Joseph and Colette Discuss Terry Funk and Dory Funk Jr. vs. Bruiser Brody and Stan Hansen

Happy new year! This was our last match of 2022, so thank you for joining us for the launch of BIG EGG. As always, we appreciate your support, whether it's by referring your friends here or by becoming a paid subscriber. Beyond the weekly discussion between us, joining as a paid subscriber gets you early access to Joseph’s monthly recap of the best matches of the month, as well as a new monthly feature from Colette, recapping WWF Raw and SmackDown from 2002, which is extremely timely given that the 20th anniversary of that year has come and gone. As for regular coverage, here’s what’s coming!

Let’s get to the finals of the 1982 Real World Tag League. Catch up with our essays if you haven’t already read them!

Joseph: The Last All Japan Match of 1982
Colette: Hansen, Brody, and the Funks Were Minutes Away From a Classic

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Colette Arrand
So, in reading both of our essays this week, I think it's pretty clear that I'm a bit more frustrated with this match than you were. Is there some kind of trick that makes Baba's 80s booking more palatable, or am I just doomed to be mad every time I dip into that era for matches that sound great on paper but end up being Great Brawls instead?

Joseph Anthony Montecillo
As far as I'm concerned, the only trick is seeing enough of it to get used to the feeling. It happens a lot. Especially if you've got the Funks vs. heels involved in the mix. Some of my favorite matches of the decade beforehand are their matches against Abdullah & The Original Sheik and maybe one of those matches has a proper finish, the best one not being one of them. If you're not dealing with that, you're dealing with a time limit draw instead. This era of All Japan's all about protecting the top stars to extremely ridiculous degrees.

Colette Arrand
Yeah, there's protecting your top stars, which is vital and necessary, and then there's protecting your top stars to this degree, where it's almost like you're afraid of the consequences should something end clean. Here I've kind of come to accept it, as Brody and Hansen were brand new to the roster from NJPW, and both are extremely important to the story of Jumbo taking over as the ace of the promotion over the course of the 1980s. Hansen and Brody look like killers at the end of this match, too -- Hansen in particular barely looks winded as he starts shit during the trophy presentation ceremony. So I begrudgingly find it successful, but good G-d does it take a long time for things to pay off.