Bruiser Brody

[KB8]

Bruiser Brody v Giant Baba (4/16/82), All Japan Pro Wrestling

 

Nothing that's going to set the world alight, but I dug this. I especially liked how they would use a slow build - perhaps too slow at points - and incorporate the standard shoulder block to get the point across that they were on the same level in this particular match. This leading to Brody pretty much saying "Fuck it" and drilling Baba in the head with a boot as opposed to continuing a shoulder block war was pretty awesome. Like I said, nothing amazing, but it's definitely passable. ***

 

 

Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen v Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta (4/20/82), All Japan Pro Wrestling

 

Building upon the match from 4 days ago, this time each guy brings a friend. This is 2/3 falls, and I thought it was pretty awesome, actually. Brody and Hansen just exude an aura of complete bad-assery that's unseen nowadays, and I wouldn't be surprised if the crowd thought the natives might actually die at some point. My favourite part of this, similar to the 4/16 match, is another big boot, this time Baba dishing out a receipt for Brody cheating in their shoulder block war by kicking Brody square in the face. Weak finish, but it's almost to be expected considering it's a non-RWTL Brody match. Really good stuff leading up to it, though. ***1/2

 

 

Bruiser Brody v Dory Funk Jr. (4/21/82), Int'l Title Match, All Japan Pro Wrestling

 

I honestly don't remember much about this, despite having watched it a couple nights ago. I do recall a "technical wiz trying to combat the crazy brawling bastard" story, which came off pretty good, if somewhat uninspired, in execution, but the weak finish is what sticks out most to me. For a change, it's not a DQ or count-out, but rather a botched reversal... thing, and it leaves the crowd somewhat confused. Still though, the rest of the match is most definitely watch-able, even just for Brody's double blade-job, taking a swipe above both eyes leaving him looking like a crazy bastard Native-American. Except this one doesn't use a tomahawk, he just chains you to shit. ***1/2

 

More later, I guess.

 

Edited to include some ninja stars

[KB8]

Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka v Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr. (12/13/81), Real World Tag League Final, All Japan Pro Wrestling

 

One of my favourite tag matches of all time! I love the intertwining hate between Terry and Brody, and Terry just throwing Snuka into his corner so Brody gets in for a fight is just awesome. Of course the monumental debut of a certain burly sumbitch is great too, so when said burly sumbitch knocks Terry the fuck out with a Lariat, Dory is left all alone to fend off the crazed gaijin. Eventually it's too much, and Dory succumbs to the King Kong Knee Drop! The aftermath is just as great with Brody, Snuka and Hansen all continuing to beat on the Funks before Jumbo and Baba make the save, resulting in an all out brawl. Hansen even blades for a Baba Chop on his first night. The cursing from Hansen all the way to the locker room, and threatening to beat the bejesus out of a camera man for daring to follow them in, is the cherry on the cake. ****1/2

 

 

Bruiser Brody v Jumbo Tsuruta (10/7/82), Int'l Title Match, All Japan Pro Wrestling

 

This was my first taste of Brody v Jumbo in a singles environment, and I definitely wasn't disappointed. It's another one of those slower paced matches, with Jumbo focusing on taking the big ol' Bruiser's leg away from him, while Brody tries to get some sort of foothold in the match, and while Jumbo's leg work is nothing fancy, it serves its purpose just fine. Brody's never been much for the long term selling though, so it does tend to get blown off - although Jumbo is really good at going back to it quickly enough that it doesn't seem as noticeable - but his short term selling (ie. after just escaping/being released from the hold) is fine. No surprises with the finish... or lack thereof... but I'm used to it enough that it doesn't hurt the match too much, at least for me. ***3/4

 

 

Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen v Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood (11/26/82), All Japan Pro Wrestling

 

Straight up, this is freakin' awesome. The pace is crazy, the heat is there in spades, the heels are great at what they do, likewise the babyfaces are great at what they do, and Jay Youngblood gets annihilated for being a pretty boy. Hansen and Brody are just a couple of tough bastards, and apparently Jay tried to put the moves on their wives, because they make him PAY... for something. Steamer's a great hot tag, although there isn't an especially long FIP segment, and as the match progresses it becomes clear that they're going to have to use every bit of speed and teamwork they've got to win. One thing I really liked was the spot where all 4 guys go to the floor and proceed to brawl and beat the shit out of each other with chairs and stuff. Now at this point I'm thinking "Damn it, they're gonna throw the match out. Just when it looked to be getting great.", but instead, they get back in the ring, form some sort of semblance and continue wrestling for another 10 minutes. In the end, young Jay (no pun intended) put up a good fight, but it was inevitable that Hansen wasn't going home without decapitating a bitch... too bad for Jay that it had to be him. Great fun. ****

[jdw]

Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen v Ricky Steamboat & Jay Youngblood (11/26/82), All Japan Pro Wrestling

My Favorite Match Ever!

 

This has Frank-style formatting... I'm not sure why I did it that way back in 2003.

 

--------------------------------------

 

"Don't give them anything and beat them up."

-Bruiser Brody as quoted by Dave Meltzer

 

* * * * * *

 

11/26/82 - Real World Tag League:

Stan Hansen & Bruiser Brody

vs. Rick Steamboat & Jay Youngblood

 

jdw

Member #622

posted 12-01-2003 05:43 PM

 

Steamboat & Youngblood come out first to a good

pop and more than a few "Rickey!" squeels from

the females in the crowd. Hansen & Brody come

out to the nifty splice job they use to do

combining Hansen's theme with Brody's Zepp

music. Big pop, of course, and a noticable buzz

from the crowd.

 

Our ref is Joe Haguchi, who gets a little "go

away" shove from Brody when trying to do the

usual 'ref checking the wrestlers' pre-match

spot. Joe gives up trying to check Brody and

moves on with trying to get the match started.

 

Brody starts off with Steamboat, and quickly

makes Steamboat eat a shoulder tackle. They

work a headlock briefly, with Brody taking it

over to the mat, and Steamboat countering to an

even briefer head scissors that Brody pops out

of instantly. Brody seems to have had enough of

this, kicks Steamboat in the gut, grabs a front

facelock, and tags in Hansen.

 

Hansen comes in a clubbering - a forearm clubber

to the back, a nice elbow smash to the head, a

chop, a snap mare, and his patented

elbow-thrust-into-the-chinlock spot. Hansen

works the chinlock hard, shaking Steamboat

around like he's cinching it in tight.

Steamboat sells it well before reversing it into

a hammerlock. Hansen fights it, but rather than

popping out of it like Brody, allows Steamboat

to work it up to a vertical base and twist the

arm around while tagging in Youngblood. Yes,

Stan is letting the faces get some offense in.

 

Jay comes off the top with a flying axe handle,

then twists the arm around before Hansen cuts

him off with the eye rake. Hansen plants Jay

with a big slam, then adds in a nice pop to the

head with his knee before tagging in Brody.

Hansen whips Jay into the ropes and Brody walks

over to give him a back elbow as Jay runs into

him. Another whip into the ropes sees Jay eat a

nice dropkick by Brody. The big fella follows

with more offense, hitting a backbreaker which

Jay kicks out of surprisingly quick. Brody

cinches in another front facelock and heads over

to tag in Stan.

 

Stan and Brody combine for a double-team

northern chop from Brody. Youngblood tries

to "fire up" and show his "fighting spirit" by

firing a chop at Brody, but the big fella stares

at Jay for a moment like an elephant buzzed by a

flea before Stan makes the save by snap maring

Jay over into the reverse chinlock. Stan and

Jay work the hold before Stan lets Jay work it

up to a vertical base and backinto the corner to

tag Steamboat.

 

Tied up with Jay, Stan's left himself open for

Steamboat's "hot tag". Rick comes in with chops

to the chest and head, which Stan sells well,

before Steamboat & Youngblood team up for

their "lift kick" double team move. Stan bumps

for it, and eats a pin attempts by Steamboat.

Steamboat and Hansen work the headlock takeover

into the head scissors sequence before Stan

finally cuts off the faces' offensive run. Stan

hits one of his nice elbow drops to Rick's chest

before tagging in Brody.

 

Brody nicely hits his big running high kick into

the corner, or more accurately, right into

Rick's face. Brody follows by pitching

Steamboat outside the ring, but Rick has other

ideas. As Brody is climbing out the otherside

of the ring, the cat-quick Steamboat hops up on

the apron and comes off with a flying chop to

the head as Brody wanders around the corner of

the floor. A nice babyface payback spot for

the boot to the head. Brody has other ideas as

he no sells it, grabs Steamboat's head, no sells

Steamboats punches to the gut, and bounces

Steamboat's head off a chair. Brody then grabs

the chair and pops Rick on the top of the head

before Rick can even get his hands up to

protects himself pre-FMW style. Rick doesn't

seem really pleased with this, as he goes to

grab the chair as Brody discards it and looks

for some babyface payback. Brody seems not to

want to reciporcate as he grabs onto the chair

as Steamboat holds it, forcing Youngblood to

come over to help out. Brody shrugs off that in

a fashion that might be embarassing to the faces

had not Hansen jumped in to make the save by

pulling Jay off of Brody. It's a bit like one

elephant pulling a flea off the back off another

elephant who hand't even noticed the flea was

there.

 

Brody and Steamboat struggle over the chair, and

one gets the feeling that Brody sensed the

annoying Steamboat wasn't going to quit until he

got his payback spot in. Brody eats a chop,

lets go of the chair, looks at Rick, gets his

arms up well in advance of the chair, and lets

Rick hit over the 'head'. Brody sells the

damage by *stalking* the chair weilding

Steamboat, and shrugs off a chair to the gut,

simply grabbing Steamboat and posting him.

Steamboat bounces off, Brody stalks him right

into where Youngblood had been left by Hansen.

Jay takes the opportunity to chop Brody a bit,

perhaps leading to a face two-on-one comeback.

No worries there as Brody 'makes his own save'

by no selling Jay's offense, pitching him aside,

and bouncing Steamboat onto the apron and into

the ring. Oh boy.

 

Somehow when Steamboat gets back in the ring,

Hansen is the 'legal man' while Brody wanders

aimlessly back to his own corner. This is a

lucky break for the faces as Hansen quickly eats

a flying axe from the cat quick Steamboat and

bumps for it. Hansen has now been in three

times, and each of the times he's let the faces

roll off some 'babyface comeback' offense on

him. Brody's been in three times, hasn't taken

a bump, hasn't sold a thing, and has several

times flat out no-sold.

 

Hansen eats several chops from Steamboat, then

tries to comeback with a running kick to the

gut. Steamboat catches the leg and single legs

Hansen down to the mat before hitting a thrust

chop to the throat. Hansen shows he's not only

willing to let the faces make "babyfaces

comebacks" when he's in, but he's also willing

to let his own 'monster heel comebacks' be cut

of by the faces. Go figure.

 

Steamboat's a house of fire, which is really

heating up the crowd. He pops Hansen with

another chop, and then runs over and nails Brody

with one for good measure. Brody sells it by...

well... his hair flys around a bit, he droops

down across the top ropes for about two seconds,

and then stands right back up as if nothing

happened. Luckily Steamboat had already run

back to chop Hansen and shoot him into the face

corner where Hansen could eat a chop from

Youngblood. Jay gets the hot tag and Hansen

eats a double team dropkick-chop combo. Stan's

had enough of that, fires back on Jay, and nails

his own excellent drop kick that plants Jay.

Hansen follows with a nice vertical suplex and a

big elbow drop to the back of Jay's head.

 

Since the heels are back on offense, it's safe

for Stan to tag in Brody, who comes in with a

nice flying axe-handle off the top. Brody

follows with a running high kick, which Jay

seems to not want to take the full force off,

turning away as it's hit. Brody puts Jay in

the 'tree of woe', gets in a few stomps, and

tags in Hansen as Joe Haguchi drags him off.

Brody's streak of not bumping or selling in the

match continues, as the faces are now 0-for-4

against the big fella, even when chairs and

double teams are involved.

 

Steamboat unhooks Jay from the tree of woe just

in time for Hansen to grab him and put Jay in a

bearhug. The five minute call is made. Jay

tries to get out by boxing Hansen's ears, which

Hansen sells a bit but spins around to his own

corner so Brody can tag in. For the first time

in the four trips he's made into the ring,

Hansen doesn't let the faces have anything.

Brody puts Jay back in the bearhug, and even

gets a nearfall off of it. Jay tries to get out

by raking the eye, but Brody pulls Jay over

into the corner to tag in Hansen. The streak

lives.

 

Hansen's back in with the clubbers, a high back

bodydrop and a backbreaker before tagging out to

Brody. Stan seems to be learning from Brody as

the match goes along. Then again, this is

face-in-peril on Jay so the heels should be

running some offense here. Brody comes in with

a snapmare followed by his nice legdrop for a

heated nearfall. Give Brody some credit for

making a suprised 'that should have pinned him'

look after Jay kicked out. Brody followed by

shooting Jay into the ropes and going down real

early for a back bodydrop that Jay meets with

and axehandle and loads of chops.

 

Steamboat gets the hot tag, and the crowd is

into it for the face comeback. Rick's a house

of fire with chops left and right. After doing

six or so in the corner, he shoots Brody into

the ropes and hits a punch to the gut on the

rebound. Brody sells this by grabbing his

stomach and wandering over to tag in Hansen to

take the rest of the babyface comeback. By the

time Hansen is in, Brody's stomach appears to be

fine as he climbs out through the ropes, brushes

back his hair and stands in the corner on the

apron. Good to know he's okay after Jay and

Rick took it to him in a babyface comeback.

 

In the meantime, Hansen is taking the rest of

Steamboat's firey hot tag babyface comeback that

the crowd is eating up. Chops-o-plently before

Hansen reverse a whips into the corner and hits

a nice running jumping knee. Rick sells it

well, and Hansen follows with one of those nice

knee rakes of his. Against the ropes, Hansen

and Steamboat go toe-to-toe with Hansen going

down with a bump on Rick's desperation kick.

Hansen comes back to smother Steamboat and tags

Brody in.

 

Brody's in with the stomps and the standing

kneedrop for a nearfall. Rick tries a comeback,

but Brody cuts it off with punches and thrusts.

Brody follows by going for an axehandle...

well... he sets for it by locking his hands

above his head while Steamboat is draped across

the ropes with his back to Brody, stands waiting

for Rick to sort of turn around, wanders in

slowly making sure Rick can see him, and lets

Steamboat nail him with a back elbow. This is

common to Brody matches. His transitions are

usually pretty horrific as he often would make

it clear to everyone in the building "I'm

*letting* him comeback on me". Either that or

Brody had the worst timing on transitions

around. Even his earlier back bodydrop counter

spot saw him go down earlier than just about any

heel would.

 

Steamboat fires away with chops, and in contrast

with Brody, Rick times his back bodydrop

transition counter for Brody nicely. Brody

quickly wanders off to make the tag with Hansen,

not even bothering to drag Steamboat over there

to "cut off the ring". It's also good to see

that Steamboat's chops aren't affecting Brody as

he seems to be a-o-kay by the time he's back out

on the apron.

 

Thanks to Brody's 'catcher's indifference' tag

work, Hansen has to come across quickly to keep

Rick from making the hot tag. Actually he

didn't, since Steamboat was enough a pro to know

it wasn't his turn to go on offense so despite

being in his own team's 'half' of the ring

and 'unguarded', he wasn't making a dramatic

effort to crawl off to the corner. Then again,

Hansen was enough of a pro to see the opening

Brody's indifference made and made the effort

to "cut off" Steamboat anyway. You know, it's a

pleasure to watch Rick and Hansen work, and it

makes you want to see a nice 15 minute singles

match between them from Mid-Atlantic where Brody

and the 'Japanese cameras' excuse wasn't around

to drag the two down. Hansen always showed

against Backlund and Inoki that he knew exactly

how to work with super over babyface infront of

their 'home crowd'.

 

Back to the match. Hansen is dropping the heavy

elbows on Steamboat, but misses one before

stooging for Rick crawling between his knees to

make the hot tag. Jay comes in a house of fire,

chopping Stan all over the place and even

chopping Brody on the apron. While Stan is

bumping his rear off in ring for Jay's chops,

Brody 'almost goes down' on the apron. Stan

eats more chops and a dropkick that Stan bumps

for before Steamboat comes in and goes toe-to-toe

with Hansen in a battle of chops to the head.

A very noticable "Rickey! Rickey! Rickey!" chant

comes from the Japanese crowd. Noticable

because it's very *loud* in its emphatic support

of the faces.

 

Rick actually is "winning" the toe-to-toe

headchopping spot, backing up big Stan. The

only problem is that he backs Stan up into

Stan's corner where a 'fresh' Brody tags in.

Well, Brody's been fresh within seconds of

standing out on the apron throughout the match,

to the point that you wonder if there's some

magic poweder in the corner that heals Brody's

wounds. Anyway...

 

Brody comes in with a running high kick, but

Rick comes back with the chops and a dropkick.

Brody takes his first bump of the match for the

dropkick, if you can call it a bump. He turns

away from the dropkick, taking the dropkick sort

of on his right shoulder, then sort of spinning

around from the dropkick, and then sort of going

down for it landing on his hip and butt rather

than back. It's possible that Brody was gamely

working this match with a bad back given his

noticable lack of bumping compared to not just

the babyfaces but also his own partner. Then

again, that back must have still been hurting

him a few months later in St. Louis when he

wouldn't bump much at all for Flair when

having to fill "sixty minutes" of space, and

when bumping tended to do it in that same odd

style that lessened the dramatic impact of his

opponents' moves. Anyway...

 

Rick crawls over to cover Brody, but Brody has a

streak of Bob Backlund in him and only takes a

one count before kicking out. Double team

axehandle, and Brody takes his second bump of

the match, in that same odd "land on my hip"

fashion rather than coming anywhere close to

taking a back bump. Yeah, he's got to have a

bad back here. If not, this would probably be

the same as Hogan's 'bad bumps' showing up Rock

at Wrestlemania 2002, since these sure aren't

making Jay and Rick look so hot. Anyway...

 

The faces try to follow with one of their

hottest doubleteams - Rick's slingshot of Jay

into the ring for a press. This is too much to

ask for as Brody twists around and gets his

knees up to block it. The move looks very bad,

and it's not too clear on who blew it. Jay did

not appear to be coming into the ring in a

direction headed to a "block", instead seemingly

aimed towards the upper chest. Brody did have

to twist around to get his knees up in a

position to "catch" Youngblood with them. It's

possible that it was suppose to be "countered"

and that Brody was a little out of position on

the match and had to adjust for it. Youngblood

did sell the counter after Brody got the legs

up, theatrically then going to the mat.

 

There is a slight problem with this - Rick

actually dragged Brody a bit before the

slingshot to put him into "proper position" for

the move. Also, as Jay was initially selling on

the mat you can clearly see him looking over at

Brody almost like he's trying to get a clue on

what Brody was going to do next. At best, it

was just an ugly looking spot. Jay was often

sloppy in the ring, and may have just been off

here. At worst, Brody called an audible as Jay

was trying to hit the move, not wanting to let

the faces get off a "hot move". Brody's track

record for calling audibles on opponents offense

is the worst in the modern history of pro

wrestling. Jay wasn't flying in the direction

he would normally flying when having one of his

presses counters (he'd tended to aim them a bit

more towards the waist so the heel didn't have

to come up too far). Watch the match and make

your own call. It's 50/50 on how one wants to

see it.

 

Brody gets up, wanders off to his corner, tags

in Hansen, climbs through the ropes, Steamboat

runs across and club him causing Brody to hop

off the apron to the floor, where Brody wanders

around a bit. Rick keeps his attention on

Brody, which given what follows sure looks like

Brody was suppose to grab Rick's legs and drag

him out of the ring. Instead Rick has to keep

him back turned from what happens in the ring -

Hansen coming in to hit the lariat on Jay. Down

goes Jay, and in a wide shot you see Steamboat

having to climb though the ropes to get to the

wandering around 'asleep at the wheel' Brody so

he 'couldn't save' Jay from being pinned by the

move Hansen just hit behind his back. Hansen

takes his time covering, and it's a 1-2-3 at

10:37. Rick dives in under the ropes long after

the three count is made, pretty much looking

like an idiot for not having a clue that Hansen

was chopping off Jay's head. In reality it was

Brody who just wandered off and Steamboat had to

lamely try to find an excuse for not being able

to save Jay from the finish.

 

* * * * * *

 

When I see quotes like this:

 

"Basics on [Jumbo's] rep. First off, if he didn't

consider you at his level, he wouldn't do

anything for you. I saw that on numerous

occasions with good working but mid-level

Americans so I think that's valid, and that was

even in his hot period. If he wasn't in the

mood, you couldn't get a match out of him. It

was more frustrating to people because he was so

talented than if he was a slug."

-Dave Meltzer

 

and:

 

"Everyone respected that when [Jumbo] wanted to

go, he could go with anyone, but his reputation

was that he was a lazy worker unless there were

TV cameras. I got that from Brody (who always

complained that I overrated him)..."

-Dave Meltzer

 

The one thought that popped into my mind

was, "What about Brody's work?" The above match

isn't one against "good working but mid-level

Americans". Steamboat & Youngblood were the top

babyface team in the top tag team territory in

the country. Steamboat had been a main eventer

for years by that point, including main events

in Japan against Flair and Jumbo Tsuruta. Was

he as big of a star as Brody in Japan? Of

course not. But he was a bigger level star

than Foley was in 1991 when Mick was nothing

more than a prelimer. He was a bigger star at

the time than Richard Slinger, Johnny Smith, Tom

Zenk, Dan Kroffat, Doug Furnas or whatever All

Japan mid-card or prelim gaijin from 1989-1992

we want to roll out. This is a top American

star and tag team that Brody is treating like

dung in the ring.

 

Yet one watches this match and isn't surprised

with what Brody did if one has watched enough of

his work in Japan. This is typical of his work

against gaijin who were at a level lower than

the Funks or Harley Race. Even major stars like

Steamboat got nothing from him, and even when

transitioning them briefly onto offense, he'd

pull out his wink-wink methods to make the

opponent look weak. This was typical of his

pairing with Hansen, where if there was any

dirty work to be done making the opponents look

good, Hansen was the one willing to do it, while

Brody didn't give them anything and beat them up.

 

Of course Brody had the excuse at the time, and

has continued to have it spun since his death,

that it was okay for him to give people below

him nothing because of his high spot and his

need to protect his position.

 

One can watch Jumbo's singles match earlier that

year with Steamboat to see how giving Jumbo was

with him. Or better still, watch another high

ranked American superstar in Japan work with

Steamboat in a singles match on the same tour -

the 12/07/82 Harley Race vs. Rick Steamboat

match. Race gives Steamboat big chunks of the

match, sells for him, and makes him look good

while also getting in a big pile of his own

spots out of the Harley Race Big Book Of

Wrestling Moves. Then contrast them with what

Brody was willing to give Steamboat.

 

"[brody] was the best pure brawler and

arguable the top all-around worker of

the '80s..."

-The Wrestling Observer' Top 100 Pro Wrestlers of All Time

 

Setting aside the issue of Brody being arguably

the most overrated worker of the past 25 years

for another thread, there is the issue of

applying a double standard. Brody gets a free

pass on his selfish and lazy work because of his

spot. Jumbo worked as The Man in All Japan, and

worked in a fashion consistent with that spot.

Whereas Ric Flair would beg off in the corner to

TV "enhancement talent" like Italion Stalion,

Jumbo would give a prelimer like Mick Foley

exactly as much match time and offiense as he

deserved against the top wrestler in the

company. Jumbo should be praised for that, not

have it used as yet another one of the trumped

up excuses for rating his work down.

 

John

[KB8]

Pretty epic stuff, John. The formatting is.. different

[KB8]

Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen v Harley Race & Dick Slater (12/2/82), All Japan Pro Wrestling

 

Well, there are no moonsaults or shooting star presses in this one; 2 teams beating the shit out of each other sounds about right as the long and short of it. I can't quite pinpoint why I loved this as much as I did - maybe it was the fact that Race was tossing referees about and hitting them with chairs like nobody's business - but I most definitely enjoyed the hell out of it. The strange thing is, I watched it this morning, and I've pretty much forgotten everything about it aside from the fact they just straight up fight each other. Actually, maybe that's the reason I loved it so much... ***3/4

 

 

Bruiser Brody v Terry Funk (12/7/82), All Japan Pro Wrestling

 

The Brody/Hansen v Funks war continues, this time through singles competition... and it's just fantastic! There's no headlocks or chinlocks to ease into this one; both guys hate each other - they fight... actually, scratch that, they FIGHT - and for the first couple minutes they're level pegging. That is until Brody catches Funk with a kick in the ear. Terry's visibly in some amount of distress, so Brody continues to kick away at it, eventually ramming him into the post. When Terry gets up, he's bleeding badly from the ear. It's an uphill struggle from here on out, but Terry is just so damn great in that position that it's a ton of fun to watch. The way he tries to desperately headbutt Brody as he's getting in the ring, hanging onto the ropes so he doesn't fall onto the concrete himself, is such a great move for getting the crowd fired up, as well as getting the desperation over at the same time. Eventually ol' Stan Hansen decides he's had enough so he interjects himself, followed by Dory, leaving the referee no choice but to throw the match out. We're not done there though, because the tables and chairs at ringside are just beggin' to be launched in the ring... so Terry obliges. Post-match is crazy good fun, and it only adds to an already super-heated brawl. I also want to add that Terry Funk is just off the page great in this whole scenario. He doesn't do anything that would otherwise stand out on its own, but his general movement, crowd control, and especially selling, are just beautiful to watch. Man, I love both these guys. ****1/4

 

 

I also watched the 1980 RWTL final between the Funks and Jumbo/Baba, and while I thought that was supreme as well, I'm interested as to what most people think is better between this and the '81 final. I'd throw ****1/2 snowflakes at both, although I just prefer the '81 match, but what's everybody else's take?

[goodhelmet]

Brody singles matches I have nominated for the All Japan Project...

 

Bruiser Brody vs. Abdullah the Butcher (4/10/81)

- THis is almost an exact duplicate of the last match with very little wrestling and mostly arena brawling. However, where the last match had Steamboat chasing Sheik around the arena, this match has Abdullah and Brody with eaach other's hands around their throats the entire time they brawl. I am going to nominate this one with reservations. I want to see if there are any other Brody-Abby matches that are representative if what these two were doing and why they got their reputations. However, if a better one comes along, we can drop this one.

 

Bruiser Brody vs. Dory Funk Jr. (10/9/81)

- This is the type of brawl that people should point to when they stick up for Brody. The only problem is that this was fun almost entirely due to dory Funk's willingness to play human punching bag. He bleeds, bumps and shows as much emotion as Dory Funk is capable of. Brody sells a little when Dory is ramming him into the ringposts but that is mainly an excuse to let him bleed. Pretty sweet post-match brawl as well with Brody and Dory taking out all of the natives who try to break up the fight. Buck Robley even joins in the fray.

 

Bruiser Brody vs. Dory Funk Jr. (4/21/82)

- After about ten minutes of ok work, this really picks up when they brawl out in the crowd and Dory gets busted open. The crowd was really hot and Brody gave more to Dory than I have seen him give to anyone not named Baba. Both guys end up covered in blood and it even had a clean ending as Dory goes for a backdrop suplex but Brody pushes off the top rope and rolls through and pins Dory. This might be my favorite singles Brody match so far.

 

Terry Funk vs. Bruiser Brody (12/7/82)

- The story here has Funk nursing his ear that Brody kicked early in the match so Brody keeps attacking the ear, enough to make it bleed. He rams Terry’s head into the ringpost. When Terry tries to get in the ring, he kicks the ear. He drops knee drops on the head. This is actually a pretty smart match. Even though this is a Brody match, Terry’s selling is great. There is also an awesome Brody piledriver that looked brutal, especially after Terry had tried so hard to prevent it. Eventually, Terry gets a break after a low-blow sends Brody outside. On the outside, Funk busts Brody open after ramming him in the ringpost and slamming a table on him. Now, both guys are flowing and I mark out for the visual. This was pretty damn fun until Hansen interfered, which also brought out Dory for a post-match brawl. I have no problem nominating this match. It had blood, great brawling, focus on a body part and Brody even sold a little.

 

Bruiser Brody vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (Japan) (5/26/83)

- Surprisingly, Brody is giving Jumbo a lot more than I expected early on by bumping for him and giving him a fair share of offense without completely shrugging him off. This gets a little too chinlock-happy at times but I enjoyed this much more than the Flair hour match and the Bock match from Episode 91. In the end, this even turns into one of those wild, Brody brawls with both guys busted open for good measure. Good, solid nomination.