1994: Ooh Vader, UWF-I Love Your Way

Super Vader vs. Masahito Kakihara  UWF-I 5/6/94

ER: This was shaping up to be maybe the squashiest of the Vader UWF-I matches, until suddenly it was filled to the brim with joy and became epic. Vader rushes and repeatedly crushes Kakihara into the corner, just traps him and mauls him. After the first pouncing the ref is almost surprised to see Kakihara not getting up, but Vader smells blood and keeps going to that well. Kakihara is very quickly down 15-6. This seems literally 30 seconds away from being a points TKO, but Vader misses a huge lariat and Kakihara goes for broke with a spinning heel kick that surprises Vader, and Kakihara is unleashed!! He starts kicking at Vader, drops him to all fours with a kick to the gut, kicks him while he's down, and grabs that arm. Vader, you recall, got his arm ripped apart when he finally tapped out against Takada, full arm stretcher job and everything. Here we are 6 months later and he still has that arm bandaged up! Tapping to Takada gave the monster an actual, exploitable weakness! Fans saw it work before, Vader still clearly has a hurt arm, though he didn't have a heavily bandaged arm during these same 6 months in WCW. Yes, Vader is working a UWF-I-only injury, just telling all his friends that he really DOES have a girlfriend, but you see she lives in Canada. Kakihara doesn't get shutout, as Vader needs the rope break, but you can't knock away 14 more points 1 point at a time. He dances with the spinning heel kick that brung him to the dance, Vader ducks low having seen it coming a mile away, and then proceeds to see if he has the strength to propel a human body through a ring. He hits his mammoth chokeslam and then rolls through Kakihara with a snapmare, just so he could roll him back into his face smasher. Kakihara's face bounces disgustingly off the mat and that is all. Many people attend to him. A human-sized stretcher is brought in, and Vader babyfaces himself by telling the crowd that the West could learn a lot from Japanese culture, and that win or lose he will always put on a good fight. I would have loved it had he said that, then gone and totally upended Kakihara on the stretcher.

Super Vader vs. Kiyoshi Tamura  UWF-I 6/10/94

ER: One of the hottest under 10 minute matches in history. I'd like to think Vince McMahon would have billed it as "Seven Minutes...IN HELL!" We open on Vader wearing the largest wraparound Oakleys you've seen, and Vader's entrance theme is a glorious 16 bit 4-bar junkyard bop, like you're about to face a boss comprised of scrap metal and car parts. Tamura opts to slap face instead of shake hand, and the crowd recognizes that their lives will not ever be the same again. Tamura knows his chances of winning lie in the mat, and how do you get a boulder with legs to the mat? You kick those legs right out from under the boulder. Tamura unleashes those leg kicks and Vader sells them perfectly. Tamura figures out just how far away he can be from him to land them and not get crushed. It's a mostly sound strategy. Tamura kicks low a few times and finishes high, knocks Vader into the ropes, low again and then high, starts working for a heel hook. It's an awesome sight to see a beast like Vader scrambling for ropes. At one point Tamura grabs what looks like the nastiest stump puller I've ever seen and I have no clue how Vader was able to stand afterwards. Vader immediately just starts going for KO blows, trying to muscle through the leg kicks to land one big shot. One shot does land, knocking Tamura to the mat, and the second the ref checks in on Tamura, Vader drops to a knee in pain. My god what a great moment. Another great moment comes when Vader swings wild and falls on his face, leading to Tamura pouncing. But once Vader lands a shot, then another, then a hard slam, Tamura's points just start falling far too quickly. I loved Tamura rolling back to his feet after a fallaway slam, so he wouldn't get dinged 3 points for getting knocked down, and love how he gamely tries to spring to his feet after a powerbomb, but...it's a Vader powerbomb. That's a match ender, that.

Super Vader vs. Nobuhiko Takada  UWF-I 8/18/94

ER: I've seen a lot of praise for this match, and it's the most commonly cited "great UWF-I main event" or some iteration of that claim ("best Takada main event", "best Vader match in UWF-I") and I just don't agree. I think overall it's hurt by its length of nearly 20 minutes. 20 minutes doesn't sound like a long time for a main event in front of a packed and enthusiastic Budokan crowd, but it lead to some repetitive stand and trade and knockdown. If this was the only time Vader worked UWF-I then I imagine I would have been flipping out for this. There were still a ton of great moments, and the extra time allowed for a longer story to unfold, as we'd not really had a Vader match where exhaustion set in for both fighters, with both men tired and forced to work in quick bursts and then rest, or go to a hold with no intention of finishing, but knowing it just momentarily stops things and allows the lungs to fill back up.

It's tough to do a long worked shoot match without someone's strikes looking ineffective. Every UWF-I Vader fight we've seen so far have had guys getting put down with strikes, only to struggle to their feet a handful of times until they no longer can (or, if they're using a points system, until they are a big 0). Here we get 20 minutes of Takada valiantly climbing back to his feet, and it's tough to not feel like a major portion of the middle of the match is just these two spinning their wheels. Vader knocks Takada to the mat 3 times in the first minute of the match, one of the times leading to Takada curled up in the fetal position around the ringpost, looking like a sleepy kitten who tired himself out and landed in a cozy sunbeam. And I think there are maybe too many peaks/valleys here, with both set in their ways and both trying to finish the way they know how to finish, and the longer you see it the more other little stories open up, and you're wondering if you're imagining the ref counting down Vader faster, and when Takada goes down he takes a couple seconds to check on him before beginning each count, and your brain starts wondering if Takada is somehow giving off the appearance of cheating in a worked fight.

I wish this was worked with points. I don't know why some UWF-I fights have points, and others don't, but I love the sudden death feeling that points fights have. Imagine how Takada would have reacted had he been down 15-6 one minute into the fight! But I do like the tired struggle we get down the stretch, where Takada keeps getting back to his feet with less and less each time, to the point where he's not even attempting offense and merely getting bulldozed now that it's become a weight battle. Vader hits a HUGE German suplex and a stiff shoot powerbomb (with Takada trying to kick him in the face the whole time). Takada finds himself in worse and worse positions on the mat, at one point ending up with his head wedged between Vader's knees, and on the receiving end of a nasty palm strike when attempting an armbar. So while I like the others more, there is charm to this tired epic. Takada had won 17 straight singles fights dating back over 2 years, so having him die on his feet over and over against the Mastodon is a suitable way for an ace to finally succumb.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE VADER IN UWF-I

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All Time MOTY List HEAD to HEAD: Tamura vs. Yamamoto VS. Santa/Casas vs. Bestia/Scorpio Jr.

Kiyoshi Tamura v. Yoshihisa Yamamoto RINGS 6/24/99

ER: Boy do I feel like I'm on a lonely island. I appear to be the low vote on a match that many people seem to think is the easy MOTY choice for 1999. Reading others' thoughts on the match and it appears there are several moments where I'm just seeing totally different things than them. It's my least favorite spot to be on a wrestling match. I don't need to fall into the consensus on something, and I always get tickled when I come out the high vote on something. I think our entertainment "high votes" in life paint an interesting picture about us. What movies, albums, wrestling, food, etc. you love more than anybody you know can tell you a lot about yourself. It won't necessarily be anything profound, but our differences are an important part of our makeup. But I don't love being the low vote. It always makes me think that I'm locked outside, missing out on all the fun. And I did enjoy this match, I just seem to think it's more flawed than others. The grappling is intense and some of the escapes are unreal. You think Tamura is trapped in a rear naked or Yamamoto is hooked in a knee bar and they find some wild way to spin out of it. And it's done so tight that it would be very very easy to think all of the ground stuff was a shoot. There weren't those little moments where you can see someone leaving an arm hanging slightly longer, or helping someone maneuver to a rope break. So in that regard the matwork was a colossal success. These two looked like two guys genuinely trying to tap each other, and I loved that. The RINGS system has some built in excitement, especially when guys start building up points. You suddenly find yourself with 3 of your 5 points filled up and things can get desperate, intense. And they do. Tamura takes a knockdown and the intensity ramped up big time, and it was suddenly like he was unloading every single strike he knew on Yamamoto. Yamamoto gets knocked down and his hubris brings him back up quick and once things got to 4 and 4 we got this great vibe of two guys playing it safe while simultaneously going for the kill; knowing things are close, but not wanting to do something stupid. All in all a pretty fiercely contested bout with some of the finest matwork you've seen.

The things that left me flat about the match could possibly be because of my lack of familiarity with each man's personal history with each other. Maybe I missed tiny moments that played off behind the scenes drama or prior match drama. But things fell flat nonetheless. Tamura slapping Yamamoto before the bell came off so weird, so phony, so silly. It was like Dynamite Kid grabbing a bottle against Tiger Mask, or Big Al pulling out a knife. It's not close to as blatantly stupid as either of those, but it felt just as out of place. He slapped him before the bell and one moment later it was completely forgotten; Tamura just casually goes for a double leg and there's no more unprofessionalism. That silly slap undermined the dead serious and awesome matwork they moments later put on display. It was such a non-committed slap, made no sense.

And the same could be said about Yamamoto's weird pattycake punches throughout the first half, just tapping at Tamura's tummy and legs. I've seen it suggested that he was doing this to annoy Tamura, but you know what's really annoying? Hitting a guy hard! It could be my misunderstanding of RINGS rules, but I thought closed strikes were allowed to the body but only open strikes are allowed to the face (but somehow full flush standing kicks are allowed to the face so it seems like RINGS just has weirdly restricting rules). So Yamamoto pats away and Tamura gets annoyed and Yamamoto gets more annoyed and starts hitting harder and eventually gets a yellow card. So are punches to the tummy legal as long as you aren't punching as hard as you're capable of? Did he get a yellow card for doing the same thing he had been doing but now doing it while making aggressive angry faces? The whole thing came off dumb.

The home stretch is intense - especially when both men are one mark away from a loss - but even that end strike stretch felt like it could have and should have come way sooner. They avoid standing strikes for the bulk of this - except for that Tamura slap which made no sense - and then just throw nothing but strikes in the final two minutes. Were they just both at their breaking points? Are they both cocky and prefer to finish off their opponents with groundwork and this was them showing that they were throwing the playbook out the window? Possibly. But I would have liked to see more strikes tempered out throughout the match, even just testing shots, feeling out shots. And while the ending stretch was hot and ends with some great knee bar reversals where you can't really tell who is in control and who is about to tap (THAT is an excellent touch by both man and maybe the best moment of the match), the whole thing ends in a time limit draw, which is phenomenally unsatisfying. A match not having a finish will almost always come off lesser to me, and the draw finish coming after everything we saw just felt cruel. The guys put in the work to deserve an actual winner, and I was dying for a winner. Maybe the draw made each man stronger, maybe it built to a bigger fight, but I want a winner. So the match was good. Some of it was excellent. But as an overall presentation I was left lower than most. Please revoke my internet wrestling fan club card.

PAS: I am in the middle here, I like this more then Eric, some of his issues with this don't bother me at all, but I don't think this match is the apex of shootstyle, or among the best matches ever.

I had no problem with the match escalating to the strike fest, I totally buy the match structure of two guys battling over mat supremacy, until they lose their tempers and start throwing hands. The final stand up run was awesome, felt like the wildest MMA fights and I liked that the match built to that point. Tamura is great at milking a nine

I also don't really have a problem with the little dickish punches, I have seen a ton of great Fujiwara matches where he taunts a guy by slapping him around or lightly kicking him, I was fine with it as a bit of character work, otherwise Yammamoto is pretty dry in this match so it was nice to see him show some flash.

However I am totally with Eric on the draw, really deflating finish, it just kind of ended, I wouldn't mind a draw if it came as one guy was struggling to get up after a 9 count, or desperate to escape a submission hold, but this came in the middle of an otherwise unremarkable scramble. It had no climax, it just stopped.

The skill level on the matwork here was really impressive, they countered with real speed and explosiveness and there was a bunch of cool dramatic moments, with guys failing to counter and needing to get to the ropes. Still I prefer guile to athleticism in my matwork. My favorite mat wrestlers are old maestros like Fujiwara, Han and Navarro, guys who know all the tricks, they may not have the strength and speed, but they can catch you sleeping. This was very focused on armbars, kneebars and chokes, I would have liked to see a little more wizardry. Even something like the Zach Sabre Jr. v. Drew Gulak match I saw live had guys applying odd counters and cool unique submissions, this was basic stuff done at the highest level, but for best shootstyle match ever I want some pizzaz.

Lucha Apuestas Review

Verdict

PAS: I totally enjoyed this, hadn't seen it in years (if at all) and was into it from start to finish, still compared to the great Fujiwara shoot matches, or high end BattlArts this fell short. To beat something incredible like the lucha apuestas tag, this would have had to hit that level.

ER: I enjoyed this match. Not as much as some, and not as much as the lucha tag, but I enjoyed it, and I think it was certainly a worthy nomination and challenger. But the lucha tag wins it for me.

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