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Showing results for tags 'Sheik'.
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1980-05-02 AJPW Abdullah The Butcher vs. The Sheik Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan Card ★★★★ The match itself didn’t even go 4 minutes but what a wild ride. It started out violent, with Sheik going right for the head with his hammer/spike thing and just viciously stabbing away. The referees tried to install some order but to no avail and both guys were DQ’d. What followed was 15 minutes of two guys just tearing at each other all over the arena. The crowd were soooo into this. It felt like they were a single organism with a hive mind - first they would swarm around the two competitors and then break apart, fleeing contact whenever they got too close. All the while Abby and Sheik were basically just straight up double choking each other. This didn’t feel like a choreographed fight, this felt like two guys in the playground who have snapped on each other being cheered on by the whole school. Every time the other AJPW wrestlers managed to separate them they would come back again and just collide into each other, without it feeling contrived at all. I remember being surprised the first time I felt that Abby was being cheered as a face, but this preceded those matches and boy was he really over with the crowd. The triumphant posturing post match that I saw in these two’s match later in November was present here as well, arms aloft in the ring this time as Sheik retreated.
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The conclusion to both teams' rivalry over the years, as well as the first of their matches - whether singles or tag - to have a decisive finish. Terry puts on an all-time great babyface performance, getting pummeled and maimed far worse than their 1977 outing, which makes for some incredibly cathartic payoffs. Dory also takes a good beating of his own, and the heels put every dirty trick to work before one costs them the win. Easily a classic from All Japan and still one of the best Tag League finals that there's ever been. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY5wtCuzOg4