PRO WRESTLING FUJIWARA-GUMI SHOW #13 6/25/92

TKG: Soronaka had just passed away and this opens with ten bell salute.

Jerry Flynn v. Ryushi Yangisawa

TKG: This wasn't as good as their last match up. I really like Flynn's defensive stand up. But last time Yanigasawa was way more active. Here he's really tentative so combo of tentative offense with Flynn's defensive stuff made for dull opening sections.

PAS: I didn't like this as much as their match on the last show either. This feels like a match up that should have lots of great kick exchanges, their first match was about 70/30 on the mat. This was really closer to 85/15 on the mat. It feels like if the match was closer to 60/40 it would be really good.

Minoru Suzuki v. Yuki Ishikawa

TKG: Ishikawa does a bunch of neat escapes and float overs and this is far more competitive than I was expecting. Once Suzuki got in his submission it was over.

PAS: This is the first Ishikawa rookie match where he got kind of beaten the way a rookie should get beaten. There is one point where Suzuki reverses the submission by raking the fuck out of Ishikawa's face.

Masakatsu Funaki v. Kazou Takahashi

TKG: This was weird as Takahashi was going down and selling for some weak looking offense. On the other hand these two guys were potatoeing each other and not really selling it. Match was really messy but filled with nasty stuff that had nothing to do with the actual match. Finish was narsty.

PAS: Takahashi lands a headbutt early where you can actually hear Funaki's brain rip itself from its padding. Funaki doesn't even sell it. Later Funaki is in the mount where he is laying in some sick headbutts himself that Takahashi wasn't really selling either, if all of the brutality was part of the actual match it would have been really good, but it wasn't, so it wasn't.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Bart Vale

TKG: This was really great. Opening was like a mat sprint as Vale has to go for four rope escapes and eats on KO in opening five minutes. Never felt one sided but it was all about Vale and Fujiwara having exchanges on the mat with Fujiwara winning the exchange. Next ten minutes were more competitive but still felt like Fujiwara always able to win no matter how much Vale controlled. By end Vale really was finally able to outwrestle Fujiwara's guile and gets three knock outs leading to the final KO. This is the best Vale has looked in these things as he had really neat submission attempts, vices, mat work, etc and his KO strikes looked like they were actual KO strikes.

PAS: This was awesome, each mat exchange didn't just have one reversal, it had reversals reversed into a reversal. Alot of Fujiwara's signature reversals got modified as Vale countered their initial move. I don't know what the politics of the promotion were, but Fujiwara doesn't job to anyone but he does two straight jobs to Vale without ever getting the win back. This really was the only match where Vale actual looked good enough to deserve to go over Fujiwara.