UWFi (1992)

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yuko Miyato (UWFi, 1/9/92)

Probably the best match of the show, along with the tag main event, but damn, is this fiery from the opening with Miyato letting Tamura have it. Tamura grabs a great choke into the takedown and the whole escape sequence with Tamura flipping back into control and regaining the choke was phenomenal. Tamura's slick as catgshit with his takedowns an transitions, grabbing kneebars and armbars. Miyato was really good here, too. He hits a nice fireman's carry and works his way into a snug double wristlock. He kills Tamura with a backdrop hold and then pops him in the head with a follow-up kick. Tamura's able to grab the single leg crab but Miyato makes it to the ropes. The finish was the weakest part of the match but otherwise, a very cool sub-ten minute match.

Kazuo Yamazaki & Yoji Anjoh vs. Gary Albright & Jim Boss (UWFi, 1/9/92)

Anjoh is definitely one of the more underrated mat workers -- he's pretty slick and at one point, does a skull crusher. Boss is another clueless white dude and doesn't do much here but that's okay because Gary Albright rules in this match. He absolutely wrecks Anjoh with German suplexes throughout; that second to last German is especially brutal and awesome. When Yamazaki gets the initial tag in, he also takes Albright over with a killer German suplex of his own. Albright isn't much of a ground guy but he doesn't get paid the big bucks to work a side headlock. That finishing stretch with him and Anjoh is the definite highlight, with him clubbing the shit out of Anjoh before finishing him off with the Germans. Big Albright showcase.

Kiyoshi Tamura & Yuko Miyato vs. Mark Silver & Tatsuo Nakano (UWFi, 2/15/92)

Probably the best match on probably the worst top-to-bottom UWFI show chronologically. And it's good, in parts. Silver has about the most white trash haircut behind Tom Burton but he does manage a couple of neat throws. But like most of the gaijins, he's clueless on the mat and his strikes are feather light. And he also gets kicked in the face AND the nuts. Tamura is Tamura, which means he's uber slick on the mat, leaving Silver in the dust. He has some good interactions with Nakano (of course). Love Nakano's side headlock with the fingers clasped -- textbook. They keep sending each other to the ropes with submission holds, and Nakano throws back-to-back Germans. Miyato continues to be a little shitfire and lets SIlver have it, barraging him and throwing him with a belly-to-belly. The finish was awkward but otherwise, a fun tag.

Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Masakazu Maeda (UWFi, 2/29/92)

A fun, competitive match with two scrappy young dudes going out there and showing off what they've learned over the past few months. Nothing fancy -- Maeda's a little smoother on the ground and had some nice counters/reversals. He also throws a few nice suplexes. Kanehara is the better striker with his quick open hands and knees. I liked the sequence where he had Maeda in the single leg crab and turned it into a facelock as Maeda inched his way to the ropes. By the end of it, they're both very exhausted -- Maeda a little more so -- and after Kanehara hits a German, he taps him with the armbar.

Gary Albright vs. Kazuo Yamazaki (UWFi, 3/17/92)

The best match of the show. Yamazaki flies at him with a kick and Albright quickly takes him down and starts pounding away with a few great body shots. Yamazaki is trying to play defense, trying to go after the arm, but Albright’s just too darn big. After a little temper flareup, Albright snaps him over with a belly-to-belly. When Yamazaki  finally gets the armbar, Albright right on the ropes. Yamazaki then stuns him with a knee to the midsection and German suplexes Albright to set up the crab hold but again, too damn big. Loved Albright running over and clobbering Yamazaki in the back of the head before German suplexing him and when Yamazaki is barely back up and on his feet, Albright hits a second German for the immediate KO.

Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Masakazu Maeda (UWFi, 5/8/92)

Another fun spirited young boy match with Maeda being feisty with his strikes and Kanehara looking to suplex>submit. What they may lack in finesse they make up for with their hearts and determination. But there's some cool shit like Maeda blocking Kanehara's defensive kicks when he's got him in the single leg grab. It heats up heading into the finish with some big strikes and submission attempts. I really liked the desperation of Kanehara's single leg crab/side facelock when Maeda won't tap. They're both exhausted and swatting by the end of it and Kanehara wins after a German suplex into the armbar. One of the better matches of the show.

Kazuo  Yamazaki vs. Koji Kitao (UWFi, 5/8/92)

Not a very good match but totally a GREAT match. I loved it. Kitao's this big dumb judo guy eating leg kick after kick, waiting patiently for the right moment. Oh, and t's coming. I love that his counter to the double leg takedown is just standing there. At some point, Yamazaki's nose gets busted but he still wants to German suplex Kitao but settles for a sleeper hold, to which Kitao counters by trying to dump him over the top rope. Kitao's selling after he slowly crawls to the ropes to break a heel hold is off the charts. Kitao's monent comes when he swats Yamazaki's spinning heel kick out of the air. Then he proceeds to destroy Yamazak - a nasty running knee, a big uranage, and endless leg and butt kicks until Yamazaki can no longer stand on his own two feet. Altered Beast Kitao is the best Kitao, and Yamazaki is one of the best shithead underdogs.

Nobuhiko Takada vs. Gary Albright (UWFi, 5/8/92)

Takada's first big UWFi "epic" and a very fun match up top, with Albright grabbing suplexes and Takada being the charismatic striker trying to kick Gary's head off. He also delivers a pretty sweet Saito suplex to Albright so lots of suplex love in this match -- loved Gary's back-to-back belly-to-bellies. The groundwork slows it down and isn't very interesting until Takada starts blasting Albright with leg kicks and counters the German with the toe hold. I liked that Gary's first shitty German suplex seemed like a result of his bad knee buckling but then he hits the second shitty German and it's definitely Takada sandbagging him -- who then just lays there like a goof to give Gary the KO victory. Cool moments but not a great match.

Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara (UWFi, 6/28/92)

Yoshihiro Takayama's pro-wrestling debut and it's exactly the big aggressive debut you'd expect from Takayama. He immediately open hands the hell out of Kanehara and gets in plenty of giant knees and slaps. Kanehara is obviously trying to get him down to the mat for a submission but he's having a hard time doing it. He gets in a few good shots at Takayama and finally lets him have it, backdropping Takayama to set up the submission. Really fun debut from Takayama.

Kiyoshi Tamura & Yuko Miyato vs. Tatsuo Nakano & Mark Fleming (UWFi, 6/28/92)

This was the best Fleming has looked since he first popped up in UWFi. He really gets to show off his power vs. Miyato with big suplex throws and a little more refined technique against Tamura, like his hammerlocked takedown into the headscissors. But Tamura is the slickest and wipes the mat clean with Fleming. Nakano isn't very slick either but he's scrappy and a little shit, which is why we adore him, and he knees Tamura in the face a couple of times. The exchanges between Nakano and MIyato are always very feisty and they didn't disappoint here. Nakano dumps him with a German suplex and Miyato answers by spiking him with a crazy uranage. Fleming still can't apply his shitty STF and while it doesn't work on Tamura, it works on Miyato. A really fun undercard tag.

Yoji Anjoh vs. Masahito Kakihara (UWFi, 6/28/92)

The best match of the show and an easy recommendation. It's 10:00 minutes. It's Dickhead Anjoh, it's Slappy Kaki, and there's plenty of heat between the striking, and the aggressive takedowns and submission attempts.When Kakihara misses his big spinning heel kick attempt, which he misses about 78% of the time, Anjoh adds some salt by kicking him in the face. Some real nasty shots from Anjoh toward the end but Kakihara pulls off the upset by submitting Anjoh with the leglock. Good stuff.

Kiyoshi Tamura & Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Gary Albright & Mark Silver (UWFi, 7/12/92)

Really awesome shoot-style tag because it definitely blurs the lines between shoot and pro-wrestling very well. Mark Silver, really representing 1992 in all its glory, won me over and became quite the fighting underdog when the fans turned on Tamura who basically bullies SIlver on the mat throughout the match. Really rides that back mount and at one point, SIlver lifts his hands and asks "why?". Things get really heated when SIlver tries to retaliate but Tamura goes back to dominating him and sending him to the ropes. Yamazaki's "I don't want to be here" energy is so good. He definitely gives Silver something more to work with and their exchanges felt gritty and seamless. Love Yamazaki's go behind German suplex. Yamazaki gives him some big kicks and Silver sells them great but it looks he was supposed to take Yamazaki's spinning heel kick counter, doesn't, stands there awkwardly trying to figure out what to do, and then Yamazaki, clearly pissed, shoot stomps him in the face and tags in Tamura. So now Tamura and Yamazaki are both shooting on Silver, Silver just wants some retribution against these assholes, the fans want Silver to tag in Albright, and Albright is ready to fucking kill somebody. We get the finish everyone was waiting for. Tamura tries to do his thing against Silver but Silver immediately goes to the ropes, drops Tamura with a uranage, and finally tags in Albright, whose like "f this a-hole" and annihilates Tamura with suplexes for the KO. Not a happy man at the way Tamura humiliated Silver and boy, did Tamura pay. Yikes.

Masahito Kakihara vs. Mark Silver (UWFi, 8/28/92)

Hey, this was pretty good. Plenty of struggle on the mat with Silver trying hard to do something and Kaki staying in control for much of the match. Silver's rough and tumble and would've made for a good generic AJPW gaijin or something. No finesse but all heart and mullet, which is what we need most sometimes. At one point in the match, Silver snags a kick and clobbers him with a sickle lariat and when Kaki tries for his big spinning heel kick, Mark catches a foot and drops down into a kneebar, which leads to a heated little spat. Silver plants him with a uranage but ends up trapped in a kneebar, with Kaki pulling him away from the ropes and re-applying for the submission.

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoji Anjoh (UWFi, 8/28/92)

For a 30 minute draw, I thought this was pretty great and they did a good job of keeping the matwork exciting. Anjoh is easily the second best guy in UWFi at this point behind Tamura, and they always manage to have competitive tag exchanges up to this point. Tons of neat transitions and defense -- like Anjoh, for example, blocking the single or his transition into the double wristlock attempt, to which Tamura powers out and takes Anjoh over with a big fireman's carry. Lots of cool moments peppered throughout; Anjoh's reflex knee to Tamura's head, the shoot figure-four into the STF, Anjoh hitting the fisherman buster and Tamura immediately snagging the double wristlock. Loved Anjoh getting heat for dropping those knees to Tamura on the ropes. I thought Tamura's rubber-legged selling towards the end of the draw was really good, with Anjoh running in with these shitty low kicks, trying to take him out. By the final couple of minutes, they're both exhausted and Tamura tries for one last choke off the big waterwheel drop but the time expires. Good stuff!

Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Mark Silver (UWFi, 9/21/92)

This was really pretty good. Mark Silver is such a lughead but unlike a guy like Burton, he's got more heart and a bit of a vicious streak. Nasty chokes and big kicks and slams. At one point, he repeatedly boots Kanehara in the head. Kanehara hasn't quite clicked yet but he was able to try out some new submission holds against SIlver. But yeah, this was kind of the Mark Silver show - he hits a belly to belly into the neck crank, clobbers him with a lariat, throws him with a big ass German suplex. I mean, the way he dumps him and stumbles around looking like a total klutz is a big plus for Mark Silver. He gets Kanehara in a pretty gnarly single leg crab but Kanehara's in the ropes and the match ends in a draw.

Masahito Kakihara vs. Tatsuo Nakano (UWFi, 9/21/92)

One of the best sub-five minute matches out there and within the first 10 seconds, Kakihara splatters Nakano's nose with a flurry of open hands. Nakano's able to slow Kaki down on the ground with a leglock and I like the combo of the knee > front neck chancery takeover, throwing some salt in the wound with a cheap shot kick. The blood really adds something to the match, with Kaki's grip slipping during a takedown attempt. As usual, Kakihara sets himself up for the big spinning heel kick but misses, which leads to the brutal finish from Nakano: smack, stomp, submit via single leg crab.

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kazuo Yamazaki (UWFi, 10/23/92)

Great match and definitely the most reminiscent of UWF 2.0 out of any of the UWFi stuff so far. That opening was fantastic and I loved all the crowd reactions to the constant counters and reversals on the mat through the first couple of minutes.  Tamura plays the brash young underdog, Yamazaki the stubborn veteran, and together, the competitive nature, the frustrations, the teases -- everything worked, for the most part. There were a couple of times when it felt a little long in the tooth but then they're turn it up again, and Yamazaki would fly at him with a spinning heel kick. There's a great moment toward the end when Tamura is smacking the hell out of Yamazaki when he's stuck in a leglock but Yamazaki ain't letting go. Then Yamazaki's like fuck it, let's finish this, and he's able to hit the German suplex but Tamura finally taps him with the armbar. Really good stuff here.

Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara (UWFi, 12/20/92)

The best match in their series so far, continuing the tradition of sloppy charm. They scrap around, both on their feet and on the mat. Takayama's strategy is largely the same: knee knee knee. But when Kanehara catches one, he dumps him with a big waterwheel slam and tries to choke Takayama out. Takayama looked more comfortable here and he definitely got to shine, hitting a big capture suplex, popping Kanehara in the face with a flying knee, and an awesome German. Kanehara looked good here, too, with his kicks and counters - loved him catching Takayama's kick and high kicking him in the head with the opposite leg. Or the leg catch slap. Really good desperation there at the end between the holds and counters and wild strikes -- at one point, Kanehara kicks Takayama in the nuts to set up a leglock.  Kanehara hits his own German and finishes Takayama off with a choke. Fun stuff!

Nobuhiko Takada vs. Naoki Sano (UWFi, 12/20/92)

This is easily Takada's best singles match in UWFi through 1992, and it comes after a warm up match against Dennis Koslowski. Takada, who is usually not very interesting on the mat, worked a stronger ground game against Sano. Sano, on the otherhand, had Takada on the ropes with chokes and single legs throughout. But it's DOUBLE TAKADA so he's going to shine here, which he did. He hits a nice Saito suplex>rear mount>face lock combo and he blasts Sano with a nasty high kick. Sano is able to grab the leg and German suplex Takada but when Takada tries to sneak in for a leglock attempt, Sano's able to roll him up with one of his own. They lay into each other with slaps and kicks and there are some good moments of struggle heading into the finish. They fight over armbars but Takada obviously wins out and picks up the submission. Good stuff! 

Tatsuo Nakano vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (UWFi, 7/22/95)

Tatsuo Nakano gives zero fucks about the size of his opponent. He just runs right at Yoshihiro Takayama and into those giant knees. Takayama's offense in this match is mostly limited to knees because Nakano dominates him for about 90% of the match, blasting him with tons of kicks to the head and quick slappy hands. When he wasn't striking, Nakano showed a lot more on the mat than he usually does, utilizing some cool takedowns and reversals, including a neat choke counter to the armlock. Takayama even gets to show off a bit, using his swanky double wristlock takedown when Nakano teased a German suplex. The German suplex was built up nicely throughout the match, playing into the finish. Takayama, down 11 points, finally Germans Nakano and goes into rolling front necklock to submit him. Nakano's a joy as always.

Kenta Kobashi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (AJPW, 5/26/00)

What an awesomely scrappy and, at times, brutal match-up, with tons of fighting spirit from Kobashi and Takayama coming off like a big bully. I mean, he high kicks Kobashi in the head before the bell and demands the ref to ring it. The look on Kobashi's face just before Takayama penalty kicks him is priceless. Kobashi is able to hulk up and take control of the situation but when he tries that shit again, Takayama tackles him into the canvas and pounds away at him from the front mount, laying back into a cross armbreaker and refusing to let go after the rope break. What a jerk. He drags him around ringside, stands on his throat, boots him in the head. Kobashi tries hacking at Takayama's head and neck with backchops but Takayama cuts him off again with a nasty climbing knee in the corner. The grunty armwork adds to the grittiness of the match, and Kobashi does a great job selling it as he tries to defend himself with the opposite chop hand. I really liked the struggle on the mat with Kobashi trying to hang on as Takayama pries the arm back into the armbar. As Kobashi spirits his way toward the finishing stretch, the fans rallying him on, Takayama keeps trying to go after the arm but he's clearly exhausted. He's able to hit a beautiful high-angle German suplex hold for a nearfall but can't deliver a second. Instead, they just start popping each other with fists and while Takayama lands a few good shots, Kobashi relentlessly whaps him with back fists. The finish comes a little out of nowhere as Takayama throws Kobashi with a desperate German and then Kobashi comes back with the lariat for the win. Big performance from Takayama, who went well past empty, and Kobashi being the best babyface he can be with some terrific selling.

Hiroshi Hase vs. Mitsuharu Misawa; Jun Akiyama vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (AJPW, 1/9/00)

Hiroshi  Hase vs. Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW, 1/9/00)

There is a lot to love from Hiroshi Hase in this match, from his awareness to his determination. Clearly, Misawa is not as slick as Hase on the mat so he has to rely on his primary form of offense, the elbow. Knowing this, Hase takes the obvious route and proceeds to annihilate said elbow in the form of extensive armwork. He takes him down, tangles him up, and rolls all over the canvas with Misawa in tow, working the arm like a full-time job. Misawa doesn’t do much in terms of escaping or countering – he mostly lays there and takes the punishment, though at times, he seems desperate to get away. Then again, he’ll often say “fuck your armwork, Hase” and throw a couple of elbows but Hase brushes them off and takes him back down to his realm of holds. I love that Hase immediately brings the focus back to the arm following much of Misawa’s offense, first with the overshot diving body press and then off the German suplex hold. “Ask him, come on, give up!” says Hase before he dumps him with a big ole uranage and follows up with a cross armbreaker. 

Misawa’s selling of the arm, or lack thereof, didn’t necessarily bother me -- I mean, I love Misawa's stubborness to keep using the elbow, knowing he can't take Hase on the mat and coming to realize that Hase has an answer for most of his other offense. The elbows obviously don't have the same impact on Hase so he has to keep on battering him, switching to the other elbow at the end to get some good shots in, before finally downing him with the running elbow.. Sure, he could’ve done more to sell it but it’s Misawa, he’s the ace, so Hase staying in the driver’s seat for so long is more than most get. 

As Hase continues snagging the arm off of Misawa’s signature offense (tiger driver, frog splash, etc.), you finally see him start to crack with desperation. There’s a great visual of Hase almost hugging the arm, a look of real frustration on his face as he’s trying to get him to submit. But no matter what he does, Misawa’s throwing those dang elbows. So Hase himself says “fuck this armwork” and drops Misawa with a dragon suplex, back-to-back uranages and a Northern Lights suplex hold. When that doesn’t do the trick, he tries for a second Northern Lights and Misawa knees out of the attempt, throwing elbows from both sides before finally laying him out for good with the running elbow. I wasn’t a big fan of Hase’s relatively quick demise following all that dedicated work on top but again, it’s Misawa. You take what you get, and what I got was a lot of cool shit from Hase.

Jun Akiyama vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (AJPW, 1/9/00)

Really good stuff and an easy watch, with Yoshihiro Takayama firing heavy early on with his big boots, knees, and kicks. But Jun is too slick for that shit and dropkicks Takayama’s knee out from under him to set-up the limbwork portion of the match. I love Akiyama when he’s working the hell out of a body part and here, he snares Takayama on the guardrail and delivers a killer dropkick from the apron. He goes through the gamut of leg holds, from the Scorpion Deathlock to the STF to the figure-four leglock, but Takayama finds an opening to exploit Akiyama’s weakness in the taped left elbow. He ragdolls Jun with a couple of suplexes and pulls out a beautiful double arm suplex hold before going into a facelock, transitioning into the over-and-the-shoulder hold to further damage the elbow. Okay selling from Takayama, better from Akiyama, whose able to dropkick the knee again to turn the tide. I liked that he targeted the bad knee to block Takayama’s German suplex attempt and then rolled him up on the second attempt. 

Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (NOAH, 9/7/02)

Yoshinari Ogawa is the perfect grimy ring tech, who, in addition to looking like the Chairman from the original Iron Chef, reminds me of Daisuke Sasaki, or rather, Sasaki reminds me of Ogawa with a “bad boy” edge. He plays the sneaky pants David to Takayama’s blonde Goliath, and Takayama’s Goliath is a real brute, body pressing Ogawa off the pin attempt, punishing him with kicks and knees, ragdolling him with suplexes, grinding his boot into Ogawa’s face. At one point, Takayama bodyslams him and yells “come on, champion”…because Ogawa is champ. It says so on his trucks… “GHC Champ”, in case people couldn’t quite believe Ogawa was champ. When Takayama gets hung up on the ropes, Ogawa puts him in the TREE OF WOE and pummels the hell out of him with punches and stomps before going to work fulltime on the arm. Takayama powers Ogawa up out of an armbar and sets him up top…but Ogawa’s able to take him back down to the mat with the arm in tow. Ogawa’s a jerk to Takayama on the ropes with his stomps and Takayama can’t seem to catch a break, his momentum hitting shitty brick walls built by Ogawa. Ogawa hits a total of four backdrops on Takayama, holding onto the fourth for a two count before going right back into the armbar, kicking Tayama’s hand away to cinch it in. Takayama finally breaks the wall doooooown with a big knee and follows up with a big German suplex hold for a nearfall. Loved Ogawa’s final desperate flash pin attempts at hanging onto his title with Takayama countering the last small package, brutalizing Ogawa with the knee strike and putting him away with the big German to capture the title.

Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Masahito Kakihara (AJPW, 07/19/98)

Kakihara pissing off Toshiaki Kawada is something that needs to be witnessed, please, go. He immediately pops Kawada with a slap and Kawada’s selling is fantastic here as he quickly tags out to Taue, who gets popped a few good times himself! Oh boy, when Kawada gets back in there, he takes it to Kaki with slaps, knocks him down, picks him back up, and then smacks the shit out of him. Kawada and Taue work Kaki over for a while, Taue piledriving Kaki at one point, and each time Kaki tries to fight back, Kawada usually shuts him down with a boot to the face or kicks. But he keeps fighting until he gets the jujigatame on Kawada and the tag to Takayama. He eats some Kawada kicks, Kawada eats some knees, but Takayama’s mostly a ghost in this match. The final stretch with Kaki and Taue was alright – I liked Taue just shoving Kaki down when he keeps coming at him, but it lacked the fire of his exchanges with Kawada.

Kenta Kobashi & Jun Akiyama vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Masahito Kakihara (AJPW, 2/28/98)

A total blast, with Masahito Kakihara once again being the consummate thorn in the side and this time, he’s got heavy back-up in the hulking form of Yoshihiro Takayama. I love how confident Kaki is when takes down Akiyama with a dropkick but when he tries to lure him into a “shoot”, Akiyama brushes off some of his judo skills with a takedown and more than hangs with Kaki on the mat.  So Kaki has to rely on his kicks and he quickly chops out Akiyama’s leg and re-asserts himself back on the mat with a leglock. He’s such a prick in this match. Takayama’s the loveable brute, German suplexing Kobashi and knocking Jun off the apron, which leads to Jun rolling back into the ring to confront Takayama and getting nearly KO’d with a big knee. Kobashi’s the best good guy, checking on the welfare of his partner, taking sympathetic beatdowns, working the crowd while trying to combat Kaki’s pesky kicks. After the first Kaki kickdown, I love how Kobashi mad-dogs him and lays into him with chops.

While on the ground, Kaki has Kobashi on the rocks and Jun has to break up the Fujiwara armbar, resulting in Kaki and Jun mean-muggin’ one another. Boy, Kaki’s pissing off everyone. The chemistry between Jun and Kaki was awesome, between the in-ring interactions, the constant taunting and one-upmanship -- I’d love to see a singles match between these two if it exists out there. But the final showdown between Kaki and Kobashi was also terrific. Kakiwara tries for his roll-up kneebar off a German suplex attempt but it doesn’t do the trick here and when he goes back to the kicks, Kobashi’s able catch one and capture suplex him. Loved Kaki’s last spat at Kobashi before Kobashi destroys his world with the short-range lariat for the win. The good stuff.

Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Gene Lydick (UWFi, 8/13/93)

This was a whole lot of fun, with cool throws, heavy striking from Takayama, and Lydick trying to find the golden ticket on the mat. It's funny because Lydick is definitely not a striker and he eats plate fulls of knees, slaps, and kicks trying to get in close enough to suplex Takayama. Loved the opening scramble as it seemed full of panic and intensity. The first suplex of the match is a German courtesy of Lydick and he follows that up with a second, looking confident early on. Later, he delivers what looks like a uranage before unsuccessfully attempting an armbar. Takayama's knees looked awesome and he kept kicking Lydick in the gut. He delivers his own German, holds on, then cradles him into some kind of leg crank? No clue but it looked clunky and effective. Lydick manages to send Takayam to the ropes a couple of times, at one point getting his nose cracked when Takayama tries booting his way out of a hold. Takayama's last gasp is a brutal combo of knees and kicks in the corner but it ain't enough to keep Lydick down for the count, and good ole Gene comes back with a belly-to-belly, slapping on the single leg and dragging Takayama back to the middle when he gets to the ropes to finally submit him. All day long, bebe.

Osamu Nishimura vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (NJPW, 8/10/02)

Another fantastic performance from Osamu Nishimura, who gets to showcase his technique against lurch Yoshihiro Takayama. Nishimura's in-ring awareness in this match is phenomenal with his reversals and escapes. He has an answer for whatever Takayama's posing, to the point where a frustrated Takayama sits up after Nishimura counter like "how I keep him down?". There's a lot to love in this match, from Nishimura's run-around reversal or his many bridging escapes -- always having another option in the back pocket. Takayama working the mat is fun but he mostly lays around while Osamu goes to work on him. Nishimura does a good job of keeping the big man down and focusing on the legs to neutralize Takayama's big kicks. Love Osamu's sickle hold but Takayama plays a good counter of his own.

He finally says fuck the grappling and starts kicking Nishimura but when he tries for the big boot in the corner, he gets hung up in the ropes and Nishimura attacks with elbows, hitting a diving knee to set-up the figure-four leglock. And when Takayama reaches the ropes, what does Osamu do? Drags him to the middle, gives the leg a couple of spinning toeholds, and puts the figure-four right back on, bridging this time to put more pressure on the hold. When he's not laying there, Takayama's in-the-moment selling and facials are really good but it's short term.When Nishimura starts kicking the leg, Takayama smacks the shit out of him and hits a pair of belly-to-belly suplexes. After a couple of more counters, Takayama is finally able to snatch Osamu and pin him with the German suplex hold. The finish came out of nowhere but also made the msot sense for the cat-and-mouse game they played throughout.