Riki Choshu vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (11/4/85)

 

Osaka is rockin and rollin for this one as it is the battle that everyone has waited for since Choshu showed up a year earlier. This is going long so they start a slow pace which is expected but they keep it moving and it's far from boring. Both men traded the advantage as they were trying to weaken each other for the stretch run but neither could get the real clear cut advantage as the other would bounce back fairly easily. The crowd went nuts as they worked a figure-four with reversals and this was a cool sequence. Choshu would then transition over to the sasorigatame where he would weaken Jumbo until they got free and nailed each other with a double lariat before the action would go back to legwork until Jumbo just dropped him with a backdrop suplex. This would continue the theme of working holds then intense action then back to working holds which is bringing the fans on a roller coaster ride setting up the stretch run which I hope will be worth it. Jumbo would hit two diving knees and Choshu followed up with a lariat before going back to the sasorigatame but Jumbo would again break free and hit an enzuigiri leading to a Boston Crab. More high impact moves to legwork back to high impact moves would come but this time they went into finish mode as Choshu would hit a nice German Suplex for a nearfall before Jumbo went to the Boston Crab as the time ran out. Wow we never got the stretch run that I was hoping for but this was still a very solid well worked match that was very historic and I think it should be on the set.

Here was my comment on the clipped version from TV: "I actually liked it more than expected after reading some bad things about it over the years. Sure, they spent a lot of time in holds, but they used facial expressions to sell the struggle of those exchanges. I really bought that Jumbo did not want to be in the scorpion and they paid off all the legwork with Choshu unable to follow up on his explosions of offense down the stretch. I also enjoyed Choshu busting out the enzuigiris and German suplex in hopes of putting Jumbo away. The crowd stayed engaged for the whole hour. I'd lean against nominating it in this form, because those 20 missing minutes could have been brutally boring. But this wasn't nearly the slog I expected."

 

I subsequently watched the full version and found the opening really slow. I'm not a fan of hour matches in which guys are clearly working differently just to stretch things out. These two had feuded for much of the year and their approach just didn't fit that backstory. I could buy Choshu wanting to slow things down if Jumbo had consistently overpowered him in previous confrontations. But that wasn't the vibe I got. Instead, it felt like two guys who never wasted the first 20 minutes of a match wasting the first 20 minutes of a match.

 

Anyway, I didn't hate the thing overall, but they failed to hold my interest for long stretches. I can't vote yes for something like that when a bunch of stuff I liked better is going to be squeezed off.

Zzzzzz.

 

Goddamm, that was a struggle.... for me to stay awake in. I like both guys but I think in my old age, I am just not suited for these boring hour long draws. NO vote.