Posted April 13, 200817 yr comment_5430653 Harley Race vs. Jumbo Tsuruta NWA World Heavyweight Championship (10/26/83, Morioka) - Early on, Jumbo works the headlock and they do some fun stuff working out of the headlock. Eventually, Jumbo hits a butterfly suplex but can’t capitalize. Harley tries to change the momentum by going to his own headlock until Jumbo counters with a backbreaker. Jumbo locks on a sleeper but Harley flips him over his head and out of the ring. ON the outside, Jumbo counters a Race piledriver attempt and suplex attempt and immediately follows it up with an abdominal stretch in the ring. Nice counter by Race when he flips Jumbo over and follows with a headbutt to take control. Race starts pulling out the big guns, executing a piledriver, some big headbutts followed by a diving headbutt but he can’t put Jumbo away. Jumbo fights back and nails an overhead belly to belly and an enziguiri. He unloads with some big European uppercuts and Race does his melodramatic tumble to the floor. Jumbo tries to put it away with the Thesz Press that he won with before but it doesn’t work this time. Race regains control and works on the neck and head again. Great spot after a flub as Jumbo tries to fight out of a powerslam attempt only to get caught in a Tombstone for a nearfall. This had a great end stretch damaged by some crap with the ref at the end. However, they paced this thing beautifully by working bog moves and momentum shifts out of the holds and allowing the match to go long without ever getting boring. If you weren’t familiar with the title history, you would have no idea how this match would end. Strong nomination. (AJC 95)
April 11, 201015 yr comment_5449317 The opening trading of holds didn't interest me much. But once Jumbo started pouring on the offense, this got good. The match was really all about him pushing Harley to the brink of losing the title, and that definitely got the crowd into it. Harley didn't do a ton offensively but got in enough nasty little punches and headbutts to keep things interesting from his side. The ref bump ending sucked ass, and if people are irritated by the finishes on the NJ set, they might be in for even worse with this one. I'll call this more of a mid-level nomination than a top-of-the-ballot candidate, but it should make it on.
July 3, 201015 yr comment_5452671 NWA World Heavyweight Title: Harley Race © vs. Jumbo Tsuruta (10/26/83) Yeah this had that epic match feel with both men going to their big moves trying to put the other one away plus you got blood from Harley after some wild brawling on the floor. Race's headbutts here were awesome and as Will said they kept the pace of the match pretty rapid with solid action. The stuff with Joe Higuchi was bad yeah but it's nothing new in All-Japan so it really didn't bother me here because the match as a whole was strong and is a fairly easy nomination.
