|
|
Post by elliott on Feb 18, 2021 20:40:12 GMT -5
Watched the 2nd half of the match with Horst Hoffman from 12/18/75.
Does this exist in full? Its short, only 10 minutes but I enjoyed the final 5 or 6 minutes. Baba in a technical match showing off his grabbling chops. Hoffman is a really fun worker I need to explore one day. Dig this.
|
|
|
|
Post by elliott on Feb 18, 2021 20:57:42 GMT -5
Wathced another match against The Sheik this one from 4/24/73
Ok I'm quickly becoming a fan of the Sheik. This is an interesting contrast to the first fall of the last Dick the Buiser match I watched because all Sheik does is punch, stab, kick and choke but hes fucking amazing. 70s Sheik is one of the most charismatic and compelling wrestlers. Incredible facial expressions. Willing seller. I don't wanna watch Sheik for 3 hours straight yet but he's fast growing on me. This is a double juice brawl. Quick, 10ish minutes. And really fun.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Feb 18, 2021 21:07:00 GMT -5
Just watched Baba & Inoki v Valentine & Kiniski 12/1/70, real good fun. Are there any Baba v Valentine singles matches floating around online?
|
|
|
|
Post by elliott on Feb 18, 2021 21:15:18 GMT -5
Man alive I wish!
|
|
|
|
Post by elliott on Feb 18, 2021 21:26:32 GMT -5
Watched Baba vs The Barracuda 5/8/76 and it was just a complete nothing match. They traded holds for 10 minutes and went to the finish. Most boring Baba match Ive seen other than that Bulldog Brown match.
|
|
|
|
Post by elliott on Feb 19, 2021 15:17:29 GMT -5
Watched Baba vs Buck Robley 3/19/82. This was like a 4 minute lil brawl where they just trade punches and chops before Baba plants him with a big boot for the win. Fun novelty of a match to see Baba trading strikes with a guy in sweatpants.
On a more serious note, Buck Robley was awesome and I wanna watch all of his matches one day.
|
|
|
|
Post by elliott on Feb 19, 2021 15:34:45 GMT -5
Watched Baba vs Dick Slater 3/11/77
This was a perfectly good example of an above average late 1970s match from Japan. Its not great by any means, but its certainly not bad. Just standard with a few spots that will make you perk up. Basic formula. They work clean trading holds for the majority of the match until the last 3 or so minutes when they turn up the aggression and start mixing in higher impact moves. Baba took a surprisingly nice bump off a short elbow. He did a monkey flip that was better than you'd think. They work a great nearfall off a killer Baba big boot. Slater got Baba up for a bodyslam (always impressive with a guy Baba's size) and Baba returned the favor with a great looking tossing body slam. Dick Slater's Terry Funk cosplay routine is as distracting as ever early on and then like every Dick SLater match you keep watching and he is definitely not Terry Funk. Solid wrestler but I struggle to watch him because hes such a blantant rip off .
|
|
|
|
Post by elliott on Feb 19, 2021 16:06:07 GMT -5
Watched Baba vs Hercules Hernandez 1/20/83
This was a nothing match. One thing I'll say about Baba is he should be mentioned with folks like Rock as the most giving top star ever. This is like 6 minutes and Baba gives Herc 5 minutes to try and do something to get over before Baba beats him. Herc couldn't really do anything. He went to bearhugs twice. (Sheesh) Baba is one of those NBA teams that loses to the shitty teams but then turns around and beats the defending champions. He plays to the level of his opponent. If hes in there with 1983 Hercules or 1986 Bulldog Brown hes not gonna do much. Give him 1982 Hansen and he's gonna turn on the juice.
|
|
|
|
Post by elliott on Feb 19, 2021 17:22:01 GMT -5
Watched Baba & Atsushi Onita (!) vs Ric Flair (!!) & Dick Slater 6/6/82
Been saving this one and didn't want to wait any longer. I really enjoyed this match. Classic southern tag structure with Onita isolated and worked over. Instead of just letting Baba clean house when he came in, they cut Baba off after a few spots to put him in a position to tag out and in doing so they created some really good nearfall spots on Flair by Onita. Great stuff to make Onita look really good. It was inevitable that Onita would take the loss here, but they gave him some big spots against the NWA champ to help put Onita over in losing. Flair is probably at his peak as a worker around this time and he looks sharp in this by the numbers tag. DIck Slater in 82 looks a lot better than Dick Slater in 1977 based on the last singles match I watched. Baba's athleticism continues to slip but hes still more than capable of having a quality match with the right opponents and Flair & Slater are the right opponents. Fun stuff. Would definitely recommend, not as an all time classic or anything. But a good well worked match with some big names in it.
|
|
