Bruiser Brody vs. Jumbo Tsuruta
ALL JAPAN, International Championship Match
Aug. 31 1983 Kuramae Kokugikan (Tokyo)
International Championship is the heirloom of the wrestling world of Japan. Rikidozan, the father of wrestling in Japan wrested the belt from Lou Thesz, and since then it was the flagship title of JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING. Rikidozan suddenly died in 1963, and his pupil Giant Baba succeeded to the championship. Baba defeated many great wrestlers, Bruno Summartino, Gene Kiniski, Crusher Risowski, Bobo Brazil, etc. and defended the most important title, but in 1972, when Baba went away from JAPAN PRO, he relinquished the belt.
Baba established ALL JAPAN, and the bereaved family of Rikidozan sent back the belt to Baba. And then the championship tournament was held in 1981. Of course we thought that Baba would win the championship again, but surprisingly Baba lost to a young foreign wrestler, Bruiser Brody at the semi-final. And in the final match, Dory Funk Jr. defeated Brody, and Dory won the re-established International Championship.
After that Dory and Brody contended the title hard, probably because there was no Japanese strong wrestler. The big boss Giant Baba was already too old, and his successor Jumbo Tsuruta was too young to take the belt. As a result, Brody wrested the championship from Dory, and he defended the belt for two years. In fact, at that time Brody was the ace of ALL JAPAN, and he defeated Japanese challengers, Baba, Tsuruta, and Tenryu one after another.
Most of wrestling fans regarded that Brody was one of the strongest wrestlers in the history of wrestling in Japan. We thought nobody could defeat Brody and nobody could become new champion. Just then, Lou Thesz was invited by Baba as a referee of The World Tag League '82. Thesz admired Tsuruta's talent, and he taught his special move Back Drop to Tsuruta. To be continued.
(I'm sorry, now The Sumo Autumn Tournament is being held in Tokyo. Because I am crazy about Sumo, I can hardly watch wrestling videos !!)
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