Dick The Bruiser vs. Giant Baba

[7.0] "This mirrored the current Tiger Jeet Singh/Antonio Inoki rivalry rampaging through NJPW at this point. Baba bleeds buckets in this one and Dick The Bruiser is the proto-Stan Hansen here. After the first two falls end in DQ's these two just wail on each other until someone falls. The chaos on the outside includes bull ropes, chairs, and the Gaijins at ringside brawling with Team All Japan. Somehow they outdid Tiger Jeet's psychopathy going on in New Japan at this time. Not a technical piece here but a hell of a bar fight on a payday in Muskogee."

[6.0] "This match is pure chaos with no pretense to be anything else. Giant Baba and Dick the Bruiser were never going to deliver a technical masterclass and they don't even try as they do a handful of wrestling moves and bumps between them in the entire match. The first fall is slow but from its finish onward, the match is pure chaotic fun. Baba's blade job, the teams getting involved, Baba getting himself disqualified in the second fall to enact revenge on Bruiser, the all out brawl between both men and their teams in the third fall, all of it just flows perfectly and feels organic and chaotic. Baba wins with the help of Jumbo Tsuruta's chair shot and Bruiser vows to bring back Crusher to get his revenge. The wrestling itself is irrelevant to this match as it survives mostly on the violence and feeling of absolute chaos. Bruiser doesn't do much in term of moves but he plays his part to perfection, the man could play his gimmick. Baba does a great job in this as well, his selling is great during the heat and then he does great job showing his fire and desire to get revenge. This type of match was never going to rank high due to personal preferences, but this match is a good and well executed example of it"

[6.0] "The first fall was incredibly dull, I was pretty sure at that point that this will be a schlock. But when the second fall started and Baba bleed, it was great. 65"

[6.0] "This reminds me a lot of the match Baba had with The Sheik a few years earlier, in that it was more of a wild brawl than a wrestling match. That I feel was to this match's benefit, as Baba works better in these shorter brawls as opposed to the longer, drawn out hold for hold style of most matches in this era. Of course the Bruiser isn't as interesting as Sheik was, so the match wasn't as good, but this was still more tolerable than a lot of Baba singles matches I've seen."

[8.0] "A match that falls shorter side for a 2 out of 3 falls with great brawling, told a decent story, had that big match feel. Anything I could have asked from a wrestling match to be honest. Only downside was lack of technical wrestling from both sides."

[6.0] "This doesn't aim to be anything much higher than a brawl, but it's solid entertainment in that regard. Dick is disqualified for smashing Baba's head against the announcers' table and refusing to let go of him (it seems like he was trying to hold him down and prevent him from breathing? Higuchi dq'ed him after doing a five-count). He tries to roll back in, but Dick continues to brutalize him, and ends up bringing them back outside and using a rope to choke Baba. However, Baba eventually grabs the rope and, in a very good spot, ties both of their wrists together so that he can strike his stomach, before himself getting disqualified by succumbing to his thirst for revenge and choking Dick. Third fall, and Baba's got great blood now. After a tantalizing bit where young Jumbo is delivering forearms to Dick at ringside, Baba chokes Dick with the rope a little more before whipping him, hitting the dropkick, and getting the pin. I don't think this reaches the transcendence that a match like this needs in order to become a classic in my eyes, but again, it's thoroughly solid entertainment. ***1/4"