Pro WRESTLING FUJIWARA-GUMI SHOW #17 10/4/92 THE DOME~!

Ryushi Yanigasawa v. Yuki Ishikawa

PAS: This really had all the heat of a Dome show opener. It is possible it was happening while they were setting up the chairs, although we might have heard chairs being set up. It seems to go to an 8 minute draw and was a batch of nothing.

TKG: Phil is being generous. Although I think I liked the opening minute, but after that this didn't really happen.

Joe Malenko v. Georgui Galdava

PAS: This was great as Galdava is quite an awesome fake Volk Han, and Joe Malekno is Joe Malenko. Lots of nasty leg twisting counters, and Galdava had some really great amateur throws. The finish was awesome too, as Malenko nearly touches Galdava's foot to his head.

TKG: Good gawd the finish pretzel hold was narsty. They did a bunch of meaningful rope breaks for a fed where no one has ever lost due to rope breaks. Still both guys worked "frustrated" by opponents ability to escape to ropes. This was filled with neat shifting of levels as one guy moved from bottom to top and then was moved back to bottom again.

Naoki Sano v. Jerry Flynn

PAS: Sano was the show stealer for a bunch of the 1991 PWFG so I am amped to see him back. The opening was basically kickboxing, and Sano has some great leg kicks, just tremendous velocity and force. There was some really nice mat stuff too, and a really hot finish. All you would want from an undercard shootstyle match

TKG: Yeah these two match up nicely. Last time they matched up it was more Flynn as the better striker vs. Sano as better mat guy. Here story a little more complicated as both bring different types of skills to the stand up game and different types of skills to the mat one. And you have a sense that either can play into the hands of either wrestler. the throw into the finish was super great too.

Bart Vale v. Aleksei Medvedved

PAS: Medvedved has shaved his chest hair so he looks a little less Boratish then he did last time. He was still rocking the lemon lime unitard (I call it a Sprite). The Russians were really wearing more candy paint then Young Joc's Cadillac on this show. Vale has gotten so good, and this had the illusion of being competitive with Medvedved really being unable to do much. Aleksei did have an almost Takahashish ability to sell a knockdown though.

TKG: The shaving of the chest may give Medvedved a less Boratish look. but his arm swings and gait really give him a Borat/Eugeneish feel. Vale keeps on pasting him in the forehead as Medvedved prances around circling. Last time we saw Medvedved he was pretty much squashed here he's in this competitive match where you really get a sense of how good Vale is. At this point I think Vale has pretty much lapped all the guys who are about to go to Pancrase as workers. The mat stuff was sweet and the standup was filled with super nasty Vale kicks.

Duane Koslowski v. Naniev Olegg

TKG: I was expecting this to be the least of the Florida guys vs. Russians but this was surprisingly good. Olegg brings alot more to the table than Medvedved and this actually is nicely paced with both fighting for advantage as this really felt like a high scoring RPW match. The finisher with Olegg putting a reverse figure four on Koslowski's left leg was spectacular.

PAS: Koslowski had been consistently been a guy with cool spots in search of a guy to put a match together. He never got a singles against Fujiwara who I think could do it, one wouldn't think a match against a Russian would be his best, but this was really good. It really felt like a RINGS match, with alot of countering and shifting on this mat. The finish was just amazing.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Zaour Chabadze

TKG: So Chabadze is a Russian champion Arm Wrestler and I was going into this fully expecting a hard head vs. claw match. While that would have been spectacular this was every bit as good if not greater. For an arm wrestling champ Chabadze isn't built like Scott Norton or Big Daddy Goodridge. Instead he has just this huge apelike wingspan as his arms look twice the length of his torso and are filled with just multitude of muscles. Match is really all about Chabadze dominating Fujiwara on the ground through arm strength. Fujiwara tries to keep his arms together and tries to manipulate his center of gravity to keep from just being thrown around by Chabadze' s wings. And eventually Chabadze gets fed up and asks for a standup. there's this huge pop as guy who dominated on ground needs standup. Fujiwara goes to corner wipes the sweat off his body by rubbing himself against turnbuckle. And slaps Chabadze across the face. Man this match rules.....

PAS: The reason this match was better then anything on the show was the way Fujiwara can establish hierarchies. While Malenko v. Galdava was alot of fun as was Koslowski v. Olegg, they were basically worked as two even guys rolling on the mat looking for advantages. Here Chabadze is a monster, he can take Fujiwara down at will as is so strong that Fujiwara is helpless on the mat. So the crowd is super hot because it looks like the aging legend is going to get steamrolled, does he have any tricks left this is the worlds greatest Rocky 4.

Kazuo Takahashi vs. Suppaman Sattasaba

TKG: This may go a minute. Sattasaba is a thai Kickboxer and Takahashi is really good at selling kicks, but I don't think Suppaman got a single kick off.

PAS: Most of these Thai kickboxer matches suck, but I was kind of looking forward to seeing Takahashi eat some Thai knees. I'll take short though.

Wayne Shamrock vs. Don Neilson

TKG: I think this may have gone thirty seconds.

PAS: I don't get the point of this being this short, but had no problems moving quickly through this part of the card.


Minoru Suzuki vs. David Gobedjishivili

TKG: Gobedjishivili controls the first minute throwing a cautious Suzuki around. Suzuki figures he can take Gobedjishivi's throws, gets less cautious and wins this at about the three minute point. Not as good as the Fujiwara match or any of the Florida guys matches but whatever.

PAS: Suzuki had some nice dickish head bobbing, which is something he does a ton of now, but didn't really do in PWFG much. Gobedjishivilli has some nice throws, but this was again short and squashish.

Masakatsu Funaki vs. Maurice Smith

TKG: This is worked three minute rounds with Mo Smith controlling most of them. Dominating standup and blocking all take down attempts. Smith gets one knock down on Funaki in third round and Funaki gets off his first successful takedown. Funaki gets off a couple take downs in final round but this seems to be an exhibition match as their are no judges and both guys hands are raised at the end.

PAS: I don't get the lack of judges, and I don't understand having the Japanese guy dominated for so much of the match if it was going to end in a draw. Was it a moral victory for just lasting with Mo Smith? I could see a moral victory if Smith was fighting Ishikawa. Moral victories seem weird for a main event.