man working from underneath struggling to escape whatever hold they were in, which meant whoever was on top was static and entirely reactive, giving the impression they had no plan of action. Some of the sequences were cool and they repeatedly went back to Fujinami using the same reversal to cut Thornton off, a neat little bridge out, snapmare then reapplying a cravat. But each time they did it, he would then just lie there and wait for Thornton to mount his next challenge. Thornton’s offense was more bruising than I was expecting. From what I’ve seen previously he’s usually quite “scientific” but he was happy to lay in some heavy handed forearms. Overall though he didn’t do too much that would stand out in the memory. The first 18 minutes felt like the first third of a much longer match, then suddenly they transitioned to a somewhat rushed finish. Fujinami finally made some inroads, hitting a big legbreaker and then going for the figure four. He could never properly apply it in the ring, but when they collided and both fell to the outside (which didn’t look organic at all), he stuck it on Thornton outside instead. But we all knew where this was going - Fujinami released and tried to beat the count, only for Thornton to cling on to prevent him, resulting in the double count out. Fujinami was suitably pissed at himself, and quite rightly, at squandering the opportunity at getting the victory. 1981-07-03 NJPW - Summer Fight Series 1981 - Day 1 Abdullah The Butcher & Bad News Allen vs. Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ I guess people’s mileage on this match will vary depending on how much you buy into Abby. If you’re cold on him I can see this not doing much for you, if you like him then there’s a lot here to sink your teeth into. I can’t remember a match, especially a match involving Inoki, that was constructed in such a way to get over someone other than him to this extent. Inoki and Sakaguchi both went above and beyond to make Abby look like a million dollars here, Inoki uncharacteristically looked incredibly vulnerable as he took a beating from the off. Bad News, almost as Abby’s henchmen lackey, played his role well during the flashes he was in there, with his offense looking sharp and punchy. For the first half actually this was mostly Inoki getting his ass handed to him and it took Sakaguchi coming in with the tag rope as a weapon to briefly level the playing field. But Abby dug his heels in and a few timely headbutts was enough to cut Sakaguchi off and send him to the mat, with some more excellent selling of Abby’s offense on display. The Japanese team had signs of life late on, finally dishing out some damage that registered with Abby, something I would highlight as fantastic selling from Abdullah as well. He no-sold a lot early on, when it was his time to shine, but here he pitched it just right in terms of when to sell and how much, and the mere fact that he was slightly rocked meant everything for Inoki’s team. Inoki and Sakaguchi couldn’t dish out enough damage to really capitalise though and an ill-advised trip to the top rope by Sakaguchi saw him eat a strong right and straight to the floor he went in a somewhat crazy bump for a man his size. Inoki tried his best, but he was caught up with Bad News, and Sakaguchi was ultimately counted out for the standard 80s finish. All four men here played their roles to an absolute tee, Inoki for once was 100% motivated in elevating his new acquisition in Abdullah, and the two supporting acts, Sakaguchi and Bad News, did exactly what was required of them. This is no hidden classic, but in context was a fantastic bit of pro wrestling. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted December 4, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 4, 2023 1981-07-10 NJPW - Summer Fight Series 1981 - Day 6 Tatsumi Fujinami (c) vs. Stanley Lane WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match Nakajima Sports Center, Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japan Card ★★★ Fujinami hasn’t looked better this year at any point, and by a large margin. Everything he did here was crisp and focused and brimming with intensity. Lane wasn’t flotsam by any means, but in comparison to Fujinami his offense looked a little loose and slow, and Fujinami just looked like the supreme champion that he was presented as being, There was great struggle over a side headlock to start, a few killer body checks by Fujinami, Lane managed to get a foothold in the match using his karate style offense, then we got a Dragon Rocket and a big German on the floor to give Fujinami as decisive a countout victory as you can really have. This was short and sweet but worked at a hell of a pace and was a great advertisement for Fujinami. 1981-07-13 AJPW - Summer Action Series 1981 - Day 8 Genichiro Tenryu & Giant Baba vs. Bill Robinson & Victor Rivera City Gymnasium, Sunagawa, Hokkaido, Japan Card ★★ Come in, show the fans a little something something, then go home, that was the vibe. This match didn’t have much urgency, and didn’t feel like anybody involved was taking things too seriously, but they treated those in attendance to a nice little sequence between Baba and Robinson where they duelled over chops and blocks - Robinson in particular didn’t seem particularly interested in going overboard with the bumping and selling this evening, but Baba looked unusually spry and this was at least fun. Rivera didn’t get much of a look in at all but Tenryu managed to piggyback off the work Baba had put in, held his own against Robinson enough to force him to tag out, then took advantage of Rivera with a pretty matter of fact O’Connor Roll for the win. 1981-07-13 AJPW - Summer Action Series 1981 - Day 8 Jumbo Tsuruta (c) vs. Dick Slater NWA United National Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match City Gymnasium, Sunagawa, Hokkaido, Japan Card ★★ This was just about okay when they were throwing bombs at each other, but fell really flat when they worked the mat. Early on Slater let Jumbo take the lead, and honestly neither guy distinguished themselves at all. It was a little better in the second fall with Slater being more aggressive, his offense focusing on a variety of different headbutts, but overall the match suffered from a lack of logical escalation which meant that the finish to each fall kind of just happened and failed to mean anything. As far as I could discern there was no narrative being woven here, and with 25 minutes and 3 falls to work with, these two should have been able to pull something better out of the hat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted December 10, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 10, 2023 1981-07-15 Joint Promotions Jim Breaks vs. Sammy Lee Morecambe, Lancashire, United Kingdom ★★ Sammy Lee had returned from New Japan, his disappearance from UK small screens being explained away due to him having a bereavement and not instead, you know, launching the Tiger Mask gimmick. I thought it would be interesting to see how Breaks would handle him, as Tiger Mask matches always seem to hinge on whether his opponent can reign him in, and somebody with Breaks’ credentials seemed a likely candidate to be successful on that front. Unfortunately I felt they let this opportunity slide, and apart from a few particularly interesting moments, this was just Lee steamrolling Breaks with superior speed and agility. I was disappointed with the two falls Lee got, as both were just him hitting a flurry of kicks and then folding Breaks for the 3. Pinfalls in WoS aren’t always as satisfying as the work that surrounds them, but these felt particularly lazy and unimaginative. Overall it was probably a good thing for the promotion that Lee actually left, because he’d been presented almost like a cheat code, with nobody being able to hang with him, and it rendered a lot of his matches moot in terms of stakes or intrigue. Breaks’ equalising fall was at least a little cunning, as he’d bent the rules and frustrated Lee enough to get a rise out of him. Enough of an outburst that the referee deemed it worthy of a public warning. As Lee complained to the referee about the warning Breaks capitalised with a roll up from behind and crucifix pin to snatch the fall. In the end they weren’t interested in deviating from the usual Sammy Lee formula, and running at a little over 10 minutes, they were forced to blitz through the action anyway, so it didn’t have enough time to breath or develop any kind of engaging narrative. 1981-07-15 Joint Promotions Pat Roach vs. Romany Riley Morecambe, Lancashire, United Kingdom ★★ Little more than an extended squash for Roach. Despite Riley being a big man himself, Roach towered over him and seemed to have the weight advantage as well. He dispensed with most of his moves on the mat and leant heavily into his power moves - the uppercuts, slams, body checks, and was handily in control for the most part. Being a heavyweight in his own right, Riley had a few bombs he could throw Roach’s way, and the high points in this match were the uppercuts he landed that slightly rocked Roach. They weren’t momentum changers, and he was barely able to capitalise on them, but Roach registering their effects prevented this from being one note and in general I thought Roach was spot on with how far he went with the selling here. This didn’t last too long, with Roach hitting his patented move, the Brummagem bump, in the third round, and Riley was unable to answer the referee’s count for the KO loss. 1981-07-15 Joint Promotions Mark Rocco. vs. King Benn Morecambe, Lancashire, United Kingdom ★★★★ What I’ve come to expect from Rocco matches. High intensity, scrappy rule bending and voracious crowd heat. Rocco did Rocco things but this was great because of what Benn brought to the table. Right from round one he wasn’t averse to mixing it up with Rocco, getting right up in his face during rope breaks and really taking the fight to him. I think it made it clear that Benn was all too aware of what he was in for and was adequately prepared to fight fire with fire, which gave him a sort of fighting hero kind of vibe, made all the better because he had an awesome collection of moves to back it up. The first two rounds built to Benn grabbing that first fall by almost surprising Rocco with his aggression - and when he wiped Rocco out with a flying headbutt and a follow-up slam, it was thoroughly earned. He even looked the more likely to put things to bed in the third as well, still keeping Rocco at bay, but slowly and surely Rocco worked his way back into it and when Benn flew over the tope rope and injured his hip the writing was on the wall. Rocco hauled him up into a tombstone position but the yanking on the midsection aggravated the hip enough to force Benn to submit, then it was easy pickings for Rocco to finalise the win with a Boston crab in the following round. Really fun, enjoyable match with excellent performances from both men. Benn’s scrappy attitude really helped to get the crowd behind him and positioned him as a realistic challenger, and even when it was his time to sell, it never came across like he was rolling over. Rocco was the prick he usually is, always looking to get illegal follow up moves in, and prepared to do whatever it takes to pick up that win. Similarly though, he showed a lot of ass early on, making Benn look like a real stud in forcing him onto his back foot. 1981-07-15 Joint Promotions Clive Myers vs. Keith Haward Morecambe, Lancashire, United Kingdom ★★★★ This is by far the best Myers has looked in the martial arts gimmick and this might be my pick for best “technical” match of the year to this point. I thought the opening two rounds were absolutely electric, even if they didn’t work at a blistering pace. It’s easy to get over the idea of two wrestlers being equally matched, it’s significantly harder to project the idea that the two in question are equally matched AND masters of the craft. While my previous exposure to both wouldn’t cause me to put either men here in that lofty bracket, if I’d been dropped in blind, that would have been my takeaway from this match. Both men had counters on counters, with Myers being the more aggressive, and more successful offensively on the whole, but Haward was able to display resiliency, the ability to absorb punishment, and when given the chance, he had the power advantage and the potential to perhaps hit a killer knockout blow. Things got a bit wobbly in the third round. I felt that Haward was perhaps a bit too passive in letting Myers lead the action, and a couple of times he lay there a tad too long waiting for Myers to get into a move when I thought he should have made for a counter or an escape. If you’re just laying there for 5-10 seconds waiting for your opponent to grab a leg or an arm it just makes you look inept. In the second half of the bout they reverted back to the cat and mouse game that they started with, but this time with pinfalls. This was again pretty good, for a truly excellent match you’d want slightly more escalation and a ramp up of intensity, whereas here things kind of plateaued on the way to the draw. I don’t want to be too critical though, as mostly the complaints above are mere nitpicks, as I thought both men gave their best performances of the decade through mid-81. Hawards’ technical skills are always evident when he wrestles, but it’s not always clear that he can leverage his physical gifts into a cohesive whole. For Myers, I’d generally say that his martial arts gimmick was a dud, and the more he shifted away from it and focused on plain wrestling the better his matches were. Here he basically abandoned the gimmick entirely apart from a few stylistic flourishes and we really saw what he was made of, which really makes me eagerly anticipate checking out his 70s work, which I know is highly regarded. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted December 12, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 12, 2023 1981-07-16 AWA Nick Bockwinkel (c) vs. Jim Brunzell AWA World Heavyweight Title Match Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Card ★★★★ ¼ Brunzell controlled the first 20 or so minutes, but in doing so he got over the fragile nature of his control. They worked several cool escape/reapplication spots over an armbar and a hammerlock and Brunzell was positively desperate to reapply the moves to prevent Bock from getting free and potentially turning the tables. There was also a sense that Bock, if he were to get any sustained offense in, would be able to deal a knockout blow. His punches and strikes looked brutal. By the time Bock did finally get some control of his own, he spent half as much time trying to re-energise and recover from the damage he’d taken that he couldn’t put 100% into killing Brunzell. It didn’t take anywhere near as much to brutalise Brunzell’s leg, 5 minutes as opposed to 20 for Bock’s arm, but Bock had taken enough damage that Brunzell wasn’t immediately wiped out and could stay in the fight. So in that sense his initial strategy was paying off even when he fell behind and was taking damage of his own. The second half of the match was a war of attrition. Neither man could really stamp their authority on proceedings. Bock had taken too much damage, and in some ways it felt like Brunzell just didn’t have enough in his locker. Just as I was thinking though that things had become too predictable, with Brunzell’s only real silver bullet being the figure four, they worked a series of roll up pinfalls that I thought were suitably believable as match enders. The accumulated damage meant that they were both out on their feet, and the stretch from around the 45th-55th minute dragged a tad. This felt like extra time in a World Cup match, where both teams would like to win before penalties, but really just not losing has become their primary goal. Both men would hit a move and go for a pin, but whether the application of the move was lacking due to fatigue or they spent too long to make the follow up pin, it never came across like we were getting a three count. However in the final couple of minutes they managed to dig deep and actually generate some real drama. Brunzell finally dusted off his trusty dropkick and planted a couple right in Bock’s mug. Gene’s call of “Oh my God” really carried the gravity that Brunzell may have dealt the killer blow. If Bock hadn’t been so obvious in positioning his bump so close to the ropes and Brunzell hadn’t spent so long crawling over to Bock’s prone body, that would have been an all-time near fall. With less than a minute remaining Brunzell went back to the figure four. Not long left, but a whole minute in the hold is adequate enough time to force a submission, even for a man like Bockwinkel. Bock writhed in pain but he held out until the bell rang, but they got over the sense that he escaped this by the skin of his teeth. 60 minute matches are always tough to execute, and often it’s just too easy to lose interest, get distracted, and get pulled out of the immersion. But here there was always something going on, they were almost always building the narrative, and it was just two terrific performances culminating in an excellent match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted December 13, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 13, 2023 1981-07-18 GCW Jimmy Snuka & Terry Gordy (c) vs. Steve O & Ted DiBiase NWA National Tag Team Title Match WTBS TV Studios, Atlanta, Georgia, USA Card ★★★ This started off with the usual Gordy problem of him bumping too big too soon, but it was only a brief shine for the faces here before we settled into a routine of Gordy and Snuka isolating Steve O and really working him over. This match got an unusual amount of TV time, which enabled the drama to build and as the minutes ticked by things looked more and more dire for Steve. I really loved the heat from Gordy and Snuka as they both looked like killers. This is the Gordy I’ve been wanting to see this whole time. He went to plant Steve with a piledriver, which was initially blocked, but he couldn’t avoid the second attempt. What he could do though was reach out and finally tag Ted from where he landed and the hot tag was on. I wasn’t too enamoured with Ted here, he had by far the least amount of ring time, but he also did the least with it. What should have been a whirlwind of a hot tag kind of petered out and the heels regained control. This was when the reemergence of Michael Hayes came into play. Steve O was out of commission after that piledriver leaving Ted isolated. When Gordy and Snuka finally got him back under control they looked to put him away with a splash off the top, but Hayes flew in from off screen and launched Snuka off the top turnbuckle to splat in the middle of the ring. The rest was just a brawl with DiBiase and Steve O looking perplexed and annoyed that they’d lost their chance at the titles, but to be honest, they were on the verge of defeat anyway. 1981-07-18 PNW The Destroyer vs. Buddy Rose Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★ After the explosion of Rose’s Army the previous week, Destroyer was desperate to get his hands on Rose and Rose was eager to steer well clear of the Destroyer. The opening few minutes was all Rose stalling. As the Destroyer desperately tried to get a hold of him, Rose would constantly roll from the ring, circle it, roll back in - rinse and repeat. Anything to avoid having to engage. Then he’d pounce on him entering the ring after him and strike, then chuck him from the ring and be king of the mountain. I liked the energy Rose displayed playing keep away, and Destroyer was committed to selling his back throughout the first fall after a hard landing sailing through the ropes, but the eventual finish, with Destroyer piledriving Rose, kind of came out of nowhere. I wish they’d built Destroyer up a little more here because in my opinion I don’t think he showed enough fire and Rose equally didn’t show enough fear to really get the dynamic across enough. The crowd were fully in support of Destroyer, but it was more because you ought to cheer whoever Rose is matched up against, than they really wanted Destroyer to win. The second fall began with Destroyer foolishly getting caught walking to the ring and eating a ringpost for his trouble. Then Rose, in classic Rose fashion, targeted his injured back relentlessly. Again, I liked Destroyer’s selling and I liked the focused approach from Rose, but this just made me feel like the match was veering into the routine and Destroyer was losing heat by the second. A backbreaker from Rose put him away and levelled the match. In the third we saw Destroyer return the favour and catch Rose unawares and he ended up eating steel. This busted Rose open and from then on he was not interested in continuing, bailed to the crow’s nest and on the mic handed the match to Destroyer. Talk about deflating. I guess the idea is that they wanted to build up the chase. The next match would be a tag match and Rose would have Oliver as his own personal human shield, but this felt like they just cut Destroyer’s legs out from under him with the finish. There were some nice moments in this but the overarching idea seemed ill-thought out to me and both delivered an underwhelming match and didn’t serve the feud either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted December 17, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 17, 2023 1981-07-21 WWF - Championship Wrestling The Moondogs (Moondog Rex & Moondog Spot) (c) vs. Rick Martel & Tony Garea WWF Tag Team Title Match Agricultural Hall, Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★★ Perhaps sensing a title switch was in the air the crowd were absolutely nuts for the entrances of Garea and Martel, with them becoming positively unhinged when Martel in particular was announced. The challengers got a massive extended shine to start this and only some threeway trickery between the Moondogs and Albano allowed them to take advantage of Martel and finally start the heat. I’d say this was a generally good TV match, especially by WWF standards, but Martel was the real bright spot who really shone here. Whenever he’s asked to sell it’s almost an event, just so good. Albano threw the bone in when order had crumbled and all four had piled into the ring, then amidst the chaos Martel hit a sunset flip for the win and the titles. The crowd erupted and the new champions were ecstatic. It really came across like a fantastic, momentous moment. Actually I’d say both times these guys won the tag titles felt like seminal, feel good moments, perhaps a step above anything else in regards to pure feel good vibes that have happened in the promotion over the whole ‘80-’81 period. 1981-07-24 NJPW - Summer Fight Series 1981 - Day 19 Stanley Lane vs. George Takano City Gymnasium, Kariya, Aichi, Japan Card ★★★ This was a classic back and forth, worked at a breakneck pace, with both men pretty flawless with their execution. Overall I’d say that Takano had the better of it, but Lane has proven on this Japanese excursion that he could certainly hang. This was all about going for a hold and his opponent figuring a quick and decisive counter, rinse and repeat for 10 minutes. As I said, Takano slightly edged the body of the match, but a spectacularly whiffed elbow drop off the top - and seriously, this was a thing of beauty as he put his whole body behind his driving arm just to splat into the mat - this miss was the turning point upon which Lane was able to capitalise, hitting a brutal follow up clothesline and then a Russian leg sweep on a woozy George for the solid victory. Really fun sprint that defies any real analysis but an absolute blast to watch. 1981-07-24 NJPW - Summer Fight Series 1981 - Day 19 Abdullah The Butcher & Bad News Allen vs. Antonio Inoki & Tatsumi Fujinami Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match City Gymnasium, Kariya, Aichi, Japan Card I only had the first fall of this, but a hell of a fall it was. This started with a bang as, while Abby and Inoki locked up, Bad News came flying off the top with a knee to ambush Inoki, then they chucked him to the outside and continued the beatdown. Eventually Fujinami managed to tag in to give Inoki some reprieve but he ended up receiving an even greater beatdown, which required Inoki to come round to the opposite side of the ring to pry Fujinami from the clutches of Abby and Bad News. Bad News and Abdullah were a pretty fucking fun tag team. I’ve barely seen any Bad News before but he’s really shone in the footage I’ve watched of him recently. With the surprise advantage they carved out and subsequently working on top he looked spry and credible, then when it came time for the home country boys to take over he was a really great heel in peril. It’s a fine line to sell well for your opponents but not garner too much sympathy, but he did a fantastic job of making this stretch from Inoki and Fujinami feel dominant from their perspective without you feeling bad for him, and without him having to be all foolish and show too much ass. Abby this whole time just chilled on his apron, like a mafia boss watching his underlings trying to take care of business. After Fujinami hit a victory roll on Bad News to secure the first fall, Abby’s first action was to attack Fujinami and dump him, then set up Inoki for a series of nasty double team shoulder blocks. Again, they spilled to the outside and the heels continued the savage beatdown. What I love from Abby is that he was entirely unconcerned with winning and losing, everything was psychological warfare. His team may have been pinned here, but who are the chumps laying beaten and battered on the floor after it’s all said and done? Not his team. Unfortunately the footage cut off there, but with the match listing showing a double DQ for Abby and Inoki as the finish I’m sure this was a real barnburner. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted December 22, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 22, 2023 1981-07-24 Houston Wrestling Mike Graham vs. Tully Blanchard Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA Card ★★★ Is there anything Tully isn’t good at? Graham hung with him here, and he certainly had skills, but Tully was such a superlative performer that he sort of overshadows whatever his opponent is doing, like a singular force of personality that dominates everything within its orbit. Cheap little shots to gain an advantage, absolutely savage rabbit punches to the face, really good sequences worked around hair pulls of all things, fantastic bumping, stooging, I mean the list goes on and on. This was a twenty minute time limit draw where the action just never stopped. My only complaints could be that it sounded from commentary that this was part of some tournament, and it felt like it, tournament matches always seem to have that kind of throwaway feeling unless it’s the final bout, and Graham, while committed and energetic with his selling, was a little too inconsistent with it. He would borderline act like his arm was broken one second then completely blow it off the other, which added an unwanted choppy element to the proceedings. But generally, a real easy watch and another killer Tully outing. 1981-07-27 Joint Promotions Johnny Saint vs. Johnny Kidd Wembley Arena, London, United Kingdom ★★ This was another extended squash for Saint. Wasn’t really all that competitive and had more the sense he was playing with his food rather going out to finish things quickly, which is an ongoing trend with him. Considering that this was only Kidd’s second television appearance and might even have still been part time and Saint was the World champion, it makes sense that Saint would be dominant. I think my issue is that personally I find bruising, physical squashes more satisfying than technical ones. In the back of my mind perhaps I reserve technical one upmanship the domain of the underdog, or at least the face in a definitive face vs heel dynamic. Here it almost felt like Saint was delivering underhanded humiliation to his young challenger, all the while presenting it with the veneer of gentlemanly sportsmanship. But I’m willing to concede this may be much more a “me” problem. 1981-07-27 Joint Promotions Jon Cortez vs. Steve Grey Wembley Arena, London, United Kingdom ★★★★ ½ Given the way they presented wrestling at this time, showing it on World of Sport and in conjunction with other “legitimate” sports from around the country, I can’t think of a match that better represents what this style of wrestling should look like if it was indeed a shoot and not a work. They played off the stereotype of the style, where usually babyfaces play it by the book, and subverted expectations by having Cortez, from the jump, play the subtle heel and colour outside the lines. In turn this riled Grey up and the simmering tensions just escalated and escalated, until the frustration boiled over at key intervals. Cortez used something as simple as a headlock to set the tone here, but instead of merely applying it, working the hold a little, maybe cranking it, he was especially heavy handed, almost like he was applying a crossface of sorts in the manner of its application. For the first few rounds Cortez was definitely the aggressor and it was Grey’s turn to sell. At first it was his ear, from the vicious headlock he’d endured, then it became his left arm which Cortez brutalised with a series of lifts. Just when it looked like Cortez had Grey’s number and was going for yet another attack on that vulnerable left arm, Grey uncorked a hellacious forearm smash and at that point we knew, all bets were off. Cortez himself proved that he was no slouch in the selling department as, during the back nine, he got caught with a dropkick to the moneymaker, which staggered him enough that he required almost two full ten counts to recover, and later on, after surviving a surfboard attempt, his legs almost gave out from underneath him from the punishment that had been applied. The finish, and really the only knock on this match, had them go the injury route yet again, with Grey getting his ankle caught in the ropes and not being able to continue. I thought it was a copout really, as even a one fall to nil result would have sufficed. After such an excellent bout, I felt that it warranted a more satisfying conclusion. Overall though this was just such a tremendous match on all fronts, from presentation to execution. With it being announced that the European and British champions would face off with a chance to face Saint, the World champion, they set the stakes immediately. Where usually you would expect something slightly more exhibition-y with two babyfaces going against each other, the added reward of the title match meant these two were taking this extremely seriously, and Cortez in particular felt that cutting those corners and slightly bending the rules was his ticket to victory. Hard brutal grappling followed and they escalated the tensions perfectly. We got struggle over every hold, every counter, every exchange, fantastic selling from Grey initially and then fantastic selling from Cortez. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted December 28, 2023 Author Report Share Posted December 28, 2023 1981-07-30 AJPW - Summer Action Series 1981 - Day 22 Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta (c) vs. Bill Robinson & Genichiro Tenryu NWA International Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Korakuen Hall, Tokyo Japan ★★★ Card One of those matches that consistently delivers, even if it doesn’t manage to reach any lofty heights. The first fall was all about who could get in offense against who. Eventually a murky hierarchical order emerged with Baba at the top, Robinson and Jumbo as 2A and 2B respectively, and Tenryu at the bottom. Baba and Robinson showed off their pet sequence of duelling chops and blocks, which once against drew appreciative murmurs from the crowd, but it felt like we were in a stalemate until Tenryu of all people upped the ante and managed to catch Baba by surprise with some plucky offense, then Robinson followed up with a backbreaker to steal the first fall. Robinson relentlessly targeted Baba’s lower back to begin the second fall but when Jumbo came in he was all business and broke out some bombs which put his team in the ascendancy again. The finish to both the second and third falls were pretty chaotic and messy (likely by design) with Baba taking advantage to hit a big boot on Robinson to win the second and a skirmish on the outside was won by the champions allowing Jumbo to make it back into the ring and win the whole match via countout. Jumbo showed more vigour than I’ve seen from him in a long time, and he seemed to relish the opportunity to pile on the damage to his opponents. Robinson, despite being his team’s de facto leader, actually took more of a back seat. He did plenty of selling, and all of it was very good, but overall this felt like a match designed to put a spotlight on Tenryu and elevate him somewhat. Being the guy at the bottom of the pecking order meant that any offense he was able to mount meant more than if it came from any of the other three, plus, because of his hierarchical positioning, when he finally came up against a brick wall, it was natural that he’d get his ass whooped, so he could be the most expressive and giving when selling as well. All of this naturally meant that he stood out more and felt like the participant you’d root for most fervently. I quite liked the synergy between Robinson and Tenryu actually, despite them feeling like an odd-pairing. Baba and Jumbo, despite teaming for aeons at this point, feel more like a “Super Team” rather than a real tag team and appear happy to go my-turn-your-turn, which makes their matches come across as less than the sum of their parts sometimes. 1981-07-31 NJPW - Summer Fight Series 1981 - Day 25 Abdullah The Butcher vs. Seiji Sakaguchi Seaside Sports Center, Takaishi, Osaka, Japan Card I’d say to this point Abdullah’s re-introduction to New Japan had been a rousing success. He jumped Sakaguchi here and really bruised him up like the thug he was. Sakaguchi in recent weeks has shown a greater willingness to show vulnerability than I ever expected from him and once again here he was happy to take the punishment from Abby wholeheartedly. This didn’t last too long, ended with a DQ on Abby after they jumped the steel ring fence, and Inoki had to make an appearance to finally scare Abby away and save Sakaguchi from a continued beatdown, but it was maybe what you would describe as punchy and carried on the great work they’d done so far in putting over Abby in this new context after he began to feel a little played out in his last few months in All Japan. 1981-07-31 NJPW - Summer Fight Series 1981 - Day 25 Bad News Allen & Masked Superstar vs. Antonio Inoki & Riki Choshu Seaside Sports Center, Takaishi, Osaka, Japan Card ★★ Superstar and Bad News leaned too hard into the cheap heel tactics for my liking in this one. Choshu took a beating, setting the stage for the big Inoki comeback. They subverted expectations though as Superstar rallied against Inoki’s hot tag and picked up the pinfall on Choshu against the run of play, with Inoki caught up with Allen on the outside. Superstar’s finisher, what they called a “Running Sleeper” seems to be the move du jour for 1981. They gave the heels the cheap win to build up to Inoki and Superstar clashing to finish the tour, which makes sense from a booking perspective. It’s just that this felt a little too slap-dash and disjointed for my liking and certainly all four involved here could have done better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted January 6 Author Report Share Posted January 6 AUGUST 1981-08-XX AJW Ayumi Hori vs. Devil Masami Kaminokawa Sports Center, Kaminokawa, Tochigi, Japan ★★ Coming off the back of two rookie matches earlier in the show, this certainly was miles better in terms of execution, but this lacked any kind of hook for me. They battered into one another for 15 minutes, with the final few leaning more in Hori’s favour, then Masami caught her with a surprise cradle for the win. I’m really not sure there was much more to this match really. Perfectly “fine”, but no story, no killer emotion, nothing to separate it or help it stick in the memory. 1981-08-XX AJW Jaguar Yokota & Noriyo Tateno vs. Mami Kumano & Hiroe Ito Kaminokawa Sports Center, Kaminokawa, Tochigi, Japan ★★ I think they nailed the dynamic they should have been going for in this match - two brawling, scrappy heels matched up against the talented champion and her inexperienced apprentice - they just whiffed a bit on the execution. Kumano to start was having none of Jaguar, not in the sense of avoiding her, but in the sense that she knew that Tateno was the weak link and she beelined right to her. Despite Tateno minding her own business hanging out on the apron, Kumano dragged her into the ring and got some shots in. When Kumano and Yokota squared up again she matter-of-factly tossed Jaguar over the top rope and once again dragged Tateno in. When Tateno finally legally tagged in they hauled her immediately over to their corner to isolate her as much as possible from Yokota and got to work. This set up Yokota’s hot tag where she could come in and display her athleticism, wow the crowd and show everybody why she’s the champ. The problem was that she was only back in the ring for a minute max before she happily tagged her overmatched partner back in and from then on the match was lost. I believe this was Tateno’s first televised match, so I’ll cut her some slack in this case, but both her and Yokota were way too passive and far too happy to let the heels dictate the tempo and dominate the match. That’s even considering that I thought Kumano’s performance here was absolutely terrific, fully back to her best from the previous year. She was savage, calculated, and has a particular way of movement that organically feels like she’s a predator stalking her prey. There was a moment late on where we’d had a bust up in the announcer’s table and everyone had dusted themselves off and were returning to their respective corners, then Kumano stealthily shifted her way across the apron just within striking distance, then pounced on Jaguar again to gain the advantage. With such a strong heel performance on one side, I thought this match really could have been something if the faces had been able to counter with strong performances of their own, but it wasn’t to be. In the end a costly mistake saw Yokota accidentally cross body her own partner allowing Ito to pin Tateno for the win. A finish which didn’t do the champion any favours at all. 1981-08-XX AJW Nancy Kumi vs. Mimi Hagiwara Kaminokawa Sports Center, Kaminokawa, Tochigi, Japan ★★★ Slightly clipped, as the match ran 15 minutes but this went to a 20 minute draw. I haven’t been too high on Hagiwara from what I’ve seen. She seemed rough around the edges, lost at times, lacking any real substantial offense, and lacking in other areas to make up for it. However after watching this it seems like she’s turned a corner and is set to inherit Lucy Kayama’s mantle as queen of the plucky underdogs. This was still nominally a face vs face match, however Kumi, being the bigger woman, set the tone in aggression and dishing out damage. This set the stage for Higawara to absolutely sell her ass off. It wasn’t over the top or hammy, but she appears to have tapped into leveraging her slender build to garner that sympathy required for the audience to buy into the match. It really felt like the slams Nancy was handing out were taking their toll. Then to top it off, Nancy applied the figure four and we got some awesome leg selling as well. Now, I love a good spot of limb selling, and while you could say it was a bit patchy at points, I thought Mimi did a great job of keeping it to the foreground, despite Nancy’s follow offense being almost exclusively slams and forgetting about the leg entirely. This isn’t to say that it was a one way street. Mimi had her moments where she was able to get a stretch of offense in, but it was never sustained, and lacked the oomph that Nancy’s had. But she was feisty and resourceful, which was paramount in selling the desperation they built to for the finish. With the clock counting down it can often feel rote, but despite the draw being the only way this was going to finish, I at least believed that they were really exhausting themselves to try and steal that winning pin. It wasn’t to be here, but just getting across the idea that they were pushing themselves to the end without resorting to cheesy near fall spamming was a victory in my eyes. 1981-08-XX AJW Yukari Omori & Tomoko Kitamura vs. Las Galacticas (Pantera Surena & Reyna Gallegos) Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match Kaminokawa Sports Center, Kaminokawa, Tochigi, Japan ★★★ These Mexican women came to play! They weren’t taking any shit and looked intent on kicking piss out of their Japanese opponents from the very first bell. I loved how gritty everything was in this match. Whenever either of the Galacticas laid in a strike it felt more like a straight up slap to the face. Whenever the action spilled to the outside they seemed to have the distinct advantage. They just overall seemed like the more cohesive team with the requisite “moxy” to take firm control of the match. To put it bluntly, Omori and Kitamura got punked. It took losing the first fall and several more slaps to the face for Kitamura to finally get fired up, and it took the Japanese team to finally match the Mexican’s aggression and find some more synergy in their own team makeup to level things up, deciding the second fall with a lovely combo attack of a Giant Swing and then an Airplane Spin. Things didn’t cease being rough and ready in the third stanza either, the action constantly ending up on the outside and it was no surprise when this finished in a double countout. Nonetheless the Mexican team had firmly planted their flag and you got the sense that if this had been allowed to continue it would have been them, and not the Japanese team, who would have emerged victorious. They certainly were the ones who set the tone from the off and they never let up for the whole 20 minutes this lasted. A really fun, visceral match and I’m hoping Las Galacticas pop up again soon. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted January 7 Author Report Share Posted January 7 1981-08-01 WWF - PRISM Network Pat Patterson vs. Sgt. Slaughter Alley Fight Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★★★★ Not quite the spectacle they had at MSG, but they actually managed to deliver another banger. They went at it as soon as Slaughter came through the ropes and we got an excellent example of why the Spectrum was such a fantastic venue for wrestling with the crowd going absolutely nuts, especially when Patterson whipped off his belt and began choking Slaughter in the corner. There was a woman at ringside who was losing her shit and a row of guys slightly further back who were so into it they must have felt like they were doing the choking themselves. Slaughter turned the tables before too long and delivered a killer blow right to Patterson’s face that drew an audible gasp from the crowd before a brief hush descended. Then he unveiled some tape of his own and it was Patterson’s turn to sell being choked. Patterson did a great job here, flem and spittle being ejected from his mouth as he desperately gasped for air. Eventually he ran Slaughter back into the turnbuckles to break the hold. I was wondering whether this would actually end up being a bloodless encounter when a crazy slingshot into the ringpost didn’t draw any, but I shouldn’t have been concerned as Patterson signalled for the finish by doing what he did last time, taking off his cowboy boot and nailing Slaughter in the head with it. The boot did the job and Slaughter was crimson in no time at all. As a side note. Slaughter is one of the best at knowing how to wring the most out of the image of him bleeding. He’ll arch his body and position himself so that the audience gets a great look at it from all angles. Patterson went a bit overboard, taking off his other boot and alternately clobbering Slaughter with each one, but they got the point across as Slaughter high tailed it to the back handing Patterson the victory. Another great blade job from Slaughter, excellent delayed fatigue selling from him throughout, fantastic bumps - of course onto the ringpost, but also eating Patterson’s punches, catching a stray boot and flying across or even out of the ring, another really great Slaughter performance. I’ll admit that I attribute more of my admiration for the original match to Slaughter, but here I think Patterson deserves his fair share of the credit for the success here. There was the aforementioned selling of being choked, but I think he kept the pace ticking along a bit better here and I just believed in his fire to a far greater extent. When he amped things up for the finish the emotion and energy came as much, if not more, from him laying into Slaughter with those cowboy boots than from Slaughter selling for those hits. I might go as far to say this was my favourite Patterson performance of the decade. 1981-08-01 WWF - PRISM Network Bob Backlund (c) vs. Angelo Mosca WWF Heavyweight Title Match Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★★ These Backlund/Mosca matches just keep on coming and they never seem to get any better. This was pretty by the numbers as Backlund dominated Mosca for the most part. He was all riled up because of the spitting angle they ran on TV it seems. They avoided any painfully dull static holds here so at least the action was ticking along. When Mosca finally got some shots in was when this actually got a little interesting. He caught Backlund with several nasty looking elbows in the corner which rocked Backlund, unfortunately it couldn’t have been more than a minute later that Backlund somehow reversed a body slam into a cradle and the fast count to beat all fast counts saw Mosca defeated in around 10 minutes. From what they showed here this might have been, dare I say good(!?) if they’d leaned more into Mosca getting some actual real heat on Backlund, but instead they shortchanged it and we got yet another terrible finish in a series that has stood out for terrible finishes. I really hope this is finally over, and seeing as Mosca has begun popping up on Georgia television, I have a sneaky feeling it might be. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted January 8 Author Report Share Posted January 8 1981-08-02 NJPW - Summer Fight Series 1981 - Day 26 Tiger Mask vs. Scorpio Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ Essentially just another enhancement match for Tiger Mask but I was surprised by how much I liked Scorpio here. He’s got a budget Mario vibe going on with his square bodied physique and bushy moustache, but he had a bunch of real fun bumps and on the whole made Tiger Mask look pretty good. He never really came across like a credible challenge though, and I guess that may have been the point, overall though I got the sense that Sayama was going through the motions and all the things I liked about this were coming from Scorpio and not from him. They capped this off by botching a Sunset Flip off the turnbuckle, with Tiger Mask overshooting and Scorpio having to awkwardly roll back into position for a laughably fake looking finish. I think this is another example of Sayama trying things, or being asked to do things, that perhaps he’s not quite able to execute consistently. 1981-08-02 NJPW - Summer Fight Series 1981 - Day 26 Abdullah The Butcher vs. Tatsumi Fujinami Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ Abdullah brought his A game here. I’m not sure whether it was just being in the ring with a dynamo like Fujinami but he looked like he was going double speed to start this. Fujinami really didn’t have much recourse here as he kept coming up against the immovable object that is Abdullah the Butcher. He’s a dynamic bumper so he made Abby’s offense look crisp and impactful. Eventually though Fujinami thought “fuck it, enough is enough”, dived under the ring, brought out some form of weapon and did an Abby on Abby and started stabbing away at his head. It wasn’t long before there were streaks of blood pouring down Abdullah’s face and Fujinami was on a roll. He gave it everything he had, even nailing a running headbutt, but the moment he hesitated and gave Abdullah a second to compose himself that was it, he got cut off and Abdullah was finished with his shit. A desperation Dragon Rocket just resulted in Fujinami getting plastered on the ringside railing and an absolutely thudding elbow drop left him squished on the mat as Abdullah rolled back in for the countout victory. That wasn’t to be the end of it though as these two went back at it for a few more minutes, their resulting brawl spilling out into the stands. 1981-08-02 NJPW - Summer Fight Series 1981 - Day 26 Bad News Allen vs. Antonio Inoki Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ This was ultimately less than the sum of its parts. Allen spent too long going for blatant chokes, and specifically at times that killed the organic momentum the match was building, which resulted in this feeling choppy and disjointed. The more static periods did mean however that Inoki’s flurries of offense felt like grand punctuations, with the crowd being really up for this in general and adding a ton of atmosphere. Overall I would say that when he was on offense, Inoki was able to bring his patented charisma and fire, but on the selling front he was too much of a dead fish and it never felt like Bad News was making any real headway. All the more disappointing because Allen has some pretty nice, hard hitting strikes of his own. I think these two had a really good match in them, but with an upcoming match against Masked Superstar and presumably a big spectacle match against Abdullah, Bad News may just have been small fry so Inoki couldn’t put him over too strongly. At least that’s the justification I’m going with. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted January 9 Author Report Share Posted January 9 1981-08-06 NJPW - Summer Fight Series 1981 - Day 30 Tatsumi Fujinami (c) vs. Stanley Lane WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card This was joined in progress so this is maybe two thirds of the whole match. Stan Lane continues to impress and he showed he was a worthy challenger here, getting the best of Fujinami a number of times - like reading his Dragon Rocket attack to pull him to the outside and mount an attack, but also laid in some heavy bombs as well, with his suplexes in particular looking excellent. But, and in a completely organic fashion I must say, Fujinami was too much to overcome. He rallied like only a champion can and sealed the deal with a somewhat new move for him, a Torture Rack. Fujinami feels like he’s finally hitting his stride in ‘81 and they’re really nailing the whole “true sport” dynamic with his matches, at least for a pro wrestling context. 1981-08-06 NJPW - Summer Fight Series 1981 - Day 30 Masked Superstar vs. Antonio Inoki Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ Wasn’t listed as such on Cagematch but they advertised this match as a $30,000 vs Mask match. Considering the stakes, I kind of expected this to be a bit “more” than it was. It wasn’t bad by any means, but it didn’t feel like the match stipulation added anything extra from what I would expect from a match between these two. The best parts of this were the roll throughs on holds. Early on Superstar had Inoki in a headlock, Inoki tried a counter but they would roll through and Superstar would keep the hold locked on. Later on they did the same in reverse, but this time with Inoki having locked on a Hammerlock. I thought this was a neat couple of sequences that projected a certain kind of technical expertise you don’t always see. Otherwise though I’d say, especially through the first half, Superstar seemed way too content to focus his strategy around choking Inoki, very similar to Bad News Allen in his match against Inoki. Considering the common denominator was Inoki it could have been his decision instead of theirs, but once again I wasn’t much of a fan of it. It wasn’t done in any particularly interesting way, Inoki wasn’t very good or interested in selling it, and it dragged down the pace of the match. When Superstar did get the opportunity to lay in some moves he delivered them with thudding velocity and I wished we’d seen more of that. There were flashes here of something good, but they never sequenced anything in the right order to feel like we were escalating properly. Inoki ran off his sequence of patented moves before grabbing the win with a German Suplex pin. Superstar did in fact have his mask stripped but Lane and another blonde foreigner I couldn’t identify were on hand to drape a towel over his head and usher him back to the dressing room leaving Inoki alone to stand tall once again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted January 10 Author Report Share Posted January 10 1981-08-09 AWA The East-West Connection (Adrian Adonis & Jesse Ventura) vs. The High Flyers (Greg Gagne & Jim Brunzell) Minneapolis Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Card Joined in progress over halfway through. From what we got I wouldn’t say this was very good at all but for two things: Adrian Adonis being Adrian Adonis and Brunzell continuing his really strong run in ‘81. Ventura’s selling here was almost comedic in its ridiculousness. Greg was at full “blah” levels and overall there were some blown spots and sequences that just made this feel a bit like a mess. Adonis had a few fun big bumps to punctuate the bad with some good, but the shining star was Brunzell. Every time he got in the ring it felt like he had a purpose, his offense looked great, he was intense, and most importantly, he felt like the most legit guy of the four. Through 80 and 81 I’m not sure if it’s always been clear if either Greg or Brunzell were better than each other, and often they could kind of blend into each other, but the past few months, and especially coming off his World Title match with Bockwinkel. I think it’s clear, without a shadow of a doubt, that by this point Brunzell had definitively surpassed Greg and was the better worker of the two High Flyers. 1981-08-09 AWA Nick Bockwinkel (c) vs. Sheik Adnan Al-Kassie AWA World Heavyweight Title Match Minneapolis Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Card Joined in progress right at the part where things had devolved into the punch and kick portion of the match. It all felt wild and out of control, in a good way, but it’s hard to get invested when you’re missing the buildup. Sheik pushed Bock a little too far and he snapped, smashing him with a chair for the DQ then had to be restrained to prevent him from going after Sheik any further. I really enjoyed Bock’s intensity here, but there’s only so far you can go with essentially a clip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted January 14 Author Report Share Posted January 14 1981-08-11 WWC Carlos Colon (c) vs. Abdullah The Butcher WWC North American Heavyweight Title Match Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago Card ★★★ Some of it was the blood and some of it was the uneasy, volatile atmosphere, but there was a lot of good to take from this match. Carlon jumped Abdullah to start and was hyper focused on the ear which I thought was fantastic. Abdullah let Carlon have a bit too long of a shine and the first 5-8 minutes kinda dragged because of this, but I think that would be my single biggest complaint of the whole match. Once Abdullah decided it was time to go on offense Colon was able to show off his really good vulnerability selling and I never stop enjoying seeing a fat man dig deep into his karate bag. Abdullah was already bloodied up from the beating he received from Colon earlier but he returned the favour in kind by ramming Colon into the ring posts and we had double juice. From that point on Colon was fighting tooth and nail to just keep his head above water. He could get a sequence of strikes in but he was fighting against an unstoppable monster at that point, and while I didn’t know it at the time, the ending was inevitable. Slowly the resistance broke, piece by piece, and Abdullah became an avalanche. Elbow drop after elbow drop until finally the referee intervened and called the match in Abdullah’s favour. He wouldn’t stop the bombardment though and this is when things started to get dicey. The crowd had been shuffling closer and closer to the ring as the match wore on and at this point the ring was almost entirely surrounded. Some local wrestlers (apparently) tried to intervene to get Abdullah to cease his attacks, scuffles broke out in the crowd here and there, and at one point it looked like mob rule would win out as several arms went to grab Abdullah at the same time and I was concerned about how he would make it out of the situation. However, just like in Japan, as soon as he made a move for the crowd they scarpered, a mass of bodies just evaporating from his personal space, giving him the opportunity to high tail it with his title. 1981-08-15 PNW Buddy Rose vs. Steve Regal Non Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★ Other than being well built, being blonde (real or not) and being able to do a nice looking victory roll, I’m not sure exactly what Regal brings to the table. He hardly exudes any charisma at all, at times it felt like Rose may have well been wrestling a broomstick. There were a few moments here and there where Rose would inject a little flourish, but on the whole this was dull as dishwater. There was nice symmetry between the finishes to the falls of the first and second, but they were just plain cradles that came out of relatively nowhere. The finish to the third was good, to their credit, with Regal inadvertently knocking down Sandy Barr, hitting a Victory Roll but Barr being unable to count the pin, then Rose caught him with a roll up of his own to steal the win. The second fall had WAY too much struggle over an abdominal claw and I wasn’t into Rose’s king of the mountain routine either. Overall pretty pedestrian. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted January 18 Author Report Share Posted January 18 1981-08-20 AJPW - Super Idol Series - Day 1 Giant Baba vs. Gypsy Joe Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card What fuck got in Baba’s bonnet here?!? This was handheld footage and these guys started off just chopping the shit out of each other. It was a bit disconcerting because Joe seemed to not realise he was in there with the boss and he was giving as much as he was taking and no-selling everything while he was at it. I can’t remember the last time I saw Baba look so motivated and if he worked like this more often I’d be all for it cause I thought he was awesome. The footage didn’t last long before it got clipped but we saw the finish as the action inevitably spilled to the outside and Baba ended up just clubbing Joe over and over and over again with a steel chair, only to get jumped from behind by someone (Gino Hernandez???) who proceeded to decimate Baba with a giant cane. Baba finally emerged from the mass of bodies with the cane and managed to ward off his assailants, with Joe ducking out into the crowd leaving Gino to do the stand off all by himself. This was barely anything in the grand scheme of things but it was nice to see Baba be an ass kicker for once. 1981-08-20 AJPW - Super Idol Series - Day 1 Mil Mascaras vs. Gino Hernandez Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ I can’t remember Mascaras receiving such a strong crowd reception at a similar point in time. Whatever the reason the fans in Korakuen Hall this evening were going absolutely bananas for him that he could hardly even make his entrance down to the ring without getting mobbed. Gino felt way more competitive here than I’m used to seeing from him in Texas. They worked some neat little hold exchanges and reversals on the mat for the most part and it was all pretty interesting and engaging but the escalation to the finish felt a little rushed and then suddenly it was over. Gino thought it was a good idea to get airborne, not once but twice, and both times he crashed and burned. This only put ideas in Mascaras’ head, but at least he landed his diving crossbody, and that was all it took to secure the victory. Kind of felt a bit half cooked really, but for 7-10 minutes or so I thought this was pretty decent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted January 23 Author Report Share Posted January 23 1981-08-21 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 1 El Solitario & Tiger Mask vs. Los Brazos (Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata) Omiya Skate Center, Omiya, Saitama, Japan Card ★★★ Wasn’t too impressed with Solitario here, he felt a little hesitant and lost at times, but the Brazos did an admirable job of keeping Tiger Mask in check and the sequences where they got extended heat on him were by far the best portions of this match. There wasn’t much to distinguish either Brazo, but both were rough and tumble, nice hard hitting elbow strikes, and they worked well as a team to cut Tiger Mask off from his partner and really laid in the shots. Tiger Mask to his credit actually sold in a traditional manner, playing a standard FIP which felt out of character for him, but it helped serve the match no doubt. It also meant there were less standard showy Tiger Mask™ spots that he just ran through, and the big bombs he did hit carried some weight, including the nice looking double arm suplex he used to finish off Oro. Nice quick pace and action packed, if Solitario had slotted in a little more seamlessly instead of dragging down everything around him that would have been even better. Not sure I’ve seen any Brazos before but this was a really fun introduction and I thought they acquitted themselves really well in this context. 1981-08-21 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 1 Dick Murdoch vs. Tiger Toguchi Omiya Skate Center, Omiya, Saitama, Japan Card ★★★ This was a real blast. Just a straight slugfest from start to finish. I’d say that Murdoch had the best of it and it felt like he was slowly chipping away at Toguchi, wearing him down bit by bit and it was only a matter of time before Toguchi succumbed. In the end though Umanosuke Ueda came out and blindsided Toguchi with a cane. It lost Murdoch the match but it sent a message for sure. Murdoch is a guy with a hefty reputation but from what I’ve seen so far it hasn’t really connected with me. This however may be the turning point. Really fantastic, crisp offense and a killer punch in his locker. Considering that this was mostly just them wailing on each other for 15 minutes it never got boring and that’s a testament to Murdoch. Toguchi was no slouch either though. I think the only thing holding this back is that they reached their peak early and then just stuck with it. You could argue the tone was pretty one note throughout and it could have been improved with a more explosive climactic stretch, but otherwise a ton of fun. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted January 24 Author Report Share Posted January 24 1981-08-22 AJPW - Super Idol Series - Day 3 Mil Mascaras vs. Ricky Steamboat Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Omiya Skate Center, Omiya, Saitama, Japan Card ★★ Worked in a mat based style with two classic baby faces squaring off. They each grabbed an arm or a leg and worked a hold but it never felt like it really ever went anywhere. This ended up lasting just shy of 30 minutes and at the very least I wasn’t hating it by the time it was all said and done. There may have been a time when I would have been inclined to like this, but those days seem to have passed. Ultimately it was just quite dull and Steamboat’s expressive selling style still feels out of place in a Japanese context. You really feel like they should have been able to pull something more exciting out of the hat considering the time they had to work with. With things tied one apiece, Gypsy Joe and Gino Hernandez rolled out from the back and we got a brawl finish. 1981-08-23 NWA St. Louis - Wrestling At The Chase Harley Race vs. David von Erich Chase Park Plaza Hotel, St. Louis, Missouri, USA Card ★★★ It’s actually quite jarring how lanky David is compared to his brothers. Kevin is compact but built, to say nothing of Kerry, even at this early stage in his career. But David feels like the least developed physically which kind of takes something away from his legitimacy for me, especially when matched up against a burly guy like Race. Having said that, I thought they did a great job of slowly simmering this match, ratcheting it up slowly, then peaking just at the right time for the finish. So in terms of pacing, this was spot on. David controlled Race pretty solidly for the first half of the match as they struggled over a side headlock. Race managed to escape a couple times and mount some offense of his own, only to get rebuffed each time and David was able to regain the advantage. The little flurries from Race though really got across how dangerous he could be. In general I’ve found Race to be a bit weak as an offensive wrestler, especially as NWA champion, but here he was far more liberal with his headbutts, he bust out a greater variety of them, and they just looked far more deadly than I remember them being before. This meant that when he finally did manage to turn the tables and get some time on top it felt like a huge momentum swing because it felt like he had some KO shots in his arsenal. Tombstone piledrivers, regular piledrivers, headbutts, dirty stomps and elbow drops, just a vast array of attacks and it seemed like it might be lights out for David. He rallied though with my least favourite move, the Iron Claw, but a classic move by Race, pulling the referee into the wrestlers to cause the break, allowed him to dump David to the outside and hit a suplex on the concrete. This prompted Kerry to come out and make the save and the referee called for the DQ anyway handing the win to David. There were elements to this that perhaps weren’t to my taste but I think the exemplary pacing easily puts this in the “good” category for me. A nice alternative look at Race which made him feel more like the bruising hardman that he’s presented as being. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted January 25 Author Report Share Posted January 25 1981-08-25 AJW Mimi Hagiwara (c) vs. Leilani Kai All Pacific Title Match Japan ★★★ Mimi wasn’t taking any shit this evening. Leilani tried to get a cheap shot in at the bell and Mimi fired back with several forceful kicks which set the tone for the entire match. This essentially was a sprint, and in some ways it was almost like an extended squash, just without the definitive finish. Mimi controlled 90% of this match. Kai would somehow mount a sequence of offensive moves here and there but it was never long before Mimi would come roaring back and regain control. Mimi has never looked as good as she did here. All piss and vinegar, really taking the fight to Leilani and never letting her foot come up off the pedal. Kai played her part well enough, good selling, especially when her arm got snapped off the ropes, but generally she was game to do the go-go-go thing and just make Mimi look like a killer. Yes, the finish was a bit shit, both women getting counted out during a ringside brawl, but Mimi clearly looked like the one in charge, defended her title without Kai necessarily having to do the job. 1981-08-28 AJPW - Super Idol Series - Day 8 Dos Caras & Mil Mascaras vs. Chavo Guerrero & Ricky Steamboat PWF Cup Tag Team Tournament Final Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Welfare Hall, Sanjo, Niigata, Japan Card ★★ Nothing offensive but far too long for what it was. They worked this as an ultra-sportsmanlike bout, always going overboard to break clean, but the issue with that is where is the heat going to come from? Unless you can put on some sort of technical masterclass it just starts to feel like an exhibition and there were elements of that here, and at 30 minutes long it just went on, and on, and on. A few things I liked however were the finishes to the first and third falls. The first had Ricky grab Dos Caras in a full nelson, roll onto his back and allow Chavo to hit a Snton from the top and squish them both. I felt bad for Caras cause he got the full force of Chavo right in his face. The third involved the masked team taking advantage of their opponent’s mix ups and Mascaras hit his flying crossbody for the win. Otherwise some neat leg selling from Steamboat was the only real notable thing that happened for the whole match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted January 26 Author Report Share Posted January 26 1981-08-28 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 7 Bad News Allen, Pete Roberts & Stan Hansen vs. Riki Choshu, Seiji Sakaguchi & Tatsumi Fujinami Six Man Tag Team Match City Gymnasium, Isahaya, Nagasaki, Japan Card ★★ Generally liked the heels' rough housing but other than Sakaguchi the faces were working at a serious size disadvantage here. My yearning for a Hansen/Fujinami singles match continues to grow as the sequences with Hansen outright mauling him were a fucking joy. This was most notable for Hansen projecting an air of menace and nobody on the other team having any kind of answer for him and also him getting sucker punched by a random dude in the crowd with a perm, which pissed Hansen off something fierce. I’m not sure whether security or anybody else caught him but Hansen was ready to jump the barrier if it weren’t for some savvy interference from Sakaguchi. Overall this was a bit of a mess structurally, but an enjoyable 15 minutes, and Hansen was a force, or as they called him on commentary, a typhoon. 1981-08-28 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 7 Antonio Inoki vs. Dick Murdoch City Gymnasium, Isahaya, Nagasaki, Japan Card ★★ Murdoch might very well have thrown the most savage punches of all time. Lawler has a great punch but it’s a spectacle punch. I love Dundee’s punches too. But Murdoch looked like he was throwing savage potatoes left, right and centre that just connected with this deadened impact and made them feel so brutal. Inoki looked like he was willing to take them for the sake of professionalism if nothing else, but when it was his time to start throwing haymakers in return he didn’t hold back one bit, connecting with a couple nasty strikes. In a standup battle though, Murdoch was always able to retain the advantage and it was only when Inoki took things to the mat and started working Murdoch’s knee that he got any luck. Inoki and matwork is never a completely thrilling adventure but Murdoch sold the damage to the leg so well afterwards that it was almost worth it. Things turned into somewhat of a slugfest, with perhaps Inoki gaining some steam, but Ueda Umanosuke came out only to be headed off by Strong Kobayashi, calling the match at ringside, and before I knew it the referee had thrown the match out due to the resulting brawl involving all four men. Not the most riveting of finishes but the heels got enough heavy shots in to make their point. Inoki was good enough here, and he brought the necessary intensity to counter the early onslaught he faced to make that whole sequence feel impactful and meaningful, but this was really all about Murdoch who was essentially note perfect. Loved his selling when he was called to do so and just terrific bone jarring offense. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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