UWF 2/9/90

Tatsuo Nakano v. Johnny Barrett

PAS: Started off a little awkward, but by the end they were really clicking. Barrett would have been really awesome in BattlArts, as he really flows pro style stuff into a shootstyle atmosphere excellently. I loved his enziguri and sick lariet, and Nakano gets fired up at the finish. Fun, fun opener.

TKG: It picks up around the point where they start the shootsyle ode to Guerrero/Malenko roll ups. Barretta’s lariat, and dropkicks are all really nasty and don’t feel out of place.

Shigeo Miyato v. Minoru Suzuki:

TKG: Again with the neat pro-style stuff thrown in here. This starts with a double knock down spot. After that Suzuki controls with Miyato getting several hope spots. Suzuki does a bunch of pro-style stuff to set up downs or rope breaks (fireman’s carry slam into drop kick, etc.). Miyato is on his last down and throws off a flurry of kicks giving Suzuki his second down. Suzuki goes in for sleeper with body lock and its all over. Except Miyato with nothing left picks Suzuki’s ankle forcing him to release the choke and tap. Really neat structure.

PAS: I didn’t think Suzuki was as good at seamless integrating the pro stuff as Barrett was, but that was kind of the point of the match. This really resembled a mixed match, with Suzuki working as a pro-wrestler and Miyato as a shooter, that is why the finish was so cool, as the shooter counters the pro style sleeper with a shoot counter.

Yoji Anjoh v. Wellington Wilkins Jr.

TKG: This is odd little match. Wilkins throws realy neat suplexes, and Anjoh counters with tricked out matwork. Kind of like a rich man’s Taz versus a poor man’s Solar. Feels like if they have a rematch for either a title or hair it could be really epic, but this was just third from bottom.

PAS: Anjoh’s brutal opening kick to the thigh seemed really unnecessary. Kind of got me excited for a match that didn’t really happen. The match they had was fun, but I was expecting more violence.

Nobuhiko Takada v. Kazuo Yamazaki

PAS: This may be my single least favorite recurring match up in wrestling history. They seem to always devolve into the worked shoot version of a AJ Style v. Jerry Lynn match. This didn’t really do that, and there were points were it was actually pretty good. The big spot had Yamazaki throwing kicks while Takada was on the ropes, and Takada pivoting away and just waylaying him with a high kick. Either Yamazaki was legit drilled or he learned how to sell, as he was on queer street for the rest of the match. Yamazaki fired back with some nasty leg kicks, and the match seemed to be a race to see who would get the KO first, Takada to the head or Yamazaki to the body. They shit away the story by having Takada win with a boston crab of all things, but it was almost a good match.

TKG: Yeah I think Yamazaki was legit KOed. The shot that does it comes as part of a neat reckless exchange where both guys are kicking each other while tangled in ring ropes. Before that exchange into knock down this match wasn’t doing much for me. After the knock down the whole thing picked up a ton, but on some level I think the should have called an audible and just ended it early. Instead you have Takada being almost tentative after the knock down and Yamazaki looking physically through but dominating with nasty stiffness. Normally part of the problem with this match up is the selling. This one was all about the selling. I don’t know if they were ever able to recreate that.

Akira Maeda v. Yoshiaki Fujiwara

PAS: We go from one of my least favorite matches in wrestling history, to one of my favorites. This was less of a brawl then their matches usually are, as they seemed more interested in really hitting the mat hard. Of course being Maeda and Fujiwara they interspersed the counter wrestling with some violence. Meada counters an ankle pick with a WOS leg stretch and Fujiwara responds with a diving headbut right into Maeda’s mouth, and Maeda counters a leg grapevine by drilling Fujiwara in the mouth and then the back of the head. Fujiwara is truly the master of the wrestling finish, as they basically switch the awesome finish of the Miyato v. Suzuki match, with Maeda using the choke to counter the ankle pick. This wasn’t their best match against each other, but fuck that is such a high bar.

TKG: I don’t think I’m as big a Maeda fan as Phil and sometimes find his mat stuff to be uninteresting But here the mat work was all neat without ever being tricked out. There was hardly any stand up in this. Just mat work into strikes to break up the matwork, without ever going into a striking exchange. The Fujiwara sell of getting drilled in the face with a kick was realy neat. He tries to hold onto the bared leg but just slowly turns only to eat another kick to back of head and has to release. I think Fujiwara worked the same finish opposite Inoki once, but this felt very organic. Not a call back spot, but just a finish that was there to grab.