UWF 6/21/90

Mark Rush v. Tetsuo Nakano

PAS: Mark Rush is a burly amateur wrestler who has a real Bear look which you would figure could get him a current ROH booking. Match opens with some pretty solid matwork between the two which isn’t normally Nakano’s thing. It gets chippy and Nakano is awesome at getting chippy as he unloads with some punches to the back of Rush’s head and some nasty bodyshots. Not a great finish which is the only thing that keeps this from being a totally high end Nakano match.

TKG: This was a real Mark Rush showcase as he has lots of really nice looking slow lift suplexes. He doesn’t really put Nakano down hard but still impressive. Rush isn’t really a guy with great looking strikes but he has these really light kicks which feel like the kind of kicks an amateur wrestler in the UFC would have. Kicks that annoy and distract setting him up for his next move. Match is all about showcasing Rush while Nakano tries to fight back and looks tough for hanging on. Right as they went to the finish this had the feel of something on the way to being epic.

Yoji Anjoh v. Minoru Suzuki

TKG: This was really fun in the beginning as it was two guys working really evenly fast scrambling. It never really settled into anything and was just two guys doing fast scrambling for whole match. Suzuki had the cooler spots: nasty looking throw, a cross arm breaker with a leg drop, an almost figure fourish kneebar, and an awesome turn. But worked evenly. I was surprised that Anjoh won, but nothing in this would lead me to believe that it was an upset.

PAS: This was a great 7 minute sprint which got bloated into 17 minutes. Felt like a PWG match.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Shiego Miyato

PAS: Really fun extended squash with Fujiwara putting on a super impressive squashing a guy performance. This is the most Bernard Hopkinsy I have ever seen Fujiwara look as he was all about using distance to blunt Miyato’s attack. There was this great moment, where Miyato makes his big run off offense, he gets Fujiwara in the corner and Fujiwara dodges and parrys his attack until Miyato punches himself out and gets winded.

TKG: This was completely one sided as Fujiwara worked as guy who completely outclasses his opponent. Your long one sided worked shoot matches can often be dull as higher tiered worker will just work disinterested. Fujiwara instead works guy having fun, and playing around. He gets hit a couple times cleanly in the Miyato’s corner run and does some spit selling but for the most part dodges the shots and puts Miyato away easily.

Kazuo Yamazaki v. Masakatsu Funaki
TKG: Wow I had no expectation that this was going to be as good as it was. They start off with some fast exchanges and then Yamazaki unloads with super fast handed shotays. And I don’t remember either of these guys really trading hands before, but it’s a great addition. They slow it down for a bit and then get to some kick exchanges and then it’s back to the hands. The whole thing is paced nicely with the action moving up and down and the final exchange that leads to the stoppage is super hot.

PAS: I was not a big fan of most 80’s Yamazaki, but he was damn good in the 1990 stuff so far, and this was right up there with his career performances. This was a pair of athletic young guys, but they did much more of a brawl then a juniors shootstyle match. Goddamn was the end choice too, as they just go toe to toe throwing blows, before Funaki catches him and drops him. It felt like Castillo v. Coralles.

Akira Maeda v. Nobohiko Takada

TKG: These two have had some great matches against each other. I don’t think this was one of them. Both guys came off really bloated and slow. They didn’t look beat up and slow but more like the kind of tired and slow you feel after eating a big steak. All the downs and near falls were really neat looking and exciting but the stuff between them really wasn’t much. On some level there slowness made the near falls even more exciting as it was like they were shooting from nothing. I really liked an early Maeda knockdown where he hit several uppercuts to the gut and then broke through to Takdada’s jaw. Takada’s kick to Maedas eye was also crazy. The submission attempts also had the same kind of feel of really hot moves that they really had to work past the food fatigue to apply.

PAS: I liked this a bunch more then Tom did. I liked how Maeda came into this fight like 2008 Misawa, an old sort of broken down guy who was going out on his shield. I will admit the dynamic was hurt a bit when the young guy also looks broken down and fat. They big strike exchanges didn’t have the speed of the Yamazaki v. Funaki exchanges, but it had the desperate feel of the 14th round of 70’s boxing slugfest. Tom is right that the stuff in between the near falls wasn’t great, but exciting dramatic nearfalls will get you pretty far in my book, and this felt like an epic main event