Jump to content
Pro Wrestling Only

[2001-06-14-ZERO-ONE] Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Naoya Ogawa


GOTNW

Recommended Posts

Fujiwara is a Gotch-trained judo black belt and a total badass, but he’s totally outmatched as a 52 year old trying to fight a 193cm/6’3 115kg judo world champion in his prime. He blindisghts Ogawa-but it doesn’t really work, even in his second step of trying to take Ogawa down he already meets a barrier he can’t destroy in Ogawa’s guard. Fujiwara’s only real chance of winning this is by a flash submission, as his catch training gives him an edge over Ogawa in that regard. Ogawa smartly uses the size advantage he has to control Fujiwara on the mat, while Fujiwara in turn desperately tries to counter Ogawa’s guards or grab a knee once Ogawa presses it against his face or goes for a kick or a knee strike. Ogawa punches Fujiwara on the ground throughout the match which Fujiwara acknowledges by doing really great exhaustion selling, which somewhat makes up for the mild intensity of Ogawa’s punches, and they manage to produce a great nearfall on Fujiwara finally grabbing a killhold, but in the end you can’t beat father time and Ogawa smashes his head into the canvas repeteadly to remind you of how many zealous practitioners of the gentle way got concussed by Masahiko Kimura in similar fashion. ***1/2

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

This was pretty fun, if a little one-sided. I loved the cheap shot punch by Fujiwara before the bell but this is mostly Ogawa using his size to keep Fujiwara grounded, pounding on him with punches when he can. Fujiwara will try to grab an foot or a leglock but Ogawa is able to overpower him. Fujiwara's selling is really great in this, from him crawling across the canvas to the look in his eyes as he's getting planted by STOs.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • GSR changed the title to [2001-06-14-ZERO-ONE] Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Naoya Ogawa
  • 5 years later...

Naoya Ogawa vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara - Zero-One 6/14/01

The third major Zero-One show and they have loss the boost NOAH (esp. Misawa) gave their first two shows as they drop to about 8000 people. This also marks the debut of Tom Howard who with his UPW trainees would be a key part of Zero-One for the next two years. Hashimoto would defeat Howard in the main event. Outside running Ogawa vs Hashimoto the next two biggest native match-ups for Ogawa would be Fujiwara and Ohtani. They show footage of Ogawa choking Yasuda out at Inoki Bom-Bae-Ye which I’m unclear if it was a work or shoot. They try to hype Fujiwara up as an OG badass that trained with Gotch but he is older now so it doesn’t look good for him.
 

The best parts of this match are the beginning and end. When the ref is checking them, Fujiwara slugs Ogawa and rips him down by the leg. Fujiwara can’t capitalize on this sneak attack as Ogawa is too big and defends well. The middle is a bit of slog and I posit this is the fault of MMA. UFC/PRIDE showed us what a real fight looks like and it is unfortunately not a bunch of Volk Han submissions wizardry. It is usually a slog in the guard (obviously there are great MMA fights but a lot it feels that way to me). They try to pass each other’s guard Ogawa tries to get his back to choke him out, Fujiwara pulls out some toeholds and leglocks. The ending is much better. Ogawa hits two STO’s but Fujiwara gets the flash Fujiwara armbar for big heat. Ogawa polishes him off with thread consecutive Space Tornado Ogawa to win by Knock Out. Awesome finish! Post-match some random Japanese dude attacks Ogawa but checking Ogawa’s Cagematch this never materialized into anything as his next fights I recognize all the names and I didn’t recognize this guy. ***

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...