December 1975

Night One of the 1975 AJPW Open Championship League

PWF Heavyweight Champion Giant Baba vs NWA Missouri Champion Harley Race - AJPW 12/9/75 Harley Race is still in Handsome Harley Race mode with his bleached blond hair. During one of the long headlocks early, I was thinking about Race's tattoos and how unique they are, but do they depict exactly? They just look dark blobs on his arms. The first half of this match is dullsville. Baba works the headlock well and anytime Race gets up it is usually chop, throw, and headlock. Race is able at one to get a kneelift to set up a chinlock, but it is not sustainable. They establish Baba's dominance especially in terms of stand up over Race. The match gets good once Harley takes …

This was a bit dry at times but that's Jumbo for you. Watching this it seems pretty clear to me a Jumbo=Best 70s worker argument would have to heavily skewed towards him being involved in good matches and not on his personal contribution. Or people could have different taste than me and be wrong but let's temporarily ignore that. Hoffman totally carried him here. Jumbo knows the usual classic hold battles I wouldn't have needed to rewatch any 70s stuff to remember as mundane for the time while Hoffman busts out a bunch of awesome ones, just twisting his body in the most unusual ways. Early sequence here has Hoffman transition from an Indian Deathlock to a Gutwrench Suplex…

Taken from my blog.

Available on the Network, Collections, Sammartino the Legend Lives "Brawling with the Russian Bear" 12/15/75 Complete Match is shown Also available on WWE Bloodbath Wrestling's Most Incredible Steel Cage Matches DVD

Total dream match for me right here. A lot of time you'll get "traditional build" as an excuse for long segments of boring headlock and whatnot, these two guys are constantly working and always looking to improve their position. I'm sure not watching 70s puro for quite some time has a lot to do with it but regardless so many of the sequences felt fresh. There was a cool spot here where Destroyer tried to escape Hoffman's Headscissors and Hoffman used his hands to pull himself back, it looked really cool and I don't remember ever seeing it before and the match was filled with stuff like that. I love the gags Destroyer pulled during the match, and while this was mat heavy b…

More Horst Hoffman fun! I don't buy into the idea Baba was ever a superworker, but he could certainly hang his own on the mat-which you're going to get plenty of in 70s All Japan. Hoffman's kicks to the back as a means of countering an armbar are great. This also had quite a lot of striking, Hoffman blasted Baba with vicious forearms, knees etc. and while Baba gets a bad rep for weak strikes his strikes here looked really good, his big chop was awesome as were his knee strikes. Hoffman looks like a really great seller, I loved how he sold Baba's chop and he put over his Russian Legsweep and Neckbreaker so well you'd totally buy him being KO'd, I also love it when wrestler…