(Almost) 5-Star Match Reviews: Terry Gordy & Steve Williams vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue – AJPW, March 4, 1992

AJPW had a lot of classics in their 1990s heyday, many of which still hold up to a present-day standard. Countless wrestlers to have made their names in North America have drawn inspiration from these AJPW legends, either directly or indirectly. And while the industry has changed quite a lot over the decades, there are still plenty of people that prefer stuff from the past. It’s in that spirit that we look back at another big match from AJPW’s heyday to see if it still holds up.

The Story

Terry Gordy & ‘Dr. Death’ Steve Williams, the Miracle Violence Connection, won the vacant World Tag Team Titles in December in the finals of the 1991 World’s Strongest Tag Determination League. They were top foreign team in All Japan and held the tag titles more than anyone else in the company throughout 1990 and 1991. They hoped to go into 1992 unstoppable as well, having beaten the likes of Stan Hansen & Danny Spivey and Misawa & Kawada.

But this match introduced a new wrinkle to an old foe. MVC had beaten Tsuruta before, back when his regular tag partner was The Great Kabuki. But Kabuki was gone after following Tenryu to SWS and so Tsuruta needed a new partner and found on in Akira Taue.

Taue was still pretty green by AJPW standards having only been wrestling for four years. But he had been Tsuruta’s second for almost two of those years and so he was gaining plenty of useful experience and knowledge by osmosis. But this was his first major test as Tsuruta’s right-hand man. Could he fill those big shoes properly, or should the MVC take advantage of his inexperience and retain their tag team gold?

The Match

This took place on March 4, 1992. It was rated ***3/4 out of five by the Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer.

This is for MVC’s AJPW World Tag Team Championships. Tsuruta starts with an overhead chop on Doc but Doc tanks it like a boss. Doc hits the same back and when Tsuruta boots him he does the monster no-sell. Tsuruta stands firm off a shoulderblock and angrily demands the champ hit him again. Doc charges into Tsuruta several times until Tsuruta hits his jumping knee to send Doc to the floor.

Doc rushes back in but Taue tags in to double-team him alongside Tsuruta. Taue lands a scoop slam and applies a chinlock but Doc escapes via Samoan drop and tags Gordy. Gordy tackles Taue down and applies a deep and painful-looking grounded headlock. Taue fights to his feet and when Gordy gets him in a corner he fights out with sumo palm thrusts. Gordy trips him and starts working over his leg and arm until Tsuruta makes the save which angers Gordy so much the two start fighting into a corner. Jumbo goes for another jumping knee but Gordy blocks and slaps the shit out of him. Tsuruta returns fire and goes for a boot but Gordy holds onto the ropes so Tsuruta lunges forward and lands his jumping knee. Then he beats the tar out of Gordy long enough for Taue to land a scoop slam and tag Tsuruta in legally.

Tsuruta lands a big lariat for two and then applies a sleeper until Doc interferes. Gordy escapes and tags Doc who dropkicks Tsuruta, once in the ring and then to the floor. Taue tries attacking from the apron but Doc brushes him off and goes after Tsuruta some more. Doc works Tsuruta over until Tsuruta reverses an Irish whip and lands a big boot. Taue tags in and lands a dropkick of his own but then Doc lands a rough spinebuster and then tags Gordy.

Taue holds his own against Gordy and even manages to shoulderblock him down which gets a big pop. Gordy goes down hard and rolls to ringside for safety but Taue chases him down and applies a cobra twist back in the ring. I’m not sure of that shoulderblock knocked Gordy loopy or if he’s just selling, that’s how convincing he is on the small stuff here. Doc breaks it up with a diving double ax handle and then Gordy locks in a sleeper with bodyscissors until Taue gets a ropebreak.

Gordy kicks Taue’s head and tags Doc and then both of them shut down Taue’s attempts at a comeback/escape. Doc flips off Tsuruta and shitcans Taue so that Gordy can lariat him ringside. In the ring Doc gets a two-count and then locks Taue in a Boston crab and then takes a long time letting go after Taue gets a ropebreak. MVC take turns beating up Taue some more with simple moves and strikes all while mouthing off at Tsuruta while he is kept at bay by the referee.

Gordy lands a big kneelift to Taue’s gut and covers for another two-count. Doc tags in and Taue tries escaping once more but MVC double-team him yet again. Taue fights out again and goes for a back body drop but Doc counters with a sunset flip for two. Doc applies a heel hook but Taue escapes by botting Doc’s face with his free leg. Gordy tags in and pummels Taue with more stiff shots. Taue fires up but Gordy answers with a roll-up for two. Doc tags in and smashes Taue into opposite corners and then lands a stinger splash for a close two-count.

Taue gets another ropebreak to stop more legwork but Doc hits a big elbow and tags Gordy. Gordy hits three short-arm lariats for a two-count. He tries a powerbomb but Tsuruta makes the save. Doc takes Tsuruta out long enough for Gordy to connect with a second powerbomb but not long enough to keep Tsuruta from breaking up a pin. Doc knocks Tsuruta to the floor as Gordy covers again but Taue kicks out once more. Aided powerbomb by MVC. One, two, Taue kicks out at 2.9. Gordy covers again and gets two once more.

Gordy goes for a suplex but Taue escapes, stumbles, and hits a DDT out of nowhere. The crowd is going absolutely NUTS. Molten hot tag to Tsuruta. He knocks down both Gordy and Doc. Mounted punches to Gordy. Doc interrupts a Backdrop suplex attempt and kicks Tsuruta over to his corner as the crowd boos. He continues booting Tsuruta ringside and then tosses him into the ring. A Russian leg sweep gets Gordy a two-count. Gordy locks in a grounded headscissor and tags Doc. He keeps the headscissor applied as Doc drops elbows on Tsuruta’s ribs. Tsuruta kicks out at two so Doc applies a grounded half-nelson. Then he applies a sleeper but Taue makes the save.

Gordy tags in and applies a sharpshooter but once again Taue saves his partner. Gordy hits two running corner lariats for another two-count. Tsuruta dodges a third one and lands a Backdrop suplex. Got tag to Taue who runs wild and lands a Samoan drop on Gordy for a two-count of his own. An early version Nodowa Otoshi chokeslam gets him a two-count as well. Tsuruta tags in and the two Japanese guys hit tandem boots, a tandem Atomic drop, and a tandem back suplex, all for a two-count. Two short-range clotheslines by Tsuruta likewise get two. Tsuruta attempts a back body drop but Gordy blocks with a kick and lands another lariat. Both men go down.

Doc tags in and lands a swinging powerslam for a two-count. Taue comes in to stop a Boston crab but Doc takes every shot he has and cranks the hold like a beast. This, THIS is the kind of badassery sorely missing from today’s landscape. Taue charges but Doc cuts him off with a lariat. Doc lands an Oklahoma Stampede but Taue breaks up the pin. Gordy shitcans Taue so Doc tries again but Tsuruta escapes and gets a two-count from a small package. Doc lands two short-arm clotheslines but Tsuruta ducks a third and hits a DDT. Doc blocks a Backdrop so Tsuruta clotheslines him and gets a two-count from a roll-up. Doc lands some desperation football tackles and goes to the top rope but Taue traps him up there long enough for Tsuruta to throw Doc back to the mat. This allows Tsuruta to land his flying bodyscissor press only for Doc to kick out at 2.95. Taue stops Gordy from interfering, throws him ringside, and dives onto him through the ropes. Doc and Tsuruta trade waistlocks until Tsuruta connects with a second Backdrop. But he takes too long to cover so Doc kicks out.

Taue and Gordy brawl in a corner as Doc Backdrops Tsuruta. Taue collides with Doc long enough to stun him and then Gordy collides ith Taue. Tsuruta capitalizes with another Backdrop as Tsuruta holds onto Gordy for dear life. Then Tsuruta covers Doc. One, two…and three! Tsuruta and Taue win the titles!

Winners and NEW AJPW World Tag Team Champions after 31:18: Jumbo Tsuruta & Akira Taue

Review

This was an exciting match but still a notch below other AJPW classics from the same period. It was fun and competitive and followed a classic structure. The big bad foreign heels bullied the local guys so badly and so thoroughly that Tsuruta and Taue – who had come to be seen as villains from their wars with Misawa and his friends – were cheered more often than not here. They subverted expectations in a way: they played on the older and more classic outside invaders’ trope even though MVC were AJPW mainstays by this point in time. And yet it still worked: Doc and Gordy were so good at playing foreign monster characters that it became so much easier for the audience to rally behind Tsuruta and Taue.

Part of that came from how the match was put together, which showed what the King’s Road style was all about. Contrary to some preconceptions, King’s Road isn’t meant to be complicated; it’s meant to be clear. The term commonly used to describe the style – Oudou – wasn’t Baba’s original idea. His initial descriptor of the kind of wrestling he wanted was akaruku, tanoshiku, hageshī puroresu – “bright, fun, and intense pro wrestling”. He wanted his wrestlers and the rotating crew of outsiders to present a style that was easy to follow but executed with depth and intensity. That way there wouldn’t be any need for a promoter to hammer any narratives over audience’s heads because they’d be able to follow along and get lost in the extensive execution of a simple theme or story. This match was a great example of that idea: Doc and Gordy heeled it up like classic Southern style villains and used basic isolation tactics to wear Taue down until Tsuruta made the heroic comeback.

This simple premise was executed through long wear-down segments, heat spots, grounded matwork, and many attempts at exhausting Taue, which got him over as a valiant second babyface as much as it built towards Tsuruta’s tag. It goes to show that telling a story in simple but effective steps can go a lot farther than doing too many big things because complicating things risks having the wrestlers (and therefore the audience) losing the plot of whatever’s going on in the ring.

But while it was simple and straightforward in scope it was also repetitive in execution. Despite having a hot crowd and some good storytelling the match really dragged during the middle. Taue took an extended beating that lasted so incredibly long, only for him to all but brush it off by the time he needed to go back in after Tsuruta’ hot tag. Though MVC did an excellent job building heat and did all the little things flawlessly to keep Tsuruta at bay and build towards his inevitable tag, they reached a point where they started overdoing it and dragging out their heat segment longer than necessary. And when Tsuruta finally came in for his hot tag it was over before it could really mean anything. It wasn’t long before Doc and Gordy cut him off and began working him over as well, making that hope spot a bit underwhelming. Sure he got his shine back minutes later and the final seven minutes or so were wild and exciting in typical AJPW fashion. And yet I think this match was a bit off-base when it came to pacing which lead to it going on much longer than it needed to.

Final Rating: ****1/4

Though this was far from any kind of groundbreaking classic I think it’s a solid match worth watching if/when you have the chance. The best part of it was its simplicity: it followed a simple formula of isolating the weaker member of a team from his stronger partner and trying to exhaust him until he couldn’t fight back anymore. It worked but only up to a point: despite being technically sound and building drama the way it was supposed to it didn’t have the big explosive crescendos of many other matches of its day.

At the same time, I think this match should be studied because it’s a terrific example of a lot of little things mattering more than a few big things all clumped together. Gordy and Doc were amazing heels who sold themselves as big deals and got their points across without uttering a single word. They made it crystal clear what they were about all through gestures and body language which made up for the language barrier between themselves and the All Japan audience. That’s a very important skill to have because it helps make a match more digestible and enjoyable, particularly for those viewers who watches wrestling matches without any volume on.

Thanks for reading.