A reader of this Blog named Rick sent me a link to a great match he recently enjoyed on YouTube –> Antonio Inoki vs. Jack Brisco grappling in Japan on 8/5/1971. This 37-minute Human Chess Match is considered a classic example of the mat wrestling style, often listed among the best Japanese wrestling matches of all time. It’s not a flashy, face-paced type of Spot-Fest — instead it’s a slow-paced depiction of two talented, determined young men wrestling for supremacy. Thanks to the magic of modern technology, this match and many other classic bouts are available for free on YouTube. (What a fantastic time to be a wrestling fan!)
In the 1970’s, the Japanese promoters loved to fly in Westerners — or “Gaijin” as foreigners are known in Japan — to face off with (and lose to) their wrestling heroes. Handsome, powerful Antonio Inoki was the popular, young, heroic Big Swinging Dick in Japan at the time, so many Americans were fed to him, permitted to punish him for a while, then overwhelmed by Inoki’s Awesomeness. The young Brisco Brother is smaller than Inoki, looking trim and fit in his purple trunks, so he appears vulnerable and out-matched in comparison to big bad-ass Inoki in all black gear.
The story of the match is told in several chapters. The 7-minute opening chapter is a polite Back-and-Forth trading of holds, each young man testing his competition and confirming for the audience that they both can, in fact, wrassle. The tension builds as the holds grow more and more technical, a bit more emphatic, and are held for longer times.
At 7:40 into the video, Inoki decides to flex his muscles against the American invader. He secures a gorgeous Take-A-Nap-Bitch sleeperhold and Brisco sells dramatically. He slaps ineffectively at Inoki’s crushing arm, and grunts and pants rhythmically with every breath (Ungh… Ungh… Ungh…) as his own arm slowly deflates in exhaustion. When Mr. Brisco twists free for a moment, Inoki pounces like a cat and puts him right the fuck back in the sleeper. I’m all like: Hells yeah Inoki, show him whose BOSS — so imagine what Inoki’s fellow Japanese in the audience were thinking.
Next Inoki transitions effortlessly into a gorgeous Figure 4 Headscissor and Brisco’s tortured panting grows more labored, more like the sound a porn star makes (Aohww… Awwgg… Ohhff…). He slaps at Inoki’s relentless legs like a man being smothered, desperate for air. Twisting to escape, Brisco is clamped into a humiliating face-full of Inoki’s black trunks, the breath-control session growing in intensity. (I hope these two worked out a “Safe Word” before the match began.)
While the honorable Inoki uses well crafted, visually beautiful holds to gain the advantage, the American brute (the savage bastard) resorts to ugly roughneck attacks starting at about 10:30 into the bout.
It appears Brisco is frustrated by Inoki’s superior talent, so he punches and kicks the handsome hero, and jumps up to slam big Made in America Elbow Smashes into his neck and skull.
This sudden injection of violence by the out-matched Gaijin feels shocking to the polite Japanese fans, especially after 10 minutes of beautiful, slow-paced, above-board grappling. The sadistic American now focuses his attacks on honorable Inoki’s vulnerable leg. He twists it, stomps on it, drops his knees on it, and even applies that Grapevine move where you twist your leg around his leg and fall back suddenly to snap the sumbitch with the victim howling and slapping the mat all the while.
Is Brisco preparing that leg for his patented Figure 4 Leglock? The tension builds — Inoki starts to limp around and shake out his leg. Is the American thug really going to break the Great Inoki’s leg? Get up, Inoki-san, PLEASE! Brisco secures the deadly Figure 4 for just a moment at 13:30 sending a groan of dread through the crowd. It’s just a TEASE, then Inoki reaches the ropes and escapes. The crowd sighs collectively in relief.
When someone says they enjoy Old School pro wrestling, THIS is exactly the type of match they’re talking about. The men WRESTLE each other and sweat on each other. The chemistry between the two men is depicted through their willingness to actually TOUCH one another — in fact they’re seldom separated, they’re seldom up on their feet. Nowadays the “wrestlers” almost never leave their feet, except to jump over something or jump off something.
At the 28:05 mark, Inoki secures one of the most mouth-watering and longest held Short Arm Scissors I have ever seen. He keeps it clamped on for almost 3 minutes straight and milks the hold of all it’s worth. And Brisco sells it like a boss, bicycle kicking with his legs, slapping his own trapped hand repeatedly to keep the circulation flowing. His panting has now morphed into a series of gasps approaching climax: Naaww! AHH! Jiahhh! Ohhh!! He reaches pathetically for the ropes with his free hand, but the ropes are about as far away as the Statue of Liberty for the helpless American. He looks like he might be crying.
Each time Brisco struggles bravely to his feet, Inoki rolls effortlessly to flip the punk right back down to the mat with his arm still Keylocked. Inoki is now toying with his victim, rolling over once in a while to whip-flip Brisco across the ring just for the fun of it, his legs maintaining their Scissor around Brisco’s arm. The vulnerability and failure of Jack Brisco seems inevitable now. The moral of the story: Never try to defeat Inoki on his own soil — he will fuck you up, son. (And DAMN, these guys are great at sweating — did somebody dump a bucket of water on them or what?!)
So I asked Rick, the reader who turned me on to this match, what he likes about it. Why does he enjoy this match more than all the other Jack Brisco matches or Antonio Inoki matches available in the ether? This is how he described it:
“What I enjoy about him (Brisco) in this bout is that he still has a young body, and beside the taller and bigger Inoki he looks desirably vulnerable. The great thing about this match, for me at least, is that they don’t hurry the moves, so we get full value out of each hold and the prolonged attempts of the victim to break free. They spend a lot of time on the mat, their sweaty bodies entangled in a variety of positions. But there is a kind of inevitability about Inoki winning, and Brisco’s increasingly vain attempts to prevent this. And when Inoki gets the upper hand he is cool calm and vicious.”
Yes — well-said Rick. You should start a rasslin’ Blog. Thanks for the heads up — I enjoyed it too.
In the end, Inoki slaps on a tight Ab Stretch (or Cobra Twist as the Japanese refer to it) and Brisco struggles at first but soon falls limp, his body suddenly relaxing in exhausted defeat and submission. Your WINNER: Antonio Inoki with the Ab Stretch submission! (Wow nobody ever wins using the Ab Stretch, so either Inoki is a bad-ass or Brisco is a fuckin pussy…)
