SAMS Ragtag 1970s Yearbooks

[SAMS]

1973-07-09
IWE - Big Summer Series - Day 16
Strong Kobayashi (c) vs. Rusher Kimura
IWA World Heavyweight Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match
Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan
Card
★★
Kobayashi was the clean cut, straight laced champion up against Kimura who was more of a rough and scrappy challenger. If I’m not mistaken this was also the first clash for the title between two Japanese wrestlers, a departure from the company ethos of pitting homegrown Japanese stars against international competition. 
I liked how the first fall was decided by a furious slugfest, both men dispatching a flurry of strikes but the more aggressive Kimura came out on top and captured the fall. This meant that Kobayashi needed to retaliate and he came out the blocks fast in the second, upped his own aggression levels to match Kimura and in turn levelled things up. This concept of Kobayashi needing to dig deep to match Kimura was a neat one I thought.
To contrast the good, this match had a fair chunk of negatives as well. As for Kimura, some may say his selling style is subtle, I’d say it verges on the non-existent. He’s as wooden as he’d be a decade later and his lack of response to many of Kobayashi’s attacks prevented me from properly engaging in the match. Kobayashi as well is what I’d describe as a solid performer, but he doesn’t jump off the screen. These two being IWE’s top stars goes a long way to explaining why they lagged behind New Japan and All Japan.
The moment that took the cake however was what I can only assume was a botch, as it couldn’t have been intentional, but with Kobayashi in control during the third fall, he went for a rudimentary elbow drop. Kimura didn’t flinch in the slightest, but was merely his usual motionless self, and Kobayashi inexplicably whiffed on the move and landed straight on his elbow. This led to a massive switch in momentum and considering the time it happened in the match I assumed it was going to be  the catalyst for Kimura to go on and snatch the win. If that had happened I don’t see how Kobayashi could have been seen as a credible top guy and challenger for the title moving forwards as such a rookie error just made him look like a chump. Luckily for him the booking decision was for him to seal the deal. Even if Kimura and the referee, for both of Kobayashi’s falls, seemed intent on creating confusion and further delegitimizing Kobayashi’s win - Kimura lifting his shoulder up at the last second and the referee hesitating and having to recount the three. 

1973-07-17
French Catch
Jose Gonzalez vs. Batman
France
★★★
I have to admit I was perhaps a little overexcited in my anticipation for this match as I love both these guys, however while this didn’t set the world alight, honestly I’m not sure I could have asked for much more. Batman was as smooth as ever, I still enjoyed his combination of power and grace, but Gonzalez just was a supernova,  literally dripping with heel charisma. His look went a long way to selling the vibe, but he had the mannerisms, the facial expressions, the stooging, the big bumps. Literally everything you’d want he had in his locker. Another real standout performance from him. 

[SAMS]

1973-07-26
French Catch
Ted Lamarre vs. Robert Duranton
France
★★
The commentator certainly seemed to enjoy this match, and Duranton’s antics, far more than I. Duranton at this point was going with a gladiatorial boxer gimmick, but other than some cheap jabs he’d throw now and then it didn’t factor into his working style too much. I haven’t seen Lemarre since ‘70, and much like back then I preferred him when he was on offense. The problem here was that he wasn’t on offense much at all, in fact he felt like quite a peripheral figure as the most significant narrative thread seemed to be an ongoing dispute between Duranton and the referee. Durant won the match in the end via countout, tossing Lamare to the outside and drawing blood. When Lamare finally returned and wanted to throw down, Duranton was having none of it and ducked out with the victory already sealed.

1973-08-20
French Catch
Georges Cohen & Gerard Bouvet vs. Black Shadow & Josef El Arz
Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match
France
★★
Good for Cohen’s fire and energy. He knew what he was doing and it always felt like he was making an effort to push the match forwards in a positive direction. Bouvet seemed like his little brother or protege. He had some talent and was certainly eager, but not quite the finished article yet. Bouvet also showed flashes of being somewhat of a Chemoul clone, displaying those distinctive mannerisms more than once, highlighting Chemoul’s influence on the French wrestling landscape of the time. 
I’ll admit I had higher hopes for the El Arz/Black Shadow tandem. I’ve enjoyed their previous work but they’ve not kicked on like I’d hoped. They were willing to draw their opponents into their corner and apply heat, which I appreciate, but the actual beatdowns could have been so much more impactful. Black Shadow in particular demonstrated some of the weakest worked punches I’ve seen and it didn’t do anything but pull me out of the action.

[SAMS]

1973-08-24
NWA Hollywood
Johnny Powers & Pat Patterson (c) vs. Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi
NWA North American Tag Team Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match
Olympic Auditorium, Los Angeles, California, USA
Card
★★
I think this’ll be my only chance of watching Inoki for ‘73 and it was disappointing that this was such a lacklustre match. He was sporting probably the worst haircut of his career, a sweeping mop of a thing that sapped at least 20% of his natural aura. He and Sakaguchi were decent here but this is going nowhere near either man’s highlight reel. 
Patterson came out of this shining the brightest. Great timing, stooging and bumping. Perhaps not the most physically imposing presence or smoothest execution but showings like this demonstrate that he “got it”. One man I’m sure didn’t get it was Johnny Powers. Was there any point in his career that he was actually even a good wrestler? I assumed his awful appearances in IWE in the 80s was due to him being a bit over the hill but all the terrible mannerisms were still on full display here. Out of all the wrestlers who have ended up at the top of the card (in his case yes it may be because he often owned the promotion) he’s got to be one of the worst. The only way I can truly describe it is that everything he did seemed phoney, which is not an adjective I’d use to describe many wrestlers no matter their position on the card.

1973-08-25
WWA
Annihilation Inc. (Bruno Sammartino & Dick The Bruiser) (c) vs. Baron von Raschke & Ernie Ladd
WWA World Tag Team Title No Disqualification Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match
Exposition Convention Center, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Card
This was a wild one. A great example of territorial wrestling and an interesting mish-mash of characters. Bruno and Bruiser were an intriguing partnership, Bruno did more of the selling while Bruiser no-sold his way through the entire thing and leaned HARD into the hometown superhero character that he was to his fans. Raschke was there, and honestly could have been switched out for anybody with no difference, but Heenan and Ladd were worth their weight in gold. Heenan was a complete nuisance at ringside, sticking his nose in any and everything, and it might be a cliche to say at this point, but it is a sight to see a man of Ladd’s size bump the way he did here.
This was non-stop chaos for the two falls they aired on television here, including special referee Sam Menacker slapping Heenan in the face and generally having no qualms in getting in the mix, only to see himself get choked by Ladd using the microphone cable, then busted open by Heenan and left bleeding like a pig on the announcer’s desk. Amazingly this didn’t result in a DQ and in fact a second referee came in only moments later to count a fall FOR Ladd which tied things up.
A real barn burner but not the whole thing unfortunately.

[SAMS]

1973-08-27
WWWF
Prof. Toru Tanaka vs. Chief Jay Strongbow
Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA
Card
★
Another fun couple of minutes to open. Much like his tag team partner, Tanaka did the whole display with the salt and the old lady shuffled down to ringside to wipe it all away, the same old lady who did it in the previous match between Strongbow and Mr. Fuji. A nice demonstration of the little ecosystem that existed between the promotion, the venue and the fans at that time. 
Strongbow started strong again, still far more mobile than I ever would have expected, and his act certainly translated to the fans. From a pure workrate point of view he definitely out worked Tanaka, which is not a sentence I ever expected to write. Tanaka was all about stooging and little tricks, but it was all extremely basic and pretty boring. Then he applied the same pectoral hold Fuji did and it felt like that took up the whole second half of the match. Strongbow won with a Thesz Press out of nowhere but this once again was a 4 minute match that somehow had an extra 10 minutes tacked on.

1973-08-27
WWWF
Pedro Morales (c) vs. Stan Stasiak
WWWF Heavyweight Title Match
Madison Square Garden, New York City, New York, USA
Card
★★
Am I a masochist for watching this? Maybe. Is it kind of exactly what you would expect it to be? Definitely. Neither man’s strong suit was working a hold for long periods and this certainly hindered the match overall as they had to fill the time somehow. There were flurries of action, which is where Pedro is at his best, and there were moments where Stasiak was able to lean into his strengths also, but this should never really have gone past the 20 minute mark. The footage we have is around 40-45 but it actually went over 50 minutes and only finished due to the MSG curfew. Not scratch your eyes out, watching paint dry boring, but not the best that they could have presented with these wrestlers in particular.

[SAMS]

1973-09-03
French Catch
Angelito & El Alami vs. Guy Cavillier & Andre Roux
Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match
France
★★★
El Alami was plucky and the faces in general had their moments but this was driven by the heels applying some serious heat, especially to finish up the first fall, the impeccable timing they had on their mixup spots and the interplay between the two as they increasingly got more frustrated with each other. 
Roux and Cavillier almost relished laying the boots into their opponents. We saw relentless cheating and textbook referee manipulation to keep the pressure on, just wearing their opponents down to a nub. As the match wore on their cohesion as a team steadily eroded and they were hanging by a thread themselves by the end of it. Cavillier took his lead from Roux, who with his big moustache, gleefully yanked several times here, had a quintessential villainous look. 
These 30 minute matches can sometimes drag and often they never get the pacing right, but this one was continuously entertaining from start to finish without a lull at any point. Angelito and El Alami gave good showings, I probably would actually give the edge to Alami just for his exuberance, but this was all about the heels. It seems like we don’t see them again in the footage, or at least not together, and in Roux’s case we may never see him again period, which is a real shame because he looked to have been a real talent.

1973-09-25
Joint Promotions - World of Sport
Les Kellett vs. Bobby Barnes
Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
★★
This is on the lower end of the Les Kellett matches I’ve seen. His whole routine feels heavily entrenched in improvisation, and sometimes when you’re flying by the seat of your pants and you’re throwing shit at the wall to see what sticks you end up wide of the mark. That kind of felt like what happened here. 
When Kellett was in control it felt like Barnes had to follow along with him and his character work was limited to just his trademark flamboyant rolls. Barnes’ best moments were when he was on top and applying a beatdown, but in turn that meant that Kellett was forced to sell for long stretches and that isn’t his strength either.
I like both of these wrestlers but it seemed like each man’s strengths nullified the other and instead of compounding the value that each other brought it was more of a zero sum proposition.

[ohtani's jacket]

I love the Barnes vs. Kellett matches. (I have another one from the ITV archives.) The subtext is glorious. 

[SAMS]

What particularly do you love about them? 

It's pretty clear that I'm high on both these guys individually, but throwing them together just equalled a match that was far less than the sum of its parts to me. Maybe I just need to revisit it. I've also seen a smidge more Kellett in the time since I originally wrote up that match.

[SAMS]

1973-09-25
Joint Promotions - World of Sport
Adrian Street vs. Dave Barrie
Bradford, West Yorkshire, United Kingdom
★★★
Far more heated than the Kellett/Barnes match due to the fact that these two worked better as foils for each other. Street was up to his usual tricks and I’m still so impressed by how well he was able to fluidly transition between character work and technical wrestling. Barrie was no pushover though and he turned the tables on Street, using a few of his exuberant tricks against him  much to Street’s chagrin and then as the cheating ratcheted up he flipped his lid and laid in the boots on Street while the crowd went crazy. 
Once they reached the pinnacle with Street bumping all over the ring for Barrie’s fired up retaliation that should have probably been where they pivoted to the finish. The problem was that they kept things going for a round or two and they lost some of the good energy that they’d generated. It didn’t help that Barrie, the hometown boy, made a sloppy error, fell on his arm which Street promptly targeted to get the deciding submission, a finish that felt very slapdash and anticlimactic. Not that Barrie should have won but it felt VERY cheap.

1973-09-26
IWE - The 5th IWA World Series - Day 12
Strong Kobayashi vs. Lars Anderson
World Series Block A Match
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Card
A fun little sprint. Lars had the temerity to take the action to the outside, posted Kobayashi and busted him open, to which Kobayashi did not react kindly. He eventually took to clubbing Lars with a series of chair shots, declined to take the pin and ventured to dish out more punishment. When the referee tried to intervene Kobayashi took it a little too far and nailed the official with a backbreaker triggering the DQ finish. Really interesting to see a different, wilder side to Kobayashi.

[ohtani's jacket]

3 hours ago, SAMS said:

What particularly do you love about them? 

It's pretty clear that I'm high on both these guys individually, but throwing them together just equalled a match that was far less than the sum of its parts to me. Maybe I just need to revisit it. I've also seen a smidge more Kellett in the time since I originally wrote up that match.

I liked the interplay between Barnes' queer act and Kellett's stereotypical bigotry. Kellett was notoriously difficult to work with, and when you see a Kellett match on TV, you know that it's going to be a Les Kellett match with the other guy along for the ride. Barnes brought a different dimension and so you got a different type of comedy than Kellett poking fun at his opponent and making him look hapless. Kellett probably had better wrestling matches in his career, but based on the footage we have of him, I think Barnes is by far his best matchup.