#111: Dusty Rhodes vs. Harley Race, AJPW Open Championship League (12/6/1975).
I generally stick to themes for this blog every week - 5 matches, all based around one thing. This week, I'm doing something a little different. Along with the Iron Man Matches that I posted, I'm also going to be posting some random match reviews just for the hell of it. There's nothing tying them together. They were just in my YouTube playlist, and I wanted to do them.
Now that I think about it, I guess the one unifying thing about these matches is that none of them take place in America. Anyway...
This is an Open Championship League Match.
It's crazy to me how these two apparently only had four singles matches together. From what I can tell, this is the very first time they've gone one on one.
Dusty jabs first, and Harley looks pissed. They lock up, and Dusty takes the side headlock. He wrenches at the head, and then Harley sends him into the ropes. Dusty shoulder tackles him, then goes back to the side headlock. He closes and extends his arms to add more pressure to the head. Harley lifts Dusty up for an atomic drop. He tries a headbutt, but Dusty avoids it and goes back to the side headlock. Harley forces Dusty into the ropes to break the hold. He strikes, and Dusty pops him in the head with the bionic elbow.
Dusty right back to the side headlock, Steamboat style. Harley sends Dusty to the ropes, and then Dusty gets a back body drop off. Back to the headlock. I wish more people treated side headlocks like this. Harley drives his knee into the midsection, then strikes Dusty hard in the jaw. He sends his knuckles right into Dusty’s nose, and now both men are on the outside. Harley slams Dusty’s face off of a ringside chair. He then grabs that chair and goes to use it on Dusty, who fights it off and hits him with it. He sends Harley into the ring post next.
Back in the ring, Dusty does a Snap Mare, then drops a fist to the face of Harley, and then again. He emotes for the fans, then goes back to the side headlock. Harley tries for a power slam, but Dusty uses his size to turn it into a quick nearfall. Harley is back up with snap strikes to the head. He hits the Piledriver on Dusty, and that gets a 2 count. More hard punches to the head, and the way Harley does them, they look realistic.
Dusty takes the strikes in stride, and he dances around the ring to the delight of the Japanese audience. They lock up, and Harley forces Dusty to the corner. They exchange strikes, until Dusty drives his knuckles into Harley’s forehead. Now that’s old school! Dusty cranks on the neck super hard, and he’s warned about it by the referee. Dusty with a nice strike to the midsection, followed by an elbow to the head, and Harley topples over.
Harley is tied up in the ropes, and Dusty elbows him in the chin. He wants to closed fist him, but the referee admonishes him for that. Harley escapes and drives his knee into Dusty’s face a few times. He makes the cover, and Dusty kicks out. Harley with a nice back breaker next, and Dusty kicks out of that as well. Harley with hard strikes to the head, but Dusty isn’t having it! He fires back with elbows to the head, and a back elbow to the face. He hits a diving elbow, and Harley gets his foot on the bottom rope.
Dusty misses his next elbow, as Harley rolls away. He’s back up with a knee to the downed Rhodes. Harley comes off the top rope with a diving headbutt for the win, out of nowhere. That was a nice little match between two all time greats. It wasn’t going to change the world or anything, but it was solid fundamental work between two people who know what they’re doing. A lot of things featured here – extensive side headlock work, grinding of the knuckles into the forehead – are lost arts in modern wrestling. More of that, please!