Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Super Tiger (UWF, 12/5/84)

By now, Super Tiger is familiar with Fujiawa and knows he can’t take him on the ground so he doesn’t hold back with the kicks early on. Really terrific footwork from Tiger complimented by Fujiwara’s selling. Similar to their September match, Fujiwara is looking for that German suplex but Tiger’s able to take him down with a beautiful armbar takedown into the kimura. As brutal as Tiger’s kicks and knees are, Fujiwara’s striking is just as awesome, especially when he’s unloading on Tiger in the corner with relentless body blows. He locks in a grounded choke sleeper and Tiger’s hacking and gagging adds an organic component to the match. When Fujiwara tries for his signature armbar, Tiger freaks out and hustles to the ropes. Fujiwara continues focusing on the arm, forcing Tiger to exert his own energy to find a rope break and each break pisses Fujiwara off more and more, as he stomps and kicks at Tiger. Suplexes are thrown but the final minutes are the real meat-and-potatoes of the match, as Tiger is unremitting with his kicks. He stuns Fujiwara with the solebutt and when he lands that high kick to Fujiwara’s head, the crowd explodes. His kneedrops to the back of Fujiwara’s head are incredible and while Fujiwara is still fighting, trying to keep Tiger at bay, he’s beaten and exhausted and he seemingly sacrifices himself to hit that big headbutt. Tiger sinks his teeth in with those kicks and won’t let up, kicking and kicking until Fujiwara can’t fight back any longer. Terrific match, and very likely my favorite of the series.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Super Tiger (UWF, 9/7/84)

The first match in their series. They're obviously still developing the "UWF shoot-style" as this felt mostly pro-wrestling but it's still a great match. Fujiwara sticks like a magnet to Tiger’s arm through the first half of the match, countering Tiger’s offense or executing his own piece of offense before promptly going back to the arm. Tiger realizes he’s not going to be able to take Fujiwara on the mat so he switches to shoot kicks but Fujiwara catches a foot and takes him down with the dragon screw legwhip, immediately going back to the arm. There’s some dirty slaps, nasty high kicks to the heads, and some great piledrivers from Fujiwara, including a counter to the triangle and a Gotch-style variation. Tiger gets a chain of offense, which includes kicks and a jumping tombstone but he can’t follow-up with the dive, allowing Fujiwara to take over again on offense. Fujiwara abandons the armwork in favor of attacking Tiger’s legs to weaken the kicks. Throughout the match, he keeps trying for the German suplex as a finish but Tiger is able to evade it up through the end of the match, ultimately submitting Fujiwara with the crossface chickenwing.

Super Tiger & Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Akira Maeda (UWF, 7/23/84)

Oooh, boy, this screwy combination of shooters kick and suplex their way into our hearts, setting the stages for two of the biggest feuds in the early UWF days between Tiger/Fujiwara and Takada/Maeda. Let’s not kid ourselves, Fujiwara is the man here and he makes everyone look money, even throwing his own partner some spare change. Between his grappling and bridging dance-off with Takada or his headbutt barrage to Tiger, Fujiwara's the best part of this match. But Super Sayama Tiger is motivated and angsty with kicks. There’s a great spot where he’s laying into Maeda with strikes and goes for the kneedrop, shifting gears midair when Maeda rolls through to his feet to land a solebutt. Maeda's clearly the weakest of the bunch but he does hit a powerbomb! The second half picks up on the offensive front with piledrivers, headbutts (diving and otherwise), and suplexes galore. Takada brings that grumpy fire out of Fujiwara after paintbrushing him with slaps and Fujiwara carries the flame through to the finish, pinning Takada with the low bridging German suplex hold.

Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Nobuhiko Takada (UWF, 12/5/84)

The first five minutes or so is a feel out process between Takada and Yamazaki as they bite with strikes and try to maintain arm control on the mat. But when Takada bridges out of a hold, Yamazaki kicks him in the ribs and the match finds the sweet spot as Yamazaki starts unloading on Takada with kicks and knee drops. He works his way back to the arm but Takada is able to fight out, landing a short spurt of kicks and planting Yamazaki with a tombstone piledriver. When that doesn’t work, he pelts him with stiff as day-old catshit strikes and pulls out the running jumping tombstone! Yamazaki rules in this match, really kicking it up a notch (literally) heading into the final stretch as he fires back with his own hard-hitting offense, including a great belly-to-belly suplex. I like the crossface chickenwing teases on both sides, before Yamazaki uses it almost as a distraction to deliver the German suplex hold for the surprise victory. A short and sweet exhibition of pro-shoot-style-wrestling.

Jumbo Tsuruta vs. Kerry Von Erich (AJPW, 5/22/84)

Kerry’s a Texas boy and wrestles that American-style to a capital T but it works well against jumbo babyface, Tsuruta. It takes a minute for them to find their footing but the first fall had its moments. The double arm suplex struggle, with Kerry backing toward the ropes but Jumbo delivering it anyway or Kerry trying for the Iron Claw with Jumbo writhing on the mat, pushing back. Once Kerry sets Jumbo up on the top turnbuckle, things get a little more heated with Kerry shoving Jumbo and Jumbo responding in kind. After a beautiful enziguri, Jumbo pins Kerry following the backdrop suplex.  He comes out at the start of the second fall clubbing and punching, busting Kerry open with a right-hand. He blocks Kerry’s punch and smacks him, then he starts unloading on him in the corner and the ref’s trying to pull him away but fuck it, Jumbo’s fired up and the crowd’s firmly behind him. 

Kerry makes his comeback after a piledriver, delivering the Tornado Punch + Iron Claw combo, and while Jumbo struggles against it, Kerry ultimately pins him to even the score...but he doesn’t let go. Fantastic selling from Jumbo as the young boys pour water on his head and he’s headbutting the canvas. This third fall starts out great, with Jumbo targeting Terry’s claw hand, stomping it, slamming it against every part of the ring, eventually working in a cross armbreaker. The finishing stretch kind of falls off the rails as they trade offense and Jumbo applies a random crab hold. Kerry locks in the Iron Claw on the outside but Jumbo can’t make it into the ring before the count. He thinks he’s won but Joe Higuchi is like “no way, sir, put your arm down.” I’m not a big Kerry fan but this was fun and cool environment to see him work in.