The Great Kabuki vs. “Gentleman” Chris Adams (6/28/85)

 

It’s a battle of the Superkicks and Adams comes out with his belts the American Heavyweight and ½ of the the American Tag titles. I loved the martial arts standoff before the match with both men teasing their kicks before Kabuki took it to the mat where he was fairly good. Adams would fight back with the match turning into a battle of strikes before Adams would drop Kabuki throat first on the top rope. Adams ties Kabuki up in the ropes and delivers a Superkick before working on Kabuki’s right knee setting up Adams using the sasorigatame but sitting down with it in a cool variation. Adams continues to work on Kabuki’s leg which is the one he uses for the Superkick but he would use it anyway to knock down Adams before missing a running kick into the corner where he would hang upside down. Adams then drops to the floor bringing a chair back with him but Sunshine pulls it away so Kabuki could get a schoolboy on Adams for the win. Kabuki would eat a Superkick after the match and Adams throws Sunshine down on the mat angering Kabuki who would pull Adams down and swung his right leg around the ringpost twice before leaving. This was a damn good match especially for Kabuki being involved and I’m throwing it on the block.

5. Kabuki vs Chris Adams

 

I dug the opening karate spots. To me what sold me on the match was how awesome Adams was in working over Kabuki's leg. The work was unique, but well done. To me this goes forward as a low end nomination, but in the long run I feel it won't make the final list. What makes it stand out is how different it is worked.

Man, Kabuki is really on a roll here. I am absolutely stunned at how much better he is as a babyface than as a heel, and it's really a shame he didn't spend more time in this role. I mean he is a guy who had mediocre-looking offense (to be charitable) outside of some of his kicks, but was charismatic and apparently did babyface selling really well, so booking him in matches like this where he ate a lot of offense and got to make dramatic babyface comebacks really suited him way better than being a heel who dominated matches with hokey-looking martial arts stuff. Don't want to take anything away from Adams. He looks great as always. And at this point, I'm pretty much convinced that Sunshine was the greatest valet ever. She gets her role and she's always really easy to get behind. She gets how she should be interacting with different wrestlers. Managed Adams differently than she managed The Missing Link differently than she managed Scott Casey differently than she manages Kabuki, who she treats like someone she knows is on her side, but it still a little afraid of because of how unpredictable he is. She is like the valet equivalent of early-90's Brad Armstrong, who was being given a different gimmick seemingly every other week by WCW, and would always change up his style to better suit the gimmick. But the real thing I come away with here is that Kabuki was a secret great babyface worker. This moves forward.

I just want to add that I also believe Kabuki is an awesome babyface. I was telling this to Phil last week after I started watching the McAdam tapes. Then I read that SLL felt the same way and even though i didn't read this post, I felt like I was stealing his thunder. I need to see this match though to se eif I am going to boost up the match o permanent and knock off shoe's low-end status.