Posted March 28, 200817 yr comment_5430113 Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Ricky Steamboat & Dick Slater (12/5/80) - Early on, Jumbo is working against both guys and I am loving it. Slater and Jumbo roll around and try a mat game. Steamboat and Jumbo carry over some of the “technical” pieces from their singles match but it doesn’t feel half-speed because they know they can keep the match moving. When Baba comes in, Steamboat kills my vibe by over-selling the Big Boot to death. This is bad over-selling Ricky. Still, there is too much good stuff not to nominate this one. Steamboat and Slater work really well as a team, always making sure to save the partner when they are in trouble but the natives win by countout. But damn, Steamboat’s goofy-ass selling was annoying. Low level nomination. (AJC 63)
July 17, 200916 yr comment_5442053 I think I liked this more than Will. Steamboat definitely had strengths at this stage of his career. He hadn't fully developed into a great wrestler just yet, but Jumbo is really good at reigning him by forcing him to work the mat. The matwork throughout this entire match with every pairing -- Steamboat/Jumbo, Baba/Steamboat, Baba/Slater, Jumbo/Slater -- is very solid. The match is fun early, but doesn't really seem to be going anywhere for a while, until Steamboat comes in and starts using his karate offense on Jumbo. I get a kick out of Steamboat working the apron like he's in Greensboro and the crowd following his lead. I may be overrating this, because this is more just a fun series of mini-matches with every pairing instead of an actual tag match. But I really liked the pairings. Yes.
April 4, 201015 yr comment_5448966 I didn't get into this as much as either Will or Loss. The opening felt like an extension of the Steamboat-Jumbo snoozer. Sure, the holds looked OK, but did they go anywhere? Business certainly picked up after Steamboat kicked out of some big offense and went on the warpath against Jumbo. The last 10 minutes were exciting but again, failed to build to anything satisfying. I don't mind a countout finish but shit, at least do something clever or dramatic to set it up. I can see nominating this because you like watching these guys wrestle against each other. But it's another no for me.
August 23, 201015 yr comment_5454855 Real World Tag League: Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Dick Slater & Ricky Steamboat (12/5/80) Jumbo & Steamer start off and this is immediately better than their singles match because while they are working holds, it's at a much faster pace keeping it moving. Slater comes in and brings his own style into it with the great bumping and selling along with the nise Terry Funk offense which is a great contrast to Steamer's offense. Steamer's sell of Baba's big boot was funny but didn't make me mad or nothing because he knew who was the boss and it was no different than Brody's wacky selling of it to me at least. Slater & Steamer did have really solid teamwork like Will said and I dug Steamer working the corner getting the crowd into it as well like Loss said. Little things like that makes a difference to me in matches like this. I also dug the Steamer/Baba sequence before the Jumbo high knee which if you are going to talk about overselling, Steamer totally overacted on that one. I do think the finish was a little off as there was no rush to get Slater back in the ring by Steamboat as Baba threw Jumbo back in to beat the count. Still this was a very fun match that moves forward.
