Pro Wrestling Chronicle

Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Billy Robinson – (AJPW 3/5/77)

Fit Finlay & Pegasus Kid vs. Negro Casas & Eddy Guerrero (New Japan 4/30/92)

These matches don’t have a ton in common other than being taped in Japan and both being around twelve minutes. I thought I’d throw in my two cents on these two together since I watched them back to back.

This was my first time getting to see Billy Robinson, the famed shoot style Brit worker who was well known in the AWA. I knew he was a submission guy who worked a catch euro style (which I love), but I had no idea what a great bumper the guy was. Robinson really leads this match, taking the young Jumbo and making him look good while still maintaining his credibility. These guys had two more matches on the tour after this, so I should probably see the progression. Jumbo went over here and looked great in the process. Younger Jumbo looks cut, muscular, and about half a foot smaller. Did Jumbo wear lifts later in his career? Anyway, to summarize, Young Jumbo was fun, but not as fun as older Jumbo. Robinson can bump. This match would find a home in recent days as it had a totally timeless feel. Good pro wrestling.

Negro Casas, huh? He was the wild card in this odd ball tag I just had to watch. He was both the highlight and the lowlight of this match, but he was also probably the most over guy in the ring. He has a goofy charisma and moves well in the ring, even if I felt like he had that “standing around” Lucha feel in a puro match. It wasn’t always that way though, and he had a few good head scissors or drop kicks. Benoit and Fit were what you’d expect, with Fit relying a lot on the Euro uppercuts and brawling style. He always was solid, if unspectacular apparently.

Eddie Guerrero was still very young and inexperienced, but you could see the talent and the it factor when he got in during this match. Not very charismatic, but it was fun seeing him wear the trunks instead of the tights (how gay am I?). Don’t go out of your way to see this unless you like fun pairings in hindsight, since none of these men were a big deal world wide or in New Japan at the time, it’s a simple finish with Benoit rolling through for a pin fall on Eddie. Makes sense since he was the star in the match, at least juniors wise. They’d use the same finish on Nitro three plus years later.