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1980-04-18 AJPW Abdullah The Butcher vs. Terry Funk Champion Carnival 1980 Match Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka, Japan Card ★★ Can’t say this was good but it definitely was a spectacle. Both guys were pouring blood by the end of it. There was no messing around and they got right to it off the bat. Abby can barely sell a thing but with Terry shrieking like a banshee throughout it was never less than compelling viewing. After the inevitable double count out they even had to cut away because the ensuing attack on Terry was too violent to be shown. This is exactly what you would expect a Funk vs Abby match to be and it was a whole lot of fun, if you don’t mind a bit of blood. I thought Terry Funk was great, as usual, but Abby here was a bit too static to give any real sense of threat or drama, so in a sense it did feel a little bit like two guys getting together to bleed in a ring.

1980-04-04 AJPW Jumbo Tsuruta vs Terry Funk Champion Carnival 1980 Match Tendai Town Gymnasium, Chiba, Japan Card ★★★ Terry is often described as the Gaijin babyface ace of All Japan but I wanted to see how the crowd responded when he matched up against somebody like Jumbo and it was pretty clear from the start, and throughout the match, that Terry was, in fact, the fan favourite between the two and he generated far stronger reactions at various points. I think they spent far too long on the mat-work portion of the match, and what they did was rather poor. It felt at times that they were completely out of sync and it was hard to figure out what they were going for at various points. Things picked up a lot in the final 15 minutes or so when they just started throwing bombs at each other and we had a strong stretch where things reached a fever pitch. Ultimately they ran out of time and we had the predictable time limit draw. Funk really stood out between these two as he just about did everything you’d want a wrestler to do better than Jumbo here: selling, bumping, facial expressions, great offense. Jumbo’s offense, especially his slam and suplexes, are great but that’s about the only thing he was able to match Terry on. There are glimpses here and there that I find promising but I think it’s obvious, especially when matched up against such a great babyface like Terry Funk, that Jumbo isn’t the kind of guy who’s inherently lovable. I think he could be likeable and obviously he wasn’t a heel that was looking to be disliked, but he didn’t have that loveable quality. Instead I feel like he works best when he leans into being more smug and more entitled. When he transitioned into his Grumpy Jumbo phase it was these qualities more than anything else that really solidified his persona. He was fighting to retain his top spot, he couldn’t believe that these young guys were trying to usurp him and those were the defining characteristics of late Jumbo. Either way, in 1980 he was still more of a bland generic babyface than any clearly defined character and I think it would have served him well if he’d leaned into those aspects of his personality sooner.

And we're back with AJPW 1985. We're looking at October. Riki Choshu vs Ashura Hara (10/04 aired 10/12): I noticed I had no Riki Choshu this post. The booking has separated Riki/partner from Jumbo & Tenryu for a little bit. Presumably to build to another encounter for RWTL drama. Anyway this was blazing right out of the gate. Full speed ahead ass kicking. Unfortunately it didn't get too far in before a DQ was called but Damn! this was a blast while it lasted. Dory and Terry Funk v. Road Warriors (10/19/85): Not to be a bummer but, looking at these guys in 1985, it's a shock Dory Jr. is the only one still alive. Not the two muscle bound giants or the crazy bearded brawler but the guy who looks like an old Charlie Brown. I don't consider Road Warriors matches more than novelty outings at this point. ------ Ric Flair v. Jumbo Tsuruta (Non-Title, 10/19/85): These two always have a great encounter and this was no different. Technical and hard hitting so I can't complain. Seeing as this is a non title fight it added a bit of drama (that we don't get in hindsight with big title matches). ----- Shoehi Baba/Takashi Ishikawa/Mighty Inoue v. Ashura Hara/Rusher Kimura/Goro Tsurumi (10/21/85): A really fun match. Although Baba is regularly an excellent 6-manner, it was best when he was out. Ishikawa & Inoue had a really fast paced match going on with the heel team. Kabuki v. Killer Khan (10/21/85): Good brawl but over before it had a chance to be better. Ref saw Kabuki spit the mist in Khan's eyes. Dory and Terry Funk/Tiger Mask v. Billy Robinson/Terry Gordy/Chavo Guerrero (10/21/85): This is a fun match and something you'd dream up for a video game or fantasy booking. I've seen it a few times so I won't review it here. One of the more memorable times was watching this the night before my last day at work before getting laid off. I remember getting drunk that night and after I ran out of beer, I started drinking gin & Gatorade. Threw up. Big surprise! Was super hung over and late to work the next day... what were they going to do? Fire me? Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru v. Road Warriors (10/21/85): Probably the best Warriors match thus far. Not a novelty as this was pretty damn good! They actually sold and wanted to do good wrestling with Tenryu and Jumbo. This was a heavyweight fireworks match for '85. If I'm going to recommend a RW in AJPW '85, it's this one. Holy Shit an actual wrestling hold from Animal! ----- Ric Flair v. Rick Martel (NWA Title v. AWA Title, 10/21/85): Fuck yes! This was awesome! This is the match that I was hoping it would be. The pacing and flow were perfect and I felt like I could have watched this go on all evening. Excellent teases, near falls (even though you probably know the outcome)/..but you really don't know how they are going to get there 38 years later. Classic match for me. Dory and Terry Funk v. Terry Gordy/Art Crews (10/22/85): Good little match here. Art Crews was a good hand it would seem. Everything he did looked crisp but without trying to upstage the stars. Don't think I'll see him again in '85 but this match is a good example of some of non-stars working AJPW at the time. Mil Mascaras v. Norio Honaga (10/22/85): Quick fun match. Cool to see Mascaras. This was a nice exhibition showing. He did a bunch of cool holds and although Honaga never had a chance, he got a 2 count Ric Flair/Rick Martel v. Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru (10/22/85): Dream match? Yeah absolutely... no idea this happened but glad it did! And its a great one. It's a terrific match for a Sunday night. Four hall of fame wrestlers in AJPW 1985...it's hard to go wrong here. ----- This was an excellent week of wrestling. Lotsa Rick Martel and I even skipped one, Martel vs Riki Choshu from 10/19/85. It's out there on the Roy 1985 tapes, take a look. We're going onto November '85. Thanks for reading!

Sorry for the delay! I'll get to that in a minute. It's nothing dramatic. So here we are in August & September of 1985 All Japan Pro Wrestling! The Funker...the late great Terry Funk is here. Lots of Stan Hansen and yeah this one is pretty star studded. Let's begin! Riki Choshu/Killer Khan vs Genichiro Tenryu/Jumbo Tsuruta (08/02 aired 08/03): A great match without a doubt! Things started out with Jumbo and Riki having a technical fight. Once Khan started slapping people in the face, the tone changed. This is one of more stiff hitting matches I've seen from mid 80's Tenryu. I'm pretty sure he punched Khan in the face on a tag team double punch. They do something different every match and they don't need a ton of signature moves. Everything feels like a fight. This is probably the frontrunner for my feud of the year. Terry Funk v. Stan Hansen (08/23/85): Oh man, this was wild from the get-go! They were just beating each other up inside and out. Terry took some wild ass bumps. One would have been right at home in mid 2000's NOAH. Also to say this was stiff would be an understatement. We get an 80's finish but is probably my favorite type and Dory ends up coming out and hitting people with his cowboy boot (while wearing a shirt and tie). Great stuff! If you've never seen either guy, this is a excellent match as an introduction. If you're missing some Terry Funk, go watch this one. Dory and Terry Funk v. Stan Hansen & Ted DiBiase (08/29/85): Really good match...I'm not sure if I'd call it great as it didn't seem to have much of a story or flow to it. My guess is that the encounter was meaningful enough. All 4 guys were really exciting and man Stan Hansen is so quick! But I'll level with you. I haven't gotten a good night's sleep for a couple days so this match may be better than I reckon. So if you're interested than you should check it out, don't just take my word for it with this review. ----- Stan Hansen/Ted DiBiase vs Jumbo Tsuruta/Genichiro Tenryu (08/31 aired 09/07): Aw man! They cut the finish out! This was a classic match or damn near and they ended the program :-( Talk about an 80's finish... The real same is this match was the last one to watch for this post and is kinda the reason I am late posting it. Like I said what was shown (assuming 90%) was near classic but I probably would have skipped this knowing the end wasn't shown. All that said, DiBiase was fan-fucking-tastic with Jumbo & Tenryu. I'm pumped to see more of him with Hansen. Tiger Mask vs Marty Jannetty (09/05 aired 09/14): Joined in progress. This is a bit of fun. Low stakes but well executed... reminds me of a WCW TV match. Just wanted to watch it because it happened. I mean Marty Jannetty vs Mitsuharu Misawa right? Gotta check it out Jumbo Tsuruta/Tenyru v. Yoshiaki Yatsu/Killer Khan (09/14/85): Man, Yatsu is a really exciting wrestler. He's like that in the 01/28/86 match. I remember him being more of a tough guy when he & Jumbo team in the late 80's. He really brings some different stuff here doing both a double under hook suplex and belly to belly suplex. He's also off the top rope a couple times. I think I'm learning to appreciate him even more than I did before. So all that aside this is a very good to great tag match. It's everything I was hoping it would be - fiery, stiff, good pace, simple yet smart wrestling. ----- Jumbo Tsuruta v. Harley Race (Int'l Title, 09/19/85): Really good match. A bit more deliberate in pace than the Choshu/Jumbo stuff but still very hard hitting. Harley was letting Jumbo just blast him with chops (double handed chops later) as well as "no-sell" a couple beefy lariats. In my mind, Harley knew he wasn't as mobile as he used to be or quick like the younger guys but he was tougher. That's the story here. Both wrestlers bled and the last couple minutes are great. In the context of 1985, I'd say this was very good but if I was watching AJPW from a couple years earlier, I might call it great. Still very happy to watch Jumbo & Harley square off. Very entertaining stuff! For all of you folks that read my stuff on a regular basis - Thank you very much! I hope it gives you something fun to read. I hope it gets you excited or interested in wrestling that you may have missed, overlooked, or never thought of. I also hope it is a nice little pocket of the "old internet"

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1980-12-05 AJPW Abdullah The Butcher & Tor Kamata vs The Funks (Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk) Real World Tag League 1980 Match Prefectural Civic Hall, Kochi, Japan ★★ Card I’m tempted to say that this was actually good, but it suffers from too many flaws to reach that level. Having said that there are a couple excellent elements to this that made it so fun to watch at points. The aim of the game early for the Funks was keep-away from Abby on the outside. This mostly meant holding Kamata in a standing headlock, but at least Terry made this engaging, showing struggle when Kamata was edging his way to his corner and also kicking out at Abby to fend off any potential tag. When Dory was in however we just got a plain old headlock and his blank stare off into the distance. Finally they started actually dishing out some double team moves on Kamata to get some action going and Dory busted him open with a series of punches to the head (Dory is 2 for 2 making someone bleed with punches in this tournament. Were his punches the low key most deadly move in AJPW at this time or what?) Terry whiffed on a cross body and took a tumble to the outside which gave Kamata an opening and it wasn’t long before he finally made the tag to Abby. I should mention that Abby got what could almost be described as a face reaction when he was introduced, so I have a sense he wasn’t a straight up heel at this point, and the finish to his match vs the Sheik would play into that narrative as well. Face or no, Abby still loves his forks, and Terry took one right in the eye here for a nasty cut. Dory got juice too, brawling in the crowd with Kamata, but it was the Terry show from this point on, flailing about blinded from the attack and Abby sadistically just took him to pieces before nailing a series of elbow drops. In the end Kamata tagged in, found himself on the top rope for some godforsaken reason, Dory took him out with a chair shot before he rounded on Abby and into the crowd they went. Terry was done for after his beatdown from Abby and Kamata wasn’t moving a muscle either, so Joe was forced to count, and to 10 he did count and we finished with a tie. This stretch has been the most fun I’ve had watching Abby outside of the classic Funks tags in 78/79 but this time round he’s impressing me against different opponents. Dory was fine I guess, and Kamata I can take or leave (I’d rather leave to be honest), but Terry, as always, shone the brightest. The little additions he added in the earlier stages, which otherwise would have been a real bore, were excellent, and from taking that shot to the eye until they went off air he was pure magic.

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1980-11-01 AJPW Abdullah the Butcher (c) vs Terry Funk NWA United National Title Best Two Out Of Three Falls Match Culture Gymnasium, Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan ★★★★ ¼ Card This is one of those classic matches that just built and built, organically layering elements on top of each other to the point that something like a double DQ finish was not just a satisfying ending, but the only ending that seems possible. Terry started out pretty cautious here, wary of Abby’s strikes, constantly going for the leg takedown instead of going toe to toe with him. That didn’t last too long as, once Abby got a few strikes in, Terry was in trouble fast. The attack was mostly focused on the side of the head and the ear, and it wasn’t long before we got some blood spouting from that region. Just when it looked like Terry was going to be in real trouble though he caught Abby with a surprise Thesz Press to snatch the first fall. Terry was more expansive in the second, buoyed from having taken the first fall, and things were looking good for him before they tumbled to the outside. Abby managed to post Terry’s leg, already heavily bandaged, and that turned the tide in a major way. No longer able to even put pressure on it, a feeble attempt to climb onto the apron was thwarted and the only outcome was a countout to tie things up. The final fall devolved into more primal brawling than what had come before. Abby was now bleeding, to nobody’s surprise, and by the time we got the referee bump we were already on the verge of this getting way out of control. I absolutely loved the visual of Joe Higuchi being dragged like a ragdoll from the ring as the two continued to tear at each other. With no referee left things got more wild and woolly, more eye gouging, and Terry even began raking Abby’s bald head, which is something I can’t remember seeing before. A timid looking man tried to interject to establish some order, but he was rebuked in no time at all and the match ended in a double DQ, or more likely a no-contest. Running through the action I don’t believe really does this match justice. Abby is someone I’m coming around to somewhat. He’s in a few of my favourite tag matches (specifically those against the Funks), but it’s still a little jarring to see him in a situation where he isn’t using the fork and the match is presented as a more “traditional” straight up wrestling match. I think he did a good job here, plus when things really got out of control, the more brawling action suited him to a tee, but I think he was more effective here as a foil to Terry, a symbol, merely being “Abdullah the Butcher”, than anything particularly special or noteworthy that he actually did. While this may not have been the match of the year, I’m strongly leaning towards the opinion that Terry’s performance here was the best performance of the year, and I’m struggling to think of a standout contender to challenge it. Terry is an all-timer in terms of always being on. At no point does he break character or reset himself. We saw him be incredibly sympathetic in the first fall, taking a real beating, making Abby’s offense look crazy effective, then pouncing for a desperate, but successful, attempt at a pin. He got more confident, timed his comebacks and hope spots perfectly to maximise their impact, then delivered an unparalleled sell job of the leg to finish the second. The third fall was all brawling but again this is where Terry excels. The desperation, the escalation, the triumph despite falling short, it was all there. Honestly I’m running out of superlatives.

1980-10-22 AJPW Terry Funk & Billy Robinson vs The Asteroid & The Avenger Civic Gymnasium, Wakkanai, Hokkaido, Japan ★★★ Card This was a major step up for Robinson as a tag worker compared to his showing paired with Wahoo. He seemed a lot more comfortable here, spending a large chunk of the first half working as the face in peril, and we even got a fired up hot tag from him at the end - which was a nice shift, as I often view him as a clinical technician, especially in Japan. I won’t belabour any discussion on Terry, as he was excellent in all the ways you would expect. In fact, he was so good despite it feeling like he was merely going through the motions, or at least his version of it. I will say that he really stands out as a top tier apron worker, which was particularly obvious in this match. Their opponents however were what surprised me. I will say I spent a considerable amount of time trying to figure out which was which. Cagematch said that Asteroid (Scott Irwin) was the shorter, and Avenger (Moose Morowski from recent German Catch vs Dieter fame) was the taller. The commentator’s had it the other way around and I’m liable to believe them here. Either way, both men worked pretty similarly, but they were agile in the Slaughter/Eadie mould. Masked US wrestler’s have always intrigued me as they seem to have vanished by the time I started watching, the hood reserved for Luchadores mostly, but at this point in time we were awash with them, including The Assassins, Masked Superstar, Mr Wrestling I & II and all the Super Destroyers. I’ll admit in some ways it comes across like a second rate gimmick to me, not having been raised with the concept, so I had some trepidation about these two. But as I said, they were a pleasant surprise. Solid meat and potatoes offense, could move about the ring with no problems and operated functionally and effectively as a team, allowing Robinson and Terry to do their thing. This match also ended in a classic call, the commentator shouting over and over again “Terry Funk, Spinning Toe Hold!”, for every revolution he made of the move. Needless to say, The Avenger tapped out. This was all the more enjoyable for how infrequent these kinds of clean finishes seem to be. On the same note, I’d be interested if anybody could identify the commentator in question. A cursory google search led me to this blog, but I couldn’t pinpoint which ones would have worked this match, but my frontrunner would be Kousuke Takeuchi (竹内 宏介).

1980-03-28 AJPW Terry Funk vs Ray Candy Champion Carnival 1980 Match City Gymnasium, Kumagaya, Saitama, Japan Card ★★★ This match popped up in my match list and it’s Terry Funk in Japan, so yeah why not? Who’s he up against? Ray Candy?! Who the hell is Ray Candy? Well he’s nothing special, but this match was. Oh boy! This was Terry doing the hard sell. Sell sell sell sell. Nothing but selling. He made Ray Candy look like an absolute beast. He took three absolutely nutty bumps right through the ropes. He did a flat back drop right onto the concrete. Terry is a God. Of course his comeback was fire, the punches were lit and only Terry Funk can make a sloppy looking running press come across as an exciting finish. One of those stab in the dark matches that completely paid off. So happy I watched this.

Haven't seen this one in a few years. It was a pretty solid match with well worked holds and a few impact moves from the europeans. Billy Robinson tries escalating the match a few times but kind of hits a brick wall in Dory Funk Jr who is exactly as bad as I remember him being. Funks work over Robinson's back a bit leading to a few well timed reversal segments and nothing more. Funk and Billy get on eachothers grill leading to lots of amusing mugging and a nice punch combo from Robinson. Hoffman is pretty good landing an awesome throw on Dory, busting out stiff shots on Terry and has a variety of great knee attacks. Robinson busts out his backbreaker and the Gotch style tombstone piledriver on Dory which Dory doesn't react to at all. Just kicks out, then reverses the next hold and doesn't even make it look like he needs to tag out. Matwork isn't very special. Lots of moments where there's a little mingling on the ground, then a tag out. Really hot last minute before the 45 minute draw with finisher attempts, reversal etc. There's probably worse ways to spend 45 minutes but I wouldn't recommend anyone to watch the full fight.

Terry Funk vs. Harley Race NWA World Heavyweight Championship - Toronto, ON February 6, 1977 Cut to a snapmare takedown by Race, who follows up with a knee drop. Race goes up top and Funk slams him down and then works the leg. Race escapes the spinning toe hold twice by raking the eyes. Race hits a huge suplex for a 2 count. Funk is up first and grabs a side headlock but works into a hammerlock and grabs the leg again. Harley again escapes the toehold and hits the kneebreaker followed by an Indian Deathlock. Funk is struggling but can't get out. Race clinches harder every time Funk tries to twist out. Eventually, Funk relents and submits the NWA World Championship to Harley Race. 4 minutes shown. Hard to say how good this whole match really is but these final few minutes are fantastic and the crowd is excited for a title change. I really like the idea that Funk going to for the toehold inspires Race to hit a kneebreaker and win with a leg lock of his own. ***

I'm just going to jump on in! Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (12/08): An absolute all time classic match in my book. The sense of chaos and animosity is as high as its been in all of 1984 All Japan. Terry and Dory Jr. against Brody and Hansen finally is the culmination of one of the main themes of the year. Dory and Baba have faced the absolutely dominant monsters on a few occasions. They have hung in there but never truly were able to match the intensity and ferocity of Brody & Hansen. Terry has been ringside (or guest ref'd in Jumbo vs Bock) so he's been witness or assisted but not been a direct participant. He's not retired anymore (which would have been booked as a "long-term injury" nowadays) so he is able to go to toe with his foes. And Terry is the one guy crazy and ferocious enough to knock the giants on their asses. Watch Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (08/26) as well. ----- The Funks vs Nick Bockwinkel & Harley Race (12/12, aired 12/22): This is a dream matchup. Unfortunately it is joined in progress about half way in but the second half is pretty great. Somewhere along the line Harley and Terry juice, Nick is selling his knee, Dory comes into the match with taped ribs or lower back...it just would have been nice to see the whole thing. Maybe it's out there now somewhere... but anyways this is just a joy to watch. Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (12/12 RWTL final match, aired 12/22): This is not on my AJ Classics set but I have a compilation of the RWTL finals of the 80's but its also on Lucier's '84 TV tapes. So the thing to get is how OVER Brody and Hansen are with the fans. People are psyched to see Jumbo and Tenryu but when the music plays for the monsters, it's evident how much they love them...even as they get shoved and whipped So this is kinda THE moment for AJPW in 1984. The two biggest forces coming head to head. This is just as an fast paced intense fight as you'd hope for. 2 of the 4 guys are bleeding, you can hear the blows falls even over the roaring crowd, great moves & moments - it is without a doubt classic match. Its the convergence of all of the big stories of 1984 All Japan and brilliantly executed. You know... from entrances to the exits I would call it an all time classic. I don't think it edges out Funks vs Brody & Hansen in terms of intensity and an overall emotional connection from me. So that's where I'm ending the year for 1984 All Japan. But I'm going to go back a couple matches I skipped over: Ric Flair vs Harley Race (05/22): I skipped this as I wanted to focus on matches that featured home AJPW wrestlers as one of the two opponents. Although Race was featured more prominently I still consider this more of an exhibition match than anything. Still, I wasn't going to skip it entirely. This is one that I don't remember a lot of talk about. It looks like it was the top Harley Race match according to the DVDVR Best of AJ of the 1980's. But it barely is in the top 50...Overshadowed by the Kerry vs Jumbo match on the same night? Regardless, this is a great match! It has a nice steady pace and plenty of surprises (I'm sure folks more familiar with their work at this time might disagree). This was a very good match that I thought was going to end one way but they kept going on. That was really more than I expected and made this something great and worth your time. Very happy to see this! These appearances by Harley have been a treat! ----- Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kerry Von Erich (05/22): 2/3 falls match for the World Championship. The DVDVR best of the AJPW 80's list has it as the #6 match of the decade.And that's why I put if off to the end. It's reputation proceeds itself. However it's not the best match of '84 for me after watching everything. That said, it IS probably the best singles match of the year. Each fall feels unique and escalates beautifully. It is superior to the Jumbo vs Bockwinkel matches, as well as vs Brunzell & Gagne in Japan. It's a classic match. I think its closest match in singles is Dory Jr. vs Hansen on 04/26 and Baba vs Hansen. You know I think I'll rank them below. Anyway, this is something you'd want to see if you just want to see if any of this 39 year old wrestling is for you ----- I was going to try for Flair vs Kerry which is considered a great match from 05/24/84 but I ran out of time. I'll come back to it and my review as a comment and add it to the ranking if applicable. Best Singles Matches Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kerry Von Erich (05/22) Dory Funk Jr. vs Stan Hansen (04/26) Stan Hansen vs Giant Baba (03/24) - Giant Baba vs Stan Hansen (07/31) Ric Flair vs Harley Race (05/22) Nick Bockwinkel vs Jumbo Tsuruta (02/23) -Nick Bockwinkel vs Jumbo Tsuruta (02/26) Jumbo Tsuruta vs Greg Gagne (04/19) Jumbo Tsuruta vs Jim Brunzell (04/26) Honorable Mention: Tiger Mask II vs Pirata Morgan (12/08) (I'm clumping the Baba vs Hansen and Jumbo vs Bockwinkel's matches as I can't really pick one over another.) Best Tag Matches Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (12/08) Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (12/12) Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (08/26) Jim Brunzell & Greg Gagne vs Dory Funk Jr. & Kerry Von Erich (04/24) Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (04/24) Atsushi Onita & Masa Fuchi vs Hector & Chavo Guerrero (09/03) Jumbo & Tenryu vs Brody & Jerry Blackwell (09/03) Honorable Mention: The Funks vs Nick Bockwinkel & Harley Race (12/12) Top 5 Matches Brody & Hansen vs Terry & Dory Funk Jr. (12/08) Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Jumbo Tsuruta & Genichiro Tenryu (12/12) Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (08/26) Jumbo Tsuruta vs Kerry Von Erich (05/22) Dory Funk Jr. vs Stan Hansen (04/26) 1984 has been a fantastic year for wrestling in All Japan. The beginning of the project featured American talent from the AWA and other promotions as Jumbo was AWA champion. There's some great Junior action with Guerreros taking on the best AJPW had to offer. Misawa takes on the Tiger Mask role and adds another dimension to junior action...something that does get overlooked. Brody and Hansen are causing chaos everywhere they go. Tenryu is coming into his own. Mid year and on we get more excitement as Harley Race, Ric Flair and Kerry Von Erich put on some real high quality stuff. The Tag League was an awesome way to end the year and project for me. This has been the longest stretch of 80's AJPW that I've watched. I've been more familiar with New Japan in the 80's so this was fun to really go from January to December. The variety that is present due to the Americans cannot be understated. It is one thing I wish had stayed around during the 90's. It was something Misawa was smart to reintroduce with NOAH. I'm planning on watching 1985 All Japan which I'd like to try later this year (with some assistance from Roy's 1985 AJ TV regarding Riki Choshu matches). It's been a good thing for me to actually go through a good chunk of my DVD backlog and I'm want to keep it up. I've got 1 or 2 projects that are more dependent upon online videos coming soon. After that I'm going to try and get through another block of DVD's. Thanks for reading folks!

Sorry for the delay! Busy week last week so I missed my self imposed Sunday deadline. But made my Wednesday deadline We're getting to the end of '84 and you know that means Real World Tag League stuff. Excited for that! Let's begin! Rick Martel vs Jumbo Tsuruta (10/11, aired 10/13): Joined in progress but we get the majority of the match (it seems). Very technically orientated match that stresses their equality. Eventually things get cooking and we get more high stakes action. We get a pretty great finish too! Another very good title match between these too. If they meet again I know that they have a genuinely great match in them. Jumbo & Tenryu vs Terry Gordy & Michael Hayes (10/16, aired 10/20): Good match with some fun moments. I would have loved to see more Tenryu vs Gordy. It did feel a bit small show tag main event (it was in Toyama, Japan). Hey I'm looking at it as a lead-in to the next match. And I think it accomplished what it set out to do. Jumbo Tsuruta vs Terry Gordy (10/29): Slow start to a longer match. This picks up when Jumbo starts bleeding and from there on out its a very good match. It's a smaller venue so I'm sure it wasn't their best work but we end up getting a double juice and a bunch of great moves. It's an 80's finish which is disappointing considering the length of the fight. If you do your own Joined In Progress skip ahead to Jumbo bleeding then I think that's the absolute best way to enjoy this. If you want to watch this in full then, there's no harm in that though ----- Kabuki & Tiger Mask II vs Buzz Sawyer & La Fiera (aired 11/03): I'm not sure on the actual date on this so I'm going to use the TV broadcast date. The Gordy vs Jumbo match is on the same episode so let's tentatively say this is also from 10/29...Joined in progress but this is a bunch of fun! Great moves, Sawyer and Kabuki were excellent additions to the Tiger vs La Fiera program. Jumbo & Tenryu vs The Funks (11/28, aired 12/01): Joined in Progress about 10 minutes, this is as great as you'd hope for. Early RWTL match with your two baby face teams going toe-to-toe and setting the tone. Glad to see Terry back actually wrestling. That 1983 retirement WAS pretty short... much shorter than I thought! Anyhow, if you're a fan of these guys then you should know this doesn't disappoint- hard hits, a bit of blood, well paced. Harley Race & Nick Bockwinkel vs Takashi Ishikawa & Mighty Inoue (12/08): Exciting all action match! I can't say the outcome was in doubt but this was a blast. Relatively short so there's no reason to skip this. If you wanted to see Race & Bock do a junior tag match, this may be as close as you can get! ----- Tiger Mask II vs Pirata Morgan (12/08): Great junior match that still holds up all of these years later. Dazzling moves and for that you could call it a classic. I think I prefer it to the 08/26 La Fiera match. I didn't rate that match but these early Misawa-as-Tiger Mask matches are really different than most other stuff going on in AJPW. These tend to be more like Sayama's exhibition style matches he would do with luchadores and closer in style to the Dynamite Kid bouts than his more technical bouts with the other Japanese wrestlers or the British World of Sport style guys. That said I think this is fantastic! ----- Next time, we pick back up with RWTL stuff along with one or two big-time matches I skipped over. Thanks for reading!

Let's keep going with 1984 All Japan! Brody & Hansen vs Baba & Dory Jr. (08/26): This was fought like a gang fight more than a wrestling match. Absolute furious pace with a stiffness you could hear. A near classic match but with the post match brawl this is a classic. There's a part of me wants to call this an all time classic if you're counting entrance to exit. Did I mention Terry is at ring side? Team Grandpa! Rough necks is scared! ----- Atsushi Onita & Masa Fuchi vs Hector & Chavo Guerrero (09/03, aired 09/15): Oh yeah! This was a great junior tag match. Absolutely as good as expected. Lots of great action, a bit of comedy, some tandem spots as well as some other spots that could have been in 1994 or 2004. I think it might be the lone Onita match for this project but it's a doozy! Jumbo & Tenryu vs Brody & Jerry Blackwell (09/03, aired 09/15): Another really awesome tag match! This was great! Blackwell is fantastic doing all kinds of big man spots but is much more than that. Jumbo goes off the top rope. Tenryu gets the crap beat out of him but gives it right back. Brody is in top form being a monster but not invulnerable. Excellent pacing and action and everything was in doubt. Gran Hamada & Mighty Inoue vs Chavo & Hector Guerrero (09/12): Very good junior tag match! I think this is the sole Gran Hamada in 1984 AJPW match but it definitely delivered! I think this is exactly what I wanted and expected. It's not better than the Onita & Fuchi vs Guerreros but it is absolutely worth your time... especially if you're interested in this matchup. The Guerrero Bros. were able to do some fantastic lucha stuff with Hamada...and let's be honest that's what you want right? Really wish it was 2/3 falls... ----- Jumbo & Takashi Ishikawa vs Brody & Moondog Moretti (09/12): Neat matchup that reminds me of the Jumbo vs Misawa feud with a heavyweight paired with a junior heavy on both sides. You had better believe the Hansen & Brody (along with their buddies) drama is THE story of '84. So it's Baba vs Hansen early on in the year but it is slowly becoming about Jumbo vs Brody and this is one more battle. It's a really good one too! Lotsa action and they never seemed to stand still long enough to get a good picture. There were a. couple more that I was going to watch but the digital VQ is just too much for me to bear. Not sure if it's my internet or the quality that they were uploaded but, its some old school digital or satellite TV pixel blur at times. But they looked worthwhile if you're interested : Tiger Mask II & Magic Dragon vs La Fiera & Jerry Estrada (10/09, aired 11/17) Jumbo & Tenryu vs Rick Martel & Terry Gordy (10/09, aired 11/17) Excellent batch of pro wrestling this week! Like I said, I'm a tag team fan so bear that in mind if you're a singles wrestling ONLY type person. Very psyched to keep going! Thanks for reading!

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Nick Bockwinkel v. Jumbo Tsuruta (AWA Title, 07/13/83): It was 30 minutes or so and was very much a match from 1983 in a technical style. Its Bockwinkel vs Jumbo but its not a classic or anything. But man is this quality stuff. Jumbo's jumping knee never looked better and Bock's pile driver was deadly. This is their first encounter that I have in my dvds. So I'm hoping that things get better and better. I would say this is ***3/4. My feeling is that it never kicked into top gear. We never got Nick at his most crafty or Jumbo at his most brutal ('83 Jumbo at least). I really think this could have been stronger in that department. Or could have had a stronger story. Its a very good match but right under being a great one. ----- Dory and Terry Funk/Baba v. Bruiser Brody/Stan Hansen/Terry Gordy (08/30/83): 6 man matches weren't as common in AJPW as they would become in the late 80's and thereafter. However that fact does not diminish the quality or excitement of this bout. A day before Terry's "retirement" match we see the heart of AJPW take on the titans of AJPW. This one is as wild as expected - stiff hits, double teams, blood and post match bedlam. My dad loves this type of wrestling and I know he would dig this match. Great action & feverish pace makes this great. ----- Thanks for reading!

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Talk about it here.