Fujiwara Family: RINGS Astral Step 3rd KAMUI 9/14/91

ER: Last RINGS show we got a cool pre-show video showing all of the combatants warming up in the arena, and this time we get a couple of Maeda trainees (there is a chance they are known guys, but I'm at the age where I am not going to be recognizing every Japanese young boy on sight) doing a demonstration for the crowd on what strikes are allowed under RINGS rules. It's presented like two flight attendants going through the machinations of how to apply your oxygen mask or use your seat as a floatation device, but instead showing how to legally use palm strikes, upward elbow strikes to the cheekbone, and soccer kicks to the haunches. 

Mitsuya Nagai vs. Herman Renting

PAS: This is a rematch from an earlier show, but was a way more killer version. I got the sense that this was both guys figuring some stuff out. It starts tentative, but gets nasty quick with Nagai trying to behead Renting with a soccer kick. Renting responds with a soccer kick of his own later, and some very cool takedowns. Nagai hits this somersault enzigiri which was the single coolest spot of RINGS so far, before Renting is able to take him down and choke him out. Cool energetic fight that got me more excited about future RINGS undercards. 

ER: Yeah this match was a huge step up from their opening fight from the last show. The highlight of that match was Nagai missing a spinning heel kick that would have rearranged Renting's face, and here Nagai got to hit a version of that kick. Before that awesome kick (a rolling kappo kick that connected with a real hook), this really kicked up to a new level when Renting checked a hard Nagai kick with his bicep, and Renting goes full wartime beast mode and demanded Nagai kick him harder. From there this was intense as hell, with hard fought rope breaks and big swinging knockdown attempts. Renting really made me buy into his psycho kamikaze routine, and Nagai tried to stay measured while being more careful with his hard shots. The finishing stretch of knockdown to rope break to knockdown was really exciting. 

Willie Peeters vs. Bert Kops Jr.

PAS: Peeters continues to be super entertaining, both guys had some really impressive throws, full hips, big tourque high air. That was pretty much the extent of what Kops could do, but they looked cool. He also hit a body shot or two that looked good. Peeters also had some great looking shots, including a cool moment where he gets thrown by Kops but comes up with a slick little uppercut to catch him. Peeters also put him down in convincing and nasty fashion. This was pretty long for a RINGS match and at one point Kops tweaks his knee, I think with a minute or two shaved this is a hidden gem. Even at its length it was entertaining stuff. 

ER: I thought this was exciting as hell, I thought it really turned into a big time movie fight. This was long for the big swings and throws they were taking, and it sustained the craziness for a longer time than most are capable. We had a ton of cool moments, like a GIFable 3 seconds of them going Low Ki/Red when Peeters misses a convincing front spin kick and Kops dodges 2 inches away from a follow up right cross. Kops fights for and gets a bunch of really impressive lifts where he really sticks with them until he wears Peeters to the mat. Kops had some annoyingly persistent strikes, at one point it looked like he kept targeting Peeters' hip with kicks right to the bone. This kept evolving into such a slugfest, and the finish came off insanely violent. Peeters hit Kops with this quick 5 strike combo that looks kung fu deadly. It was like Peeters hit in his 5 pressure points ending with a knee right to the mouth. Peeters even has this great expression on his face afterward, this real "Why did you make me kick your ass like that?" tenderness. If Shawn Michaels was able to pull off Peeters' face, body slumped over the ropes after getting the match finally called in his favor, it would have been way better than I'm Sorry I Love You. 

Dick Vrij vs. Ton Van Maurik

PAS: This goes five three minute rounds, which you know, why? I like both of these guys and you could clip this to a fun 7 minute match. Van Maurik bullies Vrij into the ropes and strafes his body with knees and body shots. There is a fun spot where they fall awkwardly to the floor. Vrij nearly beheads van Maurik with a high kick, which really should have been the finish, but they go another round and a half and end things with a C- armbar. I have liked how RINGS kept it tight and fast on previous shows, this one has started to feel the bloat. 

ER: I really do not like rounds in my RINGS. I think the breaks in between are too long, and I would much rather see my fighters get out of a bad situation with cunning, rather than end things with a clock. I think RINGS matches can really benefit from some short length, and I think a long match like this needed more of a flow and no round breaks. This had a lot of these two doing things I liked, it all just felt too broken up and stretched out. All of the knockdowns looked good, and Vrij showed a kind of tantrum heel here in certain parts, like a frustrated teen athlete who gets frustrated at being shown up and shoves a ref. Phil is right, this could have really been a throw down if the time was cut in half, but this felt like a bad use of two cool personalities. 

Akira Maeda vs. Willy Wilhelm

PAS: This was pretty nifty with Maeda opening by catching a Wilhelm kick and spinning into a big snap german suplex. Wilhelm controls the middle of this, hitting some big judo throws and trying for submissions, including a deep single crab for a big near fall. I liked Wilhelm no-selling the Maeda body kicks by slapping his fat belly like Kamala. The finishing rush by Maeda was super impressive, he hits a cool low kick into a head kick, and a spinning kick which looked as nasty as the one which cut Fujinami, before ankle locking him for the tap. 

ER: I thought this was two really great characters telling a really great story, loved this as a showdown. I've been really getting into Wilhelm as a RINGS heel, he's like a Dutch take on Scott Norton. He's an Olympic judoka working a Crusher iron beer belly gimmick, and it rules. I loved last show when their intro video showed all the fighters warming up and sparring, it only showed Wilhelm sitting in the crowd with this arms crossed over his belly, talking about how he's going to beat everyone. He's cocky and kind of a wrecking ball, and Maeda is this cool stoic figure who had the right strategy and stuck to the plan. Viewing these '91 episodes of RINGS as a season, I really like the Maeda bad left knee as a returning theme. We've seen promos every show where he's getting his knee iced or rubbed down or taped up, and now I can't take my eyes of Maeda's left knee in matches. 

Wilhelm makes a big show of being too large to absorb Maeda's strikes, trying psych out Maeda by requesting Maeda target his stomach, and Maeda sticks to the plan and keeps hacking down that tree. Wilhelm was smothering early, walking through strikes to hit nice judo throws, working (the right) knee over with a great single crab. Is he targeting Maeda's better knee because Maeda is really hurt? Or was it just the leg he happened to grab? But it keeps getting harder to walk through the strikes, because Maeda was not psyched out. And soon Wilhelm isn't walking through strikes, he's absorbing strikes. I love how Wilhelm begins to realize what he's done, you can see these leg kicks really affecting him, and Maeda is able to land an insane German suplex that absolutely dumps Wilhelm. He starts landing harder kicks as Wilhelm is becoming a slower and open target, and nails him right in the thigh with a hard kick and sneaking in his surprise left high kick. The final submission was a terrific shot, Wilhelm trapped in Maeda's leg lock and stretching out as long as possible, still not near the ropes. This was some great RINGS storytelling in an awesome match. 

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Fujiwara Family: RINGS Astral Step 2nd Aqua Heat 8/1/91

ER: I really loved our opening 5 minute video, giving us a cool background glimpse of all our fighters warming up in Osaka Prefectural Gym the after noon of the show, see Maeda getting his knee looked at, Vrij grappling in the ring, guys running the stairs, Chris Dolman and Willy Wilhelm sitting in the stands with their arms crossed over their barrel stomachs. Seeing Vrij grappling made him look like one of those guys training in a warehouse in an 80s action movie. I love these kind of calm before the storm videos, seeing these guys joke around and put on their gear, then seeing 6,000 fans as they file into the gym. 

Mitsuya Nagai vs. Herman Renting

PAS: This might be Nagai's first worked match (he doesn't have anything earlier on Cagematch) and he showed some of the tentativeness one might expect from your first match. I am used to Nagai just hurling reckless heat (he damn near killed Iizuka) but here the kicks are just kind of normal. Renting spent most of the match timing Nagai and taking him down when he left a kick out there. Finish was cool with Nagai spinning into an armbar, although it kind of went against the story of the match. Interesting curiosity to see a guy with such a long career in his debut, but outside of that this wasn't much. 

ER: This was very base level RINGS, and that's fine. It is cool to see baby Nagai, and I thought that while the match proper wasn't a super interesting format, it at least played out to a logical conclusion. Nagai was throwing fast full extension kicks, which kept Renting from getting too close. Renting would check leg kicks and then back away from a big sweeping high kick, like he was getting the timing down on a boss battle. Nagai outpaced him on the mat and drew two rope breaks and it seemed clear that Renting's only chance was to bait Nagai into a big miss and hopefully land a knockdown. He does catch a Nagai kick and then duck an awesome spinning heel kick from Nagai (Renting would have been faceless had he not ducked), but his lone advantage is fairly easily turned into a Nagai armbar. Again, base level stuff, but some of shootstyle is being enamored by the things that could have finished but barely missed. 

Chris Dolman vs. Ton Van Maurik

PAS: This was tremendous stuff, just a pair of permed dudes trying to absolutely liquify each other's internal organs with body shots. This isn't your slick submission master Volk Han stuff, it is phone booth pummeling.  Maurik unloads with combos to the kidneys which drops Dolman, and Dolman rag dolls him with judo and starts throwing these huge headbutts right to the chest and solar plexus of van Maurik, it looked like he was trying to bob for apples in van Maurik's chest cavity. You give me two big dudes hitting each other hard in interesting ways, that is all I want from wrestling. 

ER: If you're Dutch, you don't need a perm (seriously I'm pretty sure the Dutch have the world market cornered on citizens with very curly hair, it's one of their things); but if you're Dutch, you don't necessarily have to try to cave in a dude's chest with your head. This was all about Dolman being a patient bulldozer and Van Maurik tries to out quick him with leg kicks, but Dolman is good at catching leg kicks. Van Maurik has a less confident look in his eyes every time he gets stood back up after a rope break, and it's hard not to be intimidated by Dolman when you see him basically shrug off knees to the body. The great unexpected moment of this was Dolman keeping his face covered and being fine with taking leg kicks, but getting rocked by two unexpected punches to the gut. I loved seeing Dolman suddenly on the deep defensive, on his heels back to the ropes and knocked down with some well placed knees. But after Van Maurik goes for the ropes again to break a tangle, you can see in his eyes that he knows where this is going. Those rained down headbutts are super nasty, that's the kind of thing you deal with during a bear attack, specifically a bear attack that's going to leave you on the losing end. Dolman literally dragging Van Maurik to the middle of the ring for the heel hook tap was some savage business, made Van Maurik look like someone without a....Ton...of experience. 

Willy Wilhelm vs.  Pieter Smit

PAS: There was one really awesome moment in this match where Smit judo throws Wilhelm ribs first into the ropes and follows up with a rib kick. Looked super violent and Wilhelm sold it like he got hit in the side with a truncheon. Most of the rest of the match was Wilhelm taking Smit down, not violently but convincingly and eventually putting on a cool choke for the finish. As a match it wasn't anything special but it did have a couple of memorable moments which is enough for me.

ER: I liked Wilhelm's alpha bully attitude, looked like a Dutch Stan Hansen who learned judo instead of lariats. I don't really get as involved in the shootstyle matches that are just "one larger judoka using his weight to slightly bully another judoka", and it felt too similar to stuff that happened in the match right before this one. But there is always going to be some gold to mine from any of these matches, and Phil is right, that moment here was Smit doing a judo throw that comes close to tossing Wilhelm right over the top rope, sends him off balance and lands kicks right to the ribs. I also really liked when Wilhelm tried to get mount and Smit threw up a knee from his back right to Wilhelm's teeth (you could tell it really annoyed him). Also big ups to Wilhelm for locking in essentially a shoot Million Dollar Dream. 

Dick Vrij vs. Akira Maeda

PAS: This felt like the RINGS version of the first Sting vs. Vader match or the second Cena vs. Lesnar, where a beloved hero just gets overwhelmed and destroyed. It is the Empire Strikes Back of the series, with Maeda getting the first win last show, but he ends up in carbonite at the end of this one. Vrij just overwhelms him with his size and aggression, damn near knocking him out the ring with a high kick, and constantly putting Maeda on his back foot. Akira gets one knockdown with a nasty body shot, but Vrij gets back up and keeps swarming him. I couldn't imagine Maeda was going to get beat this convincingly on only his second show and I kept waiting for the comeback that never came. Eventually Vrij sweeps the leg with a nasty kick and while Maeda gets up he is a wounded antelope about to get picked off by the lion. Great match especially in context and I can't wait to see Maeda get his revenge. 

ER: After seeing the pre-show video that showed everyone on the show warming up or sparring, and only showed Maeda getting his left knee looked, I was wondering if this was how his match was going to go. And I'm still kind of surprised that was the match they worked, with Maeda clearly favoring a leg and standing on it as long as he could before Vrij effectively targeted it. Vrij is so cool at throwing big crazy kicks as a decoy, as a way of getting Maeda off balance so he could land a wicked punch to the body. Maeda was down bad, unable to put much weight on that left knee, so that even when he hit one of his best kicks of the match it still required him to put weight on that leg, and he went down with Vrij. Maeda still manages to bounce Vrij off the top of his head on a takedown, always looks like he's going to be able to outlast Vrij. That's probably because we've been conditioned from years of watching Fujiwara wait for his opponent to gas, or Ishikawa wait to catch an opponent's kick all of these sons of Fujiwara have us conditioned to wait for them to pull out a buzzer beater. And Vrij does indeed look like he's gassing out (his post-fight backstage promo where he can only get out literally one word is a testament to how gassed he really was), so it was easy to mentally keep Maeda in this fight. Vrij is just relentless with strikes though, a guy who knew he was tiring but correctly calculated that his opponent would go down before he tired out. Can't wait to see the rubber match. 

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Fujiwara Family: BattlArts Tag Battle 1996 12/21/96

12/21/96

Alexander Otsuka/Yuki Ishikawa vs. Carl Greco/Viktor Kruger

ER: As much as I appreciate Greco and Kruger coordinating their trunks for a Tag Battle League, I can't help but think this match could have been a classic had Greco chosen someone a little more interesting than Kruger as his partner. Kruger is a guy who gives us the answer to the question nobody ever asks, which is "What would shootstyle Jungle Jim Steele be like?" His power strikes feel like the weakest strikes of the match (those clubbing forearms are bad Power Plant trainee personified), but I did like when he was trying to use his size to hyperextend Otsuka's knee, and at least his late match powerbomb on Ishikawa and especially the KO splash mountain bomb on Otsuka looked great. The rest of this was just me being excited at our next shot at Greco vs. either Otsuka or Ishikawa. Greco brings such great energy to his mat scrambling, and he vs. Otsuka is one of my favorite BattlArts pairings in history. Otsuka is a guy who will throw incredible suplexes, and his suplexes on Greco make it feel like Otsuka is twice Greco's size. Seeing Greco tangle with Ishikawa you get the sense that a finishing sub could come at any time, and it's fascinating to just zone out and watch them each work three holds in advance, going after an ankle while also having a crossface in mind, always cool stuff. I loved when Ishikawa and Otsuka trapped Greco in a tandem Boston crab, really looked like they were going to wishbone the guy, and Ishikawa mocking Kruger while applying the hold made it that much sweeter. Again, thought the match ending powerbomb on Otsuka was sick, but Kruger needs to bring it in the finals. 

PAS: I didn't hate Kruger in this, he comes in with a terrible looking legdrop, and those Vader forearms were awful, but I liked the idea of a giant German guy using his size to bulldoze smaller guys. It is really just the drop off, Greco is such a talent, that any time he is on the apron you want him in the match. Kyle Kuzma is a fine player but if LeBron is on the bench, the Lakers are going to get outscored. The Greco vs. Otsuka and Greco vs. Ishikawa exchanges are as brilliant as they always are, Ishikawa and Greco just grapple and it is great to watch. I liked Kruger's finishing powerbomb, felt like a KO shot, but he was clearly a big step down. 

Daisuke Ikeda/Takeshi Ono vs. TAKA Michinoku/Shoichi Funaki-FUN

ER: This was fine, but shootstyle removes all of the most interesting parts of Kaientai's game, and the match is also unexpectedly controlled by them, so you mostly get Taka and Funaki just throwing stomps and locking on submissions directly next to the ropes. Was this their strategy? Because it felt like every time they locked on an armbar or kneebar it was right in the ropes and immediately broken up by the ref. It was odd. Their coolest bit of submission work was even a kind of a copy of the tandem Boston crab from the prior match, with Taka and Funaki focusing more on wishboning Ono's legs (like I thought Ishikawa and Otsuka were going to do) rather than turning it. Ikeda is always nice when working guys like Funaki, never outright massacres the guys who aren't real killers, so he still hits several headbutts but they aren't thrown with the math-forgetting intensity that he'll throw them against Yuki, his Brother in Lost Brain Cells. Taka does not get as much leniency, as Ikeda lays him right out with a mean as hell lariat that upended Taka like he was hit by a Yugo. I think I would have liked this more as a style clash, with both teams playing to their strengths, rather than one team dominating at a style they aren't nearly as good at.  

PAS: Hard not to see this as a disappointment. I have seen really great PWFG TAKA and PWFG Funaki, but they didn't full embrace that style. Instead of really going hard on the mat, you had long sections of kind of dull figure fours and boston crabs, it felt like Brad Armstrong and Ted DiBiase killing time until a loaded glove finish. I really liked the opening asskicking rush by Ono and Ikeda although it kind of promised a match we didn't end up getting. There were a couple of mid match moments of dickness from Ono and a big Ikeda lariat, which keep this from being skippable, but it was a miss for me. 

Daisuke Ikeda/Takeshi Ono vs. Carl Greco/Viktor Kruger - GREAT

ER: I liked this but - as with the other two matches - this never really kicks into that higher gear the best Batt matches get to. We get some fun brief double teaming on Kruger (Ono hitting him in ring while Ikeda throws kicks at his kidneys and back of head from the apron), and a lot of Ikeda and Ono ripping apart Greco. Ono was a real dickhead, which is Ono at his best. He punked Greco the whole time they tangled, throwing in small unprofessional shots to set up something bigger. He punched Greco in his braced knee right before dropping back with a kneebar, and any time he had mount he would just grind his forearms and elbows across whatever part of Greco's body is most convenient. Ono here makes me want a wrestler who just does this, no real offense, just digs his elbows into a guy's flesh every single chance he gets. I have no clue how Greco got anything done, with an elbow or fist constantly digging into his jaw or eyebrow or collarbone. Ono is the master of annoyance, never holding still, the guy who will crank on Greco's neck with no intention to actually lock on a neck submission, just being annoying in painful ways. By the time Greco finally tagged out to Kruger, I was excited to see Kruger stick up for his boy, but he doesn't really have it in him. Kruger is lost on the mat and it's exciting to see the much smaller Ono completely fearless with him, shooting in for a takedown and kicking away at him, tagging in Ikeda for more kicks. Kruger can really only cover up and absorb attacks while waiting to catch a limb, and I do like the payoff over shoulder powerbomb he crushes Ikeda with for the KO. Part of me likes that he has this killshot powerbomb, but perhaps a bigger part of me is annoyed he does basically nothing other than take shots and hit his one finish. 

PAS: I am higher on this than Eric. I thought the use of Kruger in this match was really good, he mostly just stays out of the way and lets us get awesome Greco sections against Ono and Ikeda. He gets really worked over by a pair of legendary cheap shot artists in Ono and Ikeda so when he finally comes in for the final run he looks like a killer, huge wild stiff shots, like he decided "Fuck it, if these tiny guys are going to pop me, I am popping them back" and the final powerbomb was an exclamation point. Of course most of the match was Ono and Greco rolling hard with Greco being a wizard and Ono being a nasty little asshole. I need to seek out some singles between the two, I am sure they happened and they have such great chemistry, two guys who never stop attacking, always looking to adjust and sink in something different or tighter. I agree with Eric that this didn't hit the level of the best BattlArts tags, but that level is so high that it still leaves plenty of room underneath for great stuff. 

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Fujiwara Family: RINGS Astral Step 1st Spirit U 5/11/91

RINGS was the one of spinoffs after the end of the UWF Reborn and definitely counts as part of the Fujiwara family tree. It is also one of the big blind spots in my pro-wrestling watching. I have seen a handful of the big Volk Han matches, but not in years, so I am looking forward to digging in.

Pieter Smit vs. Herman Renting

PAS: Smit was a judoaka and Renting was a kickboxer although we didn't see a tremendous amount of stylistic variety in this match. Almost all of the RINGS fighters were pro-wrestling rookies and clearly some got the concept of performance more then others. This was pretty basic, with the only real flash being a nice Smit take down near the end of the match. I imagine this early stuff will be pretty hit or miss as the wrestlers start to figure out what works and what doesn't.

Willie Peeters vs. Marcel Haarmans 

PAS: This was more like it. Haarmans was also pretty dry, but Peeters had a lot of cool shit, using fast hands and feet and leaping in for shots and takedowns. Haarmans was slower, but had heavier hands and his stuff landed with more of a thud. I also really liked his counter to a Peeters throw, Peetrs tosses him with a takedown, buy Haarmans held on to his neck and came out of the throw with a neck crank. Finish was cool with Peeters dancing in and out landing strikes eventually hitting a nice high kick to drop Haarmans for the ten count. 

Chris Dolman vs. Bill Kazmaier

PAS: This was a bit dull, although I like the idea of swollen looking Kazmaier as a hard hitter. He had a couple of thrust shots to the ribs and chest which really looked like it compressed Dolman's insides, and I liked his awkward strong guy throws. Dolman had a Sambo and Judo background, and had a couple of OK takedowns before submitting Kazmaier with an arm bar. Had a moment or two, but was too long for the cool parts it had. 

ER: I'm a big fan of big white dudes who look like this doing shootstyle. Dolman and Kazmaier both look like linebackers, both have that wrestler hunch with powerlifter stomachs, and their kickpads look like they were made with duct tape and insulation. Kazmaier's elbow thrust to the stomach and the way Dolman sold it by kind of crumpling down to a knee basically made this match for me. I was going to say some wrestler needs to steal that one as a finisher, and then I remembered that Chris Ridgeway does a very similar thrust elbow and it's my favorite piece of offense that he does. Kazmaier also had a cool fisherman's slam that looked awkward and tough and completely deadlifted, and I love that kind of stuff. 

Akira Maeda vs. Dick Vrij

PAS: This was excellent and well worthy of a main event spot on this card. Vrij has a bleach blond flattop and earrings and has a great 80s movie villain henchman look, I could totally see him as the third guy to die in Under Siege 2. He is also great at taunting when things go his way and roid raging when they don't. This is mostly sparring on the feet, and both guys were bringing heat. Vrij uses his length to create distance landing a hard slap which really rattles Maeda, and he has great head movement which lets him avoid some of Maeda's winging shots. Maeda gets an early near fall on a multi body shot combo which ends with a high kick, looked totally great and Maeda could really place his shots.  Eventually Maeda suckers Vrij into throwing a shot he could catch and he turns it into a nasty half crab. Good stuff if a little basic for what RINGS would become. 

ER: Dick Vrij is such a badass, totally looks like he'd be the bad Dutch rapper in an early 90s Eurodance project. He's great at keeping distance with hard kicks, and he drops Maeda hard enough a few times that I was actually thinking he could beat the top gun on the debut show. His kicks and knees looked like something that could finish an ace like Maeda, but whenever Vrij would get close, Maeda would toss him with a series of disgusting suplexes. Maeda bounces Vrij off the top of his head with a belly to belly, catches Vrij's achilles over his shoulder and bounces him off his head with a capture suplex, also crushes him with a fisherman's buster. Vrij keeps getting more and more aggressive as things go on, getting overly excited after a knockdown (ending on a sick knee to the lungs) and gets in a few hits before the ref could pull him off. Vrij is smart and doesn't play it like he's outright sneaking in cheap shots, but comes off like a guy who got excited by his knockdown and was already thinking three strikes ahead. Maybe my favorite moment of the match was this awesome brief moment of tension that saw Vrij back Maeda into a corner and just kind of hold him there while making full, smirking eye contact. Add a mustache to his flattop crewcut and he would have looked like an off duty cop backing his wife into a kitchen corner for using the wrong tone to ask how his day was. You don't always get that kind of simmering tension in wrestling without it being over the top and act-y, and this came off like real psycho shit. 

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Fujiwara Family: Battle and Art Professional Wresting 10/22/19

PAS: The dream is still alive! We found a couple of Battle and Art Pro-wrestling shows which appears to be a Yujiro Yammamoto fed which uses the remnants of BattlArts guys still active.

SR: Battle And Arts Pro Wrestling, baby. BAP is not quite the Fighting Detective Team that was the original BattlARTs, but it is closer to the original than the Canadian Battle Arts offshoot in that this is indy wrestling with some shootstyle elements + Yuki Ishikawa singles matches. 

Manabu Hara/Takumi Sakurai vs. Raito Shimizu/Super Macho Monkey

SR:This was an opening match that was generally good when Manabu Hara was in the ring and I guess acceptable when Sakurai was tagged in. Sakurai works this like your typical indy worker who just does one thing after another in hopes of eliciting “yeah, that was a cool move” reactions, which is not really my thing at this point in my wrestling fandom. I liked the weird leg submission he busted out. Super Macho Monkey is a guy who sells supplements and while he has a good body and looks decent rolling on the mat with Hara, when he was doing standup sections he definitely felt like a hobbyist. Raito Shimizu is a stocky rookie who works low level indies like A-Team and Heat-Up, and he did show a bit more personality doing some power spots which gave me hope for his Yuki Ishikawa singles match on the next show.

PAS This was decent, Hara is still good and clearly a step above everyone else in this match, although I though the coolest thing in this match was Sakurai's rolling leg submission. Shimizu has a weird strong guy body, big chest but smallish arm, he had a couple of nice power spots including a move where he just powers his opponent from a powerslam position into a fireman's carry position. Inoffensive under card stuff which fulfilled it's role. 

Shuichiro Katsumura/Shiyo Karasawa/Toshiya Kawarai/Maori Kawashima vs. The Blue Shark/Koichi Takemura/Tatsuhiko Nakagawa/Josh O'Brien

SR:Promising 8 man tag looking at the guys involved. Takemura and Nakagawa are a couple middle aged guys in karate gis who don’t seem to have an extensive background in wrestling. There must have been dozens of middle aged karate guys like these who just decided to get in the ring working these Japanese scum indy shows and I always enjoy when I get to check them out. Blue Shark is Tiger Shark (lost the license to being a Tiger I guess) and Josh O’Brien is a US guy whom Cagematch lists as being trained by Tajiri and who has worked CAPTURE. On the other side you had a bunch of sleazy looking goons. Karatekas + Sayama trained guy + scum indy shooter vs. a bunch of Oriharaites would’ve been an awesome 90s Wrestle Yume Factory or Shin FMW semi main event but in 2020 as a second match on the card it suffered a bit from lack of energy and weird structure. There were some chinlocks early on that were definitely not necessary and they decided to have one of the scummy heels as a face in peril which was pretty weird. Katsumura is a case of a guy who looks good doing shootstyle matwork (he has a nice brief section with Blue Tiger here) but then he decides to work like a lowest of the low indy heels and he just becomes completely uninteresting. That said this was a lot of fun when guys were just kicking and punching each other, the eventual hot tag was surprisingly decently executed and I loved all the segments involving middle aged karatekas, Blue Tiger and O’Brien looked good filling time and I loved the fist drop finish.

PAS: I really dug this, semi-untrained guys in Gi's is right in my wrestling sweet spot (Complete and Accurate Kazuhiko Ogasawara coming in 2023!). I thought Blue Shark looked solid and one of the really fit looking guys on the other team (bear with me here) had really stiff kicks and a nasty double stomp. O'Brien is a guy I have never heard of, but had some fun power spots, and seems like a guy who should at least be getting spots at whatever Indy runs wherever he is from. Top rope fist drop finish ruled, what ever Gi guy threw it really landed it with no give at all, just punched the guy right between the eyes. 

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Yoshihiro Horaguchi

SR: This is what we bought this DVD for, and it did not disappoint. Yuki Ishikawa is the GOAT and draws the house everytime, but in fairness to Yoshihiro Horaguchi, who is some livelong indy undercarder, he did well for himself here. This was stupidly great and may have been better than any instance I’ve seen of Yuki Ishikawa trying to carry Keita Yano or even Munenori Sawa. Horaguchi just rushes in and pounces on the old man, he knows he has no chance outskilling Ishikawa so he goes for the punch-out landing big elbows on the ground  and thudding kicks and stomps. Meanwhile Ishikawa is mostly locking in great counters from his back here. It’s a kind of match Yuki Ishikawa has always been brilliant at, but this post-Canadian excursion and trained in BJJ Ishikawa is even better at it. Just one great sweep and submission counter after another. This felt less like shootstyle and more like to guys trying to kill each other in a phone booth, they were almost never letting up and when they weren’t grappling, they were trying to crack each others jaws and sometimes kidneys. Even though Horaguchis grappling was rudimentary, it all felt really intense thanks to the super close up camera work and he had no problem getting punched in the face by Yuki Ishikawa. Finish was this downright ridiculous sequence of attempted submission reversals strung into further submissions, it felt like something Negro Navarro would do.

PAS: This was fucking awesome, and exactly the kind of thing you organize funding drives to buy random scum indy Japanese shows for. I thought Horaguchi understood exactly who he was in with and what he needed to do. He comes forward with really stiffness and force, he can't out skill the master, but he might be able to overwhelm him. Ishikawa was like watching Demien Maya, he sits in the cut absorbing Horaguchi's big shots, and waiting for him to slip up. I loved the triangle that Horaguchi put on, and all of the different ways that Ishikawa moved to counter and reverse his way out of it. Finish was completely awesome with Ishikawa running through a gambit of different submission attacks with each Horaguchi counter ensnaring him deeper in the web before Ishikawa finishes him off with a hammerlock rear naked choke which was totally awesome looking. 

Mister Cacao/CHANGO vs. Nobutaka Moribe/Keita Yano 

SR:Mr. Cacao is a guy who is mostly notable for making masks, gear and sometimes uploading cool unseen CMLL Japan matches to his YouTube account. CHANGO is an Ultimo Dragon trainee who got lost in the shuffle. Moribe is an ex-Michinoku Pro guy. And Keita Yano has to be among the most deranged looking individuals in wrestling at this point. Union jack trunks, furrie boots, joker makeup, white button shirt, a towel around his neck and his face looking creepy and emaciated like a drug addict, I would be more comfortable with my daughter marrying any toothless redneck working US deathmatch shows over this dude. This was a lucharesu style match and while it was never gonna be as spectacular as the best matches in that style, it was surprisingly decent. Mr. Cacao must have tagged with legendary luchadores 500 times so he can do this kind of formulaic match, Chango was working hard and doing some cool shit, and Yano seems to have gotten somewhat decent at doing matwork since working with Negro Navarro. Yano still had to shoehorn some tape nerd spots into the match but it irritates me less when it happens in this kind of match than when he does it in a BattlARTS match. Still, they should’ve switched this to the 2nd match on the card and moved the tag with the karatekas up to semi-main event status.

PAS: I haven't really seen Yano since he was irritating me on BattlArts shows in 2009, but man he has really fallen on rough times, what a creeper. This was solid stuff without ever really advancing past that. Cacao is a pro and I am always going to have some fondness for him for money marking cool CMLL Japan shows. I liked CHANGO in this he had a couple of fun roll ups and moved with some pace. I felt like this was always about to hit a gear it never did, but it on the plus side of the ledger anyway.

Yujiro Yamamoto vs. Katsuo

SR: Katsuo is a Dragon System guy who used to be Cyber Kongcito. I assume he is Yamamoto's friend or owns the ring or something and that’s why he gets to be in the main event. Well, apparently he also works pretty high up the card at Hokuto Pro Wrestling (another indy that Hisakatsu Oya runs).  He was this stocky guy in a singlet and a weird hairdo, kind of like a parallel universe Fugofugo Yumeji. And just like Fugofugo he was game to have a nasty slugfest. This was Katsuo laying a brutal WAR sized beating on Yamamoto, big chops, crowbar lariats, jaw loosening elbows and open hand strikes, skull cracking headbutts, the whole deal. By the end of it Yamamatos chest was a nasty shade of red and his bell seemed seriously rung. This had some back and forth strike exchanges, which can get tiresome, but I thought the purpose was to showcase Katsuo as a tough monster as he kept shrugging off Yamamotos attacks, so I bought into them. Yamamoto was working this not really like a shootstylist and more like an indy wrestler with a shootstyle gimmick, which I don’t like as much, but he timed his comebacks well and cut Katsuo down with some precise strikes of his own. Very suitable main event and I would like to see more of this Katsuo now.

PAS: This owned. It wasn't a BattlArts throwback as much as it was a Zero One/WAR throwback. Katsuo is 9/10ths Kurisu in this match, laying a unhealthy beating on Yamamoto, eggplanting his chest with chops and drilling him with echoing headbutts and sick clotheslines to the meaty part of Yamamoto's neck. At one point he just traps Yujiro's arms and brain damages him with a clonking headbut. Yamamoto fired back with some shots of his own, but was mostly absorbing a big time ass whipping. I liked his final run, where he just lays out Katsuo with a whip kick to the jaw which felt like a payback for all of the spuds thrown his way. This is the kind of sick shit I really enjoy watching, wholly recommend. 

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Fujiwara Family: PWFG 6/4/94

Shiochi Funaki vs. Minoru Tanaka

PAS: Both of these guys made their names doing other things, but at this point they were straight shootstyle guys, and pretty damn great at it. Funaki had a couple of totally awesome looking slips into tight rear naked chokes, and a really cool kneebar for the tap. Tanaka throws a couple of fast suplexes and a nasty headbutt while in the mount. This was way better then it would be a couple of years later, as they were PWFG young guys trying to prove they belonged. 

Katsumi Usuda vs. Joe DiFuria

PAS: This was great, DiFuria is a big jacked guy who spends much of this match chucking Usuda around the ring. He treats Usuda like a tackling dummy, dumping him with a couple of super nasty German suplexes and a deadlift throw, he was also super heavy on top, really leaning on Usuda with full weight and submissions which didn't look slickly applied, but a big jacked guy choking you is going to hurt even if it isn't perfectly applied. Usuda was able to wing some big kicks when he was able to get away from DiFuria, and the finish was an awesome Fujiwara special, DiFuria has Usuda locked into a rear naked choke, and it looked like curtains, but Usuda was able to grab an ankle and damn near twist it off forcing DiFuria to tap fast. Cool match, DiFuria had one match with Fujiwara which Tom and I didn't like 10 years ago when we watched it, but I kind of want to see his Vampire Warrior matches in Florida indies. 

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Bart Vale - FUN

PAS: This was a big kickboxing fight, and a rare match where Ikeda was in there with a guy with heavier feet. Vale really developed into a entertaining wrestler in the end days of PWFG, and he is thumping Ikeda with his big tree trunk legs. Vale isn't going to give a ton to Ikeda at this point in their career, Ikeda gets a couple of submission attempts, which Vale reverses, and throws some big kicks which mostly get blocked. This match was here for Vale to eat, and Ikeda was the meal, he would be at the big table plenty as his career moved on. 

Wellington Wilkins Jr./Yuki Ishikawa vs. Hanzo Nakajima/Naohiro Hoshikawa

PAS: Fuck this was badass. Wilkins and baby Ishikawa make a totally killer team. Wilkins is a square shaped guy who works like a total crowbar, he tosses some suplexes that have ab almost Taz on Pablo Marquez level of disregard for the well being of his opponents. He also throws some really sick headbutts including breaking a german suplex by just flinging the back of his head into the face of Hoshikawa, just gross. Ishikawa is also great, mixing a phenom level of matwork, with some real aggressive attacks. Nakajima is wearing a ninja mask and has a bad ass look, he looked perfectly comfortable on the mat with Ishikawa and mixed in some really graceful flying, he isn't a guy who had much of a career, having a cup of coffee with KDX in Mpro a couple of years later, but he looked great here. Hoshikawa is awesome in these kinds of hybrid matches, can hang on the mat, throw some kicks, and also hit a dope tope. Built to a pretty wild finish run, with Wilkins throwing this crazy top rope superplex, and locking on some sort of carny neck lock for the tap. The kind of match which would have led off a Schneider Comp back in the day.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Mark Ashford-Smith

PAS: This was a strange match which is worked entirely as a grappling contest, all on the mat with some long pauses and movement in and out of holds. It really felt in parts like Mario Yamazaki need to stand them up. Smith seemed comfortable on the mat, and this really felt like the might have been shooting at points, I can't imagine much was called before. Really a match for your Fujiwara completest, (or I suppose any Mark Starr superfans out there) I am a big enough Fujiwara head that I enjoyed watching him grapple and shift position, and the finish was pretty cool.  I liked this, still I imagine this will bore most folks.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKDEA

FUJIWARA FAMILY

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Fujiwara Family: BattlArts Final Fight in X-Mas 12/25/96

12/25/96

Kazumasa Fujimoto vs. Michiya Chiba 

PAS: Not sure who either of these guys are, and this was 2 minutes of rolling until Chiba gets an ankle pick for the tap in 2 minutes. Nothing to see here, keep it moving. 

Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Satoshi Yoneyama 

PAS: This was a fun little match up with a pre NOI Mohammed Yone.  I enjoyed how much these guys were bending each other on knee bars and boston crabs, I tweaked my back earlier this week and I clearly need Yone to stretch me out. Hoshikawa was fun in this environment, nice snap kicks, cool submissions willingness to push the pace. Yone had a a couple of cool looking flip kicks, hitting a couple before getting one caught and bent into a one leg crab for the tap. 

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Minoru Tanaka 

PAS: Isikawa's trainer really mastered this kind of wiley technician versus pretty boy kicker match, and it is fun to watch Ishikawa do his riff on Fujiwara vs. Takada or Funaki. Tanaka tries to overwhelm Ishikawa with speed and athleticism, only to see Ishikawa use skill to find places to attack. Ishikawa had some of the nastiest pro-wrestling ground and pound in this match, cracking Tanaka with hard knuckle out punches to the side of the head and ribs. Tanaka hit a wild flurry of shots, for two downs near the end of the match, really hard and super fast. He hits two big suplexes on Ishikawa for close near falls, only to let Yuki get hold of his arm for a nasty hammerlock submission. 

ER: I think before watching this match I had only seen one other Ishikawa/Tanaka singles match. This isn't a typical pairing I think of in BattlArts, even though they were there at the same time for many years. I thought this was fantastic though, as Tanaka was using his quickness to escape holds and had really fast application that kept Ishikawa scrambling. This really is a Fujiwara vs. striker match, the kind where Fujiwara takes maybe 20% of the match and then finally pulls off the thing he's been thinking about the whole match. Tanaka was super speedy and hit hard, and the way he and Ishikawa got tangled was always cool. I loved them fighting over a heel hook, and once Tanaka got the better grip Ishikawa just punched him right in the bandaged elbow. Tanaka even gives him a little "seriously!?" kind of look before wrenching in the hold. Ishikawa is mean when he gets the chance to be, like when he got in mount and threw a couple filthy punches down into Tanaka's jaw, but I thought for sure that Tanaka was going to tap him once he got him into a snug triangle. You could really see Ishikawa quickly running out of options before he just desperately rolled his body toward the ropes for the break. After I saw Ishikawa punch that bandaged elbow in the heel hook, I know it was on his mind, and I saw him reach for it again while trying to break a subsequent hold. So once he hit that awesome trap arm double underhook suplex to stun Tanaka I was not surprised in the least that he went straight to that hammerlock sub on that bandaged elbow. Awesome sub 10 minute match from a BattlArts singles match pairing I never think about.  

Daisuke Ikeda/Alexander Otsuka vs. Katsumi Usuda/Takeshi Ono - EPIC

PAS: BattlArts style main event tags are about the surest best in wrestling history, and this was another barnburner. Ikeda and Ono are an incredible tag team, but also amazing opponents, they throw shots with such reckless abandon at each other, and turn every exchange into a high wire act where someone is moments away from going to sleep. Otsuka is a magician as well, his level switches and throws are so much fun to watch and he brings a different spice to match with three big kickers. I thought the finish run was some wild stuff, and Ono sleeping Otsuka with a big knee felt like a huge moment for him. Ono is a monster talent, but he seemed slotted a bit below the rest of the BattlArts big four (the other three in this match and Ishikawa) so it was great that he got to show the thunder in his hands and feet to win this one.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA 

FUJIWARA FAMILY

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Fujiwara Family: BattlArts Yuki Ishikawa 15th Anniversary Show 7/21/07

This show is available, along with a ton of late 00s BattlArts on IWTV

Katsumi Usuda vs. Keita Yano

PAS: Looking back on my early 2010's reviews Tom and I hated Yano as he just got completely up his own ass and started trying to jack ROH moves from tapes. I have heard from people I semi-trust that recent Yano is weird and cool, in 2007 he was hueing more closely to the style and he was a fine basic opponent for Usuda. I liked Yano starting the match with a sneak high kick to try to catch the veteran sleeping. Usuda is never not worth watching, and he throws some big hard kicks like he want to do. I also liked him adjusting his kneebar to really torque the leg for the finish. Replacement level Usuda match, but that is a nice level. 

Toshie Uematsu vs. Carlos Amano

PAS: This was solid joshi wrestling with a bunch of nifty mat counters. I especially loved Uematsu putting Amano in a kneebar, catching Amano's leg when she tried to kick out of it and putting in a figure four. Amano also had some nifty work both in the guard and trying to clear Uematsu's guard. I wish the strikes landed with some more thump, weakness there kept this from being a real standout, but it was worth watching nonetheless. 

Kyosuke Sasaki vs. Yuta Yoshikawa

PAS: This didn't do much for me. It was pretty much all striking, and Sasaki landed a great solebutt to the stomach, punt to the face combo, but outside of that there was nothing memorable. Lots of strike, make a face, other guy throws a strike exchanges, and the final KO needed to be a lot more brutal on a show with Ikeda in the main event. 

Fujita Hayato vs. Munenori Sawa

PAS: This was a way better version of the stand and trade type of match. I liked the story of Sawa having the faster hands and feet, but Hayato landing the big shots. Hayato always fit in the Fujiwara Family feds great whenever he showed up, his default is crowbar and he lands some big thumping shots. Sawa had a little more horseshit then I prefer, his Mutoh aping never looks good, and I don't know about a figure four as a finishing submission in a shoot style fight. I did like how Hayato kept slapping the shit out him to try to break the hold, by the time Hayato tapped Sawa's nose and mouth were bloody. 

Alexander Otsuka/Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda/Manabu Hara - EPIC

PAS: These fucking guys. What absolute legends. Most people celebrate big milestones like Anniversaries by inviting some friends to dinner, maybe spending a weekend in Vegas. Ishikawa spends it by inviting his buddies over to kick the ever loving shit out of each other. Hara isn't my first choice for the fourth in this tag, but he is on eleven here, from opening up the match by dropping Ishikawa with a high kick to his killer final stanza against Otsuka, career performance for him. Of course the other three are incredible too, Ikeda spends much of the match sniping, anytime Otsuka or Ishikawa puts a submission on Hara, Ikeda is coming in hot, with full force kicks to the head. Ishikawa and Ikeda also have a couple of their legendary back and forths, as nasty and grotesque and you would expect from those two. Otsuka maybe the star of the match though. He mostly faces off against Hara and eats big shots again and again trying to get close enough to unleash hell with suplexes. At one point he counters a Hara kneebar attempt by grabbing him and chucking him with a German suplex. He and Ishikawa also hit an awesome enzigiri/German combo and finishes Hara with a dragon suplex on his head. These matches are made on their final showdowns and this one had a great one.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA

FUJIWARA FAMILY

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The Fujiwara Family: Complete and Accurate UWF, UWF Reborn, RINGS, PWFG, BattlArts, FUTEN, UFO, BAP

The best of all wrestling, here are all our full show reviews in one place.

1985

UWF 4/23/85

1990

UWF 1/16/90

UWF 2/9/90

UWF 2/27/90

UWF 4/15/90

UWF 5/4/90

UWF 5/28/90

UWF 6/21/90

1991

PWFG 3/4/91

RINGS 5/11/91
PWFG 5/19/91
PWFG 7/26/91

RINGS 8/1/91
PWFG 8/23/91

RINGS 9/14/91
PWFG 9/28/91
PWFG 10/17/91
PWFG 11/3/91

RINGS 12/7/91

1992

PWFG 1/15/92

PWFG 2/24/92
PWFG 4/19/92
PWFG 5/15/92

PWFG 6/5/92
PWFG 7/27/92
PWFG 8/15/92
PWFG 9/2/92
PWFG 10/4/92
PWFG 12/5/92

1993

PWFG 6/1/93
PWFG 7/21/93
PWFG 9/23/93

PWFG 10/29/93

1994

PWFG 2/28/94

PWFG 6/4/94
PWFG 9/28/94
PWFG 9/13/94
PWFG 10/31/94

1995

PWFG 5/19/95

PWFG 6/18/95

PWFG 8/12/95
PWFG 8/26/95

PWFG 11/19/95

1996

Battlarts 10/2/96

Battlarts 10/4/96
PWFG 9/23/96

Battlarts 12/21/96

Battlarts 12/25/96

1997

Battlarts 1/21/97

Battlarts 3/13/97

Battlarts 3/14/97

Battlarts 11/5/97

1998

Battlarts 4/19/98

Battlarts 4/28/98

Battlarts 5/10/98

1999

UFO 3/14/99

2000

Battlarts 3/25/00

2005

FUTEN 4/24/05

2007

Battlarts 7/21/07

2009

FUTEN 4/9/09

Battlarts 1/10/09

Battlarts 2/15/09

Battlarts 4/12/09

Battlarts 7/5/09

Battlarts 7/26/09

Battlarts 8/3/09 Show 1

Battlarts 8/3/09 Show 2

Battlarts 9/6/09

Battlarts 12/6/09

2010

BattlArts 1/17/10

FUTEN 4/22/10

FUTEN 5/3/10

FUTEN 6/27/10

FUTEN 7/25/10

FUTEN 9/26/10

FUTEN 10/24/10

FUTEN 11/24/10

FUTEN 12/19/10

2011

FUTEN 1/30/11

FUTEN 7/18/11

2012

FUTEN 1/12/12

 

2019

BAP 10/22/19

2020

BAP 2/11/20

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