Fujiwara Family: Pro Wrestling Fujiwara-Gumi 6/25/92

PWFG 6/25/92

ER: This show starts with some nice tributes and an in ring 10 bell salute to Masami Soranaka, a Gotch trained shootstyle pioneer who - like Fujiwara -  was a legit martial artist. He and Fujiwara both practiced judo, and Soranaka was a karate guy who began recruiting people for UWF by looking at martial arts tournaments. He was a lower rung wrestler in the first couple years of UWF, a guy who lost 95% of his matches yet owned a win over Fujiwara. He was a trainer, referee, and almost surely a tough guy running buddy of Fujiwara. He feels like a guy who Segunda Caida would at least pretend to like even if he was boring (if there was more footage of him). Bart Vale relates a kind of touching hollow eyed memory of Soranaka, who had recruited him to fight in Japan after meeting him in a Florida mall.


Jerry Flynn vs. Ryushi Yanagisawa

PAS: This was right around the point where Jerry Flynn got really good and he was great in this. Yanagisawa was a replacement level PWFG guy at this point, wasn't going to hurt you, wasn't going to do a ton to help you, so this match was made by Flynn. He throws great looking winging kicks to the stomach, scrambles nicely on the ground and slips neatly into a tight rear naked choke for a rope break and a wrist lock side headlock choke for the win. Flynn probably made a nice living in WCW, but I would have loved to see what he would have done sticking around this group for a bit longer. I imagine he would have made an awesome BattlArts gaijin.

ER: I'm with Phil, as I think Flynn would have put on some genuine classics in RINGS or BattlArts had he stuck around instead of being a very fun WCW Saturday Night surprise. But he looks strong and impressively cool here, expertly wearing down Yanagisawa and finishing the moment he felt remotely threatened. He was great at deflecting Yanagisawa's strikes and controlling the distance with his long legs and straight kicks. He hits a pair of solebutts that knock Yanagisawa far across the ring and almost knocks his lunch far out of his stomach. He is a bulldog on kneebars, hanging on and making it look effortless as Yanagisawa scrambles for ropes. He locks on snug headlocks and side triangles, and gets a nice rear naked choke to convincingly almost finish the rookie. Yanagisawa doesn't show a ton here but he's a tall guy and I remember enjoying him in early 2000s New Japan (a nice deep cut shoot style get for NJ). He fires up after getting up at 9 off that choke, then charges in with kicks to the body and some actual passion. Flynn effectively blocks many of them and at first split second opportunity shoots a double leg, then cranks on a twisting choke while twisting Yanagisawa's arm between his thighs. Flynn would be viewed a lot differently if he had a later shootstyle run in any of the Japanese feds, or had he been paired in WCW with Finlay, Regal, and Dave Taylor instead of Brian Knobbs and Hugh Morrus.  

Minoru Suzuki vs. Yuki Ishikawa 

PAS: This is baby Ishikawa in his third match wearing a flat top, and is basically there to show spunk and get smashed, both of which he does. Suzuki throws some rude elbows to the back of the head and pretty much takes all four minutes of this. Cool chance to see one of the all-time greats when he was in short pants.

ER: I have never seen Yuki Ishikawa so young, and it's great! He has a crewcut and is more muscular than I've ever seen him. He also keeps sticking his hand into the unforgiving razor sharp machinery that is Minoru Suzuki. Suzuki is younger than Ishikawa but has several years of shootstyle experience on him and sets out to successfully steamroll him. Ishikawa is wearing aquamarine tiger stripe trunks, kneepads, kickpads, and boots, and I mourn for him. He could have made the aquamarine tiger stripes iconic, but Ogawa was the only man brave enough to stick with the animal stripes. Suzuki blasts Ishikawa with palm strikes to the back of the head and kicks the hell out of him while downed. Suzuki hits those Kurisu level kicks that make you feel better watching this way into the future, when you know Yuki Ishikawa is still a fine functioning human being. Ishikawa hangs in as gamely as he can, but Suzuki basically takes his lunch money and finishes it right when he wanted to with a nasty choke. Ishikawa got slaughtered here, but there was a wonderful moment in the post match where they're on their knees bowing to each other, and they get up and hug. Yuki Ishikawa has such a huge smile on his face and looks SO EXCITED to be doing what he's doing, even though he just got a major one sided beating (the quickest most one-sided beating of his entire rookie year). At one point Suzuki was standing directly on his face, grinding it into the mat. But look at Ishikawa's face after the match and you can clearly see why he is still in the game, dedicating over half his life to shoot style pro wrestling. He loves it so much.  

Masakatsu Funaki vs. Kazuo Takahashi 

PAS:  This theoretically should have been more competitive. Funaki and Takahashi are closer on the pecking order than Suzuki and Ishikawa are, but this was also a one sided thumping. Funaki really did come off like a star, dancing on the balls of his feet in the striking, landing a couple of short counter shots to looping Takahashi strikes which dropped Takahashi. He actually reminded me a lot of Connor McGregor, killer movement and the ability to beat his opponent to the punch even if his opponent throws first. Takahashi was able to get some takedowns, but even when he took him down Funaki dominated on the ground and was able to twist out his ankle for the tap out. Would have been better if Funaki hadn't eaten him up so much, but you could see why Funaki would become such a big star.

Bart Vale vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara - GREAT

PAS: Interesting match which was worked very differently then I was expecting. Vale has an amazing strip mall sensei look: mullet, mustache, American flag short, he looks more like a Danny McBride character than an actual human being. He normally wrestles like that, too, lots of big winging kung fu kicks and such. But this match was mostly grappling, with Vale using his size and power to take Fujiwara down and press on him. Fujiwara was of course able to get some slick counters attacking legs and arms, but Vale would just press on him to take away his openings and use his size. We get some striking, a sneak headbutt by Fujiwara, and some of the big Vale kicks, but this was mostly worked on the ground and mostly dominated by Vale. 

ER: There is no better description of Bart Vale than that of a Strip Mall Sensei. The man was discovered while fighting in a shopping mall martial arts tournament, and nearly every depiction of a white martial arts goof since has been patterned after Vale whether they knew it or not. The Death Punch guy in Regular Show, Rex Kwon Do, and essentially Danny McBride's entire existence. He probably missed out on being in a handful of Cannon films by just a couple years, and he feels like a guy who will one day become a meme once normal people on the internet happen across him. He's a large guy who can bull through Fujiwara's attacks and smother him, and Fujiwara is arguably at his best when he's on the defense. All my favorite moments were centered around Fujiwara catching Vale being a lummox, like when he hit an elbow to stop a charge in its tracks or kept muscling him around the mat working a Fujiwara while grinding an arm across Vale's face. I do wish a couple of the strikes used for knockdown counts looked a little better. One (maybe two) of the high kicks that sent Fujiwara to the mat didn't even make contact, and Fujiwara is someone who you can make contact with. The finish, though, I thought was great, with Vale getting a side choke with all of his weight flattening Fujiwara, not choking him to the point of passing out, but getting him right to the brink and letting him get counted down. Vale's post fight celebration was cute and came off genuine. It had that Windows '95 launch dance caucasianality to it, with handclaps and little celebratory yips, with that feeling of actual accomplishment. 

COMPLETE FUJIWARA FAMILY

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA