March 1980

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1980-03-07 NJPW George Takano & Gran Hamada vs. Armando Guerrero & Baby Face General Gymnasium, Matsusaka, Mie, Japan Card ★★★ I came away from this match really not impressed with either Mando Guerrero or George Takano. Well, apart from Takano’s movie star good looks which apparently, and unsurprisingly, makes him very popular with the ladies. Gran Hamada and Baby Face however, when matched up against each other, were golden. Mando and George were awkward when they were in, and especially when matched up against each other, and Mando in particular really looked like a fish out of water. His partner Baby Face was great though, he has a really stoc…

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1980-03-12 Joint Promotions Mick McMichael vs Vic Faulkner Digbeth, Birmingham, West Midlands, United Kingdom ★★★★ McMichael here was billed as “Popular” Mick McMichael, which I don’t recall from his last match, but I can see why he’s so popular. At first glance he’s somebody who could easily be overlooked. He’s big, but not impressively so, probably closer to plump. His build is maybe like a Buddy Rose if the fat looked more solid. However, despite his build and the preconceived notions that may come with it, he can do the technical stuff, especially to the general level required to compete in WoS. His matwork is crisp and he can get around the ring when he …

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlepKE0qBSM&t=917s Babyface is unable to beat monster heel, simple but awesome.

1980-03-15 PNW Rick Martel & Roddy Piper vs. The Sheepherders (Butch Miller & Luke Williams) Best Two Out Of Three Falls Tag Team Match Card ★★★ Since I last checked in on Portland it seems like the Sheepherders have had a run in with Martel because everytime he tagged in they were desperate to avoid him and went hell for leather bailing from the ring. Miller carried over his emotion from the hair match, despite it being his partner Williams who lost his hair, and he had a real nasty streak to his offense and specifically targeted Piper’s hair throughout the first fall. When Martel finally got his hands on Williams he was at his high stepping best a…

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1980-03-25 Joint Promotions Johnny Saint vs Steve Grey World Lightweight Title Match Guildford, Surrey, United Kingdom After winning their two previous bouts Saint agreed to this title match. The footage starts and we’re already at the start of Round 10, which is such a bummer. These two continued where they left off back in January. Really amazing work, I’m not sure if the stuff in their previous match was sharper than what we saw here in about 3 rounds worth of footage, but this felt big. It had that title match feeling, a sense of epicness that I haven’t felt much in the WoS footage so far. The thing that really stood out to me was, that while I think …

1980-03-28 AJPW Terry Funk vs Ray Candy Champion Carnival 1980 Match City Gymnasium, Kumagaya, Saitama, Japan Card ★★★ This match popped up in my match list and it’s Terry Funk in Japan, so yeah why not? Who’s he up against? Ray Candy?! Who the hell is Ray Candy? Well he’s nothing special, but this match was. Oh boy! This was Terry doing the hard sell. Sell sell sell sell. Nothing but selling. He made Ray Candy look like an absolute beast. He took three absolutely nutty bumps right through the ropes. He did a flat back drop right onto the concrete. Terry is a God. Of course his comeback was fire, the punches were lit and only Terry Funk can make a sloppy …

This was a fun defensive, cagey bout where neither guy was willing to get thrown easily. This builds really nice into the second half where both guys have enough and start throwing stiff slaps and headbutts. Go was chasing Hara here, hitting a mean dropkick and dropping him on a table for a spot that was pretty crazy by 1980 standards. Match had good heat and tension and the uncooperativeness made this a cool encounter.

Pretty much a 1980s MOVEZ~! match as this was basically all 4 guys running in to hit their stuff, tag out, and repeat. I liked the stiff dropkicks, nasty piledriver and graceful arm whips so I'll take it over today's thigh slap happy MOVEZ~! Matches. There was a cool moment where Mighty and Kimura slapped the shit out of eachother and then Kimura annihilates Hamaguchi with a ruthless dive. Animal is down and out and I was thinking this match actually had some drama going now but seconds later a lousy DQ happens. Well, this had awesome heat and I now wanna see more Haruka Eigen matches lurking amidst the the sea of IWE, so a rematch may be somewhere down there.

This match is from Korakuen Hall, and takes place on an IWE show. Kintaro Oki is 51 years old at the time, Bockwinkel is 45. I don't know much about Oki, but he was also known as Kim Ill and was a member of the first class of the Wrestling Observer Hall of Fame, along with Bockwinkel. Whoa....Lou Thesz is the special referee!!! I did not know that. The AWA title belt looks majestic as always. This match is 2/3 falls. Handshake starts the match. Oki backs Bockwinkel into the ropes, gives him a clean break. Bockwinkel tries for a go-behind, but Oki takes him down with a sweet double wristlock. Bockwinkel gets back up, into the ropes again, but Oki takes him down once m…

Years after putting over Inoki in a historic match, Johnny Powers returns to japan to face another japanese top gaijin in a much less historic match. Powers is looking somewhat older and sadder, like a Bob Ross gone off the rails here. Powers still has really nice basic offense, mean looking elbows and knees and stomps and what not. He spends what feels like 20 minutes beating on Kimura and this would've been good had Kimura sold any of that and ens gaged powers in some significant form before the poor finish. There's also about 4 or 5 nut shots in this match. Thesz was the ref and him punching Powers in the face for doing the exact same stuff Thesz was doing 20 years ear…