Bob Backlund vs. Antonio Inoki, NJPW 7/27/1978
A bonafide old school 60 minute grappling epic. Backlund goes a bit howdy and doody doo at the first lock up, but otherways he’s quite serious. The atmosphere here is tremendous with folks breaking out into “INOKI” chants constantly already in the first fall, even when Inoki is just locking in a headscissor. The wrestling is what you expect: Simple, occasionally sprawling into amateur-esque sections, both guys wrenching holds and working intense pinfall attempts already in the 1st fall. Inoki is good at keeping things exciting and unpredictable, occasionally mixing in some rope running, hitting a slick hip toss, going for an enzuigiri out of nowhere because why not. There’s a moment where Backlund goes for his signature one arm lift and Inoki lands a bit awkwardly but they segue right into Inoki launching Backlund across the ring and into a big back body drop. The first fall is just Inoki catching Backlund in an octopus hold as he comes off the ropes. Just the kind of neat unpredictable thing that would keep folk excited.
2nd fall continues in a similar vein with more mat wrestling and holds that have a clinical feel to them. You have your classic stuff like abdominal stretches into indian deathlocks. The crucial moment comes when Inoki hits this amazing Russian Legsweep to counter a side headlock and then follows up with a dropkick. Backlund is able to fire back with a dropkick of his own, but he is so knocked silly he can’t follow up. The crowd goes nuclear at the prospect of Inoki potentially winning 2-0. Inoki goes for a butterfly suplex but Backlund forces to the ropes like the move means death. Inoki keeps going for the offense and Backlund hits a butterfly suplex of his own! He lands another absolutely beautiful one that launches Inoki across the ring, but he is too damaged to make a proper cover. Some intense pinfall attempts occur before Backlund finds his groove and drops Inoki with an absolute beauty of an Atomic Drop to win the 2nd fall.
The 3rd fall begins pretty tentative and both guys trying some legwork. They eventually get to the 70s style bomb dropping. You get your abdominal stretch reversals, a belly to belly suplex over the ropes, Backlund totally nuking Inoki with a huge shoulderbreaker, even Inoki hitting a big knee off the top in a great moment. There’s also a bit of slow down and it feels not quite as tight as it should be. Inoki locks in a short arm scissor that feels so blatantly filler just to kill sometime before inevitable time limit draw, with the ending almost feeling rushed as it felt like they had to get in a bunch of stuff in under a minute, though there’s a really cool big bump on the floor.
There’s some slowdown here and there, but it’s a really enjoyable old school grappling epic, made to look as legit as can get by 70s standards.
Bob Backlund vs. Hussein Arab (Iron Sheik), WWWF 6/4/1979
They start with the 70s territory version of shootstyle, with both guys doing some great looking greco roman pummeling and struggling over takedowns. Sheiky baby does a nice job of keeping the crowd engaged through selling frustration and complaining about having his tights pulled and such. The MSG crowd is super into everything, just hollering with joy when Sheik is thrown out the ring during a scramble, and reacting with big indignation when he goes to pull the hair. They move into a lengthy section with Hussein putting some weardown holds on Backlund. They do a good job keeping things active even when working holds, and Backlund had some cool pin attempts as hope spots. After a bit of this kind of work they move back into back and forth holds, with Backlund getting the crowd excited here and there by doing things like hitting a hip toss or a flying headscissor because why not. At one point he goes to dive off the middle rope but the ropes are so loose he kind of struggles and catches a kick from the Sheik on the way down. Sheik goes to attack the arm bit, but it doesn’t really come together for anything and Backlund doesn’t sell it in particular. One cannot overstate how into it the crowd is. When Backlund goes for an arm stretch like 20 minutes in, they still happily count along as he tries to pull Sheiks arm off his torso. It’s looking like quite the clinical match. They do classic abdominal stretch reversal spot before they both bust out some suplexes, they are quite exhausted now but still kicking out at 1 for everything. Then, Sheik goes for a chair, beating on Backlund right in front of the referee, which is somehow not a DQ? They keep going with the 70s version of a nearfall-ladden 50/50 finishing stretch, Sheik even diving off the top rope and missing a big splash, Backlund getting the chair, Sheik trying to load up the boot only to have it used against him moments later. One cannot overstate how overjoyed the crowd was with Backlund, any babyface in the world now would kill to be this beloved. It could have been tied together a bit better, as it does feel meandering especially in the middle and the blatant chair stuff was a little baffling, but for what it’s worth they both worked hard and displayed wrestling in raw form. Both when it comes to the hold stuff as well as the spectacle with the gimmicks and big nearfalls and an engaging heel vs. face story.
Bob Backlund vs. Pat Patterson, WWF 7/30/1979
Alright… you want heat? This match was pure undiluted heat. A total house of fire. An inferno, even. Patterson tries to attack Backlund with the belt to begin with – WWF always loved belt shots – but Backlund avoids him and starts throwing him around like a laundry bag with these amazing body slams. Just launching him across the ring. Backlund goes to work an armbar and just proceeds to put Pattersons arm and shoulder through the wringer for like 15 minutes. It’s never boring – Backlund is really good at finding different things to do while working the arm. Stomping on it, grinding his elbow in it, dropping legs. Patterson tries a few different ways to fight back and bumps around for Backlund some more. You get some more amazing looking Bob Backlund bodyslams and your 70s staples like hip tosses and flying headscissors. Pattersons shoulder bump into the post was probably the highlight. Patterson finally manages to turn it around tossing Backlund over the top rope. Backlund comes back up with a bad leg and Patterson does some basic but vicious looking stuff smashing his knee into it. I liked how Backlunds attempts at comebacks became increasingly savage – smashing Pattersons head into the mat, punching at his bad shoulder. They both keep selling the damage to their arm/leg respectively. Essentially this match is a limb work lovers dream. All the while there is insane heat and the crowd going nuts for everything. Backlunds attempts to comeback keep getting hampered by his bad leg. Eventually there’s an amazing spot where Patterson gets his leg caught in the ropes and Backlund goes to town on him stomping the crap out of him. Another posting later Patterson is bleeding and Backlund starts throwing punches. Amazing spot where Backlund is able to hit his big atomic drop but can’t continue because of his bad leg. Patterson busts out the brass knuckles and some distraction finish occurs, proving those have been a thing for a really long time. It was all good though, not the kind that makes a match look meaningless. Regardless, the selling and layout here were insanely good. Both guys did a tremendous job and had the crowd in the palm of their hands. Perhaps Backlund could have sold a bit more desperately when he was in Pattersons leglocks but that’s a very minor issue. An all around great match that displays top notch selling and psychology to the tee while getting the most out of largely basic wrestling moves.
Bob Backlund vs. Greg Valentine, WWWF 2/19/1979
This is a one hour draw. Bob Backlund was building one hell of a body of matches in 1979 alone. Valentine has an amazing cocky smirk to begin and he disrespects Bob by handshaking his little finger before the bell. The match begins how you'd expect - with Bob hanging on to a side headlock, though they do keep it pretty lively. Backlund comes off the ropes and leapfrogs over Greg, catching him with a dropkick with Valentine doing his signature timber sell. They do a neat thing where Valentine tries to get out of the headlock by grabbing the leg, and Backlund monkey flips him over. Wild how you can see things in a 47 year old match that you've never seen before. Valentine starts going to town on Backlund earlier than you'd expect, trying to break him down with his knees and elbows, Greg Valentine style. I could watch Valentine beat the bricks off of someone with elbows and knees all day, everything he does looks so bone-crushing and awesome. He hits this brutal knee drop to the stomach that looks like something Super Dragon would do, and displays some creativity putting Backlund in an indian deathlock so he can drop some more knees and elbows across his spine. When Backlund comes back, he ends up putting Valentine in another side headlock. Which is to be expected, as they are only about 10 minutes into this 60 minute bout.
They keep going at this rhythm - working and wrenching holds, building up to explosions. Backlund as usual is really good at cranking back on holds - the crowd counting along when he goes for the rowing arm stretch. Between the holds they do a really good job of mixing things up and keeping it interesting without resorting to anything too trite. I especially dug all the missed attacks which were really well timed. Backlund takes some spills out the ring, which always feel like they could now be a turning point in the match. He also busts out some things like a sunset flips over the ropes which you don't expect to see in a 70s match. It's rock solid work oozing with old school charm, just feels slightly slow here and there as they keep going back to holds to kill a few minutes and they aren't always super interesting. They do some neat selling - Valentine slapping his own hands to get blood circulation going while in an armlock, Backlund also doing a nice job acknowledging some damage to his arm, but nothing overarching. Of course, you have the freakish spot where Backlund lifts Valentine up with one arm. 30 minutes in Backlund hits a huge bodyslam across the ring followed by a hard dropkick. This freak of a man just had endless stamina.
About 40 or 45 minutes in Valentine finally starts to get something going when he starts working Backlunds legs and trying to go for the figure 4. GREAT spot where Backlund hits the atomic drop but his leg gives out, seems to be a signature sell from him. They last 15 or so minutes are absolutely boiling hot as they make everything look like an epic struggle. Valentine holding on for tear life to resist an irish whip (into an abdominal stretch of course) , Backlund trying to gut it out to hit his suplexes and escape the figure 4. Valentine looks pretty fucking tough here surviving everything Backlund throws at him. Backlund throwing punches at the last minute was also pretty epic. The most oustanding thing here is that these guys pretty much never missed about - they were 100% on the whole time. You can say that they may have slowed down working some holds but they were never lazy with them. Just a bunch of basic, but ultra-tight believable work that came together beautifully, and that's where the art form really lies doesn't it. A great entry to the canon of old school epics.
