December 1977

Pat Patterson comes out to the ring in a fabulous glittery red white and blue striped jacket. This is a one-fall match for Inoki's NWF Heavyweight Title, which he has held since 6/26/75. Before the bell, Patterson starts yelling at Inoki, "I'm gonna break your leg tonight, you understand that? And I'm gonna get your belt, Boy, and take it back to stateside". Then he yells at the crowd "Aww, shaddup!!" Pat Patterson is 36 years old, Inoki is 34 Holy shit, this starts fast!!! They crisscross each other to the ropes, Patterson knees Inoki in the gut, Inoki misses a dropkick and Patterson hooks on the figure four leglock 20 seconds into the match. Not kiddin…

Pretty sure this is the earliest Tenryu match I've seen (might've seen some clips from Texas, but that seems unlikely and even then I doubt it would've been a full match). He's younger in this match than I am currently, which is just mind boggling because it's Tenryu and hasn't he always been forty six years old? I don't know how long he's been back in Japan at this point, but he's been wrestling for about a year and I guess if you're gonna give him a showcase then it might as well be against his trainers (there's something just RIGHT about Tenryu being a Terry Funk trainee). Tenryu and Hata, kitted out in their rookie garb, got to do more in this than I'd have expected. …

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 t…

Airdate 12/10.

This match is a literal riot. St. Clair is your good old clean british technician babyface, but Bond just busts out every single cheating tactic he knows, causing a big fight to break out which was one of the more surreal images you could see on WoS. Bond's work over the midsection and his use of the wrist tape is the stuff of legends. I also really dug his elbow to St. Clair's face and weird rope balancing headlock. Really cool stuff that looks slick, effective and believable. St. Clair was exactly as good as he needed to be in the role he was in and gave Bond enough material to bump and stooge, but this was the Dave Bond Show. Also, Bond's facial expressions and body la…

I have to have watched this match like ten times already. Great Antonio is this giant fat guy, he no-sells everything Inoki does and slaps his stomach to showcase dominance, then if that wasn't enough starts stiffing Inoki with brutal clobbing shots to the neck which infuriates Inoki and results in one of the most famous and brutal wrestling shoots of all time. An absolute spectacle, I love battles of carnies and you can't go much better than this match in that area. The strongest image is probably the one that comes after the match as a bloody and likely concussed Antonio contemplates where he is and what happened to his greatness.

The footage repeats itself. It is not a 33 minute match, only about half that

Nobody has ever reviewed this here??? NWA World Heavyweight Champion Harley Race vs Jerry Lawler

THE match that made Terry Funk a giant babyface in Japan. Great heat, violence and drama. Must-see ****

Available on the Network, Vault, Old School, MSG 12/19/77