October 1981

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Ric Flair's first defense of the NWA Title in Japan!!! This is absolutely a hidden gem, perhaps overlooked by the more famous Terry Funk and Jumbo matches the next few days. I just got a copy of this complete match after seeing the highlights. I have never seen Tenryu so young before, he was 31 at the time and Flair was 32. I'm not good at long detailed reviews, but you need to seek this out. It is longer than the Funk and Jumbo matches as well. I would rate it at least 4 1/4**** This is 9 minutes of highlights. The full match is more than 30 minutes. Available on All Japan Classics 9/5/05 "Flair vs. Tenryu"

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Really unique match. I know Alan Kilby can be pretty great, while King Ben hasn't done anything for me, but they both went all out here in a contest that was basically worked greco roman mixed with some shootstyle holds and stiff strikes. Forget about the classy british grappling and reversals, most of this was built around really intense lockups, attempted and failed throws and struggling over pin attempts. At one point Ben breaks out a top wristlock, Kilby starts working an armbar on the ground... add in some stiff, awkwardly landing strikes (including a flying headbutt from Ben that almost KOd Kilby) and sheer wild eyed determination from Kilby and you've got yourself …

Breaks starts before the bell has even rung, annoyed that Kamakazi was introduced first he informs MC Brian Crabtree that as he is a champion shouldn't he be introduced first? Kent Walton informs us that Kamazaki is oriental, when he is in fact a masked Maurice Hunter. This is probably one of the worst matches that I have seen involving Breaks and I can only put that down to Kamakazi, who has some nice spots but that is pretty much it. Masked wrestlers were quite a novelty over here, but even that can't disguise how bland and boring Kamakazi is. A round is edited out and as the bout is tied at one fall apiece, Kamakazi takes a tumble to the floor appearing to have fal…

Man, there were a lot of wrestlers in the ring before this match. You had Inoki's crew, Rusher Kimura and his IWE boy's and even Abdullah the Butcher coming in wearing a badass suit and working the mic. This was a fun match which kind of had the feel of refined martial artist vs. Tough street brawler. Inoki destroying Kimura with superior standup and ground work was pretty fun and Kimura's headbutts and chops to the throat were solid enough. Inoki eats a posting and comes up bloody (Inoki is a blade addicted maniac, boys) but hits a fast enuzigiri and snaps Kimura's arm. IWE boys jump in to attack Inoki and this interpromotional madness alright. Not a ton to this match bu…

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Roddy Piper vs Jay Youngblood - MACW TV 10/81 Youngblood is seeking revenge for Wahoo McDaniel, who had defeated Piper for the US Championship and was then attacked by Piper's paid mercenary, Abby. Youngblood is defending Wahoo's honor because David Crockett says that Youngblood represents what Wahoo is. Caudle does not dance around the subject, he just says that Indian is angry! It was a funny moment of awkward 1981 political correctness. Roddy Piper reminds me of John McEnroe in this match as he is a total brat in all this especially to the ref and then in his actions down stretch. What I am really impressed with was how Piper was able to adapt to Mid-Atlantic'…

Bob "UFO" Della Serra (the UFO nickname coming from his time when he wore a mask) is like Moose Morowski a dude from the canadian scene who has nothing but a handful of 5 minute TV matches available and then probably his longest matches on tape in germany. I know next to nothing about canadian wrestling but if somebody could find tapes of his long arena matches in their garage I'd appreciate that. Bob carried himself like quite the badass. He was Axel's tag partner in this tournament, so this was mostly a clean wrestling contest, altough a pretty tough one with a lot of intensity. The low end grappling early on reminded me of shootstyle as it had the kind of struggle and …

This was, I believe, the first time Mile wrestled in the Hannover tournament. So, this is the new kid taking on the aging heavyweight top babyface. In hindsight, Axel Dieter is a pretty good veteran technician. Not a master, but he could go in this type of high workrate "young athlete takes the old vet to the limit" match. He didn't have a problem going along with Mile's highly athletic moves. The structure in these matches is always a little rough, I assume because there was no TV wrestling or tapetrading in germany and workers were adjusting to the changing nature of wrestling that came with the new import wrestlers on the fly, but they are wise enough to tease an early…

I believe this is the correct date, but I cannot confirm it. Terry Allen will later be known as Magnum TA

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Ric Flair defends the NWA World Heavyweight Title This started slow but became really heated as the match went on. I mean, this crowd was hot! I haven't seen a ton of early 80s Flair babyface, but I had no idea he was this over. The crowd was screaming for him like he was Steamboat, Sting, or some other lifelong babyface, not a guy that would go on to be the biggest heel of the decade. The match started out with Ole working the arm, which made sense as you need to drag your opponent to all four corners in a strap match. However, this never really went anywhere as they eventually just transitioned into throwing bombs. At one point, I swear that Flair dragged Ole…

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WWF Tag Team Champion Rick Martel & Tony Garea vs Mr. Fuji & Mr. Saito - WWF Championship Wrestling 10/17/81 "RIGHT IN THE FACE WITH NOTHING BUT PURE SALT" - Vince McMahon with a ***** call After Moondogs lose the tag belt back to Martel & Garea (couldn't find the title switch back), Albano returns with a new team this one from Land of the Rising Sun, WWF stalwart, Mr. Fuji teaming with one of the all-time greats, Mr. Saito. Martel & Saito would go onto have a classic match for the AWA World Championship in the mid-80s but here they have a fun tag team match. Martel is such a joy to watch. I really have not watch much Garea but he reminds me of an …

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WWF Heavyweight Champion Bob Backlund vs Greg Valentine - MSG 10/19/81 Huge kudos to the Titans especially Pete to get me to watch this in short order. This bad boy did not disappoint. "Anything you can do, I can do better." - Bob Backlund's motto. Whether it is out-brawling Patera, out-powering Hogan or in this match out-slugging Valentine, Backlund's game is to prove he is better than his opponent at their game. It is this attitude that truly makes him a world heavyweight champion (I acknowledged it was not recognized as a World title, but damnit Bob is my boy.). In this match, there a countless of examples of Valentine executing a mo…

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