Yoshiaki Fujiwara is a Great Force, If You Can Control Him He Can Be Transmuted Into A Power Which Can Move The Whole World

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Akira Maeda UWF 4/17/84- GREAT

This is probably the first singles match between these two, and is main eventing the final show of the first UWF tour. This is one of my all time favorite match ups, although this match was nothing like any of the other ones. At this point UWF hadn't figured out what they were going to be, so this was a totally pro style match. You had a knuckle lock/monkey flip sequence which led into a series of almost Jerry Lynnish roll ups and counters, Maeda did a high knee of the ropes, they brawled outside and threw each other into the guard rails, nothing about this was what you would expect.

The match started with some awesome matwork, Maeda has never particularly impressed me on the mat but his stuff looked sweet here. Fujiwara is of course Fujiwara. All hell eventually breaks loose and the brawl to the floor and Fujiwara gets busted open. He then makes one his big fired up comebacks. The match then had a restart with both guys were counted out, the locker room emptied and they had to be separated before the ref started it again. The finish was both guys exchanging big moves, until the are both laid out on the mat and counted down for the ten. Both guys are pretty awesome at this kind of big time NJ style main event, but it is super weird to watch them work it against each other.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Nobuhiko Takada UWF 2/27/90- EPIC

PAS: Incredible match, ranks up with the great virtuoso Fujiwara performances. Fujiwara worked this match as a wily veteran who is going to need to use style and guile in the face of a physically stronger, more athletic younger opponent. In the early part of this match, Fujiwara was completely defensive, subtly moving and blocking Takada’s shots so they never landed flush, he really reminded me of how James Toney would roll his shoulders and catch punches on his arms. Takada however eventually began to overwhelm his opponent with his activity and power. Fujiwara was still catching his body kicks, but they was more impact as he caught them, he was still blocking the head kicks, but just a second slower. It really looked like that despite all of his skill, he wasn’t going to be able to win this one. As the shots started landing, Fujiwara started dancing and taunting, the way a fighter will smile when he gets hit with a good shot. He knew his time was running short, and he needed to taunt Takada into making a mistake. Finish was awesome, Takada is chasing him around the ring, landing big shots, and he grabs a kneebar, Fujiwara kind of lies in the ring defeated, and then you can see him muster his final reserves, negotiate to his feet and reverse the kneebar wrenching it with all of his might and getting the submission. The crowd goes completely insane, chanting FUJIWARA, FUJIWARA, and Fujiwara celebrates with tears in his eyes. Really a one man show, but goddamn what a one man show.

TKG: Phil has really covered this whole thing and yah it was a really fun story. He forgot to mention that Fujiwara grabs and hugs the picture of some kid (I assume some trainee who died in he UWF dojo) on the way out. This kind of counterpuncher story needs an actual puncher, and well Takada was always active swinging, and when he did finally catch Fujiwara he hit him hard. His revenge headbutt was a really rough one to the cheekbone. Its kind of ridiculous to say “Takada held up his side” in this kind of one man show, still he did what was necessary to help this along.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Naoya Ogawa Zero-One 6/14/01- GREAT

Ogawa is so awesome at these kind of intense short matches. Fujiwara is definitely down too. He starts out by throwing a big overhand right as the ref was giving the instructions. It goes from there, Ogawa uses his big punches and throws, and Fujiwara tries to catch him in submissions. Crowd was super into this and the finish was awesome, Ogawa is spiking Fujiwara with STO's and he is crawling to his feet after each throw, after eating a couple he is able to get a desperate Fujiwara armbar, which Ogawa barely escapes. A couple more huge STO's and he drops. Only about six minutes, but super intense and a pleasure to watch.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA