Dos Caras & Mil Mascaras vs. Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta

[8.0] "Dos Caras and Jumbo Tsuruta have very nice chemistry. Mil Mascaras does as Mil Mascaras is wont to do and refuses to take any bumps or let anyone get any shine on him. This results in Jumbo and Baba working snug with him. You love to see it. Certainly makes the match look more like a struggle. We're missing that in modern wrestling. Jumbo getting a clean submission fall over Mil is surprising. Equally surprising is Mil Mascaras busting out an exploder suplex in 1978. Very good bout for the time."

[8.0] "Very good, and a really nice contrast to how Baba and Jumbo wrestle the Funks or Hansen & Brody. There is a continual flow of action here, which is unsurprising when one has seen Jumbo's work against Mil. Dos only adds to this, being a good worker, but he also fulfils a distinct role. Baba is the big enforcer, Jumbo is the fast and strong grappling expert, Mil is a heavyweight and a fine matworker, and Dos is smaller but very agile. These roles all work well, and Baba is protected - though he can still go at this point, his speed round the ring has reduced, and so he works in some decent matwork sections and in centre-of-the-ring movehitting spots, including taking two big flying crossbodies and selling them hard. There is a really nice variety of fall-endings here: the rarely-seen upside-down Butterfly Lock for the first fall, a standing Backbreaker from Jumbo for the second fall, and then a big side suplex from Baba for the third. This helps give a sense, alongside everything else, of the sheer variety of options in this era. No great high emotion or psychology, no match-long stories, but this is very good. 4/5"

[8.0] "Really good wrestling between Jumbo Tsuruta and the Caras brothers, they go at a fast pace. Baba was there for the big moves."

[6.0] "Slightly above average for the time, in my opinion. Dos Caras was the MVP of the match and I hope I get to see a match with him and Jumbo for the NWA United National Title some day."

[7.0] "The match presented us with a lot of technique at mat level, showing the quality that the four competitors had at that time. In addition, we could see how the submission moves presented variants in the course of match. After almost half an hour, the finale full of emotion blew up the Denen Coliseum in Tokyo."

[9.0] "This was a big tag team match between two of the biggest stars in Japan against two of the biggest stars from Mexico. Jumbo Tsuruta and Dos Caras were very impressive technically. Mil Mascaras was still a very good worker at the time, so he also played quite a big role in this match. The near falls at the end of the match were quite good for 1978 standards."

[6.0] "Pretty solid match here, when you have four legends of wrestling like these guys in there together of course its going to be good. Its nothing blowaway amazing or anything, but lots of solid wrestling in this one and some flashy stuff from the lucha team too."

[7.0] "This is a very good tag match, and I think I'd put it around the level of the Jumbo/Mascaras rematch that happened later in this tour. Those two continue to have a really good dynamic in their extended working segments. Caras can only make things better, and as is often the case with this team, Baba is used sparingly so as not to disrupt the flow of the match. Nice bit in the first fall where Mascaras manages a leg takedown on Baba, but the giant is able to bring him down by turning this leg work into a drop toe hold. Jumbo capitalizes on this with a spinning toe hold, but Mascaras overcomes this for his own leg lock. Shortly after, Caras is tagged in, and he makes Jumbo tap with a really nice butterfly lock. (Note: the Cagematch entry for this event incorrectly identifies this first fall's victor as Mascaras. ) The second fall picks up where the first left off well, and Jumbo gets the submission on Caras. A quick final fall, but not an unfitting one, as Mascaras almost gets Jumbo, forcing Baba to bail him out. He tags in the giant, who wins with a gutwrench suplex. ***3/4"