Standing Bout: Goon Yutacyai (?) vs. Rodney Blockfield
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Kenichi Yamamoto. Kanehara absolutely destroys Yamamoto in standup. Enjoyable, but just too quick and onesided to be that great of a match. *1/2
Tom Burton vs. Yoshihiro Takayama. *
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Bad News Allen. 1/4*
Yoji Anjo & Masahito Kakihara vs. Naoki Sano & Kazushi Sakuraba. Good action here. Much faster paced than the previous bouts, just constant movement. Kakihara was, not surprisingly, the best of the bunch. ***1/2
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Gene Lydick. Excellent technical match, but it just kind of ended about 5 minutes sooner than I wanted it to. ***1/2
Nobuhiko Takada & Billy Scott vs. Kazuo Yamazaki & James Stone (Little Guido). Don't blink.
Pro Wrestling Sekai Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Super Vader vs. Gary Albright. As is usually the case when two monsters collide, the match isn't too good because you realize just how important their smaller opponents are when it comes to taking the big bumps to get them over and make their matches work. They did some brawling and some wrestling, but their size negated each other so they never wound up delivering most of the big moves they teased. Adequate, but hardly the quality you expect from a "dream match." **
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Kenichi Yamamoto
Thomas Burton vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara
Yoshihiro Takayama vs. James Stone
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Yoji Anjo
Billy Scott vs. Yuko Miyato
Gene Lydick vs. Naoki Sano
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kazuo Yamazaki
Yoji Anjo 3 Best Bouts
6/10/94: Salman Hashimikov & Victor Zangiev vs. Kazuo Yamazaki & Yoji Anjo
8/17/96: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoji Anjo 11:26
8/28/92: Yoji Anjo vs. Kiyoshi Tamura 30:00. ****1/2
UWF-I 3/2/95
Yoji Anjo vs. Obi Jomil
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
Yoji Anjo vs. Kiyoshi Tamura
Naoki Sano & Masahiko Kakihara vs. Gary Albright & Gene Lydick
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Billy Scott
～Y.A IS DEAD～ 3/19/15
Note: 1st 5 matches digested
MAX Miyazawa vs. Kenta Hattori 4:03
Hidetada Irie vs. Eduardo Honda 6:01
Mitsuya Nagai & Takuma Sano vs. Kintaro Kanemura & Tetsuhiro Kuroda 9:22
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Kou Okada 4:44
Ryuki Ueyama vs. Daisuke Nakamura 14:26
Hiromitsu Kanehara & Minowaman vs. Daijiro Matsui & Yoshiaki Fujiwara 13:06
2/3 Falls Yoji Anjo Retirement Match: Masakatsu Funaki & Minoru Suzuki & Sanae Kikuta vs. Kenichi Yamamoto & Yoji Anjo & Yoshihiro Takayama 23:03
Kenichi Yamamoto vs. Thomas Burton. Kind of a dull match. Burton didn't give the young punk much respect, which I kind of liked Yamamoto always struck me as a guy who thought he was the shit even though he'd almost never done anything of note. Burton didn't have to use his best moves to win this one, which obviously didn't help. *1/4
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. James Stone (Little Guido). Kind of short and one-sided, but Kanehara always puts on a good show. The mat work was impressive, but Stone's overexaggerated selling hurt the standup segments a good deal. **1/4
Yuko Miyato vs. Gene Lydick. Lydick is a lot bigger and the better wrestler. It was short and he controlled the whole match. Disappointing. *1/2
Yoji Anjo vs. Tatsuo Nakano. These guys have fought so many times over the years and generally their matches are good, but this one didn't go anywhere. Essentially nothing happened but then there were a few strikes and a submission out of nowhere.
Kiyoshi Tamura & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kazuo Yamazaki & Yoshihiro Takayama. Good technical match. It was one of those matches though where things are well done, but there aren't a lot of highlights. Nobody really stepped up their game. Even Takayama didn't look bad with these guys though. **1/2
Masahito Kakihara vs. Naoki Sano. Smart match. It was always interesting, but they didn't have to take much abuse. They did a lot of striking, particularly Kakihara, but they were blocking most everything. It wasn't just standup though, there was also nice movement on the mat. ***
Gary Albright vs. Billy Scott. Albright kept Scott in his clutches and threw him around when it could. This made the match alright to watch even though it was totally one-sided. The match was designed to rebuild Albright for his next big job (to Kakihara), and it succeeded well enough in that regard although the problem is it's not like anyone would think Scott could take Albright. Scott is way too small to wrestle with Albright and doesn't have the standup skills to do much there even though that's also a weakness of Albright's. *1/2
Pro-Wrestling Heavykyu Senshukenjiai: Super Vader vs. Nobuhiko Takada. This wasn't as good as their 8/18/94 match, but it was smarter and also great. Takada used his speed & mobility to stay out of Vader's clutches and get his shots in when he could. He focused his attack on the left side of Vader's body. In particular, he used low kicks to Vader's left leg to chop him down like a tree. The strategy was simply, take away his power by relegating his base useless and go right for the udehishigigyakujujigatame when the giant crumbled to the canvas. On the other hand, Vader tried to cut off the ring. He wanted to grab Takada or push him back into the ropes/corner where he could manhandle him. Again, this wasn't a true UWF-I match, but Vader comes off so big and strong that his massive chokeslams and powerbombs aren't too unbelievable. Once again, the match was extremely high impact. Takada did a very good job of bumping for Vader, while Vader was impressive putting over the damage of Takada's low kicks. The match was all action, but the psychology was excellent in part because they did a match that maximized the abilities of both performers. The Vader vs. Takada series is one of the big reasons I always felt that UWF-I title matches were the best when it came to aura. They always had a great pre match, but they way the guys fought and intensity they brought always made the title seem so coveted. Vader showed his respect for the title and the legends that believed in it before the match, but at the same time he never considered doing anything less than whatever it was going to take to beat his opponent and keep the title. In a way, his cheating almost showed a respect for the belt and his opponent because in a match of lesser magnitude he would simply run over a poor sap without having to resort to any shortcuts. My only problem with this match was the finish. The KO blow just wasn't very credible. I wish Vader got back up and they did a little more before going back to the same or a similar strike for the finish. It was a very anticlimactic way to end such a quality series, but I guess it was fitting of the way things were going for UWF-I at the time. ****1/2
Kenichi Yamamoto vs. James Stone. Decent opener. Yamamoto actually showed some potential even though he tended to get out of control. He got Stone really good with an errant spinning high kick. His enzuigiri was nice. Stone's selling was too exaggerated for this style. *3/4
Hiromitsu Kanehara & Tom Burton vs. Yoshihiro Takayama & Kazushi Sakuraba. Kanehara & Sakuraba worked well together as expected. Kanehara only did striking with Takayama, so it was passable. Takayama did decently throwing knees, but couldn't do anything else right. Burton was solid. **1/2
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Gene Lydick. I thought this could be good, but they didn't work well together and the match was lifeless. Lydick looked pretty good except when he had to fall to the mat. Nakano wasn't particularly giving, so the match never turned into anything. *1/2
Naoki Sano & Billy Scott vs. Yoji Anjo & Yuko Miyato. More spectacular than the previous matches, largely due to Anjo. It wasn't as realistic, but when it comes to UWF-I excitement over realism is a tradeoff that you don't mind. Scott was a kicking bag, especially for Anjo. Sano's team was getting slaughted early due to Scott, but it wound up going down to the wire. Lots of nice kicks and suplexes. Everyone did a good job. ***1/4
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Kiyoshi Tamura. Tamura's execution was easily the best on this show. He brought a precision and intensity that was peerless. They showed a lot of respect for their opponent's abilities, so neither man rushed into anything. The match was technically excellent, but very much toward the realistic side so there were barely any UWF-I highspots. The match was good and the best on the show, but I expected something more dramatic. ***1/4
Gary Albright vs. Masahito Kakihara. Albright neutralized Kakihara's kicks by grabbing him immediately and only releasing after he'd driven him into the mat with a suplex. With his amateur background, Albright had little problem outwrestling Kakihara. Kakihara did a great enzuigiri just after 10, but Albright charged right at him as soon as he got up and used knees to set up a suplex that almost knocked Kakihara out and left him down to his last point. With Kakihara still reeling, Albright charged in and tried to do the same thing, but this time Kakihara turned the German suplex into a kneebar for the submission. The win showed Kakihara's resourcefulness and set him up for the big main event with Takada, while keeping Albright strong by having him dominate the whole match. Too bad they waited until the promotion was almost dead to build a new native up to the point where he could have a big match with Takada, and did it in a fashion where it seemed like his only chance against Takada was a fluke. ***
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Joe Malenko. I don't know what these guys were thinking, but for some reason this was all on the mat. In over 21 minutes we didn't see one strike land in standup. Instead, one guy would lay on top and work over the arm. The match wasn't technically bad, but it was pretty damn boring. *1/2
Kenichi Yamamoto vs. Steve Nelson
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. James Stone
Hiromitsu Kanehara & Billy Scott vs. Tatsuo Nakano & Jean Lydick
Joe Malenko vs. Yuko Miyato
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
Naoki Sano vs. Yoji Anjo
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Gary Albright
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Masahito Kakihara
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Kenichi Yamamoto
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Steve Nelson
Yoji Anjo & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara & Masahito Kakihara
Naoki Sano vs. James Stone
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Joe Malenko 18:14
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Kenichi Yamamoto.
Steve Nelson vs. James Stone.
Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Tatsuo Nakano.
Naoki Sano & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Joe Malenko & Yoji Anjo.
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara 6:20
Kenichi Yamamoto vs. Tom Burton
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
Naoki Sano vs. Yoshihiro Takayama
Masahito Kakihara vs. Yoji Anjo
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Tatsuo Nakano
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Gary Albright 6:24
Hiromitsu Kanehara & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Kashin) & Tadao Yasuda (NJ team)
Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Kenichi Yamamoto
Billy Scott vs. Naoki Sano
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Kensuke Sasaki (NJ)
Yoji Anjo & Masahito Kakihara vs. Riki Choshu & Yuji Nagata
10/11/95 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Hiromitsu Kanehara & Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Kashin) & Tadao Yasuda
Yoji Anjo & Masahito Kakihara vs. Riki Choshu & Yuji Nagata
10/28/95 Tokyo Kokuritsu Yoyogi Kyogijo Dai-nitaiikukan
Kenichi Yamamoto vs. Shinjiro Otani
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Koji Kanemoto
Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Kensuke Sasaki
Masahito Kakihara & Tatsuo Nakano vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Akira Nogami
Yoji Anjo vs. Masa Chono
11/25/95 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Riki Choshu
Yoji Anjo & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan
3/1/96 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Yoji Anjo & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Kazuo Yamazaki & Takayuki Iizuka
Yuhi Sano vs. Keiji Muto
IWGP Heavyweight Title: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Shiro Koshinaka
3/23/96 Sendai Miyagi-ken Sports Center
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Kengo Kimura
Masahito Kakihara vs. Akitoshi Saito
Yoji Anjo & Kenichi Yamamoto vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi & Akira Nogami
Nobuhiko Takada & Yuhi Sano vs. Shiro Koshinaka & Michiyoshi Ohara
4/19/96 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Tokimitsu Ishizawa vs. Kazushi Sakuraba 6:39
Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa
Masahito Kakihara vs. Yuji Nagata
Kensuke Sasaki & Riki Choshu vs. Nobuhiko Takada & Hiromitsu Kanehara
5/27/96 Tokyo Nippon Budokan
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Akira Nogami
Masahito Kakihara vs. Shiro Koshinaka
6/26/96 Nagoya Rainbow Hall: Nobuhiko Takada & Masahito Kakihara vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Yoshiaki Fujiwara
9/11/96 Tokyo Jingu Stadium
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Masahito Kakihara 8:43
Shinya Hashimoto vs. Yuhi Sano 11:00
Kenichi Yamamoto vs. Shinjiro Otani (NJ)
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Tatsuhito Takaiwa (NJ)
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Koji Kanemoto (NJ)
Naoki Sano vs. Hiro Saito (NJ)
Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Kensuke Sasaki (NJ)
Masahito Kakihara & Tatsuo Nakano vs. Shinya Hashimoto & Akira Nogami (NJ)
Yoji Anjo vs. Masa Chono (NJ)
Kenichi Yamamoto vs. James Stone
Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Billy Scott
Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Takashi Iizuka
Naoki Sano vs. Tokimitsu Ishizawa
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Riki Choshu
Masahito Kakihara vs. Tadao Yasuda
Yoji Anjo & Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan