SAMS Posted January 29 Author Report Share Posted January 29 September 1981-09-04 AJPW - Super Idol Series - Day 13 Jumbo Tsuruta (c) vs. Gypsy Joe NWA United National Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan Card ★★★ I liked this so much more than I expected. A two out of three falls match that goes over 20 minutes with Gypsy Joe of all people was not something that screams “watch me” but I thought this was really good, and Joe was a large part of why. Joe continued his no-selling style, forcing Jumbo to double down and dig deep when mounting his offense, and while this can often just come across as lazy or self-serving, it worked fantastically here to ground the match and give it a real grind-it-out feel. I don’t think anybody would call this match exciting, but it was certainly gritty. Jumbo had to totally lay in his shots because otherwise they wouldn’t register at all. Joe in return was sending back super stiff shots as the slugfest continued. Jumbo took the initial fall by managing to return to the ring first after a brawl outside the ring. Joe went to a weapon to draw blood on Jumbo before nailing him with a sickening knee drop from the top to level things up. I was 99% certain that this would end in some kind of countout or a no contest finish, as was the norm at this time, so to say I was shocked would be putting it mildly when Jumbo got Joe to submit with a Boston Crab to seal the deal. Guys like Joe - along with the Abdullah and Singh’s of the world - just do not submit, and I guess Joe wasn’t on the level of those guys in terms of promotional standing, but it felt huge in its own way. The way they presented Joe here just did a great job of putting over Jumbo in vanquishing him. He had to resort to tactics like biting Joe’s cut that you normally don’t see from him. Joe brought out a side of Jumbo that I didn’t know he had at this time, but he went to that dark place, did what he had to do, and put away the monster. And that, in my eyes, elevated Jumbo a lot. 1981-09-04 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 13 Tatsumi Fujinami & Tiger Mask vs. El Solitario & Pete Roberts City Gymnasium, Toyota, Aichi, Japan` Card ★★ Pretty flashy and worked at a fast pace, but kind of the epitome of doing a lot of stuff that results to nothing kind of match. Solitario continued to be a complete neutral and Roberts is more solid than special in my eyes. Tiger Mask did Tiger Mask things, but he's the biggest culprit of doing stuff that doesn’t mean anything. The greatest disappointment here was Fujinami. In these tag matches with Tiger Mask he’s tended to fade into the background and allow his partner to take centre stage. This kind of leaves him as an afterthought and it’s still very clear that he could be one of the best in the world, but in my view, you can’t hold that crown unless you actually bring the goods once in a while. Outside of their tag partnership it feels like his prominence on the cards, and in the promotion as a whole, has receded due to Tiger Mask’s emergence and his overall output has been way off what he managed in 1980. 1981-09-04 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 13 Andre The Giant, Bad News Allen & Stan Hansen vs. Antonio Inoki, Riki Choshu & Tiger Toguchi Best Two Out Of Three Falls Six Man Tag Team Match City Gymnasium, Toyota, Aichi, Japan Card ★★★ Grumpy monster heel Andre is the best kind of Andre. Just from their entrances alone you could see this heel team were a mean bunch and Andre, usually jolly and smiling, had his mean mug on and you knew this was gonna be great. Bad News Allen and Hansen were great at roughing up their opponents, but the first fall was completely about positioning Andre as a complete menace. In the ring as the legal man, nobody on the other team had any chance at handling him. Inoki’s attempts at throwing a blitz of strikes and staying on the move was about as close to success as any of them got, but the fact that he often ended up in the wrong corner with Allen and Hansen pawing at him kind of nullified any advantage he had managed to carve out. Outside the ring working the apron as well though, Andre made his presence felt in a big way. I always love him reaching over and using his length to impact what’s happening in the ring, but he also subtly would get in shots whenever an opponent was lying on the mat near him, including a savage stomp to Choshu’s ankle while it was draped on the rope that looked like he’d snapped it entirely. The heels unsurprisingly took the first fall, Andre crushing Toguchi with a splash. The Japanese team resorted to some underhand tactics of their own to try and get a foothold in the match, targeting Allen, the most obvious weakest link, sending him to the outside to allow Toguchi and Choshu to double team while Inoki ran interference in the ring. Allen came right back shortly after, pretty much none the worse for wear, but I appreciated the strategy even if it didn’t pay off. The underlying thread of the second fall was the miscommunications between Andre and Hansen though. Twice Hansen inadvertently rocked Andre with shots and this was how the whole thing ended, Hansen accidentally nailing Andre with a Lariat out on the floor, Andre saying enough was enough and the two going at it as the referee either threw the match out or called for a double countout. I was always curious how the famous Andre/Hansen match came about and seeing them tag together so close to that match certainly piqued my suspicions that we’d see something like this here. It wasn’t particularly original, but it didn’t have to be to be effective. Great all round match that delivered on what it set out to do and a real star performance from Andre in particular. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted January 30 Author Report Share Posted January 30 1981-09-04 Houston Wrestling Bruiser Brody (c) vs. Ken Patera SWCW Brass Knuckles Title Match Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA Card ★★ Nice to see Patera back in action after not making footage for so long (Georgia TV notwithstanding). There are times where I wish he was a bit more brutal with his offense but he’s such a fantastic stooging heel. This was fun but there wasn’t much to it and the strikes from both men, especially considering this was a brass knuckles title match, could have been crisper. Tank Patton came out to give an edge to Patera, including handing him a steel chair. Bobby Duncum followed suit to level the playing field and we ended up with all four men in the ring and the referee called for a DQ on Patera. With a big six man elimination tag involving these four men coming up immediately after this ultimately was just a setup match for that. 1981-09-04 Houston Wrestling Ken Patera, Tank Patton & Tully Blanchard vs. Bobby Duncum, Bruiser Brody & Manny Fernandez 10.000 Dollar Elimination Six Man Tag Team Match Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA Card ★★★ An absolutely wild start focusing on the pairing of Brody vs. Patera, carrying over from their match that occurred just before. Patera was having none of it unless Brody was incapacitated, so we got some excellent tag avoidals from him. Eventually things got a bit out of control between the two and their fight spilled to the outside and both men ended up being eliminated via countout and they continued brawling straight down the aisle all the way back to the dressing room. Things dropped off a bit following the first round of eliminations but the final sequence where first Manny, then Patton and finally Blanchard were pinned was really well executed and supremely fun. Overall I’d say that Patton was a negative, weak on offense and easily the least mobile of the six. My thoughts on Duncum are quite clear, but this time he showed that he wasn’t up to much on US soil as well as in Japan. Manny was surprisingly fun, a real firebrand who I haven’t seen much of before but I loved his intensity and he added a reckless energy to the whole thing and Blanchard, well Blanchard is always just on point. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted January 31 Author Report Share Posted January 31 1981-09-05 PNW Chris Colt vs. Art Crews Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★★ I don’t think I’ve ever been so impressed with somebody within the first 5 minutes of ever seeing them for the first time. That’s how I feel about Chris Colt. Art Crews looked a bit like a lump, but he showed here that he wasn’t completely useless, but I get the sense that Colt could have had this same match with literally anybody on the planet and it would have been just as good. He was running through the whole repertoire of heel shenanigans, including at least two different hair pulling routines, and he got his comeuppance both times, even managing to loop the referee into the deal in an interesting way. This was mile a minute Marx Brothers level schtick and the crazy nutter who looked like he’d been transported back in time from the mid-90s was the puppet master. Even more surprising was that he lost the match rather convincingly, indicating that he was quite far down the pecking order, even in a small promotion like Portland, and after checking his cagematch page he’d started his career in the 60s(!!!) 1981-09-07 AJPW - Super Idol Series - Day 16 Mil Mascaras vs. Genichiro Tenryu City Gymnasium, Fukuyama, Hiroshima, Japan Card ★★ Joined in progress at the 7 minute mark. I think this may have been for Mascaras’ IWA World Heavyweight Title that he’d defended a couple other times on this tour, because they mentioned something around that on commentary several times but I couldn’t confirm. They also kept saying that Tenryu was All Japan’s “3rd man”, so clearly pushing the narrative of him being at that rank in the pecking order behind Baba and Jumbo. I’d say that since his Georgia days and his return to Japan he certainly has improved. In general I was surprised here by how good his mat transitions were, taking it to Mascaras on that front and decidedly getting the better of his older opponent. First he turned a death lock into a figure four and later on he smoothly countered some formless attack from Mascaras, which finally resulted in a Romero Special attempt. Overall Tenryu’s general strategy was to attack the leg, with most of the damage coming from the aforementioned figure four, but he followed that up with several other moves all focused solely on that leg. I usually think of him as more of a strike/suplex kind of guy, but here he showed an entirely different dimension that I thought was truly impressive. Mascaras caught Tenryu with a cradle for the flash win but Tenryu looked like he was on the verge of the upset so a great job at further raising Tenryu’s stock here. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted February 3 Author Report Share Posted February 3 1981-09-09 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 17 Tatsumi Fujinami & Tiger Mask vs. Los Brazos (Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata) Civic Gymnasium, Goshogawara, Aomori, Japan Card ★ Very similar in style to the previous Los Brazos match against Tiger Mask and El Solitario, but this time with half the effort and a quarter of the ingenuity. Fujinami, as he’s been prone to do, just faded into the background, another missed opportunity to put his stamp on a match. Tiger Mask showed more miss than hit here, whiffing on a couple big spots here that just fell flat like a lead balloon. Finally, the Brazos weren’t able to show any of the kind of interesting team dynamics or offense they did before. The only real sequence of interest involved a series of friendly fire, but even that felt uninspired with each banana peel telegraphed a mile away and just felt lazily executed by all involved. 1981-09-09 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 17 Andre The Giant vs. Seiji Sakaguchi Civic Gymnasium, Goshogawara, Aomori, Japan Card ★ I think one valid criticism of Andre at this time is that he often ended up working very short matches. This happened basically wherever he worked, so it certainly is an Andre thing and not merely promotional. That’s what happened here. It went 6 minutes or so, I’d describe it as an extended squash really. Sakaguchi was scrappy enough to give this a go but there was an air of inevitability about this, to the point that just grabbing on a hammerlock prompted the crowd to give Sakaguchi a round of applause. But the kind you give a young child at a school play because they managed to not mess up the one line they were given. Sakaguchi tried to take things to the outside but Andre yanked him back onto the apron, gave him a headbutt, suplexed him back into the ring, big boot, then splash for the win. Not the best to be honest. 1981-09-09 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 17 Bad News Allen & Stan Hansen vs. Antonio Inoki & Riki Choshu Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match Civic Gymnasium, Goshogawara, Aomori, Japan Card ★★ Really quite disappointing. The clashes between Hansen and Inoki were electric, and looking at this match as a platform to build a singles match down the line then this kind of did its job. But taking a step back and looking at this match in a vacuum, I think only Hansen really came out of this looking any good. He had really found his groove at this point in being a complete wrecking ball. The aforementioned matchup with Inoki was great due to the pace and intensity they brought, but I think he also matched up well with smaller guys like Fujinami, or in this case, Choshu, purely due to the annihilation that he can rain down on them. Unfortunately if any other pairing came together in the ring this kind of just fell apart. Bad News Allen has never been as bland as he was here and Inoki looked to be on autopilot when he wasn’t squaring off against Hansen. Choshu was pretty game to play his role as “bottom of the totem pole bump and sell” guy, but his contributions relied on a good dance partner and Allen wasn’t up to the task on this night so his efforts were often wasted. Hansen got overzealous, beating Choshu up at ringside which gave Inoki an opportunity to catch Allen by surprise with a backslide for a pin. The match ended with an incredibly lazy double countout where Hansen just seemed to stop caring that he was the legal man and continued brawling on the outside. Considering this was the main event of the show I think it’s a bit disrespectful to the fans to have such a poor finish. If the wrestlers blatantly don’t care who wins then why should the fans. This wasn’t one of those situations where there was a wild, out of control brawl or an angle of sorts being run, it was just Hansen ignoring the count, charging around on the outside, the referee called for the double countout, then Inoki and Choshu trundled to the back while Hansen continued chucking chairs around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted February 4 Author Report Share Posted February 4 1981-09-09 Joint Promotions King Benn vs. Steve Casey British Heavy Middleweight Tournament Semi Final Match Victoria Baths, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, UK ★★ Far too dry and tedious for an almost 30 minute match. I’ll admit I was expecting a bit more after how much I enjoyed Benn’s previous match against Rocco, but I guess matching up against Rocco is an entirely different animal to going up against a guy making his TV debut. Casey apparently had several years of experience, just no television outings to his name. He had decent technique but he was almost gormless in how he sold for any of Benn’s offense. The strikes that Benn did connect with were by far the most interesting aspects of the match but the lack of any interesting selling kind of diminished their impact and made Benn come across like a lightweight lacking any real power. When the work transitioned to the mat things didn’t get much better, as they ended up going down far too many cul-de-sacs which ultimately resulted in a pointless break. The finish at least had some excitement and finally Benn’s attacks were met with appropriate responses. First, a nasty straight kick caught Casey right in the chin and sent him straight to the mat. He made it up before the count but a follow running headbutt, again landing directly to the face, meant it was lights out for Casey and Benn would be advancing to the final of the tournament. 1981-09-09 Joint Promotions Big Daddy & Steve Grey vs. Red Berry & Tony Walsh Victoria Baths, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, UK ★ At least they worked the expected shine -> heat -> comeback structure, otherwise this would have been interminable. Big Daddy was even more limited than I remember. I can’t recall him executing one move all match that wasn’t a shoulder tackle or a backdrop. Berry and Walsh weren’t exactly the most formidable of heel challengers, they looked more like two random guys they’d pulled in off the street and they’d been forced to rummage through the leisure centre’s lost and found to pull together their outfits. The main reason I even watched this was to see some more Steve Grey. When the heels finally started bending the rules and properly leaning into being dastardly was the only real chance Grey had to do some proper selling, and this was easily the match highlight by a country mile, but it was all too brief, resulting in a phantom submission on Grey (the referee disallowed it due to excessive double teaming) and then it was only a matter of seconds before Big Daddy was back in to finish things up, knocking out Walsh with a meaty backdrop. 1981-09-09 Joint Promotions Alan Kilby vs. Bobby Barnes British Heavy Middleweight Tournament Semi Final Match Victoria Baths, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, UK ★★ Again, I was expecting a bit more out of this considering the two men involved. Admittedly I’m a bit of a Barnes mark but I’m not sure the styles between the two matched. Either one needed to veer away from their usual approach to get this to work better. Kilby is the strong, reserved type. He was able to tank several heavy forearms from Barnes all the way through the bout. This lends itself well to your classic babyface comeback surges but he’s not the most adept at showing vulnerability, or at least his selling style is more subtle and naturalistic. For Barnes he’s all about cutting corners, finding small underhanded advantages, but often his tactics rely on his opponent expressively selling his sly moves. Things like leaning on a man’s windpipe while arguing with the referee works better when the one receiving the move is writhing around struggling to breathe. Kilby instead was more like a dead fish and it took the sting out of the whole thing. On the flip side Barnes could have been more of a stooge, playing up Kilby’s strength advantage, but with him taking most of the match and working the aforementioned black arts, it didn’t really play into either of their strengths and most of the mat work felt far too static. This wasn’t bad by any means but it was completely forgettable. Kilby ended up winning with a pin following a standing suplex and went on to face King Benn in the final. 1981-09-09 Joint Promotions Johnny Saint vs. Tony Costas Victoria Baths, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, UK ★ The more I watch of Saint the more he sours in my mind. Costas looked to be a decent hand, and maybe grapple fans of the 70s remembered him appearing on television, but you could have taken him for a fool for how Saint decided to work him here. Everything was all cheery and above board but it’s really starting to grate on me how much of an exhibitionist Saint is. Here, lock a body scissors on me just so I can undress it. Here, apply a full nelson on me just so I can counter it. Here, grab my leg, just so I can counter it. All the while making his opponent look like a dummy. In isolated incidents this isn’t too bad but this went on the whole match and by the time they reached a sequence where Costas resorted to just standing there idly while Saint ran rings around him I was completely checked out. Saint unsurprisingly won the thing, 2 falls to 1, but it was a foregone conclusion from the start. 1981-09-09 Joint Promotions Chris Adams vs. Fit Finlay Victoria Baths, Nottingham, Nottinghamshire, UK ★★★ Finlay’s television debut here. Adams apparently had returned from a North American tour and he certainly looked to have filled out some, with Walton stating it could have been by as much as 14 pounds. Despite being relatively young here Finlay exhibited all of the bruising traits that have made him famous. I guess he was an underdog here against the more established Adams and it seemed like he may have taken him by surprise. Finlay’s act wasn’t exactly refined but he already knew how to sow seeds of discontent and every time a round finished he would absentmindedly “forget” to break, slowly pushing Adams’ buttons and constantly raising the tension. As the rounds went along any pretence of this being a wrestling bout went out that window as this descended into an all out scrap. Adams really tried to give as good as he got, and with his added mass his non-kick based offense looked better and more credible than ever, but Finlay’s forearms in particular, even at this stage of his career, looked absolutely menacing. They traded falls and Finlay eventually racked up two public warnings before Adams cleaned his clock with an Enzuigiri that sent him tumbling over the top rope and Finlay just couldn’t quite make it back before the count giving Adams a nice knockout victory. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted February 8 Author Report Share Posted February 8 1981-09-11 Houston Wrestling Dick Slater (c) vs. Bobby Duncum Southwest Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA Card ★★ Despite being the one the crowd was rooting for, Duncum liberally used tactics usually reserved for the heel. Wheeling around to block the referee’s view before administering a swift thumb to the throat, pulling hair to retain control, that sort of thing. The crowd was for him though so it did the job. The majority of his shine in the first fall revolved around these tactics while keeping a side headlock on. It was fun for a couple of minutes but it just went nowhere and lasted about three quarters of the whole match. Finally Slater, who’d been lying there doing a whole heap of nothing up to that point, came to life, suckered Duncum near the ropes, dragged him to the corner, before posting his left knee. I loved this transition because of how Duncum treated it. This was the great equaliser and Duncum was powerless to put up any kind of resistance and ultimately submitted to the spinning toe hold. Slater went right back to work on the leg to start the second but Duncum was able to steal the fall with a surprise lariat. The third fall was just as short, with Duncum somewhat recovering from all the work done to his leg, but getting an unexpected shove into the corner which allowed Slater to grab the win. The final two falls couldn’t have lasted more than 3-4 minutes and, fantastic bump aside, the finish felt really flat and unearned. This had its moments but hinged primarily on the excellent leg selling from Duncum and narrative weight that carried in terms of the condition of his leg. Unfortunately they spent far too long building up the first fall, only for none of that to matter and just blitz through the second two falls with no real rhyme or reason. Slater as well didn’t impress much beyond the focused offense on the leg. 1981-09-12 PNW Chris Colt vs. Art Crews Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★ Nowhere near as good as their previous match they had a week earlier. We still got the same tactics from Colt, but he wasn’t able to bring it all together to deliver another banger here. Crews still looked green, and still didn’t look up to much, but boy did the people in Portland love him. Perfectly fine show opener with fun moments from Colt, but not much more than that. 1981-09-12 PNW Buddy Rose & Kim Song vs. Brett Sawyer & Matt Borne Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★ This had one of the liveliest crowds in recent memory for Portland and they were firmly behind the team of Borne and Sawyer. This was a fun match, designed to get over the debuting Kim Song, his deadly chops and his lethal headbutt. I felt like Rose was operating at half speed, never really getting out of second gear, but even so you could tell he was at the heart of everything, orchestrating events. Initially Borne got a decent shine against Song, dodging his chop attempts and then both he and Sawyer nailed him with a series of atomic drops. So not the most auspicious start for the newcomer. Rose tried to regain control but Borne hit a surprise sunset flip off the top to take the first fall. They went harder in putting over Song in the next two falls, a headbutt deciding the second and a karate chop sealing the deal in the third. As I said, a fun match with a great crowd, just lacking that extra something to make it really good. As important as Rose was in tying everything together here I wonder if he could have done more to push this up a level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted February 11 Author Report Share Posted February 11 1981-09-13 AWA Ray Stevens vs. Billy Robinson Minneapolis Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Card ★★ I really liked the start to this. Stevens was stalling on the outside and Robinson was frustrated with the referee’s delay in starting the count. The twist was that while usually this kind of routine puts the onus on the staller to interact with the referee and build the heat, in this case it was Robinson at odds with the referee, engaging the crowd, prompting them to start a big count of their own. It’s a side to Robinson that I haven’t seen too often and shows another dimension to what he had in his locker. Once we finally got underway Robinson was essentially toying with Stevens. Giving little feints, allowing Stevens to apply a hold just to reverse it, that kind of thing. He got a bit too cocky though and Stevens caught him with a rogue shot to the stomach. Robinson ended up on the outside and Stevens played King of the mountain. Later on the roles were reversed and Robinson had Stevens down and out and he kept kicking him while he was down and shoving him out of the ring. None of this work was bad at all, but they spent so long with either man outside of the ring and not a lot of it actually in the ring and wrestling. Overall I think we got maybe 3 minutes out of 15 with real “action”. I’m not saying that you need balls to the wall action for something to be good, but these sequences dragged on a bit too long, and while it was cool to see Robinson do something a bit different, he’s Billy Robinson, I want to see him wrestling for the most part. In the end Robinson did in fact win, surprising Stevens with a matter-of-fact backslide for the win in a somewhat flat finish. 1981-09-13 AWA Nick Bockwinkel vs. Sheik Adnan Al-Kassie No Disqualification Match Minneapolis Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Card ★★ I didn’t think much of this match really, but it had enough bells and whistles to keep it entertaining at least. Baron von Raschke was the referee here and he wasn’t afraid of getting in either man’s face, which would play a big role later on. Heenan was opened up almost immediately from a shot from the Sheik. They generally scrapped around the ring. Sheik himself was opened up, I wasn’t sure if it was from being posted or what, but suddenly his face was plastered in blood. Heenan, after being helped to the back previously, reemerged chair in hand. Raschke tried to cut him off, popped him right in the mouth for a classic Heenan bump on the apron, Bock took umbrage with that and went after Raschke who decided to use said chair, only to accidentally clock Adnan instead and Bock had his victory. The wild final sequence was fun and absurd in equal measure and I actually liked Raschke’s aloof attitude here, as he was clearly invested in being the referee but he also didn’t care who won, which is rare for a special referee stipulation. Being a heel vs heel match the dynamic was a bit off, but from Okerman’s commentary I got the sense that Adnan was more hated and thus Bockwinkel became a nominal face of sorts, but I don’t think that helped the match in getting into any sort of rhythm outside of the finish. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmo Posted February 12 Report Share Posted February 12 The story I had heard with this one was that the fans weren’t buying Bock getting handed the title when Vern retired. They did a heel vs heel feud with Kassie to trying heat Bockwinkel back up letting him essentially play babyface in the feud which was kinda fascinating. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted February 12 Author Report Share Posted February 12 I have no trouble buying that. Despite being somebody who evidently was still serviceable in the ring as a 55 year old man, booking himself to go out on top as the champion has got to be one of the greatest examples of self-aggrandising in wrestling history that had such an obvious, and avoidable, negative impact on the promotion. But from what I've heard this may have not been the first, and certainly wouldn't be the last, time that Verne went the route of just handing Bock the title as default. It would be an understatement to say that my AWA history is hazy, other than the general heavyweight title lineage and most pimped matches, it's all pretty much a blank slate to me. Do you know if this marks a point where Bock switches to become more of a face, or does he revert to consistently being a heel again and the face turn happens much later in the 80s? I can't imagine him fully turning until Heenan jumps ship at the earliest. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted February 13 Author Report Share Posted February 13 1981-09-17 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 24 Tiger Mask vs. Brazo de Plata Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan Card ★★★ You can almost judge a Tiger Mask match based entirely on how many botches occur. When he and his opponent aren’t on the same wavelength there are many and often, when they can get on the same page, it can make for some really exciting wrestling. This was an example of the latter, Plata being able to keep up with Tiger Mask during his furiously fast paced offensive sequences but maintaining enough offensive credibility that he didn’t just get steamrolled. I liked the dynamic of Brazo de Oro being there at ringside and him coming in at one point for some cheap shots before the referee realised it was the wrong brother and I wish they would have gone to that more often. Otherwise I really just wished that Plata was better when he was attacking. I mentioned that he was able to stand his ground and keep things relatively even for the most part, but his output here was mostly holds that contained Tiger Mask rather than anything designed to do real damage, and they weren’t worked particularly interestingly either. If we’d got that then this would have been really good. 1981-09-17 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 24 Stan Hansen vs. Tiger Toguchi Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan Card Barely even 5 minutes but worked at a breakneck pace and they jam packed a ton of action into their allotted time. Ultimately the only question was, when would Hansen hit the Lariat, but Toguchi got enough stuff in to save face, including a lovely backbreaker off a Hansen turnbuckle bump. Hansen was just too much to overcome, and with upcoming matches against Inoki and Andre it’s clear why they’re presenting him so strongly at this point in time in particular. 1981-09-17 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 24 Andre The Giant vs. Antonio Inoki Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan Card ★★★★ Fantastic example of what Andre, and only Andre, can bring to the table. This started a little slow with Andre controlling Inoki with a series of holds. Andre is never gonna really wow with his mat game but it was effective enough to get over his obvious size and strength advantages. The shift came when Inoki had the temerity to try and fuck with Andre. Just something as little as trying to grab a leg and Andre just swatted him away like a pesky fly. Later on Inoki actually managed to nail a sunset flip of all things. It only got a one count but the emphasis Andre put on that kickout, absolutely flailing around like a drowning fish, combined with the complete disbelief that Inoki had pulled such a stunt on him, came together to generate an effect that is unique to Andre alone. Inoki managed to get some headway around the midpoint by focusing on Andre’s arm. He first managed to wrench it and Andre was fully committed with the selling here. He then followed up with a series of kicks as Andre crumpled into the corner trying to get some respite. This really gave the sense that Inoki was on a roll and had found the silver bullet to defeating Andre, but unfortunately for him it wasn’t to be. Arnold Skaaland (acting as Andre’s manager) flung in a chair which Andre tried to use on Inoki, inadvertently braining the referee before splatting Inoki’s head into the mat with it. A big boot and splash followed but obviously with no referee there could be no pin. A second referee arrived to announce the DQ finish due to the chair shot on the referee and Inoki managed to backdrop Andre out over the ropes to have some kind of triumphant moment before he dived to the outside and had to be assisted to the back by his seconds. Solid performance from Inoki with the sequence of him attacking Andre’s arm being the highlight. For Andre, just another performance where he knocked it out of the park. Leveraging his one of a kind size and aura to generate singular moments, fantastic selling and even a big bump or two as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted February 17 Author Report Share Posted February 17 1981-09-18 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 25 Tatsumi Fujinami & Tiger Mask vs. El Solitario & Solar Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan Card ★ Solar looked a bit like a headless chicken out there, not really with it in terms of timing, or even understanding how the tag rules worked. The Tiger Mask/Fujinami dynamic was the same as all their previous matches together. Tiger Mask was the one shunted to the foreground to shine and Fujinami just felt like he was making up the numbers. This was nothing special really but what drags it down from just blah to poor was a huge blunder, even by Tiger Mask’s standards, when he whiffed on his patented backflip off his opponent in the corner move. It just makes you look like a complete clown out there when you fuck up your own move, which was shitty enough to start with. Secondly, we got a piss poor double countout finish immediately after that so everything just fell completely flat. Tiger Mask and Fujinami’s team finished up on a down due to the botch and the Mexican team hadn’t got in enough shots to make it feel like they were in the ascendancy either. So it was a big pile of nothing all round. 1981-09-18 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 25 Stan Hansen vs. Antonio Inoki Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan Card ★★ If you’ve seen any of their matches from 1980 then you pretty much have seen this match. They added a neat wrinkle in Hansen hitting the Lariat in the opening couple minutes to pop a near fall, but otherwise this was par the course for these two. There was a lot of struggle over holds on that mat, but that didn’t play to either man’s strengths - unbridled carnage for Hansen and cultivating standout moments for Inoki. They also ended up with the most bland and standard of finishes, the double countout. I moan about finishes a lot, and we know 80s finishes in general are pretty trash, but a DQ or a countout in of itself doesn’t need to be bad, it’s just when they are done lazily. This was a lazy double countout. Oh, we’ve hit the allotted time, let's roll to the outside, reverse a couple moves, both end up stalling for time on the mat and the bell rings. So uninspired. Hansen has been surging for me recently but he can still end up in these kinds of matches where none of it comes together as you’d like. He’s not quite yet a worker that can generate a good match at will regardless of circumstance or opponent. 1981-09-18 Houston Wrestling The Dynamic Duo (Gino Hernandez & Tully Blanchard) (c) vs. Manny Fernandez & Mil Mascaras SWCW Southwest Tag Team Title Match Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA Card ★★ The Dyanamic Duo certainly had the chickenshit heel routine down, with Gino in particular timing his escapes through the ropes expertly to generate maximum crowd reaction, but I’m not sure they’ve yet generated the synergy for when they’re on top. Their heat sequences were a bit staid and felt one note which handicapped the match somewhat. I do like Gino more as a tag guy than in the role he held before, essentially the mainstay singles star on the roster, as I think it doesn’t overstretch him as much. Manny was a ton of fun, but I wish we’d seen more of him. Having Mil Mascaras as your partner though always means you’ll have to take a backseat. Mascaras is fine, but I really struggle every time to understand what is supposed to make him stand out as this big star. Nothing he did here was particularly special. It was Mascaras who took the pin here though, which I absolutely did not see coming. All four men suddenly shifted into “going home” mode, Mascaras got isolated as the two referees were busy handling Manny in the corner, and I kept waiting for a twist but Tully crotched him on the ropes and got the pin. Honestly coming in that would have been my least likely outcome but maybe he’s sticking around a while to get his revenge. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted February 21 Author Report Share Posted February 21 1981-09-19 PNW Buddy Rose, Kim Song & Stan Stasiak vs. King Parsons, Matt Borne & Steve Regal Best Two Out Of Three Falls Six Man Tag Team Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★★ This falls short of being great just on the account of the face team being a bit bland and not really holding up their end. Rose, Song and Stasiak were all absolutely killer here, whether taking it to the faces or eating shit in return, it certainly felt like it was their actions that were driving the whole thing. The heels controlled much of the first fall - and a great fucking fall it was - until they botched the finish somewhat when Stasiak, Borne and Regal all got their wires crossed but eventually a double team body slam anticlimactically put Stasiak away. Stasiak was the workhorse in this fall and I’m beginning to grow a soft spot for him. He’s older here and his timing can be off sometimes, but he’s so damn expressive, obviously his punches look great, he still bumped around so dynamically for a man his size, just such a fun wrestler to watch. The heels controlled most of the second fall as well, this time with Song and Rose getting more time to shine. Whereas Song looked a little lost in his debut, being slotted into a team of three this time relieved him of some more responsibility and allowed him to just focus on what he did well. Nice looking strikes, fun expressive stooging and bumping, he displayed some surprising athleticism as well, including a standing flip out of a backdrop, and most importantly his timing was on point throughout, hitting all the spots to eke the most out of the faces comeback spots. Rose often seems to take a backseat more and more in these tags, allowing his partners to take the bulk of the matches, but he’ll always have a moment or two. Here he had a fantastic sequence where he cartwheeled away from Regal to avoid a move and he was more than pleased with it, going over to his corner to get over the top high fives from his partners, only to immediately end up in the wrong corner eating knuckles as a reward for his lack of hubris. It was fun to see the cocky and overconfident Rose rather than just the cowardly version. A triple team Stasiak heart punch to Regal secured the equalising fall which directly led into the finish to the whole match, They started with Regal still in the back, raising the question of whether he was injured, but he returned with both of his fists taped, a la Stasiak and went to town on him to the point of running him all the way back to the dressing leading to the double countout finish, which I didn’t mind at all considering the circumstances. Regal, Borne and Parsons all seemed like they could have been replaced and it wouldn’t have made a difference, but despite that this was still an absolute blast which is a testament to Rose’s team. 1981-09-21 WWF - MSG Network Bob Backlund (c) vs. The Magnificent Muraco WWF Heavyweight Title Texas Death Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA Card ★★ I could see how someone could come away thinking this was really good but it just didn’t hit the right notes for me. You could break this up into three distinct chapters: Muraco being a dick opening, Backlund working the arm and controlling Muraco in the middle, and a hot stretch at the end with Muraco teetering on the edge of victory, with each having standout moments, but overall this match was just too damn long for what it was. Backlund veered from great work on the arm to just sitting in an ambar sucking the energy out of the bout. Being a WWF style Texas Death match I never expected this to be a blood filled brawl, but I wish they’d pushed the bout out a bit more on the violence. This felt much more like a really strong opening match in a series than the middle or end of a feud. 1981-09-23 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 29 Tatsumi Fujinami (c) vs. El Solitario WWF Junior Heavyweight Title Match Denen Coliseum, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ All very gentlemanly and sporting as they went through the perfunctory opening mat exchange portion of the match. As per usual this was fine but, as often happens in New Japan matches, these sections just bleed into one another and are rarely memorable. Watching side by side with World of Sport for example the matwork just doesn’t pop as much. Once Solitario went off script and got a bit rougher this picked up. He smashed Fujinami into the steel railings to get the blood flowing a bit but by that point they’d already transitioned to the finishing stretch. This stretch was great though. Solitario hit a lovely plancha and tried to follow up with a crossbody off the second rope, but even as he was going for it you could tell they’d got their wires crossed and Fujinami went for a dropkick counter and ended up potato-ing Solitario right in the face. They quickly recovered though as Fujinami managed to nail one of his best Dragon Rocket’s in a while and finished Solitario off with a brainbuster from the apron into the ring. I really wish they’d extended the finish by about 4-5 minutes, because that was when the match really started to roll and had some character. The opening was just too much colouring within the lines and was bland and forgettable for it. 1981-09-23 NJPW - Bloody Fight Series 1981 - Day 29 Stan Hansen vs. Andre The Giant Denen Coliseum, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★★ ¾ For years this has always been a match that failed to resonate with me as much as I thought it should. I knew its broad reputation but it never connected to me on that level for whatever reason. If there ever was going to be a time where I would have some sort of revelation on this match it would be now, after watching a bunch of Andre and seriously turning the corner on him. And wouldn’t you know it? That’s exactly what happened! I even had to watch this twice just to make sure. I’m not sure it's worth running through the particulars of the match as I’m sure many others have done it to a far better level than I could, but the classic description of this match as a clash of titans really holds true. Absolutely exquisite selling from the both of them fully got across the power each man was capable of wielding. This was a fantastic match before the countout finish, and the decision to restart just escalated the drama tenfold. I loved Andre grabbing the referee and shepherding him over to Skaaland in the corner to cajole him into the restart. He just dwarfed the man but he still somehow came across like a child getting his parent to talk to his teacher for him. Everybody’s heard about the “Andre donning the elbow pad” sequence, and it delivers in spades all the way up until the referee gets decked right out of his shoes. I can’t fault the finish, I just wish that Andre had somehow managed to get in a Lariat on Hansen while wearing the pad at some point during the melee. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pmo Posted February 22 Report Share Posted February 22 On 2/12/2024 at 4:39 AM, SAMS said: I have no trouble buying that. Despite being somebody who evidently was still serviceable in the ring as a 55 year old man, booking himself to go out on top as the champion has got to be one of the greatest examples of self-aggrandising in wrestling history that had such an obvious, and avoidable, negative impact on the promotion. But from what I've heard this may have not been the first, and certainly wouldn't be the last, time that Verne went the route of just handing Bock the title as default. It would be an understatement to say that my AWA history is hazy, other than the general heavyweight title lineage and most pimped matches, it's all pretty much a blank slate to me. Do you know if this marks a point where Bock switches to become more of a face, or does he revert to consistently being a heel again and the face turn happens much later in the 80s? I can't imagine him fully turning until Heenan jumps ship at the earliest. From what I recall Bock went back to being a heel pretty much immediately and even in the feud while he was face against Adnan he still was quite heelish. The face turns happens in like 85ish in two ways. In the US it’s kind of awkward as he tries to keep his tag partner Larry Z from cheating against Greg Gagne and it degenerates from there. In Winnipeg which refused to book Gagne it was actually done a lot better as Mad Dog Vachon recruited him to fight Russians, similar to how Lawler would bring in guys like Funk as tag partners against tough teams. Bock agreed as he hated the Russians as well. Larry Z got jealous of Bock ignoring him for Mad Dog and turned. Which frankly made a lot more sense. This setup a Bock/Larry Z feud that would be a thing for a while. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted February 22 Author Report Share Posted February 22 Duplicate post Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted February 22 Author Report Share Posted February 22 13 hours ago, pmo said: From what I recall Bock went back to being a heel pretty much immediately and even in the feud while he was face against Adnan he still was quite heelish. I wonder if the AWA thought they had a molten heel on their hand who they wanted to shunt into the main event, but they weren't prepared to take the belt off Bock yet, so instead they tried to thread the needle, almost running heel vs heel. Do we know how successful this feud was relative to the other main event ones in the AWA around the same time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted February 22 Author Report Share Posted February 22 1981-09-24 AWA Tito Santana vs. Billy Robinson Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Card The version I watched was joined in progress at the halfway mark, around 10 minutes in and things had already heated up. Tito footage has been sparse to say the least and when he has popped up he’s shown only flashes of what he could be. This here felt like the first time Tito was “TITO SANTANA”, mixing fiery intensity with crisp execution. Robinson, not that it needs to be said, was no slouch here either and the first five minutes of this was excellent. As they circled around and headed towards the time limit draw it was a curious decision to go back to the mat and slow the pace down, which I felt took the sting out of things. There’s just something about a draw that throws wrestlers out of whack it seems. 1981-09-25 Houston Wrestling The Junkyard Dog & Tiger Conway Jr. vs. The Dynamic Duo (Gino Hernandez & Tully Blanchard) Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA Card ★★★ It would be an understatement to say that JYD was popular. There were absolute scenes during his entrance with fans pushed up against the apron just to get close to him. This had the classic formula of the heels pinballing around for the faces to start before gaining an advantage, applying the heat then transitioning to the finish. Gino and Tully were exceptional at the pinballing part, making Conway and JYD look formidable with their reactions to merely being in the wrong corner near them. Gino broke out a new faux-boxing routine I’ve not seen from him before but it ended up being a fun little sequence with Conway outclassing him entirely and Gino looking the fool. When the heels did finally make some inroads, they did a great job of cutting Conway off from JYD, working at least two great missed tag spots where, with the referees distracted, they missed JYD tagging in and thus blocked him from getting in, then we got a surprise appearance from Nick Bockwinkel, who temporarily took JYD out of the picture, which only put Conway deeper in the hole. Obviously this all led to the inevitable JYD hot tag and he took both members of the Dynamic Duo out in due course before grabbing the pin on Tully. The referees didn’t seem to care that Tully wasn’t in fact the legal man and JYD had in fact tugged him into the ring from the apron and no tag had been made. I haven’t mentioned much specifically about what Conway or JYD brought to the table here, and that’s because while I thought they were perfectly fine, it certainly felt like a heel led match with Gino and Tully being the driving forces. Conway was the workhorse for his team, and he was a pretty decent FIP, but JYD hit a couple powerslams early, did the hot tag finish and otherwise just chilled on the apron for the whole match. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted February 23 Author Report Share Posted February 23 1981-09-29 Joint Promotions Mark Rocco vs. Chris Adams Croydon, London, United Kingdom ★★★★ Mark Rocco is the new World’s Middleweight Champion, upgrading from his usual regional championship, but he was still up against a lightweight here in Chris Adams, which almost made him the underdog, a relatively novel dynamic for a Rocco match. Usually in catchweight matches the larger man is of lesser standing, but Adams was an established name, returning from a foray over the Atlantic in the States, so it wasn’t a foregone conclusion that he’d just roll over. Real fast energy and intensity right from the opening bell and then in the second round they pivoted into one of my favourite narrative choices, the limb injury. Adams whiffed on an arm drag and yanked his arm in the process and Rocco was like a shark who had smelt blood and was on it in a flash. He almost gleefully tore into the arm and it couldn’t have been more than 30 seconds before he succeeded in drawing a submission out of Adams. Adams demonstrated throughout this match that he was more than the superkick monkey he had been before his departure to the States. He was great at prolonged selling here, mostly on the arm, but they transitioned to a leg injury later on which he got across just as adeptly. Rocco was savage on the leg, just as he’d been on the arm, and I love love loved how he used the ropes as a weapon, just dumping Adams with reckless abandon again and again for some really nasty looking bumps. Just as I was thinking that a criticism that could be levied against Rocco is that he relies on his opponent’s selling and his own rule breaking to generate drama most of the time, Adams dumped him on his head to level things up, and coming out of the round break, Rocco looked like a spent force. More than I can recall he really looked to be on the ropes and it was his selling that drove the narrative in a really cool way. Adams tried for a backdrop but Rocco managed to kick off the ropes and Adams landed badly on his head, leading to the finish as he wasn’t able to beat the count. A pretty flat finish for such a hot match. Yes, it could probably be described as a 1981 version of a spotfest, but it had grit and it had purpose, with a better finish it could have been pretty fantastic. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted February 24 Author Report Share Posted February 24 October 1981-10-02 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 1 Genichiro Tenryu vs. Ashura Hara Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ Seems like IWE finally collapsed, with Hara and Mighty Inoue arriving in All Japan and the rest of the roster heading to New Japan. This was exciting and wild, a little crazy, but also disjointed, completely peppered with weird high spots, like Hara dropkicking Tenryu off the top turnbuckle, both men repeatedly taking super awkward bumps through the ropes and Hara trying to suplex Tenryu over the ropes to the floor and just dumping him on the ropes instead. Whenever it looked like things were going to completely kick off they reigned things back in and went back to a hold on the mat, which felt like a big ol’ tease. With Abdullah gone and Terry not around for most of the year, All Japan has the tendency to get a bit bland, I think at this point it’s solidly behind New Japan in the pecking order, and Stan Hansen can’t arrive fast enough, but if this clash between Hara and Tenryu is a sign of things to come then maybe they might have turned a corner of sorts. 1981-10-03 PNW Matt Borne & Steve Regal (c) vs. Buddy Rose & Stan Stasiak NWA Pacific Northwest Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★ Felt like Rose and Stasiak cruised through this match in 3rd gear. Really fun headlock exchanges early on between the two, showing some nice tag team synergy. It was nice to see Rose flex a little on the wrestling front rather than leaning so much into the stooging aspect of his work. It didn’t help them grab that first fall though as the faces were able to run a sequence together of their own and hit a sunset flip on Rose for the pin. The second fall devolved into more of a slugfest and despite being on the ropes somewhat the heels were able to get a double team Heart Punch to equalise. Regal missed a running knee into the corner and Stasiak (with some help from Rose) grabbed a Boston Crab for the win and the titles, or so they thought. Firstly, the finish was fine, Rose seemed a bit caught out of position, but applied enough of a push to get across the idea that he was providing extra leverage to Stasiak’s Boston Crab. Felt a bit weak for Regal to be submitting so close to his title match against Rose the following Tuesday though. And then they pulled the reverse decision card which I thought was a real cop-out. Sandy Barr heard voices from the crowd and the complaints from Borne and reversed the decision and handed back the belts to Regal and Borne. When it’s a huge match and the offense committed is grievous then there's a time and a place for this kind of thing, but here it just felt cheap and self serving for the faces to get the belts back in such a manner. So I wasn't a fan of that. Secondly, I can’t really point to anything specific, but Borne and Regal just don’t pop, like at all, as the crowd pleasing faces of the territory. I guess when your biggest point of comparison is Martel and Piper then almost anybody is going to fall short but still, I wish they stirred up a bit more in me. This was really, really solid, I just don’t think this is something I’d ever feel the need to revisit. 1981-10-04 MLW Sgt. Slaughter (c) vs. Jay Youngblood NWA United States Heavyweight Title Match Maple Leaf Gardens, Toronto, Ontario, Canada Card ★★ Did a bit of research and it seems like Slaughter had just won the US Title. And by recently, I mean on the same day, winning a tournament for the vacant title down in the Carolinas. This wasn’t a long match, lasting just over 10 minutes., which hamstrung them a bit from having a real barnburner. Youngblood had a lengthy shine to start, lots of arm drags and backdrops to make Slaughter look the fool. This was brisk and full of energy but a bit one note and I wish Youngblood had been able to pull something out the bag that was slightly more interesting. This only got good when they transitioned to the heat and Slaughter was finally able to get some offense in. This allowed Youngblood to do what he does best, sell, and for Slaughter, to be a mean bastard. Again, there wasn’t much time to work with, so this wasn’t mind altering stuff, but he capped off a nice sequence with a killer clothesline and the Cobra Clutch to, surprisingly, get a decisive and clean victory over Youngblood to retain the title. 1981-10-04 AWA Hulk Hogan vs. Jerry Blackwell Minneapolis Auditorium, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA Card ★ This just never got going how you’d want. This is the first house show match I’ve seen from Hogan since he made the switch, and maybe it was because he was working face here, but there was no forward motion at all. The narrative of the match revolved around Hogan wanting to bodyslam Blackwell, and apart from teasing a slam right at the start, it bore no impact on the match until right at the end when two body slams kind of came out of nowhere because it was time to go home. There were flashes that Hogan was learning, and quickly, how to garner that famous crowd reaction, and he received incredible responses for those body slams, but much like most of ‘80 where he was learning how to properly work as a heel, it looks like there’ll be an adjustment period as he does the same for the other side of the coin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted February 26 Author Report Share Posted February 26 1981-10-06 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 4 Buck Robley & Umanosuke Ueda vs. The Funks (Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk) Miyagi Prefectural Sports Center, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan Card ★★★ After not having him around for a large chunk of the year, I forgot how much fun it is to just have Terry around. He immediately energises any match he’s in and makes what would be a nothing moment if done by another wrestler, suddenly feel important, interesting, meaningful. Ueda looks like the guy out of Ichi the Killer, to the point that the character must have been inspired by him to some extent. He doesn’t have the same aura of a guy like Abdullah, but I liked the disruptive strategy of constantly trying to shift the action to the outside where he and Robley could gain an advantage rather than just going toe to toe with the Funks in the middle of the ring. The tactic almost paid off as well, Joe Higuchi was characteristically lenient, allowing Ueda to go ham with the chair attacks, and Terry came out of it with his ear a complete mess. Robley kept working on it, biting it, mauling it, and they worked towards the hot tag, which isn’t always a thing in Japan. When they did make that tag, Dory came in like a house on fire, which isn’t a phrase I think I’ll write too often, but he was out there to kill, uppercuts galore for everyone, with even Ueda eating a stiff shot while chilling on the apron. There was enough chaos afterwards to allow Dory to execute an O’Connor Roll and grab the win, but then it was time for him to get ambushed by Bruiser Brody. Brody was eventually repelled but not before he attacked Dory’s son (I don’t think Terry had any sons so it must have been Dory’s, but I’m not sure which one). The knee apparently drove into his throat and he was coughing up blood and they had to stretcher him out of the ring. Not a bad angle. We’re a long way off the tag league final but the Funks vs Brody/Snuka is on the horizon. 1981-10-06 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 4 Ric Flair (c) vs. Genichiro Tenryu NWA World Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Miyagi Prefectural Sports Center, Sendai, Miyagi, Japan Card ★★ It only took winning the World’s Title and heading to Japan for Flair to finally get a long form singles match on tape in the decade. Unfortunately it wasn’t quite worth the wait. I don’t think the fans were familiar with Flair at all as it seems like the last time he appeared in All Japan was back in ‘78, so they needed to establish him and his persona early on. It just felt tentative and meandering for a good chunk of the first fall with no real purpose. Flair is an instinctual wrestler, but this felt more like he was hoping something would spring to life rather than actually going about making it happen. Things only started to get going when Tenryu made a push, targeting Flair’s leg and having the audacity to put the figure four on him. In fact throughout the whole match the action was always better when Tenryu was on offense and Flair was working from underneath. Flair admirably low-key sold the leg all the way late into the second fall and then after Tenryu’s offense switched to be more back-focused, his selling changed accordingly. So there were praiseworthy elements no doubt. Against the run of play Flair got the first fall with a suplex followed up by an elbow drop. Tenryu snatched the second with a suplex of his own. Then as they headed into the finish Flair projected enough vulnerability that in a vacuum it seemed possible that Tenryu could pull it out, which I think Flair deserves some real credit for. In the end though Flair locked on the figure four and showed Tenryu how it was done, submitting the challenger and retaining the belt during his first defence in Japan. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted February 28 Author Report Share Posted February 28 1981-10-07 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 5 Ric Flair (c) vs. Terry Funk NWA World Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Yokohama Cultural Gymnasium, Yokoyama, Kanagawa, Japan Card ★★★ Really interesting to see Flair work two title matches on back to back nights against two different opponents. Maybe it’s not fair, but it’s pretty hard to not directly compare the two against each other. Here the first fall was probably worse than anything that happened in the Tenryu match, but the second fall in this one was the best fall hands down across the two as well. It took until the announcer’s 10 minute call before anything actually happened and Flair tossed Funk to the outside. He capitalised with a suplex and then the figure four to submit Funk in short order. As I said, this fall was really underwhelming and bland. Tests of strength, headlocks, that sort of thing, but with no rhyme or reason, just to kill time. After winning the first fall though, a switch flipped in Flair and he turned into a wild man. I would have put money on Funk being the one to push the envelope but Flair mounted Funk and uncorked some savage punches to the head that got the crowd all riled up. This continued for a couple minutes until Funk weathered the storm and made his comeback. I wish Flair had held out a little longer and made Funk really earn it, cause all it took was a couple headbutts and he ceded control entirely, but Funk was in his groove, as glorious as that always is, and finally he returned the favour and submitted Flair with his spinning toe hold. The third fall was good, if nothing special. The order of the day was “how do we get out of this without either Terry or Flair doing the job?”. The answer always seems to be a double countout. They did manage to orchestrate a killer near fall with Funk reversing a double arm suplex and it looked like he had it made before Flair got his leg on the rope at the LAST second. Immediately after Funk did my least favourite move, the one where a guy hops up to sit on the top rope, wraps his legs around his opponent and rolls backwards to pull them both over the ropes to the outside. It serves no purpose other than to transition outside the ring and telegraphs 100 out of 100 times that we’re going for a countout finish. Just hate it. 1981-10-07 Joint Promotions Marty Jones vs. Johnny South Preston, Lancashire, United Kingdom ★★★ Brought everything to the table you’d want out of a heavyweight contest and a masterclass in keeping the momentum going while being in a defensive position from Jones. It may seem like a weird thing to praise, but they both really used the loud bang on the mat that reverberated around the arena every time either man delivered a move, or did a bump, to establish a nice rhythm to the action and convey the weight and impact of their moves. It never swung too far but there was always an underlying aspect of tension and frayed temper throughout which I felt the grit they established early laid a great foundation for. Jones was great here in never just lying in a move and waiting for South to transition to something else or to make his counter move. Often you’ll see someone sit in a headlock for 30 seconds, then nonchalantly just counter it but standing up, pushing the guy off and triggering a rope running sequence or something. Other than the excuse that they are catching their breath, it just doesn’t make sense why they would wait so long to counter. Here Jones was always grabbing for an arm or a leg, even resorting to kicking South in the back and legs while lying prone on his own back at one point. These attempts weren’t really to reverse the hold, but merely to disrupt what South was doing and often resulted in South giving up on his approach entirely, which I thought was fantastic. South snuck in a backslide to go 1-0 up which was entirely against the run of play. Jones looked to be firmly in control and was going for the kill himself. Jones, the classy champion that he was, didn’t get ruffled though, calmly went about his business and put South away, eventually executing a backslide of his own for some nice symmetry. South was really game here, just as bruising as Jones, but he lacked at the periphery all the little things that Jones did to tie the action together. But they managed to pull together a real slugfest of a bout that put on display what hard hitting British wrestling was all about. 1981-10-08 NJPW - New Japan vs. IWE Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Isamu Teranishi Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ I felt that Teranishi was a little slow off the mark here. His timing was a smidge off and Fujinami looked like he was running uphill to get engaging sequences going. Teranishi began aimlessly working the arm and Fujinami turned Super Saiyan and just began uncorking outrageous strikes that rocked Teranishi to his core. He futilely tried to cling onto the arm but it didn’t help and Fujinami planted him firmly on the mat. Teranishi did manage to make a late surge, hitting a nice backbreaker and making some sort of advance, but Fujinami always gave as good as he got, culminating in the best stretch of the match where both men were unfurling open handed strikes straight to the face repeatedly. Pure bedlam. The intensity was pushing maximum but Fujinami always had the aura of a dam that was about to break and Teranishi was facing the inevitable. Indeed that came to be true when Teranishi managed to roll through an O’Connor Roll only to be stuck with a German. With Inoue and Ashura Hara jumping ship to All Japan, IWE were left with Teranishi and Kimura (and maybe Hamaguchi) as their top guys. It’s hard to say whether this should have been booked more evenly, but I did find the subtle superiority of Fujinami to be an interesting hook. 1981-10-08 NJPW - New Japan vs. IWE Tiger Mask vs. Masked Hurricane Mask Vs. Mask Match Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ Hurricane looked like an extra from The Watchmen with his vibrantly green mask. He was game for some cheeky entertainment, his best moment was doing that spot where you just repeatedly kip up over and over again, which just resulted in him eating a massive dropkick to the face. This was about as run of the mill as you could get for a Tiger Mask match but while there weren’t any real high moments there weren’t any low moments either. After just under 10 minutes Hurricane ate a backbreaker, let out a massive howl of pain and it was time for him to unmask. 1981-10-08 NJPW - New Japan vs. IWE Dino Bravo & Riki Choshu vs. Hulk Hogan & Stan Hansen Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ Fun little match. Again it didn’t last longer than 10 minutes but each man had a moment here or there to do something interesting. The key hook, and the most engaging aspect by far, was Choshu’s plucky attempts to fight fire with fire against Hansen. There’s something I love about Hansen going up against these Japanese light heavyweight types: it works against Fujinami and it works against Choshu. Choshu came across so earnest in his attempt, he didn’t back down for a second, but he was so clearly outmatched. After they cycled through this matchup for the third time it was all too much for him though and Hansen hit the Lariat for the definitive and comfortable win. 1981-10-08 NJPW - New Japan vs. IWE Antonio Inoki vs. Rusher Kimura Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ This is the kind of match that Inoki really excels in. The big man, the champion of IWE, Rusher Kimura, is coming into his house, so you’ve got to ramp up the spectacle. And there aren’t many out there who could deliver ‘spectacle’ as well as Antonio Inoki. He was dialled in 100% here and he sprinkled all these little actions and moments that he really doesn’t do often in his matches to just keep building the intensity. I thought it was great that he went for the Enzuigiri from the bell. Trying for the KO shot immediately instead of going through the usual formalities. Inoki showed off some technical wrestling skills I didn’t know he had. Yes, he always tries to portray an aura of being a legitimate martial artist, but here he was actually transitioning between moves and countering with holds. Maybe if it was somebody other than Inoki doing them I would have been less impressed but it worked for me here. Kimura’s counter was his headbutt. Inoki tried his best to struggle through but Kimura’s skull proved too strong. This allowed Kimura to finally take some control and in fact, it was almost like Inoki had a traditional shine sequence to start, which just made Kimura’s ability to survive and then comeback against Inoki feel all the more of a big accomplishment. Inoki ate a ringpost but he didn’t commit to the bladejob enough so they had to go for it a second time. But he nailed it that time around, with blood pouring down his face for a phenomenal visual. Inoki wasn’t going to cave though and he went to his patented series of arm moves, the armbreaker into the armbar and despite Kimura having his leg on the rope he refused to break and the referee was forced to DQ him. I really loved the finish, as they are clearly building towards a second match and giving Kimura the initial win, even via DQ, goes a long way to setting that up in a strong way. All the other IWE wrestlers dived into the ring to jump on Inoki, which in turn prompted the New Japan wrestlers to do the same and we had ourselves a brawl. If it had finished there I would have said that they absolutely nailed the match from a booking standpoint. My issue, and what left a sour taste in my mouth, was that Inoki just continued to punk Kimura for the next few minutes. He put on the armbar a second time while the IWE seconds just looked on helplessly, then Kimura had to stand around while he got his arm treated and Inoki was cutting a promo on him in the ring. It felt a little like they were undercutting all the good work they had just done. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted February 29 Author Report Share Posted February 29 1981-10-09 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 7 Ashura Hara, Genichiro Tenryu & Terry Funk vs. Alexis Smirnoff, Don DeNucci & Harley Race Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ Pretty throwaway match, but sort of to be expected as an undercard match on a pretty stacked show (at least on paper). We did get to see DeNucci in Japan though which is pretty bizarre. The Terry vs Race bits were fun with both men able to show off their impressive suplexes and Tenryu stood out once again when he was called upon. Everybody else was just in the background. They cycled through a few different pairings and eventually Tenryu hit a Sunset Flip off the top against Smirnoff for the win. 1981-10-09 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 7 Dory Funk Jr. (c) vs. Bruiser Brody NWA International Heavyweight Title Match Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ There were moments where Dory would ramp things up and he would tap into that stone faced killer persona that weirdly resonates with me. It didn’t take long for Dory to bleed and Brody wasn’t far behind, the cuts on both men pooling around the eye like a ghastly pirate-y eyepatch of blood. The issue I had was that neither is Dory a dynamic enough seller or Brody a convincing enough ass-kicker, so the actual meat and potatoes action of it all lacked the necessary conviction to get across the intended levels of violence. The structure was there, the crowd was behind it, but what should have been at least good failed to hit the mark for me. The finish involved some awkwardly telegraphed ref bumps from Joe Higuchi. Brody grabbed the chain, which Dory managed to tear from him. Joe finally recovered to intervene, just to eat metal to the face and the match was thrown out. The best part of the whole thing was actually Terry coming down in a tweed jacket and cowboy boots, getting said jacket torn from his body by Brody and Buck Robley, then wildly swinging fists and basically showing the boys how it’s done. 1981-10-09 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 7 Ric Flair (c) vs. Jumbo Tsuruta NWA World Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ The first half of this was plain boring. Jumbo showed some fire, and he clearly was emotionally up for this, but apart from a tiny sliver of intensity around a headlock, not much actually happened throughout the entire first fall. I didn’t think that Flair’s begging off routine worked in this context, it just made him look a bit like a chump. Once he switched his tact and began selling his back as a vulnerability I liked his performance far better. As soon as the second fall began though this became miles better. The intensity overall just ratcheted up several notches and both men found their groove. We had some neat little near falls but ultimately Flair managed to tie things up with a figure four. Jumbo had to be dragged, his body lifeless, across the mat by a second at ringside between falls which I thought was pure gold. He then started the third really selling that leg hard which again I thought was amazing. Flair’s cockiness worked better considering he was in the ascendancy, and I did like his elbow strike offense far better than the bland knee offense he was using earlier in the bout. We got some more referee wonkiness, this time old man Lord Blears was acting as the referee and I feared for his safety when he got crocked. The finish was a bit of a mess, with some subpar execution, but Jumbo went for a big bomb in the corner, whiffed completely and Flair capitalised, diving on his prone body, for the victory. I just can’t overlook the first half of this to give it a higher rating, it was just too lacklustre. But the second and third falls were very good and a great Jumbo performance, at least in the context of his output during this early 80s period. 1981-10-09 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 7 Bruno Sammartino & Giant Baba vs. Tiger Jeet Singh & Umanosuke Ueda Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★ The heels dragged this down for me. I thought the combination of Baba and Bruno was actually pretty inspired and I would be really interested in seeing them team again given an alternative set of opponents. Baba took most of the heat, getting constantly double teamed, but as per usual with a Singh match, the work was unimaginative. It was great to see Bruno again since he pretty much disappeared off the map since the previous year. His kind of rough, brawling style actually translated perfectly to these All Japan brawls. I wish we’d gotten to see him against an Abdullah, or even a Sheik, in a singles match rather than this though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted March 1 Author Report Share Posted March 1 1981-10-17 WWF- Championship Wrestling Rick Martel & Tony Garea (c) vs. Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito WWF Tag Team Title Match Agricultural Hall, Allentown, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★★★ This was a classic “greater than the sum of its parts” match. They worked a really traditional structure, but keeping the whole thing within a tight 10 minute window, no section was laboured or dragged on. Martel was a house of fire from the opening bell and the crowd were scorching for the champions. Eventually the heels made some inroads and worked over Garea. The heat was functional rather than anything special but Martel was losing his mind on the apron and a couple times was compelled to come in to try and do something to help his partner. Fantastic hot tag from Martel and the famous finish with Fuji flinging salt into his eyes as he tried to execute a flying crossbody off the top rope. Fuji deserves a ton of credit for his timing and accuracy on that throw. The salt looked like it caught Martel perfectly in the face for a memorable visual and Martel sold the hell out of it for a couple minutes afterwards. Martel was the real standout, no surprise there, but I’d say they nailed the “what to do and when” aspect of constructing this match. I was on the edge of my seat for the near falls and the build to the hot tag. Overall I’d say this was a clear home run for a tag title switch on TV. 1981-10-17 WWF- PRISM Network Andre The Giant vs. Killer Khan Philadelphia Spectrum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA Card ★ Hmmmm. I really thought this would at least be good. Andre has been on a real run lately (admittedly most of that has been in Japan) and considering this was a grudge match, following Khan breaking his leg, I had reasonably high expectations. My biggest issue with Khan in general is the disconnect between his gimmick and how he works. I haven’t seen his stuff from Mid-South or Japan (yet) so this could be a WWF specific thing, but they presented him as this uncivilised monster from Mongolia who you think would be tearing people apart, then whenever he enters the ring against anybody who isn’t a jobber he’s stooging like he’s the Honky Tonk Man. Andre spends a lot of time dragging Khan around by his trunks here, and I thought I could see a glimmer of annoyance on Khan’s face after a while, as I’m sure that couldn’t have been fun. Considering this was a grudge match, and at the Spectrum no less, it’s surprising how little heat this match had. I feel like they just worked so slow between sequences it never seemed to be building towards anything coherent and just felt like it dragged on and on and on. Khan felt far too weak most of the time, but then a mere double chop to the head took Andre down instantaneously. Just all over the place. My favourite part of this was Khan actually trying to figure out how to focus on Andre’s previously broken leg. Getting down on his ass and peppering the giant with kicks. If they’d leaned into that dynamic a bit more this would have been far better. In the end Khan tried to flee, Andre chased him down, we got some blah brawling at ringside and the bell rang for a double countout. Looks like we’re getting a rematch on November 14th, but what could have been a fantastic build up match for that one ended up just coming across like a big waste of time. 1981-10-17 MACW Roddy Piper vs. Jay Youngblood WPCQ-TV Studios, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA Card ★★★ Electric studio match. Unlike in Memphis for example, where the heel is always outclassed and has to do some devious shit to get ahead, here they allowed Piper to almost go toe to toe with the face and he was able to display some toughness and wrestling skill, while sprinkling in some more subtle heel tendencies, like rolling to the outside to buy time or calling for a timeout. They started with some fast paced amateur style mat wrestling and Piper did a great job of riding Youngblood before gaining the advantage. Youngblood did the same in return, a couple of reversals and the tone was set. Youngblood wasn’t shy of laying in the chops, and one in particular was caught beautifully by the studio microphone and almost gave David Crockett and orgasm. Piper gave as good as he got in this hard hitting affair. They were building towards a 10 minute time limit, and Caudle got the 30 second warning wrong, which deflated the ending somewhat, but they threw in enough believable near falls without overdoing it and the level of exhaustion they displayed matched the effort and exhaustion they’d put into the previous 10 minutes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted March 4 Author Report Share Posted March 4 1981-10-19 WWF - MSG Network Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito (c) vs. Rick Martel & Tony Garea WWF Tag Team Title Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA Card ★★★ I don’t want to overstate this by saying this was the one man Rick Martel show, but he was bloody fantastic here. Garea is a decent face in peril, and the new champions have good chemistry and timing, but Martel is what gelled everything together and elevated this to the heights it got to. While the TV title switch was all about Martel working the apron and then coming in as the hot tag, this time it was all about the shine. Martel was all over Mr. Fuji and began stomping on him like he owed him money. When it can sometimes feel like guys are going through the motions, it’s nice to get the feeling that somebody is emotionally invested, and I got the sense from Martel that he was here to reclaim those stolen belts! The opening shine from the challengers was great but of course we got the obligatory hot tag from Martel again and it felt like he was literally everywhere doing everything. The champions deserve credit here though as there were two or three multi man spots that they were able to execute flawlessly without it coming across as contrived. Saito was working a Boston Crab in their corner and Fuji was applying leverage, then as Martel powered out Saito went flying into Fuji headfirst. The other was a lovely slingshot on Saito that sent him once again on a collision course with an onrushing Fuji which was timed so well that I didn’t even see Fuji coming from off camera until the connection happened. Both these sequences could have looked clumsy or pantomime, but it all worked within the context here. Fuji sent Martel to the outside and then Garea took the brunt of a nasty double team beatdown. This was enough for the referee to call for the DQ but the heel champions survived with their belts intact. 1981-10-19 WWF - MSG Network Bob Backlund (c) vs. Greg Valentine WWF Heavyweight Title Match Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA Card ★★★★ Valentine has got to be one of, if not the best, Backlund opponent. His constant forward motion, hard hitting, no-nonsense approach brings an air of credibility and really forces Backlund to dig deep and come back with equal intent. A rugged Backlund is the best kind of Backlund. I’m not sure how much psychology there was to this match, Valentine focused on the leg a lot, but that’s to be expected considering he’s always working towards locking on that figure four, but there wasn’t much else that you’d call nuanced here. But both men went toe to toe and the clash between them felt like it was growing to epic proportions. I would have preferred if they didn’t go to the timber sell so many times. Once, maybe twice, is okay, but it appeared to be the go-to sell style throughout which I felt was the wrong choice. The finish was interesting to say the least. Most will be aware of it already, but a groggy referee counted Backlund’s pin, then Valentine shot up and began celebrating and the referee raised his hand by accident, Valentine grabbed the belt and walked out forcing it to be held up for the rematch. Not the best but certainly unique and I for one would have been pumped to see a rematch between these two with Backlund having to win back his title instead of just defending it, so I can’t shit on the decision that much. 1981-10-23 NJPW - Toukon Series 1981 - Day 12 Osamu Kido & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Animal Hamaguchi & Isamu Teranishi Onoyama Gymnasium, Naha, Okinawa, Japan Card ★★★ Hard nosed, balls to the wall action. Kido locked on a headlock at the midway point for them to catch their breath briefly, but for the most part this was all four men in high gear from bell to bell. New Japan isn’t a promotion I would call soft by any means, but they were exceptionally stiff here. I’m not sure if it was due to the interpromotional aspect of the match that they felt they needed to lay it in extra hard, but it felt like they’d upped the ante here. All four men got the opportunity to gain an advantage on their man. Much like in his match against Fujinami, Teranishi felt a little sloppy or loose, and while I liked Kido’s feisty energy, he wasn’t quite up to Fujinami or Hamaguchi’s standard. It’s been a while since Hamaguchi popped up on footage, but he looked doubly motivated here. Maybe emerging from the sinking ship that was IWE had given him a new lease on wrestling life. This boiled over to the point that the referee just called for a no contest. Rusher Kimura came in to beat down on Fujinami and then the New Japan crew, including Choshu and Inoki, came in for a standoff and some more brawling. More of a vehicle to keep the promotional feud on a high simmer than anything else, but highly effective for its purpose. 1981-10-24 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 19 Alexis Smirnoff & Bruiser Brody vs. The Funks (Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk) Sports Center, Chitose, Hokkaido, Japan Card ★ B- showing for Terry and a flat D- for everyone else. Definitely felt like they were going through motions. They beat up on Terry a lot, escalated to some brawling, Brody went overboard with his blade job and ended up with a full-on mask of blood, then Dory reversed a piledriver from Smirnoff into an anticlimactic pin. 1981-10-24 PNW Buddy Rose vs. Steve Regal NWA Pacific Northwest Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls No Disqualification With Mike Masters And Stan Stasiak Locked In A Shark Cage At Ringside Match Sports Arena, Portland, Oregon, USA Card ★★★ I’m torn on this match. On the one hand the first two falls were slow and drawn out with very little heat considering the feud surrounding it and the actual stipulation of the match. Both falls mirrored each other with Rose laying in the ball shots on Regal followed by Regal returning in kind. But when they weren’t trying to take each other’s manhoods, they were casually sitting in headlocks, working the clock. The third fall however managed to project the expected violence levels, and all without resorting to bloodletting as well. Rose laid into Regal on the outside with a chair and one thunderous swing was dodged at the last second by Regal, only to shatter the upper portion of the chair as it cracked against the ringpost. Regal eventually wrestled the chair away from Rose, and despite some resistance from Sandy Barr, he really went to town on Rose. I wish the cage, and Masters and Stasiak within it, were utilised more often here. They were basically a non-factor until the finish when they finally managed to cling onto Regal to try and choke him out or force him to be counted out. Barr however was having none of it and climbed right on top to start kicking both men in the face. Borne was forced to come out from the back to assist and in the disarray Regal was able to catch Rose by surprise with a rollup to win back the held up title. The first two falls were what I’d call pedestrian, however I can appreciate the structure in how they mirrored the action. This was saved by the final fall though. If they felt they couldn’t get away with a bloodbath then they managed to pull off something slightly more PG, but still with enough violent intent behind it. 1981-10-24 Joint Promotions Wayne Bridges vs. Pete Roberts Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, United Kingdom ★★★ Started with the weightiness that you’d expect from a heavyweight contest. Bridges picked up the first fall with a neat clothesline and everything seemed cordial and above board, then suddenly everything kicked off when Roberts levelled things up. Firstly, Roberts showed why he’s a unique case in the heavyweight division, nailing a springboard flip out of a hip toss and then executing a gorgeous schoolboy pin for the fall. Roberts went to shake Bridges hand in the intermission and Bridges was having none of it. Walton commented on how unusual this behaviour from Bridges was. Well he never cooled off, instead his attitude became increasingly petulant over the subsequent rounds, dialling up the grittiness and forcing Roberts to match his intensity. It all boiled over when Bridges channelled his inner Randy Orton and hit a running knee, basically punting a prone Roberts in the temple, prompting the referee to call for the disqualification. 1981-10-24 Joint Promotions Marty Jones vs. Peter Wilson Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, United Kingdom ★★ Despite taking a surprise lead in the second round, it never seemed at all likely that Wilson would get a scalp here. Jones looked like he was going for a stroll in the park and matter of factly picked apart his opponent for an extremely more comfortable in reality than on paper win in the fifth round. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted March 6 Author Report Share Posted March 6 1981-10-30 NJPW - Toukon Series 1981 - Day 19 Kengo Kimura & Tiger Mask vs. Los Misioneros de la Muerte (El Signo & Negro Navarro) City Gymnasium, Anjo, Aichi, Japan Card ★★★★ The first of this had almost two singles matches run in parallel. Tiger Mask was matched up with Navarro, while Kimura was paired with Signo. The former pairing was the better one, Navarro clearly good enough to roll with Tiger Mask’s flourishes to make them look good, or reining him in to prevent him from going overboard. The Mexicans decided to steal the advantage by taking Kimura to the outside and ramming him into the railing. Tiger Mask went to make the save but ended up eating steel as well before, back in the ring, getting hot shotted for his troubles. There were moments here where, in an American match they would have kept the same two in the ring and milked a sequence for all it was, but tags were too easy to come by and therefore too frequent, constantly resetting and stalling the momentum. They managed to build to some high intensity peaks, and the crowd were completely amped, but I feel they may have left some juice on the table. But I know that this is the style, so there’s not much point complaining about it. Tiger Mask almost forced Signo to start eating through a straw with a devastating dropkick to the face, which prompted Navarro to go for the mask to cause some disarray. Tiger Mask frantically dived to tag out before they could finally rip it off, but Kimura held his own, got a nearfall on a piledriver and a neat sequence which teased some friendly fire on a missile dropkick attempt from Tiger Mask actually ended up being a diving sunset flip for the finish. Everybody came out of this smelling like roses, but Navarro in particular looked ace. Tiger Mask again displayed an ability to generate electric responses when he’s able to avoid those awful botches. The Japanese team took the dirty haymakers their opponents threw at them, gutted through it and rose to victory. All round an excellent upper-mid card tag match. 1981-10-30 NJPW - Toukon Series 1981 - Day 19 Abdullah The Butcher & Bad News Allen vs. Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi City Gymnasium, Anjo, Aichi, Japan Card ★★ The heat was a bit lacking here. Just your standard stuff really from the heels. Things got more fun and interesting when Abby and Inoki were rolling around on the mat trying monkey flips on each other before an Enzuigiri floored Abby and some follow up stomps drew blood. Inoki and Sakaguchi took him to the corner to gain the numbers advantage, but as soon as Inoki tagged out you knew Sakaguchi wouldn’t be able to contain Abby for long and right on cue a swift thrust to the neck and a headbutt swung the momentum once again. Disappointing that they pivoted to the finish so soon after this. Allen tagged in and was promptly swarmed by Sakaguchi. Abby, clearly over the pretence of this being a wrestling match, got a glass bottle from under the ring and proceeded to clean house. The referee ate glass and we got the dull DQ. We did get to see Allen smash the bottle and attempt murder on Inoki, but he ducked and Abby ate the brunt of the attack leaving him running to the back and Inoki standing tall. 1981-10-30 Houston Wrestling - Gold Cup Tournament - Day 1 Mike Graham vs. Tully Blanchard Gold Cup Tournament Match Sam Houston Coliseum, Houston, Texas, USA Card ★★★ Tully was cruising along, containing Graham with a tightly locked in armbar when suddenly Graham sprung to life, applied the figure four, and had Tully scrambling for the ropes. From that moment Tully was over this wrestling competition malarkey and he was going to cut corners. As soon as he was back in the ring for the following lock up he used the referee as a human shield, then from behind him nailed a diving punch to the midsection and the dark arts never stopped. As good as I thought Tully looked, it did feel like he took way too much of this match. I can’t figure out who to assign the blame to here, but Graham’s hope spots were unbelievably brief and Tully had far too easy a time cutting him off and going back to the heat. I’m assuming that Tully was calling the match, so if that were true it would be his fault, but at some point you need to plant your foot in the ground and stand your ground and Graham was just never really able to do that. Being a tournament match with a time limit, the draw finish was always on the card, and the way they were working with around 5 minutes to go it was a foregone conclusion that we actually were going to get that draw. I thought they managed to keep the action ticking along though and sprinkled in enough fairly believable near falls to keep the crowd invested. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAMS Posted March 7 Author Report Share Posted March 7 NOVEMBER 1981-11-04 AJPW - Giant Series 1981 - Day 28 Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka vs. The Funks (Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk) Prefectural Gymnasium, Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan Card ★★★ Joined in progress at the 5 minute mark and Snuka and Brody had already managed to gain control, working Terry over. It was Dory however who made the first inroads, eventually tagging in and sending Snuka flying to the floor outside with a couple thundering uppercuts. They settled back into their holding pattern again, but this time with Dory as the face in peril, and surprisingly this worked extremely well. Dory tapped into that sympathetic selling but also had that steely resistance, throwing an uppercut here and there so as not to get completely overwhelmed. As they built to the finish it was time for everybody to bail from the ring and it was a race to see who could get run into the ringpost and start bleeding the fastest. Dory had a bandage from a previous injury that had opened up earlier, but it wasn’t long before both Snuka and Brody had their faces covered in the red stuff. Sometimes match finishing brawls can feel extremely played out and come across like they’re just killing time until the bell rings, but here it actually felt like an escalation of action: first everybody started bleeding, then Brody accidentally whipped Terry into Snuka on the apron taking him out, then Dory tried to clamber back into the ring to eat a huge dropkick from Brody as well. Finally the referee felt enough was enough and called for the bell but it came on a high rather than giving that deflated feeling. Brody grabbed a chair and he and Terry conspired to give Terry about 25 chair shots to the head before the heels stormed off. Ironically Terry was the only one of the four who came out of this match without having bled. The start was perhaps a bit drab, but Dory’s performance during that stretch kept it afloat, then how they built to the finish and executed the climax was really good considering there’s the classic tag league match coming up at the end of the year and maybe they wanted to keep some bullets in the chamber for that. Dory was the standout, in my opinion showing some vulnerability that we don’t always see from him, but a solid showing all round from the others as well. 1981-11-04 GCW Tommy Rich vs. Austin Idol Municipal Auditorium, Columbus. Ohio, USA Card ★★★ Great to finally see both Rich and Idol in a full-length arena show match considering how infrequently they’ve popped up so far. They introduced this as a Bounty Match, so I’m assuming Idol was here to cash in on the bounty Masked Superstar had put on Tommy Rich’s head in recent weeks. Idol put on an absolute clinic here from a heel’s perspective. He wrung out a solid couple minutes around the towel that he brought to the ring. Reluctant to hand it over to the referee to get checked he worked the crowd into a frenzy, eventually Rich snatched it from him and wouldn’t you know, it was just a towel. Any time Rich gained some kind of momentum Idol would bail from the ring to gather himself and at one point he concealed a mini hammer in his trunks, which again riled the crowd up. Rich showed off his selling chops here without a doubt, but looking at the match as a whole I think Idol took too much of it. Considering Rich had a bounty on his head I’d have expected him to show a bit more urgency and he had no real shine or extended hope spots in this at all, with his entire offensive output consisting of tiny little flurries. Rich did in fact win the match, narrowly escaping a Sleeper while tied up in the ropes causing Idol to get counted out at the last second, but Ray Stevens hit the ring in due course and Rich looked to be in for a beating before some more wrestlers from the back saved him. The booking worked in the sense that it felt like Rich was really up against it, and it got over the concept that having a bounty on your head is a gruelling business, but for this to go up a gear Rich needed a little more intensity to convey that he was really fighting for his life, but it was far too easy for Idol to control things for the most part. 1981-11-05 NJPW - Toukon Series 1981 - Day 24 Tiger Mask vs. Gran Hamada Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★★ Hamada might be the perfect opponent for Tiger Mask. Somebody who he’s worked with and tagged with before, a credible opponent who will edit out the chaff and hone a match into something tight and cohesive. And after feeding on mostly small fry up to now, Tiger Mask certainly was primed for a real challenge. Hamada really is the business. He let Tiger get the best of the first half, but when he turned it up for the home stretch he put the masked hero on his back foot in a way I can’t remember having seen before. Crushing backdrop suplexes and vicious strikes, all culminating in a beauty of a tope. This wasn’t some glancing collision, Hamada got his head to plant dead centre in Tiger Mask’s chest. Unfortunately for Hamada, this was the moment of his undoing. He went up top for a second aerial attempt, crashing and burning on the dive, allowing Tiger Mask to roll back in just before the count and to survive. Easily one of Tiger Mask’s best matches, and while I would say he held up his part of the match, it did come across like Hamada was the one running the show and driving it to be as good as it ended up being. Just an absolute pocket dynamo and I wish he showed up more consistently on tape. 1981-11-05 NJPW - Toukon Series 1981 - Day 24 Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Animal Hamaguchi Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ This was so much fun. Shame that the first five minutes were clipped and we got a relatively dud finish, but the core meat of the match was a blast. Hamaguchi used his weight advantage and lower centre of gravity to try and ground Fujinami, while Fujinami was all piss and vinegar and ended up having to go for the big home run shots. Fujinami went for the most over, but absolutely useless move I can think of, the bow and arrow/ But Hamaguchi obviously escaped, snatched Fujinami up and they went for an airplane spin followed by a Samoan Drop, which the commentator’s called a Samoan Suplex. First time I’ve heard it being referenced as a “Samoan” anything up to this point, either in Japan or the US. But whatever they wanted to call it, this particular one was fantastic, with Hamaguchi’s legs ending up way above his head and absolutely planting Fujinami into the mat for a near fall. Fujinami ended up sending Hamaguchi to the outside and then hit his electrifying Dragon Rocket. Clambering back into the ring though Hamaguchi caught him with a suplex, but instead of the usual reverse back bump execution, he planted Fujinami face first into the mat. Fujinami locked on a Sleeper, they tumbled to the outside, the Sleeper remained firmly applied and Hamaguchi was forced to dump Fujinami over the railing at ringside for the automatic DQ. A dud finish really and I’m still not 100% sure what the reasoning behind that rule is. But it’s no worse than the DQ for throwing a guy over the top rope that existed in the NWA at the same time. In terms of booking I feel like they didn’t want to bury Hamaguchi, or the IWE guys in general, so this kind of finish allows him to save face to a certain degree. Fujinami is really heating up after a lacklustre first several months of the year. Hamaguchi, free from the circus that was the final few months of IWE and with a fresh crop of more talented opponents to work with, looks to have a new lease on life. I’m loving the variety of offense that he displayed here, which made him look like a real threat to New Japan’s number 2. 1981-11-05 NJPW - Toukon Series 1981 - Day 24 Abdullah The Butcher vs. Dino Bravo Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★ There was a lot of dead time to start as they finalised who was actually going to be in the match. Originally I assume this was billed as a tag match between Bad News Allen and Abdullah against Bravo and Dick Murdoch. Allen had a broken finger and was wearing street clothes so Murdoch and Bravo had to decide amongst themselves who was going to take on Abby. Murdoch teased leaving the ring several times to a massive crowd reaction, and I think it was clear he was the one they wanted, but ultimately it was Bravo who stepped forward and issued the challenge. Abby gave so much of this to Bravo I was honestly surprised. I mean the main chunk of the match barely lasted five minutes, but Bravo must have been on top for at least 85% of that. His punches are glacially slow, so execution isn’t in his favour, but he was great at projecting that babyface fire you’d associate with a Martel or Santana, and he managed to rally the crowd behind him. It wasn’t long at all before Abby was bleeding, quite profusely, and Bravo actually looked like he might be on the verge of winning after a bodyslam and an atomic drop. But Allen got up on the apron for the distraction and smashed a big bag of flour in Bravo’s face for the DQ. I’m not sure where Murdoch was at this point, but probably at the back chilling, which allowed Allen and Abby to double team Bravo and he suffered a savage attack, getting stabbed in the head with a fork several times leading him just as bloody as Abby after it was all said and done. 1981-11-05 NJPW - Toukon Series 1981 - Day 24 Antonio Inoki vs. Rusher Kimura Lumberjack Match Kuramae Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★ I remember loving this when I first watched it a few years ago but it lost some of its lustre this time around. They managed to carve out some special moments here, but it was the connective tissue and general psychology that was lacking somewhat. Kimura connected with a questionably low knee to take Inoki down then went for the armbar right from the start. Inoki escaped but again Kimura’s strategy was to go for the arm. This would have been cool if he’d persisted with this, but after he broke the armbar for that second time I don’t think he looked at Inoki’s arm ever again for the whole match. The best, and most hype, moments were when they both stood their ground and just wailed on each other. Inoki wasn’t having any of Kimura’s chops and kept blocking them, signifying his superior martial skills, but he could do nothing with the follow up headbutts that sent him to the mat. The lumberjacks didn’t have much to do, a minor coming together distracted enough to allow Kimura to blade following him getting run into the ringpost. Inoki smelt blood and he took a leaf out of Kimura’s book from earlier and went for the same armbar. They really milked the hell out of this, with Inoki revving up every now and again, mean mugging the crowd to get them into it, then wrenching back down to apply more pressure to the limb. Kimura’s face was literally dripping with blood, with it all pooling onto the mat, and despite getting to the ropes the one time, it wasn’t long before he was back on the mat and suffering the same fate once again. The IWE guys seemingly felt enough was enough and tossed in the towel, literally chucking a white towel into the ring which landed right on Inoki’s face while he was still applying the hold. Kimura was pissed afterwards, he technically hadn’t submitted, and perhaps that was the only way they could have agreed to have this feud in the first place, but after some fractious moments, Inoki and Kimura were able to shake hands, some sort of mutual respect gained. This was great when they were able to dot in those epic moments. The strike exchanges and that final sequence with Inoki applying the armbar and really hamming it up for the crowd’s benefit. But in general the mat work left a lot to be desired, Kimura is extremely limited and the weaknesses I saw from him that hurt his IWE title run over the past few years were glaringly on show here as well. But even more than that, the lack of any strong period with Kimura legitimately on top and getting Inoki on the ropes is what docks this. Other than the first few moments, Inoki never seemed like he was ever in any real trouble, so we lacked the drama that a potential loss from him would have garnered. They had the very same problem in their previous match, but I guess Inoki was in the driving seat and if he wanted to come across like the all conquering hero then Kimura was in no position to argue. 1981-11-05 AWA Bobby Duncum vs. Billy Robinson Winnipeg Arena, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada Card ★★★★ This kind of came out of nowhere like a punch in the face. I had no expectations when I started watching this, just always happy to catch a bit of Billy Robinson, but damn this was awesome. They began this with Duncum trying to push Robinson’s buttons, hoping perhaps that angering him would cause him to make a mistake, but Robinson was able to keep his cool and methodically took Duncum apart piece by piece. When Robinson is allowed to just go off and be his virtuoso self it really doesn’t get much better. He was able to go through his repertoire of moves and counter moves and Duncum didn’t have an answer. Excellent transition as a freak thudding collision injured Robinson’s shoulder allowing Duncum to finally gain some measure of control, and Duncum held up his end of the bargain with some hefty arm work of his own. Robinson proved that he wasn’t just an offensive spot monkey with some top tier selling of his own and it was time for the momentum to swing to and fro as Robinson tried to reclaim the advantage he held earlier despite the lingering shoulder issue. It did seem as if he had enough to put Duncum away but instead of a clean finish we got Duncum losing by DQ for body dropping Robinson over the ropes. Honestly this might be my only criticism of the entire match, as it would have been the icing on the cake to have a decisive and triumphant finish. The whole match was expertly crafted with each section having its distinct purpose and both men executed their roles perfectly. Duncum probably has never looked better in my eyes, but he started off from a pretty low bar on that front. Robinson though has continued to elevate for me each time I see him. I’m now itching to get back and watch his prime 70s stuff, and while I recall a lot of them being classics, but I’m not sure now if this US version of him might be my favourite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.