On Brand Segunda Caida: More Bubba in Japan!

Big Bubba/Jimmy Snuka vs. Genichiro Tenryu/Ashura Hara AJPW 4/19/88

ER: This is the kind of pure uncut Bubba you wanted to see when you dive into the existing Bossman in Japan footage. This hit the exact tone I wanted it to, with Tenryu and Hara not holding back but also not just treating a new gaijin with disrespect. From the moment you see Hara slamming full force into Bubba with shoulderblocks and neither man budging, then saw Hara attempt a ton of shoot bodyslams without Bubba fighting him on them, you knew exactly what it was going to be and it is the best. Bubba looked like a real threat here and the native stars took him really seriously. Bubba was already a very expressive and smart salesman, and it especially shone through in the way he took a couple Tenryu enziguiris: we've gotten used to some fairly dramatic and also psychics-breaking sells of an enziguiri, here Bubba sells it like taking a stunning blow to the back of the head; drops to a knee, shakes his head out like he got loopy, blinks more, grabs at the back of his neck, a really mature sell that you don't see enough of. Any time Bubba was in the ring was exciting, he knew how to miss a strike or bit of offense (watch him swing his axe handles really low to miss Hara, and watch how fully commits to his missed standing splash to Tenryu), his Bubba Slam looks like it crushes Tenryu, he hits a big ol' lariat on Hara, and he roots Snuka on late in the match from the apron while casually buttoning his dress shirt. He really stood up to beatings nicely, took full force lariats from two guys who can throw really mean lariats (although Hara's sleeper/lariat on Snuka takes the cake), takes some murderous shots from Tenryu (I mean you know Tenryu's chops and these were some legendary Tenryu chops), and lets Tenryu stick him with the falling elbow to end things. Snuka had some pretty bananas moments in here, from throwing his own sharp knife edge chops, to doing a treacherous springboard splash, and surprising I think everybody by breaking out a cannonball off the top, landing all of his weight on Tenryu. I don't remember seeing Snuka break out a cannonball before and it looked crazy with 2019 eyes. This whole thing ruled.

Big Bubba vs. Jumbo Tsuruta AJPW 4/22/88

ER: Damn this is good. This was real exciting for me, as it's his first big Japanese singles (and he'd be in WWF just a couple weeks later), so it's really cool that on the final night of the tour they throw him into the semi-main opposite late 80s hoss Jumbo. Bubba is in the all black gear with white suspenders  (which admittedly looked a little prohibition gangster cosplay), and for whatever reason I really got the sense of size from Jumbo hear. There was a lot of back and forth between them, and maybe it was just Bubba being head to toe in slimming black, but I really got a sense of what a big guy Jumbo was here. The stand and trade throughout was really cool, as they were wear down shots off the big guy, and he knew it, so Jumbo would hit a leaping knee and Bubba would recoil into the ropes and then come off smothering with a slam or other attack. All Bubba's selling of the knee strikes was cool, and he did his killer knee dropdown sell as Jumbo was assaulting him with uppercuts only to spring back up and throw his great leaping headbutt and a shockingly good worked right hand straight to the forehead. Neither guy was going to have a super easy time throwing the other around, although we do get a killer Bubba Slam out of a bearhug that really shook Jumbo into the mat. Jumbo added extra force to his big boots and the placement of the leaping knees throughout the match was really well laid out, allowed the match some specific touchstones to monitor Bubba's condition, letting you know if Jumbo was able to exploit some armor cracks. Bubba gets a big flurry before the sudden finish, throwing a punch of punch combos in the corner. But the finish is a little sudden, with Jumbo grabbing an abdominal stretch and then turning that into a kind of heel hook when they toppled. It was a sensible finish, because beating Bubba by wrenching his ankle makes tons of sense, but I wish they had gone a little longer before going to it. Still, the match packed a lot of story and action into 7 minutes, and even with the abrupt ending was as good as I hoped it would be.