PWFG got out of the gate quickly, and felt like the best of the worked shoot leagues for much of the year. They had the opportunity to not just be about one great talent, as initially, that balance was there where even though Minoru Suzuki was the clear standout performer, it wasn't about who was fighting Suzuki, but rather which combination of Suzuki, Ken Shamrock, Naoki Sano, & Masakatsu Funaki we were getting. Unfortunately, that big 4 was based around borrowing Sano from SWS, which seemed very feasible given both companies were owned by Megame Super, and their president, Hachiro Tanaka, was a big pro wrestling fan who kept urging the PWFG guys to come fight in SWS. This working relationship quickly unraveled to a large extent when Suzuki's 4/1/91 match with veteran Apollo Sugawara turned into a shoot, resulting in essentially the same finish as the famous Takada/Berbick match, with the fight ending because Sugawara just said the hell with it and up and left the ring. Sano may not have been the best shooter, but was a talented enough pro wrestler that he had the Match of the Year and best junior match up until that point with Jushin Thunder Liger on 1/31/90. While UWF-I had some misses, they did a much better job of rounding out their roster as the year progressed, whereas Sano's loan running out left a big hole in PWFG which they never managed to fill.

Minoru Suzuki's technical skills were actual below Masakatsu Funaki's, but he grasped the urgency and intensity necessary to make the style effective and appealing a lot better, as well as that speed is more important than absolute precision. There was a real sense of danger in his matches, this feeling that you always had to be on guard. This played into Ken Shamrock's strengths well, as Shamrock not only played the wild powerhouse, but proved to be someone not to mess with when he (cheap) shot on rookie Kazuo Takahashi.

Funaki held down the credible end of the spectrum, showing a technical precision and grasp of the positions that clearly separated him from the rest of the league. That understanding didn't always make for the most entertaining matches, as his position before submission style was way ahead of its time, but also plays a lot better when winning is up to the fighters rather than the whim of the booker. While it sometimes felt Funaki was sacrificing himself for the development and advancement of the craft and others felt like he was taking Karl Gotch's win at all costs training a little too seriously, he was, perhaps surprisingly, able to prove this style viable, and always came off as the top star of the promotion whether Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Suzuki, or Shamrock liked that or not.

Fujiwara seemed very interested in realism for one show, but it's almost as if he realized he simply couldn't keep up with the way the style was developing, and quickly descended into just goofing around for cheap giggles when he wasn't bullying the opponents he knew possessed neither the standing nor the balls to call him on it. While his promotion was the most realistic of the 3 as a whole, he was increasingly painful to watch, and almost came off as a shoot style version of a comedy wrestler, with his matches being so lame you just waited to see what antics he would pull.

MB: PWFG was the best overall product out of the three shoot-style promotions in 1991, and probably had the highest percentage of must-see moments from this year, but in retrospect it's also easy to see why this promotion didn't survive after the great exodus of talent in '93 over to Pancrase. Throughout 1991, you can see some of the performers here continually edge closer and closer to real shoot territory, which indicates that somewhere buried in the collective haze was a desire to push the envelope and fight for real. Also, as Lorefice pointed out, not having Sano around for most of the year was to their detriment, as they really needed another 2-3 high caliber guys to really be an unstoppable force. One of the unfortunate aspects of the U.W.F. splintering off into three separate promotions was the thinning of the talent pool, as we can see a huge disparity between the higher tier of Funaki, Shamrock, and Suzuki compared to the lower end of Wilkins, Kiroware, and the man who's name should never be uttered, Johnny Barrett. Imagine if someone like Yamazaki had migrated to the PWFG as opposed to the UWF-I, that alone could have made a huge difference in rounding out their roster.

Fujiwara is really the odd man in this equation. I think that he has realized that he is perhaps in over his head, as there is no way at his age, or athletic ability, he is going to hang with the kind of matches that we are starting to see take shape. To his credit, he seems to be okay with not having the entire focus of the promotion be around him, as he has been willing to have matches in the midcard, or miss an event if need be, whereas there is no way that the UWF-I will allow their league to be about anything other than Takada, and the particular monster-of-the-week that he will be slaying on that month. As long as Fujiwara has a strong roster, then he will be able to get away with the clowning antics that we have seen from him, but if he starts hemorrhaging talent, then it's going to be painfully obvious to all that he can't carry this promotion.

Still, things are looking good for them going into '92. Takaku Fuke, who only had a few matches in U.W.F. came on later in the year, stealing the show with his epic match against Jerry Flynn then getting a good match out of Bart Vale the next event. They were able to use Olympian Duane Koslowski, who lost to Takada at the '89 Tokyo Dome show, on more of a regular basis, and he seems to be a great talent that can only get better and better. Kazuo Takahashi still has a ways to go in rounding out his striking and submission skills to match his great wrestling, but has so much heart and verve that he is a welcome addition.

3/4/91: Wayne Shamrock vs. Minoru Suzuki 30:00. Suzuki vs. Shamrock is the reason to watch the first Fujiwara Gumi show, an ambitious all out 30 minute draw where their ability to show all the sport is capable of may fall slightly short of their desire to do so, but that desire is so high it's hard to fault them. Being one of the newest and youngest fighters in U.W.F., Suzuki had a hard time seizing the limelight even though he was having strong matches on the undercard, but immediately really came into his own as a regular top of the card performer in PWFG. Fujiwara’s match with Johnny Barrett was definitely more believable, a trend that would quickly be reversed, but it was the younger fighters that Fujiwara gave the spotlight to, particularly Suzuki, who set out to evolve the shooting style by working and countering the holds rather than just lying around and taking rope escapes as many a man had been content to in U.W.F. Structurally, this was still a pro wrestling bout, quite a well built one, at least working up to and in the suplexes and dropkicks that "shouldn't have been there". That being said, their desire to up the realism from the U.W.F. level was quickly, if subtly on display right from the opening sequence where both were hesitant & used small feints to try to set up their strikes, which were really distraction to open up a single leg takedown. There wasn't much striking in the 1st half, which is probably a good thing because Shamrock was often too fake with his hands. However, tensions really escalated in the 2nd half when Shamrock went from a series of mount palms to illegal soccer ball kicks to Suzuki's head, prompting Suzuki - after a break to recover - to come back at Shamrock with a series of short range standing headbutts, which thankfully bore no resemblance to Fujiwara's big windup comedy spot. I would have liked to see them explore the takedown possibilities more rather than revert to the old more Greco style high clinches leading to throws to get the match to the ground, positionally the bout still left a lot to be desired once they hit the canvas as well due to the lack of BJJ, but the grappling was a lot more realistic than much of the U.W.F. stuff because the fighter on the defensive was active, twisting, turning, and rolling to either escape, take the top and/or use their own counter submission. While it wasn't the smoothest match, and it didn't have the best sequences, I was impressed by the active matwork with regular position changes. Most shooters can counter, but one thing that elevated this match above the pack was the intensity and effort they fought with. Everytime you thought one man had made some headway, the other took the advantage at least partially back. The frustration seemed genuine, particularly when Shamrock rope escaped Suzuki’s ankle lock. They just fought so hard throughout the duration of the contest that it never felt as though it would be a marathon, in part because they never stalled, but much of their success was in getting over the concept that they were equals without the usual corniness that has full time draw written all over it. Though the high number of rope escapes wasn't ideal, they did allow for an entertaining ground oriented contest where they were able to keep working hard & threatening one another for half an hour. I appreciated their lack of laziness, not so much in keeping the pace, but the fact that Suzuki, and to a lesser extent Shamrock, understood the importance in putting the effort into their grimacing and contorting to maintain the interest, anticipation, and credibility of what they were doing. They worked some highspots into the submission oriented match such as the overhead belly to belly suplex with a float over and a dropkick, and did some nasty striking in the second half, but the crowd really took to this one because they made their attempts and refusals seem important. By the end of the night, these two had the crowd in the palm of their hands. There was some booing for the draw, but they soon gave the performers a big hand for their exceptional effort. Suzuki was pretty great here, and Shamrock could complement him well enough that the match worked exactly as they hoped, stealing the show with a semifinal draw that propelled them to the main event on 8/23/91.****

MB: Fujiwara should get a lot of credit here, as he was willing to put himself in the mid-card and allow some of the younger talent a chance to shine. Here we find a very young Suzuki facing an incredible looking specimen in Shamrock, and it's rather amazing to see that right from the jump, Shamrock was an awesome performer that really shined in this kind of format. One has to wonder if he had jumped back into Japanese pro wrestling instead of the WWF in 1996 how his later career would have turned out, as all he really seemed to get out of his tenure there (outside of a fat stack of cash) was a lot of injuries. While this match was not the smoothest and being a 30 minute draw, it did have its fair share of dead spaces, both fighters did an excellent job of parlaying intensity and frustration throughout. They constantly looked for submissions, even in bad positions, and you could really see an example of a grappling mentality, before the positional thinking of a BJJ influence crept in. The match also had a nice progression to it, as it was mostly submission orientated in the beginning, saving the flashier stuff like a belly to belly suplex, and much nastier striking until later in the match, which gave it natural feel, as if the stakes were getting higher and it was time to pull out all the stops. Though a little dry in spots, a great start to to the new era of shoot wrestling, as well as an insighht into the fact that maybe...just maybe.. there was a future paying audience to be found in real fighting.

5/16/91: Naoki Sano vs. Wayne Shamrock 26:15. Suzuki's match with Shamrock on the previous show was considerably better because he has a lot more ability to both lead & react, and is by far the most creative of the three, but while Shamrock was forced to initiate a lot more here, he was able to maintain his patience & do a good job, with Sano bringing some good things to the match. Sano was the better standup fighter, landing some solid low kicks early (though he didn't really attempt to follow them up) and a lot of good openhand shots that helped force Shamrock into a more grappling centric performer. The basis of the match was ultimately Shamrock controlling with superior wrestling, forcing Sano to make things happen. It's unfair to compare a shoot debuting Sano to Suzuki in the style Suzuki has been training in for 2 years, but in any case Sano obviously wasn't totally ready to match his ability in junior heavyweight action yet. He was good in the striking exchanges and had some submissions in his arsenal, but most of his transitions & counters would have taken the bout to a more puroresu place, and he was trying not to go there too often. While the bout had the long match vibe too it throughout, emphasizing position changes on the mat over finishing opportunities, that was mostly okay because they kept the credibility a lot higher than it would have been, even if things meandered a bit more. I don't want to make it sound as if credibility was near the top of their priorities, Sano got a takedown with a jumping DDT and a knockdown with a jumping spinning heel kick that mostly missed, while Shamrock did a few of his suplexes, but they built the match up well to these meaningful highlights, and didn't lose the plot when they failed to finish with them. Sano began to press in the standup, with Shamrock happy to get involved in a flurry because it would help him grab Sano & land his clinch knees, which tended to result in the bout hitting the mat one way or another. The finish didn't really work for me because by continuing to exchange the openhand strikes on the inside, Sano somehow getting behind Shamrock when he missed one of these short shots without much hip turn was pretty clunky. Nonetheless, Sano did a released version of one of his wrestling favorites, the Dragon suplex, turning into the wakigatame for the finish. Definitely a good match, you could certainly argue very good, but my memory of it was better than it looks to me today. ***1/2

MB: The first few minutes start off with the fighters feeling each other out on the ground, with Ken ever looking for a leg attack entry. This is interesting to watch from a modern vantage point, as it was clearly by people that weren't in the BJJ mentality of "position over submission." Sano will attempt to place Ken in a bad position, and as soon as Ken is able to reposition himself, he instantly goes for the attack, which was the mindset of Catch Wrestling. Both men jockey back and forth on the ground for a while, with both trading Kimura, toe hold, and choke attempts. This goes on for a while, until Shamrock is able to secure a rear naked chock, thus forcing a rope escape from Sano. They get stood back up and escalate the entire affair with some stiff palm strikes, and nasty knees from Sano. Everything is looking very snug and believable until a momentary show of flashiness takes place with a jumping DDT from Sano. This didn't really amount to a whole lot, as Shamrock quickly reversed his position by applying a hammerlock variant into another rear naked choke attempt and rope escape. After trading a couple of kicks, Shamrock hits an explosive Northern Lights suplex into a Kimura, which is super impressive looking, but admittedly fake as all get out. This surprisingly didn't accomplish much as Sano was right back up with some more kicks and managed to score a knockdown against Shamrock. Shamrock gets back up and they continue to trade submission attempts, but one thing I'm starting to notice is that this has a great back and forth feel, without the sometimes-scripted feeling that a RINGS match would give off. The limited rope-escape format of RINGS could add a lot of drama to a match, but often produced matches that felt very formulated. The PWFG approach of unlimited rope escapes allows for a much more organic match to take place, although can also lead to bouts of meandering if not done correctly. The match continues to seesaw all the way until the 25:00 min mark, when everything culminates into an explosive crescendo, as both men give everything they have into knees/palm strikes towards one another. Sano gets behind Shamrock and hits a Dragon suplex followed by a straight armbar for the win. While not perfect, this was a great match that really showcased the new and uncharted territory that this style could deliver. It was fairly credible, outside of a few highspots and Shamrock's striking needing to be a bit stiffer. Still, this was a glimpse of some of the magic to come, and Sano proved to a perfect foil to the powerhouse that was Ken Shamrock.

7/26/91: Minoru Suzuki vs. Naoki Sano 30:00. The previous two high end PWFG matches were Shamrock vs. Suzuki and Shamrock vs. Sano, but with Suzuki being the man in his matches vs. these opponents, and these matches both being notably better than Shamrock vs. Sano, it's more clear that he's the leading light in this promotion. Suzuki is really grasping the urgency as well, if not better than anyone. Even though his arsenal floats somewhere between pro wrestler & what we'd come to know as an MMA fighter, he does it with so much speed & desperation that the same technique comes off almost completely different than in a traditional pro wrestling style match. This feels like a struggle, like there's real danger if you are unable to react to them before they can react to you. The fact he was not only able to accomplish this, but keep it up for the majority of a half hour match where he also managed to take things down seemingly not to rest, but rather to set up further escalation with another wild dramatic burst that didn't feel false was pretty remarkable. It's difficult to keep the illusion of a shoot alive for 5 minutes, but the incredible tension that these two are able to sustain throughout such a long contest is really what sets it apart. I don't want to make it sound like this was all Suzuki, Sano was growing in this style by leaps and bounds. You can see that his confidence is so much higher here than it was against Shamrock on the previous show, and he's just flowing a lot better, really on point with his reactions as well so it doesn't feel like pro wrestling cooperation. Sano again allowed the opponent to lead, but Suzuki is a lot better leader than Shamrock, and Sano is a better opponent for Suzuki in the reaction style because speedy offense & counter laden chain wrestling are the backbones of the junior heavyweight wrestling he's so good at. Although Sano is the newbie in U-style, he's the veteran in this match, and he's able to show that by staying composed and trusting that, unpredictable as Suzuki may be, he still has the counter/answer to anything Suzuki can throw at him. The match was very spot oriented, but they did a good job of just avoiding or immediately defending the submissions so they weren't straining the credibility for so called drama with the minute armbar before the opponent finally finished sliding to the ropes shenanigans. I won't say that they didn't strain credibility, I mean, Suzuki tried his dropkick, but they did so only by performing fast, explosive moves. Still, I liked the first half better when things were more under control than the second half when, ironically, what began to make the match look like it would be a draw was that they started hitting high spots that would have been finishes if they were used at all in PWFG, but they weren't getting the job done. That being said, this managed to be both exciting enough to be a great pro wrestling match of the era and credible enough to be a great shoot style match of the era. The weakness of the match was the transitions from the striking sequences to the mat sequences, not so much because they lacked great ways to get it to the mat, though that's also true, but mainly because they really only knew a bit of Greco-Roman based wrestling, so the action kind of artificially stalled out in a sort of minimal exertion mid-ring clinch while they plotted their explosion to get into the next great mat sequence. This aspect did improve as the match progressed with the introduction of knees, but this is also where they started incorporating the pro wrestling maneuvers. Though Sano is the spot merchant in pro wrestling, it was actually Suzuki that was initiating the more suspect spots here, with Sano shrugging them off. I though the no cooperation belly-to-belly suplex was good precisely because it wasn't cleanly performed, but I could have lived without the later versions, the piledriver, and a few other flourishes. Suzuki did a great job of blending pro wrestling affectations with shoot style desperation though. For instance, chopping Sano's wrist to try to break his clasp that was defending the armbar or slapping his own face to keep himself from from going to sleep in a choke were nice dramatic nods even though they obviously aren't what you'd learn from Firas Zahabi. The crowd was pretty rapid throughout for this big interpromotional match, probably the best reactions PWFG has gotten so far, as they were really eating this up. It felt like Sano really pulled ahead midway through the contest when Suzuki initiated a barrage of strikes, even using body punches, but Sano ultimately won what turned into a palm blow exchange, dropping & bloodying Minoru. However, Suzuki had more stamina than Sano, and as the match progressed he began to be too quick for Sano, and was now getting strikes through that had previously been avoided. Sano may well have just been blown up, but it added to the story without reducing the quality in any way. The contest finally climaxed with both working leg locks as the 30-minute time limit expired. You'd think PWFG would want Sano back as soon as possible, and the draw should have led to a rematch at some point, but sadly Suzuki was the only native Sano ever fought in PWFG, with his remaining 3 bouts being against Vale and Flynn. ****1/2

MB: This was a treat, and one of the best matches, shoot-style or otherwise, that we have seen up to this point. A fast paced 30 minute war that featured all sorts of grappling that was ahead of its time for most audiences. Guillotine chokes, ankle picks, half guard work, armbars, and heel hooks were spliced together with more standard pro wrestling fare, and terse striking exchanges. The striking in this match was also very logical, in that they would focus on the grappling first, and when that seemed to stall out, then one would break up the monotony with strikes in an effort to force a change, or create an opening. There was some pro wrestling tomfoolery, (at one point Suzuki gave Sano a piledriver as he was warding off a takedown with a sprawl/underhook technique) but it didn't detract from the match, in fact because the flashier spots were used sparingly and towards the end of the match, it did have the effect of spicing things up a bit towards the end. This match showed us that despite their flaws, the PWFG was the best of the Shoot-Style promotions at this point in time, and had the potential for something truly extraordinary

8/23/91: Masakatsu Funaki vs. Wayne Shamrock 21:03. This was some ballsy booking, but that's what made it great. PWFG was still determining their top foreigner. Shamrock had been the best performer by a mile, but Vale had been around longer, and after a rocky start in U.W.F., had gone undefeated in 1990 (4-0), even avenging his loss to Yamazaki. Funaki had beaten Vale on PWFG's debut show, but Vale was 3-0 since. Logically, this is where you had Shamrock ascend to the top, especially since Funaki had defeated him on the final U.W.F. show on 12/1/90. However, the timing was tough because Funaki, who had been in the main event of every show and was the top star of the future if not the present, was coming off a crushing defeat to old man Fujiwara, so the normal rebound would be for him to once again defeat Shamrock, confirming the pecking order of Fujiwara, Funaki, Shamrock/Vale, Suzuki. The match was worked like Shamrock was going to ultimately lose, in other words the early portion was about establishing Shamrock on the level with Funaki by having him take the lead, getting Funaki down with the suplex, winning the kicking battle to score the first knockdown, etc. Funaki's calm & confident demeanor made the match seem closer than it was even during Shamrock's best portions, but by any definition this wasn't Shamrock running away with it, but rather a very competitive back and forth contest where Ken scored the signature shots in between regular exchanges of control that, as the match progressed, were more likely to be won by Funaki. Funaki's patience was something of a negative here, especially when combined with Ken's tendencies to durdle on the mat. Though obviously the underlying problem was the lack of BJJ knowledge from both, the result was a rambling ground affair that was still in the old U.W.F. mode of laying around passively for no reason when the opponent wasn't controlling in a manner that prevented either exploding to counter or to stand back up. Their speed & athleticism was sometimes on display in standup, but because the match was so mat based, I don't feel like it's aged particularly well. It's a good match to be certain, but I remembered it being one of the highlights of the year when in actuality, it's merely a good match, on par with Funaki's matches against Sano but nowhere near Ken's match with Sano, rather than being in the class with the best stuff of Tamura & Suzuki, who seem miles ahead of the rest of the pack in retrospect. I thought the released Dragon suplex finisher from Ken to score the huge wildly celebrated upset was great because it was in the mold they'd set the whole time, parity but Ken occasionally manages to pull off a great spot. That being said, this was a 21 minute match with a few highlights in between a lot of watching & waiting, honestly more like what we'd come to see from Pancrase though without the modernization of the positions to allow them to get away with it better. ***

MB: For the time in PWFG, Funaki is given a main event with someone I expect to really bring out the best in him. Funaki wastes no time in throwing a kick and pays the price by being on the receiving end of a belly-to-back suplex. Funaki gets up quickly and starts to kick a grounded Shamrock, which causes Shamrock to put his hands behind his neck and start fighting off his back, trying to upkick Funaki, with an exchange that is somewhat reminiscent of Allan Goes vs Kazushi Sakaraba 7 years later in PRIDE. This doesn't last long though, as Funaki quickly goes back to the ground, and they go back and forth for a bit, until stood back up by the ref. They immediately go to pounding each other once back on their feet, with the best strikes I've seen from Ken so far, and Funaki really putting some velocity behind his kicks. The rest of the fight had it all, strikes, submission attempts, constant jockeying for position, but most importantly, an abundance of intensity. They constantly went at each other for 20+ min, and allowed themselves to be stiff. It always felt like they were giving their all. Even though the finish looks a bit hokey on paper (Shamrock with a knockout via Dragon suplex), it never felt anything less than excellent. One of the best matches we've seen so far.

9/28/91: Wayne Shamrock vs. Minoru Suzuki 16:34. A major step up for Shamrock, who really puts it all together here after the somewhat disappointing match with Funaki, and gives his best performance to date by a wide margin. Shamrock is just fighting a lot more aggressively & assertively, getting solid strikes in even though it's not really a striking match, and then making decisive moves on the mat even though he's experimenting with different positions & leg locks that are more the game of his crafty opponent. In addition to being two of the best shoot style workers, Suzuki & Shamrock also stand out for being able to tell little pro wrestling stories without having to stop the match or be corny & unrealistic to do so. This wasn't the best match we've seen so far, but it was probably the richest in terms of having a lot of little things going on, and something of a running storyline that didn't feel forced. Shamrock quickly established his standup advantage, putting Suzuki in the familiar grappler vs. striker role. When Suzuki kept manipulating Shamrock's ankle until the lock was tight, only to have the ref immediately make him break because Shamrock was in the ropes, he pounded the canvas in disgust and then grinned at Shamrock, kinda taunting him that he should be better than to have to dive for the ropes, at the same time he's content to point out that he's already got one up on Shamrock. Shamrock soon answered with his own ankle lock, and while Suzuki is less anxious, he does take a rope escape and then begin doing the good sort of pro wrestling selling where he shows he's hampered - has difficulty putting weight on that ankle - without having to stop the match & make the ref look like an idiot for allowing a match where someone doesn't respond for a minute to continue simply because pro wrestling never actually modernizes. Sticking in the pro wrestling mode, these two are able to show they don't like each other, but again in the good sort of way where Shamrock immediately kicks Suzuki in the ankle because his rival has made the mistake of revealing it as a weak point. They soon proceed to a spot where the ref breaks them as both are in the ropes working for the same ankle submission. The ground continues to more or less be a stalemate as Suzuki answers Shamrock's Achilles' tendon hold with one of his own, but later Suzuki gains an advantage instead answering with a heel hold, which forces Ken into a rope escape. Though the argument could be made that Shamrock has the advantage because he's handily winning the brief standup exchanges, Suzuki is doing a better job of getting the quick lock up, and is coming closer to getting the submission once it hits the ground. He forces another rope break with an Achilles' tendon hold, and is able to get armbar position twice, though Ken fights it off before he can extend the arm. Shamrock also defends a wakigatame attempt & is able to take Suzuki's back while they are standing back up. Suzuki avoided a suplex earlier, and now uses a Kimura grip to spin out into a standing wrist lock, but this leaves him exposed, and Shamrock just takes his back & hoists him for a huge Dragon suplex. Shamrock bridges to go for the corny pinfall, but after the ref counts 1, he releases & instead has the ref count Suzuki out when he can't answer the 10 count, which again is a ridiculous carry over from pro wrestling that needs to go in order for the ref to have a shred of credibility. Anyway, I think they were on the right track with this finish, but Shamrock should have done a released Dragon right into an immediate ref stop KO. Though the match never felt great, it was a rich, well themed & focused match where both were on the top of their game. We haven't really seen this sort of match so far, and they were also doing some different things with the ankle & joint manipulation. I think they really found a nice balance of being a pro wrestling match with some of the storytelling & acting at the same time they were a proto shoot match with the sort of footsies we'd see in early Pancrase where the best defense was often to just apply your own submission to whatever limb the opponent left exposed. If you like quantity then their 3/4/91 match is certainly better given it's almost twice as long, but this match is a lot tighter & shows they've grown and improved considerably during the past 6 months. ****

MB: This is the 2nd time these two have met, as they both had an excellent 30 minute draw at the inaugural PWFG event. Right away I'm impressed with Suzuki's footwork, very springy, and always feinting in a way that leads you to think he could shoot in at any moment. Shamrock fires off a high kick followed by a palm strike, and he is completely jacked here, just dwarfing Suzuki. Suzuki gambles on shooting in with a deep single leg from a mile away, but is stuffed by Shamrock. However, Ken gives up his superior positioning by diving for some kind of toe-hold attack, giving his back to Suzuki. Suzuki uses this reversal of fortune to work for a crab, but Shamrock shows us the secret that we have all been looking for, that one simply needs to slap the next person in the face that tries to get you in this Boston contraption. From here, Suzuki falls back for a straight ankle lock, much like Shamrock tried in his first confrontation against Royce Gracie, and just like Gracie, Ken went with his opponent's momentum to wind up in top position. After both fighters tried various unsuccessful leg attacks, they went back to their feet, and kept jockeying from the clinch. One nice sequence showed Ken give Suzuki a stiff knee to the midsection, which gave Suzuki an opportunity to hook Ken's free leg and attempt a kneebar from the takedown. Suzuki couldn't quite extend the leg far enough, so he used a Kimura grip to put the added threat of a toe-hold into the equation, and was able to put enough torque on that maneuver to force Ken to take a rope escape. Next we see a beautiful takedown set-up from Suzuki, as he does a very subtle short stomp to Ken's thigh, and immediately dives in to go for a clinch, followed up by a standing switch, while Ken is momentarily distracted. It didn't wind up working, as Ken did a switch of his own, which caused Suzuki to turtle up, and Shamrock showed us a technique to deal with a turtled opponent that I had never thought of, which was to grab his opponents foot and dive over the opposite shoulder, as to wind up repositioned in a place where you have enough leverage to finish a toe-hold. While some would look back into this hazy shroud that is early 90s catch-inspired grappling and only see rudimentary ideas, if we dig a little deeper, we can see some interesting truths made manifest. Namely that wristlocks, toe holds, and other leg attacks put the entire BJJ orthodoxy on shaky ground, as they are techniques that are able to be hit from all sorts of angles, including what would otherwise be terrible positions. Shamrock succeeded in getting a rope escape from his unusual foot attack, and they both returned to clinch warfare soon afterwards. The rest of the match saw various armbar and leg attacks from both men, punctuated by Ken's need to slap the stuffing out of Suzuki in between the ground exchanges, but the match ends when Suzuki hits a standing Kimura on Ken, only to be reversed into a Dragon suplex, which gave Ken a knockout victory. This was excellent, and a great way to end the show. While it wasn't able to build as much drama as their first fight due to being about 14 minutes shorter, it didn't have any of the dead spots of that bout either, and was non-stop from the opening bell. If I had to pick between the two, I would still give their first match the edge, in terms of quality, but make no mistake, this was very good, and an excellent showcase of the new possibilities that are emerging. It's strange that real fighting is being advanced by a group of people that are pretending to fight for real, as if they were in a real fight.

10/17/91

Yusuke Fuke vs. Jerry Flynn 30:00. Fuke has already done a shoot where he failed to take down the greasiest of Muay Thai competitors for longer than it took Lawi Napataya to just grab the ropes, and I was really impressed at how he took the distance & his strategy into consideration. This was probably the most realistic fight we've seen so far in terms of approaching the wrestler vs. grappler dynamic. Flynn had a big reach advantage, but Fuke mostly stayed on the outside looking for a kick he could catch when he wasn't making his move to initiate the takedown. Fuke generally did a good job of moving in and out, and would actually even move laterally then cut an angle to get in on Flynn's legs. In the meantime, Fuke would try to check Flynn's low kicks, which really made me take them a lot more seriously. While the length kept it from being the fastest paced or stiffest match, they did a great job of upping the urgency & stiffness when it mattered. If there was a potential submission for either, or a takedown attempt for Fuke, they found an extra gear or two to fight, and hit, hard to answer it, then would relax somewhat when they were more or less out of danger. I really liked Fuke blasting Flynn with palms to the face to fend off his leglock. Anyway you slice it though, the length was still the problem, largely because Flynn basically just did his thing, and while Fuke was credible & technically proficient, there were only so many scenarios he, or anyone, could think of to keep a realistically bent vanilla striker vs. grappler match going for half an hour. I don't want to downplay Flynn's contributions, he was the more well rounded of the two in that he could offer more to counter & answer Fuke on the mat than Fuke, who had little striking, could in standup. While these guys were green, this was nonetheless a huge step forward for both, and one of the signature bouts of 1991 in terms of moving the sport forward in a more believable direction. ***1/2

MB: Right away Flynn fires off a nice kick to Fuke's thigh, but is taken down by a beautiful single-leg entry before he could launch another one. Both jockey for position and trade submission attempts, before Flynn unleashes a barrage of kicks and palm strikes in standup that are a lot quicker than you would expect from a man of his size. Flynn is looking very solid here, and while he didn't look bad against Vale, he was limited in what he could do working with him, but isn't having to scale back as much now that he's paired with a far more fluid opponent. Fuke really earned his pay, as he took plenty of stiff kicks and palm strikes from Flynn in most of their standing sequences. The groundwork was nicely paced too, and they kept things at a fast tempo without ever getting hokey, and also added some nice touches like when Flynn would escape from an ankle lock attempt by kicking Fuke in the head with his free leg, or at one point when Fuke was working for an armbar, and decided to slap Flynn in the face several times to open his opponent up. This went to a 30 minute draw, and I must admit that I'm quite impressed with this. In fact, I would go as far as to say that this is one of the best matches we've seen so far. At no did this ever drag, and it was able to really strike a balance between realism and entertainment value. Fuke and Flynn were able to give us a long match with the stiffness and flow of a shoot, but with a faster, and more entertaining pace, without ever feeling corny or contrived. Where I would have assumed Flynn to have been a lumbering ox, he moved gracefully for a man of his size, and it never felt like Fuke was having to really stretch to make him look good. While the idea of having a 30 minute draw for the opening match sounded odd to me on paper, it wound up being a great way to put Flynn over, and has really opened my eyes to Fuke, as I always just saw him as a middling journeyman figure from Pancrase, I had no idea he was basically the PWFG's answer to Yoji Anjo, as a cardio machine that could be used in a variety of capacities within the card to good effect.

Masakatsu Funaki vs. Kazuo Takahashi 6:24. Funaki rose to the challege of crafting a competitive match against an opponent who was clearly well beneath him. While the match was a bit repetitive in that Takahashi's chance was getting a single leg then finding an armbar, at least that chance was made real, and thus the threat seemed genuine. Funaki going from one hip to another to back up enough to try to keep Takahashi inside his guard when Takahashi exploded trying to pass is the sort of thing we haven't seen anyone else care about (or probably understand) that made maintaining the defensive position seem to be of the utmost importance. Funaki has been the most realistic worker so far, and while that can often be to his detriment as his striking tends to be much more exciting than his grappling, which is his bread and butter, Funaki found a good mix tonight. Funaki knew he needed to punish Takahashi before Takahashi took him down, and hopefully Takahashi would either get KO'd charging into a well timed blow, or some of these strikes would at least slow his shot down enough that Funaki could find an actual defense. Takahashi came close just before the finish, eating a few palms before ducking a high kick into a takedown & passing into an armbar attempt. Funaki rolled though, and then they did a pretty lame finish that, unlike most of what came before it, felt very contrived, where Takahashi tried to transition into a kneebar, but Funaki made Takahashi release with a body shot then went into an Achilles' tendon hold for the win. While it was the first submission locked, Funaki winning with a strike or guillotine to counter the takedown would have been a lot more fitting for the story they'd been telling than Funaki grabbing a leg out of nowhere & Takahashi offering no defense. I think they had to keep this short both because it was a big mismatch & because Takahashi is a one-trick pony, but at 10 minutes they might really have had something here. ***

MB: Takahashi doesn't waste anytime hitting an excellent single leg that would be the envy of any current MMA fighter, and quickly gains side control after slapping his way out of Funaki's guard. Takahashi goes for an armbar, but Funaki is way too slick on the ground, easily escapes the attempt and getting back to his feet. Takahashi blasts him right back down to the mat again, and repeats his armbar attack, only this time Funaki rolls out and opts to mount Takahashi. It is a treat to see Funaki's methodical nature, even at this early stage of his career. As he has the mount, he patiently rides Takahashi, and starts to grind his elbow across his face, forcing him to squirm a bit, and uses this technique to its fullest, looking to open up a submission. Takahashi remained composed, so Funaki dialed it up a notch and started firing some short, stiff, forearm strikes to Takahashi's face. This still wasn't enough to force Takahashi to make a mistake, so Funaki gets up, smacks Kazuo in the face, and soccer kicks him in the head as the ref calls for a break. While the ref is separating them for a restart, Kazuo runs right after Funaki and gets a swift kick to the thigh for his trouble, but if there is one thing that Takahashi has that Funaki can't seem to stop, it's the speed of his single-leg, and he uses it to good effect before Funaki before he could fire off another kick. Funaki's groundwork seems to consist of putting his hand over Takahashi's mouth and punching him in the face, which doesn't really yield any results. Takahashi eventually passes guard, but seems to get bored with the idea of maintaining a superior position, and quickly goes for another arm attack that fails just as quickly as the first two. He loses his position to Funaki, who goes into side-control mode, and goes back to his tactic of using the blade of his forearm to annoy Takahashi. After making Kazuo squirm a bit, Funaki starts to posture up, and shifts his body towards his opponents legs, which instantly set off Takahashi's spider sense, and caused him to franticly grab the ropes for an escape. This time Takahashi has no slick takedowns for his mentor, and instead suffers the wrath of a stiff thigh kick followed up with another kick to the face forcing a knockdown. Kazuo gets up at the count of 9, and takes some more punishment, before Funaki misses a kick, and it's back to the ground. Sadly, the only submission he cares to try is an armbar, and his 4th attempt fails as well. Kazuo winds up on the wrong end of a north-south situation, but tries to make the best of it by going for a toehold, but the master has all the answers, and simply gives a hard blow to Takahashi's stomach, forcing his legs to dangle, and goes right for an ankle lock. The lock is in snug, and Kazuo taps out. Excellent match, that I would assess as a ¾ shoot. They weren't cooperating, and everything (with the exception of the ending) felt authentic, even though they weren't quite going at each other with an absolute 100% intensity either. This was definitely a great blueprint on how much shoot you can put into a work.

1. Minoru Suzuki. Suzuki did the best job of transitioning from the pro wrestling style to the shoot style, just having a better grasp of what made both tick from a viewer standpoint. He combined the urgency and intensity necessary to make the matches work as "shoots" with the more subtle brand of entertainment of pro wrestling where actions and affectations that aren't necessary but also aren't unreasonable are thrown in for dramatic purposes, finding an exciting balance between the credible and the energetic. Even when he was doing somewhat nonsensical things such as trying to work in his dropkick, his matches still overall felt like epic struggles where you couldn't let your guard down for a second. As we are seeing with Tamura, being fast and explosive are far more important to the quality of worked shoot style than absolute technical precision because ultimately you are still getting away with something, it's just that the less time you give the audience to identify that, the more difficult it becomes for them to see the holes. Suzuki had excellent speed and footwork in standup even though that wasn't the strength of his game, and was the only fighter who won two shoots, a planned one where he relied on his grappling to beat Thai fighter Lawi Napataya and an unplanned one where he relied on his footwork and handspeed to humiliate SWS' Apollo Sugawara.

2. (Ken) Wayne Shamrock. Shamrock's intensity and work ethic were his best attributes early on, but despite having some of his best matches at the outset, he clearly improved a lot over the course of the year, particularly in the striking department. Shamrock benefitted from having the best run of opponents, but even when he was carried by Suzuki & Funaki, he added a lot to the matches and always felt like a distinct talent. He really began to hit his stride with the Suzuki rematch, with his improved familiarity and confidence allowing him to work a more decisive, aggressive, and assertive style with strikes that were now solid, if not even impressive.

3. Naoki Sano. Sano was a great, albeit overly reckless pro wrestler who was willing to go the extra mile. He had a learning curve, and clearly had a lot more potential in this style than he was able to reach this year due to spending most of it in his home promotion, SWS, taking on Americans that were neither juniors in style nor in weight, finally claiming the inaugural SWS Light Heavyweight Title from an overroided Model. On talent alone, Sano was probably the best follower we saw in this style in 1991, immediately having a memorable match with Shamrock, a match of the year with Suzuki, and a couple of good, more technical and less competitive matches in SWS with Funaki. Sano went 1-2-1 in his initial important run, but with Megame Super having deemed it too dangerous to have interpromotional matches with PWFG on SWS's shows after the Suzuki/Apollo debacle, Sano wound up only making a few more appearances in a filler role. This was really a shame because he'd clearly improved a lot in the style in just a few matches, and I feel like he could not only have reached another level himself, but helped the stars of this promotion get there too.

4. Masakatsu Funaki. Funaki had his own break them down style, and being positioned at the top of the cards, he was able to carry his opponents through it, or just smother and thwart them. Sparring was important to the PWFG wrestlers dojo preparation, and was definitely influential toward Fujiwara & Masami Soronaka (though he didn't see most of them since he lived in Florida & was only in Japan when the events were close) determining the results of the matches in the sense that while they had to keep the fans happy, everyone knew who was really better, and thus should win. My sense is Funaki either thought the matches should be as realistic as possible or really wanted to win at this point, or both, and mostly continued to implement the positional grappling he dominated with in training, rather than somewhat switching into entertainment mode when the bell rang. Funaki arguably had the most charisma of anyone in the shoot game when he wanted to, but increasingly it was instead his calm & confident demeanor that set him apart. He had the best technical and positional understanding of all these guys, and nothing was going to fluster or sidetrack him because technique trumps emotion. While some of his matwork looked like Takada's on the surface, in other words just laying in wait, Funaki actually had a plan and things going on, and was able to implement this trap setting style where he exploited minute advantages and adjusted to stuff the opponent's escapes until he created the opening/forced the mistake, rather than literally doing nothing in hopes that the opponent would eventually bail him out one way or the other as Takada did. Funaki also had tremendous hand speed, but unlike Kakihara, who made a career out of that, was largely reticent to display it in more than brief flashes, being more confident in his ability to dominate on the mat. I respect that Funaki was very much working for everything and out to show that nothing comes easy when the opponent is actually (or at least theoretically) trying to resist, but he was often frustrating because it always felt like, in the best of times, he was good when he should have been great.

5. Yusuke Fuke. Fuke was one of the only workers to participate in an actual shoot, and was even able to demonstrate ideas that were otherwise almost completely absent from the pro wrestling spectrum such as distance control, getting in and out, and checking kicks in some of his works. In some ways his technique was better than even Funaki's, and one could argue that, despite being an undercarder who only had 3 matches under his belt prior to the U.W.F. split, he did the most this year to advance the sport of pro wrestling toward legitimate martial arts. It's unfortunate that he's positioned with guys that never deliver, Bart Vale & Wellington Wilkins Jr., as he's the only one who seems to have the potential as a worker to to fill the hole left by Sano.

MB:

1. Minoru Suzuki. Suzuki was the best performer this year, as his understanding of intensity is unrivaled. Whereas Funaki is sometimes too patient, and Ken is still finding his rhythm and sometimes wavers in his approach to a match, Suzuki seems to understand that this is supposed to be a fight and acts accordingly. It also helps that out of all the performers, Suzuki probably won the lottery in the matchups department, as he was able to showcase his skills in a favorable light in everything that was in. The lowest tier fighter he had to face was Bart Vale, and even though he had to do a 30 minute match with Fujiwara, he was able to put enough intensity into it that it still came off better than Funaki's match with Fujiwara. He was also able to avenge the good name of the PWFG, and professional wrestlers everywhere, when he defeated The Sultan of Slime in a shoot.

2. Ken Shamrock. I had an internal debate between him and Funaki for this spot, and while Funaki clearly has more experience and skill at this point, Shamrock was in several great matches, while Funaki was poorly utilized for the first few months. Shamrock would have taken this in spades had he not showed a streak of unprofessionalism, putting very little effort into his match with Wilkins, which resulted in a mediocre offering, and taking a huge cheap shot against Takahashi during their fight. His fight with Takahashi was one of the most entertaining of the year, for what it was, but soccer kicking your coworker that you has to work every month alongside in the orbital was a jerk move that was completely unnecessary, especially when you would have easily won the fight without resorting to that. Still, it is obvious that PWFG has a tremendous talent on its hands, and if he can be properly cultivated, could very well be on his way to superstardom.

3. Masakatsu Funaki. Had Sano done more in the PWFG during this year, I would put him here easily, but for me it's a combination of Funaki's skill, being active for the entire year, and most importantly, Funaki really starting to hit his stride as the year went on. While he was straddled with questionable booking for the first three months, having to deal with Vale, he who's name cannot be uttered, and being forced to have a lackluster match with Fujiwara, he hit a home-run with his bout with Shamrock, and has really started to showcase his own style with his matches with Koslowski and Takahashi. His matches with those aforementioned two have probably been the closest to emulating real shoots that we have seen from anyone. While that isn't the flashiest way to go about things, when put into context, he was basically inventing a new approach before our eyes, and wound up pushing this entire affair closer and closer to real MMA. For that, I have to give him a lot of credit.

4. Naoki Sano. Sano was fantastic, and his only real drawback was not having enough experience in this style to carry an inferior opponent like Bart Vale. His match with Shamrock had an awesome look of two juggernauts colliding, as both men's physiques helped make the aesthetics of the match work in a way that you can't achieve when Shamrock is facing someone that he outweighs by a huge margin like a Suzuki. Sano's athleticism and raw energy could have seen him being one of the best, had he stuck around, but the fracturing of the working relationship between SWS and PWFG prevented what could have been lighting in a bottle.

5. Takaku Fuke. Fuke was probably the one that most surprised me out of this bunch. I never really gave him much thought before this project, and I'm now seeing the errors of my ways. Not only did he have the guts to have an actual shoot against a slicked up Thai kickboxing champion, but showed a surprising amount of shrewdness in how he dealt with him, as he would time his shots wonderfully, and showed a good understanding of distance. He would also take that same understanding and employ it into his works, somehow making de a 30 minute match with Jerry Flynn fly by like a breeze, which is not easy for anyone to do, quite frankly. He proved himself to have the skills to be a great go-to guy in the midcard, where you can kind of use him in different capacities.

1. Kazuo Takahashi. Takahashi was the best amateur wrestler among the natives, and although that was mostly all he did, he was a really tough guy who helped to modernize the transition game, getting PWFG away from the U.W.F. style of initiating grappling via suplex or throw.

MB: Takahashi was awesome, and was really the only rookie outside of some of the westerners on loan from the Acme Jobber Academy.

1. 7/26/91: Minoru Suzuki vs. Naoki Sano

2. 9/28/91: Wayne Shamrock vs. Minoru Suzuki

3. 3/4/91: Wayne Shamrock vs. Minoru Suzuki

4. 10/17/91: Yusuke Fuke vs. Jerry Flynn

5. 5/16/91: Naoki Sano vs. Wayne Shamrock

MB: This is an almost impossible task, as there were several great matches from this outfit, and several of them could easily be interchanged without blinking an eye. In fact, if you were to ask me tomorrow, or even 30 minutes from now, I may have a different perspective, but for now, this is where I would put the top 5 matches.

1. 7/26/91: Minoru Suzuki vs Naoki Sano. This was a shoe-in as the combined energy and reckless abandon that both showed was the best thing to happen this year. Timeless classic.

2. 10/17/91: Yusuke Fuke vs Jerry Flynn. This may seem like a crazy choice to put in the number 2 slot, and maybe it is, but I can't get over how impressive it was seeing Fuke unleash a torrent of energy for the entire 30 minutes, and winding up with a match that never felt like it was dragging. As good as the Shamrock/Suzuki matches were, they both had their share of dead spaces, but this felt like a nonstop blitz, and Fuke really showcased the nuances that are needed in simulating a wrestler vs striker match, like distance and setting up your takedowns.

3. 3/4/91: Minoru Suzuki vs Wayne Shamrock. I could easily interchange this with the 9/28/91 battle, depending on what day you catch me, but for me I recall my first impression of both matches, and being more captivated by this one. This had more dead spaces, but perhaps the thing that moved the needle for me was the crescendo. Everything led to an explosive climax, much like reaching the top of a roller coaster, and then plunging downwards after the long ascent to the top. While that isn't the most realistic in terms of a real fight, it made for great drama.

4. 8/23/91: Masakatsu Funaki vs Wayne Shamrock. For me this match abounded in intensity. Both were utterly convincing in their portrayals of wanting to destroy the other, and even in the dead spaces, it seemed like they were jockeying for position, looking for an opening. This also saw a marked improvement in Ken's striking, and Funaki didn't slouch in the kicks that he was giving Ken either. Sometimes a match just hits you the right way, and for me this was a winner.

5. 5/16/91: Naoki Sano vs. Wayne Shamrock: Great match with tons of energy from both men. There were still some rough edges from both men, as Ken's striking would improve in the following months, and Sano still has to rely on some puroresu tricks, but this was great, especially considering how early on this took place.