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[1982-06-08-AJPW] Ric Flair vs Jumbo Tsuruta


JKWebb

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This started with lots of submissions and hard chops, but I found the offense from both guys to not have any real direction. About 15 or so minutes in, Jumbo gets fired up and then the match sort of gets out of first gear when Flair starts working over the leg for the figure four. The crowd goes nuts when Jumbo puts the figure four on Flair. That was a cool spot. They really step it up after this leading to Flair taking a piledriver on the outside and Jumbo being thrown into the ring post. A questionable finish with a double pin, but I ended up enjoying the second half of the match. I'd say this is good, but I wouldn't classify as great IMO.

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  • 4 months later...

I have seen this before and could have sworn I wrote a review for this. Amazing match.

 

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Ric Flair vs Jumbo Tsuruta - AJPW 6/8/82

 

I love All Japan in the early 80s. It feels like an all-star promotion with the all the stars of Japan, NWA and AWA come together and compete. Jumbo vs Flair has the biggest fight feel of them all. It really feels like the best of America against the best of Japan. Flair is decked out in his coolest robe and the way Jumbo rips off his jacket, you know he is jacked for this one. GAME TIME!

 

Jumbo brings the offense to Flair. Working NWA-style holds, headlocks, wristlocks and surfboard. The early sleeper gets a pop. Flair is working his usual style. Trying to go on the mat, create movement, but nothing works. He starts to try go toe to toe with Jumbo. There were some really big meaty exchanges in this. I love the sound of flesh on flesh. Flair tries after the sleeper to bring it to Jumbo with hard shots, but Jumbo is game for a fight. Jumbo fires up and climaxes with a HIGH KNEE! First big nearfall of the match. Flair tries to use the short headbutt to stall Jumbo's momentum. He is able to hit a couple kneedrops and a chinlock to stall out Jumbo. But in the fire fight, Flair loses control, Jumbo in showing he can chop with the best of them. BUTTERFLY SUPLEX! Only two! Boston Crab! Abdominal Stretch! HIGH CROSSBODY! 1-2-NO! Huge pop! Flair heads to the hills. That felt like a basketball game where someone goes on a 12-4 run. Jumbo was just firing and Flair was overwhelmed. Flair uses the outside to break momentum. You see when Flair gets back in he goes for a test of strength. That's psychology! You are 15 minutes into a match and going back to a tie up. That shows poise. He knows he needs to slow it down. It is just laughable that people don't think Flair has psychology when he is a top 5 Ring General ever. Period.

 

Flair gets his own ab stretch, but Jumbo hiptosses out. MISSILE DROPKICK! 1-2-NO! Flair is desperate goes for a suplex, but get reversed by Jumbo into his own. Flair avoids the elbow and immediately goes for the Figure-4. People are always like why doesn't Flair work the leg. Well the Figure-4 is a home run shot. If he applies it, he will win. He sets it up when he is in control. In a match he is being totally overwhelmed and nothing is going his way, you bet his ass he is going for the figure-4. So that's ends up in an inside cradle, but once he gets the kneecrusher, now he is working the leg because now he has the time and is control. Flair had gotten offense but it was always short-lived because he never was able to really connect with a game-changer. Jumbo was ready for a fight. The kneecrusher represented the first time he made a significant in-road. Big Tsuruta chant for when he is in the figure-4. Big pop for him turning it over. Jumbo is really good in the figure-4. Sells it well and really adds to drama. Flair gets a back suplex, but kick out. Flair goes up top, this is not going to end well...WATCH OUT BELOW! 1-2-NO! TOP ROPE CROSSBODY! Jumbo applies the figure-4 to a MASSIVE POP! It does not matter if it is Greensboro, North Carolina or Tokyo, Japan that spot is OVER LIKE ROVER!

 

I thought that was a really good climax to the match. I thought either Jumbo needed to one up it with a Back Drop Driver or something big or they needed to go home. It took them a little while to go home. Flair got some really good punches in when they were both on the mat. Flair throws Jumbo out so I was thinking here comes the countout finish. Flair suplexes him back in, which did not feel like an earned highspot for Flair. It kinda feels like the match is going backwards into a Flair heat segment with the elbow and then sleeper. So big chops and strikes late that I dig. Feels like a war of attrition. Whip into buckles and Flair Flop...Crowd pops! Love it. PILEDRIVER! 1-2-Foot on the ropes! Jumbo high knees sends Flair crashing out to the floor. Jumbo is feeling the strain. WICKED ENZIGUIRI! Jumbo falls out too. Piledriver on the floor. Jumbo into the post. Tease Double countout! It being All Japan, I totally bite. Jumbo tries for a deadweight German, but Flair falls on top. Both shoudlers are down. DRAW! Jumbo tries to sell he won, but crowd is too smart. They know both men's shoudlers were down and there is no pop.

 

I thought first 3/4s was really good classic NWA style championship match. Flair trying a bunch of stuff but getting thwarted. Lots of good fire fights that Jumbo would win and led to big high spots like the Knee and then Butterfly suplex. That big Jumbo's offense run in the middle of the match was double hot. Flair was a master of bringing it up and down. Cooled it off a bit then went back to a Jumbo highspot of a missile dropkick and that's when Flair got so desperate that he finally got the figure-4. The dueling figure-4s was so over. You could feel Jumbo was getting his energy sapped from trying to win this match. Flair will tax you that way. Liked the chops late and the Piledriver. The high knee and that enziguiri was great. I think a double countout would have been better than the double pin. I thought they should have went to the finish quicker they lost some momentum because the crowd was molten for a good 15 minute stretch from the first high knee to the Jumbo figure-4. Flair really knows how to make a classic happen and let his opponent shine. ****1/2

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  • GSR changed the title to [1982-06-08-AJPW] Ric Flair vs Jumbo Tsuruta
  • 2 years later...

Just short of great but still really, really good. Jumbo's fire was palpable from very early on. They pack a lot into this one but as Sleaze said it's not just a Flair go go go match. He adjusts as the match goes on nicely and brings a big title match feel despite it not going super long. Some of the execution wasn't great but man was the emotion there. The finish was rough but the teases on the countouts were so believable I almost don't mind.

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