All Japan Classics 56

 

Giant Baba vs. Nick Bockwinkle (12/1/80)

- Bock’s strategy early on is to keep Baba grounded, even choking him with his boot in the corner. It is a good strategy because whenever Baba is able to stand up, he takes control. So when Baba is on the ground, Bock knees him and then holds onto a head scissors for dear life. However, after about ten minutes, Bock applies a Figure 4 on the outside and doesn’t let go so the ref calls for the bell. This felt like the first ten minutes of a 30 minute match so not much meat here. No vote.

 

Dory and Terry Funk vs. Nick Bockwinkle & Jim Brunzell (12/9/80)

- Early on, the Awa guys control the match, preventing Terry Funk from making the tag and cutting off the ring. When Terry finally makes the tag, Dory takes control but makes the mistake of tagging Terry in too soon to do a double suplex but Terry is soon on the losing end. This series has some cool spots such as Bock unloading forearms on Terry in the corner and Terry’s selling after Brunzell and Bock decide to work on the leg to prevent Terry from making his way to Dory by taking turns applying the Figure 4. Eventually, Terry makes the hot tag to Dory who applies a Boston Crab to Brunzell who reverses that, only to have Dory reverse into a three count. This started off a little slow but once the AWA team started working Terry over, my interest level picked up. Nomination.

 

Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta v. Abdullah the Butcher & Tor Kamata (12/9/80)

- I liked parts of this match but Kamata is a poor man’s Abdullah and I don’t think they complimented each other as a tag team at all. At different points, they took turns working over the natives but at no point did I ever feel like either Jumbo or Baba was going to lose the match. It also doesn’t help that they were working long so what seemed cool at the beginning seemed redundant by the end. Jumbo and Baba double-teaming Abby with a chair was cool and the post match was fun, but I can’t vote for this.

Giant Baba vs. Nick Bockwinkel (12/1/80)

 

Bock wanted to keep Baba grounded here so we got a lot of matwork early on here. They would have a little slugfest though that led to an botched russian legsweep by Baba who ended up falling forward with Bock. Baba then worked over Bock some more until he turned an atomic drop into a figure-four that Bock would take to the floor getting them both counted out. Very short match but it was okay for what it was.

 

Real World Tag League: Dory & Terry Funk vs. Nick Bockwinkel & "Jumpin" Jim Brunzell (12/9/80)

 

Brunzell is rocking a beard here which I can't ever remember him having. Bock & Brunzell really work over Terry here to start the match as they want to keep him away from tagging in Dory using headlocks and the like but he would finally jump to tag in Dory to zero crowd reaction so that psychology didn't work with the fans. They woke up though when they turned up the intensity with Bock & Terry having a forearm slugfest which ended up with them working over Terry's left leg with Terry selling like a champ. They really brutalize his leg here but he would somehow roll over to Dory to tag him in and Dory would cutback a Brunzell cradle to get the win fairly quickly. The finish came out of complete nowhere but Terry was the MVP here selling like a madman and his opponents were solid at working his leg over so this moves forward.

 

Real World Tag League: Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Abdullah the Butcher & Tor Kamata (12/9/80)

 

This damn sure wasn't like the Slater/Steamer match as it was very long which isn't the best for the heels here and the brawling isn't as prevalent although the fans fucking loved Abby here and someone was banging a drum whenever he was involved. Everything was just too predictable here and pretty bland to me so not a nomination. The post-match brawling was fun though as Abby was beaten bloody with chair.