Kakutogi Road: The Chronological History of MMA |
Swan song: A metaphor stretching back to ancient Greece, denoting one’s final performance, act, or gesture, shortly before their death or retirement. This legend was borne of the ancient belief that swans, who are seemingly non-vocal (or at least non-musical) during their lifetimes, get to have their final act be one of creative release.
Fittingly, that is where we are at now, with an event that will bring us closure to one of the greatest rookie feuds in pro wrestling history, the 6th and final conflict between Hiromitsu Kanehara and Masakazu Maeda. These two have completely turned the conventions of wrestling upside down, by pushing the boundaries of what can be done in a worked pro-wrestling environment, by turning them from choreographed routines based around telling a physical story, to all-out assaults where the only connection to standard pro fare would be the predetermined winner. Yes, as my colleague Mike Lorefice once pointed out, had shoot-style pro wrestling continued in this vein, then there would have been no need for actual MMA, but that’s part of what makes these two so great, is their ability to turn up the physicality volume to 11. In their last couple of matches, they managed to put forth the same urgency that one would have in a real shoot, which is something that requires a full-throttled commitment that very few performers would be capable of.
The date is 5-8-92 and we are at the brand-new Yokohama Arena. This 17,000-capacity venue was built in 1989 and has wound up becoming a popular venue for musical acts that want the ability to provide complex set designs and lighting arrangements, but don’t have to commit to trying to sell out the Tokyo Dome, due to its more modest size. Little time is wasted before we are taken to the opening matchup, again the 6th opening in a row to feature Kanehara and other Maeda, and sadly I can only wish that we had 600 more. Their last bout got a ***** and ****3/4 rating from each of us, and while it would be unreasonable of me to hope for another outing of that magnitude, I’m sure that this will be good.
As expected, Maeda charges in like his life depended on it, and starts wailing away on Kanehara, but is quickly stifled by a suplex. Kanehara tries to keep him contained to the mat, but Maeda is looking very slick here and instantly slithers back to his feet. The next couple of minutes may be Maeda’s best showing yet, as he constantly keeps the pressure on Kanehara both on the feet and on the mat. Eventually, Kanehara is able to utilize some fast palms to get Maeda down long enough to acquire an armbar/rope escape, and while it’s still clear that Kanehara is the superior submission artist, that may not be enough to keep the relentless aggression of Maeda at bay.
This continues to move at such a breakneck pace that it’s hard to give a play-by-play, but Maeda continues to go all-or-nothing, thus keeping a lot of pressure on Kanehara, but surprisingly it’s Kanehara’s striking that continues to set up grappling opportunities for him, as he is able to counter Maeda’s speed with more precise attacks. After getting him back down on the mat, they entered into the requisite foot-lock battle, before Kanehara’s heel-hook wins over Maeda’s straight ankle lock.
The rest of this match was what we’ve come to expect, non-stop action and unmitigated aggression from both men. While this wasn’t on par with their last showing, due to more pro-wrestling styled submission sequences (with the ever-nefarious Boston crab making several appearances) both the striking and intensity continued to be top-notch. This was a fine way for Maeda to end his career and a great way for Kanehara to start his. One has to wonder why such a fantastic and promising young talent like Maeda would end things just as he put himself on the map, and in the spirit of seeking true knowledge, we decided to take action to find out. Mike Lorefice contacted one of his deep underground sources from Japan, who offered this quote, "I don't know much about Masakazu Maeda’s fights, but he believed that UWF Inter matches were serious competitions. Every time he had a match, his family and friends cheered for him seriously. He thought that he had cheated them. It is rumored that he retired because he couldn't stand to cheat his family and friends."
If this is true, then it cements Masakazu Maeda into the pantheon of general badassery, as it shows that this was a man so committed to the true budo spirit of MMA, that he could not continue to fool people within a worked entertainment sphere, and thus quit, just as his career was taking off. It’s a shame that he didn’t move on to Shooto, or a different organization to forge ahead in a real combat sport, but we appreciate his efforts and wish to immortalize them here. A beautiful and haunting final song, indeed. ****¼
ML: Their final match might not be their best, but it was their most brutal and grueling. This was simply another incredible display of heart and desire, the sort we unfortunately rarely see elsewhere. To me, one of the biggest reasons MMA and kickboxing are better than pro wrestling, and the lighter weight classes in them are so far superior to the heavyweight division, is that cardio is so crucial. I want to see two fighters going full speed ahead for the duration, rest and sleep when they are dead (or at least on their time, don't waste mine). In a real fight, you can't turn your back on the opponent, play to the crowd really, do one more per minute like C.M. Punk (though admittedly that was way more than he managed in his jokey MMA career), lie on your side because you will almost immediately get knocked out for letting your guard down, or stay down because the ref will stop the fight. It is so rare that we are treated to something that actually appears to have stakes in pro-wrestling, but Maeda is already one of the greats at just constantly blitzing for the duration. Obviously, it's fine for the action to slow down when it is logical, but what I'm talking about Maeda showing an endless drive and passion to win the match, his desire increasing my interest, as opposed to the usual where the performers lack of earnestness dramatically decreasing my interest. And obviously, Kanehara deserves some credit for this as well. I thought this was Maeda's best performance though, particularly his standup has improved to the point where the speed and consistency of his attacks wasn't coming with an obvious decrease in accuracy because of that. The striking was incredible here because they threw volume striking speed, but really laid into each other with their flurries in a beliable manner as well (both were always moving and trying to attack and/or defend). Kanehara's striking is getting better as well, and he began to take over in standup, once he started slowing Maeda down with his submission attempts on the ground. I didn't like that Maeda was selling more than ever here to show that Kanehara was breaking him down, but at the same time, Kanehara was putting such a beating on him that some of it was probably legit, especially Kanehara's body shots giving Maeda trouble given Maeda was trying to continue at warp speed . If this match wasn't quite as good as their best encounter despite this being the best version of them we saw, it's because Maeda was either injured and/or running out of gas too much of the second half, and thus unable to put up consistent resistance, particularly in the final minute. Though in a sense, the match was somewhat even in that Maeda controlled the first half, while Kanehara controlled the second half, Kanehara was only slightly behind in the first half, while when Maeda hit a German suplex but failed on the armbar only to have Kanehara counter with a kneebar about 11 minutes in, the writing was just on the wall for Maeda to once again be humbled by his fellow rookie. Maeda limped to the finish, but it's doubtful that he'd do a jump spinning kick if the knee was truly damaged, so it just seemed like foreshadowing the inevitable (though in that case it was a bit suprising he didn't lose to a leg lock). The booking was once again incredibly frustrating, as while Kanehara was in the midst of what is most likely has the best rookie year in the history of pro-wrestling, there is still no reason for him to win every single match against an almost as impressive opponent. Kanehara should win the series, you know, by one, as you would probably see from even all the worst bookers in the history of wrestling, apart from Gape Sapolsky, who would probably book them in 2/3 fall matches just so Kanehara could go over 2-0. The beginning was truly awesome, maybe their best stuff so far because the striking had all the aspects that made their previous matches great in addition to a lot more ferocity and impact, but unfortunately, the final stage was less competitive, and thus compelling. Another classic, and while not quite as amazing as 3/17/92 or 2/15/92, these matches all exemplify what makes me want to watch pro wrestling, which like any singles sport whether it be MMA or tennis is to see two top notch highly skilled competitors giving 200% the whole time because the stakes are so high (at least in their mind) that they can't afford to offer any less than their best. While this was a fitting swan song for better Maeda, it was a tragic loss for the promotion and the fans, and we should all feel doubly cheated that we didn't even get our 2/2 blue Bird creature token with flying as compensation for our tremendous loss. ****1/2
Now, in true UWF-I fashion, we are greeted to yet another match between Masahito Kakihara and Mark Silver. When we last saw these two a month ago, they gave us an overlong, but good 30 minute match, which showed that Kakihara is more than a man with lighting in his palms, he's a respectable grappler, as well. Silver, on the other hand, has potential but is too green to be put in a format that only the best of the best can pull off, I.E., the 30 minute draw. The match starts with Kakihara unleashing a torrent of palm attacks, and looking even faster than usual, if that’s even possible. Kakihara then utilizes a side-stance to sneak into Silver’s perimeter before unloading another hand volley. Silver is able to eventually just ragdoll Kakihara to the mat before executing yet another crab from Boston, which Kakihara hilariously oversells. This wound up being another 30 minute draw, which is commendable for the opportunity that it gives Silver to learn, but unfortunate for us, as we have to suffer through his on-the-job training. While still rather stiff, Silver is looking more relaxed in this outing, so these outings seem to have their intended effect of growing him as a performer. Unfortunately, this didn’t lead to a better match, but that’s because Kakihara mainly used his ground time to let Silver take the offensive and allowed him to dictate the grappling portions. Kakihara was still all-fire in the standup, but his approach to this match, while probably better for Silver’s learning curve, was considerably duller than their last affair. Not bad but should have been much shorter. ***
ML: I can forgive booking the same match with the same result when it's good, but when you book the same disaster for absolutely no reason, it really just seems like you aren't even trying. Silver may have been giving it to good old college try, but man was he annoying, at times. I mean, every time Kakihara would get him in a submission, usually a leg lock, he would get super hyper and start wailing like a banshee. Yet, almost as soon as he managed to escape, he would initiate another sequence that was very likely to yield the exact same result. I guess when you have 30 minutes to kill, and you really don't have any idea we were doing, it's not surprising. Still, it was better than seeing more of Silver's dull riding time, though that was plentiful as well. Kakihara is a talented fighter who thrives on speed, but it was hard for him to display what makes him special in the match so ridiculously long, especially against a much larger & slower opponent of limited capability who just wanted to ground him. He did the best he could, but he wasn't going out of his way to put himself over here. This match would have been passable at 10 minutes or less, but I'd probably rather suffer through the infamous Vale vs. Whale again then rewatch this just because that would waste less time.
Now for a further demonstration of mind-numbingly inane booking, we have a repeat of Tatsuo Nakano vs. Tom Burton. At least Kakihara/Silver is forgivable, as despite its flaws, they were still somewhat entertaining matches thanks to the power of Kakihara. This, on the other hand, was a rematch that absolutely no one was asking for. Thankfully, this was 9 minutes instead of 30, so it was quick enough to not be an issue. This was a typical late-80s UWF style match, which is fine for what it was, but when compared to the modern technology that we’ve been witnessing lately, feels more and more out of place. **
ML: Wow, at this point I'm convinced that Gedo secretly booked this card, doing his best to figure out how a once mighty promotion could start drawing less than 400 fans at Korakuen Hall and get outdrawn at Budokan by Stardom, despite Stardom's illustrious track record of never drawing beyond the Korakuen level (thankfully Miyato didn't lose or devalue all his good workers and just do endless silly entertainment wrestling shenanigans until they reached this point). Nakano actually seemed a little better here, as he decided to give footwork a try, but Burton still just stood around and just wanted to grab him. This match was on par with the previous match, probably a little worse but at the same time less painful because it was so much shorter. There was one truly hilarious spot just before the finish where Burton fell missing an elbow, yet Nakano skill stumbled backwards across the ring and went flying through the ropes.
Now for another singles match featuring newcomer, Mark Fleming, and Yuko Miyato. I’m thankful that we get to see Fleming in another singles match, as when we last witnessed him, he was in a tag alongside Yoji Anjo, whereas this should be a better format to showcase his skills. Miyato has been totally on fire so far this year, so we may be in for a sleeper of a great match. Things start with Miyato going straight for the kill, firing off some heavy palms, and while Fleming is clearly not in his standard element, he does a good job of cutting off Miyato’s offense with a quick clinch, before tossing him away like a frisbee. Miyato shows some strong judo in response, with a nice kata-guruma (fireman’s carry) into a hammerlock.
The rest of the match was a treat, as these two had good chemistry with one another, with Miyato having the edge in speed, striking, and submissions, and Fleming with wrestling and strength. What’s refreshing is unlike other wrestlers similar to Fleming, who would simply get a takedown and smother the opponent for 10 minutes, we saw some nice variety from Mark, who was using his wrestling skill to slow Miyato down, but would also generate plenty of attacks with his own submission entries and throws. Also, unlike other big men like Tom Burton/Mack Roesch, Fleming seems to be taking the submission game seriously, and we’ve already seen a huge skill jump between now and when he debuted against Takada. They are still not his forte obviously, but unlike his first outing where you could tell that he had no idea how to execute any submissions outside of the STF, here he put forth admirable attempts at the heel hook, and other leg attacks, showing that he is working hard on learning outside of his matches. This was fun and exciting, with the only major drawback that it could have gone on for a couple more minutes. *** ¾
ML: As with the previous match, this was more about the American who is learning getting ring time than something designed to feature the good native worker. The obvious difference being that Fleming actually has skill. Fleming is far from a finished product, but he appears to have a genuine desire to learn. His submissions aren't great yet, but he is always trying to think about finishing the match, rather than just controlling on the mat, and he showed some skill, for instance a nice roll into a kneebar. Similarly, his standup block is a bit robotic, but at least he has his hands up in is trying to protect himself, which puts him above the majority of the promotion, even though they certainly should know better. This match actually had a lot of interesting countering back and forth, and was much less predictable and repetitive than Kakihara vs. Silver. Fleming was ahead on points the whole way, but Miyato was always competitive, and was finding ways to put Fleming on the defensive enough that you believed he could come back. Miyato rolled through the wakigatame, but was a bit lackadaisical in the ensuing scramble, which could have resulted in him securing a guillotine, but instead wound up with Fleming taking his back and dropping down into a chickenwing facelock for the finish because apparently people still didn't realize how inferior this was to the rear naked choke. Not quite recommendable, partially because it was rather short (though that probably helped the quality overall by not extending Fleming), but definitely a fun match, probably **3/4 or so.
Next is the 2nd match from what may be the best pure wrestler that we’ve seen so far, in Steve Day, facing Yoji Anjo. While he lacked charisma and any sign of striking skills in his debut, Day more than made up for it in great wrestling, and a surprising understanding of submissions, especially for a debuting westerner at this stage. Day had a commendable debut against Takada, so it should be interesting to see what Anjo can pull out of him.
Before it became all the rage for BJJ guys with no striking skills in the late 90s circuit, here Steve Day pulls the tactic of covering one side of his face with his elbow, while he tries to carefully close the distance on Anjo. As you would expect, he eats some shots from his very quick opponent, but is able to secure the clinch and toss Anjo with some lovely Greco-Roman skills. This pattern repeats itself, only Anjo is showing surprising amounts of balance in the clinch, probably due to his judo background. Still, no amount of judo is likely to prevent you from being taken down by Steve Day, so it only served to make him work for it.
Still, despite his submission game being better than your average American newb, he is no match for Anjo and lacks the firepower to ever give him a serious threat. This regulates him to being a mostly one-trick pony, as he has 0% stats in his striking column. This was fast-paced, but never really felt like a contest as Day just didn’t have the tools to threaten Anjo. This was somewhat frustrating, as I like seeing someone with the legit skills of Day in this kind of format, but he is going to have to improve on areas outside of his wheelhouse if he wants to get above mid-card status. Tough to rate, but my final verdict is *** due to the fast pace and some excellent wrestling technique from Day.
ML: Though it is embarrassing seeing someone whose only standup tactic is to plod in while covering up like a vampire, this match had by far the most intensity and urgency we have seen since the opener. Both men were very explosive when they did something, adding to the sense of realism, and the general importance of succeeding in their tactics. Day may not have all around skills, but he fakes the things he's good at a lot less than any of the other wrestlers we have seen, really not dampening the power and drive necessary to to legitimately jerk the opponent around. Anjo had big advantages both in striking and submission, but there wasn't much you can do to keep Day from depositing him on the mat. To his credit, Day wasn't simply trying to control Anjo. On the contrary, he was taking too many chances (if this weren't a work), leaving his solid base to chase after ankles. This wasn't on par with Anjo's best work obviously, but was certainly one of his most realistic matches, and I really liked the aggression that both men displayed. ***
Now for something that I wish we got to see more of over the years, an exhibition between two legends, in this case, Nick Bockwinkel and Billy Robinson. Things start with Lou Thesz (who at this point was fully committed to seeing the UWF-I thrive) talk about how the WWF and WCW were a joke, and just considered by Americans to be show business, which is a shame. He then mentions that although Nick and Billy aren’t in peak physical shape, that he was confident that they will put on a great show of “pure international wrestling.” These two had faced each other several times within the 70s and 80s, with their encounter on a 12-11-80 AJPW event being particularly noteworthy. We then get two quick, but heartfelt interviews from both men, and Robinson was emphatic that he would be happy to do whatever he could to put real wrestling back on the map. Things are underway and Nick Bockwinkel still appears to be in great shape, which isn’t surprising as he was an active competitor up until his retirement in 1987. Robinson, on the other hand, looked flabby even back in the 70s, but that didn’t stop him from always being a game performer. Things slowly build-up, until the first great moment where Robinson gets his underhooks in and it seems like he is going to suplex Bockwinkel, who knows what’s coming, and instantly backs up into the ropes to escape it. A nice subtle exchange that got a great response from the audience.
The next memorable moment was when Bockwinkel kneed Robinson, which seemed to legit piss him off. Robinson yelled and curled his fist, to which Nick responded by saying, “It’s just a knee Robinson!” to which Robinson threatens to punch him in the chin. The exhibition ends at 10min with Robinson finally getting his underhook suplex. While this was obviously hampered by Robinson’s physical shape (Bockwinkel looked like he could still go full speed if he had to) it was still obvious that these were two masters of their craft, and it was a treat to see them, even at this stage.
ML: We should first look at their great 30 minute draw from All Japan 12/11/80 Tokyo Kuramae Kokugikan. This match more or less encompasses the best of what serious 1970s style wrestling has to offer. They did a great job of working for the holds with desperation, wasting no time or motion, and building the match up in the most logical and dramatic manner. A lot of these techniques may be outdated, for instance, all the lock ups were upper body based, but the struggle was real, and that pulled you into the contest and allowed you to believe in what they were doing, regardless. The first half was more towards Bockwinkel's match, trying to get the absolute maximum out of what little they did than a Robinson match where they spice things up a lot more with tumbling and roughhousing, though obviously there were some aspects of both styles, with the former shifting to the later as the match progressed. The first portion of the match was Robinson trying to find some way out of the elbow lock, but no matter what sort of leverage he applied, how he twisted or turned or tossed Bockwinkel, Nick still refused to relinquish the hold. A great example of the styles melding was when Billy finally made a move to hip toss Bockwinkel to break the lock, but Bockwinkel continued to hold onto the right elbow and remained in control after both took the bump. Finally, Robinson managed to slowly increate the pressure on Bockwinkel's left shoulder to the point that Nick had to finally release Robinson's elbow to save his own shoulder. This match had so many great, organic transitions. Robinson progressed into an octopus, but when he tried to roll to the mat, Bockwinkel beat him in the scramble and momentarily regained the elbow lock. Robinson finally seemed poised to get his more active offense going, but made the mistake of trying the hip toss again, only to have Bockwinkel essentially pull the same trick again to come out of it with the elbow lock. The second portion was more of a Robinson segment, built around him controlling with headlock, broken up more frequently by rope running and tumbling. The third segment was another shorter segment where the rope running led to Bockwinkel hitting a leg-trip, and working on the knee. The match shifted more towards Robinson's style after this, with Billy increasingly trying to make something happen, but his overaggression would just send him flying to the floor. Though plunging to the concrete isn't exactly advisable, the more chances Robinson took, the more he got Bockwinkel to open up, and was thus able to make it more of a bombs away brawl. Though he took some big offense in the process, given Robinson was losing the slower paced technical battle, this was a worthwhile strategy that got him back into the match, as he was at least able to get his suplexes in a lot more readily now. Robinson finally hit his signature backbreaker, but it reinjured the knee Bockwinkel had worked over earlier, so he wasn't able to capitalize. Bockwinkel worked his way into a figure 4 to make the knee worse, and it wound up giving out again when Robinson tried a body slam on his comeback. Both made a big push for the finish during the final minute, but the only downside of the match is the 30 minute time limit really just cut things short. Though obviously a draw, it felt like a win for Bockwinkel. ****1/2
ML: Lou Thesz gave the classic this horrible fake American crap doesn't represent me speech, which is one that can never be stated enough as far as I'm concerned. Though it's still dubious to bill serious fake wrestling as real by virtue of being less nonsensical, at least they have presented us with two of the absolute legends that any wrestling fan should be proud to say they admire. Unfortunately, this wasn't anything Robinson or Bockwinkel were planning or training for, from what I gather Robinson said they basically just informed them that they were wrestling. The match was basically the condensed, greatest hits version of their classic match minus most of the big bumps. It obviously wasn't done quite as well because they are more broken down and less athletic by this point, as well as simply out of practice. Their match is also one that gains a lot from the length, as they really understand how it to you mileage out of working the body parts. That being said, this was still a lot of fun, and for anyone who had a little while to forget, much less several years, this is an excellent display of a now mostly lost style. In my case, while I possibly saw Robinson in AWA when I was seven or eight years old, this is the first match of his I can say for sure that I saw, and it definitely put him on the map for me. These are the most difficult matches to rate because while it is not good by the great standard they set in their primes, it was still entirely compelling, and better than anything on last weekend's AEW DUDExplosion PPV. It held my interest throughout and didn't have me rolling my eyes at all. ***
As if Kazuo Yamazaki’s career couldn’t get any worse, now he must face Koji Kitao in what will surely be a dreadful exercise in putting the former sumo star over. Kitao, despite no one in the western hemisphere ever taking him seriously, was still a star in Japan, and reportedly the UWF-I just signed him on for a $75,000 per match (!) contract. This was even after he embarrassed both himself and his former employer, the Japanese SWS wrestling promotion. That move may have been in the UWF-I’s interest here, as they could easily spin this as Kitao being sick of WWF/SWS style fake wrestling and now wanting to test his skills in the “real” UWF-I. Regardless of the logic, $75,000 is a lot of cash to throw away per match, so hopefully, this isn’t the start of some really poor business decisions.
Even armed with a blowtorch & sledgehammer, it’s doubtful that Kitao could ever hurt Yamazaki, but here we are. Kitao starts out taking a karate stance, and the crowd is eating this up. Yamazaki must be given great credit, as he is taking this seriously, and right away starts crafting a David vs Goliath narrative, going right after Kitao’s legs with numerous thigh kicks. Yamazaki skillfully weaves in and out, attacking Kitao’s legs from different angles, until he opts to try and take him down, in which we see Kitao respond with one of the laziest sprawls in history. The rest of this farce saw Yamazaki do everything he could to make Kitao look like a million bucks, instead of just slapping him in the face for a 40-second victory, a la Mark Hall at UFC IX. Yamazaki proved to be worth every penny and then some by eventually allowing Kitao to pummel him with several ultra-slow leg kicks for a KO victory. From a pro wrestling 101 standpoint, this was a great example of how to put over a lesser opponent, but it’s a crime that it had to be Kitao, who would end up diminishing Yamazaki’s reputation even further.
ML: From the opening intense stare to putting over the KO, Yamazaki used his acting ability as much as his wrestling ability to craft an urgent and intense match where each of his actions was important because of the potential repercussions, and get bad boy Kitao over that much more than he already was. This was truly a brilliant performance by Yamazaki, who has always been great at these sort of mixed matches against specialists from other combat sports, devising a logical and reasonable match that was intense and a highly compelling, while at the same time doing his best to keep Kitao from embarrassing himself by doing any more than he absolutely had to. Yamazaki saw a huge slow opponent, so he tried to use his speed to kick his legs out before Kitao could fire back. The problem was that Kitao was so much bigger and stronger that he could take a lot more of Yamazaki's blows than Yamazaki could take of his. Kitao is so awful, he even almost fell landing on his own ill advised jumping spinning kick, but Yamazaki is so smart & talented that he got a good match out of him because he knew how to play things. Kitao's offense was horrible at times, even a low kicks he won with could best be described as labored, but Yamazaki mostly had him standing in the center threatening, and sold what little Kitao did so well that it didn't kill the match like it should have. Yamazaki used every trick in the book to solve the puzzle, but 200 pounds is an awful lot of sheer mass to overcome. In the end, Kitao came off as being really impressive (in a real behemouth of a fighter sense, not as a worker) because of his imposing presence and the things Yamazaki did to make his offense somehow look deadly despite Kitao's lack of grace and coordination. Of course, all the fans desperately wanted Yamazaki to win, and had UWF-I been willing to shell out the cash to help anyone but Takada, Yamazaki's career could have been salvaged here with a precursor to Keith Hackney vs. Emmanuel Yarborough, as Yamazaki was still massively over, even if largely in this case because the crowd hated Kitao. Though this wasn't a total one man show that somehow managed to be a great match like Kenny Omega vs. Kazuchika Okada by any means, even with the great atmosphere and all the smoke & mirrors Yamazaki employed to make it come off way closer to a shoot than I would have possibly believed it could, it's just barely good, but you have to realize just how are truly terrible Kitao is, really a 0 out of 10, to understand just how amazing it was that Yamazaki somehow managed to come up with almost eight minutes of heated and compelling action involving him, especially in a style Kitao is completely unfamiliar with. ***
Now for another early pre-UFC shoot, this time between Kiyoshi Tamura and Mathew Saad Mohammed. Mohammed was a legit boxer with considerable skills and even held the WBC Light-Heavyweight Championship for 2 ½ years. This event was another big push from the UWF-I to make some waves, so it makes sense that they again tried to gain traction through a boxer vs. wrestler shoot. This may have also been partly done as a response to the PWFG’s recent humiliation of Roberto Duran.
In any event, it’s hard to say how this was pitched to Mohammed, and how seriously he trained for this fight because it was over almost as soon as it started. Tamura instantly forced him to the canvas with a couple of brutal leg kicks, before instantly acquiring a rear-naked choke for the win. A historically important shoot, and a nice feather in Tamura’s cap, but its “blink-and-you-miss-it” nature has forced it to be a mere footnote in time. This was probably not the outcome that the UWF-I had in mind, based on the war that was Warring vs Scott. You could see Warring’s skill and versatility as a martial artist, as he was every bit a kickboxer that happened to make a living boxing, as opposed to the other way around. Still, Tamura was so quick and well-rounded that it probably wouldn’t have mattered what boxer they put in front of him, the result was likely to be similar. Also, it’s great to see the UWF-I give us a serious shoot, instead of the Fuanki/Duran farce that we just had to witness.
ML: Tamura was really impressive here. He used the smart strategy of staying on the outside, but man he really had a ton of zip on his kicks, which he rarely even throws in a work, and then the speed in transitioning to taking the back for the choke was just amazing. Granted, his opponent didn't really have a clue beyond punching, but a slower fighter or one who wasn't immediately ready to pounce on the 1st opportunity probably would have had to spend a lot more time chopping down the tree to get the victory. Other than that, let's just say it certainly should have been no secret to the Gracie family just how unprepared for real fighting One Glove Jimmerson was going to be.
The spectacle can’t end now, as we must now endure the culmination of the major push that the Albright monster has been given for the last 9 months. Yes, it is now time for the gaijin Godzilla to face our intrepid hero in Nobuhiko Takada, and while there is no doubt about the conclusion, the question of how entertaining this will be, remains.
Right away I’m impressed that Takada seems to have shown up ready to put in work, as he is moving with much more urgency than usual. He comes out the gate swinging, but is quickly smothered by the gargantuan Albright-monster. Takada quickly reverses his dilemma and winds up in the side-mount but seems unsure of what to actually do with his foe from here. After contemplating his situation for a while, he goes into action mode and starts hitting the suplexes and submission attempts. This wisely keeps the Albright-monster at a close distance, thereby stifling his offense. The rest of this bout was a back-and-forth seesaw battle until Takada eventually succumbed to the human suplex machine. I won’t lie, this was a fun and entertaining match, from a pro wrestling standpoint, and easily the best match from either man in the UWF-I, so far. I may not like the direction that they are taking their main-event scene, but they can hardly be blamed, as Japan loves their monsters and freak shows. After all, this is the same country that has given Bob Sapp an eternal home, in addition to an everlasting wellspring of cash, so I’m clearly not the target audience here. Still, this kind of direction will be a boon in the short-term but is surely doomed to fail once the novelty of Albright wears off, and they don’t have any other reasonable challengers for Takada to vanquish.
ML: This was nowhere near a classic, or even good, but both fighters brought their A game, such as it was. Albright got the battle off to a great start, rushing Takada like a sumo and using a flurry of body punches to set up the big belly to belly suplex. This was clearly designed to make it look like another shoot, perhaps under the false pretext that no one would lay down for the other when the unofficial title of "Best in the World" was on the line. Problems quickly set in when Takada managed both to escape from the bottom, and to get a sweep without any technique whatsoever, and literally nothing else in the match was remotely realistic. On the bright side, Takada wasn't in the mood to just lay around contemplating, as usual. Takada was much too showy with each standup barrage, getting a quick knockdown to set up a big backdrop with the first one, and quickly descending this into the realm of sort of entertaining in the goofy pro-wrestling sense. Unfortunately, this same cannot be said for their corny arm manipulations on the mat, which were not useful in any sense. This was mostly fireworks though, for better or worse. It should have blown away Yamazaki vs. Kitao, but while it was essentially a longer version of the same match, it had none of the strategy, craft, guile, selling, or storytelling. It just felt rushed. I mean, they blew through the high spots basically without even setting them up because they had nothing else to offer. Albright showed some ability to step up his game in a realistic way, even though he was constantly pulled in the other direction. I'd say this was his best performance so far in UWF-I and he was clearly the more useful of the two here. I don't feel I'm exaggerating in the least when I say that Takada has learned absolutely nothing since the UWF closed. He has just been so surpassed by everyone that all we can do is look forward to the fun silliness his matches contain, such as Albright catching a kick & powerslamming him, but most of it feels so unearned and out of place that the charm is minimal. I'm not sure if Shinya Hashimoto's matches are more realistic overall than Takada's given his opponents aren't trying to do anything beyond the usual pro wrestling, but at least he brings an air of credibility, and a certain hard (bloody) nosed toughness. Takada, at this point, is so cartoonish in his big offense ways that he barely even seems to care about the illusion. They burned through the points until Takada just needed one more knockdown, but Albright came back with a couple more huge suplexes to hand Takada his first loss in the promotion. This may have been better than Nakano vs. Burton, but at least that felt like the match that fit into the U-style during the 20th century.
Conclusion: This was probably the 2nd or 3rd best event we’ve seen from the UWF-I so far, and only the lack of a standing bout, and their one shoot ending as quickly as it did, stopped it from going into legendary status. While this was a fun and entertaining event, it is also a further example of some of the bad decisions that did them in. During our recent interview with Mark Fleming, he talked about how Lou Thesz felt that their major problem was the wasteful spending of money on people like Vader, and numerous sports cars for their stars, and that’s easy to see when they are willing to drop almost a hundred grand on 8 minutes of Kitao. Still, they are the most entertaining outfit around, and still have a lot going for them. We also got to see the farewell match of other Maeda, who will be forever canonized as one of the best rookies in this sports history. It’s mind-boggling when put into perspective… this was in early 1992. The same year that Papa Shango, IRS, and Tatanka were running amok in the WWF, and Kanehara and Maeda have been putting on matches that have been ahead of the curve, even by today’s standards of pro wrestling. Recommended event.
ML: This was that definitely one of the best UWF-I shows so far. Although we didn't always agree on which matches were good, out of the 8 worked matches, there were only 2 that neither of us enjoyed. Unfortunately, Albright is now firmly cemented as the other main eventer in the promotion, and Yoshihiro Takayama is about to rear his crooked nose.
*In other news*
Masakatsu Fuanki is reportedly very disappointed in how his match with Roberto Duran turned out. He equated the experience to that of being a little kid and scared to go see a horror movie, only to have seen it, and the movie sucked and wasn’t even scary. Roberto Duran on the other hand, seemed nonchalant about the loss, figuring it didn’t count as it wasn’t a boxing match.
Peter Aerts is set to debut for RINGS at their upcoming show on 5-16-92.