The Function of Wisdom is to Discriminate Between Good and Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Kengo Kimura NJ 12/7/75-FUN

This is by far the earliest Fujiwara footage available (He doesn't show up again on tape until 1983, as he spent much of the late 70's and early 80's in Germany) and is the finals of the Karl Gotch Young Lions cup. Pretty basic NJ young lion wrestling, with both guys working pretty basic stuff, neither showing much of the charisma that would make both guys stand out later. This did have a pretty cool finish with both guys exchanging bridges, until Kimura bridges right into a Fujiwara piledriver. Fun look at the early careers of two of my favorites, but nothing notable beyond that.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Akira Maeda UWF 2/9/90-EPIC

PAS: 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.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Masakazu Fukuda Ueada Tribute- 12/23/97- GREAT

Fukuda was a Yumi-Factory guy with a legit amateur backround, and he looked really good here. This was worked kind of like a UFC fight between a wrestler and a top level jujitsu guy, Fukuda would land some fast takedowns and suplexes, but be constantly in danger of getting caught in a submission. One especially awesome Fujiwara submission had him using his legs to ankle pick Fukuda. Fukada had some really great moments, including some super fast amature counter wrestling. Finish was great too, Fukuda gets cocky and tries to Fujiwara armbar Fujiwara, as expected he gets reversed and the master slaps on one of his own. Fukuda would have made a great PWFG guy, too bad that promotion didn't last longer then it did, as I have really enjoyed the late 90's early 2000's matches with Fujiwara working PWFG style.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA