Match of the Day: Stan Hansen/Bruiser Brody vs. The Funks (12/13/1982, All Japan Pro Wrestling)

Holy shit, this match is something else!

There’s a lot going on here. First, and perhaps foremost, the four men are competing in the final match of the yearly “Real World Tag League” to crown the top team on the planet. The tournament included a who’s who of the sport, from Harley Race to Ricky Steamboat to Giant Baba and Jumbo Tsuruta.

Believe it or not, it all came down to the final bout. What are the chances? The winner would walk away with a giant trophy and bragging rights. The loser would have another year to stew on it. So, stakes were high.

There was also a bit of a generational struggle here too. The Funks were the leading foreign wrestlers in Japan for years. As you can tell from the crowd reaction, they were beloved. But, with the arrival of new blood, you could feel the change in the air. The wrestlers, as Terry Funk wrote in his book More than Just Hardcore, felt it too:

Since Stan Hansen had started there in 1981, he had pretty much become the leading American for Baba. Baba felt like he could do without me, and I felt that I could do just as well without him.

And I had been instrumental in bringing Hansen in, along with my brother, and when we did, there was no doubt in my mind that the route we were taking would be to make Hansen the superstar, and that was all right with me, so I never had any hard feelings for Stan, or for Baba, for that matter. But at the time, I didn’t feel I was ready to be put to pasture. Baba felt like I was just an old dog, and I felt like the old dog had a few tricks left.

Hansen and Brody were both West Texas State alums, part of a pipeline of talent the Funk family kept flowing into the sport for years. But, high on big money contracts and hubris, neither man was much interested in losing wrestling matches the traditional way. The result? A lot of matches like this, where the tension was thick and the wrestling fierce. What could be better?

Watch the Full Match Here