From: hekunze@jeeves.uwaterloo.ca (Herb Kunze)
Subject: Old Japanese Videos - review  
Organization: University of Waterloo
Date: Mon, 31 Aug 1992 17:49:45 GMT

I've been asked by many people to post some comments on the batch of old
Japanese (and other) videos that I've received.  This is the first
installment in a series talking about highlights from these videos.
Here we go. (Ratings out of ***** as usual)

- Portland battle royal from 1980, with winner getting the PNW Title 
    The match wasn't too great, with Hacksaw Sawyer winning the title.
  The interesting thing was Don Owen announcing the participants:
  "and from Venice Beach, 'Muscleman Hogan'". 

- Ric Flair & Dewey Robertson vs. Roddy Piper & Jimmy Snuka from mid-1981  
    This brings back memories because it was from the local "Maple Leaf
  Wrestling" show.  Billy Red was doing commentary and Terry Yorkston
  was referee.  Piper was US champ.  This was a no DQ match which the 
  faces won.  ***1/2

- Tiger Jeet Singh & Umanosuke Ueda vs. The Sheik & Mark Lewin from 1981
    This was a wild brawl with quadruple juice.  The Sheik and Singh
  must have had great dinner parties with Abdullah.  They can't wrestle
  worth a damn, but they sure can brawl.  They unfastened the top rope
  from one of the corners and used the various pieces to brutalize each
  other.  I just haven't seen anything like this for a long time. ***3/4

- Bruiser Brody & Jimmy Snuka vs. Dory & Terry Funk from 12/12/81 
    This match had Stan Hansen debut in All Japan.  Prior to this, I
  saw a few matches with him in New Japan.  Suddenly, in this match,
  the 1981 All Japan Tag Tourney finals, he accompanied Brody & Snuka
  to the ring.  I can hear Jim Ross: "He doesn't even wrestling in All 
  Japan!"  He's an observer for the whole match.  Brody gushes and it
  doesn't look good for his team.  Then Terry gets thrown out of the
  ring for the nth time.  This time, though, when he gets up, Brody
  holds him and Hansen delivers a great clothesline.  The commentator
  goes nuts: "Stan Hansen!  Lariato!"  Dory checks on Terry, who is out 
  cold.  Dory decides to go it alone.  He does great for a while and
  then gets killed.  Brody, Snuka and Hansen get in the ring and
  celebrate the tourney victory.  It's short-lived, since Jumbo Tsuruta
  and Giant Baba come down and get in the heels' faces.  They brawl and
  Hansen juices a gusher.  They brawl all the way back to the locker
  rooms, with the cameras following.  The heels run off, Baba does an
  interview, and Hansen stands outside his locker room swearing his
  head off.  Really wild.  The idea was that Hansen debuted in All Japan
  by ruining the annual tag tourney final. ****1/2

- Jim Brunzell & Greg Gagne vs. Ricky Steamboat & Atsushi Onita for the
  AWA Tag Titles from 1982
    Everybody was great to watch.  Onita was the NWA International Jr.
  champ, trading the belt with different Guerreros at the time.  There
  was one point in this match that makes me mention it.  Onita dumped
  Gagne out of the ring and then did a plancha onto him.  Unfortunately,
  he either overshot, or Gagne was out of position, and Onita flew right
  over Gagne's head and landed on his head and shoulder on the ringside
  floor.  Gagne sold the dive anyhow and then crawled over on top of
  Onita in mock attack, I suppose.  Steamboat and Brunzell started
  fighting with each other to give Onita some time to determine whether
  he could continue or not.  Gagne gingerly rolled him into the ring.
  When Gagne climbed in, Onita went for a bodyslam, Gagne fell on top
  of him, and the match was over. ***1/2

- Hulk Hogan vs. Andre The Giant from 1982
    They can't wrestle well, but they could both move around a lot more
  back then.  It was surprising to see Andre chase somebody out of the
  ring and around ringside and back into the ring and have it be 
  believable.  The crowd really got into it.  **3/4

- Ric Flair vs. Rick Steamboat for the NWA Title from 1982
    The match was 23 minutes long and started slow.  They worked off
  a head lock for several minutes before picking up pace with Steamboat
  gaining the advantage.  The tide shifted back and forth several times
  and both wrestlers were great.  This took place in a New Japan ring;
  it wasn't an aired match from North America.  In the end, Flair
  retained his title by rolling through a Steamboat body press and 
  getting a clean cover. ****1/4

- Tiger Mask & Kantaro Hashino vs. Bret Hart & Dynamite Kid from 1982
    This was a solid match.  Dynamite took a bump over the guard rail
  into the chairs at ringside.  Tiger Mask did a dive from the turnbuckle
  over the guard rail onto Dynamite in the chairs.  ****1/2

- Bob Backlund vs. Tatsumi Fujinami for the WWF Title from 1982
    Solid mat-wrestling by both guys.  They picked up the pace smoothly
  over the 20 minutes that the match ran.  The finish was lovely, with
  Fujinami going for a roll-up and Backlund rolling through and 
  bridging back to pin Fujinami. **** 

- Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid for the WWF Jr. Title from 08/05/82 
    The video quality was a little off here, but the match was awesome.
  At times I thought I was watching it in fast forward.  There were too
  many exciting spots to write about.  At one point, Tiger Mask had
  Dynamite up for a vertical suplex.  The wrestlers were facing
  into the ring and one might have expected a face-first suplex.
  Instead, Tiger Mask just dropped Dynamite backwards over the top
  rope!  Kid took a hip bump on the apron before hitting the floor.
  It looked damn painful.  Tiger Mask ended up pinning Dynamite after
  some 20+ minutes. *****

- Hulk Hogan vs. Abdullah The Butcher from 1982
    Can you believe this was a double gusher?  The brawled throughout the    
  arena, into the chairs, for a double countout.  ***1/2

- Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Riki Choshu for the WWF Int. Title from 04/03/83 
    Riki Choshu won the title here.  This match was great, especially
  compared with the match these guys had the WCW Japan Supershow.  ****1/2

- Tiger Mask vs. Dynamite Kid for the NWA Jr. Heavyweight Title from 04/23/83
    The crowd was really psyched.  I gathered it was only a one-fall match,
  but I've read that it was 2 out of 3.  In any case, the match ended when
  both wrestlers were counted out of the ring.  The highlight was Dynamite
  Kid being on the floor, standing a bit back so that his back was
  practically touching the guard rail; Tiger Mask did a body press on him
  from the ring and when he stumbled back and hit his back against the
  rail, both wrestlers did a "360-job" over the rail (sort of like what
  some wrestlers, Flair comes to mind, do when hit by a body press near
  the ropes).  The wrestlers weren't happy though and asked for another
  fall.  In this fall, the highlights were Dynamite Kid grabbing a water
  bottle from ringside, breaking it on the post, and threatening to use
  it as a weapon and the finish.  The finish had Tiger Mask and Kid on
  the floor where Tiger Mask gave Kid a tombstone piledriver.  Kid got
  up practically immediately and gave Tiger Mask a tombstone before
  collapsing on the floor.  Both wrestlers lay there and were counted
  out again.  Wild! *****

- Antonio Inoki & Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Paul Orndorff & Dizzy Hogan from 1983
    It was just sort of fun to watch a younger Orndorff work and to see
  Ed Leslie working as Dizzy Hogan.  The match itself was not good. **
  A later match had Dizzy & Hulk on opposing teams.

- Jesse Ventura vs. Rocky Johnson from 1984
    Jesse grabbed the ring mic and told Johnson, "You look to me like a big
  steroid!"  Gorilla Monsoon started joking about this ("He's calling him
  a steroid!"), while Jesse challenged Johnson to a pose-down.  After a few
  minutes of that, Jesse jumped Johnson and gave him a piledriver.  Johnson
  rolled out of the ring and never got back in, giving Jesse a cheap win.

- Jaguar Yokota vs. Lioness Asuka from 08/22/85 
    Words can't describe it.  If you think about what we were seeing in
  North America in 1985 while watching this match, you'll freak out.  
  This was just non-stop super-fast action from start to finish.  *****

  That's it for now.  Any comments?  Should I bother to keep doing this
  as I watch the tapes?  I've gone through 4 or 5 of the 31 Japanese
  videos that I've received and none of the 5 Calgary.

                                                             Herb...
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