Puroresu Love: Real World Tag League 1980-82

REAL WORLD TAG LEAGUE: 1980-82

This All Japan commercial release comes to us courtesy of Golden Boy Tapes who hooked me up with this show in DVD-R format. Their prices have always been top notch, and their VQ is always right up there. So head on over and pick something up, like maybe the Best of Japan 2004 set.

The Real World Tag League is the longest standing tradition in All Japan. The big singles tournament, the Champions Carnival took a nine year hiatus, but the tag league has always been there. Starting in 1977 and right up to just last month. These compilations were released in 1995, to showcase the history of the tournament. They feature highlights of the league, and the “final” match in full. The quotes around the word final, are present because the tag league didn’t have a real final until 1995. Before then, it was just that on the last night of the tournament, whoever had the most points was the winner. So naturally, the “final” matches are just the last match that the team who won the tournament wrestled in.

This obviously left some careful booking to be done, in order to create suspense over who would win. Because if the first place team had eleven points, and on the final night they wrestled a team that only had four, then there would be no suspense because win or lose, the team with eleven would win the tournament. So the final night always had twists and turns, such as one team winning if they won the match, or if it went to a draw. Or one team could only win, if another team lost their match.

TERRY FUNK/DORY FUNK Jr. vs GIANT BABA/JUMBO TSURUTA (December 11th, 1980)
When one sits down with a match, that they’ve previously heard high praise for, they have a certain expectation of what they’re going to see. Unfortunately, this often leaves the viewer unimpressed, and this match was one of those matches. Its understandable that with all the times they’ve faced each other, that they’ll know each other pretty well. Easily the first half of this is them doing a bit of a feeling out process, whereby they’re taking it easy, trying to not make the first mistake. Not that the first half isn’t enjoyable, because there are several parts that are. The most prominent example being the abdominal stretch. Terry does a great sell job of it, right down to his facial expression. Its not over the top, and it isn’t undermining it, its about as close to perfect as it can be. Its really too bad that they didn’t put more of a focus on wearing down Terry’s body.

The only real blunder that you can say is made by the Funk brothers is made by Dory, when he tries for the spinning toe hold on Baba, too early. Its not really a bad idea, because the obvious way to take out a larger man, is to go at his legs. But there wasn’t anything to really lead up to it, and even though its their big finisher, the fans don’t buy into it putting Baba in any real danger. Jumbo, who is in the ring with the owner of the company, and two gaijin legends, obviously gets put into the role as the young gun, and he’s going to be the one to make the first big mistake. He doesn’t make it for a while though. But it comes out when he’s got Dory in a headlock. A simple wear down move, that will be able to fatigue Dory, or hopefully irritate him enough to go for something and make that crucial mistake to give the Japanese team the edge. All it does though, is open Jumbo up for a knee buster, and then soften him up for the spinning toe hold.

Jumbo and Terry are the ones who make the match the most enjoyable, although what Dory lacked in that department, plays a factor down the road. Jumbo, sitting on the apron, gets tired of watching Baba take the punishment and finally just snaps. The first occasion being when Terry snaps. Terry goes from the straight wrestling that they’d been doing, and unloads with a series of jabs. Finally drawing in Jumbo to make the save. The second instance is when Terry hooks on a rolling cradle and Jumbo runs in stomping away at Terry to break it up. Terry just hands it right back, but when the brawl breaks out. Dory rushes right over to his brother’s aid, and then, does nothing. Terry always was the more exciting one, and Dory was the laid back one. Dory simply makes his presence known to Tsuruta, should he decide to try anymore roughhouse tactics with Terry.

As the match winds down, Dory finds himself running out of gas, while the younger and more energetic Jumbo Tsuruta is still ticking. He can survive Tsuruta’s onslaught, but not really dish it back. Jumbo snaps on another headlock, and plants his feet so not to once again get caught in a knee buster. Only this time the veteran hits a backdrop. This causes Jumbo to just up the ante that much more with his attacks. Drawing in Terry, who sacrifices himself to save Dory. Because the knee off the top rope would have been it. Especially with a tired Dory Funk Jr. Terry’s sacrifice leaves Dory in a two-on-one situation, but with ethical guys like Baba and Tsuruta, he doesn’t have to worry much about liberties being taken. Terry is eventually re-energized and tags back in, to start a big brawl with Tsuruta that goes to the floor. Baba, ever the thinking man’s wrestler, knocks Terry off the apron, and allows Jumbo to roll back in to give the match, and the tournament to Baba and Tsuruta via countout. I’m not really hot on the ending, and the match dragged at times. But it had some enjoyable elements and a few bits from this, would come into play a year down the road. I do take issue with the ending though, as I would have much preferred a clean pin or submission, instead of the count out. ***3/4

TERRY FUNK/DORY FUNK Jr. vs BRUISER BRODY/JIMMY SNUKA (December 13th, 1981)
Brody and Snuka didn’t come alone though, they brought some backup with them in the form of Stan Hansen, fresh off his jump from New Japan. This was the first major jump in the New Japan/All Japan rivalry. As JD Dunn put it, this was akin to seeing Scott Hall jump the guardrail on the Memorial Day 1996 edition of Nitro.

Unlike the previous match, this isn’t exactly going to be a technical wrestling masterpiece. Terry Funk understands this pretty clearly, and it shows in his willingness to brawl with Brody and Snuka. Brody is more than happy to sell Terry’s punches, and Snuka even does the Flair flop. Terry does a few things that were pretty uncommon for him, in attempt to keep Brody and Snuka at bay. Such as hitting Snuka below the belt, as well as coming right off the top rope to the floor at Brody. Terry even joins Brody in the stands for a little brawl. Dory still stands by straight wrestling though. Its what he does best, and its what the marquee says. He lets Terry play their game and then he goes for the wrestling. It works at points, but early on when Brody and Snuka are still strong, it doesn’t have much effect. Snuka one-ups Dory by hooking on a headlock of his own, and Dory can’t break or escape it for the life of him. Snuka is supposed to just be a mindless brawler and a flyer, he isn’t supposed to be giving Dory Funk Jr. of all people any problems, let alone with a simple move like the head lock.

One mistake Dory made, was the same mistake he made the year before, he went for the spinning toe hold too early and it cost him. Terry helps out later on, by doing some double team action to wear down Snuka’s leg for a more effective attempt at it. On several occasions, Terry drapes the leg over the ropes and holds it there, while Dory can come off the top and drop a knee on it. Dory hooks the spinning toe hold on, and Terry cuts off Brody and does his own, but gets sent to the floor, and this is where the camera work really adds to the match.

The camera pans back and we see Dory, still cranking the spinning toe hold on Snuka, while Brody and Terry brawl, but then we see Stan Hansen start to move. A quick shot back, shows Dory still has Snuka trapped. Then it pans back to show Terry getting leveled with the Western Lariat. Dory has no idea because he’s still holding Snuka in the toe hold. Brody saves and Dory looks around and sees that once again, Terry is out of commission. This time he didn’t sacrifice himself to save Dory. Hansen sacrificed him to save Brody and Snuka. Dory is on his own and this time he’s not against two ethical wrestlers like Baba and Tsuruta. Terry was always the crazy man on the team, but now its time for Dory Funk Jr. to take action. He unloads with punches on Brody and rams him into the post, and then opens up the cut with closed fist punches. The crowd eats it up too, as Dory is really fired up here. But the two-on-one takes over and soon Dory is down and its only a matter of time. Dory survives quite the onslaught, with Snuka’s diving headbutt, and then a suplex from Brody. The camera cuts to the floor several times, showing us that Terry is still out of it. Finally Brody connects with his running knee and Dory Funk Jr. has nothing left. He put up a good fight, with his back to the wall, but it was just too much for him to take. ****1/2.

The action isn’t over though, because while Snuka, Brody, and Hansen all celebrate. Dory still has an issue with the way the match ended, and Hansen then proceeds to begin kicking and stomping at Dory. Brody and Snuka join in, bringing out Baba and Tsuruta to make the save. Baba and his chops quickly render Hansen a bloody mess and the evil gaijin head to their locker room. With Hansen screaming that he was only there for his friend Brody (and he certainly was there for him) and how he “didn’t have to take this shit”, and can’t wait to get his hands on Giant Baba. Excellent match and a killer angle. ***** for the whole thing.

Hansen, Brody, and Snuka spent the next year terrorizing The Funks, Baba, and Tsuruta, as well as All Japan in general. Snuka left All Japan for the WWF and was given a somewhat violent farewell from Brody and Hansen. So the next year put Brody and Hansen together in the tag league.

TERRY FUNK/DORY FUNK Jr. vs STAN HANSEN/BRUISER BRODY (December 13th, 1982)
One year to the day, from their previous tag league match (also exactly two weeks to the day, before I was born). This is much like the previous match, in terms of The Funks willing to brawl with Hansen and Brody, and this time Dory doesn’t have any qualms about mixing it up with them. Terry even sends Brody into the post just like last year, only Hansen gets revenge and makes sure its Terry who winds up bleeding. Riki Chosyu often gets the credit for turning around the All Japan main event style, and rightfully so. But I think Hansen and Brody deserve some credit for that as well. Chosyu brought the faster paced wrestling matches over to replace the slower stuff (like the 1980 match), but Hansen and Brody went from the plain old wrestling, to the wild and crazy brawl.

Just like last time, Brody has no issues with his selling, and he makes Terry’s jabs at him look quite effective. Dory sticks with his European Uppercuts, as opposed to closed fists, and Brody goes reeling from them as well. One thing that they’d been playing off, was Dory going for the spinning toe hold too early. It happens here, but all Dory does, is trip Hansen and then apply it again. Instead of doing something to either take him off his game, or to weaken him up before he went back to the move. This is what leads Dory to get in trouble though. He has Hansen caught in the move and breaks the hold to take care of Brody on the apron and gets attacked from behind. It makes sense, but at the same time, it doesn’t make sense for him to put in on, so soon after Hansen had just countered it. Brody goes for the big brawl inside the stands again, this time making sure its Dory, who isn’t as proficient a brawler. Terry knows what Brody is thinking and head on in, to have Dory’s back. Also, just like last time, Dory gets stuck in a two-on-one situation via Terry eating a Western Lariat on the floor. It would have been nice to play off it, by having Terry either avoid it, or survive it. But the Western Lariat has always been the big killer move, so it makes sense for Terry to be once again rendered a non-factor. With Dory left two-on-one he does his best, Brody drops the knee just like last time. The gaijin heels had it right there. But they opt to try and hurt Dory, as opposed to just winning the match. Hansen going for the Lariat seems to be a good way to both ensure the win, and hurt Dory. However, the win was already in the bag after Brody’s knee drop. So the attempt at the lariat, is just Hansen and Brody taking their eyes off the prize.

The lariat hitting referee Joe Higuchi could have gone somewhere interesting as well. For instance, Dory getting a weapon and evening the odds. Or pushing Brody into Hansen, sending Hansen to the floor and pinning Brody with a roll up. All we get however, is Hansen trying to steal Lou Thesz’ shirt, and getting DQ’d. Hansen and Brody realize what happened and that they, cost themselves the tag league. So they take it out on the ring boys. It was a really fun bloody brawl, but there were several things that could have been done, to make it better, instead it was just a bloody brawl, with a few throwbacks to the classic from the year before. ****.

Conclusion: The 1981 match and angle are enough on its own to warrant a recommendation. Throw in the fun match from the year before that, that helped set it up in many ways. As well as the bloody brawl from the year after it. And you have yourself a hell of a purchase on your hands. Recommendation for the 1980-1982 Real World Tag League.