January 1978

This isn't outstanding, but a really fun match and interesting because it's natives vs. natives with clear face/heel roles. Okuma and Kojika are fun stooging bruiser heels who work over the faces with nice punches and headbutts, cutting off the ring and doing extended beatdowns, while Hamaguchi and Inoue are really fun when they get fired up. I also dug their fast amateur wrestler movements. There is blood, brawling and they keep up the pace throughout, altough admittedly this match probably went 15 minutes too long. Still, I enjoyed this.

When I 1st saw that this was booked for 27 minutes I thought whoever booked it to go this long needed a psyche evaluation.Then I see the other ring is being worked on. So it's possible they went long to stall for time. Fall one was actually pretty solid. Though they did blow a shoulder block something fierce. I thought Madril's leg work was ok. The crowd brawling got over. Overall a solid 1st fall. The 2nd fall I dug the psychology for the most part. Krupp went for the stomach claw 3 times and Madril escaped 3 times. Krupp won the fall with a knee to the stomach. I think the fall would have worked better if Krupp won it with a stomach claw since he's being set up …

I think the double ring gimmick is cool, but is better live. I thought the action was solid. Kevin is really athletic. He pretty much preforms pop up rana. In the 2nd fall Kevin did a dive from ring to ring. David seems to grasp how to work holds and spots around them. Overall this was solid. 2 1/4*

This was fabulous. Hata was great as Baba's little buddy who always took an ass kicking. I've been impressed by Iaukea in 78 AJPW. Ramos is a solid foreign heel brawler here. 4*.

The first two falls of this match are unfortunately clipped, roughly half an hour of footage, but when the first fall opens with Harley in a grounded side headlock, you get the sense that he’s already been through a battle as he’s grunting and sweat-drenched, swigging beer between falls. Jumbo really works that side headlock, releasing at one point to elbow the back of Harley’s head (that facial!) before reapplying it. Race backdrops his way out of the hold and delivers a big vertical suplex for the first fall. The second fall kicks in with Jumbo working Harley’s leg, and turning an atomic drop into a small package to even the score. During the third fall, they start thro…

Superbowl of Wrestling January 25, 1978 in Miami, FL Orange Bowl drawing 12,000 1.Keith Franks (Adrian Adonis) pinned John Ruffin (6:23). 2.Bobby Duncum pinned Don Serrano (1:23). 3.Chavo Guerrero pinned Tank Patterson (4:10)4.Joyce Grable won a "battle royal." Also in the match were: Suzette Ferriera, Leilani Kai, Pepper LaBianca, Wenona Littleheart, Tandy Rich, Terry Shane, and Vicki Williams. 5.Ivan Putski beat Ox Baker (10:13). 6.Rocky Johnson beat Killer Karl Kox via DQ. 7.Jack & Jerry Brisco beat Ivan Koloff & Mr. Saito when Jack pinned Koloff. 8.Pedro Morales pinned Lars Anderson. 9.Mike Graham & Steve Keirn beat Jimmy & Johnny Valiant (…

Piper is under the hood as the Masked Canadian and challenging Fujinami for his just-won WWWF Junior Heavyweight Title. The match goes about 30 minutes and we have roughly 10 minutes of footage here. It's interesting to see Piper working a more standard, technical style of wrestling, but that novelty and the rarity of the footage are really the only reasons to watch. Read my full review, as part of the 365 Wrestling project.