I wasn't expecting too much out of this, but it wound up being a really fun brawl. Murdoch basically worked full babyface while Kamata was cheapshotting him in the throat and eyes with karate thrusts. I haven't seen much Kamata even though he's been showing up on match listings since I was like 16, but he was a hoot in this and maybe I should've paid more attention over the years. For a guy who looks like he should be running around in a mobility scooter he's pretty damn nippy, hitting Murdoch with a few nice jumping toe kicks, reeling off those chops quicker than you'd think by looking at him, and there was one part where he toddled across the ring and up the turnbuckles like an aggressive penguin. Murdoch also chucked him into the crowd and his bump through a bunch of people and abandoned folding chairs was almost comically unnecessary for a fatboy to be taking. Murdoch's babyface spots were surprise dropkicks - which were awesome - and Dick Murdoch punches, where he cocked his fist and let you know he was going to pop a guy in the mouth before popping him in the mouth. We also got some blood and even a nice bit of brawling in the crowd. Of course if you thought this was ending in anything other than a no contest then you're most certainly barking up the wrong tree, but they at least made the ring boys earn their pocket money for the night. I honest to god liked this more than just about every non-Hansen or Terry Funk All Japan match from the first half of the 80s. Maybe Tor Kamata (from Hawaii, whose real name was McRonald!) should've been the real ace of All Japan.
Dick Murdoch v Harley Race (All Japan, 2/12/81)
This was one of those Harley Race matches where he gives his opponent like 90% of the bout and bumps around huge for everything thrown at him. It doesn't always make for the most compelling contest, but I guess all the same I have a hard time knocking wrestlers for being TOO unselfish. I mean this probably would've been better if they tried to throttle each other for 15 minutes but we're not here to judge it for what it WASN'T, am I right? Or do whatever you want, I'm not yer da. The first minute of the match showed one of Race's greatest strengths while highlighting one of the things people usually ding him for. The strength was the bumping, as he takes a huge hip toss and two gorilla press slams, the latter being kind of crazy when you think about it. Like, Harley is not really the type of wrestler you typically think of as an eater of gorilla press slams, and Murdoch doesn't exactly look like the type of wrestler to do them. I suppose one of the cool things about Murdoch as a wrestler is that he looks like someone who sits on his back porch drinking Lone Star and smoking roll-ups, but he's a great athlete and he was only 35 here even if he looks 50. There was some proper strength in those arms. I guess the problem some folk might have is similar to one people might have with Flair. A standard knock on Flair is that he made his opponents work the same match, or at least similar matches based upon a few archetypes. You'd get wrestlers who don't usually do running splashes trying running splashes or guys who don't do gorilla press slams doing gorilla press slams. With Race it feels a little less formulaic than that. I think he just liked to bump big and so you sometimes got guys hitting moves they'd never hit any other time because Race wanted to take that bump at the time. It's not like that's a problem in and of itself (I'm all for variety and Dick Murdoch hitting gorilla press slams is fucking cool), it's more that they're just sort of thrown out there arbitrarily. It's 1981, I'm guessing gorilla press slams are a big deal, but these ultimately felt inconsequential because they were really only used to set up a longish headlock segment. They end up brawling on the floor at one point, Race grabs a chair, but the end goal is obviously for him to be hit by the chair rather than for him to do any of the hitting, which is blatantly obvious as Murdoch has his hands on the chair but Race is basically bonking himself in the head with it while Murdoch goes along for the ride. And that's more or less how this is worked. It's more of a Race bump show with Murdoch providing the obstacle he can bump off of. So it was fine, but still would've been better if they tried to throttle each other for 15 minutes.
Dick Murdoch v Tiger Toguchi (New Japan, 8/21/81)
Man, this was some lumpy WAR midcard greatness. Did Murdoch ever work a Tenryu fed? Because evidently he'd have fit in splendidly. I don't know the backstory here, nor do I know what Murdoch said to Toguchi on THE STICK~ pre-match, but these two do not like each other and they displayed that hostility by throwing many potatoes. Murdoch would back Toguchi into the corner and pepper him with nasty shoulders to the midsection, forearm uppercuts, shots to the jaw, then snapmare him and drop a knee right across his nose. Toguchi would fire back with his own punches and Murdoch would spit take over unlucky spectators and check to see if all his teeth were still there. They'd club each other in the neck and throw little rabbit punches to the throat and ear. Murdoch was also working as a blatant prick and would tell the ref' to check for hair-pulling so he could punch Toguchi in the kidney. Then Ueda jumped in with a cane and laid into Toguchi, but the brawl continued into the post-match and I would very much be down for seeing more of this. What a fun wee scrap.
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