PWFG "One For All And All For One" (7/26/91)

Mark Rush vs. Kazuo Takahashi

If you like mat wrangling, then this is the match for you. Mark Rush is a burly individual with an amateur background and for over ten minutes, he and Kazuo Takahashi jockey for leverage on the ground, with Rush using his size to his advantage. Takahashi's focus is the arm and the struggle for armbar is a reoccurring and often compelling theme of the match. There's a couple of slams throughout but this mostly takes place on the ground, and finishes on the ground, as Mark hits a powerslam and taps Takahashi with a nice snug side headlock.

Wayne Shamrock vs. Duane Koslowski 

Duane Koslowski is about as Wonder Bread as they come, looking like 1990's Steve Rogers come to life. Wayne is Kenneth is Ken, and he brings a lot of aggression to this match, which I'm okay with. He tries to keep his distance with strikes while Duane looks to sneak in for a suplex. After taking a couple of shots to the head, Duane finally hits an All-American belly-to-belly suplex and tries for a double wristlock on the mat. He's able to bridge out of a choke and they get into a little spat of open hands before Duane belly-to-bellies him once again. At one point, Duane gives Shammy a love tap slap across the face and boy, does Wayne not like it. He soon finishes him off with the Shamrock Special #2 aka the Northern Lights suplex into the leglock. I want to see more Duane Koslowski.

Minoru Suzuki vs. Naoki Sano

SPOILER ALERT: This is a 30:00 minute time limit draw. However, it's one of the best time limit draws I've seen and the pace these two work throughout is incredible. Right from the get-go, they scramble around with the crowd buzzing, trying to get something locked in long enough without getting thrown off. Suzuki keeps going for the armbar but Sano isn't give him an inch. He'll slap at Sano's thigh, trying to break open the armbar, but no dice. I loved Suzuki's slap to the face>fireman's carry takeover into the armbar attempt, and when he tries for the double arm suplex and Sano resists it, he piledrives him instead. The stand-up striking feels very heated at times, and some of the open hands and palms exchanged look/sound real nasty. Exhaustion begins to rear its ugly head about 15-20 minutes in but Suzuki is dead set on getting the armbar. He hits a German suplex on Sano, but Sano is able to snag an arm off the bridge. At one point, Sano has Suzuki in a rear naked choke and Suzuki is slapping himself to stay coherent, it's great. Finally, Suzuki says "enough with the armbar" and grabs a single leg crab, but he can't maintain it and the time limit expires with them fighting over a leglock. High recommendation for this one.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Masakatsu Funaki

This wasn't great but it wasn't bad. It was SOLID. They work the mat to start, mostly fighting over leglocks, before Funaki starts in with the smacks and kicks, knocking Fujiwara on his ass. He comes at him with a big flurry of kicks and while Fujiwara's able to a catch a leg, he can't follow up with the leg trip and Funaki ends up taking him back down to the mat. One of the best moments of the match comes when Fujiwara's trying to get a hold of Funaki's leg while he's on the ground and Funaki pops him in the face with a defensive shin, once again dropping Funaki on his ass. Funaki doesn't let up, catching him with a hard slap in the face against the ropes and a kick to the face for another knock down. Then he unloads a barrage of body shots, open hands, kicks, but Fujiwara's a resilient and wily old fuck and won't fall. So when Funaki goes for the double leg takedown, Fujiwara snags his arm with his leg for the submission victory. Of course, Fujiwara pulls it out in the end.

UWF Atlantis (10/25/90)

This show was an absolute blast and recommended to those who may be turned off by the art of fake fighting that is "shoot style". You've got four of the biggest shoot personalities going toe-to-toe, and an early look into the spastic underdog that is Masahito Kakihara. So in the words of Dr. Stephen Brule, PhD, let's check it out.

Masahito Kakihara vs. Takaku Fuke

Young Kakihara is already showing signs of what's to come with the immediate slap after the handshake. Kakihara's lightning-quick with his kicks and slaps and Fuke does all he can to try and slow the whirlwind down, at one point catching a leg and countering with a cool capture-style powerslam. Once Fuke's got him on the ground, he's able to send Kaki crawling to the ropes by targeting the legs, supplementing the holds with an occasional kick or knee to the face. He's able to catch him in a guillotine choke, smartly trapping the legs to prevent the break. There's plenty of takedowns and scrambling around the mat throughout, with Kakihara finally securing a head-and-shoulder-lock for the submission win.

Masakatsu Funaki vs. Akira Maeda

Loved the flurried slap-action to open and the frantic way Funaki counters out of the rear waistlock to ground Big Boss Maeda with the wakigatame, really cranking it on like he's fixing a leaky pipe. They convey good struggle for control and for the most part, Funaki's able to roll with a lot of Maeda's punches so to speak...you know, except for when Maeda is repeatedly rocking him kicks on the ropes. But I like that even when they're on the mat, Funaki is still trying to drive home a few knees and boots. Maeda's able to execute a beautiful German suplex hold but it doesn't do much to slow down Funaki, who comes at him with some good hard smacks, busting Maeda's nose. He slows him down with some focused legwork and plants him with a nasty capture suplex but still, Funaki keeps coming until eventually Maeda has to choke him out. Really great match.

Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara

Aside from his sometimes heavy striking, Takada doesn't do a whole lot for me, especially on the mat, but when he's paired against Fujiwara, I find myself more invested in him as a performer. He sells Fujiwara's awesome lunging headbutts like a million bucks and what I love about the headbutts is that can come from out nowhere and quickly turn the tide of the match. Fujiwara's methodical here in that he'll try to manipulate a limb into a hold but when there's struggle, he'll shift to another body part entirely. He's a real danger on the mat, and Takada recognizes that -- at one point, Fujiwara's able to reverse a leglock and Takada freaks out with boot shots in an attempt to escape. Of course, we get the classic grinning Fujiwara here, brushing off Takada's kicks and hanging out in the corners. Takada tries chopping out Fujiwara's leg and then starts trying to knock him with with kicks and knees but Fujiwara uses the corner as a home base to keep from falling. But when Takada's corner strikes get to be too much, Fujiwara slumps to the canvas in a fantastic moment, still managing a smile when he makes it back to his feet. Fujiwara's able to knock Takada down with another headbutt but ultimately, the old dog runs out of downs and Takada's finally able to get the TKO victory after a knee strike. Another terrific match.

BJW/Masahito Kakihara Produce "KAKI RIDE" (8/14/17)

Big Japan helped produced this special event as a way to support Masahito Kakihara, who has been suffering from malignant lymphoma since 2014. The event saw the return of Kakihara to the ring, in a sparring session with grapple legend, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, but everything else was fought under "UWF Rules", meaning points deducted for rope breaks, knockdowns, and in the case of Minoru Suzuki, penalties. On a whole, this was a really fun show and something I'd love to see BJW produce more often. Nothing super high end but I did have a few notes on the show. 

- In his sparring session, Kakihara tapped to Fujiwara a total of ten times. There wasn't much to this, some neat little tricks by Fujiwara, but the best moment came when Fujiwara smoked and ashed an imaginary cigar while had Kakihara in a headlock. Oh yeah.

- Minoru Tanaka managed to wrestle his best match of the year in just under 3:00 against Masakatsu Funaki. Funaki immediately whaps him in the forehead with a kick, and then they scramble around the mat with a real sense of urgency, trying to sink something in. Minoru's able to escape an armbar attempt but gets caught in a triangle and taps out.

- Tatsuo Nakano, still rocking that badass mullet, fought Daisuke Nakamura in a match that definitely over delivered. You've got Nakamura flying fancy round the mat and Nakano being Nakano just knees him in the face, dumps him with an armtrap release German, and submits him with the single leg crab. 

- Hideki Suzuki once again took former student Takuya Nomura to school on the mat, being real nasty with his forearms to the face and knees to the throat. I love the way he manipulates Nomura's arm with the wristlock in order to assert dominance. It seems Nomura's learned a thing or two from their match earlier in the year, where Suzuki basically smothered him into giving up, as he's able to avoid getting suplexed by sitting down and maintains arm control long enough to force Suzuki to the ropes. He's able to let loose a little flurry of strikes but Suzuki's too good, and the finish was swanky as fuck, as Suzuki counters out of the waistlock with a front necklock and then goes into the double arm suplex hold for the submission. 

- Rocky Kawamura (sans boxing gloves) always find a way of pissing off Minoru Suzuki. Suzuki was pretty great here. After landing a few slaps, he tries for the Gotch-style piledriver because you might as well and when Kawamura avoids it, Suzuki grabs the leg and cranks away, forcing Rocky to the ropes. When Rocky uses a jujigatame on Suzuki and doesn't let go after Minoru makes the ropes, the "oh no you didn't" look on Suzuki's face is fantastic. He tries to choke out Rocky, then starts kicking, stomping, and headbutting away, receiving a couple of yellow cards from the ref. Rocky fires off a few jabs but Suzuki's able to snatch an arm and wrench in the wakigatame for the submission. 

- Naomichi Marufuji doesn't have a whole lot of experience wrestling under "UWF Rules" and when he keeps revisiting the ropes on the ground, it becomes obvious that the only way he's going to beat Takaku Fuke is via strikes. He is able to secure a keylock but that's about as close as he gets to submitting Fuke. In the end, Fuke starts laying in the slaps and knees in the corner and out of nowhere, Marufuji connects with the Koo for the KO victory. Cool shorts, Maru. 

Minoru Suzuki vs. Tatsuo Nakano (UWF, 2/27/90)

What a smutty little match-up here with plenty of handsy exchanges and agitated strikes. This has that drunken bar fight element to it, ugly at times but also effective. Nakano wrestles a very smothering style by rubbing his forearms in Suzuki's face and really cranking on the headlocks and necklocks. Suzuki at one point has had it and pummels Nakano with headbutts. The first down is terrific, as Suzuki's trying to block Nakano's headbutts on the ground but Nakano catches him and sends him reeling. Suzuki's leg crabs looked really brutal here and when Suzuki starts dropping knees, Nakano freaks and unloads a pissy flurry of strikes to knock Suzuki back down. For this style of match, While Suzuki sometimes appears a little lost, his selling is really pretty good, in that bewildered sense. He spikes Nakano with the piledriver and immediately starts stomping his head in and dropping more knees. Wasn't a fan of the double KO finish, at least the execution of it, but this was really good and uncomfortable at the same time.

Bob Backlund vs. Masakatsu Funaki (UWF, 5/21/89)

Bob Backlund in Japan, in UWF specifically, is a riot. He’s such a goober -- such a pro-wrestling caricature as if Elmer Fudd was a former NCAA Champion. The way he sells Funaki’s kicks, whoa-ing and scuttling around. When Funaki cranks on the kneelock, Backlund casually bends Funaki’s leg and reverses the hold into a reverse Indian deathlock. He’ll fling Funaki off with this “gee, what’d I get myself into here?” expression on his face, only for Funaki to continue pelting him with kicks.  His takedowns are erratic and somewhat impulsive, the strike exchanges are chaotic between wild misses or hard wallops. No-nonsense Funaki is especially vicious with his feet, stomping his way out of holds and high kicking Backlund in the head. After Funaki grounds Backlund with an armbar takedown, Bob leg muscles up through the hold and sets Funaki on the top rope, seemingly pissing him off. Funaki then gets himself disqualified with a top rope dropkick, of course. What a show.

Masakatsu Funaki vs. Yoji Anjoh (UWF, 6/14/89)

This wasn't quite the jam Funaki's bout with Nakano was but this was decent, with plenty of wild and loose strikes from both sides. There was some slop to this match but Funaki had some cool takedowns, including a nasty reverse cravate and the double arm suplex into the butterfly lock. The most compelling stuff came during Anjoh's legwork, which was sold well by Funaki and had Anjoh circling with kicks like a shark in bloody waters. Funaki gets a little revenge with some big spinning back kicks but when he tries to finish Anjoh off with a German suplex, Anjoh snags an arm and takes him down with the double wristlock for the submission win. Not bad but the most engaging match.

Masakatsu Funaki vs. Tatsuo Nakano (UWF, 7/24/89)

Holy shit, this ruled and when it comes to hate in wrestling, this is a prime, heated example. Funaki, sporting quite the Jheri curl, tries to be cordial with a handshake but Nakano ain't having it and away we go. The crowd's nuts for these two beating the shit out of each other. Funaki keeps trying to land knees and Nakano is going after the leg and whenever he gets him on the ground, Funaki smacks him repeatedly until he lets go. When Nakano catches a foot and tries for the dragon screw legwhip, Funaki blocks it and busts him open with a hard slap. Yikes. Funaki's downright nasty in this match with his little punt kicks and shoot headbutts. At one point, Nakano's draining blood and they have to halt the match to check on him but he's a fighter and by gawd, he's gonna fight.

He gets some revenge on Funaki with his own slaps and punt kicks -- Funaki's selling off one of the kicks is amazing. Nakano delivers a beautiful half hatch suplex into the double wristlock but when he goes after the leg again with a takedown attempt, he pays for it with more stomps to the head. Funaki hits a funky armtrap side German suplex (no idea, if somebody knows what this is called, please @ me). After Nakano breaks a single leg crab, they almost call the match because of Nakano's bleeding but no way, Jose, Nakano's still in it and he knocks down Funaki with a pair of big boy kicks. He spikes Funaki with a snap suplex and Funaki comes at him with a maelstrom of strikes, but Nakano keeps knocking him down. He hits a German suplex and goes into a single leg crab of his own but Funaki escapes. In the end, Funaki slams him down Alabama-style and puts on a badass crab hold to submit Nakano. If you like pissy violence and Funaki being a bad motherfucker, watch this match.