September 1982

Terry Funk vs Crusher Blackwell - AJPW 9/82 OH HELL FUCKING YEAH! Big ups to Matt D for finding this and Parv for disseminating the info. Awesome match between two of the all-time greats. A perfect exhibition of what makes Blackwell awesome within the first half he shows he has a size advantage, deceptively agile (dropkick, techincally proficient (drop toehold), punches like a champ and is ruthless. With those five tools, he is formidable opponent for anyone, but All Japan's hero, Terry Funk was not backing down. Funk was massively over. When he balled his fists up to get to work, he crowd went wild. The match really kicked when they busted each other open with short…

This was a really good tag match. What the guys do with 14 minutes is pretty impressive. We get a brawl to start.This pisses the faces off and they toss the heels over the top rope. The next 2 falls were just a great southern tag. Ken Lucas was great at providing the glue. While Morton was working at a clip ahead of his time. He even uses a rana. While Gino and Tully had swagger and were both great at stooging and at getting heat. The crowd was with the match the entire time.3 3/ 4*

This was for the Brass Knucks titles. I thought this was a super fun fight. Atlas with the hat was so cool. We get a little back and forth at start. Atlas in control using his cool athletic offense at 1st. Stomper cuts him off and beats on him. Atlas gets a little comeback gets cut off again. This time though Stomper has Atlas bloody and he really works the cut. Post match Tully and Gino attack. Slater is in the thick of this. Atlas cuts a really energetic promo that I got behind. 3 1/4* This goes right into Gino vs Slater. Slater takes it to him. While in an adominal stretch Gino gives Slater a thumb in the eye. Gino takes it to Slater. Gino misses his big elbow. Tul…

You look at this match and you'd guess oh a Memphis match or maybe Kansas City. Nope It's Puerto Rico and it's your World Champ studio match. We've seen Flair have this type of match many times and he's very good at it. Both guys really hit hard here. I loved Gilbert fighting back when Flair was going for the Figure 4. 3*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVPrcvlioGE A fiery brawl between two of the greatest of all time and they make the little things matter. For example, during a punch-off (there's many great punches in this, although that should come as no surprise to anyone who's seen either man before) Hansen ends the exchange by kicking at Funk's swinging hand. Hansen takes control early on and drops some knees to the neck of Funk and he starts withering on the floor and this puts the crowd firmly behind Terry. Everything eventually falls apart and a ref ends up eating a nasty Western Lariat. It's a damn shame we don't see brawls like these anymore. ★★★★½

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uQn8WXymIVo Epic multi-man brawl. I tend to be a harsh grader for these big lucha matches, but even I got sucked into the atmosphere of one of the greatest legends ever teaming up with his old buddies for one last rodeo. The entire match is pretty much just these guys unleashing all kinds of chaos on each other in front of a rabid crowd, and that's really all I needed here. Santo had clearly lost a step compared to the clips of him wrestling in movies, but he could still bring it and looked great mixing it up with the young guys. Similar things could be said about Gory, who put in a hell of an old man performance at 60. Perro Aguayo als…

This match is raw as hell, the brawls between these two are pretty fun to watch. Inoki sticks and moves at the beginning and then has Kimura in trouble with a couple holds. Kimura gains the upper hand after trading some strikes. He gets Inoki pinned against the ropes, but Inoki flips everyone (referee included) to the outside, where one of Kimura's seconds produces a pair of scissors starts cutting Inoki's hair! Inoki's angry comeback is great, throwing Kimura into the ring post and then braining everyone with a chair, before throwing Kimura back into the ring and getting the pinfall just as the referee recovers. Ref's performance was a bit annoying, but him collapsing af…

This match was about making JYD look strong and that's what Nick did.

I’m assuming Choshu had turned on Fujinami by this point, as Hamaguchi is a total heel and the crowd is all over his case. I was looking forward to this but it was really just two guys lying on the mat until the last few minutes, when the action was good but not really great. They started off with a super hot crowd and then sort of lost them the longer the match went. The most disappointing New Japan match thus far.