How Jumbo Tsuruta Became the Ace of All Japan

How Jumbo Tsuruta Became the Ace of All Japan

April 9, 2025



Jumbo Tsuruta is, simply put, one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. A big part of his rise came against some of the greatest that American wrestling had to offer, and we’re looking at several matches from 1973-1984: Classics featuring Jack Brisco, Terry Funk, Harley Race, Ric Flair, Bruiser Brody and Nick Bockwinkel. Enjoy!

KinchStalker’s Jumbo Tsuruta Bio Summaries: https://forums.prowrestlingonly.com/forum/1544-jumbo-tsuruta-bio/
Jumbo Tsuruta – The First True Ace of Puroresu: https://prowrestlingpost.com/jumbo-tsuruta/

Follow Kim Justice’s Wrestling Road on Patreon for more documentaries: http://www.patreon.com/kimblejustice

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My Other Channel: http://www.youtube.com/kimblejustice

0:00 Intro
2:12 Jumbo’s Early Years, the Olympics, and AJPW Debut
7:22 Tsuruta vs Jack Brisco, 1974: Jumbo’s First Major Singles Opponent
15:42 Tsuruta vs Jack Brisco, 1976: Rematch for the NWA UN Title
24:12 Jumbo Pursues the NWA Title against Terry Funk, Harley Race and Ric Flair
32:03 Jumbo vs Bruiser Brody, 1983: Tsuruta Faces a Monster for the International Belt
42:37 Jumbo vs Nick Bockwinkel, 1984: AWA and International Gold on the Line

#kimjustice #wrestlinghistory #puroresu #ajpw #nwawrestling #classicwrestling

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View Comments (49)

  1. Hopefully you enjoy this one ๐Ÿ™‚ what are your favourite Jumbo matches? Have a shout in the comments. Apologies that the 2nd half or so of the Jumbo-Bockwinkel match is oddly edited — presumably that was shown on an AWA TV episode back in the day, because it got a WWE claim. Thanks for watching!

  2. I do like that when both Inoki and Baba stepped away from being full time, both had two guys set up ready to take their place atop the card – one who continued their legacy (Fujinami/Tsuruta) and one who was the cocky anti-authority type (Choshu/Tenryu).

  4. Here's a wrestling factoid–the Nihon University Auditorium or Public Hall (ๆ—ฅๅคง่ฌ›ๅ ‚) had been the original Ryogoku Kokugikan, or Sumo Hall, which had been the home of sumo until just after the end of the Second World War. It was demolished in 1983 due to aging equipment and failing to meet the fire code.

  8. At some point, you should cover, in full, Jumbo's full run as AWA World Champion.

    Not only do younget to see that Greg Gange was a capable workers and not just a benefiter of nepotism, but it also features Rick Martel's AWA title win and we all need more Rick Martel.

  9. I gotta say, I appreciate so much that your channel has opened up a part of wrestling history I havenโ€™t been familiar with until I began watching your videos. Thanks for the amazing work you do putting this together and highlighting some amazing work from wrestlers that may fly under folks radar who are unfamiliar with wrestling outside of NA (myself included).

  10. Thanks for the Story Video ๐Ÿ“–๐Ÿ™Š๐Ÿค๐Ÿ˜ฌ๐Ÿซข๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿ’๐ŸŒŸ๐Ÿฅ‡๐Ÿ†๐Ÿ˜‡๐Ÿ™๐Ÿฟ๐ŸŽ—๐Ÿ•Šโœ๏ธโœก๏ธ๐Ÿ›โ˜ฎ๏ธโ˜ฏ๏ธ๐Ÿ•Ž๐Ÿ™Œ๐Ÿฟ๐Ÿน๐Ÿ—ก๐Ÿ•ฏ๐Ÿ˜Š๐Ÿ˜‰๐Ÿ‘๐Ÿฟ๐Ÿ’’๐Ÿค๐ŸŒŸ๐Ÿฅ‡๐Ÿ†

  12. Watching your vids is a real learning experience. I know the names of the wrestlers but didn't know anything about their matches. I love what you are putting up for us. Please keep it coming.

  16. I never knew about Jumbo I was exposed to your videos and I've been blown away by how great he is. Just so very good and I hate we didnt get all we could from him. So I loved this video telling us how he became the ace, before he became an old grump.

    Also love that he was trained in my home West Texas region! Indeed there is no better place to learn to be a Babyface.

  18. WE NEED BETTER CONTEXT WITH THESE VIDEOS. They frame everyone as bekng the Steve Austin of their organization.

    Im sure these guys were great and all, but some of them were just the American versions of mid to upper card talent.

    I want to know who they compare to. What position in the company would they closely mirror to American fans? Edge, Rock, Austin, HHH, Mankind, RVD, etc.

    Surely not all of these guys were the top dog at the same time.

  21. Iโ€™ve seen and traveled around the world of wrestling for 5 decades Jumbo Tsuruta is the best wrestler from the 1970s-1990s and Misawa Mitsuharu is the best from 1980s-2000s

  22. Itโ€™s a good day when Kim Justice Wrestling Bios Wrestling With Wregret Markyd123 and Wrestle With Andy all release new videos on the same day

  28. Iโ€™m really hoping that Kim will one day do a comprehensive documentary on the Great Gama, the first true world wrestling champion, undefeated for 50 years, and inspiration to the likes of Bruce Lee.

  29. Whenever I see AJPW in the 90s or 80s (I swear I saw him in this video too) there's this BIG GUY. Like he's gotta be at least 6'6 and he's always in the front row or around the front row in the hard cam. He's normally wearing like a robe too. Like, it's crazy cause he stands out so much maybe people know who i'm talking about because for some reason he just stands out

  31. Great video as always, man! I didn't know any of the Jumbo lore. The earliest match of his I'd seen was the career-maker against Misawa. It was fun seeing him grow up over the course of your video.

  34. i love these japan pro wrestling history vids, the stan hansen vid is my fav vid, hes the guy who got me into watching all japan pro wrestling and discovering old japan pro wrestling

  40. Kim, I would absolutely be happy if you do the Riki Choshu's AJPW invasion next. It was one of the most important period in puroresu and I can't get enough of it. Keep up the good work!

  42. as ya brought up with Kid vs Tsuji, that is a good comparison to the matches they had back in the late 70s early 80s (with a slight modern twist) and they do a real good job doing the throwback to those days in their match; dunno how ya feel about early Toryumon-Early DG and some of the really good matches they were putting on then either(especially some of the insane trios matches up thru the Dream Gate Decision match between BxB Hulk and Shingo at Kobe World 08[definately a 5* match imho])

  43. Good work as always! I love watching Jumbo. Itโ€™s fascinating to watch every stage of his career. He got to enter the business and rise to the top at the same time as guys like Jack Brisco and Ric Flair were in their prime and then he got to usher in the Kingโ€™s Road era.

  44. Yo I knew of kenta kobashi before your video but after seeing your video I went down the rabbit hole with his matches vs Stan Hansen. God damn do they absolutely hold up still, and after not seeing many Hansen matches Iโ€™ve come to really appreciate him. Probably going to end up watching a lot of jumbo matches after this one too!

  45. Legit I'll never forget showing my older friends Jumbo winning the AWA title. Just 2 old white dudes marking out for Jumbo. Crazy stuff. Legit one said Bockwinckle got what he deserved.๐Ÿ˜Š

  47. I never imagined a world where Terry Funk and Terry Griffiths could merge into one being. I am shook!

    Thank you for another incredible piece of work, easily my favorite 'rassling content on YT. The depth of your efforts always makes your videos worth a couple of rewatches.
    Thanks again!

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