It's a cornucopia of Billy Robinson in Japan. Yeah, it's not quite British wrestling, but it's great viewing for any wrestling fan.

First, he challenges Antonio Inoki in New Japan for the NWF Heavyweight _title_. This was from December 1975, and sit tight, 'cause this is a long one.

After Inoki made a brilliant decision to stiff Robinson over his pay for that match, Billy promptly jumped to All-Japan--where he'd stay for each subsequent tour of Japan--and got an almost immediate shot at Giant Baba for the PWF Heavyweight _title_ (Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.) Baba wasn't the mat technician Inoki was but he was a smarter worker at the time, and this is a psychologically brilliant match: each fall builds off the last one, and tons of spots and counters that play off earlier spots. And if you're pressed for time, it's not nearly as long as the Inoki match.

These are two of the very best matches of the 1970's that exist on tape (Robinson/Baba is THE best, for my money). It's Robinson, Inoki, and Baba all at their arguable peaks. Enjoy!

(I'll try to work on getting more European stars in Japan up--Pete Roberts, Tony St. Clair, Mark Rocco, Marty Jones, Horst Hoffman, and of course Dynamite Kid all had some excellent bouts there.)

You can download the videos from YouTube and a couple of other sites to keep on your PC permanently using this piece of software, VDownloader

http://comunidad.uem.es/epuertas/post/2006/06/01/como-descargar-videos-youtube-google-video-y-grinvi

There's an English section about halfway down the page.

Good stuff - I'd love to see footage of Pete Roberts and Marty Jones in Japan as I've never seen any of their stuff from over there before.

Good stuff - I'd love to see footage of Pete Roberts and Marty Jones in Japan as I've never seen any of their stuff from over there before.

That can be done.

Pete Roberts & Ted DiBiase vs. Jumbo Tsuruta & Tiger Mask II

Fun little tag sprint. Unfortunately for Pete, he's in with 3 of the greatest workers in the history of the business so he gets a tad overshadowed here. But how can you go wrong with these 4?

(Interesting to note that the phrase "Super Destroyer" is not mentioned in any of Pete's matches that I've seen. Seems to be another made-up nickname; besides, Japan already had a Destroyer and a Super Destroyer.)

I love me some Pete Roberts, so thanks for that man!

Yes, I'm on a roll...

Dory Funk, Jr. vs. Horst Hoffman - 1975, All-Japan.

The biggest star in Germany--if not the rest of Europe--in the 1960's takes on the former NWA World Heavyweight champ in a technical clinic.

Hoffman made some appearances in British rings, but his last UK TV appearance was in 1964. Most of the only known footage of this German star comes from his tours of All-Japan in the mid-to-late '70s, though I'm not sure what if anything survives from his run in the AWA.

Horst remains one of my biggest "Whatever happened to...?" curiosities. According to a Ken Patera shoot interview (Patera blasted him for apparently taking advantage of him as a rookie), he was later found to be at the center of a diamond-smuggling and counterfeit art ring, and served time in prison. But then, Patera claims a lot of things...