All Japan Battle Royal 1/3/79

1/3/79

ER: This is a pretty early iteration of the format that I would come to adore, taken a bit more seriously and worked a lot more dryly. It's only 10 combatants, so there's none of the scrambling chaos of later versions, no huge dogpiles, no betrayed alliances. There are still special moments, obviously, because how could there not be? I like how Destroyer went after Don DeNucci, throwing a great headlock punch before putting him down with an airplane spin into fireman's carry. Now, the ring being filled with traitors and all, of course everyone flips DeNucci onto Destroyer the second Destroyer pinned him. Two favorites eliminated early, and at that point it mostly became Bruiser Brody's ring. Brody even leaps out of the ring to start a fight with the eliminated Destroyer before hopping back in to isolate himself. The remaining natives all jump Brody, and I am amused at guys like Rocky Hata and Takashi Ishikawa holding Brody's arms while Motoshi Okuma is on his knees jamming headbutts into Brody's stomach. However, it is futile. They all dogpile Brody and in perhaps the only instance of this I have ever witnessed, Brody kicks out of a All Japan Battle Royal dogpile! Even Stan Hansen didn't get to kick out of a dogpile!! Of course, Hansen was never foolish enough to allow himself to be dogpiled. We get a good spot where Great Kojika and Karl von Steiger battle over an endless abdominal stretch, with von Steiger finally getting it. And then Rocky Hata gets an inside cradle on both of them! Hata and Okuma try to double up on Brody, but Brody easily pins Okuma using Hata. This really wasn't worked with very much silly energy, and the combination of silliness and unexpected stiffness is what can make these special. Fun moments for sure, but the format was still evolving.

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All Japan Motherload - Genichiro Tenryu/Rocky Hata vs. The Funks - AJPW 12/2/77

ER: This is notable because ROOKIE YEAR TENRYU!! This is 27 yr old rookie Tenryu, all slender and lump-free but still spectacularly coiffed. Funks have matching shaved heads and I don't ever recall seeing Terry with hair this short. Now that I noticed Dory Funk = David Morse I cannot unsee it and I can only pray that somehow Terry and Morse ended up in a movie together at one point. The Funks jogging suits are literally my favorite jogging suits I have seen, with a beautiful deep blue and red, slim leg with slight flair at the bottom, tasteful collar on the jacket, right amount of elastic at the waist. Gorgeous. Tenryu and Hata control with headlocks and we eventually get to see Tenryu break out the sumo charging chops into the corner. Funks takeover and begin bullying Tenryu and it's so so so bizarre to see Tenryu as a young FIP. Funks break out a sweet double indian deathlock. Everybody takes turns showing off their throw strength, with Terry hitting a mean hardway vertical on Hata, Tenryu getting a side suplex, Dory hitting a butterfly, at one point Terry dropkicks Hata and lands knee first on his face. I expected Funks to steamroll here but they let the younger guys control a bit, though it was still so strange seeing Tenryu get picked on.

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