Fujiwara Family: UFO 3 3/14/99

UFO 3

Tiger Mask IV vs. Jean-Pierre David

PAS: This was nifty stuff, Mask was throwing sharp kicks and punches, while David would try to grab him and take him down. There was a couple of pretty wild shootstyle highspots, including David judo tossing Mask off of the weird UFO circular ring apron to the floor, and Tiger responding by kicking and punching him off the apron on the other side. Finish had David working for an armbar only to see Mask get his back and choke him out. This had the fun choppiness of a good RINGS match, like David in this, he had some good throws and a French Canadian chippiness which made for a fun opponent. 

ER: I've never seen TM4 work any kind of shootstyle, but this had that cool shootstyle feel where things start out normal and keep escalating to a clearly unprofessional peak when one guy stops playing around. This all looked very normal, David working for armbars, TM using cool pro wrestling strikes to back him off. The finish looked fantastic, as TM just starts wailing punches at the back of David's head, and not just one or two. Tiger Mask starts using punches to the back of the head to set up his other strikes, including a cool use of a Tiger Mask solebutt and a great high kick that knocks David swiftly to the mat. Then, more TM punches to the back of the head to set up a nasty rear naked choke. 

Sean McCully vs. Orlando Wiet

ER: We at Segunda Caida are big fans of pro wrestler Sean McCully, but this is probably the first actual shootstyle match of his we've written about. And it is good! But in a different way than his pro wrestling is good. Weit had the obvious size and reach advantage, but that did not prevent McCully from charging right in and keeping things close, negating the reach, and literally dragging Weit to the mat. The ropes are really the only thing that allowed Weit to last long enough to finish, as he just kept hooking them to prevent takedowns, leading to McCully just dragging him down anyway. I loved this one moment where Weit would not unhook his arm, and McCully just punched him in the teeth. Weit has really explosive ground and pound and landed several quick shots, and he finally used that reach to drag McCully down with a nice guillotine. 

PAS: Love to see McCully, he looks like an Irish mob legbreaker who ends up getting 15 years in Framingham because he tried to knock over a cigarette truck drunk. Cool story with McCully's aggression versus Wiet's skill, and the finish made a ton of sense, as the aggression  eventually backfired and he got caught in a nasty choke for the tap.

Koichiro Kimura vs. Richard Roland Loux

ER: Mostly one-sided shootstyle squash, with some stand up leading to a dueling leglock (it was 1999-2002 MMA, so there's going to be a dueling leglock). I do like dueling leglocks though, especially when someone like Kimura adds in a couple twists to show how stubborn he is, making it look like both guys really did want to end it right there. After the stand up it doesn't take long for Kimura to get an armbar. 

PAS: Loux was a big bald fat guy in a gi, and had one great throw, but it is hard to get a sense of someone in such a short match. Weird to watch Kimura as such an overdog while watching all of the RINGS stuff where he is sort of a jobber.

Tiger Mask vs. Alexander Otsuka

ER: I liked this, even though there were some moments of disconnect that I would have roasted some unknown indy worker for doing. And I guess that makes me a hypocrite, because I like these guys (that said, Sayama had some ground and pound that looked like he was intentionally trying to not hit Otsuka). But I think the match would have been better if they leaned harder into having either a shootstyle match, or a pro wrestling match. They kind of combined the two and sometimes it worked and other times it looked a bit silly. I liked Sayama breaking out a bunch of cool Tiger Mask spinkicks, and Otsuka was great at getting his head in the way of catching them. But I also think Sayama went to them too often, and Otsuka kind of had to just keep leaning in and keeping them, and not all of them hit as well and he had to sell them anyway. If they had gone full shootstyle it would have been cool to see Otsuka take a glancing blow and then punish Sayama for missing. 

We got a weird mix of them seemingly treating the shootstyle stuff seriously, but then also mixing in their signature pro wrestling spots. We probably didn't need to see Otsuka's big swing, but I liked the realism they brought to other exchanges, like the way Otsuka looked to sandbag a Tiger suplex before getting dropped. Otsuka's rolling kneebars looked fantastic, really hyperextending Sayama's leg, and yet I was still really surprised Otsuka got the tap. Otsuka really should have made an even bigger mark in 90s/00s wrestling than he did, but it seems like his desire to control his own schedule was more important, and that just makes him cooler. 

PAS: I though this was pretty great, Sayama wasn't throwing the same level of heat as he did fifteen years earlier against Fujiwara, but he still had some big swings which landed hard, and spiked Otsuka with the dragon suplex. I also could have done without the giant swing, but otherwise thought Otsuka was brilliant. I loved his constant activity on the ground, adjusting his attacks, landing nasty body shots to readjust and move Sayama. The final kneebar was amazing, rolling it into nastier and deeper locks until he nearly ripped Tiger's leg off. Awesome shit, and a real mark on Otsuka's impressive resume. 

Kazunari Murakami vs. Gerard Gordeau

ER: This was cool, but would have been even better a year later. Murakami was totally evolved into his best self by 2000, here he was still a little bit more of a normal MMA-based wrestler. And while Gordeau clearly worked heel (including pretending he had no clue who Murakami was in a pre-fight interview), outside of one questionable eye attack he really wasn't as brazen about his heel attacks as he had been. Still, this was a cool fight made up of bizarre grappling and tumbling over and through ropes, and an apparently loose set of rules that allows for submissions to be applied outside of the ring. They kept getting tied up in the ropes, but it always lead to something weird and unique, like Gordeau shoving Murakami until Murakami flipped over the ropes to the rounded apron, or another time where Gordeau went after Murakami's eye (UFO was always really smart or really stupid to not show the eye attacks up close, never giving us the camera angle of the suspected gouge). Murakami came out of it blinking a lot, and Gordeau swung with his biggest strike attempt of the match, a high kick that would have decapitated Murakami had it been an inch or two closer. Murakami grabs a kneebar and Gordeau tries to tie him in the ropes, but they roll out to the ample, rounded apron and the ref just allows the hold to continue, and Gordeau finally has to get Murakami to drop off the apron, allowing him to pounce. This whole thing gets ruled a no contest after both men refuse to break on the floor, and it's a shame they never did a bigger rematch. I have to assume that negotiations broke down, because you do the no contest to set up the big triumphant Murakami win, but instead Murakami just beat UWFI guy Billy Scott. 

PAS: I agree that this would have been better with the terrorist taking on the nazi, but I did love it. Gordeau is awesome at bringing that out of control aura to his matches which Murakami would master later, you can almost see Murakami in this match thinking "shit I can just do this stuff for 20 years". I am a fan of the weird UFO ring with the big circular ring aprons, which allow a lot of shit to be done on the edges and off the sides, it is almost like a no ropes match but with ropes. Gordeau made a career out of cowardly blinding a guy, it is like if Invader 1 had a spot in every match where he hid a knife in his trunks, which in hindsight would rule, and this ruled too. Liked how this just ended in oblivion with both guys on the floor tied up and Gordeau trying to melon scoop Murakami's peepers. 

Dan Severn vs. Naoya Ogawa

ER: You remember that awesome match you love where the referee kept involving himself in the action the entire time? Of course you don't, because no good match can ever come from referees overly involving themselves. This match keeps threatening to get violent many different times, and every single one of those times Special Guest Referee Dory Funk Jr. literally wedges his body in the middle of these two, pulls one away from the other, grabs arms to prevent strikes, just completely breaks up any sort of conflict whatsoever. Funk was like Tirantes, if Tirantes had no charisma, shitty hair, and a ball cap that he purchased when he and his wife visited a retired aircraft carrier. Severn would grab Ogawa, back him into the ropes, fight for control...and then Funk would separate them. Ogawa would reverse Severn on the mat, get in the mount, and Funk would interject his body. The whole match was like being at your favorite restaurant, and every time the waiter comes walking up with your food he just keeps walking past you, letting you really see and smell this great food before not giving it to you. I don't think we got to see one single sequence worked to any kind of finish. At one point they spilled through the ropes onto the entrance ramp, and things looked like they were ready to unravel as they kept rolling and struggling down the ramp...and Funk comes running out of the ring with a freaking whistle, blowing it like he was breaking up a fight on an elementary school playground. Ogawa hits a nasty pump kick to the back of Severn's head and sinks a choke for the finish, but this entire match had all the guts ripped out of it. There has to be a story behind this, as this may be the most intrusive guest ref performance in wrestling history. 

FUJIWARA FAMILY

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Problematic Hall of Fame: Gerard Gordeau

Gerard Gordeau vs. Akira Maeda UWF 8/13/88

ER: Gordeau's pro wrestling debut, main eventing against the biggest shootstyle star in the large Ariake Coliseum, carrying on that Japanese Different Style Fight tradition. The Different Style allowed the match to stand out in a different way from the excellent Yamazaki/Takada match that came right before it. This match was less "clean" so felt more like a shoot, with Gordeau throwing high kicks and hard punches to Maeda. Gordeau would follow up with shots after knockdowns, but without being a real heel, leading to cool moments like him going down but landing an upkick to Maeda's eye that swung the advantage right back to Gordeau when he pounced for a rear naked choke. Gordeau has Maeda beat on reach, and Maeda gets that his best bet is to catch one of Gordeau's long limbs and start bending it, so when he finally drops to the mat and puts all his weight into down dogging it into a kneebar, it felt big. 

Gerard Gordeau vs. Brian Johnston UFO 10/24/98

ER: Johnson had a wrestling career similar to something you could picture Gordeau having if things had gone differently. Johnston was like a smothering if somewhat dull shootstyle Davey Boy Smith, but he got a strong 3 year run in New Japan during 1999-2001, an era that isn't really circulated much online. Gordeau feels like someone who could have had a similar midcard gaijin run in New Japan, and it would have yielded some great stuff. But I like his career as more of a high card special attraction, and it's got some insanely impressive milestones: Main event of the biggest show in reboot UWF's first year, main event of the biggest show in RINGS' first year, the first fight in UFC PPV history, a Tokyo Dome match against Inoki on a huge drawing show, Naoya Ogawa's BODYGUARD on the night Ogawa shot on Hashimoto, and now the semi main of the first show of Inoki's new UFO fed. There's a lot to be said about Gordeau's place in wrestling history, being used as a genuine special attraction draw as a major part of huge wrestling and fighting shows. He creates genuine buzz and looks like a guy who would have a really impressive heavy metal record collection and entirely unpleasant views on a lot of social issues. 

Johnston smothers him while Gordeau keeps distance when he can with high warning kicks, but Johnston is bigger and is able to pounce on him. Gordeau is patient and avoids damage, but Johnston does get a heavy armbar that leads to a nice Gordeau standing escape. Gordeau doesn't mess around once he's standing, and then his specific scumbag charm comes out as he starts throwing harder and more purposeful kicks at Johnston's head. He kicks Johnston right in the eye and sends him running out of the ring injured, and then there's a big scrum in the ring between cornermen, the kind of thing you would tell a ton of people about if it happened at any fighting show you'd attended. The cornermen keep going at it (Different Style Fight cornermen brawls are among the truest joys in pro wrestling), Gordeau gets on the mic and he's this incredible heel who has built up an old school 50s mythical heel character as a man known to permanently damage eyeballs and faces, as the cameras cut to Johnston holding his eye in the entrance way and a cornerman doing a double leg takedown in the ring. 

Gerard Gordeau vs. Naoya Ogawa UFO 12/30/98

ER: We get a cool Gordeau heel promo package, showing his unprofessional moments from other fights, showing his last UFO mic grab where he talks about when he fights there are no rules and makes threats about taking eyes. He says Ogawa might have a chance against him on the ground, but standing he is going to kill him. And as this match goes on we get more and more heel cheap shot character Gordeau, and it's great. Ogawa tries to tie him up, but Gordeau is a stronger striker and is able to keep knocking Ogawa to the ground. He starts acting incrementally unprofessional, and those incremental steps are key to the brilliance of Gordeau's heel character. He isn't out there doing some Nazi canned ham Sam Adonis bullshit, he's not out there seeking the glory for the heel heat. A heel who isn't showing any signs of enjoying his villainy is a colder, scarier, more intimidating heel. There needs to be a theatrical disconnect from your heels, that need to see them enjoying how bad they are being, that need to see them getting SOMEthing from their bad behavior. Instead, Gordeau always has the rushed unsmiling expression of a man who is trying to finish his cigarette outside while it's drizzling. 

Gordeau starts kicking at Ogawa's legs and sweeping them, and starts sneaking in shots that become more and more blatant, while his legal shots become more violent. After the legsweeps he hits some sicko punch combos to Ogawa's abs and kidneys, all legal but aggressive. But then Ogawa backs him into the corner and Gordeau starts throws a couple headbutts at Ogawa's eye, then actually gouges at it before punching Ogawa in that eye after gouging him down to a knee. But the face/heel dynamics are actually pretty funny, as Ogawa jumped up to his biggest level of stardom after shoot attacking Hashimoto, so them building up Gordeau as the cheapshotting asshole means that this is just a case of fan's cheering on *their* asshole. They are me, loving Jeff Kent as a Giant and hating Jeff Kent as a Dodger. Gordeau and Ogawa are like two internet trolls who can actually back up their words, and Ogawa will not be out-trolled. Ogawa does get Gordeau to the mat and does tap him with a rear naked choke that he holds a little bit too long, then he tries to bait Gordeau into starting a post-fight brawl. Ogawa was 100% the southern heel who was trying to bait the babyface into attacking him, knowing that there was a $5,000 per punch fine attached to each babyface punch until their big match. But again, Ogawa was *their* asshole. Ogawa is on his back trying to taunt Gordeau into getting tapped again, and the fans are into seeing their problematic guy rubbing it in. 

Gerard Gordeau vs. Enson Inoue BML 9/11/05

ER: This doesn't even go 3 minutes, but plays out as one of the hottest rounds in no holds barred fighting history. Gordeau doesn't once attempt to hide his cheating. No, now Gordeau is in his mid 40s, and is similar to how Abby did less bumping and more fork stabbing the older he got. Mid 40s Gordeau just throws high kicks and tries to thumb out eyeballs. He kicks Inoue to the floor then starts right in on thumbs to eyes, like Inoue was his Creator and Gordeau has now met his Creator and must kill him. Gordeau really goes after both eyes with both thumbs, even breaking up a potential choke by gouging at the eyes. Inoue gets his back in a great spot where Gordeau misses a high kick and Inoue takes him down while Gordeau's follow through has him turned around, and gets his back. Gordeau keeps cheating all the way to the finish, when we get this incredible fight over Inoue's match finishing armbar. Gordeau desperately looks like a man holding onto a cliffside root, and the ref completely ignores Gordeau's feet when they make the ropes multiple times, and you can see how disgustingly Inoue hyperextends Gordeau's elbow. Best of all, Gordeau - of ALL people - stands up and immediately demands answers, immediately demands Inoue explain what that unprofessionalism was all about. Where did this unprofessionalism come from Enson? No, we're not talking about the eye gouges Enson, what was that business with the armbar, hmmmmm? This was three of the wildest, unprofessional shootstyle pro wrestling minutes we have, pure lowbrow pit fighting, with the Japanese fans again getting to cheer for their problematic - but less so - homegrown jerk. 

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Fujiwara Family: RINGS Astral Step: Final 12/7/91

Grom Zaza vs. Koichiro Kimura 

PAS: The Russians are here! Zaza is completely relentless, constantly swarming all over Kimura, trying to grab and arm, leg or neck to twist. Kimura fends him off for a while with kicks and punches, but eventually just seems to try to survive scrambling to the ropes and turtling . Eventually Zaza grabs his neck in almost a shoot full nelson for the tap. I am excited to see more Zaza, but this got dull and was really long (and may have even been clipped if the time stamp was right).

Herman Renting vs. Nobuaki Kakuta 

PAS: I am not sure what or why this ways. Kakuta was a popular karate fighter who represented Japan in international compition, and really over with the crowd. This might have been a shoot, or a dull work. First three or so rounds they just circled each other and feinted. Everytime Kakuta threw anything the crowd would go bonkers, but I am not sure he landed a single solid shot. Renting, who looks like the evil neighbor kid in Toy Story, gets a knock down with an illegal closed fist, which suggested work to me, but this ended with an unsatisfying draw which kind of suggests shoot. Either way I suggest that you don't watch it. 

Chris Dolman vs. Tiger Levani

PAS: Levani is another Russian from the Zaza and Han family. He shoots for limbs, but gets stuffed by Dolman on almost all of his attempts. Dolman gets a neck crank for the tap. Hard to really get a sense of Levani, as Dolman ate him up. Pretty dull although at least it wasn't super long.

Dick Vrij vs. Willie Peeters

PAS: This has been a rough show so far, but this was awesome. These are my two favorite pre-Russian gaijin, and they go after it. Really aggressive match with both guys winging kicks to the head and wild punches. Vrij has heavy kicks and drops Peeters with both a head kick and scything body kick. Peeters is a spunky energetic babyface, and I loved him trying to break down the bigger Vrij with hard body shots and he even gets off a couple of throws. Peeters eventually gets dropped by a a awesome three kick combo, right to the body, left to the body, right to the head to crumple him. Every moment was exciting, loved this.

ER: I skipped past the other matches right to this one, Phil took the body shots on the first hour of the show. And this might have been the best 10 minutes we have in RINGS so far, especially in terms of big moments. This felt more like the final fight in a movie, where both guys keep knocking each other down after initially looking like the fight would be over a minute in. Peeters gets a big belly to belly but gets absolutely leveled by a Vrij high kick shortly after, and while Peeters got up at 5 he looked like a guy who shouldn't be getting up at 5. I thought Peeters was a sitting duck, he kept lasting, and started getting very vocal with Vrij. Peeters might keep getting knocked down, but he keeps springing back to his feet to shove it in the much larger Vrij's face. The whole match was nothing but finishers, the moments of Peeters actually making Vrij sweat were great, and each new explosive Vrij strike kept looking like it should leave Peeters motionless. BUT, Vrij kept breathing harder and harder, and the possibility of Peeters surviving and outlasting became more real. I got really into Peeters' babyface performance, probably my favorite in RINGS so far.  Vrij goes full bully when his breathing gets harder, shoving Peeters into the ropes and catching him with a knee on the recoil, and Vrij's final left-right-left kick combo was devastating. Two body shots and that left high kick, and the way Peeters fell the ref knew to immediately wave it. This whole match is a highlight video. 

Gerard Gordeau vs. Mitsuya Nagai

PAS: Gordeau is a kickboxer who got to the finals of the first UFC, and fought in Zero-One and New Japan. He might also be a Nazi, although he claims Jewish heritage and says his swastika tattoo is the Buddhist symbol (take that with the coke rock sized grain of salt in deserves). Gordeau is a guy who was known for taking liberties and he roughs up Nagai, bloodying his nose and finishing him with a sick guillotine. Pretty one sided. I would have liked to see later years crowbar Nagai against Gordeau.

ER: Gerard Gordeau is a real problematic wrestling legend. He's a scummy Dutch guy who had to work for a living as a child after he lost his dad, and used karate as a way out. He's Daniel Larusso, if Larusso were a Nazi in the early 70s. But Gordeau has been in some major historical portions of Mixed Martial Arts history. He broke his foot on future Hawaii 5-0 actor Teila Tuli's teeth in the first UFC fight ever. He's got less than 20 worked matches in history, yet he's faced Inoki, Hashimoto, Naoya Ogawa, Akebono, Maeda, literally the biggest legends of Japanese wrestling. He's a methlab Kazunari Murakami (who Gordeau also faced!), just with a more vacant serial killer face than an anime villain. 

He really overwhelms Nagai, and Nagai is a really tough guy. Nagai is a rookie in RINGS going up against a bunch of way bigger Dutch dudes, and now he's in his early 50s and still going at it. But Gordeau is all sharp knees and kicks thrown so hard he doesn't care if he falls over. Nagai is constantly on his heels with Gordeau lurching in. He catches Nagai with two different sick standing guillotines and then just drops him like a dead body. The second one finishes Nagai, but the fight went into the 4th round and it was so totally one sided that Nagai came out more impressive for surviving. Gordeau came off like a real killer, and it's too bad we didn't get to see him against any Russians. Maybe that's for the best though. 

Masaaki Satake vs. Hans Nyman

PAS: This also might have been a shoot. Satake is an original K1 guy who is probably best known for getting German suplexed nearly to death by Rampage Jackson in Pride. No finish in this match either, but it had a lot of activity especially by Satake who threw constantly kicks, hooks to the body and straight punches. Nyman fired back too, and while this never came close to a finish, but it was at least brisk. 

Volk Han vs. Akira Maeda

ER: I didn't realize Han debuted in the main event, against the biggest star, on the biggest RINGS show (up to that point of their history). They obviously saw something special in him, because of course how could you not? We get a good feeling out process, Han looking to get Maeda to throw first by throwing little slaps to Maeda's stomach and cheek, checking leg kicks. And once Han starts to do Volk Han things, it's like Maeda instantly gets dragged into playing Han's game when Han times a Maeda strike to hit a flying armbar. Han is the guy most likely to destroy someone's legs with a shoot figure 4 variation, and the way he makes knots out of Maeda's legs is pure art. It looks like he knows dozens of different pressure points in the legs, and it's amazing to watch him make even slight movements to apply different pressure. Maeda has to scramble for the ropes pretty quick a couple times, and that's when he decides to go for suplexes. There were some great suplexes in this fight, with Maeda's snap vertical looking picture perfect, and Han gets a huge deadlift belly to belly and back suplex, and even spikes Maeda with a kind of DDT. Maeda seems somewhat befuddled by Han, who keeps flinging himself at Maeda's legs and gets an absolutely disgusting kneebar that was hyperextending Maeda's long leg at such a gross angle that the biggest crowd in RINGS history had to think the ace was leaving limbless. 

Maeda gets a miracle rope break, and Han really starts looking like a monster. He steps out of the way of Maeda's big leaping heel kick and starts taunting him to do it again, then starts basically knocking Maeda to the mat. Han catches a high kick and just shoves Maeda over, then sweeps his leg like a real jerk after Maeda gets up. BUT, fighting over those suplexes and going full strength with submissions start to suddenly, visibly catch up to Han, as he appears to gas out down the stretch. At first it looks like Han is baiting Maeda into throwing some more, some obvious trick by resting his hands on his knees and leaning in with his face. It looks like a total trap, and Maeda treats it like a trap, until he realizes that Han is washed. NOW that leaping heel kick doesn't miss, and Han eating canvas felt like a triumphant moment. After barely beating the count from that kick, Han uses the rest of his strength to throw Maeda with a big uranage, but doesn't have quite the same energy to tap Maeda, legs getting all pretzeled together again, and Maeda taps him with a toehold as Han is bending at Maeda's knee (for the dozenth time). I spent so much of this match wondering how Han was able to keep up such a furious pace, and well, eventually he was not. This was such an excellent way to close out the first year of RINGS, Han the invading Russian who almost embarrassed the ace, no doubt setting up huge things for the next year. 

PAS: What a debut for Han, right up there with the greatest debut matches in wrestling history. We all know Han as a master of technique, smooth, violent, innovative, his execution is unparalleled, but man did he just get pro-wrestling as a storytelling medium so quickly. I loved the way this progressed, with Han showing such virtuosity early and Maeda seeming taken aback at the speed and force of his attacks. That first leaping cross armbreaker threw Maeda both literally and figuratively. Then Maeda seemed to adjust and find moments to shine, a kick which lands, a snap suplex, and Maeda doesn't die with some of those submissions, he just lives another day, and eventually that is enough. Han starts to wilt, his hair starts to get mussed (shout out to my brother from another Tomk for coming up with his theory about Han's hair selling), and Maeda hits his big spin kick, dropping Han like a stone. Han is able to get back, hit a throw and tie up Maeda again, but Akira pulls out a trick and is able to snatch an ankle before Han can snatch a knee. Man am I excited to revisit this match up again, what a pair of legends. 

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