>>1974

>>#1 - Jack Brisco v Giant Baba (AJPW, 12/02) ****

I liked this a lot, mainly for the various ways they found to stretch each other on the mat, and this also had a nice, big match feel, which it should, considering it's a title change. I don't think it's quite on the level that I'd say a MOTY candidate should be, but it's definitely on the next tier down. I still have tons and tons of '74 to watch.

Now I loved this match. Baba brought the goods, and Brisco was his typical stud self. I thought the psychology of the each move meaning something was great. I have it in the 4 1/2* range. Just really awesome stuff.

I wouldn't argue the meaning of the big stuff in this match at all. Normally, I like it when matches in eras where every match goes long run a little shorter because it stands out more for being different. See matches like Styles/Rave from '05 ROH because every other big match went at least 30 minutes. Baba/Brisco is a match that I really wish would have gone 60 minutes, though. The 23 or 24 minutes that did happen were pretty great, but I would have enjoyed the match even more going twice that long. I haven't seen the match they had a few days later. Did it go any longer?

These are the two available. The first is Baba's win. The second is Baba retaining.

 

12/02/74: 11:47, 5:39, 3:20 (Kagoshima Prefectural Gym)

12/05/74: 13:53, 3:53, 4:50 (Nippon University Hall, Tokyo)

 

 

John

I always thought the 12-2-74 was far superior to the 12-5 match. I'll need to look at my notes.

Bob Backlund & Bob Roop v Jumbo Tsuruta & Giant Baba - AJPW 07/25/74

Once you get past the novelty of Backlund in the same ring with Jumbo and Baba, there just isn't much here. Backlund seems pretty eager from the apron, but Bob Roop wrestles the lion's share of the match. I have nothing against Bob Roop or anything he's done here, and it's not that the match is bad, but it has virtually no heat, no suspense and no drama. It's just there. The things I do like in the match, like Jumbo's selling and the double-boot finisher from Jumbo and Baba, just aren't much worth writing home about. Perfectly okay.

Jeff Jarrett v. Don Greene 2/3 Falls Ladder Match

 

This is the sort of gimmick match that really should be terrible. It doesn't sound or look good on paper and it actually boggles the mind that it was attempted at all. That it was done well and it came off succesfully is even more mind boggiling.

 

Basic story here is that Greene has smuggled all kinds of shit up the scaffold to try and disable Jarrett making him easier to pitch off the top. This really doesn't come to fruition till the second fall, but it's well done, with a powder to the eyespot, a chain spot, et. Most of the match is actually spent straddiling the scaffold, which is really small, but they actually do a good job with exchanges and reversals, working things like facelocks, headscissors, et. Jarrett overcoming the chain use to win two falls to one, was really well done.

 

Fun match.

I assume it's Jerry Jarrett. Jeffey would have been 6-7 years old in 1974.

 

 

John

And its a scaffold match not a ladder match. How drunk were you when you wrote that post Dylan?

Not drunk, just lazy and tired.