Throwback Match Reviews: Jaguar Yokota vs Lioness Asuka (AJW) (08/22/1985)

Jaguar Yokota vs Lioness Asuka (AJW) 08/22/1985

This was an amazing match with excellent performances from both wrestlers. The selling in this match was superb, especially from Asuka. Her selling made the slower periods of the match where she was getting her leg worked over interesting. Yokota was great at selling too. They had an exchange of leg holds for a great portion of the match. It was a back-and-forth battle but with leg holds, it was very unique and well done. The execution of the submission holds was great. The transitions were smooth. The offense was incredible. Both wrestlers showed they are top tier workers. The crowd was hot throughout the entire thing, even during the mat work. That proves that the story they told with the exchanging of holds really paid off. After those exchanges they went into a battle of harder moves like suplexes and powerbombs. Everything looked viscous. The transition from the first portion to this second one was flawless. It made the entire match flow effortlessly.

The one critique that brings this match down for me is how they forgot about the leg work towards the end of the match. Now I’m not usually one of these selling fetishists but there was almost no reincorporation of the leg work. They did bring it back for the finish when Yokota did a sort of leg crusher and then hooked the leg during the german suplex. This saved the match from being any worse. 

Final Rating - ****½

Throwback Match Reviews: Jim Duggan vs Ted DiBiase (Mid-South) (03/22/1985)

Jim Duggan vs Ted DiBiase (Mid-South) 03/22/1985

This was a nice little brawl. I had to read up on the history of this match to find out what was going on with the tuxedos. It did not ease my mind at all. This was a blood feud but it looked so ridiculous with both men wearing tuxedos. They looked like high school teachers chaperoning prom. Duggan is the weird history teacher that has no control of his classroom and everyone does what they please and DiBiase is the ex football star at the same school but is now a washed up gym teacher that hits on the female students. They got into the spiked punch bowl and started fighting. It did not fit the intended tone of it all. It was a loser leaves town cage match street fight. I thought I was going to get something visceral. The rest of the match was your typical southern heel/face dynamic with all the possible tropes: blading, gimmicks on a pole, powder thrown in face. Duggan’s punch with the coal miner’s glove was pretty awesome though.

Final Rating - **¾

Throwback Match Reviews: Kuniaki Kobayashi vs Tiger Mask II (AJPW) (03/09/1985)

Kuniaki Kobayashi vs Tiger Mask II (AJPW) 03/09/1985

We get the first look in this project at Mitsuharu Misawa under the Tiger Mask gimmick. Kobayashi attacks Tiger Mask as he steps in the ring. They were rivals and it showed through their interactions. The match was pretty straightforward with an established dynamic between both wrestlers. Kobayashi was out-wrestling Tiger Mask. He was constantly one-upping him and escaping and reversing maneuvers. Tiger Mask fought back hard. All of these sequences contributed to their feud.

Tiger Mask’s athleticism was on display here. They played off each other in an organic way. There were only a few spots where they looked like they were thinking too much about their next moves. Other than that the match flowed smoothly. The match ended in a double countout and while I personally do not like it, it adds heat for the feud and subsequent matches. 

Final Rating - ****

Throwback Match Reviews: Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta (AJPW) (12/22/1984)

Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Genichiro Tenryu & Jumbo Tsuruta (AJPW) 12/22/1984

This was a great tag team match. It was the finals for the Real World Tag League. Tenryu had a stand out performance in this match. His selling here was incredible and made his comebacks more intense. Hansen and Brody did an excellent job getting the heat on both opponents. Their tag team offense and psychology was really great and mostly kept their control periods interesting. There were a couple of points during those control periods where it felt as if they were repeating spots; a critique I have of this team from other matches. The dynamic between Tsuruta and Tenryu was properly displayed throughout this match. Tsuruta was Tenryu’s senior. Tsuruta was mentoring and protecting Tenryu throughout the match, especially when Hansen and Brody were getting the heat on Tenryu. In another instance, Tenryu took a Western Lariat from Hansen when he moved Tsuruta out of the way defending him. All of this worked to create sympathy for the babyface team as the crowd erupts towards the end when they start their comeback. They unleash a flurry of offense on Hansen and Brody that was brutal. The finish protects Hansen and Brody as they start to fight back but also hit the referee for the DQ. I get what they were trying to do with this finish but this was the finals of the Real World Tag League, there’s no reason Brody couldn’t do the clean job here. Now I understand the politics here but that doesn’t mean it still doesn’t suck. Despite the terrible finish I really enjoyed this match. It had the simple babyface and heel dynamic with some great heat.

Final Rating - ****

Throwback Match Reviews: Bruiser Brody & Stan Hansen vs Terry Funk & Dory Funk Jr. (AJPW) (12/08/1984)

Bruiser Brody and Stan Hansen vs Terry Funk and Dory Funk Jr. (AJPW) 12/08/1984

This was a very good brawl. The crowd was hot from the start and stayed that way to the end. Terry Funk in particular stood out with his fiery offense. Dory Funk Jr. did a great job playing the underdog. Hansen and Brody were also great in getting the heat on Dory. Their control periods early on in the match were really good. The Funks had great comebacks throughout the match. The tag team psychology was sound from both sides. One thing that surprised me was how consistent the match was. There was hardly any down time. It was a brawl and all wrestlers brawled throughout. It wasn’t a grappling competition so they hardly did any grappling. One part that I really disliked about the match was somewhere in the middle it felt as if they were repeating spots. It felt like they were doing the same comebacks with the Funks over and over. It’s hard to explain but it ruined the flow of the match for me. Although I disliked the DQ finish I liked Terry’s flurry at the end. It was well built and the DQ made sense with Terry losing control and pummeling everyone in sight. 

Final Rating - ***¾

Throwback Match Reviews: Super Tiger vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara (UWF) (12/05/1984)

Super Tiger vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara (UWF) 12/05/1984

This was a great follow up match to the one they had earlier in the year. They picked up where they left off in that previous match. They go after each other right away. Tiger was excellent in this match. His strikes were brutal and his grappling was smooth. The mat work in this match was great because it had major importance to the overall match. There was only one part that was a little slow and it hurt the match a little. Fujiwara was also great here. He tried to slow down Tiger with his submissions. The match flowed very naturally despite the slow portion of it. The closing 7 to 8 minutes of the match were incredible. They absolutely battered each other. The finish was also great with Super Tiger just beating Fujiwara down to the point the referee stopped the match. Although there was the element of honor that a lot of shoot wrestling presents, they did a great job portraying some animosity between them. It was well balanced that way.

Final Rating - ****¼

Throwback Match Reviews: Kazuo Yamazaki vs Nobuhiko Takada (UWF) (12/05/1984)

Kazuo Yamazaki vs Nobuhiko Takada (UWF) 12/05/1984

Overall I will say this is a great match despite some flaws that I found with it, particularly due to the style of match. A large portion of this match was very slow and boring. A lot of the mat grappling was very badly done. When Takada had Yamazaki in a hold Yamazaki showed little to no effort to escape. He looked like he was just letting Takada try different holds on him the way you would with a younger sibling when you were kids. This is something that is present in a lot of matches in this shoot style of wrestling. It does not look like a struggle, it looks like cooperation. The crowd proves this theory as they only reacted when the match left the mat. During the mat grappling portions the camera would sometimes point at the crowd and everyone looked bored to death. You really can’t say that they were focused on the work. They were just waiting for something to happen.

Once the match kicked into the next gear it really got good. The mat work in this portion was really great because it was the opposite of the mat work earlier in the match. Both men wrestled with intensity and urgency. The grappling was clean and the strikes were impactful. Yamazaki’s performance was excellent. His comebacks were exciting. Whenever he fought back the crowd went nuts. Takada was a proper dickbag here. He did everything to suppress Yamazaki’s momentum. One spot I really enjoyed was when they were sparring and then went to a neutral position and Takada just slapped Yamazaki. The dynamic between the two was clearly defined and was consistent throughout the match. The finish saw Yamazaki pick up a quick pin with a bridging German suplex. It was a great pay off to the story they told in the match.

Final Rating - ****