-2hr 55min. Q=Original. P=SP3
ORIGINAL TAPES - RINGS THROUGH UWF-I
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Herman Renting
Chris Dolman vs. Tom Van Maurik
Willy Wilhelm vs. Pieter Smit
Akira Maeda vs. Dick Vrij
Herman Renting vs. Shutorme Kopa (sp?)
Mitsuya Nagai vs. ? Kimura
Willie Peeters vs. Bart Kopps, Jr.
Nobuaki Kakuta vs. Rob Kamen
Willy Wilhelm vs. Karmikof Igor
Masaaki Satake vs. Gerard Gordeau
Akira Maeda vs. Dick Vrij
Adam Watt vs. Hanse Nyman
Volk Han vs. Genaji Gigando
Nobuaki Kakuta vs. Rudy Ewoldt
Willy Williams vs. Pieter Smit
Masaaki Satake vs. Fred Oestron
Akira Maeda vs. Buzariashivili Ramazi
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Masayuki Naruse
Volk Han vs. Grom Zaza
Peter Aerts vs. Adam Watt
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Dick Vrij
Willy Williams vs. Bitsadze Ameran
Masaaki Satake vs. Bert Kops, Jr.
Akira Maeda vs. Hank Newman
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Masayuki Naruse
Yoshinori Nishi vs. Willie Peeters
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Nobuaki Kakuda
3Min 5Rd: Naoyuki Taira vs. Eric Edelenbos
Willy Williams vs. Tom Von Maurik
Volk Han vs. Herman Renting
Masaaki Satake vs. Willie Peeters
Akira Maeda vs. Hans Nyman
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Masayuki Naruse. Lots of cool kicks hit and attempted. Crisp execution. Yamamoto was really dominant on the mat, which was surprising to me. His size advantage helped him a lot in the takedown department. Good match with both showing a lot of potential. The mat technique was kind of basic, but the kicking was strong.
Nobuaki Kikuta vs. Yukihiro Takenami
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Willie Peeters. Very intense shoot. Defense wasn't the greatest and they took a lot of chances, as you would expect with Peeters involved, so there were a lot of big moves.
Dick Vrij vs. Hans Nyman. A bad bout with a lot of striking, of course.
Chris Dolman vs. Busariashibin Ramaji
Peter Oele vs. Masaaki Satake
Volk Han vs. Andrei Kopilov. Not surprisingly, this was a good mat match. Kind of slow because they went so long. A lot of cool looking submissions and counters though.
Akira Maeda vs. Willy Williams. Williams isn't carryable. Below average bout.
Koichiro Kimura vs. Masayuki Naruse
Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Yoshinori Nishi
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Cvetlan Paolov
Grom Zaza vs. Shutorm Kova
Chris Dolman vs. Herman Renting
Kick Rule 3Min 5Rd: Masaaki Satake vs. Rob Kaman
Volk Han vs. Dick Vrij
Akira Maeda vs. Andrei Kopylov
Masayuki Naruse vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Herman Renting vs. Nobuaki Kakuta
Willy Williams vs. Yukihiro Takenami
Dick Vrij vs. Hanse Nyman
Chris Dolman vs. Andrei Kopylov
Akira Maeda vs. Dimiter Petkov
Nobuaki Kakuta vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Sergei Sousserov
Georgi Kandrakki vs. Rudy Ewolt
Volk Han vs. Sotir Kochiev
MEGA-BATTLE TOURNAMENT '92 Junkessho
Dick Vrij vs. Herman Renting
Akira Maeda vs. Chris Dolman
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Masayuki Naruse
Sotir Gotchev vs. Todor Todorov
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Yoshinori Nishi
Volk Han vs. Andre Tournamidze
MEGA-BATTLE '92 3rd Place Match: Akira Maeda vs. Herman Renting
MEGA-BATTLE '92 Final, 3Min 5Rd: Chris Dolman vs. Dick Vrij
3Min 5Rd: Georgi Kandelaki vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
3Min 5Rd: Masayuki Naruse vs. Wataru Sakata
Nikolai Zouev vs. Tudor Todorov
3Min 5Rd: Hans Nyman vs. Mitsuya Nagai
3Min 5Rd. Willy Williams vs. Bitsadze Tariel
Ranking Match: Volk Han vs. Dick Vrij
Masayuki Naruse vs. Tigr Levani 30:00
3Min 5Rd: Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Mihail Simov R3 1:39
Pieter Oele vs. Willie Peeters 12:01
Nikolai Zouev vs. Grom Zaza 15:59
3Min 5Rd: Bitsadze Tariel vs. Hans Nyman R5 0:39
Special Match: Willy Williams vs. Dick Vrij 5R.
Special Match: Volk Han vs. Chris Dolman 6:20
Naniev Olegg vs. Georgii Galdava
Georgi Kandelaki vs. Masayuki Naruse
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Vladimir Petkov
BATTLE DIMENSION TOURNAMENT 2nd Round:
Bitsadze Tariel vs. Dick Vrij
Chris Dolman vs. Willie Peeters
Volk Han vs. Nikolai Zouev
Akira Maeda vs. Herman Renting
Grom Zaza vs. Hank Newman
Masayuki Naruse vs. Tudor Todorov
Georgi Gandelaki vs. Sarsania Zolab
Dick Vrij vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Volk Han vs. Pavel Orlov
Tournament Semifinal: Bitsadze Tariel vs. Nikolai Zouev
Tournament Semifinal: Akira Maeda vs. Chris Dolman
Fred Oosterom vs. Andre Tourmanidze
Bart Vale vs. Peter Smit
Kickboxing: Rene Rooze vs. Rob Esdonk
Volk Han vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto. Dramatic match with Yamamoto showing a lot of spunk and charisma. Great heat. Han did his typical assortment of cool submissions. A bit one-sided, but still a very good and exciting bout.
Dick Vrij vs. Mikhail Simov
Chris Dolman vs. Nikolai Zouev
Battle Dimension Final: Akira Maeda vs. Bitsadze Tariel. Very heated sprint. Passable.
3Min 5 Rd: Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. Nobuhiro Tsurumaki
Masayuki Naruse vs. Satoshi Honma
Willie Wilhelm vs. David Hahareshivili
Willie Peeters vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Tony Halme vs. Thomas Lurosi
Volk Han vs. Georgi Gandelaki
Akira Maeda vs. Chabadze Zaour
3Min 5Rd: Valentin Davidov vs. Bob Schreiber
Masayuki Naruse vs. Wataru Sakata
Bitsadze Tariel vs. Bart Vale
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Volk Han vs. Nikolai Zouev
Akira Maeda vs. Dick Vrij 5:38
Wataru Sakata vs. Emil Krastev. Shooter vs. kickboxer, with Krastev fighting with gloves on. The usual style for these kind of matches with Sakata going all out to get it on the ground, and Krastev grabbing the ropes ASAP once Sakata got him down. Interesting match, but it was really short. Sakata did a good job, but Krastev seemed out of his element.
Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. Grom Zaza. Way better than I expected. Kosaka hadn't come into his own yet, and I'd never seen a Zaza match that wasn't BORING, but this was actually very good. Kosaka was very good though, and Zaza gave his best performance. It was fast-paced, and they went though a lot of points. It actually could have been excellent if Kosaka was allowed to compete. ***1/2
Vladimir Klementiev vs. Pieter Oele. Almost all standup, but the striking wasn't particularly impressive. *
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Nikolai Zouev. Solid, well worked match. Not that exciting, but fairly "realistic." **1/4
WORLD MEGA-BATTLE TOURNAMENT Junkessho: Volk Han vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto. It was definitely a work, but the way they were able to work together to do the complicated sequences or even just keep reacting to each other and avoiding the potential submissions is really what made the match. They thought and reacted so quickly. As soon as one guy tried to apply a submission, the other was rolling or spinning into a position where he could try to go right into a submission. There was really no advantage in this sprint because as soon as you seemingly had it, the other guy took it right away from you. Right off the bat they were trying to lock submissions on, but their opponent would always turn, spin, on one occassion even "dance" his way out of trouble. The match was built in the sense that in the beginning all the attempts at submissions were quickly avoided, but as time went on they'd come closer and closer to catching their opponent and advancing to the final of the annual MEGA BATTLE TOURNAMENT. Read Review. ****1/2
WORLD MEGA-BATTLE TOURNAMENT Junkessho: Akira Maeda vs. Hanse Nyman. It was all action, but it was short and came off flat after the previous classic because these guys didn't chain anything together. *1/4
Sanae Kikuta vs. Kaichi Tsuji. Realistic enough to be somewhat credible, but it wasn't exciting and was rather one-sided. No tension or flare. *
Sean McCully vs. Lee Hasdell. McCully was giving up several inches. That made this a bad matchup for him because his shoots and charges are so verticle and high up on the opponent. It was rather easy for Hasdell to guillotine McCully, all he had to do was bring one of his free arms over the top.
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Christopher Haseman. Least interesting match I've seen from Tamura in RINGS. Fairly believable, but not really compelling. Low impact match with nothing difficult attempted. Tamura took it easy. *1/2
Masayuki Naruse vs. Valentijn Overeem. This match really surprised me. Naruse looked so overmatched. Overeem's striking was very powerful, but what made him so deadly was his quickness. At one point he nailed Naruse with two nasty shotei's in rapid succession. Naruse's chance seemingly was to beat Overeem on the mat, but he didn't have confidence he could get the takedown. For the most part he let Overeem come to him so he'd have the chance to react to Overeem's attack. Long after I gave him no chance, he caught Overeem with an uraken out of nowhere for the shocking victory. Good stuff.
Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto. I probably underrated these two a bit because it seemed to take Tamura or Han for them to do something memorable. This was one of RINGS finest though, a precursor to the classic Tamura vs. Kosaka 6/27/98. It was a technically excellent match with great movement on the mat and some fantastic counters. You might say they didn't do much early on, but there was never any lying around. It's just that they had plenty of time so they weren't rushing things. They had a lot of tricks up their sleeves, but they knew when to use them. They didn't go through many points because they were going for believability, but also because it's much more interesting to show counters for even the locked in submissions. I thought the match was really well structured. They used their energy well, knew when to do things to keep interest, and when to finally let loose. The crowd got into it more and more as the match went on. Unlike the afformentioned Tamura vs. Kosaka, it seemed like these two won everyone over, as the whole building was going nuts toward the end, especially for Yamamoto's heart and courage, and there was a long round of applause after the match. One hell of a grueling match to do at Korakuen during a time when almost every RINGS show was in an arena that held at least twice as many. Both men were cut, I believe accidentally, in their quest to make the strikes totally credible. ****1/2
*Special Price $18 or $23.50 COOP*
Akihiro Gono vs. Tatsuya Kurahashi
Christopher Hazeman vs. Minoru Tanaka
Alexander Otsuka vs. Wataru Sakata
Masayuki Naruse vs. Troy Ittensohn
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Sergei Sousserov
*Special Price $18 or $23.50 COOP*
Akihiro Gono (Free) vs. Tomoki Kanuka (Grappling Universal). This was almost all standup, and Gono was totally dominant.
Yasuhito Namekawa vs. Minoru Toyonaga (Takada Dojo). Excellent match. These two were very inexperienced, in fact Namekawa made his debut here, so their technique wasn't great. However, it was almost more exciting because of that because there were so many times when someone had a chance to win but wound up getting countered or reversed. Both were hungry and fought really hard for a really long time without really gassing. There was a lot of pride on the line because even though these were undercarders, it was still Maeda's league against Takada's league. Namekawa was more dominant here, but Toyonaga may have been more impressive just for the heart and determination he showed. His nose was busted open a minute into the match, and I mean busted open. We're talking bloody streaming for the rest of the match, it was sick, but he never considered quitting and really wasn't even distracted by it. For technical merit this wasn't one of the top shoots of the year, but for pure entertainment, it's one of the best.
Wataru Sakata vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara (Free). Kanehara is one of the most underrated wrestlers in the world. The sequences and counters in this match were excellent. It wasn't really believable because of the moves they did, but the setup was excellent and their work looked seemless. It was a little on the short side, and the second round was kind of goofy with Kanehara forgetting it was illegal to kick when the opponent is on his knees, then laughing because he had stopped himself the first time then decided it was okay, only to have the ref get all over him and give him a red card. Then Sakata did a choice kick that was like a cross between a wheel kick and an abise-giri, but Kanehara didn't sell it at all. Still, if the match wasn't so short it might have been the best match on the show. ***1/4
Masayuki Naruse vs. Daniel Higgins (RINGS Australia). Slow boring match where Higgins really didn't show anything. *
Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. Kenichi Yamamoto (Free). Excellent performance by Kosaka, carrying Yamamoto to his first really good match in RINGS (and it's not like he had many anywhere else). Yamamoto had a lot of offense early so the fans would believe he could win, then they mainly exchanged big spots. Kosaka's offense was near submissions while Yamamoto rocked Kosaka with strikes. It was Han-ish in the way they plowed through the spots, but that made it really exciting. They really did a great job of going in and out of the standup portions, the match flowed so well and everything was done so smoothly. ***3/4
9 Man Battle Royal
Azteca vs. Guerrero Diablo
Brad Kohler & Scotty Z vs. James Kahn & Chi Town Thug
Jeff Mangel vs. Derrick Dukes
The Hater vs. Masashi Aoyagi
Triple K 1 & 2 vs. Rikio Ito & Daiyo Kawauchi
Pepsi Boy & Cola Kid vs. Knuckles Nelson & Eric Spracha (sp?)
10/18/90 Kanagawa Yokohama Arena
Undercard digest
Tag Tournament Final: Genichiru Tenryu & The Great Kabuki vs. George Takano & Shunji Takano. Not much different from what these guys did in All Japan. It was stiff, solid, hard fought, and unspectacular. Tenryu & George carried it. Tenryu brought intensity to the match, while George brought a lot of fire and energy. The match was not that long for a final (the semifinals were earlier in the night) and the finish was more surprising than convincing, but overall it was quite good because of the team leaders. ***1/4
10/19/90 Kanagawa Yokohama Arena
Undercard digest
Genichiru Tenryu vs. George Takano. Takano was still trying to wrestle like a junior and Tenryu followed suit. I appreciated a lot of what they were trying to do, but the execution left something to be desired. The structuring of the match was quite good though. Tenryu did as much as he could to get the fans to believe in Takano. It was also an entertaining match, so with Takano being shown to have a chance it was easy to see why the fans could get so into it. Takano provides a lot more action than Tenryu's other SWS opponents. He even did three different dives, for instance. Tenryu did some flying as well as selling for Takano a lot and eventually giving Takano his usual ass kicking. The psychology wasn't great, but all the big spots made up for it for the most part. It seemed a little contrived at times, but even if it wasn't the smartest match the idea of what they were going for was good. ***1/2
Pre show footage including interview with Karl Gotch
10 Minute Exhibition Match: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Shigeo Miyato. This continued for the full 10 minutes no matter how many finishes there were. This was more believable than most of Takada's matches. Miyato did a good job making Takada look like a real force. Everything they did looked good, and they played their roles well, but their roles made it non-competitive even for an exhibition. Good match.
Yoji Anjo vs. Tatsuo Nakano. Dull by today's standards, especially considering how long it was. The matwork wasn't really believable. They did a few fake spots like Anjo hitting a dropkick, but for the most part it was submission oriented. Fair match.
Akira Maeda vs. Kazuo Yamazaki. Back and forth match. Yamazaki was very intense, while Maeda was pretty emotionless and didn't seem to play a role. Fans were into Yamazaki more than you'd think, and Maeda gave him a lot of offense so the fans could believe in him. The match was good both in standup and on the ground, which can't be said about Maeda's later matches. Maeda seemed to blow up around 20 minutes, but Yamazaki was on offense during this portion and Maeda got some wind back for the fireworks of the last few minutes. Very good match.
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Tatsuo Nakano vs. Shigeo Miyato. Good match.
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Norman Smiley. Good match.
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Akira Maeda. Excellent match.
Yoji Anjo vs. Shigeo Miyato. Match was quite good when they did stuff, but they were stalling to stretch it to 20 minutes. Striking was good and would get intense. The submissions weren't as good as a whole, but each had one impressive takedown into a submission. 20:04. ***
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Tsunehito Naito. Really short, but a fun little route with no wasted time. The young punk Naito stood toe to toe with Nakano and tried his best, but just got wrecked. 2:07
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Norman Smiley. Pretty good while it lasted, but short and rather one-sided. Smiley wasn't a threat, but the fans were really into it anyway and Takada threw some nice high kicks. 6:43. **
Akira Maeda vs. Kazuo Yamazaki. Yamazaki's stuff holds up the best of the old UWF guys because its more believable due to him understanding and sometimes utilizing the real positions and his work generally being tighter. He didn't hit as hard as some of the other guys, but he would use fakes and feints to set up his attacks rather than just having his opponent stand there looking stupid when he whacked them. Yamazaki's matches were good at showing the consequences of faulty attacks. Such spots included Yamazaki catching Maeda's roundhouse kick and booting the knee of the plant foot, kneeing Maeda in the head when he shot (obvious now but uncommon in UWF/UWF-I), & Maeda booting Yamazaki when he was on the ground after he failed to put Maeda down with a standing kneel kick. Yamazaki was excellent and totally made the match, but he wasn't even allowed to push Maeda much. The finish came too soon and was even more of a let down because Maeda's kicks didn't look very good. 10:50. ***1/4
Yoji Anjo vs. Tatsuo Nakano. Striking was good, but there was too much lying around on the mat. The match was decent, but would have been much better if it was shorter and they worked and put over the submissions.
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Shigeo Miyato. Yamazaki gave Miyato more offense than he needed to, but then put him away with a couple of moves. I guess it wasn't so bad since submissions just need to be locked on properly in a position where the guy can't reach the ropes, but nonetheless it would have been a better match if Yamazaki had more offense at the end. It was a good match with nice transitions and counters though.
Akira Maeda vs. Norman Smiley. Maeda looked fine, but it was just a squash.
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Bob Backlund. Incredible atmosphere. The fans were so loud whenever a finisher was done. As you'd expect, it wasn't very realistic looking. It was more like submission oriented pro wrestling, but it was good stuff nonetheless. The submission part was not exceptional, but the powerful kicks and nice suplexes somewhat made up for that. Tough match. Backlund got a bloody nose, and Takada got a bruise around his eye. Very good.
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Rule Simulation
Yuji (Masakatsu) Funaki vs. Tatsuo Nakano
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Shigeo Miyato
Mark Roche vs. Minoru Suzuki
Akira Maeda vs. Yoji Anjo
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Shigeo Miyato vs. Kiyoshi Tamura
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Minoru Suzuki
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoji Anjo
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Masakatsu Funaki
Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
9/30
Yoji Anjo vs. Kiyoshi Tamura. Even as a rookie Tamura's movement was good. Actually, he was already a better worker than Anjo. Pretty active match with good transitions. Obviously Tamura was outranked, but at least Anjo let him put a few over on him. 8:34. **3/4
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Norman Smiley. Fujiwara didn't take Smiley seriously (that became common, but Smiley wasn't a wiggler in these days) and not much happened. About the only thing of note was a comedy spot where Smiley applied a leg lock, but Fujiwara just lay there like he was taking a nap. 6:52. *
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Tatsuo Nakano. Nakano put up a fight and Takada was taking more than giving, but Nakano still wasn't a threat and they didn't do most of their best stuff. 10:21. **1/4
10/1
Minoru Suzuki vs. Johnny Barrett. Barrett's waist size is twice Suzuki's and he's just a big bore. Suzuki didn't know what to do with him, but he was stuck going along with Barrett's lame offense most of the match anyway. 10:53. 1/2*
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Bart Vale. Vale is usually bad, but he really stunk today with fake kicks and generally weak and sloppily executed offense. To make things worse, Vale was so out of his depth that Yamazaki couldn't even manuever well. 11:11. *1/4
Akira Maeda vs. Shigeo Miyato. Maeda was wrestling like he was in a bad mood and wanted to take it out on Miyato. He wasn't breaking clean, instead hitting Miyato, and he was also punting Miyato when he was down. The crowd went nuts for Miyato's comeback, which started with his signature spinning savate, but unfortunately after a few more moves Maeda regained control and won. Not a great technical match by any means, but the attitude gave it a lot of potential. Unfortunately, Maeda didn't take this attitude to the ring with someone that could have given him a fight. 6:15. **1/2
Shigeo Miyato vs. Mark Roshew (sp?). Mark seemed pretty colorless, but wasn't bad at all wrestling wise, and Miyato worked well with him. Mark didn't seem to have much of anything in standup, which is Miyato's strength, but his groundwork was fine so that's what they mostly did. They made some pretty good moves on the mat. You could tell this was going to be a draw, especially since it took 18 minutes for the first lost point, but it was still entertaining. They could have made it more exciting, but it was solid throughout. Pretty good match.
Minoru Suzuki vs. Yoji Anjo. Hard fought match where both men looked good. It was mat oriented early on, but it turned out to have more striking and be more exciting than I expected. Suzuki was the better of the two, even at this early stage of his career, but Anjo held his own. Suzuki brought a lot of intensity. The lost points were handled well, so you couldn't tell if it was going to be a draw or there was going to be enough time for someone to pull out a late win. Very good match.
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Tatsuo Nakano. Match was good technically, but no one gave Nakano a chance of winning and they didn't try to do anything to give Nakano credibility.
Kiyoshi Tamura Debutsen: Akira Maeda vs. Kiyoshi Tamura. Maeda was vicious, particularly throwing some brutal knees. Tamura was just destroyed.
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Fujiwara was more motivated than I can ever remember him being. He worked some nice counters with Takada, and sold his left knee, which Takada was kicking out, well. Takada threw some nasty kicks, but some of his kicks that were supposed to hit either missed completely or just grazed Fujiwara. The thing I didn't like was that they seemed to go away from the body, which was strong because of the focus on Fujiwara's knee, and get explosive with the strikes all at once and too soon. It did calm down even though they were still striking, but the focus was lost as it got all K-1ish so the effect of the finish wasn't as strong as it could have been. Fujiwara's strikes were not that stiff, but Fujiwara did take big punishment so it kind of evened out in a sense. Very good match.
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Shigeo Miyato vs. Tatsuo Nakano. Miyato's kicks vs. Nakano's suplexex, and they didn't waste any time getting to them. I liked their execution a lot. They struggled for the moves, and had a burst on them when they finally did them. ***1/2
Kakutogisen: Changpuek Kiatsongrit vs. Yoji Anjo. I expected this to be a work, but if it was they sure as hell fooled me. Incredibly intense. Kiatsongrit looks like he wants to injure his opponent with each shot. Anjo didn't have much luck doing anything to him because Kiatsongrit stayed so close to the ropes. He would wind up taking a few shots coming in so he could grap Kiatsongrit, but Kiatsongrit would keep hitting him and use the ropes to prevent the takedown. It was kind of monotonous, but so heated that it didn't bother me too much. Good fight.
Kakutogisen: Minoru Suzuki vs. Maurice Smith. Suzuki didn't fair too well here. He took pretty many blows, which resulted in a bloody nose. When he actually was able to take Smith down, Smith just crawled to the ropes. Decent, albeit one-sided. **
Kakutogisen: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Dick Leon Vrij. Vrij did some good kicks, but Fujiwara was able to absorb them and take Vrij down. Okay, but nothing special. *3/4
Kakutogisen: Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Chris Dolman. Even Yamazaki couldn't get anything interesting out of Dolman. It's not really his fault though since Dolman dictated the match. Dolman kept taking Yamazaki down and for the most part just laid on top of him. *
Kakutogisen: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Duane Koslowski. Koslowski, I believe, never worked before or after, so this wasn't going to be one of the classic Takada bouts. Technically, Koslowski was great for his experience level. He was a great amateur wrestler, but he wasn't one of those guys that gets to the pros and just rides you once he gets you down. He wasn't a phenom, but he did throw a nice suplex and keep active. His problems were all acting related. He didn't have the timing or the facials, so he made a credible Takada high kick knockdown look pretty lame. **
Kakutogisen: Akira Maeda vs. Willy Wilhelm. Wilhelm was better than expected. He was hardly the most graceful, but he worked hard and kept at it. The match never really got going though. Maeda did a few kicks, but the idea was for this to look like a shoot so he didn't use his more questionable offense and was content to essentially get a submission out of nowhere. *3/4
Yuko Miyato vs. Kevin Kasteel
Minoru Suzuki vs. Wellington Wilkins, Jr.
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Tatsuo Nakano
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoji Anjo
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Akira Maeda
*Special price $18 or $23.50 COOP*
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Johnny Barrett
Minoru Suzuki vs. Shigeo Miyato
Yoji Anjo vs. Wellington Wilkins, Jr.
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kazuo Yamazaki
Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Bart Vale vs. Yuko Miyato
Masakatsu Funaki vs. Minoru Suzuki
Akira Maeda vs. Tatsuo Nakano
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoji Anjo
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Yoji Anjo vs. Masakatsu Funaki
Akira Maeda vs. Minoru Suzuki
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Tatsuo Nakano
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Johnny Barrett
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Shigeo Miyato
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Tatsuo Nakano vs. Mark Rossy
Yoji Anjo vs. Minoru Suzuki
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Shigeo Miyato
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Masakatsu Funaki
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Akira Maeda
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Masahito Kakihara vs. Yusuke Fuke. These guys had the moves at this point, but the setup and transition came later. Fuke was the better submission wrestler, and he got it to the mat. As always with Kakihara, there were flashes of explosive brilliance. Surprisingly, Fuke had the best flurry of the match. Interesting enough, but not exactly smooth and polished. **1/4
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Bart Vale. Considering standup is Nakano's strength and Vale was never much on the mat, I thought they'd focus on that aspect. Unfortunately, that wasn't the case and even though Nakano did a few of his nice suplexes, Vale succeeded in killing another match. There was a bizarre spot where Nakano started to Dragon screw him and instead of going with it he basically enzuigiri'd the air. If you thought Vader doing powerbombs in a "shoot" was pushing it, Vale did a Razor's edge. *1/2
Minoru Suzuki vs. Bart Kops, Jr. Suzuki did a good job here. Kops was mainly a wrestler, but he got a good submission oriented match out of him. What made it successful is that they understood positioning. You can sell a submission all you want, but when it's put on within a few feet of the ropes, people (especially in '90) aren't too likely to believe it'll end the match. These two sold the moves well, and at the same time struggled from near the center to try for the break. **1/2
Akira Maeda vs. Yoji Anjo. One of Maeda's more impressive performances of the 90's. Seeing him in RINGS, especially in the later years, it's easy to forget how good a kicker he was. Both guys showed good standup here, and used it to get to the mat. Maeda's matwork has always been slow for my tastes, but it was more tolerable here because it was in between good standup and he was so over that the fans went nuts anytime he was close to a submission. Anjo was no more than competitive, though it went about as far as it could without him actually challenging. Maeda made this more dramatic than I expected and I was always into it even though I knew Anjo couldn't win. Cool finish where Maeda caught a high kick against his head and turned it into an akiresukengatame. Well worked with good balance and impressive performances from both. ***1/4
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Dick Leon Vrij. Vrij is only worth watching when he's knocking the hell out of an opponent that is both skilled and willing to take a big beating. Fujiwara is neither, so you knew this wouldn't be much, but Fujiwara had Vrij trying to do submissions. Basically, Fujiwara didn't want to take much punishment, so they did some uninspiring matwork and a submission out of nowhere. 3/4*
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Masakatsu Funaki. These two were actually fairly similar in style at this point except Funaki was much quicker. This had the makings of a classic. The strikes were overly realistic with Takada getting a bloody nose and Funaki getting cut on the cheek. Unfortunately, Takada also got a bloody immediately swelling left eye that resulted in a doctor stop. This certainly did not appear to be the planned finish. While they did an excellent 12 minutes, they were building it up and the best was yet to come. ***1/2
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara
Kazuo Yamazaki & Tatsuo Nakano vs. Yoji Anjo & Yuko Miyato
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Tom Burton
Standing Bout: Makoto Ohe vs. Rudy Rabord (sp?)
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tom Burton
Yuko Miyato vs. Kazuo Yamazaki
Yoji Anjo vs. Tatsuo Nakano
Nobuhiko Takada vs. J.T. Southern
Yuko Miyato vs. Tom Burton
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoji Anjo
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. J.T. Southern
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Tatsuo Nakano
Standing Bout: Makoto Ohe vs. J. Arlano. Good action. Arlano did better in round one. 2R 1:32
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Yuko Miyato. Their UWF matches seemed much longer, but this developed slowly as always. In a way that was good because the last few minutes were exciting, and you didn't have to wait forever to get to them. As a whole, the standup was good, but the mat was a bit dull. 9:41. **
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Billy Scott. Exciting, dramatic, and smartly worked. Just vintage Yamazaki. They really fought with each other instead of the usual just go with the move offering no resistance. You'd think someone might have noticed how into this the fans were. 12:39. ***1/2
Nobuhiko Takada & Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoji Anjo & Jim Boss. Great in points, but nothing special in others. Should have been much better than it was, but since they had so few workers and only got 25 minutes out of the undercard, this had to go on forever. In the first half they pretty much conserved the points then went through them in the 2nd half. 31:02. ***
Standing Bout: Makoto Ohe vs. Marb Winon (sp?)
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yuko Miyato
Gary Albright vs. Yoji Anjo
Nobuhiko Takada & Billy Scott vs. Kazuo Yamazaki & Tatsuo Nakano
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Masakazu Maeda. Kanehara is so underrated as a worker. Even with minimal experience, he carried a no experience rookie that never amounted to anything to a good match. Even match that was pretty good in all aspects. Kanehara controlled the mat, but Maeda had some long stretches of throwing all his strikes at Kanehara. Overall, it was more of a technical match, but Kanehara is a good striker too. His strikes were crisper and more precise than Maeda's even though striking was supposed to be Maeda's advantage. Kanehara did a handful of suplexes including an overhead bodylock. 15:00. **1/2
Standing Bout: Makoto Ohe vs. Bins Rose. Adequate. 2:52 of R2.
Masahito Kakihara vs. Jim Bose. Short but exciting bout that was almost all standup. Lots of knockdowns. Bose got a bloody nose. 4:03. **3/4
Yuko Miyato vs. Tom Burton. Even match. Burton clinched and use his size and strength to throw Miyato around or apply a submission. 7:50. **
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Gary Albright. Tamura did his job very well, but that was limited to making Albright look good. He made a lot of nice counters to gain control, but Albright was just too big for him to sustain an advantage. Tamura couldn't move Gary, who kept throwing him around and limited his offense to just above nil. 5:25. **1/4
Yoji Anjo vs. Bob Backlund. Anjo carried this and Backlund was okay. Backlund was better in UWF than UWF-I because the style kept progressing and leaving him behind. His wrestling was less credible due to these changes, and his world's silliest expressions didn't exactly add to his believability. That said, if he'd done this style full time during his formative years I have no doubt he'd have been very good. 11:25. **
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Tatsuo Nakano. One of those UWF-I matches that was way ahead of its time, but didn't alter their style for the better like it should have. Cautious, strategic, more realistic match. It wasn't typical UWF-I where one wouldn't fear the consequences of throwing a kick. Yamazaki would try to sneak them in like a real shoot, but he'd still fail often. Yamazaki would basically kick, though hardly continuously, until Nakano caught his leg and took him down similar to the typical kickboxer vs. wrestler shoots. 13:23. ***1/4
Kakutogi Sekaiichi Ketteisen 3 Min 10R: Billy Scott vs. James Warring. One of the most boring and monotonous fights, ever! Scott took strikes all night looking for an opening to shoot that apparently never presented itself. That might be okay if Warring landed any good strikes, but basically Scott kept his hands up and Warring just threw occassional pawing punches. Once in a while he did connect with a decent low kick. The fans were booing after the 4th round. It seemed like Warring wasn't cooperating the way Scott expected because Scott didn't shoot until the 5th round, and after Warring grabbed the ropes to prevent the takedown, Scott seemed pissed in his future attempts. His second takedown attempt was a bodylock, but he just rammed him into the corner. I think Scott supposedly "shot" on Warring in this match, but it seemed like it was in a worked way to get Warring to open up rather than trying to do serious damage. Like, he'd refuse to release the submission when Warring grabbed the ropes, but he wasn't really choking him out and he wasn't doing it for heel heat since he was the face. It did seem like he took some cheap shots in the last few round when Warring grabbed the ropes, but really nothing that might injure Warring so it could have been part of the plan. Warring was a big problem, but Scott really sucked at takedowns too. He kept going high, so he was his own worst enemy driving Warring toward the ropes, which is where he wanted to be anyway. Finally Scott scooped Warring on his shoulders, but Warring grabbed the ropes before he could slam him, so Scott dumped him over the top. I suppose you could blame the rules for ruining the match, but I blame the competitors because I've seen these mixed matches with the rope breaks be damn good. It's smart for the kickboxer to grab the ropes to avoid the takedown, but in a work you want to mix strategy with action. Here, we just got 100 rope breaks. 10R. DUD
Kakutogi Sekaiichi Ketteisen 3 Min 10R: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Trevor Berbick. This wasn't intended to be comedy, but I can't think of many funnier matches. Berbick just had no idea what he was getting himself into and came off as one of the great wusses of all-time. Takada started with a low kick and Berbick complained it was below the belt. Takada threw another and Berbick stopped fighting altogether, complaining to everyone. Apparently, he thought this was like that crummy American kickboxing where there's no kicking below the waste. The thing is the match was a work and while Takada threw good kicks, he didn't come out throwing kicks that were noticably harder than the ones he regularly uses on his pals that weigh 70 pounds less than Trevor. In fact, I never saw a kick that convinced me Takada shot on Berbick in the traditional sense. Takada definitely didn't follow their agreement unless for some reason there was none to follow. In any case, Takada kept throwing low kicks because they were really rattling Berbick, who was totally clueless to why the ref wasn't warning Takada or deducting points for these "illegal" tactics. Berbick told Takada "no more" and pointed to his knee, but Takada kicked it again and again anyway. Finally, Takada kicked Berbick in the knee when he was in the corner and Berbick said, "What the fuck is this? What the fuck is this?" and hoped out of the ring never to return. Outside, he swore up a storm claiming Takada changed the rules. I don't know how to rate this, but it gets huge marks for perverse entertainment. 2:52
*Special price two T-120's for $30 or $35.50/41 COOP (one unique)*
1/9/92
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Masakazu Maeda. Exciting but flawed match. There was a lot of countering, with Maeda sometimes following impressively and other times making mistakes. It helped that Kanehara's transitions were so good. Well, it helped that Kanehara was so good period, once again totally making the match. Maeda wasn't real accurate with his strikes and his footwork and balancing was lacking. Kanehara's face got marked up from some errant blows. The match was kind of long considering Maeda's experience level, but the length turned out to be okay except it was embarrassing that Kanehara drew a guy that was so inferior. 15:00. **3/4
Masahito Kakihara vs. Tom Burton. Kakihara was too quick and athletic for Burton. He was just dominating, leading 14-3. Burton didn't have much offense, with unconvincing comebacks and unclean execution. Kakihara made some good moves, but as a whole it was very disappointing because they didn't work that well together and Burton is certainly better than this match would lead you to believe. 10:49. **
Tatsuo Nakano vs. J.T. Southern. Southern's offense was holding an appendage. Nakano was never big into submission, so this wasn't a good matchup. Nakano got fired up at 7:30 and did some of his regular big moves, but that didn't save the match since it ended within 25 seconds. 7:52. *
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yuko Miyato. Very intense and pretty realistic. Tamura was really good here, and Miyato more than held his own. Tamura was in control more, but Miyato was slaughtering him points wise because his knockdowns are worth 3 times Tamura's forced rope escapes. Tamura made some amazing balance counters to avoid Miyato's submission and go into one of his own. 8:11. ***
Kazuo Yamazaki & Yoji Anjo vs. Gary Albright & Jim Bose. Yamazaki was obviously the standout. He knows how to make Albright seem a lot more impressive than he is, but Gary also deserves credit for being up to the task. That pairing produced really good stuff that well thought out with the lower success rate where you had to work up to the big moves. I liked how an attack would start to work, but would then be countered on the 2nd or 3rd step, so it was back to the drawing board. The fans were really into it. Anjo vs. Bose obviously wasn't as good or interesting, but it was decent enough. Bose is one of those real persistent guys tat is willing to get hit if that's what it takes to do the technique he's trying for. His strikes weren't very credible though. 15:57. ***
2/15/92
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Masakazu Maeda. This was an improvement over their previous match, but it plays a lot better when you see it 5 weeks later rather than 1 1/2hr. Kanehara was more willing to have standup exchanges in this one, which wasn't a wise strategy but made for a more exciting match. Maeda was cleaner and more precise here. 15:00. ***
Masahito Kakihara vs. J.T. Southern. Mainly due to the hairdo Southern looks something like HHH a couple hundred thousands injections ago in WCW as JPL. Unfortunately, he might not even be that "talented". Kakihara blitzed Southern, who couldn't deal with his speed and quickness, and had him on his heels for much of this short one-sided match. 4:51. *1/2
Kiyoshi Tamura & Yuko Miyato vs. Tatsuo Nakano & Mark Silver. Tamura totally carried the first part, which was mainly avoidance counters. When you see this style in the midst of all just take the rope escape stuff you wonder why it took so long for guys to catch on to how much better this style makes the matches, not to mention allowing the match to go long without them killing a bunch of time so they didn't run out of points too soon. Nakano's submission work with Tamura was as good as his ground stuff ever looked. Nakano stepped up in the second half, which was more his style with the highlight offense. The match just exploded at this point with the success rate suddenly going from very low to high, which was goofy but at least both parts were very good on their own. Silver isn't coordinated or clean enough to do much with Tamura and added nothing to the match, but at least wasn't allowed to reduce it. 18:23. ***1/2
Yoji Anjo vs. Pez Whatley. Why in the world did NWA push Shaska? He was even worse in this style because all he could do was "control" his opponent. The audience was giggling because he didn't know what to do once he got on top. For some reason it took Anjo 5 minutes to get anything off against this expert, then he won immediately. 5:10. DUD
Nobuhiko Takada & Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Gary Albright & Tom Burton. This was the typical case where Yamazaki was undermined by the booking. He works better with Albright because he's smarter and quicker than Takada and actually understands the positions. Since Takada was the bigger star though it was Takada vs. Albright that everyone wanted to see, so Yamazaki was largely stuck with the simply outclassed Burton and because the match was designed to build up Gary he had to be the job boy yet again. There were still some nice spots between Yamazaki and Albright though, like when Albright rammed Yamazaki into the corner to stop a German suplex then arm tossed Yamazaki off into a arm bar attempt. A spot you saw far too rarely in UWF-I was the a guy paying for getting up quick to avoid a knockdown being called. Yamazaki saved two points by rushing to his feet after Gary's bodylock suplex, but Gary leveled him back down with a forearm. Speaking of things you don't see, where the hell were the leg takedowns in this league? You had all these former wrestlers and they are all grabbing high. This match wasn't all it could be because its purpose was to set up the 5/8/92 title match by furthering Gary's monster push. 17:11. ***
*Special price $23 or $28.50 COOP*
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Masukazu Maeda
Standing Bout: Makoto Ohe vs. Pat Kane
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Pez Whatley
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Mark Silver
Yoji Anjo vs. Yuko Miyato
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Tom Burton
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Mark Flemming
Gary Albright vs. Masahito Kakihara
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Masukazu Maeda
Masahito Kakihara vs. Mark Silver
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Tom Burton
Mark Silver & Yoji Anjo vs. Yuko Miyata & Kiyoshi Tamura
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Steve Day
Gary Albright vs. Kazuo Yamazaki
*Special price $20 or $25.50 COOP*
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Masakazu Maeda. Both men were fired up, so they went at it hard and fast, wasting little time. It wasn't a technical masterpiece, but it was exciting because it was all action. Maeda was the better striker, but Kanehara had the submission skills. This made for a dynamic match because Kanehara would takea lot of punishment trying to get Maeda down. Kanehara had superior stamina, so he was able to get some big strikes in as Maeda tired. Definitely one of UWF-I's best openers. ***1/4
Masahito Kakihara vs. Mark Silver. As good as Kakihara is, it was still too long because Silver has no offense, no charisma, and lacks stamina. Silver didn't seem to want to take Kakihara's strikes either. Way too much dancing around and positioning, way too few points lost considering how long it was. Kakihara tried, but it was like wrestling a smaller version of Severn and he just didn't know what to do with this guy. *
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Tom Burton. Not much happened then the finish came out of nowhere. *
Yuko Miyato vs. Mark Flemming. The match built slowly to the bigger spots, but there was always something happening so it stayed entertaining throughout. Flemming had good wrestling ability, but he actually applied it in an entertaining wy and seemed to have takent the time to go beyond straight wrestling. Miyato helped him a lot, doing the little things to make the moves look good and technique look clean. Good solid match. ***
Yoji Anjo vs. Steve Day. Anjo looked pretty good here, but Day lacked the technical ability to follow him. Day also couldn't strike, so he just went for takedowns. It was passable, but they didn't work that well together, not that Anjo had much to work with. *1/2
Special Exhibition Match: Billy Robinson vs. Nick Bockwinkle. Their bodies were shot, but their minds were still sharp. They did so much, they just didn't (couldn't) do it physically. So there weren't that many spots, but they made everything they did have meaning. There was no wasted motion, and they understood the degree to put the various moves over. This match shows it's not what you can do, but how you do it. It was so basic, yet so advanced. **1/2
Tokubetsu Jiai (Special Match): Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Koji Kitao. From the opening intense stare to putting over the KO, Yamazaki used his acting ability as much as his wrestling ability to make the match and get Kitao over that much more than he already was. Yamazaki saw a huge slow opponent, so he tried to kick his legs out. The problem was that Kitao was so much bigger and stronger that he could take a lot more of Yamazaki's blows than Yamazaki could take of his. Kitao is so awful, but Yamazaki is so smart & talented that he got a good match out of him because he knew how to play things. Kitao's offense was horrible at times, but Yamazaki sold it so well that it didn't kill the match like it could have. In the end, Kitao came off as being really impressive (in a real fighter sense, not as a worker) because of his size and the things Yamazaki did to make his offense look deadly. Of course, all the fans wanted Yamazaki to win, but they had to pay to see Takada vs. Kitao to see Kitao lose. ***
Kakutogi Sekai Ichi Ketteisen 3 minutes 10 rounds: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Mathew Saad Mohammed. This was practically over as soon as it began, but it was a great win for Tamura since Mohammed was a former WCW and NABF light heavyweight boxing champion.
Kakutogi Sekai Ichi Ketteisen: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Gary Albright. Albright's strategy was to be as close as possible to Takada, so Takada wouldn't have room to throw his powerful kicks. This had some really good spots, but it didn't flow and there was too much dead time. Takada did a good job with Gary, but Gary wasn't very impressive. His one-dimensional suplex style hurt the match because they were on the mat a lot, and he couldn't do much of anything there. The standup portions were really good though with Takada's nasty kicks and knees, and some big suplexes by Gary. **1/2
*Special price two T-120's for $30 or $35.50/41 COOP (one unique)*
Standing Bout: Makoto Ohe vs. Fernando Carlos
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
Masahito Kakihara vs. Yuko Miyato
Yoji Anjo & Mark Flemming vs. Tatsuo Nakano & Tom Burton
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Steve Cooks
Kazuo Yamazaki & Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Gary Albright & Mark Silver
8/14/92
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
Yuko Miyato & Masahito Kakihara vs. Tatsuo Nakano & Tom Burton
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Ray Lloyd
Nobuhiko Takada & Mark Flemming vs. Kazuo Yamazaki & Mark Silver
Gary Albright vs. Bad News Allen
8/28/92
Standing Bout: Makoto Ohe vs. Damian Mayer
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
Mark Silver vs. Masahito Kakihara
Yuko Miyato vs. Tatsuo Nakano
Yoji Anjo vs. Kiyoshi Tamura
Nobuhiko Takada & Mark Flemming vs. Kazuo Yamazaki & Steve Cox
Gary Albright vs. Bad News Allen
*Special price two T-120's for $36 or $41.50/47 COOP (one unique)*
Dai-ikkai Junior Leaguesen: Tom Burton vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
Dai-ikkai Junior Leaguesen: Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Mark Silver
Masahito Kakihara vs. Tatsuo Nakano
Yuko Miyato vs. Mark Flemming
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Steve Cooks
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoji Anjo
Pro-Wrestling Sekai Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Gary Albright vs. Nobuhiko Takada
Standing Bout 3min 5R: Makoto Oe vs. Kenpon Geow Samrick (sp?)
1st Junior Leaguesen: Tom Burton vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara
1st Junior Leaguesen: Mark Silver vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
Yoji Anjo vs. Iron Sheik
Gary Albright & Mark Flemming vs. Yuko Miyato & Masahito Kakihara
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Kiyoshi Tamura
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Koji Kitao
Standing Bout 3min 5R: Makoto Oe vs. David Cummings
Hiromitsu Kanehara & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Jean Lydick & Mark Silver
Dan Severn vs. Yuko Miyato
Yoji Anjo vs. Masahito Kakihara
Nobuhiko Takada & Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Gary Albright & Mark Flemming
Standing Bout: Bouy Chowaikun vs. Mel Murray
Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Tom Burton
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Masahito Kakihara
Mark Silver vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara
Dan Severn vs. Yoji Anjo
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Dennis Koslowski
Gary Albright vs. Naoki Sano
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kiyoshi Tamura
Bad News Allen vs. Takayama. Bad News carried the match, and it wasn't terrible, but it was very one-sided and basic.
Jean Lydick & Tom Burton vs. Kakihara & Anjo. Good match with rivals Kakihara & Lydick tearing it up. Lydick was really good here.
Yuko Miyato vs. Yamazaki. Very good match. Work was really good, and the match was very exciting because there were a ton of near finishes.
Sano vs. Tamura. Very good match. Highly technical and extremely solid.
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Super Vader. Really heated match, with the fans fully behind the underdog native Nakano. Basically a squash, but that type of win was the perfect way to get their new monster, Vader, over huge.
Albright vs. Dennis Koslowski. Decent match with Koslowski dominating the mat, and trying his best to avoid Gary's killer suplexes. Good psychology and a good job of getting Gary's suplexes over as lethal.
Dan Severn vs. Nobuhiko Takada. Severn was pretty clueless, but it was interesting to watch Takada struggle to figure out what he could do with him. He gave Severn openings, but Severn didn't take them. Not too dramatic and well below Takada's usual standard.
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Jean Lydick
Bad News Allen vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
Yuko Miyato vs. Ray Lloyd
Naoki Sano & Masahito Kakihara vs. Dennis Koslowski & Steve Day
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoji Anjo
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tatsuo Nakano
Gary Albright vs. Mark Silver
Pro-Wrestling Sekai Heavy Senshukenjiai: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Salman Hashimikov
*2 tapes*
Standing Bout: Bouy Chowaikun vs. Tony Kokepan
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Steve Nelson. **1/4
2nd Junior League Match: Tommy Cairo vs. Greg Bobchuck. *1/2
2nd Junior League Match: Jean Lydick vs. Yoshihiro Takayama. Takayama was far from great, but his work was credible and he didn't screw anything up. They mainly fought on their feet, which is the only thing Takayama can sometimes do well, and they did a lot of near finishes that got good heat. Lydick was typically good here. **3/4
2nd Junior League Match: Tom Burton vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara. **
Masahito Kakihara vs. Bad News Allen. Kakihara's offense looked great, but Bad News offense was exactly what his name states. **
Yuko Miyato vs. Dennis Koslowski. *1/2
Yoji Anjo vs. Naoki Sano. ***
Nobuhiko Takada & Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Gary Albright & Dan Severn. The top working natives did their best to carry the incredibly inferior gaijins. Albright was carryable at this time. He did a very good job of playing monster, which added to the heat. Severn was useless as usual, but Takada and Tamura were good enough to make Severn's stuff passable. Since Severn wasn't the focus of the match, his ineptitude didn't hurt too much. This wasn't a great match, but it really served it's purpose, which was to build to a Takada vs. Gary singles match. ***1/2
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Super Vader. This match accomplished it's goal at the expense of the match quality. It was a great match while it lasted, and would have been a great match if they went the 15 or so minutes you'd normally see a UWF-I main event go, but this match was pretty short to get Vader over more. Still, when all was said and done, you really felt like you saw something. I attribute that to the psychology and story being so great, and secondarily to the incredible aura. Yamazaki may never have been this over in his life, the whole building was just going nuts for him in hope that he could beat the monster. Even when Yamazaki resorted to underhanded tactics, the fans had no problem with it, in fact the roof would have come off the building from the applause if he had won with a cheap tactic, because they realized he "had to" do it because the opposition was so incredibly strong. ***3/4
*I have a very limited quantity of additional 1st Gen SP copies of this two tape set that are available for $30. I also have a very limited quantity of Xeroxes of the video's cover (one unique cover)*
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Mark Silver
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Tommy Cairo
Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Thomas Burton
Greg Bobchuck vs. Jean Lydick
Yoji Anjo vs. Tatsuo Nakano
Masahito Kakihara vs. Dennis Koslowski
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yuko Miyato
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Bad News Allen
Gary Albright & Dan Severn vs. Salmon Hashimikov & Vladimir Berkovitch
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Billy Scott
Super Vader vs. Naoki Sano
*Special price $23 or $28.50 COOP*
*2 tapes*
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Bad News Allen. *
Dainikai Junior Leaguesen: Jean Lydick vs. Tom Burton. *1/2
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Greg Bobchuck. **1/4
Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Tommy Cairo. 1 minute 25 seconds long.
Masahito Kakihara vs. Tatsuo Nakano. *1/2
Yuko Miyato & Naoki sano vs. Kazuo Yamazaki & Mark Silver. **1/2
Yoji Anjo vs. Billy Scott. ***1/4
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Dennis Koslowski. **1/4
Gary Albright & Dan Severn vs. Salman Hashimikov & Vladmir Berkovich. Really smartly laid out to get over the dislike between the two teams and set up future business. ***
Pro-Wrestling Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Super Vader. This was their first ever meeting that drew the sellout 46,168 record for this building (since broken by Muta vs. Onita). This was a real first class production with Thesz giving a speech about wanting to unify the titles so there would be a true world champion (Vader's WCW Heavyweight Title wasn't on the line, but the idea was the winner was still the undisputed champion), and Hodge & Robinson being introduced to show how important the match was. The match had the aura a title match should have and Vader worked really hard to give a top notch peformance. It was an excellent match, but not on the level of their first rematch because Takada wasn't as good here and they did a shorter, less spot intensive, match. ****
*I have a very limited quantity of additional 1st Gen SP copies of this two tape set that are available for $30. I also have a very limited quantity of xeroxs of the video's cover (one unique cover)*
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Steve Nelson. Really strong performance by Sakuraba. This was a fast-paced match, as both men were very aggressive and intense. They went through most of the points, so that helped make it exciting. Even though Sakuraba is first and foremost a technician, he relied much heavier on stiff kicks than normal because Nelson is much better on the mat than he is in standup. ***1/4
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Yoshihiro Takayama. Sad match. Takayama did nothing on offense and his selling of Nakano's strikes, which were generally good, was pathetic. *
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Yuko Miyato. Typical Kanehara match where he impresses you with just how good of a technician is, but as usual he gets no respect from the bookers, so the match doesn't reach it's potential. The finish out of the blue really didn't work here, IMO. **3/4
Jean Lydick vs. Billy Scott. This was pretty good while it lasted, but it was just too short. Lydick was a bad ass even though his opponent was a gaijin, but the fans didn't get into it as much for that reason, although I think it was why the fans supported him over the higher ranked Scott. Scott did blow up once, punching JL in the face which fattened his lip a bit and then kicking him after Lydick grabbed to rope to escape Scott's chickenwing armlock. **
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoji Anjo. Matches like this are the reason UWF-I killed themselves. Yamazaki's skill hadn't declined and it wasn't like he was too old or something, but they killed off his drawing power and then his credibility by no longer letting him beat the top guys. Since he wasn't getting wins in his big matches, he couldn't afford to lose to guys they were trying to bring up the ranks. If they would have paid attention to how NJ books, they would have known that. See Hase getting to the finals of the '93 G1, and then putting over guys left and right. This was an even match with good technique, but Yamazaki didn't seem that motivated knowing what he had to go through with, and the crowd wasn't really into it because it was slow, not very flashy, 80's UWF style. **1/4
Nobuhiko Takada & Naoki Sano vs. Gary Albright & Dan Severn. An interesting match. The whole point of the match was Takada vs. Albright, and they barely gave you any of that, yet you came out of the match with a good feeling and wanting to see Takada vs. Albright in singles, rather than feeling cheated. I guess because the match was exciting and the crowd was really into it. In any case, it was interesting yet smart that they had Gary clearly get the best of Takada during the brief sequences they worked together, as Gary was the only one that had beat Takada in UWF-I, not even Vader had done it yet, so it made it look like the hero, Takada, really had an uphill battle for once. Takada was by far the best here, with Sano & Albright doing their job effectively. Severn was alright on the mat, but he had no clue how to sell. ***1/4
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara. These two awesome talents finally got the slot they deserved, the main event. It was interesting that they chose realism over flash, especially since it was Kakihara. I think flash would have got them more over with the fans, but I respect the patience and composure they showed here. I liked how they were cautious and built the match around being even, with each sequence culminating with one guy getting a small victory over the other. I think RINGS fans will appreciate this more than UWF-I fans, the fans certainly there didn't react that much to it until the last few minutes, because of it's technical excellence and realism. It was far more realistic than any match on this card, and one of the more realistic UWF-I matches I've seen. Even though you wouldn't see so many heavy kicks in a real shoot, although you'd see them in worked RINGS matches too, Tamura made them seem realistic because he didn't just throw caution to the wind and try to unload series of kicks that would result in him taken down with ease in a shoot. Instead, he did little fakes to keep Kakihara off balance and prevent him from getting that takedown. It wasn't a thing of beauty like a Tamura vs. Han match, but it was a strong match where they did a lot of little things well. ***3/4
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara
Yuko Miyato vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
'94 Pro-Wrestling World Tournament Ikkaisen
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Badnews Allen
Vladimir Berkovich vs. Jean Lydick
Victor Zangiev vs. Yoji Anjo
Dan Severn vs. Masahito Kakihara
Super Vader vs. Salman Hashimikov
Gary Albright vs. Billy Scott
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kazuo Yamazaki
Highlights of the first three rounds
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Bad News Allen. Pretty good with Kanehara showing potential
Mark Silver vs. Takayama. 0:37 DUD
Kakihara & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Lydick & Billy Scott. Very good match that was great and really heated when Kakihara and Lydick were facing off. Everyone looked good, and it was exciting as the match went down to the wire.
Yuko Miyato vs. Salmon Hashimikov. The work was fine, but the match was very one-sided.
Nakano vs. Yamazaki. Disappointing match. The finish was strong finish, but there wasn't much quality before that.
Anjo & Sano vs. Victor Zangiev & Vladmir Berkovich. A few really stiff shots, but the work wasn't very good.
'94 Pro Wrestling World Tournament 3rd Place Match: Tamura vs. Albright. Tamura did a super job here, getting as much out of Gary as anyone other than Kawada & Takada were able to. Heated match, with the crowd really pulling for a Tamura upset. They really worked their way to Gary's suplexes, with all the teases of them getting over huge. Psychology was strong as Tamura, who was really outsized, tried to keep it on the mat and win the the jujigatame, while Albright kept working to KO Tamura with a suplex. Just an excellent performance by Tamura
'94 Pro Wrestling World Tournament Final & Undisputed World Heavyweight Title Match: Super Vader vs. Takada. Incredible, must see match that's as exciting as anything that can be done within the context of a shoot. Everything was on the line here and these two just threw bombs for 20 minutes to try and come home as the "top fighter in the world." Tremendous stiffness, to the point it was as stiff as anything you'll ever see. Takada's kicks were awesome. Vader's eye was a mess after the match. Great heat and work. Tremendous performance by both men, who were clearly out to put on a classic, and succeeded. Maybe a record number of knockdowns. Such a great match that the fans scream Vader after the match even though he just beat their hero and took his title in the process.
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kenichi Yamamoto
Vladmir Berkovich vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara 5:34. Kanehara plays striker because he supposedly can't wrestle with the amateur star. Berkovich allows Kanehara to kick him full force, taking several wicked kicks to make the match. Unfortuately, once Berkovich gets a hold of Kanehara it's over without too much resistance. Good for what it was. **1/2
Dan Severn vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
Tatsuo Nakano & Victor Zangiev vs. Yoji Anjo & Yuko Miyato
Masahito Kakihara & Steve Nelson vs. Kiyoshi Tamura & Jean Lydick 16:19. Tried so hard to be realistic that they never got around to making it interesting. They didn't do anything wrong and it was credible, but there was so little action. It was like credibility was defined by not trying anything. Tamura likes to start slowly, but this never moved forward from that mode. **
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Naoki Sano 17:24. The question isn't how good of a match they could do; Takada's superhuman standing doesn't allow such considerations. It's how much Takada will allow Sano to compete, and the results were better than expected. Sano played the resiliant role, getting in brief trouble several times but coming up with something before Takada could put a run on him. Though Takada did more damage and lost less points because he doesn't concede many rope breaks, the match remained pretty even time wise. You never believed Takada would lose, but Sano would get him in submissions. Takada even bled a little. The work was very solid, credible and impactful, with strong though not all out performances by both. ***1/4
Super Vader & Big John Tenta vs. Gary Albright & Kazuo Yamazaki 14:07. All about building up the Vader vs. Albright singles match in January. Vader attacked Gary before the bell, and they wound up on the floor where they had to be pulled apart. The match then took a few minutes to start because Vader was demanding Albright, but Yamazaki kept telling Albright to yet him start. This led to an excellent opening where Yamazaki got himself involved in the match, made Vader take notice, by kicking Vader when he was taunting Albright to get in and fight him. Crowd started chanting Yamazaki and was psyched when he'd lay in the low kicks, blocking Vader's clubbing blows and staying outside when he could. Soon enough Vader got toYamazaki, but Yamazaki did well enough that Vader was the first to tag. Yamazaki stayed in for what seemed like a long time because he was so dwarfed and eventually took some big punishment (actually only 5 min), then Albright was in for quite a while. Albright was able to suplex Vader no problem, but obviously the quality went way down when he was in, particularly with Tenta who there was no heat on. Yamazaki made the hot tag and looked good against Vader again for a very brief period; he actually had more heat (or at least excitement and enthusiasm) on himself than there was for Vader vs. Albright (though of course the bookers didn't pay attention). Yamazaki couldn't get the big men off their feet and had to stay out of range, so he was relegated to kicking the whole match. He'd done big damage with enzuigiri counters, but Vader got wise to it and pulled him up right into a powerbomb. Started great, but the finish was highly anticlimactic. Yamazaki was typically excellent, incorporating good story points that the crowd would react to as usual. Vader & Albright were fine, having their moments but showing some weaknesses in between. They did enough yelling and taunting to interest the crowd in their match, but it's hard for them to work together because they are both monsters, thus there weren't huge reactions do their segment outside of one or two signature spots. Tenta didn't hurt the match, but he was basically just taking up space. They would have been better off having a smaller guy with Vader if only because when building a battle of monsters it tends to make sense to have the hugest guy in the match involved in those plans. ***1/4
Standing Bout (3 minutes 5 rounds): Bouy Chowaiken vs. Chris Mack
Tom Burton vs. Kenichi Yamamoto
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Yuko Miyato
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Yoji Anjo
Billy Scott vs. Tatsuo Nakano
Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Naoki Sano
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Dan Severn
Masahito Kakihara vs. Kazuo Yamazaki
Pro Wrestling Sedai Heavykyu Senshuken Jiki Chosen Ketteisen: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Gary Albright
*I have a very limited quantity of additional 1st Gen SP copies available for $20. I also have a very limited quantity of Xeroxes of the video's cover*
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Kenichi Yamamoto
Thomas Burton vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara
Yoshihiro Takayama vs. James Stone
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Yoji Anjo
Billy Scott vs. Yuko Miyato
Gene Lydick vs. Yuko Miyato
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kazuo Yamazaki
Kenichi Yamamoto vs. Thomas Burton. Kind of a dull match. Burton didn't give the young punk much respect, which I kind of liked Yamamoto always struck me as a guy who thought he was the shit even though he'd almost never done anything of note. Burton didn't have to use his best moves to win this one, which obviously didn't help. *1/4
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. James Stone (Little Guido). Kind of short and one-sided, but Kanehara always puts on a good show. The mat work was impressive, but Stone's overexaggerated selling hurt the standup segments a good deal. **1/4
Yuko Miyato vs. Jean Lydick. Lydick is a lot bigger and the better wrestler. It was short and he controlled the whole match. Disappointing. *1/2
Yoji Anjo vs. Tatsuo Nakano. These guys have fought so many times over the years and generally their matches are good, but this one didn't go anywhere. Essentially nothing happened but then there were a few strikes and a submission out of nowhere.
Kiyoshi Tamura & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kazuo Yamazaki & Yoshihiro Takayama. Good technical match. It was one of those matches though where things are well done, but there aren't a lot of highlights. Nobody really stepped up their game. Even Takayama didn't look bad with these guys though. **1/2
Masahito Kakihara vs. Naoki Sano. Smart match. It was always interesting, but they didn't have to take much abuse. They did a lot of striking, particularly Kakihara, but they were blocking most everything. It wasn't just standup though, there was also nice movement on the mat. ***
Gary Albright vs. Billy Scott. Albright kept Scott in his clutches and threw him around when it could. This made the match alright to watch even though it was totally one-sided. The match was designed to rebuild Albright for his next big job (to Kakihara), and it succeeded well enough in that regard although the problem is it's not like anyone would think Scott could take Albright. Scott is way too small to wrestle with Albright and doesn't have the standup skills to do much there even though that's also a weakness of Albright's. *1/2
Pro-Wrestling Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Super Vader vs. Nobuhiko Takada. This wasn't as good as their 8/18/94 match, but it was smarter and also great. Takada used his speed & mobility to stay out of Vader's clutches and get his shots in when he could. He focused his attack on the left side of Vader's body. In particular, he used low kicks to Vader's left leg to chop him down like a tree. The strategy was simply, take away his power by relegating his base useless and go right for the udehishigigyakujujigatame when the giant crumbled to the canvas. On the other hand, Vader tried to cut off the ring. He wanted to grab Takada or push him back into the ropes/corner where he could manhandle him. Again, this wasn't a true UWF-I match, but Vader comes off so big and strong that his massive chokeslams and powerbombs aren't too unbelievable. Once again, the match was extremely high impact. Takada did a very good job of bumping for Vader, while Vader was impressive putting over the damage of Takada's low kicks. The match was all action, but the psychology was excellent in part because they did a match that maximized the abilities of both performers. The Vader vs. Takada series is one of the big reasons I always felt that UWF-I title matches were the best when it came to aura. They always had a great pre match, but they way the guys fought and intensity they brought always made the title seem so coveted. Vader showed his respect for the title and the legends that believed in it before the match, but at the same time he never considered doing anything less than whatever it was going to take to beat his opponent and keep the title. In a way, his cheating almost showed a respect for the belt and his opponent because in a match of lesser magnitude he would simply run over a poor sap without having to resort to any shortcuts. My only problem with this match was the finish. The KO blow just wasn't very credible. I wish Vader got back up and they did a little more before going back to the same or a similar strike for the finish. It was a very anticlimactic way to end such a quality series, but I guess it was fitting of the way things were going for UWF-I at the time. ****1/2
Kenichi Yamamoto vs. James Stone. Decent opener. Yamamoto actually showed some potential even though he tended to get out of control. He got Stone really good with an errant spinning high kick. His enzuigiri was nice. Stone's selling was too exaggerated for this style. *3/4
Hiromitsu Kanehara & Tom Burton vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Kazushi Sakuraba. Kanehara & Sakuraba worked well together as expected. Kanehara only did striking with Takayama, so it was passable. Takayama did decently throwing knees, but couldn't do anything else right. Burton was solid. **1/2
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Jean Lydick. I thought this could be good, but they didn't work well together and the match was lifeless. Lydick looked pretty good except when he had to fall to the mat. Nakano wasn't particularly giving, so the match never turned into anything. *1/2
Naoki Sano & Billy Scott vs. Yoji Anjo & Yuko Miyato. More spectacular than the previous matches, largely due to Anjo. It wasn't as realistic, but when it comes to UWF-I excitement over realism is a tradeoff that you don't mind. Scott was a kicking bag, especially for Anjo. Sano's team was getting slaughted early due to Scott, but it wound up going down to the wire. Lots of nice kicks and suplexes. Everyone did a good job. ***1/4
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Kiyoshi Tamura. Tamura's execution was easily the best on this show. He brought a precision and intensity that was peerless. They showed a lot of respect for their opponent's abilities, so neither man rushed into anything. The match was technically excellent, but very much toward the realistic side so there were barely any UWF-I highspots. The match was good and the best on the show, but I expected something more dramatic. ***1/4
Gary Albright vs. Masahito Kakihara. Albright neutralized Kakihara's kicks by grabbing him immediately and only releasing after he'd driven him into the mat with a suplex. With his amateur background, Albright had little problem outwrestling Kakihara. Kakihara did a great enzuigiri just after 10, but Albright charged right at him as soon as he got up and used knees to set up a suplex that almost knocked Kakihara out and left him down to his last point. With Kakihara still reeling, Albright charged in and tried to do the same thing, but this time Kakihara turned the German suplex into a kneebar for the submission. The win showed Kakihara's resourcefulness and set him up for the big main event with Takada, while keeping Albright strong by having him dominate the whole match. Too bad they waited until the promotion was almost dead to build a new native up to the point where he could have a big match with Takada, and did it in a fashion where it seemed like his only chance against Takada was a fluke. ***
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Joe Malenko. I don't know what these guys were thinking, but for some reason this was all on the mat. In over 21 minutes we didn't see one strike land in standup. Instead, one guy would lay on top and work over the arm. The match wasn't technically bad, but it was pretty damn boring. *1/2
Kenichi Yamamoto vs. Steve Nelson
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. James Stone
Hiromitsu Kanehara & Billy Scott vs. Tatsuo Nakano & Jean Lydick
Joe Malenko vs. Yuko Miyato
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
Naoki Sano vs. Yoji Anjo
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Gary Albright
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Masahito Kakihara
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Kengo Kimura
Masahito Kakihara vs. Akitoshi Saito
Yoji Anjo & Kenichi Yamamoto vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi & Akira Nogami
Nobuhiko Takada & Yuhi Sano vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Michiyoshi Ohara
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. James Stone. Stone was greatly overexaggerating his selling of strikes, as usual. Very good match when it was on the mat, which is where it was after the first minute. Kanehara made a few great moves, but it was just too short. *3/4
Masahito Kakihara vs. Billy Jack Scott. Theme match where they agreed not to strike. This sounds like a waste of Kakihara, but there was some really fine and more modern (i.e. Tamura) matwork. Perpetual motion with constant countering early then slowing down some when they started hooking submissions. ***1/4
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Koki Kitahara. Even though it's similar to what he regularly does in pro style, Kitahara was a little out of his element because he's not used to doing it shoot style. I though he would strike more to make up for it, but I'm not sure he struck as much as usual. Sakuraba controlled most of the match, and was definitely the better of the two. Enough talent in the ring to make it good, but I'm sure they could do a lot better if Kitahara did this style regularly. **1/2
Yuhi Sano vs. 200% Machine. Nothing much happened. 200% was somewhere in between Greco Roman and shooting, and very methodical at both. *
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Arashi. Takada is so patient that it makes him seem all the more explosive when he unleashes his strikes. Arashi doesn't have the right approach much less the talent, but this turned into an exciting match even though it wasn't the most believable. Takada had a good idea turning Arashi's shotei into and udehishikigyakujujigatame, but it turned out clumsy. Short but Takada looked very good after the feeling out period. **
WAR Nintei Sekai 6 Man Tag Senshukenjiai: Yoji Anjo & Yoshihiro Takayama & Kenichi Yamamoto vs. Hiromichi Fuyuki & Jado & Gedo. Very stiff pro-wrestling with lots of double teaming from Fuyuki's team. Anjo's team beat the hell out of Fuyuki's team all match because they are the "shooters", to the point of it being a massacre. Fuyuki bled immediately and his partners soon followed. This had some comedy as well with Anjo attacking Fuyuki with an octopus, as well as some brawling like Anjo's team using the title belts outside the ring. Fuyuki's team did their usual double team spots like the stuff powerbomb off the 2nd. Generally entertaining match even though it made no sense to have this as the main event of a show that was otherwise worked shoots, and losing to guys that don't do "real" fighting killed whatever myth the UWF-I guys had left. **3/4
150% Machine vs. Koki Kitahara
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Rene Rooze
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Billy Jack Scott
Yoshihiro Takayama & 200% Machine vs. Genichiru Tenryu & Arashi
Yoji Anjo vs. Naoki Sano
Nobuhiko Takada & Masahito Kakihara vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Daijiro Matsui vs. Ryuki Ueyama
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Kenichi Yamamoto
Naoki Sano vs. Masahito Kakihara
Nobuhiko Takada & James Stone vs. Yoji Anjo & Billy Jack Scott