The Dark and Mysterious Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Masakatsu Funaki PWFG 7/26/91-EPIC

Man was this great. This was almost completely worked on the feet, alot of throwing hands and feet. There was some mat stuff early, but it was really incidental to what was going on. I really dug Fujiwara's in fighting here. He was working over Funaki on the inside, throwing little bodyshots, and a great looking sneak short headbutt which dropped him for a count. Funaki is the guy with the reach and Fujiwara needs to conduct the match on the inside to win. Funaki was winning the distance here, and Fujiwara is awesome at selling a beating. He does almost a Flair flop when he get caught with the heel of Funaki's boot when he was going for a single leg crab.

The finish is what really made this match. Funaki drops Fujiwara with a high kick for a close ten count. Fujiwara barely beats count, and Funaki is all over him, trying to finish the fight. Thigh kicks, hooking slaps, kicks to the head he swarms all over Fujiwara against the ropes. Fujiwara is so overwhelmed that at one point he almost turns his back, which Funaki just drills him with some kidney shots, Fujiwara is able to get off the ropes but he is backpedaling eating shots, Funaki shoots confidentially for the takedown, and boom, Fujiwara catches his arm in a a Fujiwara armbar using his legs, he wrenches and Funaki has to tap out. Probably the best flash finish I have ever seen in wrestling. Really puts over Fujiwara as the master defensive wrestler, someone you can never count out, never drop your guard, as he can get you like that. Had me jumping off my couch. Just awesome stuff.


Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Shinya Hashimoto v. Alexander Otsuka/Katsumi Usuda Zero One 7/12/01- FUN

This was a mostly one sided beating, and I was hoping for a more competitive match. However if you have to have a one side beating, Hashimoto and Fujiwara are guys who will horribly beat you and Otsuka and Usuda are guys who can take a huge beating. The match opens with Fujiwara and Usuda doing some super fast mat work, and then the beating commences. Most of the match was Otsuka trying to prove he belongs to his teacher and Hash by absorbing a monster asskicking, they bust him open and stomp the shit out of him. There was a great spot where he ducks a kick and finally gets off a big German suplex on Hashimoto, which has to be like lifting a small horse.


Yoshiaki Fujiwara v. Kintaro Kanemura Zero-One 9/1/03-GREAT

This is from the 2003 Fire Festival and is just a total blast. You have the king of the scum garbage indies v. the king of the scum shoot indies. Fujiwara slaps the shit out W*ING to start the match. He also lands some nasty headbutts busting up Kanemaru's head hardway (of coure he probably gets busted open legit putting on a baseball cap) but gets cut off by a punt to the balls.

Fujiwara sells shots to the balls really well, wincing with each motion afterwards. There is a great fighting spirit spot near the end of the matches, where they exchange slaps and ball punts, and Fujiwara does a really great fighting through testicle pain sell. Kanemaru takes it to the streets slamming Fujiwara into the rail and putting him through a table. He controls until he decides to smash Fujiwara's head into a table, he dents the table, but everyone know you can't hit Fujiwara in the head. He comes back with some brutal slaps and headbutts until Kanemaru bumps the ref. Kintaro grabs a chair a swings it, but Fujiwara catches his arm in a Fujiwara armbar, an awesome counter, unfortunately the ref is down, and when Fujiwara checks on him, he gets rolled up in a very RAW semi-main kind of finish.

This was really fun, Fujiwara fits perfectly in a crazy brawl, and has some really fun garbage wrestling spots. Kanemaru is a guy who has great shtick, and can do his match really well, and Fujiwara plugs right into a Kanemaru match and it is great.

The Complete and Accurate List of All the Yoshiaki Fujiwara

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Fab Five WWE Matches of the Week 8/3-8/9

1. Rey Mysterio v. Mike Knox Superstars 8/4

Rey is really great at working these kind of cat and mouse matches. Rey might be the best wrestler in the world right now, and while his offense wasn't super spectacular, his bumping and selling was great. I don't remember Knox looking like such a killer before, but man can Rey eat a clothesline and a big boot. Your Knox cross body was the one piece of fancy offense and it ruled, it looked like a shark swallowing a seagull. Nice little TV match

2. C.M. Punk v. Jeff Hardy Smackdown 8/4

Punk has been pretty below average his entire WWE run up to this point, but man has the heel turn lit a fire under him. Even his Muai Thai stuff, which looked shitty as a face, is landing with a thud and a force here. Hardy takes some nutty bumps for a TV match which is mostly an angle. I loved the double knees counter of the swanton, and I thought the finish worked fine. Post match beat down was super nasty, the chair around the neck was probably pretty safe but looked violent as hell, and "Fix him so I can Break Him Again" should be the thing people remember about Punk 20 years from now.

3. Tyler Recks/Yoshi Tatsu v. William Regal/Paul Burchell- Superstars 8/4

It so great that Regal has been moved off of RAW so we get to see him in longish matches every week. Hell we have seen more in ring Regal in the last month, then in the last four years. This was pretty much one awesome pro carrying three greenish rookies. The Tastu v. Burchill section was fine, but once Regal came in, the match changed, just the couple of back elbows he threw were on a different level. They have run the Burchell/Regal tag team before, but this is the first time that Burchill sort of looked like he belonged, the double team working over of Tatsu was pretty nasty stuff. I don't know if Tatsu is significantly better then your average random hairless effeminate Puro worker, but I get the sense Regal can beat him into someone I want to watch.

4. Goldust v. Sheamus ECW 8/4

The 2009 Dustin resurgence is pretty improbable, he looks slimmer then he has in 15 years, and really has his crispness and execution back. This match is a total one man show, I dug all of his arm selling and Sheamus actually looked competent for large parts of this, I especially dug the hammerlock slam on the ropes. He doesn't look competent for all of it though, terrible kick to the stomach and an awful looking missed clothesline (how are you going to throw a clothesline a foot over Dustin's head, he is 6'5 for fucks sake.) Goldust only had about a minute of offense, but it looked great, strung all of his stuff together great. I dug the finish and the post match attack, would like to see Dustin move on to other guys, but I am enjoying this series.

5. Christian v. Tommy Dreamer ECW 8/4

A decade or so ago, Dreamer would do this match every week, they have spread them out at enough at this point to make them special. Both guys will take some nasty shots, and both the car door and the hotdog truck are unique enough props that this felt fresh. Good finish too. If they do the sensible thing and retire Dreamer this was a fine career swansong

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