All Japan Motherload - Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Big Bubba - AJPW 4/88

ER: Post 85/86 Jumbo is far and away my favorite period for him, where he just got surly and mean and said to me "why would you ever want to watch any other matches of mine?" and here he's a dick to Bubba and laces in all sorts of shots while shooting constant looks of scorn his way. Bubba/Bossman was always one of my favorites as a kid, as his body shape was the same as my dad's, and kids like things for stupid reasons like that. Jumbo throws all kinds of great knees here that Bubba mans into, with Bubba checking his nose for blood at one point in one of those nice "excellent selling? or real life" moments, and then he gets to the uppercuts and those look even worse. Bubba does awesome spit sells during them and you love the uppercuts even more because of them. Bubba's shoulderblocks and clubs to the back are great, as they should be. Loved his bearhug into the sidewalk slam. Jumbo locks on a side headlock at one point and it looks rough and constricting, and Bubba's face confirms this, but Jumbo shows a modicum of respect back by acting like an awesome falling clothesline knocked the wind out of him. Finish is weird and awesome and entirely unexpected as Jumbo turns an abdominal stretch into a sloppy roll up but instead of giving up on it he grabs an ankle pick and just wrenches it until Bubba taps. You know, all those Jumbo matches (and 80s/90s All Japan matches) you've seen that end in grapevine ankle submissions. THOSE matches.

PAS: Yeah this was really great, I never want to watch another 1984 Jumbo NWA title match style singles match, but I can totally dig him having a nasty little slugfest with Big Bubba. Man Bubba ruled in this, I really wish he just spent his career in All Japan like Hansen or Williams, that sideslam was one of the better sideslams I have seen, and Bubba is the master of the side slam. I also loved Jumbos jaw breaker, which really looked like it broke Bubba's jaw, that rolling ankle pick was a total WTF moment, but an awesome out of nowhere finish, Cena should finish someone in a US title match with something like that.