Masahito Kakihara vs. Kazushi Sakuraba (UWFI, 8/17/96)

It’s a beautiful day for a shoot-inspired pro-wrestling bout between two equally matched friends/rivals. There was a lot of back-and-forth on the mat, until Sakuraba decides to German suplex Kaki but when he gets greedy, Kaki takes him down with the Fujiwara armbar. Here, Kakihara’s FINALLY able to connect with his big spinning heel kick, following it up with a high kick and a slough of shoteis. He delivers an awesome suplex throw but Sakuraba grabs an arm upon impact, trying to work his way down into an ankle hold. But Kaki doesn’t let up, coming at him with a combination of kicks and knees, taking him over with the half hatch suplex to set up the sleeper but in a terrific counter, Sakuraba flips him over and quickly taps him with the jujigatame.

Tatsumi Fujinami & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Nobuhiko Takada & Masahito Kakihara (UWFi, 6/26/96)

I love the Fujis wholeheartedly and I loved this match-up, especially the surly, zero fucks given Fujiwara. I mean, Kakihara’s equally great as the snappy striker riling up the old guys but when he pisses off Fujiwara, Fujiwara wants nothing more than to choke Kakihara out and he tries, again and again, with that classic grinning taunt. When he’s reprimanded by the referee (“No choke! No choke!”), Fujiwara just starts punching Kakihara on the mat. Takada is here to kick and kick hard but Fujinami’s ready for him, countering the first attack with a dragon screw legwhip to set-up the figure four leglock. I thought Fujinami’s selling was fantastic while he’s getting hammered with knees and kicks. Takada uses those strong kicks against Fujiwara to cut out his legs, laying in the punishment before Kaki gets the revenge tag. Oh boy oh boy, here he comes, adrenaline-fueled, smacking the shit out of Fujiwara before he attempts (and misses) not one but TWO spinning heel kicks. With the wind out of his sail, Fujiwara promptly taps him out with the leglock.

Masahito Kakihara vs. Shiro Koshinaka (UWFi, 5/27/96)

Started hot, finished hot, meandered somewhere in the middle, but seeing Koshinaka in the UWFi setting is…entertaining, to say the least. His shoot kicks aren’t quite up to snuff but he’s good at sneaking those knees in. Kaki smacks him silly on the ropes, begging Koshinaka on, and Shiro’s like “you serious?”. Kicks aside, Koshinaka’s pro-wrestling offense looks pretty brutal, from his odd but gnarly brainbuster, his backdrop suplex, and the jackknife powerbomb finish. Kaki’s kicks are once again his main source of offense and he’s able to take down Koshinaka a number of times with them, but he supplements his quick feet with lariats and armbars. Nothing does the trick, however, as Shiro shimmies out of the last armbar and goes on to hit his classic hip attack to set up the finish.

Masahito Kakihara vs. Yuji Nagata (UWFi, 4/19/96)

Sloppy and erratic, full of awkward takedowns, hiccups in momentum, and yawn-inducing matwork. Sounds like a shitshow, right? Well, not really…the scrappiness is somewhat endearing and the match really sizzles when they’re wildly missing strikes and Nagata is throwing suplexes. The beginning and end are pretty great. Nagata clubs the hell out of the back of Kakihara’s neck to get him off the ropes and folds him in two with a German suplex. When Yuji gets him in the jujigatame, Kaki freaks…love a good submission freak out. Kakihara looks to submit Nagata with a heel hold but Nagata’s positioned too close to the ropes so when he stands up, Kaki clobbers him with what looks like a short-arm lariat. He comes at Nagata with knees but Nagata is able to dump him with a dragon suplex. Nagata tries to finish him off but Kaki’s able to pull off that familiar roll-up kneebar for the submission win.

Masahito Kakihara, Hiromitsu Kanehara, Kennichi Yammamoto & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Yuji Nagata, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Shinjiro Otani & Tokimitsu Ishikawa (NJPW, 2/3/96)

They lit the furnace under the ring and boy, oh boy, did they let loose on each other here, with Takaiwa slangin’ elbows and a maskless Kendo Kashin being an especially dirty ditty, swelling up Kanehara’s eye real good with a headbutt. Being a 2/3 Falls match, the falls felt unpredictable, the first occurring early on after Takaiwa plants Sakuraba with a Death Valley Bomb and submits him with the crab hold. I thought Nagata was the standout here, as he brought awesome intensity to his interactions, dumping Yammamoto and Kakihara with suplexes and blasting Sakuraba with a sweet rolling heel kick in the corner. But as much momentum as Yuji builds, Kaki’s able to snag him with the kneebar out of nowhere to submit him and even the score…but they continue heating it up well into the third fall. Yammamoto, who looked a little rough around the edges throughout, finishes the match in beautiful fashion, delivering a perdy German suplex hold before using a kneebar takedown to submit Takaiwa. Not a very cohesive match on a whole but plenty of fiery exchanges

Masahito Kakihara vs. Shinjiro Ohtani (NJPW, 1/3/96)

This was a lovely shoot-inspired pro-wrestling match, with Kaki looking uncharacteristically strong and focused, coming off his frenzied gambit of open hands and a big boy solebutt that downs Ohtani. Ohtani answers with some knees and a German suplex throw, taking Kakihara to the ropes with the cross armbreaker. They fight over a leglock, slapping each other silly, until Kakihara’s able to turn it into a kneebar and continues targeting it throughout. He misses the big spinning heel kick (surprise, surprise) so Ohtani sneaks in with a grounded sleeper but Kaki is able put the pressure back on Ohtani’s leg. Good stuff. Ohtani fires off an awesome backdrop suplex and goes back to the armbar but he can’t close the deal and after a crazy back suplex slam, Kaki hits the Kaki Cutter(!) and submits Ohtani with the choke. Bravo.

Masahito Kakihara vs. Nobuhiko Takada (UWFi, 6/18/95)

Lots of purple and perhaps Kaki is rocking the sleek purple for a reason because he really outshines Takada here. This had that pesky youngster vs. pissy veteran dynamic, which I love, and it created some rather memorable moments. Almost immediately, Sano bitch slaps Takada and Takada seemingly lays down on the mat out of fear for Kaki’s unpredictability. Loved Kaki’s arm-trap necklock to force Takada to the ropes. When Kaki grabs an ankle and twists, Takada loses his cool and doubles down on the kicks, hacking Kaki’s leg to spaghetti and taking him down again and again. Kaki’s last gasp is great, as he catches Takada’s kick, barrages him with slaps, suplexes him to the mat, and then squeezes out an unfortunately positioned armbar.  His big “oooh ahhh” moment before Takada promptly chokes him out. Pretty sweet sub-10:00 match.