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Showing results for tags 'Nobuhiko Takada'.
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This is a early house-show test of the December Korakuen and it shares a lot of the characteristics of it in particular; very long, focus on prototype shoot-styleisms to come, and arguably a bit boring in places. The first five minutes are virtually nothing but prancing around, occasional wiffed kicks and maybe one or two grappling bits that end in the ropes. Takada then dominates as he mostly takes control when on the ground. Yamazaki gets to the ropes and they reset. And....yeah nothing much happens for a bit after as well, it's mostly just them trading submission attempts at a fairly slow pace. I will say it's not even half-bad wrestling in that regard, it's just something that seems lost on this crowd bar the occasional fairly small chant. Like at one point they were trading shoulders on a small package application, which, like, would've been a spot that wrestling nerds on X would've gushed over in 2023; here it's just seen as a bit weird and not really given much of a reaction. The crowd do eventually start to pick up when the two go for strike exchanges, though unlike their December match they don't go into bombs, Yama just kicks Takada around a bit until he recovers and flops on top of him in full mount while trying for a double wrist lock. He escapes and keeps throwing forearms and kicks until being tackled down. This formula is basically what they stick to for most of the middle half, bar Yamazaki occasionally throwing a slap or errant strike when escaping holds or positions. Takada is firmly established as the guy who just wants to drag this down with holds to avoid the risk of getting blasted with kicks, which does lead to some particularly dull moments where he's just hanging around and not doing a whole lot in classic Takada fashion. Yamazaki by comparison is a bit more dynamic in approach; even when he's trying for holds he isn't as complacent to wait on them so much, opting more to get the struggle when applied rather than to wait and then struggle. At some point Takada wants to do a top rope move (for some reason? ) and he gets thrown off as per standard. Despite Yama trying for a double wrist/Gotch side mount headscissors gambit, eventually Takada throws some kicks and gets in his reverse piledriver, so now we're getting a bit closer to what their taped match will look like. Despite Takada's floaty kicks, the selling for when Yamazaki foils the back suplex by hooking his leg and making Takada fall is really well done; Takada gets knocked down and really seems off-base as he keeps getting knocked around with suplexes and dropkicks. Even when he gets the shoulder off the mat during the false-finish German suplex you can tell he's groggy off the impact, throwing these half-strict, half-sloppy slaps to the body and head while not even being able to stand up proper. I thought that their attempt at what a "shoot-style powerbomb" would look like; basically Yama forcing the movement, bringing it right down on Takada's side in a jerky kind of fashion; was incredibly experimental for the time and didn't look half bad. The finish was rather poor as Takada was stuck in the double wrist lock movement, but was able to roll into full mount and apply the move himself out of nowhere for the submission win. One thinks maybe that was done to protect Yamazaki/the sanctity of the matchup, which is understandable. Still sucked though. With that being said, how good was this? It's hard to say, really. I felt like this did have some moments of greatness yet also had a lot of points (especially at the start! ) where you just could not get into the match. It was so ice-cold and the lack of real reactions from the crowd hurt especially. Will say that the mat-work while obviously dated does hold up mostly, bar Takada just dulling the match with long attempts at stuff that no one was really hard-biting onto as a potential matchender. If I can say one thing that was really positive: Yamazaki looked super solid with his sharp kicks and huge suplexes. He hasn't got that intensity yet (which is natural, he's essentially a kid here) but it's a good foundation, no shock given it's from the same guy who trained Super Tiger/Naoya Ogawa/Sad Genius, the Triforce of goofy wrestlers. I wouldn't say this is essential by any means of the imagination (especially with the crowd and smarky Japanese commentary) if you want a raw unfiltered taste of the experimental spirit that UWF Original was all about, I'd say this is a good shot at it.
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NJPW handheld flood gives us Liger's first shot at the IWGP Jr. Title. Altough this is very different from the matches that would come in the future. Essentially young Yamada is a huge underdog against shootstylist Takada. During the early matwork portion Yamada is super cautious to avoid all of Takada's UWF submissions. Eventually Takada gets sick of this and blasts him with kicks. Takada goes for the Tombstone but Yamada desperately avoids that move aswell. Soon Yamada is selling big and the crowd is going bananas for every offensive move and counter he is able to land. Basic match executed extremely well and really fun to check out a way different Liger.
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Interpromotional matches in Japanese pro-wrestling are the best. This part of the New Japan vs. UWF feud and Takada is here to kick butt and to me he is clearly the star of this match. He puts an absolute beating on Yamada just blasting him with slaps, kicks and hitting him with one of the nastiest tombstone piledrivers I’ve ever seen in my life. Takada is not afraid of throwing hands with Inoki either, however the main focus of this is the Yamada beatdown. Kido is perfectly fine in his invading role as well, but he more so just along for the ride. -
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I believe this was the second show of UWF 2nd stage and so they did this match as a bit of strong style in it's stiffest format. For example, they picked one another up, there was a snap mare and a large number of rope breaks instead of escapes. So with that said, it's totally understandable that they opted to do this. They had to ease people back into the U-style and not discredit everything they did in '86, '87, and the first half of '88. That's wild when you think about it. There was a three year gap and three years in wrestling is a long time...basically a seachange from 1985 to 1988. Ok so we take this more as a NJPW match. If that's the case then this is awesome! The submissions aren't as believable until later but the kicks are vicious. Even the submissions were very dramatic because you never knew the one Takada was going going to tap to & Maeda was eating kicks. Really cool brutal stuff. The stiffness didn't take this over to the level of violence that was shown in 7/24/89 & that was beautifully teased in the Yamazaki/Fujiwara match. Not quite the same type of match though so it's hard to reconcile where this fits in the shoot-style paradigm. A classic for a strong style match but not up to credibility standards for UWF or shoot style...got to rate it more as straight pro-wrestling.
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This is the infamous match where Choshu gets shoot kicked in the face. Aside from questionable morals, it‘s a really hot match with the crowd being absolutely white hot for all the Choshu/Maeda exchanges. Maeda kicking the hell out of Choshu is fun, but Maeda outgrappling Choshu may be even funner. I wonder if that is what caused Maeda to snap because Choshu seemed not ready for Maeda to actually wrestle him and just wanted to do his usual spiel. The initial moments after the kick are some of the most intense you‘ll ever see in a wrestling ring, with Maeda egging Choshu on further and Masa Saito tackling the big guy. Really a thrill to check out, pity the kick was real because this would‘ve set up an amazing singles match. -
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This was quite the clash of the titans style match. Picture it like the scene in a western where a big gunfight breaks out and lots of stuff breaks and lots of people get shot. Takada is kind of a slug, but Maeda carries him fine on the mat, and both guys go into standing exchanges as if ready to die. Not the most pure or artful fight, but brutal and dramatic to the max.
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One of my favourite matches of the style. The grappling in this match was amazing. Everything looked tight and out right gnarly at times. One thing I loved in this match was everything lead into each other. For example, Maeda's suplexes almost always lead to a submission attempt on the arm. But the focus of the match was Maeda constantly going for the legs. As great as Maeda was, Takada was the star with his all time great underdog performance. His selling of the leg was fantastic and his defence of the grappling from Maeda was great. He got in some great strikes to gain the advantage in parts of the match. Great battle, filled with struggle and top notch grappling. ****3/4
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