Unification Match 1

So as we noted, Giant Baba has decided to create his own World Heavyweight Championship. He is doing so by unifying his three main titles. The first "attempt" at unification was held on 4/15/1988 between the NWA International Heavyweight Champion Bruiser Brody and the PWF Heavyweight and NWA United National Heavyweight Champion Genichiro Tenryu. Tenryu had been the United National Champion for over two years and had earlier in 1988 defeated Stan Hansen for the PWF title (in what was probably the first true unification match).

This was a so/so match. It's basic structure was great and the kind of wrestling I enjoy. Stiff strikes, hard kicks, good wrestling building to big moves. Matches filled with good ring psychology and a story to be told. I much prefer a match like this, to many of today's matches that tend to be filled with high spot after high spot. What killed this match was a terrible ending. I know that Baba wanted to build up over the course a year some drama and excitement over any type of unification of the titles. So this match was booked with a double count out, to progress the unification storyline.

Now at the time in 1988, double counts where common in All Japan. It wasn't until the summer of 1990 that Baba moved to an all clean finish approach. So at the time of this match, protecting stars without having to loose was common practice in All Japan.

One of the most under-appreciated aspect of many of the All Japan matches I have watched over the years is a very subtle approach to counters. Wrestlers work hard to avoid the strikes and kicks of their opponent. If a big move is attempted, such as a Suplex or Power Bomb, an all out attempt is made to avoid it. That subtle ring psychology is something I really enjoy and find absent in almost all other promotions. But All Japan in the 1980's and 1990's utilized it masterfully. And this match featured great use of both Brody and Tenryu working hard to avoid the kicks and strikes of the other.

The main story of this match was eventually Tenryu gaining control and starting to work over Brody's legs. The popular opinion of Brody is he just didn't sell for his opponent. In this case, he did a real strong job of selling Tenryu's leg work. That is, until it was time for his offensive comeback, at which point he stopped any sort selling.

On a separate note, I had not seen a Brody match all that recently and I simply forgot how good he could be for such a big man. He moved so well and was so athletic. His kicks were a thing of beauty. His strikes as hard as I remember. And his drop kick was amazing for someone so big.  There are plenty of matches were Brody does a really terrible job of selling, or just brings the match down with his ability to not cooperate all that well.  Luckily this is not one of those matches. 

So as noted, eventually Brody regained the offense and eventually went for his King Kong Knee Drop off the top rope. He hit it, but sold it like he had been hurt as well. He then rolled to the outside, selling being in pain (I guess from the early leg attacks that he stopped selling for a good 5 minutes). Meanwhile, Tenryu selling the Knee Drop also rolls to the outside. The two stagger towards each other and Tenryu hits a really weak Power Bomb or Piledriver (I could not tell which one it was supposed to be, but either way it was bad). Then they are both counted out.

So good match, weak ending and the first attempt at unifying the titles fails.