Let Us All Sit and Discuss Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Akira Maeda v. Bad News Allen/Dr. Death Steve Williams NJ 7/24/86- FUN

Nifty little tag match with four of the toughest guys in wrestling pounding on each other. Bad News Allen loves to work hard head comedy spots when he is the ring with Fujiwara, you get the sense he is just happy that a racist US promoter isn't making him do them. So we get all the classics, Fujiwara's head slammed against the ring bolt, Bad News headbutting him and hurting his own head ect. Dr. Death had a pretty underwhelming New Japan run, but he looked great here, throwing dudes around. Finish was cool too, as the Americans dismantle the ring while Maeda was running the ropes and he tumbles to the floor, where all four guys brawl to the back. Needed a bit more pizzaz to really be a high end Fujiwara match, but it was really enjoyable.


Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Bart Vale PWFG/Miami Shootfighting 3/20/92- EPIC

TKG: Bart Vale comes in to a huge local pop. I mean fucking huge pop. Fujiwara comes in with a trophy. Fujiwara taunts Vale offers to shake his hand then pulls away to comb his hair and fuck its Fujiwara as touring Japanese guy vs. your top regional star. Vale and Fujiwara pretty much keep this standing.Mostly Fujiwara bumping around eating kicks and then throwing tight headbutts in the clinch. Headbutts knock Vale down and get the crowd to boo. Fujiwara walks around with great taunting expressions. Vale eventually retaliates for the headbutts by hitting short headbutts while the two are ted up on the ground. Fujiwara goes to the ref to complain about the headbutts. It rules. Crowd is fucking great. Disappointed that there was no rice thrown but outside of that this is what you wanted out of this.

PAS: This owned, Fujiwara is the worlds best Toru Tanaka. It was really fun to watch him work a completely different style, then he works in a normal PWFG show. He isn't the legend that the young guys have to get past, he is the dirty foreigner cheap shotting your local hero. No real Fujiwara matwork or reversals, no cool moves to speak of, but it was great. You get the sense that Fujiwara would have had an amazing career as a Gary Hart managed guy feuding with Dusty or a Tojo managed Akio Sato tag partner.


Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Shinya Hashimoto NJ 6/1/94 -EPIC

Despite being the first ever New Japan trainee, this was Fujiwara’s only IWGP title match. This is a match up of two of my favorite wrestlers of all time, I saw Hashimoto maul Dylan Knight live in a tiny gym in Pennsylvania and caught his bandana when it was thrown to the crowd. I still have the bandana hanging in the hall of my apartment.

I could see a lot of Puro nerds not caring for this match. This isn’t smooth and dramatic like a classic All Japan match from the 1990’s, this was rough and awkward. Both guys would try attacks, which would get countered and then there would be pauses and restarts in action. It was very weirdly paced, in a way I really liked and could see other people hating. Fujiwara really dominates the opening, working on Hashimoto’s shoulder and attempting to really lock in the Fujiwara armbar. The first pause and shift in momentum comes, when Hash bulls Fujiwara into the corner and wraps his bad knee in the ropes. Hash then points to his shoulder in a real “eye for an eye” kind of way.

Nothing was hit really cleanly here, Fujiwara kept trying to catch all of Hash’s kicks. Some he would succeed in blunting, but a lot would go through. The more that landed the less he was able to block, in a way that you could tell he was being worn down. All the blocking and awkwardness was the really the opposite of the big strike exchanges most main event Puro matches have. Everything was a struggle. There is a long fight for the first DDT, with Fujiwara trying a bunch of counter attempts, and Hash laying in the knees. When it finally hits Fujiwara takes an almost Kobashish bump on it . Hash pins him off a second DDT which really was sold the way a tough boxer sells a meaningless second knockdown. The first KO was really enough to win the match, but his heart won’t let him go down. Still there was no fight left in him.

I loved this match, it really felt more shootstyle then Hash’s match against Takada. This didn’t have the drama of that match, but it had the rough edges and awkwardness, which really made it look like a fight.


The Complete and Accurate Yoshiaki Fujiwara