1974

This is probably Jerry Lawler's first shot at a World Title.

Talk about it here

This match is a master class in delayed gratification, working and getting over in professional wrestling. Before the bell even rings Inoki potatoes Oki with a punch. They seperate them, and the match starts. They don't just immediately start brawling-there's lots of lock-ups, some of them include hair-brawling, and pretty much all of them ending with the ref coming in between them. You can feel the tension-it legitimately looks like they hate each other but are also simultaneously not trying to lose their temper and get DQed-the wrestling is really good, nifty takedowns, pretty suplexes-but where the match really excells is when all hell breakes loose. Oki hits about Ino…

Bill Watts defends the Florida Heavyweight Title, DQ rule is waived. Talk about it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loLICu0qmSc&t=8s

Abe Ginsberg wrestles half this bout wearing a leather helmet. Seriously one of the strangest gimmicks I've seen. This is one of the funnest WoS matches. These are two burly heavyweights doing all these cool takedowns and matwork. Not only that, but you get a neat story. Walton keeps talking about how Ginsberg likes to break the rules, even attacking Walton, but Ginsberg wrestles a clean match, shows off his skills doing all these cool tricks and eventually takes off his helmet. In a way it feels like an in-match face turn from Abe which helps make this bout special. And then they forearm the snot out of eachother anyways! Strange to watch considering this is the only…

Long, focused control segments with snappy counters. The counterwork throughout was just phenomenal and they really work the holds, even in the slower moments of the match. Gotta love ole Verne egging Robinson on with those little taps to the face before he starts laying into him with shoulders. They go back-and-forth with the side headlock takedown/leg scissors counter spot that’s become so prevalent in modern chain wrestling sequences before Verne picks up the first fall after Robinson passes out to the sleeper hold. Great selling from Robinson at the start of the second fall as he’s still a bit loopy from the sleeper hold. Gagne sends him outside with a really snug for…

This is for the AWA and IWA tag team titles, both are on the line. Bockwinkel and Stevens have only just regained the AWA World Tag Titles from Billy Robinson and The Crusher about a month ago on October 24th. Kimura and Kusatsu have held the IWE tag team titles since May 14, 1973. It is a 2 out of 3 falls match. The footage is perfect and immaculate VQ. Bockwinkel and Stevens are wearing awesome purple ring jackets, with "California" written in gold on the backs. I was hoping for a match that lasted about 25 minutes....but that is not the case. It's only 6 1/2 minutes of CLIPS. Arrrrggghhh!!!! We start with Bockwinkel and Kimura facing off and locking up, …

Jack Brisco defends the NWA World Heavyweight title. Talk about it here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkONf-joagk

Great character work based match. Fiery babyface vs. cheating heel. The finish was a bit sudden but was a nice twist and well executed. ****

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Jack Brisco vs Giant Baba - AJPW 12/2/74 2 out of 3 Falls Giant Baba is just one freaky looking dude. i had to get it out there. Those shoulderblades are something else. Great sporting contest from these two wrestlers for the World Heavyweight Championship. It was a breath of fresh air to watch two men work so hard at surfboard taking the time to widen their base or drop to a knee to really sell the hold. I loved the opening matwork. Brisco looked world class taking the Giant down at will. He had a game plan go after the legs and he was tenacious with his drop toe holds and leg pick ups. The only thing keeping Baba in it was his natural s…

WoS opening match! This is a pretty fun match. Mostly textbook holds and reversals, though they do get chippy at points. Man I think it was easier to create intensity in these old british matches because the ring they were using looks rough as hell. Or maybe they were just charging into those turnbuckle pads REALLY hard. Some jokes and stiff knee lifts. Riley was pretty rough around the edges here though I actually kind of liked his maybe uninentional foot first bumps. Czeslaw is just a flawless performer. His ultra tight chickenwing crossface was easily the highlight. It's all fun and games with oddly safe bumps through the ropes but they always maintain the aura of seri…

NWA World Heavyweight Champion Giant Baba vs Jack Brisco - AJPW 12/5/74 2 out of 3 Falls. Baba had won the NWA World Championship from Brisco three days prior so I presumed this would be switch back to Brisco, but I was wrong which made for a very surprising finish. It always fun when these historic matches finish the opposite from what you expect. Now I have robbed that from anyone who reads this review. Well hopefully, you just skip to the bottom see the ****1/2 and skipped the whole review so you can be just as surprised. Jackie B tries a different tact in this match working the side headlock rather than leg takedowns, which I think is a horrible approach aga…

Inoki faces the ogre known as Strong Kobayashi again, who now has a creepy mustache too. Inoki was pretty much a bully in the last match, and he's acting outright heelish again. He throws the first punch, cheapshots constantly, goes for the eyes and some pretty nasty chokes and keeps taunting Kobayashi, who is really fired up. There is some really fun grappling again and the crowd really gets into Kobayashi as the face, implausible as it may be. The second half loses direction a little as Kobayashi was working Inoki's back and just... stops doing it. He liked to go for restholds too. The match gets hot again when Inoki bloodies Kobayashi and he fires up big time, going af…

Talk about it here EDIT: YouTube video has been deleted

Figured I'd just watch whatever now that GWE hell is over for me and I will always pay closer attention to whatever DEAN pimps and this match even got a thread of its own on DVDVR. A trillion jump cuts make this impossible to rate but man there is some neat brawling here. Johnny Valentine may have the best elbow drop ever and Wahoo's chops look out of this world great, the sequence where Valentine starts hitting him with body blows and they're just firing away at each other is magical. Wahoo's chops look sooooooooo great but he also has several variats of them and each one looks neat. Interesting finish, it's a take on a screwy finish we've all seen a million times but I …