[1969-03-05-JWA] Giant Baba vs The Destroyer

[Microstatistics]

Far and away the best display of old style matwork I have ever seen. Innovative, intense and fluid, just amazing stuff. Destroyer is simply brilliant as the vicious, cheating heel using every dirty trick in the book to gain the advantage while Baba is great as the top guy relying on skill and toughness. Along with the French Catch stuff, the highlight of the 60s. **** 1/2

[Tim Cooke]

One of my favorite matches of all time.

[superkix]

Giant Baba is an interesting cat -- gangly, awkward and at times, clumsy, but he somehow makes it work. He may not be the stiffest worker but he’s one of the smartest, knowing his limitations and how to utilize those long limbs in effective ways. Even with his size and strange build, Baba’s early takedowns and reversals looked silky smooth. The Destroyer is about the best kind of heel you can ask for: dastardly, perfectly despicable, and a wrestling savant on the canvas. When he’s working Baba’s arm, he’s gnawing on the fingers, punching the hand, making the hold multifaceted and interesting. Baba’s limbwork isn’t nearly as enthralling but Destroyer makes the struggle and eventual escape really fun to watch. There’s a bit of a cat-and-mouse game between the two as Destroyer keeps getting caught with Baba’s leg scissors after each successful escape. At one point, Destroyer cackles in freedom, only to get trapped yet again. There’s an awesome moment where Destroyer tries to attack the arm again and Baba counters with the leg scissors.

The narrative throughout this first fall is clearly Baba thwarting Destroyer with those lanky scissors holds. Destroyer then starts playing dirty, rubbing shit in Baba’s eyes, busting him open with a loaded mask headbutt, using a “mystery weapon” from his trunks to bloody Baba even more. This only pisses Baba off and after coconut crushing him, Baba picks up the first fall by using his weight to counter the double leg cradle. Destroyer starts the second fall by biting Baba’s face! True heel! They keep teasing the figure-four leglock as Destroyer continually works over Baba’s leg and when he finally gets it on, Baba quickly submits. But everything falls apart in the end as Destroyer’s American cowboys get involved, resulting in the referee getting socked and Baba winning via DQ. Shit finish but Destroyer ruled this match and Baba more than held his own with those big ass leg scissors.

[Jetlag]

Love this match and the atmosphere in this, however I thought this was strikingly a Destroyer carry job. I like Baba, I consider him a fun worker, better than you'd expect from looking at him and often better than average, but the fact people consider him some kind of genius wrestler is mystifying to me. The opening of this was all Destroyer who is just a masterful worker. He would bend Babas giant mutant hand to the point it was gonna pop, mix up his takedowns and come up with unique counters; all while keeping up his heel act to perfection and coming up with different ways to get a Figure 4. Meanwhile at no point was Baba making an effort to pretend Destroyers assault on his hand or leg was slowing down. I like how he would really squeeze Destroyer working an indian deathlock, but some of his holds came across as rest spots and definitely slightly dragged the match. Still all the textbook counterholds and cutoffs were really fun to watch. Again Destroyers mannerisms and bumping were off the charts in keeping this entertaining. Once the match came to a close it ended up being the usual Baba deal – he made an easy comeback and began dropping his bombs. Still the teasing of the Figure 4 throughout this was a masterful effort and it paid off in a big way in both endings.

[cactus]

A 50+ year old broadway sounds like it has the potential to be a complete snoozefest, but Destroyer injects a boat load of personality and comedy into this that keeps your attention even during the many, many lengthy holds featured here. Baba has a good grasp on psychology and knows when to throw a big strike and he's surprisingly good at keeping up with Destroyer once the technical exchanges pick up in speed. Destroyer uses a lot of a wide array of subtle heel tactics to gain an advantage, including concealing a foreign object in his trunks and then using it 20 minutes later to bust open Baba. The comedy here is strong too, as I really dug when Destroyer would do all kinds of technical spots which would always end up with him with his head locked into a leg scissors, frustrating the masked gaijin to the delight of Baba and the crowd. The finish is a bit crap, but there's so much to love about this once you give it you give it the patience it needs, that I can overlook it. 

★★★★½

 

[Microstatistics]

On 4/27/2017 at 11:43 PM, Microstatistics said:

Far and away the best display of old style matwork I have ever seen. Innovative, intense and fluid, just amazing stuff. Destroyer is simply brilliant as the vicious, cheating heel using every dirty trick in the book to gain the advantage while Baba is great as the top guy relying on skill and toughness. Along with the French Catch stuff, the highlight of the 60s. **** 1/2

This didn't quite hold up for me. Honestly, I can't really disagree with a lot of what I said here but this felt more like a collection of cool moments and neat touches than a cohesively great match. It just lacked that connective tissue and flow necessary to reach the highest level. ***3/4

[Mr JMML]

Absolute classic, one of the best 60 minute time limit draws I've ever seen. ****