PWFG TAPES/DVD
Yusuke Fuke vs. Wellington Wilkins, Jr. 12:00. A fairly believable match, but not a particularly entertaining one as they just sort of layed then rolled around for a dozen minutes. The positions, and their transitions in and out of them, were the truest on the card to real fighting, but it’s more than a bit odd to have the first match in the history of the promotion end with that staple of realism, the leg split. Neither man was bad, but they also weren't impressive in any way. **
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Johnny Barrett 7:12. Fujiwara tried to push the shooting style in the direction of believability, but as a result his matches tended to lack entertainment value. It didn’t help that his opponent, who was at least 75 pounds overweight, looked like someone you would come up with if, for some unknown reason, you needed a standin for Earthquake Ferris. All Barrett wanted to do was lie around on the mat. In his defense, that was his strength, if he could be said to have one, as he was more or less competent on the ground but his standup wasn’t sharp. Fujiwara knocked Barrett down with a headbutt out of a clinch, but generally accomodated his opponent by keeping it on the canvas. Both were nonetheless passable, but the match was brief and uneventful. *1/4
Wayne Shamrock vs. Minoru Suzuki 30:00. Being one of the newest and youngest fighters in U.W.F., Suzuki had a hard time seizing the limelight, but really came into his own as a regular top of the card performer in PWFG. He made a great impression from the get go, stealing the show in a match designed to build anticipation for a main event rematch. Fujiwara’s match was definitely more believable, but it was the younger fighters that Fujiwara gave the spotlight to, particularly Suzuki, who set out to evolve the shooting style by working and countering the holds rather than just lying around and taking rope escapes as many a man had been content to in U.W.F. While it wasn't the smoothest match and it didn't have the best sequences, I was impressed by the active matwork with regular position changes. Most shooters can counter, but one thing that elevated this match above the pack was the intensity and effort they fought with. Everytime you thought one man had made some headway, the other took the advantage at least partially back. The frustration seemed genuine, particularly when Shamrock rope escaped Suzuki’s ankle lock. I was impressed by how hard they fought throughout the duration of the contest. It never felt as though it would be a marathon, in part because they never stalled, but much of their success was in getting over the concept that they were equals without the usual corniness that has full time draw written all over it. I appreciated their lack of laziness, not so much in keeping the pace, but the fact that Suzuki, and to a lesser extent Shamrock, understood the importance in putting the effort into their grimacing and contorting to maintain the interest, anticipation, and credibility of what they were doing. They worked some highspots into the submission oriented match such as the overhead belly to belly suplex with a float over and a dropkick, and did some nasty striking in the second half, but the crowd really took to this one because they made their attempts and refusals seem important. By the end of the night, these two had the crowd in the palm of their hands. There was some booing for the draw, but they soon gave the performers a big hand for their exceptional effort. ****
Masakatsu Funaki vs. Bart Vale 17:36. Even though they didn’t stick to the U.W.F. tradition of a no time limit main event, I’m guessing they wanted to send people home after a match that had a decisive victory because the draw was viewed by their fan base as something of a gimmicky copout. The problem is there was no way this was going to be able to compete with the quality of the previous match to the extent that the crowd would be riveted. Vale’s technique is good enough, but he’s just not that energetic, and a slow, inactive match was a tough sell after Suzuki vs. Shamrock. Compounding the problem, this was a style clash with the technical master Funaki going against the sluggish striker that lacks stamina in a match long enough to send Vale right into patient, time killing mode. Vale, not surprisingly, did most of his damage with kicks, but his striking generally wasn’t that crisp. He did do an Owen Hart style enzuigiri that looked damaging, particularly due to the way Funaki sold it, though this wasn’t exactly scoring points for credibility. The match never picked up, and was just kind of there. *1/2
Minoru Suzuki vs. Kazuo (Yoshiki) Takahashi
Yusuke Fuke vs. Bart Vale
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Wellington Wilkins, Jr.
Naoki Sano vs. Wayne Shamrock
Masakatsu Funaki vs. Johnny Barrett
Kazuo Takahashi vs. Mark Rose
Bart Vale vs. Lato Kiraware
Wayne Shamrock vs. Duane Koslowski
Ishu Kakutogisen: Yusuke Fuke vs. Rawei Nabataya
Minoru Suzuki vs. Naoki Sano
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Masakatsu Funaki
Duane Koslowski vs. Kazuo Takahashi. This went pretty much like I'd expect if it was legit with Koslowski controlling the match with his far superior wrestling skill. Unfortunately, that didn't make for a particularly exciting match.
Jerry Flynn vs. Bart Vale. It looked like it was going to develop into a good match, but then just ended out of nowhere.
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Lado Kirawai (sp?). Kirawai had the Tugboat Taylor "physique" and really sucked, but that made it kind of funny. Even Fujiwara was having a hard time keeping a straight face in points. Fujiwara decided he was going to use this match to prove that he could strike, so he pretty much made Kirawai into his punching bad. The striking wasn't good from a technique sense, but it had a lot of action. Not a good match, but entertaining in a somewhat perverse way.
Ishu Kakutogisen: Minoru Suzuki vs. Lawi Nabataya. Nabataya threw a few hard kicks, but it was over once Suzuki got the Muay Thai fighter to the ground.
Masakatsu Funaki vs. (Ken) Wayne Shamrock. U.W.F. style. Stiff and very intense. Funaki was excellent. The standing portion was excellent because they made it look real with the speed and power of the blows to go with the intensity. The mat was kind of dull though because it was slow and they didn't really chain anything together. Still, it was a very good long match.
Kazuo Takahashi vs. Lato Kiraware (sp?)
Yusuke Fuke vs. Wellington Wilkins, Jr.
Naoki Sano vs. Bart Vale
Masakatsu Funaki vs. Mark Rose
Wayne Shamrock vs. Minoru Suzuki
Yusuke Fuke vs. Jerry Flynn
Wayne Shamrock vs. Wellington Wilkins, Jr.
Masakatsu Funaki vs. Kazuo Takahashi
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Mark Rose
Minoru Suzuki vs. Bart Vale
Kazuo Takahashi vs. Wellington Wilkins, Jr.
Naoki Sano vs. Jerry Flynn
Minoru Suzuki vs. Yusuke Fuke
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Bart Vale
Masakatsu Funaki vs. Wayne Shamrock
Kazuo Takahashi vs. Jerry Flynn
Yusuke Fuke vs. Dieseul Berto
Masakatsu Funaki vs. Mark Rose
Minoru Suzuki vs. Wayne Shamrock
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Bart Vale
Highlights of the best bouts from every show
3/4/91 - Fuke vs. Wilkins, Fujiwara vs. Barrett, (Ken) Wayne Shamrock vs. Suzuki, Funaki vs. Vale
5/16/91 - Suzuki vs. Takahashi
7/26/91 - Fuke vs. Nabataya, Sano vs. Suzuki, Fujiwara vs. Funaki
Fujiwara demonstrates submission holds
8/23/91 - Suzuki vs. Nabataya, Funaki vs. Shamrock
9/28/91 - Suzuki vs. Shamrock
10/7/91 - Funaki vs. Takahashi
Suzuki demonstrates super sparring, chain reaction, & stack stance
11/3/91 - Fujiwara vs. Suzuki
1/15/92 - Suzuki vs. Fuke, Funaki vs. Shamrock
2/24/92 - Funaki vs. Shamrock
3/20/92 - Funaki vs. Rose, Takahashi vs. Yuki Ishikawa, Fuke vs. Yanagisawa, Fujiwara vs. Flynn, Shamrock vs. Suzuki, Funaki vs. Roberto Duran (complete)
Deisuel Bert vs. Ryushi Yanagisawa
Jerry Flynn vs. Yuki Ishikawa
Minoru Suzuki vs. Kazuo Takahashi
Masakatsu Funaki vs. Yusuke Fuke
Bart Vale vs. Wayne Shamrock
Don Nakaya Neilsen vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Jerry Flynn vs. Ryushi Yanagisawa
Minoru Suzuki vs. Yuki Ishikawa
Masakatsu Funaki vs. Kazuo Takahashi
Bart Vale vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Jerry Flynn vs. Yuki Ishikawa
Johnny Barrett vs. Galtaba Georgie
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Mark Rose
Wayne Shamrock vs. Kazuo Takahashi
Masakatsu Funaki vs. Ryushi Yanagisawa
Minoru Suzuki vs. Joe Sorkof
Yuki Ishikawa vs. Ryushi Yanagisawa. Long slow boring draw. Once in a while one of them would lock a submission, leading to a rope break. 10:52 of 30:00
Joe Sorcoff vs. Galtaba Georgie. These guys appeared to be Greco-Roman wrestlers. One cool suplex, but mainly a bunch of grappling. 6:52
Naoki Sano vs. Jerry Flynn. I expected a lot more from this. Slow cautious match match with too much marginal matwork and no big kicks. 9:00 of 11:08
Bart Vale vs. Alexsi Medbji. This actually wasn't a bad match. Vale wanted to kick, but Medbji wasnte to wrestle on the mat, so at least it was a battle of the varying styles. 8:07 of 10:26
Duane Koslowski vs. Naniev Oleg. Another match that was mainly on the mat, but that was okay since they were active. 8:39
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Zaour Otarorich Chabadge. Match was nothing special, but it was the first one today that had a buzz from the crowd. 6:10
3 Min 5 Rd: Kazuo (Yoshiki) Takahashi vs. Superman Sattasaba. Takahashi was wider in these days. The finish was dramatic, with Takahashi going nuts when he won. 1R 2:37
Ishu Kakutogisen: Ken Shamrock vs. Don Nakaya Nielson. Shamrock took Nielson down and armlocked him. That was the whole match. 1R 0:45
Minoru Suzuki vs. David Gobediishvili. The fans went nuts for the finish, but otherwise it was blah. 5:17
Ishu Kakutogisen 3 Min 5 Rd: Masakatsu Funaki vs. Maurice Smith. A show saver. Smith won the first round because it was entirely standing, but he didn't get any big blows in and Funaki held his own. They did a lot of moving and faking, which is something you don't see nearly enough of in the standup portions of works, I suppose because they don't usually involve intelligent highly skilled kickboxers or guys like Funaki that understand the intricacies of about any style. Smith started landing more in the 2nd round, but Funaki answered him to some extent. Smith put Funaki down with a front kick at the 2nd round bell, but there was no count (I'm not sure if it was supposed to be late or they had a saved by the bell rule). Funaki finally tried for some takedowns in round 3, with a very exciting portion when he finally succeeded. The 5th round was the best, particularly the closing minute where Funaki took Smith down 3 times. Smith would struggle mightily and dive to the ropes, as you always get with these matches, but the thing is this match wasn't all about that and they mixed those frustrating failures with some takedowns in the center of the ring (thus Smith wasn't portrayed as a guy that would lose immediately if he didn't have the ropes to bail him out). Though no one succeeded in any major techniques, the match was really good. It was more realistic than you'd expect, but if I was booking it I would have given Smith one knockdown and Funaki one near submission rope escape because that would still have been even, but you would have had two major reactions. 15:00. ***3/4
10 count for Mr. Soronaka
10 Minute Exhibition Match: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Shinobu Kandori. Fujiwara gave Kandori a lesson in humility 101. He just let her attack him then countered with a submission. Kandori tapped more times in 10 minutes than in the rest of her career combined. Fujiwara made a joke or two and kissed Kandori at one point, but otherwise it was a serious exhibition.
Jerry Flynn vs. Diusel Bert. Flynn put on a pretty good show, but Bert is pretty colorless. Standup had some nice strikes, particularly from Flynn, but the ground wasn't very good.
Yuki Ishikawa vs. Carl Greco. Technically sound, but not the most exciting match you'll see even though there were a lot of escapes and some hard blows.
Mark Ashford vs. Bart Vale. Good standup. Vale did this one jumping high kick where he (I guess accidentally) nearly killed Ashford dead. I mean, it wound up being full force and you could here a loud pop on impact. Ashford somehow got up, and Vale gave him another one of these kicks later, but this one wasn't insane.
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Joe Malenko. All matwork. Malenko is a good solid technician, but Fujiwara was still his boring self that doesn't put his opponents over and more than he "has to." A lot of weardown and positioning, but not a lot of near finishes.
Carl Greco vs. Mark Ashford
Jerry Flynn vs. Charlie Anderson
Bart Vale vs. Joe Malenko
Tokimitsu Ishizawa vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Duane Koslowski vs. Yuki Ishikawa
Carl Greco vs. Shoichi Funaki
Don Arakawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda
Deisuel Bert vs. Katsumi Usuda
Yuki Ishikawa vs. Charlie Anderson
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Glenn Jacobs
Sparring: Antonio Inoki vs. Yuki Ishikawa
Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Minoru Tanaka
Carl Greco vs. Shoichi Funaki
Glenn Jacobs vs. Daisuke Ikeda
Yuki Ishikawa vs. Katsumi Usuda
Man & Woman Mixed Tag Match: Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Thunder Crack vs. Jol Malenko & Shinobu Kandori
Wellington Wilkins Jr. & Don Arakawa vs. Yone Genjin & Tsubo Genjin. Digest
Takeshi Ono vs Minoru Tanaka. Digest
Shoichi Funaki vs. Shinjiro Otani. Digest
Yuki Ishikawa & Naohiro Hoshikawa vs Daisuke Ikeda & Hanzo Nakajima
Yoshiaki Fujiwara & The Great Sasuke vs TAKA Michinoku & El Samurai
Geguero vs. Takeshi Okamura
Apolo Sugawara vs. Hiroaki Hatanaka
Hiroaki Junshima (?) vs. ? Kikawada
Tsubo Genjin vs. Don Arakawa
Masao Orihara vs. Onryo
Street Fight Death Match: Dick Slater & Masanobu Kurisu vs. Mr. Pogo & Toryu
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Dick Murdock