May 17, 20169 yr comment_5753306 I just watched this, and will give a fuller review for the Roll the Dice project I'm watching, but this match just felt awful to me. I've never seen Baba in singles before I don't think, but this doesn't exactly inspire me to watch any more. Race tries to make this match work, but it is wrestled at a glacial pace at times. The myriad number of one counts don't help to build any tension whatsoever, and the finish comes out of nowhere. Awful.
November 12, 20168 yr comment_5775054 I pretty much agree. This didn't really do anything for me. Race sold the end of the match like he had been through this huge battle, but it just didn't feel that way to me. I thought Race sold some of Baba's chops well, but that was really my only positive takeaway.
June 11, 20214 yr comment_5954785 I gave this match a try and I share the negative view. It felt like they were going through the motions and nothing was making sense. I do think Baba was the better of the two. But I would not recommend watching.
July 20, 20232 yr comment_6007589 1980-09-03 AJPW Harley Race (c) vs. Giant Baba NWA World Heavyweight Title Match Saga Sports Center, Saga, Japan Card ★★ Baba really came to play here, but that should be to be expected when you’re challenging for the World’s Title. His offense hasn’t looked better at any point throughout 1980. His chops had some zip and all of his strikes felt like they carried weight and had some impact. The issue comes from the pacing, which is glacial, and Race working underneath for what feels like 90% of the match. They go and go and Baba is getting pin attempt after pin attempt that you don’t buy as match winners, until finally he hits a running neckbreaker drop (which did look amazing) for the win. The crowd went crazy and you can see just before Joe counts the 3 he hesitates slightly and the crowd can sense it but they don’t believe it, Baba was actually going to win - a beautiful moment. Looking at the big picture, I think this was more a failing in execution than in structure. They kind of went for all the right things but it didn’t come together in a truly satisfying way. But Baba got his big win and delivered his best performance of the year to achieve it.
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