Combat sports have been around for a very long time. Cave paintings depicting wrestling moves were found in France, and are believed to be more than 15,000 years old. The ancient Egyptians were practicing combat sports as early as 3400 BC. Scandinavian wrestling was practiced as early as 4000 years ago during the Viking age. Wrestling in England dates back to 1829 BC. Wrestling during the Greek Olympics dates back to 708 BC. Pankration, a combination of wrestling and boxing, essentially an ancient version of no-holds-barred fighting, became part of the Greek Olympics in 648 BC. When the Roman empire conquered Greece around 2 BC, it merged the Greek and Roman styles of wrestling to become the original version of Greco-Roman wrestling (later the French would start the modern-day version of Greco-Roman wrestling). The Japanese have been practicing sumo since at least 23 BC, Japanese jujutsu since the 1600s, and judo since 1850.

Catch-as-catch-can wrestling used to be practiced by coal miners and steelworkers in the north of England. Men who traveled the world, like those in the British army and navy, started to pick up all kinds of different fighting techniques and brought them back to England. That’s how wrestlers in the Lancashire region of England found a hybrid grappling style that was believed to be able to beat all the different combat styles. Catch wrestling incorporated influences from various different grappling styles, including several styles of wrestling from England (mainly Lancashire-style wrestling, which was a merger of English folk catch wrestling and wrestling styles from continental Europe), Irish collar-and-elbow wrestling, Japanese jujutsu and judo, Greco-Roman wrestling, Iranian pahlavani and Indian pehlwani. By the end of the 19th century, catch wrestling had made its way to North America, and German-born American catch wrestler Ad Santel eventually taught the art of catch wrestling to Lou Thesz, one of the most legendary American wrestlers, who was one of the main opponents of the father of puroresu, Korean-Japanese former sumotori Rikidozan. One of Santel’s most famous feuds during his wrestling career took place from the mid 1910s till the early 1920s when he essentially practiced a form of proto-Mixed Martial Arts more than seven decades before the term MMA was coined, as the catch wrestler feuded with a Japanese judo dojo called Kodokan and battled several judoka. Catch wrestling was an important grappling style, especially since it had an influence on various combat sports one way or another, including freestyle amateur wrestling, professional wrestling, Russian sambo, Brazilian luta livre, Brazilian jiu-jitsu and Mixed Martial Arts.

English catch wrestler Billy Riley founded a gym in Wigan, England. One of the wrestlers who trained at Billy Riley’s gym to become a catch wrestler was Karl Gotch (Karl Istaz), a Belgium-born German amateur wrestler, who had competed at the 1948 Olympics as an amateur, became a pro wrestler in the 1950s, invented the German suplex, started wrestling in Rikidozan’s Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance (JWA) in 1961, became known as “puroresu no kamisama” (God of pro wrestling) in Japan and was one of the trainers of several legendary Japanese wrestlers in Japan, including Antonio Inoki (who would end up founding NJPW and challenging several martial artists from different disciplines), Tatsumi Fujinami (who would end up essentially being the first junior heavyweight star in NJPW), Satoru Sayama (who would end up being a junior heavyweight pioneer in NJPW, then would end up being one of the main performers in the original Japanese UWF, and would end up founding Shooto), Yoshiaki Fujiwara (who would end co-founding PWFG after training Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki), Akira Maeda (who ended up founding Newborn UWF in 1988 and RINGS in 1991), Masakatsu Funaki (who helped train Ken Shamrock and then ended up co-founding Pancrase) and Minoru Suzuki (who was a great shoot style wrestler in the early 1990s and ended up co-founding Pancrase). It was Karl Gotch who called Billy Riley’s gym “The Snake Pit,” and the name stuck. Other than Gotch, there were several other notable wrestlers who trained at The Snake Pit and one of them was Jack Fallon (Billy Chambers), who is notable because he ended up becoming one of the trainers of “The Dynamite Kid” Tom Billington (The Dynamite Kid briefly wrestled at the Snake Pit, but The Kid’s original trainer Ted Betley felt they were beating the Kid up too much over there and sent him to Fallon’s gym, where the Kid learned some catch wrestling).

Let’s talk about Billy Robinson. William Alfred Robinson on 9/18/38 in Manchester, England. He came from a family of fighters. His great-great grandfather Harry Robinson was a bare-knuckle boxing champion, his father Harry Robinson Jr. was a street fighter-turned-boxer, and his uncle Alf Robinson was a boxer and pro wrestler, and it was Alf who was the one who invited Karl Gotch to come to Wigan to discover catch wrestling. It was also Alf who suggested to Billy that he should become a professional wrestler. Billy’s dad, Harry Jr., recommended that 15-year old Billy should learn catch wrestling at the Snake Pit. Billy ended up coming back to the Snake Pit for years to keep learning the combat sport he referred to as physical chess, catch wrestling. Billy Robinson was taught by Billy Riley not only how to wrestle, but also how to learn and how to keep an open mind to different angles and possibilities.

Billy Robinson made his professional wrestling debut in 1958. In 1968, Robinson started touring Japan, and he wrestled for International Wrestling Enterprise (IWE), where he became one the first gaijin babyface superstars. After meeting Calgary wrestler Dave Ruhl in Japan, Robinson was booked for a tour in Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling league in Western Canada, and this was Robinson’s first tour in North America. In Stampede, Robinson unexpectedly won the North American championship after Archie Gouldie walked out during the match. Soon after, Robinson challenged Dory Funk Jr. for the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) World Heavyweight Title in a series of one-hour matches. The NWA World Heavyweight Title was at the time considered by many the most prestigious pro wrestling title in the world. After wrestling in Stampede Wrestling for a bit, Robinson went to wrestle in Hawaii, which is where he met Verne Gagne, who happened to be there on a workation when Robinson was there, and Gagne ended up booking Robinson for Gagne’s American Wrestling Association (AWA) in Minnesota. Robinson became a headliner in AWA, and a teacher for wrestlers getting their career started in the AWA such as Curt Hennig, Ricky Steamboat, Ric Flair, Sgt. Slaughter, Iron Sheik, Jim Brunzell, Buddy Rose and Ken Patera. In the AWA, one of Robinson’s main opponents was Nick Bockwinkel.

Billy Robinson always took his role seriously, and his role was that of a wrestler with a reputation of being one of the best technical wrestlers. He was also very proud of his catch wrestling roots. When he grabbed a hold, he grabbed it in an intense manner, and he wouldn’t just kinda faint-heartedly do things. One of the things that made Robinson stand out so much was the marriage of his "shooting" style with his "tumbling" style. Due to Robinson doing such a great job getting over the struggle both to get the hold off and to really consolidate it as a useful, perhaps finishing maneuver, he was able to get away with incorporating more bumps and brief athletic sequences into his matches, taking falls one would associate more with Lucha Libre without having them actually push his match too far into the theatrical realm. His matches were built around this amazing dynamic where he would get as much out of his technical wrestling as he could by milking his locks for all they were worth, but when this threatened to get stale, he'd get tossed or flipped (sometimes into a cartwheel to gracefully avoid the bump), and then a sort of proto MMA scramble would ensue, usually to see who regained control to grind on an appendage some more, but sometimes the position they now found themselves in would instead open up a flurry of highspots.

It appeared that Robinson always tried to stay true to himself no matter where he was or who his opponent was, yet he was still able to adapt to different styles and environments. Also, keep in mind that in those days, wrestlers didn’t worry about star ratings and there was no Internet, so it appears that it was more important for someone like Robinson to simply be the best they could be, and that’s why he was respected by many wrestlers, fans and promoters. Robinson was certainly the sort of wrestler that everyone in the arena and locker room took notice of. Everyone had an opinion of Robinson. In some leagues, many of his peers didn’t like him because he didn’t take it easy on people. In the AWA, Robinson wasn’t as disliked, because Gagne wasn’t scared to work with him, as Gagne respected Robinson for his technical ability.

“The British Lion” is not only famous for his wrestling, but also for his training. Billy Robinson helped train some top-level English pro wrestlers in England, most notably Johnny Saint and Marty Jones. In Japan, Robinson was a coach for Japanese leagues IWE and UWF-I. He ended up being one of the trainers for Japanese wrestlers and fighters like Kiyoshi Tamura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Shigeo Miyato and Manabu Inoue. Robinson used to attend Pancrase shows to watch some of the people he helped train. There have also been female wrestlers who were influenced by Robinson. Meiko Satomura and Megumi Fujii got the chance to get some advice from Robinson. In 2011, MMA fighter turned pro wrestler Shayna Baszler attended training sessions with Robinson to improve her skills. Because of her fascination for catch wrestling, Baszler wants to help remind pro wrestlers that it’s supposed to be a fight. Baszler was even once quoted saying in an interview: “I don’t think Billy would be really happy with me as the representative of catch wrestling if I did a moonsault. I’m not saying I don’t like it, but I have a style to uphold.”

Billy Robinson passed away on 3/3/14 at the age of 75. Robinson didn’t have a gimmick, he was simply a great wrestler who stayed true to his catch roots. He was a more realistic pro wrestler than many others in the ‘70s and ‘80s, and you could say he was also more realistic than most wrestlers today. Robinson approached his matches in a way that saw him keep taking it to his opponent and trying to show that he was out there to beat his opponent, instead of some of the goofy hokem many other wrestlers have been doing over the past several decades. Robinson was influential in the Japanese shoot wrestling scene and the MMA scene, through his wrestling career and coaching career. Pro wrestling and MMA have common roots, and Billy Robinson is a perfect example of that.

Let’s have a closer look at more than a couple of dozen of Billy Robinson’s matches to find out what his very best matches were (at least the best ones of what is currently available).

IWE 5/14/70 Tokyo: Billy Robinson vs. Shozo Kobayashi 5:30 of 23:21 shown. This old black-and-white footage was heavily clipped, so it’s hard to say how good of a match this was. It was still very interesting and useful to watch, of course. Billy Robinson showed a lot of focus here against Shozo “Strong” Kobayashi, who was the ace of IWE. They were mostly focusing on submission-type holds. Both put over the struggle well, as they tried to escape each other’s holds, tried to block or avoid each other’s holds, and tried to keep the other in a hold. Later in the match, it appeared they were going more for strikes, slams and suplexes. Kobayashi’s strikes didn’t look so great. Robinson eventually won when he was able to roll on top of Kobayashi after Kobayashi’s attempt to put away with a backdrop. This seemed like a very deserving victory, since it looks like Robinson was already a very good worker at the time and more impressive than his opponent here. In this match, Robinson executed several nice-looking moves, including a double-underhook suplex, which was at the time a potential finisher, and a vicious-looking backbreaker. It appeared to be a good match overall, judging from the five minutes that were shown.

IWE 4/2/71 Yokohama: Billy Robinson vs. Karl Gotch 3:20 of 30:00 shown. This was a big battle between two of the most respected gaijin in puroresu history, revered in Japan for their wrestling ability and toughness. The few minutes shown of this match showed them making each other struggle. They tried to reverse, block and avoid each other’s moves, making each move they managed to execute seem even more impressive. Robinson showed strong grappling skills. Karl Gotch executed a European-style tombstone piledriver. It’s a shame it’s not available in full form, because it appeared to be a good match.

IWE 6/3/74 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, IWA World Heavyweight Title Decision Match: Billy Robinson vs. Rusher Kimura 10:00 of 32:24. Billy Robinson’s display of technical ability kept this interesting. Robinson escaped holds and transitioned into other holds with great ease. Even in his heyday as the top star of the IWE now that Strong Kobayashi jumped to New Japan, Rusher Kimura didn’t bring much to the table, and Robinson had to work hard to make Kimura look good. This appeared to be a decent match overall, thanks Robinson’s work in this match.

IWE 11/20/74 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, AWA World Heavyweight Title Match: Verne Gagne vs. Billy Robinson 35:44 [20:48, 5:21, 9:35]. This is probably the earliest complete match of Billy Robinson’s career that is available, and it’s an excellent one. This was a two-out-of-three falls match with a 61-minute time limit. There were moments in the match that clearly showed that Robinson had a lot of respect for Gagne as a wrestler, because Gagne got a way with a lot of stuff that almost came across as belittling, at least within the context of this worked match. Gagne always respected Robinson as a wrestler too, it’s just that Gagne, who was 12 years older, really wanted to show he was the senior of the two. A funny moment happened when Gagne wanted to sell his leg after Robinson had worked it over, but Gagne kinda oversold, which made the Japanese crowd laugh out loud. Near the end of the first fall, Robinson took control a bit more, but not for long, because Gagne ended up winning the first fall. The second fall saw them wrestle in a very gritty manner with each other. Robinson was trying to get the equalizing fall, and Gagne wanted to prevent Robinson from doing so. Robinson won the second fall after a vicious-looking backbreaker that Gagne sold well. In the third fall, they continued to show a lot of intensity. However, a long bear hug session took quite a bit away from this match potentially becoming great. It was almost comical in an unintentional way, because you had this legendary wrestler Verne Gagne now acting like the bear hug was something he had an enormous amount of trouble overcoming. After five minutes of being a victim of bearhuggary, Gagne came to the realization that he could just hit an elbow smash to Robinson’s face to get him to release the hold. Then we got the finish, which was not very satisfying and quite cheesy, as they were both not able to get up after walking into each other. It’s the sort of spot you’d expect from Hulk Hogan and the Ultimate Warrior in a Royal Rumble match, but it felt really out of place here. That’s another reason why it wasn’t quite an actual great match. That’s such a shame though, because by the very end of the match, during the last minute or so, these two gaijin literally had the Japanese audience standing on their feet cheering out loudly for their great work. It was certainly still an excellent match though, and the main reason that this was such an excellent match was that these two great wrestlers worked this match seriously, and they stayed very focused throughout the entire match. They put everything over as well as they could. They constantly reacted to each other one way or another. They worked hard and never took it easy, which meant there was almost never a dull moment in this match. This Seventies-style match was an excellent match for any standards, but especially considering this took place in 1974, it was quite an amazing display of wrestling. ****   

NJPW 12/11/75 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, NWF World Heavyweight Title Match: Antonio Inoki vs. Billy Robinson 60:00 [42:53, 16:19, 0:48]. In December 1975, Billy Robinson had eight matches in NJPW during his only tour for NJPW. Antonio Inoki was the founder of NJPW and one of the biggest stars in Japan. As if the billing of Antonio Inoki vs. Billy Robinson wasn’t enough reason for everyone to pay attention, Lou Thesz and Karl Gotch were also present during the pre-match ceremony. Thesz, Gotch, & Robinson were among the most credible fighters within the pro wrestling sphere, and Inoki had defeated the 50-year-old Gotch twice in 1974 just before Gotch retired, then he defeated the 59-year-old Thesz on 10/9/75, leading to this big match with Robinson, who was not as big a name in Japan as the other two, but in some ways would have been a bigger scalp because he was arguably in his prime at 35-years-old. One of the highlights of the first fall was a heated elbow exchange that led to Robinson suplexing Inoki over the top rope to the floor with Robinson going over the top rope himself as well. Even when Robinson was stuck in a headscissors, he’d find a way to make his attempt to escape and eventual escape intriguing. There was a real sense of struggle, and a sense of both men fighting to survive. However, a match with Inoki is only going to get so good, especially when it goes 60 minutes. Robinson won the first fall after nearly 43 minutes, and it took Inoki more than 16 minutes to win the second fall, which meant they had only less than a minute left for the third fall before the time limit expired. Robinson did a great job of making the work during this match intriguing by constantly acting or reacting, and Robinson constantly making Inoki work was one of the reasons why this match was really good. Inoki is not known for having top-quality in-ring performances. This was a case of Inoki facing the right opponent to have a really good match. While this match with Inoki was a bit more advanced than the somewhat more old-fashioned match Robinson had with Gagne in IWE, since we didn’t get to see anyone stuck in a bear hug for five minutes in this match with Inoki, Gagne was more competitive with Robinson than Inoki was here. Even when Inoki was able to fight back, the work he showed was not on the level of Robinson, Gagne or Thesz, who were all more sophisticated old school pro wrestlers than Inoki was. Despite his popularity and reputation, it took a while before Inoki would do something that resembled something that would make anyone believe he would have a chance to be a serious threat to the great Billy Robinson. No matter what Inoki did, Robinson always was ready to counter and think ahead. Despite Robinson being clearly the superior worker of the two, Inoki deserves credit for being good enough to follow and to bring some display of strong style fighting spirit of his own. Inoki’s performance here wasn’t on the level of the performances of Giant Baba and not even close to the ones of Jumbo Tsuruta in Robinson’s best matches in AJPW. ****  

AJPW 7/17/76 Kitakyushu Mihagino Gymnasium: Billy Robinson vs. Jumbo Tsuruta 21:14 of 70:00 [29:05 (1:00 shown), 21:52 (8:14 shown), 9:03 (7:00 shown), 10:00 (5:00 shown)] Billy Robinson wrestled Jumbo Tsuruta to a 70-minute draw on a hot summer day that saw the sweat not only drip off the wrestlers, but also drip off the fan-waving fans in attendance. These two had previously wrestled each other three times in the United States the previous month, but this was their first singles meeting in Japan. The match initially ended as a 60-minute draw, but they got 10 more minutes. It was not a bad match, but it was not anywhere near the quality of their best matches, because there wasn’t nearly as much going on as in their best matches. It was a very disappointing match considering who was involved. It is mostly memorable for being their first singles meeting in Japan. *** 

AJPW 7/24/76 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, PWF Heavyweight Title Match: Giant Baba vs. Billy Robinson 21:17 [9:24, 6:08, 5:45]. This match featured a great performance by Billy Robinson, showing why he was the best wrestler in the world at the time. Robinson’s technical wrestling ability, selling, bumping and overall wrestling psychology was magnificent. While Robinson was the best worker, Giant Baba deserves a lot of credit for his great effort, as he clearly really wanted this match to be special. Baba worked super hard and tried his best, not only physically, but also through great storytelling. Their combined efforts made the match flow in a great way. The first fall saw them both taking the fight to each other. There was some blocking, countering and a lot of struggling. Baba won the first fall, because he managed to stay focused and kept fighting off Robinson’s attacks. In the second fall, in an effort to try to take the 6’8” Giant Baba down as effectively as possible, Robinson immediately started focusing on working over Baba’s leg, which is something Robinson had attempted to do in the first fall, but Baba had been able to avoid it for the most part. This time, Robinson managed to push through and get this strategy to eventually give him the win in the second fall. In the third fall, Robinson initially continued working over Baba’s leg, but Baba fought off Robinson’s attempts to score another leg submission as well as he could. Robinson had been on the receiving-end of Baba’s big boot earlier in the match, and it was actually the set up move for the backdrop suplex that got Baba the pin in the first fall. Here in the third fall, Robinson was able to block the big boot. This moment of relief was only temporary, however, because when Robinson kept coming at Baba during the final minute of the match, it was Baba who anticipated Robinson charging at him and surprised him with a running neckbreaker drop that got Baba the win. The in-ring psychology and human chess-like storytelling that had them building the match towards a climax with emphasis on learning from past reactions and anticipating certain actions resembled the 1990s main event style of AJPW. That’s why this match can be considered the birth of the King’s Road style that really put AJPW on the map as one of the greatest leagues of all time. In the 1980s, Jumbo Tsuruta and Genichiro Tenryu would continue the evolution of this style, and it was made famous by Toshiaki Kawada, Mitsuharu Misawa, Kenta Kobashi and Akira Taue in the 1990s with their Triple Crown style before it got modernized in NOAH after Baba’s death. ****½   

AJPW 3/5/77 Akita Shiritsu Taiikukan, United National Heavyweight Title Match: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Billy Robinson 23:03 [11:03 (9:32 shown), 7:54, 4:06]. While Robinson’s match with Giant Baba turned out to be a classic, Baba was not someone we could truly call an actual great in-ring performer. Jumbo Tsuruta, on the other hand, was a great pro wrestler who would end up having many high-end performances on his resume. Unfortunately, the first singles match between Robinson and Tsuruta in Japan on 7/17/76 was a big disappointment. In 1977, they more than made up for that disappointment though. Tsuruta brought a lot of intensity, and he was quick at reacting and thinking on the spot. This meant that Robinson had to deal with an opponent who was not easy to outwork. Tsuruta’s hard work paid off, as he won the first fall. Robinson had to fight hard and think smart to win the second fall. Giant Baba, who did color commentary for this match, looked on with great fascination at how this match was turning into a great one. The bulldog head drop had been a move that Tsuruta used successfully in the first fall. However, in the second fall, Robinson managed to avoid it, which threw Tsuruta off his game for a few seconds. This was just enough time for Robinson to take advantage and hit his vicious backbreaker for the pin. In the third fall, Robinson knew that he couldn’t let Tsuruta get away with too much, since Tsuruta had proven himself to be a very capable wrestler in the first two falls. Tsuruta’s great effort got him very far, but Robinson was the veteran of the two and was able to outsmart Tsuruta in the end. Tsuruta’s reaction to losing the match was great, because he showed that frustration you’d expect to see when an athlete came so close to winning a big match. If the third fall was a bit longer, it could have potentially been a quarter star better, but the falls gradually getting shorter fit in perfectly with the story of the more experienced Robinson being all business and trying to score two falls as soon as possible after losing the first one. As great as this match is on its own, it’s particularly great when you see it as the first part of their March 1977 trilogy, because after watching this match, it will make you look forward to what they will do in the rematch. ****½ 

AJPW 3/11/77 Tokyo Nippon University Auditorium, United National Heavyweight Title Match: Billy Robinson vs. Jumbo Tsuruta 37:56 of 60:00 [34:19 (14:17 shown), 11:35, 14:06 (12:03 shown)]. As great as their 3/5/77 match was, this one from 3/11/77 was even more impressive. What makes this match stand out so much is that it is a 60-minute match that was wrestled more like a 30-minute match. They were able to keep the pace relatively high, and they were able to keep bringing the action. Early in the match, they kept trying to get the upper hand with a lot of urgency, especially considering they would end up going 60 minutes. If you did not know beforehand that they would go for a draw, you wouldn’t immediately suspect that this was going to go more than 30 minutes or so. Throughout this match, they kept showing that they were trying to get the advantage and ultimately to win this match. They did a great job of portraying a sense of struggle. Billy Robinson showed great intensity, and Tsuruta showed why he was one of Robinson’s greatest opponents, as he was able to show his skills. Tsuruta’s selling, offense and his natural talent made him one of the most memorable wrestlers of the 1970s. The first fall lasted 34 minutes (of which we unfortunately only got to see 14 minutes), and somehow they were able to show lots of energy during the remainder of the match. These two were obviously two very well-conditioned athletes with great stamina. Robinson did a very good job of putting over the damage Tsuruta had done. Both wrestlers were constantly moving and thinking ahead. The countering and struggling was intriguing. They included some near falls, but not an excessive amount, which made them very effective near falls that had the crowd gasping. At the end of the third fall, Robinson did a particularly good job of selling fatigue and selling the length of this grueling battle, while Tsuruta did a good job of selling frustration. After this great bout, Robinson said: “I am the greatest wrestler in the world,” and it’s hard to not agree with him after seeing his performance in this match. This is one of the best 60-minute matches ever and one of the very best matches that took place in the 1970s. ****¾

CWF 3/23/77 Miami Beach, FL Convention Hall 2/3 Falls UN Heavyweight Title Decision Match: Billy Robinson vs. Jumbo Tsuruta 25:51 of 31:00 [10:55, 13:00 (9:48 shown), 7:05 (5:08 shown)]. Florida promoter Eddie Graham, AJPW promoter Giant Baba and Amarillo promoter Dory Funk Jr. were at ringside watching this. This was a really good match, but they seemed to have adapted things for the American audience, as this was a much slower match with less things happening, compared to their great matches from Japan earlier that month. The screwy finish with Abdullah the Butcher showing up didn’t help matters either. However, Robinson and Tsuruta still delivered an excellent match. It is one of the best matches that took place in the United States in the 1970s that we currently have footage available of. This was basically a puroresu match in front of an American audience, because the moves they executed really looked well-executed with intensity. Especially for 1970s American pro wrestling standards, this was quite an action-packed match with no real dull moments at all. **** 

AJPW 12/6/77 Fukuoka, World Open Tag Title League Match: Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk vs. Billy Robinson & Horst Hoffman 45:00. Horst Hoffman was a solid Czechoslovakia-born German wrestler. He usually wore green tights, and Mitsuharu Misawa supposedly started wearing green tights as a tribute to Hoffman. Most of the footage available of Hoffman’s career appears to be from the very end of his 20-year career. From the pop he got when he got tagged in, it was clear that Billy Robinson was well-respected by the Japanese. Unfortunately, Robinson didn’t necessarily play much of a role in this match. The match was quite interesting whenever Dory Funk Jr. was in the ring. Dory, who was one of the most well-respected American pro wrestlers of the 1970s, had wrestled Robinson before. Robinson vs. Dory was one of the best parts of this match, because when they battled, it came across like a more serious and intense battle than any other pairing in this match was able to accomplish. However, when they battled for five minutes or so, it seemed like they were getting ready to wrestle each other for 55 more minutes in a singles match, which wasn’t the case here. It’s a shame that the few Robinson vs. Dory matches that are available are from the early 1980s when Dory was declining, and those matches ended up not being that memorable, and most of their matches are lost in time anyway. One could imagine their matches from the late 1960s and the 1970s being very good, but who knows. Dory vs. Hoffman was also very interesting, because Hoffman was basically a Central European version of Dory, as they both had a very serious technical approach to their matches. Dory’s younger brother Terry was the less credible of the two brothers, but at least Terry hadn’t quite started overselling and overexaggerating things as much as he would end up doing a little bit later on in his career. Still, Terry spent a lot of the time he was allowed in the ring by dragging things out and not doing much. Terry was arguably at his best when he was involved in brawling-type matches, and this match wasn’t about brawling. In the end, the conclusion of this tag match is that it had tons of potential, but it never felt like it lived up to its potential fully. With that being said, it was still a good wrestling match overall, but it lacked urgency, as they all seemed content going for a 45-minute time limit draw. ***¼ 

Joint Promotions 7/26/78 St. Albans, England: Billy Robinson vs. Lee Bronson 16:07 [5:00, 5:00, 1:25, 4:42]. This appears to be the only Billy Robinson match televised on ITV World of Sport that is still available for viewing nowadays, and this was the final match Robinson wrestled in England. Neither worker seemed to believe they would score a fall early in the match, so the first two rounds, they just kinda were wearing each other down slowly. In the third round, Robinson decided it was time to take care of business and won the first fall by pinfall. In the fourth round, things got a bit more intense. Robinson continued to show not only his technical ability, but also his toughness. Lee Bronson started hitting some uppercuts, and Robinsons was like “you don’t want to start this.” Just before the end of the fourth round, Robinson hit a tremendously impactful double underhook suplex to win this match in two straight falls. Robinson popularized the double underhook suplex in Japan, which is why he got the nickname of “human windmill” in Japan. This was a really good match, but it was quite one-sided because of Robinson clearly being the superior wrestler of the two. ***½    

AJPW 5/25/79 Omiya Skate Center, NWA United National Title: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Billy Robinson 32:12 of 60:00 [41:13 (17:16 shown), 13:26 (11:30 shown), 5:21 (3:26 shown)]. Only three of the first 27 minutes were shown. 27 minutes into the match, Billy Robinson managed to escape a headscissors in a beautiful way, as he turned the move around and bridged his way out of the hold. Robinson followed this up by holding onto Jumbo Tsuruta’s legs and applied pressure, making sure Tsuruta was now the one tied up. Tsuruta would later find ways to get back in control of the match, much to the frustration of Robinson. Robinson went for a bodyslam, but he couldn’t do it because of his back bothering him. Robinson rolled to the floor, and Tsuruta kicked Robinson’s back. After several minutes of Tsuruta being in control, Robinson turned things around with a leg sweep. Neither wrestler was really okay with just letting the other be in control, as they both kept trying to fight back and turn things around. Near the end of the first fall, perhaps in an attempt to put more pressure on Robinson’s back, Tsuruta kept going for a Boston crab. Robinson kept resisting, and eventually realized that Tsuruta was so persistent that just blocking wouldn’t be enough. That’s why Robinson tried to counter Tsuruta’s attack, and tried to use Tsuruta’s own momentum against him. 41 minutes into the match, Robinson managed to pin Tsuruta with a backslide to win the first fall. A first pinfall that late was intriguing, because you kinda had to expect Tsuruta scoring the equalizer. Yet, even though it would be logical for them to go to a time limit draw, since they were working with such high energy, it would be believable that someone would be able to score a winning second fall just before the time limit. At some point in the second fall, Robinson went for a neckbreaker, but Tsuruta knew this was one of Robinson’s most lethal moves, so he grabbed onto the ropes. Towards the end of the second fall, the action had slowed down a bit, but that was logical and believable, since they had been wrestling for over 45 minutes. Later that fall, Robinson went for a backslide, the same move he pinned Tsuruta with in the first fall, but this time, Tsuruta found the strength and determination to kick out. Robinson went for a gutwrench suplex, but Tsuruta blocked it and countered with a gutwrench suplex of his own, and this even got Tsuruta the pinfall win in the second fall. Now it was time for the third fall, but they only had a little over five minutes left in this 60-minute time limit match, so they had to act with urgency. Suplexes were thrown, neckbreakers were attempted, slaps were dished out. To further emphasize the urgency, Robinson at one point made a few pinfall attempts in succession by continuously trying to hold Tsuruta down in a pinning position, even though Tsuruta kept kicking out. However, five minutes was not nearly enough for them to decide a winner in the third fall, and the match went to a 60-minute time limit draw with them drawing each other one fall a piece. This appears to be a lost classic, since not enough people are talking about this great match. ****½  

AJPW 1/11/80 Kochi Prefectural Gym, NWA United National Title: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Billy Robinson 23:38 of 60:00 [38:25 (5:47 shown), 14:25, 7:10 (3:26 shown)]. What we got to see of the first fall looked solid, as it had the excellent wrestling you’d expect from these two. Near the end of the first fall, Jumbo Tsuruta went for a jumping high knee, but Billy Robinson knew it was one of Tsuruta’s big moves, so he tried to avoid, and actually managed to avoid at first, but Tsuruta turned around and caught Robinson with a jumping high knee anyway in the rebound when Robinson came off the ropes. Soon after that, one of the highlights of the first fall and the entire match happened, as Jumbo Tsuruta hit a jumping high knee off the top rope. This got Tsuruta the win in the first fall. The first fall was joined in progress 32 minutes into the match though, so it’s hard to say how good this fall was. This was particularly frustrating though, since the second fall ended up being disappointing, and we only got to see half of a relatively short third fall. This means that it would have been very useful to see more of the first fall, since more footage of the first fall could have potentially bumped up the rating a bit more. In the second fall, Tsuruta showed plenty of aggression, and it seemed to briefly throw Billy Robinson off his game. For some reason, it would take until the end of the second fall for these two to find that same level of energy they had during the beginning of the second fall. It probably has to do with fatigue, as they were now about 45 minutes into this match. Robinson sold a lot for Tsuruta in the second fall, and both workers seemed to agree that this was going to be the down period of the match, at least for their standards. It’s not like they didn’t do anything, as at least they tried to keep moving and tried to avoid making it seem they were just sitting in a hold to catch a breather. In general, they were being more cautious than usual. This is why the second fall felt like a disappointment, and it would have been good to have seen a bit more back-and-forth action, or at least something more intriguing than what we got. Perhaps that’s easier said than done, but these two had raised the bar really high and had shown in the past that they were capable of delivering a great 60-minute match, as their 3/11/77 and 5/25/79 60-minute matches were great ones. After about ten minutes of Tsuruta being in control, Robinson finally got to do something back in the second fall. It was only really the final minutes of the second fall that Robinson really showed the intensity we are used to seeing from him. The third fall was the shortest fall, but they showed the most intensity in this final fall. It was a little too late though, and they went to a 60-minute draw. It was a very good match that was better than their 60-minute draw from 1976, but it was not as good as their 60-minute matches from 1977 and 1979. ***¾     

AJPW 10/13/80 Nagoya Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, PWF Heavyweight Title: Giant Baba vs. Billy Robinson 10:27 of 18:25 [10:15 (2:36 shown), 15:10 (4:48 shown), 18:25 (3:03 shown). This match was more of a condensed version of their 1976 classic. This was a very good match, but it wasn’t as brilliant as the aforementioned 1976 classic match. Of course, that doesn’t mean this wasn’t any good, because their 1976 match was one of the best matches of the 1970s. We joined the first fall at the 7-minute mark. Billy Robinson avoided Giant Baba’s big boot attempt, hit Baba with an elbow smash and dropkick, and then was able to win the first fall via the backbreaker. In the second fall, Robinson tried to pin Baba after hitting a vicious neckbreaker, but Baba was able to kick out. There was an awkward spot that saw Baba first block a piledriver attempt by Robinson, but then Baba kinda fell over. Robinson covered it up nicely by going for a cover. Baba won the second fall with the running neckbreaker drop, which was the same move Baba won their 1976 match with, but the double count-out finish in the third fall was even less satisfying than double count-out finishes usually are. Obviously, the editing didn’t help matters either. Overall, this appeared to be a really good match, even though Baba in 1980 didn’t appear to be able to work on the same level as in 1976. We got to see about half of the match, and what was shown was very good action between two legends. ***½   

AJPW 12/11/80 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Billy Robinson vs. Nick Bockwinkel 27:05 of 30:00. One of the reasons this was so excellent was that they constantly made everything they did look like a struggle. This made sense since they were two top stars trying to prove to themselves, to each other and to everyone watching that they were the better man. The wrestling was so gritty, and they both really came across as tough wrestlers who weren’t going to stop until one of them was beaten. They were going to fight till the end. These two had wrestled each other many times before during the previous decade, mostly in the AWA, but sometimes also in Hawaii. This familiarity certainly helped, because they knew about the skills of the other, and they knew they would have to keep staying on top of their opponent as much as possible, because they were both very competitive athletes. They were both very aware of the preference of the Japanese audience, and that was a more hard-hitting style than what the American wrestling fans were accepting. The match was basically non-stop action that was all about them beating each other up and trying to wear each other down. During the second half of the match, they slowed down a little bit, but that was understandable and it felt natural because of the intense action during the first half of the match. Maybe the most amazing part is that this was a non-tournament match during a tour that was all about the tag team tournament and way before newsletter writers would review stuff, and yet this was a match that saw them work super hard because they cared about what they were doing and they respected the pro wrestling business and themselves as pro wrestlers. This was arguably the best men’s heavyweight match of the early 1980s. ****½    

AJPW 7/23/81 Uozu City Gym: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Billy Robinson 24:24. They both put over well that it was a struggle for them to try to get an advantage over the other, and a struggle to escape each other’s holds. Even late in the match, Billy Robinson showed intensity as he wasn’t finished with Jumbo Tsuruta yet, as he slapped Tsuruta in the face. They both tried to get a gutwrench suplex on each other, but they both blocked each other’s attempts. Robinson suplexed Tsuruta over the top rope, and both men tumbled to the floor, just like in 1977. This wasn’t close to being on the level of their 1977 matches though, but it was still a good match overall. They wrestled like they were going to go for a 60-minute match, yet they went for a 24-minute match, which is kinda the reverse of what made their two best 60-minute matches so amazing. Ideally, they would have been wrestled at a faster, more urgent pace here. It was actually very useful to watch this match, either way, because perhaps this match gives us an idea of what the first parts of all those super long matches they had could have looked like. That’s also exactly why this match felt incomplete though, because when you’re watching it, you’re kinda expecting two more falls to happen after this. The final minutes saw them accelerate things, but they ended up on the floor and we got a double count-out after Tsuruta climbed from the apron onto the second rope and leaped onto Robinson. ***½  

AJPW 7/30/81 Korakuen Hall 2/3 Falls International Tag Title: Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Billy Robinson & Genichiro Tenryu 26:13 [14:57, 5:11, 6:05]. This almost felt like a predecessor to the Misawa & Kobashi vs. Kawada & Taue matches. Robinson got to fight his main Japanese rivals, Jumbo Tsuruta & Giant Baba, who were still the two biggest native stars in AJPW. The match started off with Baba vs. Tenryu. Baba was feeling it, and he gave a strong effort. Baba avoided some of Tenryu’s offense, and he made young Tenryu work hard. Once Tenryu tagged in Billy Robinson, it was Robinson who made Baba work hard, as Robinson blocked Baba’s chop and tried to prevent him from tagging in Jumbo Tsuruta. When Baba managed to tag in Tsuruta anyway, Robinson looked at Baba like “alright, we’ll settle things later.” Robinson didn’t have too much time to worry about Baba tagging out though, as right in front of him was his main Japanese rival, Tsuruta. Robinson and Tsuruta briefly showed their excellence until Robinson tagged in Tenryu. Tsuruta and Tenryu wrestling each other was interesting as well, as their feud would be the main feud in AJPW later that decade. This match was actually the first televised match that had Tsuruta and Tenryu on opposite sides. They already showed a lot of enthusiasm wrestling each other back in 1981. Robinson and Baba eventually fought each other later that match, and they showed a lot of intensity. Tenryu showed a lot of courage when he battled Baba, as he even bodyslammed Baba. Robinson followed up Tenryu’s hard work with a backbreaker on Baba that led to the challengers scoring the win in the first fall. Baba didn’t get pinned very often, so this pinfall over Baba was a big feather in Robinson’s cap. In the second fall, Robinson and Tsuruta showed a lot of intensity when they worked against each other. Tenryu hit a well-placed enzuigiri on Tsuruta that got quite a crowd reaction. Robinson & Tenryu were going for a quick second fall, as they realized that would win them the belts. However, a double big boot by the champions ruined the plans of the challengers, as Baba scored a pinfall over Robinson. This meant things were back to equal again, and the third fall would be the deciding fall. Tsuruta and Tenryu continued their intense interactions, and their chemistry was very apparent. Tenryu used some of his sumo-based offense, but Tsuruta managed to side-step and that sent Tenryu to the floor. This match was tons of fun to watch, mostly because it felt important. This really had the feeling of a championship contest, as everyone had to fight hard and give a strong input to look good. The match kept going at a good pace, and it kinda felt like they were all trying to outdo each other, while at the same time trying to make each other look good without things getting contrived. All these participants had wrestled each other before, except for Tsuruta and Tenryu, who had now just started facing each other. The match ended with a count-out, but that’s ‘80s AJPW for ya, as Baba would only start booking clean finishes on a regular basis after being inspired by UWF’s approach of booking clean finishes. ****¼    

AWA 11/5/81 Winnipeg, MB, Canada Winnipeg Arena: Billy Robinson vs. Bobby Duncum 19:41. Billy Robinson had many matches in North American territories, though most of the footage from his prime years seems unavailable or lost. In most of what's floating around, he would give a really good performance, but a lot of the opponents weren’t able to come even close to matching Robinson’s ability. This meant that a lot of those matches in these American territories ended up uneventful. However, this match for the Minneapolis-based AWA against Bobby Duncum was surprisingly fun to watch. Duncum was a football player turned brawler, so you wouldn’t necessarily expect a match involving him would be more eventful than the average match. Robinson knew he could rely on his own technical ability against anyone in a wrestling match, but your typical Texan heel cowboy brawler from the ‘80s was certainly not a technical-style type of wrestler. In a way, this reminded me of a quote from Robinson’s autobiography “Physical Chess: My Life in Catch-As-Catch-Can-Wrestling” (which he wrote with his biographer and catch wrestling apprentice Jake Shannon), in which Robinson mentioned training with all kinds of different people during a tournament in Europe in the 1960s. Billy Robinson: “Oddly, the judo and karate guys were the easiest to beat because they had discipline. A street fighter had no discipline, so it was difficult to size up what they were going to do just by looking at where their body was going. They’d kick from the wrong angle or throw a punch from the wrong angle, and if you were not aware, they’d catch you, so it was a good learning experience for me.” Of course, an American 1980s pro wrestling match is very far removed from a situation that resembles a legitimate fight, but it was still very interesting to see Robinson’s approach in this match against Duncum, who looked like your old school barroom brawler. Robinson seemed very eager to try to get the best out of his opponent. This eagerness displayed by Robinson is what made this match on some level more interesting than Robinson’s AWA matches against guys like Nick Bockwinkel and Rick Martel, who are much better wrestlers than Duncum, but who, at least from what's currently available, had disappointing matches against Robinson due to lack of action and liveliness in the matches. While certainly no technical wizard by any standards, at least Duncum wasn’t the type of opponent who wouldn’t do much, as Duncum seemingly wanted to show he was a tough guy. Robinson easily outwrestled Duncum, which frustrated Duncum. After Robinson worked over Duncum’s arm first, Robinson twisted and stretched Duncum’s legs. Even the commentators acknowledged that Robinson was a man who has a counter for every move and a counter move for every counter move. Duncum’s manager was Bobby Heenan. Most wrestling fans are familiar with "The Brain" aka "The Weasel" at least for his days as a heel manager and color commentator, but a random unusual fact about his career is that he had a couple of tours in the early 1980s for All Japan where he was booked as tag team partner for Billy Robinson. On one hand, it would sound like Heenan was really out of place in early 1980s AJPW (and he was), but on the other hand, a guy like Abdullah the Butcher was considered a main eventer, so maybe it’s not the most baffling booking decision by Baba ever (as at least Heenan was booked as a somewhat harmless secondary or tertiary guy in tag or trios matches). At some point in this match, Duncum was able to do quite a lot of damage to Robinson’s shoulder by ramming his knee into Robinson’s shoulder and continuing to work over the shoulder. Even though Robinson was a far more skilled technical wrestler, Duncum had approximately a dozen years of experience as pro wrestler and was reasonably successful in the United States during his career, including holding "Brass Knuckles" titles in Florida, Mid-Atlantic, and Texas, so Duncum was certainly no slouch. That made it not too odd that Robinson was in trouble for a while. Robinson’s bumping and selling was really good, which helped put over Duncum as a serious threat in Robinson’s quest to victory. As Duncum started getting his way a bit too much, Robinson finally saw an opening to fight back. The crowd was happy to see this happen, either because they understood that Robinson was one of the most skilled pro wrestlers ever or simply because he was the babyface in this match (or maybe a bit of both). Robinson was now using some more brawling in his attempt to win this match, which could be seen as an act of desperation, an attempt to show he could outdo Duncum in his own style, or perhaps he was channeling his father’s street fighting skills. As expected, Robinson got the win, but it was unfortunately only via DQ when Duncum threw Robinson over the top rope, which was an automatic DQ in some of the American wrestling territories. This wasn’t an excellent match by any means, but it was one of the more fun-to-watch matches Robinson had during his time in North America. **¾ 

AJPW 3/21/82 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, Champion Carnival: Billy Robinson vs. Jumbo Tsuruta 30:00. The cool part about the hand-held footage of this match was that you could clearly hear a decent amount of people rooting for Robinson. However, this match was arguably even more disappointing than their 70-minute match from 7/17/76, because at least with that match you kinda can see why it was disappointing because it was a super long match in the middle of a hot summer. However, this Champion Carnival match was just disappointing without any real excuses to be made. They stayed in holds for a long time, and they didn’t really make things as intriguing as they did in their best matches. They didn’t wrestle with nearly as much urgency as they normally would, and it seemed they stayed in the feeling out process almost the entire match. While they did put over the struggling quite well, as they always do, this match simply lacked the urgent action we love to see from them to make it really exciting to watch. Perhaps this review sounds overly negative for a match that was still pretty good, but we’re talking about two all-time great heavyweights that have matches on their resume that are way better than this. Normally you’d try to explain why something is worth giving three stars, but with these two, it feels an explanation is needed as to why it was “only” three stars. All in all, it was definitely not a bad match, and it was a pretty good wrestling match, but it’s not even close to what you’d hope and expect from these two, and this was one of the least interesting matches these two had against each other in Japan. ***   

AJPW 3/30/82 Niigata City Gymnasium, Champion Carnival: Billy Robinson vs. Genichiro Tenryu 8:00 of 19:39. The footage was joined in progress in the 11th minute. Billy Robinson hit a nice uppercut and a nice neckbreaker. Robinson executed a cartwheel to avoid some of Tenryu’s offense. Tenryu hadn’t quite reached his peak yet at this time, because it was in the mid to late 1980s that Tenryu was at his absolute peak as a worker. Here in 1982, 32-year old Tenryu was certainly no rookie, but he was not nearly as experienced as the veteran Robinson was at this time. Tenryu was certainly very determined to prove himself and determined to beat Robinson, and Tenryu kept taking it to Robinson. Tenryu tried to use his patented falling backward elbow, but Robinson moved. One of the cool things about Robinson is how he can make his quest to escape something as simple as a hammerlock intriguing. Tenryu used some sumo-style offense that briefly caught Robinson off guard. Even more effective was Tenryu’s sunset flip off the top rope. Robinson was in a lot of trouble, and had to fight to survive. The final minutes had some hot near falls. In the end, Robinson’s experience prevailed, as he managed to score the pinfall victory. The pinfall came after Robinson had hurt his knee by delivering a backbreaker. Tenryu went to grab Robinson’s leg, but Robinson had anticipated it and quickly executed a backslide for the win. This was a good match, and it was a bit better than the match Robinson had with Tsuruta 12 days prior, because it was more lively. ***¼ 

AWA 3/11/84 Green Bay, WI, AWA World Heavyweight Title: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Billy Robinson 19:47. Giant Baba was at ringside providing commentary for AJPW TV. Jumbo Tsuruta had won the AWA World Heavyweight Title on 2/22/84 by defeating Nick Bockwinkel in Japan. Billy Robinson was a regular in AWA at the time, so it was fitting that he was a top contender for the AWA Title. After hitting some of his signature moves, like the neckbreaker, European uppercut, gutwrench suplex and backbreaker, Robinson almost got the win. However, Tsuruta scored the win via a backslide. It was a hard-fought battle with them really putting over their struggle and determination to beat each other. The downside of this match was the relatively low pace and relatively low urgency. However, for a mid 80s match that took place in an American league, this probably was actually a bit more action-packed and intense than was the norm. Either way, this definitely wasn’t nearly as good as the match these two had against each other in Florida in March 1977. ***

AJPW 6/1/84 Billy Robinson & The Destroyer vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Giant Baba. Robinson did that move where he stands with one leg one one side of his opponent’s head and one leg on the other side, and then he twists and turns around, resulting in some sort of neck twister. It’s a move Zack Sabre Jr. does these days. Giant Baba and Billy Robinson blocked each other’s chop attempts. Robinson and Jumbo Tsuruta struggled hard to try to get the advantage over the other. Robinson hit some cool-looking European uppercuts. The wrestling in this match was at its best when Robinson and Tsuruta battled each other, which should not be a surprise to those who remember their great classic matches. The Destroyer luckily did none of his heel routine stuff like in his famous 1969 match against Baba, but he didn’t really add anything of real note to this match. Baba got a big crowd reaction whenever he entered, because he’s Baba, but he didn’t add too much to the match either. This was around the time Baba started phasing himself out of the main event picture of his own league. He would win the PWF World Heavyweight Title one more time a little over a month after this, but that was the last major title Baba gave himself, and he would give Tsuruta & Tenryu more of the spotlight. Anyway, Robinson won this match by pinning Tsuruta after a backbreaker. This match felt more like a big superstar match where the fans got to see four big stars and not so much a match that should be considered a really good one. **¾ 

AJPW 6/13/84 Osaka Prefectural Gym, NWA International Heavyweight Title: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Billy Robinson 15:29. These two had over twenty singles matches against each other, but there’s only footage available of less than half of them. This was their final singles match against each other. In a way, this felt like kinda their greatest hits version with them doing most of their key spots. Robinson wasn’t the same intense worker he was in the 1970s, and he had slowed down quite a bit, but he obviously still had a lot of knowledge that was useful. The final minutes of the match were worked most urgently. Jumbo Tsuruta won via a Thesz press. It was a pretty good match, but one of the least interesting matches these two had against each other in Japan. ***

AJPW 10/21/85 Billy Robinson & Terry Gordy & Chavo Guerrero vs. Tiger Mask II & Dory Funk Jr. & Terry Funk 11:30. This match took place during Billy Robinson’s final tour for AJPW. Robinson wanted to battle Terry Funk, who was now in the most crazy overselling phase of his career. Dory Funk Jr. tried to calm everyone down and wanted to wrestle a calm match. They kept teasing Robinson vs. Terry, as they kept talking trash to each other, but they let everyone wait a while for it. Robinson showed some good stuff when he wrestled Dory, even though neither wrestler was really in their prime anymore. Robinson escaped Dory’s side headlock and executed a vicious backbreaker. Chavo Guerrero and Tiger Mask II (Mitsuharu Misawa) did some flashy junior heavyweight sequences together, and that was actually the best part of the match. Misawa landed on his feet after a back body drop by Terry Gordy, and Misawa followed it up with a dropkick. Robinson and Terry finally came to blows, but Robinson got the best of Terry very quickly. We got to see Misawa hit a pescado on Robinson. These two were at completely different stages of their respective careers, as Robinson was winding down his career, and Misawa had yet to reach his best years. Robinson ended up getting counted out, which was a disappointing ending to a random but fun trios match. **¾ 

UWF-I 5/8/92 Kanagawa Yokohama Arena, Special Exhibition Match: Billy Robinson vs. Nick Bockwinkel 10:00. This was Billy Robinson’s first match in over four years, and it would be his last match. This was Nick Bockwinkel’s first match in over a year after wrestling Masa Saito in December 1990 in NJPW, but he had pretty much been retired as a full-time wrestler since 1987. Bockwinkel would have one more match in 1993 in WCW against Dory Funk Jr. Bockwinkel is one of those wrestlers who, like Lou Thesz, still looked in great shape past the age of 50. The fans reacted real big when Robinson went for his double underhook suplex. Throughout this match, they put over the struggle real well. There were some nice takedowns and counters. The fact that two old school legends who hadn’t been active pro wrestlers for a while were able to present an intriguing match this good should really deserve a good amount of praise. The fact that at their age, they presented  a match that didn’t look out of place on a UWF-i card when shoot style pro wrestling was at its peak says a lot about the skill-level of these two legends. They only got ten minutes, and that’s the main reason why this match could only be so good, as they probably would have been able to deliver an even better match if they were given more match time and more preparation time, because they would have been able to tell more of a story in a longer match. After the match, Lous Thesz hugged both wrestlers, because Thesz was proud of this display of true wrestling. ***¼     

1958-1969: N/A (hoping to find footage)

1970-1973: Very Good

1974-1975: Excellent

1976-1980: Great

1981: Excellent

1982-1984: Very Good

1985: Good

Billy Robinson was one of the last great catch wrestlers, the best pro wrestler of his generation, arguably the best British heavyweight wrestler of all time, and one of the top 30 greatest male pro wrestlers of all time. It’s a shame there’s only a small amount of footage of his 1970-1973 work available, and it appears there’s virtually no footage available of his matches from before 1970. By watching his best matches in Japan, you could tell that Robinson was a decade or two ahead of most other pro wrestlers when it came to his catch-like and basically proto-MMA approach to his matches, for example in his 12/11/75 match against proto-MMA pioneer Antonio Inoki. Robinson’s best feud was his feud against Jumbo Tsuruta, and these two great wrestlers had more than 20 singles matches against each other between 1976 and 1984. March 1977 was a particularly amazing month for pro wrestling, as Robinson vs. Tsuruta produced 3 memorable matches in 1 month, including two of the best matches of the 1970s on 3/5/77 and 3/11/77. 

IWE 11/20/74 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, AWA World Heavyweight Title Match: Verne Gagne vs. Billy Robinson 35:44 [20:48, 5:21, 9:35]. ****

NJPW 12/11/75 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, NWF World Heavyweight Title Match: Antonio Inoki vs. Billy Robinson 60:00 [42:53, 16:19, 0:48]. ****

AJPW 7/24/76 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan, PWF Heavyweight Title Match: Giant Baba vs. Billy Robinson 21:17 [9:24, 6:08, 5:45]. ****½ 

AJPW 3/5/77 Akita Shiritsu Taiikukan, United National Heavyweight Title Match: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Billy Robinson 23:03 [11:03 (9:32 shown), 7:54, 4:06]. ****½ 

AJPW 3/11/77 Tokyo Nippon University Auditorium, United National Heavyweight Title Match: Billy Robinson vs. Jumbo Tsuruta 37:56 of 60:00 [34:19 (14:17 shown), 11:35, 14:06 (12:03 shown)]. ****¾ 

CWF 3/23/77 Miami Beach, FL Convention Hall 2/3 Falls UN Heavyweight Title Decision Match: Billy Robinson vs. Jumbo Tsuruta 25:51 of 31:00 [10:55, 13:00 (9:48 shown), 7:05 (5:08 shown)]. ****

AJPW 5/25/79 Omiya Skate Center, NWA United National Title: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Billy Robinson 32:12 of 60:00 [41:13 (17:16 shown), 13:26 (11:30 shown), 5:21 (3:26 shown)]. ****½ 

AJPW 12/11/80 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan: Billy Robinson vs. Nick Bockwinkel 27:05 of 30:00. ****½

AJPW 1/11/80 Kochi Prefectural Gym, NWA United National Title: Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Billy Robinson 23:38 of 60:00 [38:25 (5:47 shown), 14:25, 7:10 (3:26 shown)]. ***¾  

AJPW 7/30/81 Korakuen Hall 2/3 Falls International Tag Title: Giant Baba & Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Billy Robinson & Genichiro Tenryu 26:13 [14:57, 5:11, 6:05]. ****¼ 

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