All Japan Classics 93

 

Stan Hansen vs. The Mongol (12/08/83)

- Squash

 

Bruiser Brody vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (Int'l Title, 08/81/83)

- One thing I have noticed about Brody is his poor bumping. I knew he didn’t sell. I didn’t know he could not bump either. The problem with this match is that it has a Race-Jumbo formula with blood in the 2nd half and a slow 1st half. Scientific chin-lock Brody is not fun to watch. Brody is best when his opponent is bleeding and selling for his offense. Well, Jumbo bleeds and sells in the 2nd half but Brody is not nearly as interesting as Harley Race. Jumbo wins in a countout where the last 45 seconds were the best part of the match.

 

Dory and Terry Funk vs. Stan Hansen/Terry Gordy (8/31/83)

- This is Terry’s retirement match and the crowd is ON FIRE. Cool visual eearly on as they brawl before the streamers are cleared out. It just adds to the wild atmosphere. Hansen and Terry are just great in the ring together. For a long stretch, Dory plays FIP with Gordy and Hansen tagging in and out. I wish Terry was in more but Gordy and Hansen do enough stuff to keep it moving along. Once Terry is tagged in, the intensity picks up. He had a bandage on his forehead when the match started and Hansen wastes little time ripping that apart and biting the cut. Hansen and Gordy do some great double teaming as Terry’s leg gets draped on the top rope and Gordy holds the leg while Hansen drops elbows and kicks the knee. The last few minutes seemed rushed but it sets up Terry Gordy missing a top rope splash which sets up a Top rope sunset flip giving Terry the win and an AWESOME farewell that would end up meaning nothing. Still, the tag match is a low-level nomination but the farewell speech makes it a must have match.

Stan "The Lariat" Hansen vs. The Mongol (Gene Lewis) (12/8/83)

 

Basically a squash.

 

NWA International Heavyweight Title: Bruiser Brody © vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (8/31/83)

 

Man this is slow and kinda dull to start killing what was a hot crowd to start. It took Brody ripping up a fence at ringside to get the fans back into this match as Jumbo was juicing and Jumbo took some good punishment here before firing up for a good comeback with Jumbo getting some nearfalls before a ref bump allowing Brody to get back on offense. The action would then spill to the floor as the fans chanting for Joe Higuchi to get up which he would with some help by Brody after he had Jumbo put away on the floor but Brody wanted to win this so bad by countout that he went back out there to suplex Jumbo on the floor again but Jumbo would fall on top of him then pulled him to the floor and crawled in to win by countout. Sumo Hall goes completely nuts at this finish and the 2nd half of this match had a real epic feel going on which was the complete opposite of the 1st half. I liked this a lot more than Will did as the 2nd half totally sold me on this as a nomination.

 

Dory & Terry Funk vs. Terry "Bamm Bamm" Gordy & Stan "The Lariat" Hansen (8/31/83)

 

This is Terry's original retirement match and funny to see them face the future superteam of Gordy & Hansen. The streamers are insane here at Sumo Hall and the brawl starts in the middle of them which makes for an awesome visual and the crowd is molten hot here. This was a total blast as you had Gordy/Hansen showing that they had the potential to be a great team, Dory taking punishment, and the complete awesomeness of Terry Funk who gets his bandage ripped off and juices really good for his "last match." The fans at Sumo Hall were awesome as well as they were hot for everything and I loved that Terry had women in the crowd dressed in yellow with yellow pom poms cheering him on. The finishing sequence was awesome too and this is a definite nomination. Then you had the entire post match which included Hansen killing dudes with a lariat then the retirement ceremony. Simply great.