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[1990-04-15-UWF-Fighting Area] Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Kazuo Yamazaki
Loss posted a topic in April 1990
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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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This was my number one match in the Other Japan Best of the 90's voting, and truly a beautiful piece of professional wrestling. It is paced differently then any of the other matches in the Top 15, and I am guessing the odd pacing may have been a reason it finished low on some peoples ballots. Fujiwara, especially in the late 80's and 90's does this really stop-start almost Fugazish pacing, where you have big exchanges or moves, and then lulls, where both guys would circle or feint, before the next attack. I really like this kind of pacing, it is the kind of thing you often see in shootfights or boxing matches, really brings drama to the moments of action. The first part of this match, Fujiwara is really not taking Yamazaki seriously at all. Like he is almost contemptuous, imagine Flair v. Scott McGhee or Ricky Steamboat in their first match. He throws in a cheap shot headbutt, dancing around mugging, puts on a knee bar while reclining with his head resting leisurely in his hand. At one point Yamazaki throws some kicks which miss, and Fujiwara responds with some really assholish thrown kicks of his own. Almost like the Jock Football player taunting the Asian kid with fake Karate. Fujiwara has some of the greatest facial expressions in wrestling history, and he really gets across contemptuous prick. Yamazaki finally gets some respect when he hits Fujiwara with a nasty kick to the stomach for a down. Yamazaki tends to be kind of hit and miss with his kicks, and Fujiwara only sells the ones that land big, unlike a lot of other guys who will sell intent not result. Fujiwara also is always trying to catch the middle kicks, although even when he does, he will sell the shot if it is solid enough. The last ten minutes of this match really bring it over the top. Fujiwara has gotten four downs on Yamazaki so he just needs one more knockdown for a technical decision. So Yamazaki has his back against the wall. He gets fed up with the abuse and you almost get the sense he has decided to dish out some receipts even if he is going down. Like many Fujiwara matches ring positioning is very important, Fujiwara had been trapping Yamazaki in the corner and punishing him with bodyshots. Yamazaki kind of bull rushes Fujiwara in the corner, and just unleashes body shots of his own, seemingly aiming right for Fujiwara's sake soaked kidneys. The downs get close to even, and they announce five minutes remaining. They then go right to the corner with both guys now throwing with abandon and trying to maneuver the other into the corner, Yamazaki gets the final turn and cracks Fujiwara with a knee lift for a nine count. Now UWF2 had booked a ton of 30 minute draws, including one in the opening match of this show. Really the only reason to book so many undercard 30 minute draws is for a main event finish like this. So we are at 28 minutes and Yamazaki unloads with nasty headbut right to Fujiwara's mouth. Now this is a clearly a receipt for the headbutts earlier in the show. Fujiwara comes up with blood dripping from his mouth, and this look on his face "So were throwing headbutts now, Motherfucker," and he just unloads with three nasty headbutts including one right to the eye for the TKO at 29 minutes 30 seconds. Yamazaki was technically fine here, but this was the Fujiwara show. Just an artist at telling a story with smirks and eye rolls and sneers. Every action had a reaction, great great stuff.
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This was quite the shootstyle main event. A little long and directionless at times, but the matwork was good enough and when they threw kicks, they just sliced through eachother. A seemingly gassed Yamazaki nearly kicking Maeda's head off was such a spectacular moment. Yeah I don't have much to write about this. Solid in the first 20 minutes and pretty dope violent stuff in the last.
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Brief but very good match that brought lots of quality matwork. Young Keichii Yamada was really good at shootstyle matwork, no question about it. Yamazaki is a UWF guy himself but Yamada was just overwhelming him here with constant wrestling and staying on him like a terrier until Yamazaki is able to dish out some kicks and catch Yamada in a fast scramble with a suplex. Some cool holds and the constant pressure from Yamada made this really entertaining.
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Man, I fucking loved this. I wouldn't really think of shoot style as being the environment most conducive to big spectacles, but UWFi always did things a little differently and this had just the right amount of pro style to make it a heck of a fun spectacle. This is one of the better Albright performances I've seen. He came across as a total monster, just destroying guys with suplexes and clubbing them about the head. Whenever Yamazaki or Anjoh landed a strike of any sort it felt like an accomplishment because Gary was able to either block or catch most of them. Even something like a Yamazaki high kick that would go over Gary's head had people stirring, just because the shot actually got close. The first exchange with Anjoh was awesome because Anjoh is so totally out of his depth with the size difference and he knows it. Albright just walked through Anjoh's kicks, grabbed hold of him and tossed him. There was one bit later where Albright got in close and Anjoh had to resort to dropping to his knees to avoid being suplexed, but Albright just grabbed him anyway and Anjoh had this amazing "oh I am fucked" expression as he got launched with a deadlift German. The Albright/Yamazaki exchanges were great as well; maybe even better than Albright/Anjoh. Yamazaki has a longer reach on his kicks and the first one that truly landed got a huge pop, then later when Yamazaki manages to suplex him the crowd responds with a big Yamazaki chant. Boss isn't great, but all he has to do as Albright's partner is not lose. His kicks were super light and he never had much to offer on the ground, but he was vocal with his selling and took a Yamazaki roundhouse kick square in the face. So fair play to him, I guess. Last stretch had some nice drama with Albright chucking Anjoh around, and there were a couple women in the crowd who looked terrified for him. Anjoh straight dives at Albright and catches him with a knee and the two women start to believe, but then Gary clubs him and grabs him around the waist and the women literally cover their eyes because they know what's coming. Anjoh makes it up to his feet after the first German (which was fucking disgusting) and sort of staggers towards his corner. He doesn't really know where he is, but he's close enough where he could probably tag out. Albright realises and charges him again, going in for the kill, and this time Anjoh doesn't get back up. -
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Starting to wonder if Takada made Southern work a gimmick of being clueless or if he just didn't really get this thing. It was amusing to see Yamazaki, who refuses to do handshake and all that sportsmanship respect nonsense in normal matches treat Southern like a total joke and work sequences on the ground by himself. **3/4
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Miyato may not be a wizard on the ground but he's capable enough to follow better opponents. This was designed for Yamazaki to get his heat back after losing on the first UWFi show and Miyato was a pretty good opponent to put him over, lots of very exciting stand up action and brutal kicks and knees. Highlights on the ground were Yamazaki grabbing some cool leglocks and an amazing spot where Miyato countered Yamazaki's leglock by just kicking him in the side of the head which looked almost disgusting. Almost. ***1/4
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Surprisingly good tag action here. This was really solid and moved logically from one section to another. Nishimura & Yamazaki outskilling their opponents was a ton of fun. I don't think anyone has ever praised Yasuda, but he was perfectly good here as your big sumo guy who will stomp you. Also, reminder that Iizuka was once a perfectly capable grappler. Really liked the finish and the Dome crowd got into Yasuda big time. -
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Lots of goodness here. Match started of pretty slow but I find it muche easier to concentrate when wrestlers are fighting for position, gauging the distance for striking and generally acting like they are actually fighting than when they just grab a hadlock for five minutes. Early highlight was Nakano busting out a shoot DDt, but things got out of control once Miyato broke Nakano's nose with palm strikes, then the transitioned to a cool subplot of Anjoh and Nakano hitting each other with illegal elbows and they finished the match off with Anjoh and Yamazaki blasting each other and Yamazaki's awesome selling of peril where he gradually acted weaker and weaker before going down. ***1/4-***1/2 -
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