Cruising the 80's: Giant Baba vs Umanosuke Ueda - 12/07/82

Giant Baba vs Umanosuke Ueda (All Japan) - It's pretty funny that Giant Baba maligned FMW and other promotions as garbage wrestling in the 90's. This bout from 1982 with Ueda is darn close to those sleazy 90's indies. Firstly, Ueda is probably one of the more slimey looking wrestlers you'll find, in the best way. He's doughy, pale and has tights that  a Silver Age Batman villain would wear - Piss yellow with black stripes going down the side. I'd imagine the villain's name is "The Shit Breather." To top it off, he has bleached blonde hair. I'm not sure if he's the first Japanese wrestler to do the blonde hair but I feel he set the standard for everyone later like Hiro Saito, Tatsutoshi Goto, Mr. Danger Matsunaga and others. But I'm getting away from the "garbage wrestling aspect." A great majority of this match is Ueda attacking Baba with weapons. First, it's a kendo stick, then a chair and finally a spike/nail...where it appears he's trying to perform an un-requested tracheotomy on Mr. Baba. 😆 That's pretty garbage wrestling to me! And Lou Thesz is the referee. I think using a past his prime Western wrestler as a participant or referee might be a sleazy Japanese indie trope. All of that said, this match was a lot of fun for all of the reasons stated above. Video time is around 9 minutes.