Tuesday 2 January 2024

In the new year we are watching Antonio Inoki and Dick Murdoch against pirates

Antonio Inoki & Dick Murdoch v Billy & Bully Gaspar (New Japan, 3/14/88)

I have not a clue who the Gaspar brothers are. I don't think it's ever specified which one is Billy and which one is Bully. They're both dressed like pirates, with baggy white shirts and red pantaloons. Oh and hockey masks of course. One of them looked a wee bit clunky at points, but it's hard to get a handle on how good someone is based on like 10 minutes. The other one was pretty damn fun though. He took an awesome Slaughter bump into the post, tumbling out to the apron just to get clocked by a Murdoch punch and sent back in the ring. Murdoch was living it up as a pure babyface here and he had the fans in his pocket. I guess he was Inoki's ace in the hole against these menaces. He threw amazing Dick Murdoch punches and a couple Captain Redneck dropckicks, and his headscissor takedown is one of the best ever. The Gaspars isolate Inoki for a little bit and even run a phantom hot tag spot (that doesn't come off great but I appreciate that they even tried it). Then Inoki just kind of comes back and make the tag under no duress. One Gaspar brains Inoki with a chair and piledriver on it and the ref' throws the thing out, but Inoki and Murdoch stand tall at the end and want the Gaspars for another round. I can only guess the Gaspar thing was some kind of Inoki idea that was dropped before long. Such is life. 

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