GIANT BABA vs. HARLEY RACE

Giant Baba vs. Harley Race
PWF Championship Match
Feb. 1983 Checker Dome (St. Luis)


Baba fought against Race many times. He got NWA title from Race twice. For Race, Baba might be the biggest difficulty, and Race couldn't attack effectively very tall Baba. In contrast to that, Baba used calmly Chop, Kick, Deadly Drive, and the other tricks.

At any rate, in those days Race was a marvelous title collector. Though he was taken the NWA belt by Dusty Rhodes, he wrested the States of Missouri title, United National Championship from Jumbo Tsuruta, and PWF from Baba. And then he got back NWA title from Ric Flair in June of that year (that's the 7th win !!).

This is Baba's Kawazu-otoshi (Russian Leg Sweep). The origin was a sumo trick, and Rikidozan used it to defend from Back Drop of Lou Thesz. This trick is in Judo, too, but it is forbidden now. In this return match, Baba defeated Race with wonderful Running Neck Breaker Drop. In spite of the enemy's territory, Baba was not treated as a heel, and wrestling fan of St. Luis were cheering Baba. That was a good semi-final match.

Incidentally, the main event of that night was NWA Championship Match, contested by Flair and Brody. Finally Flair defended his title in a draw.