December 1978

This is a weird to match to rate because of Wild Angus. He looked.....somewhat servicable. Hit some solid clubbing blows but was pretty bad at tying his offence together and selling. He wasn't of much use. However-this was pure magic whenever Billy Robinson was in the ring. Completely enchanting performance by him. It's not just that he himself looked great, everyone looks better than they usually are when they are matched against him. He brings a certain intensity and legitimacy that instantly transform his matches into something special. Jumbo aggressively shoved him aside when Robinson was going for a hold and hooked his leg to pick him up for a Piledriver which I real…

Gino is wearing the mask from a head shaving from Jose. A fan has an identical gimmick as Gino. That is the most incredible thing ever. Boesch putting over Kozak's wrecker service. Kozak after the mask, but Gino escapes to the outside. Kozak with an ankle pick and starts to work the leg. Loving how Kozak is charlie horsing the leg. Gino cuts him off , but Kozak is great at showing fire. Kozak after the mask again. Gino with an eyerake stops him cold. Love Gino wildly throwing punches and missing. Loving Kozak measuring those punches. They're brawling on the floor. Gino with the elbows from the mount. Big Russian leg sweep followed by a few elbow drops. Gino with the win.…

One of the strengths of the traditional All Japan style is that irish whip maneuvers have a good success rate which makes transitions done via irish whips feel more special. Case in point-Jumbo's High Knee here. Combined with his impressive leap and Robinson's perfect sell it made for a wonderful moment. Wild Angus continues to look ~fine I guess~. Match is mostly about the struggle for holds and building to the transitions. Nothing here feels redundant-Robinson gets his knee worked over for a bit and the next time he's in the ring and he hits a Backbreaker he sells the impact of his own which I vastly prefer to someone questionably falling down from "exhaustion" on his t…

This is NOT from 9/21/78. There is no such match!!! This is the correct footage from 1978 RWTL in December

This match is such a huge mismatch-Inoki is like two heads taller than Hoshino and their difference is status is even larger. It's worked like that and that's precisely what makes it so intriguing. Hoshino has to desperately throw everything at Inoki not to get 2.99 counts that and interpreter then twists as "surviving"-he has to do that just to make Inoki register his offence. When Inoki trips Hoshino it's a show of dominance. "look how easy it was for him". When Hoshino does that he has to time it perfectly because he doesn't have Inoki's strenght and size that would allow him to just push him away-and the narrative makes it work even more when you add the meaning of a …

It was fun to watch Greg be the face here. He pretty much worked like he normally would. Ichiban is really limited in what he can do. So I thought the match was about as good as we could get.

Nick Bockwinkel defends the AWA World Heavyweight Title This is basically in three acts. Bockwinkel controls the arm for one third, Jumbo controls the arm for one third, and then there's a finishing stretch as they work towards the draw. I can't even begin to express how hard they were working the holds. There are shots mid-match and you can just see the sweat pouring off of Jumbo just off of armbars and hammerlocks and in and out exchanges. In the middle of December. He created a ton of motion with Bockwinkel when he was working from underneath. Of course, the greatest strength of Bock is his reactions, the way he's always constantly in the moment and his pure elati…

WWF Heavyweight Champion Bob Backlund vs Antonio Inoki - NJPW 12/14/78 The action-packed Backlund vs Inoki match! A real false finish, big bombs, run-ins, blood and total pandemonium. I loved the beginning so much. Inoki starts off with a fast break of dropkicks that totally catches Backlund off guard. Table tops him. 1-2-3! NEW WWF HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION! Wait! What? The ref says it was 2! I love how they sold this with the bell and everything. Wrestling needs more intentional shit like this. Blown calls and then reversals are apart of pro sports. Sometimes wrestling can be too neat, clean and tidy. This was good shit. Restart and Backlund has escaped by t…

Terry Funk was terrific here, exuding a ton of charisma and selling to the sympathy of the Japanese fans, whom, by the end of it, were in full support of the Funks winning. I thought Dory looked more fired up then usual and both guys outshined Jumbo and Baba for the most part. Loved Funk selling Baba’s chop early on, tagging out in frustration only to return to shake Baba’s hand. Some of the extended hold sequences dragged a bit with Jumbo and Baba on offense but there were a couple spots like Dory delivering a knee crusher to escape a side headlock but Jumbo keeping it cinched in while still selling the leg. Or Terry physically walking Jumbo toward the ropes while he’s i…

Man this wasn't any good. Nothing match that consisted of them just spamming moves. There was some glimpse of character work-but it was more of "this is stuff I usually do so I better get it in" than a case of them bothering to properly construct a match with anything interesting. Grab an armlock, hold it for a while, move on to a hammerlock, hold it for a while, and so forth. Red botched a Headscissors and looked sucky in general, Inoki was better but this was one of his worst showings. Crowd didn't seem to care much. **

It's official I'm sold on Conway Jr. as a babyface. We got to see his skills on display. We see his selling, and his fire. Lewin is wearing thin on me at this point. The fact Funk had a 4 3/4* match with the guy truly is a miracle. I want more Tiger Conway Jr. The Lewin nerve hold was so brutal here. Conway at least made it interesting.

Valentine & Raschke defend the NWA World Tag Team Titles

Aired on All Star Wrestling 12/30/78