For better and for worse, PWFG carved out their niche as the most realistic of the shoot style promotions in 1992. The promotion was far more entertaining in 1991 from a pro wrestling perspective, while their 1992 matches were more transitional matches between the old UWF style and the upcoming Pancrase style, definitely leaning more toward the latter. Oddly, they did this while promoting very few actual shoots, certainly far less than RINGS. And unfortunately, they mostly seemed to miss the sweet spot between being more believable and actually being entertaining. They removed as much cooperation as possible, which was kind of interesting, and certainly had its merits. For the most part, the result was matches that would have been way more interesting had they simply been shoots, which wound up being way less interesting because they were works without the usual moves or aspects that at least made things more interesting as spectacle. If they weren't going to concede to entertainment, there was little reason beyond safety and Fujiwara's age to basically just default to these hard gym sparring ground control exhibitions. In the end, it just felt like they lacked the confidence to pull the trigger on actual real fighting.

I don't want to make it sound like Naoki Sano was the linchpin to the promotion, but rather his limited availability in 1992 before signing with UWF-I at the end of the year almost completely undermined the promotions ability to keep the top of the card even remotely fresh due to their stubborn refusal to alter their bad booking practices even a little. PWFG had six stars in 1991 that were only allowed to lose a few matches, and of course, only to each other. Sano was among the four good ones along with Minoru Suzuki, Wayne Shamrock, and Masakatsu Funaki, while Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Bart Vale mostly got in the way once the bell rang. This was a strong core group on paper, especially for a new, and relatively small promotion. Though Sano wasn't on every show in 1991, he had strong matches with the other three good wrestlers, including the Match of the Year with Suzuki on 7/26/91. With Sano now presumably available too infrequently for PWFG to want to allow to beat any of their big names, but also too big a name himself for SWS to want him jobbing to them, he was removed from the main event picture, and wound up only having two PWFG matches in 1992, both wins over Jerry Flynn. This wouldn't have brought down the house of cards if not for that fact that PWFG still inexplicably refused to allow their biggest match, Suzuki vs. Funaki, to ever be booked. The result was that we were now left with only Shamrock as a fighter who could have good big matches with Funaki & Suzuki, resulting in the first 4 shows of the year having one of those two matchups before they spent the rest of the year scratching their heads wondering what to do next.

Shamrock was working really hard this year, especially since the big stars not being able to lose much resulted in his two matches with Funaki being 30 then 40 minute draws, as well as his 3rd match with Suzuki being a 30 minute draw after the two had split their first quarter encounters. These lengths combined with the focus being on little to no cooperation (apart from a random Shamrock suplex, which was also removed as the year progressed) also hurt the match quality because this is the hardest style to maintain interest in over a lengthy period of time. Still, Shamrock, Suzuki, & Funaki were clearly learning real fighting in the dojo, and improving in this most difficult of almost real pro wrestling styles as the year progressed.

There were many bright spots in 1992, most notably the rise of several younger natives. Kazuo Takahashi made great leaps forward, no longer simply being a takedown and a prayer, and rookies Yuki Ishikawa and Ryushi Yanagisawa made an immediate splash, and wound up being among pro wrestlings best rookies of 1992. Any of these guys could have somewhat replaced Sano in terms of quality work had the bookers been open to that possibility, but unfortunately PWFG seemed unable to book anything revolving around a clever counter or unlucky mistake, hell any scenario beyond predictable inevitability really. Granted, these youngsters would have needed a Vizzini "absolutely, totally, and in all other ways inconceivable" upset to break into the mix, but they had more actual ability than future "Super Rookies" Ayako Hamada & Shinsuke Nakamura, with Ishikawa already contributing to the promotion's Match of the Year. Lacking the experience, name recognition, & status, their matches against the established good workers were never competitive enough to be in any sort of doubt, and at under 10 minutes without enough back and forth to compell the audience, it sadly was difficult for these random undercard matchups to really even leave an impression.

PWFG ultimately tried to fill the holes at the top of the card by bringing in a mix of big name martial artists and credible foreign champions in amateur wrestling and other combat sports. This was similar to what Akira Maeda was doing in RINGS, with the big exception that Maeda was thinking long term, looking to develop these fighters into wrestlers he could use at least semi-regularly to bolster his roster, while PWFG seemed to be more in the UWF-I camp of just hotshotting a victory and moving on (perhaps due to their limited budget). While one serving of a totally out of shape Roberto Duran was more than enough, similar to UWF-I's Trevor Berbick & Iron Sheik fiascos, the lone outing of Maurice Smith & main event featuring Joe Malenko were among the better offerings from the promotion this year.

MB: The overarching theme of the PWFG's short life was that of intense frustration. Frustrating because we had a vibrant, burgeoning pool of talent that was young and felt like they had something to prove, but only got to test the competitive waters sporadically. Here, we had a group of men in the prime of their lives wanting to live, breathe, and immerse themselves into the lifestyle of a professional fighter, hindered by the fact that the majority of their actual fighting experience was limited to behind-the-scenes gym sparring. Now credit has to be given, however, as this group pushed the boundaries of what was possible within the framework of professional wrestling by only including the bare minimum of cooperation in many of their matches. This eschewing of any type of flash did have the effect of giving us some of the most avant-garde moments in pro wrestling history, but didn't leave us with much in the way of entertainment value. As my esteemed colleague, Mike Lorefice, pointed out, perhaps it was Fujiwara not wanting to shoot, a general fear of going into the unknown realms of pure shooting, or most likely, the incompatibility of going into such an untested direction when the majority of your companies funding is by the grace of a rich benefactor. Whatever the reason for Fujiwara's apprehensiveness to fully commuting to shooting, it is clear in retrospect that if the PWFG was going to remain the long term shoot-style wars, they were going to have to carve out a niche identity, and the only logical way to do that was becoming what would eventually be Pancrase. 

It's a shame that Fujiwara didn't take a page from Akira Maeda's playbook and mingle more shoots with works, but he was also working with the handicap of having a limited roster that had to show up every month, whereas Maeda had no fixed roster to speak of and could simply alternate between an endless supply of Eastern Bloc wrestlers, Dutch kickboxers, or Russian sambists, in the case of someone getting injured. Also, with the financial woes of losing their primary sponsor in Meganesuper, there may have been nothing that could have been done to save the PWFG from its eventual fate of becoming a glorified indy promotion. RINGS was able to survive due to its relationship with the Japanese WOWOW network, and the UWF-I had financial problems for the first couple of years also, but Takada's popularity, along with an eventual partnership with the French television network, Eurosport, kept them afloat until they squandered their resources on flashy cars, huge paydays to Vader, and other mishaps that we will cover down the road. 

At the end of the day, PWFG's contribution to the sport of MMA had more to do with its development of a few highly influential key players rather than its actual in-ring product. After all, if Ken Shamrock hadn't been given a place to cut his teeth, learn submissions, and establish connections, then it's possible that the UFC wouldn't even exist right now, as he was their 2nd brightest star in their early years and saved the company in the Zuffa years with his initial match against Tito Ortiz at UFC 40 in 2002. Also, Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki probably would have floundered in the purgatory of the mid-card in New Japan, and in Suzuki's case, he may not have even been afforded that respect. So, despite 1992 being an interesting failure for Fujiwara's group, we cannot overstate how important this faction was in giving life to the early years of MMA, especially in America. Shooto would have probably kept being Shooto, regardless of what else was happening on planet earth, but it's likely that American MMA would be a minor footnote in history, or at the very least, look a lot different than what it does now if it wasn't for these ragtag group of pro wrestling rebels. 

1/15/92: Naoki Sano vs. Jerry Flynn. A welcome matchup, as Sano has been a hit every time we’ve seen him thus far, and Flynn gave us a fantastic 30min broadway with Takaku Fuke not long ago. It will be interesting to see how their styles are going to mesh, as Sano doesn’t come from a pure shooting background, and this somewhat hindered his ability to carry Bart Vale during his last appearance, so hopefully Flynn will be a better fit for him. The fight starts with Flynn attempting to pepper Sano’s thigh with a low-kick, to which Sano responds by catching the leg and tripping him down, but gets quickly reversed when he tries to follow this up with a mount. Flynn instantly goes for a Kimura, but Sano does a good job of defending it before getting back to his feet. Once the fight restarts, Flynn starts to utilize his significant reach advantage to wail away against Sano with a variety of kicks at different angles. After taking a rather nasty spinning back kick to the stomach, Sano wisely opts to blast Flynn down with a double leg, as the vertical plane does not seem to bode well for him. Sano tries to keep things on the ground by pressuring Flynn with some different submission attempts, but to my surprise Flynn is too fast and explosive to be kept in any real danger for very long. A bit of a standstill followed until Sano took an enziguri to the head after catching a kick from Flynn’s other leg, and from this point forward the dynamics of this match quickly shifted into more of your standard puroresu territory. The rest of the contest was taken right out of the pro-wrestling drama 101 playbook, and featured a lot of back and forth moments between Flynn and Sano trading rope escapes with Flynn maintaining the upper hand with striking, and Sano with submissions, Everything culminated with a poorly choreographed spot where Flynn misses another enziguri, only to meet his doom via half-crab. I don’t want to make it sound like this was bad because taken in isolation this was an exciting, somewhat stiff, and fast paced pro wrestling match. Rather, the issue I take with this is that coming off the Kazuo Takahashi vs. Wellington Wilkins Jr. opener that set a much more realistic and subdued tone, it wound up being a case of stylistic whiplash. Flynn looked sharp, especially with his kicks, but Sano’s offense seem to oscillate from solid to silly, and he suffered the same problem that he did with Vale, in that he isn’t versed enough in this style to carry a rookie within that framework. To me it was like a film that has several good scenes, but is undermined by the lack of a consistent tone. As such, I find this difficult to rate, as it was good, but not really in the context that they were going for.

ML: One of the last holdovers from the more entertaining but less credible 1991 style of PWFG. This was a fun bout that was fast paced and exciting, with explosive bursts of striking, despite being pretty long. While it wasn't advancing martial arts, it was one of the only mostly striking oriented matches we've seen in PWFG, especially at this length. The match would have played better on a UWF-I show, but PWFG needs some entertainment once in a while. My biggest gripe with the match, outside of the finish once again being pretty random, is Flynn was a bit erratic with his strikes, with some of the knees barely connecting. What made this more interesting, and to a certain extent more believable than the old UWF style, was simply that they kept moving. While this wasn't Sano's best performance, largely because he was forced into the role of the grappler due to Flynn being a superior striker with the reach advantage, Flynn showed good improvement here, and was flowing really well in standup. Overall, this was slightly long, as their slowing down towards the end was probably more than just selling, but it worked for the most part.***

1/15/92: Masakatsu Funaki vs. Wayne Shamrock. Their 8/23/91 meeting was a great match that really put Ken over as a force to be reckoned with. Tonight's fight starts off with a bit of a measured kickboxing approach, as Funaki is doing a good job peppering Shamrock’s legs with both inside and outside thigh kicks. Funaki then tries to shoot in deep with a single, but Shamrock sprawls off to the side, forcing Funaki to opt for attacking Ken’s left leg with a rolling kneebar that fails, and puts Funaki on his back in the guard position. Ken’s idea of passing the guard includes grinding his elbow on his opponents chin, and attempting several Kimuras, which of course don’t work, but did create enough space for him to slide over into a side-mount where he tries an Americana/armbar combination, but is simply too slow in his execution to catch Funaki. Next we get a long sequence where Ken is forced into his guard, but quickly slides out and takes Funaki’s back, He continually attempts a rear choke, but is forced to be more concerned about protecting his ankle, as he initially crossed his feet around Funaki’s stomach leaving them vulnerable for attack. This is starting to feel like a basic BJJ roll, which doesn’t sound like much now, but considering that this is still almost 2 years away from UFC 1, this must have seemed completely esoteric to anyone that got to see it outside of Japan. After a couple more minutes of fighting for position and toe-hold attempts, they are back on their feet, but not for long as Shamrock quickly takes the fight back down to the ground and attempts something of a half-baked arm-triangle choke. We can see that Shamrock still has a ways to go in developing his submission arsenal, as he hasn’t honed his craft to the point where he is going to catch Funaki with any of these. The ground attrition wages on for a couple more minutes before Funaki gains the first submission by getting a toehold on Shamrock. Once back on the feet, Funaki comes out swinging with some lethal palm strikes, and after connecting with several, quickly takes the fight back to the ground. The next several minutes follow the same pattern as before, only this time they are both moving with a lot more intensity and urgency, even occasionally striking each other on the ground to try and create an opening. Shamrock is the next to gain a point as he was able to secure a kneebar on Funaki, which was more a result of pure brute force, as opposed to slick technique. Once the fight restarted it turned into a kickboxing war, with Funaki out landing Shamrock by a 3-1 ratio. This continued until it appeared that Funaki got accidently eye poked when exchanging with Ken. After recovering from the eye attack, the fight quickly goes to the ground again, and now the ground strikes are starting to get more frequent as we are now past the 20 minute mark, and the desperation is taking hold. A frantic footsie battle takes place, until Shamrock is now ahead on points, this time by securing a heel-hook. This probably doesn’t mean anything as I’m assuming that like the UWF-I, matches will go to an automatic draw if there isn’t a conclusive winner. The match ends at the 30 min mark, just as Shamrock was inches away from securing a back choke.

ML: A nice step forward for Funaki, as he managed to do more without sacrificing realism. The stand up in this match was at a much higher level. Both men were very light on their feet, engaging with caution while looking to avoid. Funaki was clearly the far superior striker, as he kicked Shamrock's lead leg at will, and because Shamrock was fighting out of a side stance yet only kicking with the back (right) leg, Funaki could have been avoiding most of these kicks if he really wanted to because there was just too much distance to cover without any leads, fakes, or diversions. The grappling, which was the majority of the contest, was pretty slow, but in a sense almost too fast because they randomly gave up positions just to do something. For instance, Shamrock inexplicably released an arm triangle. The problem with no closed fist punches on the mat is that you almost have to annoy your opponent into a mistake. They really fired up for about 30 seconds down the stretch, and I felt that if they could give us even 8 minutes like that they could do a match of the year, but for the most part this was almost totally devoid of intensity. While still better and more eventful than their first match, it was still somewhat dull and felt overlong and too laid back. It felt like the first true Pancrase match, but that is to say a chess match that had merit, but isn't likely to be something anyone is dying to watch again. ***

3/20/92: Minoru Suzuki vs. Wayne Shamrock. Now we have the third encounter between Ken Shamrock and Minoru Suzuki, and what will likely be the only hope of getting a worthwhile match out of this American excursion. The last two matches these two had were great, but it will be interesting to see if they are allowed to shine within this venue. After a brief feeling out period, Shamrock quickly dives in for a rolling kneebar, but winds up having his attack stifled by getting stuck under the ropes. Back on their feet, Shamrock shows some nice patience, feinting his way into landing a nice palm strike down the pipe. Equally impressive is Suzuki's quickness and constant minor shifts and adjustments. He quickly finds a way to close the gap and secure an impressive headlock takedown against the slower Ken. Once on the ground, Suzuki shifts and scrambles, eventually positioning himself for a quick armbar attack that was again too close to the ropes, but it's great to see the kind of urgency and quick subtle movements that Suzuki brings to the shoot-style game. I was surprised at what happened next, as Ken was quickly taken down by Suzuki, but Ken responded by slapping on a totally decent triangle choke, even making the proper adjustments to shift it into a more secure and effective choke. Even though the triangle would be occasionally seen in UWF matches going back to 1984, I suppose it was interesting to see this as it is well before Ken's infamous meeting with Royce Gracie and BJJ. The rest of this match was fast, urgent, exciting, and even had Suzuki throwing some elbows and headbutts at Shamrock in the mount. It ended around the 12 minute mark with a victory for Shamrock via straight armbar. This was great, and although it could have used a few extra mins to really flesh out a crescendo, it was entertaining, and probably the best PWFG match of '92, so far.

ML: I expected this show taking place in America would make it wind up being more pro-wrestling oriented, but in spite of a backbreaker by Roesch, it actually wound up being PWFG's most realistic show thusfar (the fan screaming "DDT!" whenever Shamrock was controlling through a front facelock clearly didn't get the memo). I don't feel that really helped this particular match, but given the direction the promotion was going in, it's more of a plus that it was far more interesting than the previous Shamrock vs. Funaki matches than a negative that it wasn't as good as the previous two Shamrock vs. Suzuki matches. Certainly, a lot more happened in the first 5 minutes tonight than in the entire 30 or 40 we got from Shamrock on the last 2 shows, and overall, it was one of the only PWFG matches from 1992 that mostly worked both as realistic combat and entertaining pro wrestling. They made the right moves to negate each other's threats, but it was a lot more uptempo, and there was almost always something going on with Suzuki, in particular, striking his way into the clinch as a way to set up the takedown, which might instead by countered by one of Shamrock's big suplexes. They showed much more urgency and intensity than the Shamrock vs. Funaki matches, and just appeared to be a lot more focused and less meandering, with both fighters doing a nice job of setting things up and quickly pouncing on openings. My favorite moment was Shamrock knowing the takedown was coming, and nicely timing a palm strike to stop it. I also liked Shamrock disengaging on the ground to stand and get some cheap kicks in before Suzuki could also get back to his feet. I'm not sure it felt as though they were building to anything special, but it definitely randomly ended 15 minutes earlier than I was expecting when Suzuki blocked the Dragon suplex, but then submitted to a horribly applied wakigatame. This was an energetic sprint though, so while it may not have been as long as I hoped, they at least made the most of the time they had. ***1/4

4/19/92: Minoru Suzuki vs. Wayne Shamrock. Now for the 4th conflict between Suzuki and Shamrock, which has always led to a satisfying result, but can they continue their winning ways. They put on the best match at the prior Miami event, so this may be a bit soon to go back to this well, but hopefully, it pays off. The first thing I am noticing is how impressive Suzuki’s movement is. He constantly bounces up and down, feinting the takedown, and using it to set up a thigh kick. Shamrock responds by impersonating Don “The Dragon” Wilson, awkwardly shifting into a side-stance, which rightfully gets him immediately taken down. What followed would be akin to a chess match minus the boredom. Suzuki was constantly trying to explode but was stifled by Shamrock using his strength and weight to try and keep him stationary. There were some slick skills on display from Suzuki throughout, at one point he escaped a standing rear-naked choke by doing a backward somersault as Shamrock was falling back to finish the choke. Shamrock was not without his charms as well. At one point, he was grinding his forearm/elbow into Suzuki’s face back and forth, in what was a painful way to get him to move and make a mistake. It did cause Suzuki to eventually turn and give up his back, but he was too quick to be punished by Ken over it. The stand up was also a treat. While it was never a full blitzkrieg, there were a lot of shifts and feints from both men, as they were trying to find the right moment to force their way in. Things eventually end when Suzuki secures a weird variation of a guillotine choke for the victory. This was an excellent match, and a rare example of a match that can equally work on multiple levels. It was both urgent and methodical, exciting and thoughtful, and nuanced without being boring. This had the least amount of traditional pro wrestling spots in their matches so far, so while that may have taken down the entertainment value a notch, it made up for it by being more serious. ****

ML: I'm assuming someone was impressed by their Miami match, and decided to have them run it back in Japan, but this was a far more positionally oriented version, with less payoff. Again, this is the sort of match that is difficult to rate. It was an intense and thoughtful work that was very much ahead of its time, especially positionally with Shamrock, in particular, doing a lot better job controlling with front and rear mounts. Because there was minimal ground striking, and they were setting their submissions up rather than just going wild on the ground, to the modern viewer, a lot of times it may just seem like an even duller version of an early Pancrase match. It was an important match, and it had its moments, but again, their 1991 matches are far more entertaining from a pro wrestling perspective, while their 1992 matches are more transitional matches between the old UWF style and the new Pancrase style. Suzuki looked much better than Ken on his feet, showing a lot more footwork and explosion. Ken's side stance was pretty bad because he didn't strike with the lead leg or hand to keep Suzuki off, so it was really just slowing down his right kick, which now was further from the target. He was the better grappling though, with Suzuki mostly being there on the defensive looking for a way to sneak around and take the back, and grappling was most of the match. I didn't really buy the finish where Ken tried to slam after his double leg failed, but Suzuki managed to choke him out flat on his stomach without any body control whatsoever. Another good match from these two, but definitely their worst so far. ***

5/15/92: Jerry Flynn vs. Ryushi Yanagisawa. Hopefully, this next outing will be the jolt of caffeine that we need, as we have two great strikers in Jerry Flynn vs. Ryushi Yanagisawa. Thanks to the recent arrival of Yanagisawa, we get to have what should be a great match, as this is a good pairing on paper. Ryushi doesn't disappoint, as he charges Flynn with some great kicks, and Flynn obliges him back with plenty of his own firepower. This is probably the most intense we have yet seen Flynn, and we are off to having a nice striking orientated match, which was a rarity for the PWFG. Yanagisawa is kicking way above his weight class, however, and it's not long before he gets smitten down to the ground like a gnat by the giant Flynn. Surprisingly, after knocking down Yanagisawa twice, Flynn shoots in with a nice single-leg takedown, which he quickly converted into a Kimura attack, which didn't work, but later he was able to secure an ankle lock. The rest of this match continued its winning ways, eventually ending just shy of the 11min mark, via an arm-triangle choke by Flynn. This was a great example of a mostly striking-based worked shoot that was intense, entertaining, and just the right length. Some of the grappling sequences felt unnecessary, but that is a minor quibble. *** ¾

ML: Yanagisawa is paying dividends already. Not only was his second match a good one, but it was one we really haven't seen yet. It's amazing that a mostly standing bout where they still tried to finish on the ground at every opportunity feels new more than a year into the shooting experience, but that just goes to show how incredibly hard it is to make that style look decent. I mean, pro wrestling fans have been numbed into accepting "toughman" nonsense where two braindead jerks just stand there urging the opponent to clobber them while making no attempt to defend themselves at all, but even with two trained kickboxers making a real effort to move and defend, it is difficult to make hitting just hard enough work. The first half of this fight may be the best lengthy sequence of standup we have seen so far, as Funaki, who is clearly way more skilled and talented than either of these two, refuses to actually display these talents for more than brief flashes unless he's in with a fighter he can't take down. And even this portion was not without faults, as Yanagisawa's selling was awkward. Flynn was the better of the two here because he is more experienced, and it was fun to finally really see him in his element, but Yanagisawa clearly has more potential, and already really wasn't far behind. Unfortunately, the match was held back somewhat by not being super competitive. Flynn is the one fighter who has the reach on Yanagisawa, and combined with his experience advantage, there was little doubt of who was going to win. The match was more competitive when they went to the ground, but still it was more an entertaining fight than a particularly dramatic one. ***

5/15/92: Minoru Suzuki vs. Kazuo Takahashi. I'm excited about this, as both men have been shooting a lot recently, and this could easily become a tinder block if they choose to let their passions get the best of them. Things started in a way that took me by surprise, as both men spent the first couple of mins constantly jockeying for position within the clinch, the struggle only being broken by the occasional strike from Suzuki or volatile throw from Takahashi. Eventually, first blood is drawn in the form of a beautifully explosive guillotine choke from Suzuki, which prompted the first rope escape. Afterward, Takahashi continued to forge ahead with his only formidable weapon, his lighting quick single-leg takedown, but Suzuki was able to stall out on the mat with a full guard, neutralizing Kazuo before being able to pivot into a rear-naked choke entry.  The rest of this match had a different tone and feel than most of the worked shoots that we have experienced so far, but in a totally welcome way. There wasn't a lot of striking here, but everything they did exuded credibility and intensity. Even the moderate amount of striking felt like it had less to do with some kind of contrived pro wrestling logic and instead felt like a situation where you had two wrestlers whose forte clearly wasn't attacking on their feet, and simply used just enough to try and open up logical entries for their grappling attacks. Both of these fighters always carry around a lot of intensity, and here that was the key ingredient that really caused them to complement each other. That said, while Takahashi has the heart and passion to face Minoru, his toolbox simply isn't big enough to find any way to put Suzuki in danger. Eventually, he succumbs to a standing rear-naked choke, in which he was too tired to fight off. Different, intense, and exciting. **** ¼

ML: A better performance than we've seen from Suzuki in a while, though still nowhere near the level he was consistently hitting last year. This match wasn't exactly about standup the way the previous one was, but Suzuki was a joy to watch in that regard, as he was so light on his feet and fluid. It felt like he could just palm Takahashi into submission if he really wanted. Takahashi has his moments in standup as well, disengaging and landing the quick right. Takahashi couldn't get his takedown game going here, so in a sense this was more of a standup match in the MMA manner of sort of backing into it because the match starts there, and that's all that really is working. That being said, there was never really a thought that the finish would be anything but a submission. While many of the PWFG matches lately have been way too long, this was really the opposite, as it was a nice start to a match, but once Suzuki hit a trip, he was immediately able to choke Takahashi out. ***

6/25/92: Masakatsu Funaki vs. Kazuo Takahashi. This is a fine match on paper, and their showing on 10-17-91 was a solid *** match, but again, this smacks of a promotion without any direction. Why are we going to squander Suzuki in a 4min shoot and place Funaki in a match that we've already seen? With no answers to my burning questions, we start with a nice stiff sequence where both men lay into each other, but unlike his predecessor Takaku Fuke, Takahashi's takedown is on-point and gets the fight to the ground. Takahashi tried to convert a failed armbar attempt into a triangle choke, which may have been successful if he had longer limbs, but his short torso made for an easy escape by Funaki. Then they switch to a stand-up battle, where Funaki tries fighting from long range, using his long legs to kick from afar, forcing Takahashi to try and close the gap. Kazuo was able to do this at times by landing some nice stiff slaps, and in one great surprise moment, gave Funaki a deliciously unexpected headbutt when Funaki was walking into close quarters. Funaki's flow and movements have been super impressive here. He feints, bobs, and weaves with a lot of fluidity, and forces Takahashi to work extra hard to try and close the distance. He also showed some remarkable striking skills, as he was able to set up a wide variety of offense from different angles, especially his kicks, which included some ultra-low ones targeting the calves.  This wound up being an excellent surprise. Their first encounter was 6mins of intense aggression which was mostly one-sided in the favor of Funaki, but this was more nuanced and thoughtful, without losing any of the credibility or stiffness of the original. It flowed like a 15min shoot, that never got dry or boring, and although Funaki doesn't have the crazy transitions of a Tamura, or the intensity of a Kanehara, out of all the people that we have covered so far, he impresses me as the one that is most likely to be the best fighter of them all. ****

ML: Funaki is increasingly having these fun sparring contests that aren't quite shoots, but operate under the principle that both men are going to give each other as little as possible. Takahashi being the better wrestler by a wide margin forced Funaki to finally rely more on his kickboxing, which made this probably the most entertaining Funaki match so far even though Takahashi is somewhat dry and predictable. Funaki looked great here, finally showing the full extent of his standup footwork, movement, and diversity. He made the mistake of closing the distance early, and although he was able to score with a few low kicks, Takahashi answered by charging forward with a double-leg takedown before Funaki could get out of the pocket. In their previous encounter, Funaki easily took over once the fight hit the ground, but Takahashi showed improved wrestling today, so Funaki had to defend an armbar in order to gain control. Takahashi was also willing to just take a rope escape once Funaki swept. Funaki took all this into account, and was forced to fight smarter on his feet, extending the distance to really make Takahashi have to work to get him down. Funaki is just so much faster and more athletic that he was often able to make Takahashi looked silly ducking and dodging his strikes. This is where Funaki's calm, totally in control demeanor can also hurt a match because while Takahashi was clearly bringing it, Funaki never really seemed to be taking him seriously, though that was really just Funaki being Funaki. Takahashi did his best to be less predictable, trying to utilize low kicks and even surprising Funaki with a headbutt when they had just locked up. All this helped him successfully open up dropping into a double leg off the right straight. The finish wasn't very satisfying, but this match stalled out far less than the normal Funaki contest. As exhibitions go, this was excellent, but had they added some big moments and intensity, it could have really been something instead of an entertaining practice session. ***

7/27/92: Kazuo Takahashi vs. Yuki Ishikawa. Now it's time for another battle of the young lions, as Kazuo Takahashi and Yuki Ishikawa are set to fight it out for the rights to be future flag-bearers for this shoot-pride. Both have been mixing it up lately, being in both worked and shoot contests, although even Takahashi’s works have been rather intense in the last few months. The first thing I notice is Takahashi giving Ishikawa a nasty stare that I've never seen him do before. He's always been intense in the ring, but very respectful leading up to that point, so I'm wondering if there's some bad blood here. Not three seconds into this, and it would seem that my suspicions are correct, they are attacking each other with malice only reserved for thine enemies. Kazuo wins the fierce slapping war, quickly getting his opponent to the ground, and pulls out a nice trick I used to do in my younger days, controlling his opponent with a half-nelson. This didn't last long before Kazuo just decided to start slapping Yuko like he was insulting his mother. Whatever this is, it may well wind up being one of the stiffest slugfests that the PWFG ever produced. The rest of this match was just as nasty, with Kazuo often getting the better of Yuki due to his slow takedown attempts, but it wasn't without some great moments from Ishikawa. We saw Yuki pull out several toys from his box of punishments. Soccer kicks, headbutts, elbow grinding from the mount, and a couple of slaps that were so hard I felt it through my monitor, were all to be seen from the future owner of Battlarts. The lack of BJJ these days was a double-edged sword as it caused some slow lapses in the action, but also forced some creative entries. There was one fun moment where Takahashi wanted to fall back for a straight ankle-lock, so he set it up with a diving headbutt, which could be considered an act of genius. The ending of this match was a work (where Ishikawa had to do his duty to a Boston crab that came out of nowhere) but everything leading up to it was a borderline shoot with a nice grudge match feel. ***¼

ML: This was one of the stiffest and certainly nastiest matches of the year, and looked much more like a shoot to me than the Ryushi Yanagisawa vs. Dieusel Berto, but I still don't feel like it was actually a shoot, as it was kind of slow paced and lacked urgency in the movements and attempts to secure/improve position. It seemed like a precursor to Pancrase where they were working a match but hitting more or less for real the entire time, then doing a predetermined finish with the infamous crab, as opposed to the Yanagisawa match where it seemed like they were working a match, but the finishing shot was legitimate for whatever reason. In any case, this was super badass, and these guys really gave you the sense that they didn't like one another, with things getting chippy early and often, including numerous headbutts and hard shots to the liver and kidney on the ground. The hatred, disrespect (mostly from Takahashi) & intensity were awesome, and really made a fight without tons of activity into something notable, and even memorable. Takahashi was clearly out to bully the rookie, aided by his size advantage and far superior wrestling skill. He wasn't above taking semi cheap shots to put the young punk in his place, and generally just being a dick, grinding his elbow & fist into Ishikawa's face, and kicking Ishikawa when he was getting up. At one point, after a particularly brutal headbutt, the ref was checking Ishikawa's face to make sure everything was still in the right place! Ishikawa was very spunky, and wouldn't back down, leading to some great slap exchanges. I didn't feel like Takahashi was going all out to win, but rather trying to humiliate Ishikawa by showing him up at every turn, giving him some opportunities to try to gain the advantage so he could thwart him. Then, when he finally had enough of playing around, he "got serious" and did a quick, explosive takedown into the crab. This was really good, especially for a match that very reasonably wasn't particularly competitive. There was a nice show of respect at the end where Takahashi bowed to Ishikawa standing, then both dropped to their knees and bowed. ***1/2

8/15/92: Minoru Suzuki vs. Joe Solkoff (Joe Malenko). So far, this has been a very underwhelming event, and now we must all look to Minoru Suzuki and Joe Malenko to save us. Malenko is coming into this having spent almost four continuous years in All Japan, so it would be interesting to learn what led to his appearing here. Surely, this had to have been a chaotic time period for the Malenko Gym in addition to the PWFG, with the passing of Masami Soronaka. It’s unknown if this was intended to be a long-term move for Malenko, or if he was just trying to help out in a pinch, but from this point forward he never stuck around in any one place for too long, doing stints here, WCW, UWF-I, Australia, ECW, and eventually back to All Japan. For some reason, this will be contested under a round system. Round 1 shows us that both men came to give us their best. Malenko clearly has good balance, but Suzuki is just too quick and too slick to be denied, and forces Malenko to the mat. Even though this isn’t a shoot, Suzuki is moving and acting like it is, bringing an excellent intensity and urgency that a newcomer like Ishikawa could learn from. There are all sorts of great subtleties, like how Suzuki acts when turtling out of danger or when he works for a toehold like his life depended on it. Malenko seems a bit out of his element, which surprises me as he is a Gotch protégé, but this is perhaps understandable, as he has never had a professional shoot-style match of this caliber before. Unlike his brother Dean, Joe has seen the inside of a weight room, but while this gave him the much better physique of the two, it seems to have put a damper on his mobility. The round ends with Suzuki having clowned Malenko for its entirety. Round 2 sees a few takedowns from Malenko, but outside of that is still all one-way traffic for Suzuki. Round 3 starts with Malenko getting caught in a weird neck-crank that almost worked until Suzuki managed to roll out of it. The rest of the round saw Suzuki kicking away at Malenko’s thighs until Joe botched a takedown and got an armbar for his trouble. This match was in a weird zone between work and shoot. I wouldn’t call it a full shoot, as they weren’t just trying to murder each other, but at the same time, Suzuki didn’t give Malenko any openings at all, and the ending felt legitimate. Whatever it was, it was edgy and entertaining, unlike the Funaki match before it. Whereas Funaki came across as a bored cat toying with its prey, Suzuki is like a man fighting for his life and seems willing to die in the center of the ring, if need be. This was entertaining and had a lot of verve, despite being so one-sided. Also, the weird quasi-shoot nature of the contest gave it an interesting and tense vibe. This is a hard match to rate as it was a borderline shoot, but I would give it *** ½. It would have been higher had Malenko been competitive.

ML: Malenko was really made for this style, as what made him great was really his slick movement. Even though this was his first match in shoot style, his pro wrestling offense didn't stray that far from what was a viable here, mainly using suplexes and submissions, though obviously of a more flashy variety. His perpetual movement made him the perfect opponent for Suzuki, who delivered a more interesting match than we've been seeing from him of late. As with the previous match, this was too far towards actual shooting to really approach its potential though. Suzuki posed a really tough matchup for Malenko, as he had a big advantage in foot speed in addition to having legitimate standup training and being 12 years younger. He could just use his movement to beat up Malenko's legs while circling away, so Malenko really had to grab him in order to get anywhere, but Suzuki also constantly thwarted his hip throws. No matter who got the takedown, their wrestling was comparable, but Suzuki had a big advantage in flexibility as well as being much quicker in the scrambles. Suzuki also had a big edge due to training regularly in legitimate submission style, whereas Malenko knew them from his work with Karl Gotch, but rarely used them in practice, instead opting for a pro-wrestling moves such as the Texas cloverleaf. We didn't see those type of submissions here, but it reminded me of being a kid play wrestling against my friend who was actually on the school wrestling team, and losing all the time because he would be doing things he practiced every day that worked, while I was busy trying to set up moves I saw on TV like the Boston crab and figure 4. This was a really intriguing contest, but it should have been longer, and they really needed to allow Malenko to do a few of his flashier things, throw in a suplex or two like Shamrock liked to do. Malenko never really seemed to get going, which they may have thought was better for Suzuki, but I feel like because Suzuki more or less always had the upper hand, it kept the match from getting the kind of crowd reaction that would help make it the important and memorable event they were looking for. I mean, it would have been nice if Malenko was brought in to add another useful name and worker (he did randomly appear in a meaningless undercard match on the Tokyo Dome show so perhaps that was the plan before the league crumbling got in the way), but even if he was basically there to be a signature outsider win for Suzuki since Funaki got the least of the 4 Kings, this lacked the big match feel in part because they chose to continue the trend of cooperating less and less, both positionally and offensively. In the end, while it was a good win for Suzuki due to Malenko being a familiar name in Japan, having toured All Japan regularly since 1988, where he was the standout worker in their junior division, and a critical performer in many of the best junior style tag matches, it didn't quite feel like a result that was going to really propel Suzuki to the next level. ***

9/4/92: Minoru Suzuki vs. Wayne Shamrock. Thanks to the efforts of our resident translator, John Krummel, we have learned that this match was not supposed to happen. This was originally slated to be a rematch between Fujiwara/Suzuki, which was hinted at by Suzuki back in August. Thankfully, Fujiwara injured himself in training, and Ken had to step in as a last min replacement. I say thankfully because long-time readers of our columns will remember that the last time that Fujiwara/Suzuki met, it was a half-hour of Suzuki laying on top of his opponent. This bout will be their 5th and final meeting before Pancrase, and while the results have varied, these two have always put on a good showing, which is what this event needs right now. The opening mins of this fight were fantastic as Suzuki forced a top-notch showing from Ken with his ever-present intensity. Suzuki moves so effortlessly here, light on his feet, bouncing in and out of striking range, but of course, can’t handle Shamrock’s immense power once caught in a clinch. It didn’t take long for the requisite leg-lock battle to show up, but unlike most of these that tend to be rather boring, this worked splendidly as the intensity never wavered. Suzuki acted like a man possessed, trying to put everything he had into securing a heel hook on Ken, but to no avail. When the footsie battle didn’t pay off, it was time for a lengthy-standing war, with Suzuki doing a good job of employing some stick’n’move, but warded off to some extent by Shamrock’s effective use of the side stance. I have to admit to being quite impressed with the rest of this. Granted, because of its 30 min running time it had some dead spots, especially in the final ten mins, but the intensity never wavered and even its slower moments felt like two men desperate to figure out how to get past the defenses of the other. This contest always felt like an incredibly intense chess match and easily warrants a solid ****. It didn’t have the gonzo go-for-broke atmosphere of the recent Tamura or Kakihara successes but had gravitas aplenty.

ML: These two did an amazing job of holding my attention for 30 minutes despite barely succeeding with any of their offense. I definitely enjoyed this match, but it is certainly the type of overly realistic and strategic match you only enjoy in moderation, and when done by highly skilled performers. This really felt like a new match, and was definitely the most Pancrase-esque match we have seen so far. Their goal here was to keep applying pressure, but have the opponent counter or somehow slither their way out just before they managed to fully lock the submission. They kept moving until they got a controlling position, then grinded on the opponent to set up the submission, but their eventual explosion was met with, if not preceeded by an equally fast counter move by the opponent. The movement in this match was excellent, a big step up from what we've been seeing even in the best PWFG, particularly from Shamrock, who was very fluid, quick, and explosive on the mat, finally seeming a match for Suzuki in those departments. The stakes were high, and their actions always felt important. Even though the match was really long, especially given the scant amount of offense that was actually locked in, this never felt like stalling or killing time, as they kept setting things up and coming ever so close. They definitely weren't taking a minute between moves then alternating between a useless abdominal stretch and a pointless chinlock like the worst MMA fighter of all-time, C.M. Punk, in his lame Bret Hart vs. 1-2-3 Kid ripoff against Darby Allin. Suzuki & Shamrock's success here was not in what they did, but that they were able to credibly keep the audience anticipating through all that they ultimately failed too actually apply. It was probably not a huge surprise that their deciding match of 1992 went the distance given Suzuki had three 30:00 draws in 1991, including one with Ken, and Shamrock already had a 30 minute followed by a 40 minute draw with Funaki earlier this year, but Suzuki seemed to be more on a roll with his only loss this year being the first match to Shamrock (hence the scheduled big match against Fujiwara). Overall, this was the kind of match you wanted this show to end with because two high end performers that know each other really well were finally able to showed this completely no frills realistic style had something to it, after 5 weak attempts earlier in the show. ***1/4

10/4/92 Martial Arts Match: Maurice Smith vs. Masakatsu Funaki. Back in the younger days of my misspent youth, when I wasn't scouring the globe for rare punk rock albums or relics of Italian trash-cinema, I could easily be found at the “Special Interest” section of my local video store seeking out new pro wrestling/UFC videotapes. Needless to say, when a copy of UFC 14 hit that dusty bottom shelf, I quickly rented it and took it home. In those days Mark Coleman was in the midst of terrorizing the NHB world with his takedowns, headbutts, and dinabol-fueled interviews. While I've come to respect him a lot more in recent years, due to his work ethic and subsequently found humility, at the time I couldn't stand him. Yes, I was hoping that someone, anyone, even the corn dog vendor, would beat him and silence anymore talk of American wrestling being the only way forward in this new sport. Sadly, because of my ignorance and the infancy of the internet, I was unaware of who Maurice Smith was, and simply thought that this was yet another kickboxer that was going to get mauled in an epic display of roid-rage. I wasn't the only one that was thinking this, as almost none of the active fans of that time had any hopes of Smith winning, either. I was absolutely delighted and shocked when I saw Smith use his cardio and an active guard to outlast the wrestler's initial onslaught and take the victory. Many modern fans don't understand this, but the general sentiment at the time was that the UFC was a grapplers game and that strikers had no place in. Smith proved the world wrong and opened a lot of eyes that day, and it probably never would have happened if it wasn't for his time in the PWFG/UWF (which is what led to him being offered matches in Pancrase, training with Ken Shamrock, creating the Alliance with Frank Shamrock, etc.) Crazier still, was that this match between Funaki/Smith wasn't even supposed to happen. Unlike their rivals in the UWF-I, who actually tried to get relevant boxers whose defeats would mean something, the PWFG was content with some old-fashioned lazy stunt casting. Yes, if the debacle with an out-of-shape Roberto Duran wasn't enough, they were attempting to use this event to feed Tommy Morrison (of Rocky V fame) to Funaki. Thankfully, Morrison got an offer to fight George Foreman, and wound up declining the PWFG’s invitation. If it wasn't for Morrison not wanting to risk his body on some pro wrestling shenanigans, then the American MMA landscape might be very different today. At least it would have taken a lot longer for the American public to figure out the validity of high-level kickboxing combined with cardio and the ring savvy to make that approach work. The fight starts with Funaki trying to get inside the clinch range with Mo, but eating jabs every time he gets close. This forces Funaki to try and resort to low kicks to push some offense through, but the experienced kickboxer that Smith is checks them easily. Funaki's only chance is to take Smith down, but I suspect that he's avoiding that to try and give the fans their money's worth. As a result of Funaki's patience, Smith got a great round, and Funaki took some nasty shots to the midsection. Funaki finally pulled the trigger in round 2 with some double leg attempts, only to find that the momentum of those attacks kept forcing Smith into the safety of the ropes. This round was pure win for Maurice. Round 3 saw Funaki sneak a few palms strikes in, but eat a lot of hard shots to his body. Smith isn't trying to knock him out but isn't pulling his punches either, so Funaki is earning his pay tonight. Round 4 sees Mo finally score a knockdown off a body blow. The crowd goes nuts in round 5, which prompts these two to start dialing it up. Funaki finally gets Smith in the center of the ring on a couple of occasions, but Smith’s reach is too great, and he managed to find safety in the ropes both times. This was declared a draw, and was a lot of fun to end a somewhat blah evening. ***1/2

ML: A show saver. Smith fought in his usual kickboxing gloves, and Funaki mostly accommodated him with a striking match. This made for an entertaining contest, while being somewhat inexplicable from a strategic standpoint, especially with Smith likely being basically helpless on the ground due to the gloves. Smith gave a great performance here, really a natural in that he knew how to still fight like it was a real fight, using footwork, feints, and movement while landing solidly, just not hard enough to actually KO Funaki. This was one of the most real fake matches we have seen so far from a striker in a pro wrestling setting. Funaki is such a slick mover that even though he's a pro wrestler, he was able to outmanuever Smith for the most part, utilizing his quickness and reflexes to backpedal and circle out of harms way then duck and dodge blows when the kickboxing champion got into range. The match was probably more than we could have asked for, but certainly the flaw is it felt too much like an exhibition, both in terms of the impact of the blows and generally being loose on Funaki's logic, with the draw being too likely once you figured out the format. Smith won the first round because it was entirely standing, and started landing more in the 2nd round, doing a nice job of utilizing body hooks, but Funaki answered him to some extent. Smith put Funaki down with a front kick at the 2nd round bell, but there was no count for whatever reason. Funaki finally tried for some takedowns in round 3, with a very exciting portion when he finally succeeded. Funaki nearly had a takedown a minute into the 4th, but Smith turned to land on top, and immediately grabbed the ropes as Funaki tried to sweep. Smith scored a knockdown soon after the restart. The 5th round was the best because Funaki was able to manage a bit more standing offense, which then helped open up the takedowns, including 3 in the closing minute. Smith would struggle mightily and dive to the ropes, as you always get with these matches, but the thing is this match wasn't all about that, and they mixed those frustrating failures with some takedowns in the center of the ring (thus Smith wasn't portrayed as a guy that would lose immediately if he didn't have the ropes to bail him out). Though no one really succeeded in any major techniques, the match was really good, a bit too much of a sparring feel, but a high workrate without the usual groan testing moments you get in these sort of contests. It was definitely more realistic than you'd expect, but Funaki could have used a near submission rope escape, which would have gotten a huge reaction, as ultimately he was largely owned by a superior standup fighter and would clearly have lost the decision badly had there been judges. Nonetheless, a great way to close out the biggest show PWFG would ever run, and definite highlight of their year, with Smith giving one of the best performances we'd seen a real kickboxer deliver in worked pro wrestling match up until that point in time, and Funaki finally allowing his standup skills to lead to a less dry contest. ***1/4

1. Minoru Suzuki [91: #1]. You can really see the appeal of shooting to Minoru Suzuki, as it was theoretically a great opportunity to utilize his speed in order to humiliate the opponent in cruel and sadistic ways. Suzuki just loved to steal the opponent's back or slap them around, and his matches were definitely different in 1992, as he bought into the more realistic hard gym sparring style, joining Funaki in the idea that the match should contain as little cooperation as possible. His great speed and reflexes were more important now, and he was a joy to watch in standup, as he's so fluid and light on his feet, and was more than happy to exploit these advantages. Unfortunately, his matches were either really long bouts against the stars or short squashes against the youngsters, and with fewer free openings, they tended to contain less risks, free flowing gambles, and energetic bursts. He wasn't showing less urgency or displaying less of his quick subtle movements per se, it's more that there was simply less opportunity for these to be among his trademarks in a style where he basically had to create his openings and then consolidate them on his own. His matches weren't as consistent or exciting as they were last year, but were more intense and thoughtful, with flashes of brilliance.

2. Masakatsu Funaki [91: #4]. Funaki was once again the wild card of this league, as he had so much natural talent, but you never knew how much of it you'd see from him from fight to fight, or even minute to minute. He was the most cerebral and nuanced fighter in the league, and while his focus was increasingly on realism, being the leader of the give each other as little as possible style that became even more prevalent here this year, as the year progressed he was able to do a better job of making these sparring contests fun, without sacrificing credibility. When he was willing to actually use it, he was easily the best technical striker in the league, a slick mover who was very light on his feet, with great reflexes, footwork, movement, and diversity. His combination of skill, speed, and athleticism was such that you felt like he could make just about any of his opponents look silly by ducking and dodging their strikes then smacking them back for as long as he felt like it. His takedown skills weren't as good as some of the other notable fighters such as Takahashi or Shamrock, but he could often make up for that by being great in the scrambles, and having a better concept of how to gain, secure, and maintain control on the ground in more of a judo or BJJ manner. He was clearly the most thoughtful performer in the promotion, and most likely the best all around fighter if he were to shoot, but that wasn't happening yet, and in the meantime, he was at best hesitant to let loose and be exciting, and at worst, totally unwilling. I liked him more this year than last, but to some extent that was by virtue of the majority of the league now being on board with his style, leaving little in the way of interesting alternatives.

3. (Ken) Wayne Shamrock [91: #2]. Shamrock was basically the savior of the league in the sense that he had a good or important opponent show in and show out, and he largely continued to deliver the goods. Shamrock was one of the beneficiaries of the less realistic style in 1991, as he enjoyed employing big suplexes, and while his matches never had the spark they had last year, he was clearly growing as shooter, displaying his newfound ability to have very strategic matches fought more or less under a no frills realistic style. Shamrock was definitely one of the best at locking things down on the ground, with his strength and top control, and he was able to be quite annoying there grinding his elbow into the opponent. His submission skills were clearly still developing, but in these patient chess matches, he could prod his opponents into eventually presenting an opening. The opening was key to his matches, as they were build around anticipation that was eventually rewarded through an explosion by one fighter that was probably met with, if not preceeded by, an equally fast counter move by the other. He made crucial improvements later in the year, tremendously increasing his explosive capabilities on the mat, and generally moving much quicker and more fluid in and out of the submission attempts. Shifting to less cooperation made it more obvious that his standup needed work, as he had tons of power, but wasn't really able to land many of his big shots because he lacked the ability to set them up. His side stance definitely improved, after really hampering him early on because he had nothing going on with the lead arm or leg to open anything up or keep the opponent from taking him down, but as the year progressed he began moving better, anticipating more, and reacting quicker, and utilizing a more conventional stance, all of which allowed him to avoid better and land a big counter. Clearly, his ground game had grown a lot faster, having far surpassed his standup game, but his striking was realistically fairly solid by the end of the year . He was a fiery competitor, and his intensity helped carry some of these overlong, grindy affairs. He was the best in the league at providing the illusion he was trying to murder the opponent by throwing a really aggressive powerful looking strike, while actually somewhat holding back on it. He remained the fighter you just didn't want to mess with.

4. Kazuo Takahashi [91: NR]. Heart, passion, fire, and intensity were Takahashi's trademarks, and while he started the year with little more than a lighting quick takedown, his actual fighting game developed quite a bit over these 12 months. He realized he had to mix things up in order for his takedown game to really be effective, and was able to improve his kicking game, and sometimes would try something unorthodox to utilize the element of surprise. The more experience and skills he gained, the more brutal and badass he had the confidence to be. He was more than happy to try to simply outtough his opponent, hence his increasing use of the headbutt as the year progressed.

5. Yuki Ishikawa [debut: 4/19/92. Ishikawa & Yanagisawa were two excellent rookies, good athletes that immediately had a surprisingly good grasp of the real & fake game. A hard nosed fighter who enjoyed mixing it up and refused to back down, Ishikawa was one of the stronger kickers in the promotion, with some of the better takedown defense, though he often wasn't able to make these two strengths support each other, as his desire to go on the offensive lead to him throwing a kick that got him taken down. He also had a decent takedown and submission game. While he was often outgunned due to his inexperience, he would gut out any beating in hopes of finding his moment.

MB:

1. Minoru Suzuki. This was an easy pick because more so than any other member of the PWFG roster, Suzuki embodied the best of both worlds by embracing the new realistic shooting style, but also by always bringing a fast-paced intensity that lent itself to entertainment value. Suzuki suffered from having an oversized chip on his shoulder, which made him come across as selfish and imbalanced at times, but because of his verve and the fact that he couldn’t dominate the rest of the roster with the same authority that Funaki could, made him the standout performer for this group in 1992. 

2. Masakatsu Funaki. This was the hardest pick, by far, of anyone we’ve looked at this year, because Funaki could either be at the top or the bottom of this list, depending on your criteria. On one hand, he was often a terrible selection to have a pro wrestling match because his idea of carrying an opponent meant not submitting him in 6 1/2 minutes rather than in 30 seconds. Otherwise, in most of his matches, Funaki wouldn’t give his opponents any openings, which made him look like the legit badass that he was but did nothing for the entertainment value of anyone in the audience. However, he eventually got the nod here because he was the true leader of this group, despite Fujiwara’s name being on the marquee, as it was his vision of pro wrestling being a legitimate combat sport that not only gave way to Pancrase, but also was the driving force for much of the burgeoning philosophy of the other young lions in the dojo. Also, one couldn’t deny the impeccable legitimate shooting skills that Funaki had. In fact, one could say that outside of someone like Marco Ruas or a select few in the orbit of Carlson Gracie, there wasn’t another fighter on the planet that was probably as well-rounded as Funaki was in 1992. Ultimately, Funaki’s heart was in the future of shooting, and the PWFG (and worked pro wrestling, for that matter), simply couldn't be the outlet that he needed.

3. Ken Shamrock. Ken had the most charisma of anyone on the roster, and I think that some of the superhero-style booking that the UWF-I was employing would have benefited Ken and the PWFG. Had they formatted the company around Shamrock being a monster gaijin that was an unstoppable force of destruction, a la Gary Albright, then they could have gotten a lot of mileage out of that. It also would have been a decent way to eventually get Fujiwara over as someone that couldn’t match brawn with Ken, but through his many years of greater submission experience could eventually vanquish the mighty beast. In any event, one could always count on Ken to be interesting and entertaining, but since he wasn’t the main focal point of the company, it led to problems with giving him reasonable matchups. After all, how many times can you pair him with Suzuki or Funaki? Pancrase was a great opportunity for Ken since the PWFG would have eventually been stagnation for him unless they made some drastic changes. 

4. Kazuo Takahashi. Takahashi is one of my favorites from any era, as no matter how skilled you were, you weren’t likely to incapacitate him with anything short of pliers and a blowtorch. He started off as a one-trick pony in the PWFG, having a great single leg takedown and not much else, but as time went on his arsenal kept expanding, and he became a very formidable fighter as the end of the 90s’ came around. In 1992, you could always count on him giving no less than 110 percent, even though his submission and striking skills hadn’t reached optimal maturity yet.

5. Takaku Fuke. Despite spending a large portion of the 2nd half of 1992 being injured, Fuke is my curveball pick for this league due to how he always elevated what he was given, and became the biggest overachiever in PWFG’s history. I was kind of oblivious to him during his Pancrase years, perhaps finding him boring due to a skill-set that prevented taking easy losses, but also lacking the firepower to get wins either. He was one of the few out of this roster that was a better fit for shoot-style pro wrestling, as his intensity and skills were a great fit for that format, and his limitations in the world of top-level MMA competition weren’t an issue.

1. Yuki Ishikawa

2. Ryushi Yanagisawa. At 6'3", Yanagisawa was big enough to stand up to the veterans and larger gaijins. Luckily, he wasn't just big, to the point he felt like a smaller man in every positive sense. A strong kickboxer who moves well, and can utilize his length, Yanagisawa was surprisingly athletic and coordinated. He was already quite fluid, and much more well rounded than you would expect from a rookie, much less a large one. While he isn't great at controlling on the ground, he can certainly get off his back or pounce on a submission. All in all, he's basically everything Yoshihiro Takayama wasn't.

MB:

1. Ryushi Yanagisawa. While either Yanagisawa or Ishikawa are acceptable choices (in fact, they’re the only choices!) I am giving the nod to Ryushi due to him being a far more entertaining and versatile hand at this stage. Ishikawa was a fine shooter, and one of the more interesting figures from this era since he was both an early disciple of Satoru Sayama in addition to Karl Gotch. But Ishikawa’s pro wrestling output was similar to Masahito Kakihara's; that is if Kakihara accidentally swallowed an entire bottle of Vicodin before his match. Ishikawa would go on to become an important figure in the periphery of Japanese MMA culture, being the founder of the esteemed Battlarts promotion, but at this stage, he hasn’t quite arrived into his own. Yanagisawa, on the other hand, is explosive, well-rounded, and intense, only he’s able to unleash these qualities in a worked environment better than Ishikawa at this point. 

2. Yuki Ishikawa

1. 7/27/92: Kazuo Takahashi vs. Yuki Ishikawa

2. 3/20/92: Minoru Suzuki vs. Wayne Shamrock

3. 9/4/92: Minoru Suzuki vs. Wayne Shamrock

4. 10/4/92 Martial Arts Match: Maurice Smith vs. Masakatsu Funaki

5. 5/15/92: Jerry Flynn vs. Ryushi Yanagisawa

MB:

1. 5/15/92: Minoru Suzuki vs. Kazuo Takahashi

2. 6/25/92: Masakatsu Funaki vs. Kazuo Takahashi

3. 7/7/92: Masakatsu Funaki vs. Bart Vale

4.: 5/15/92: Jerry Flynn vs. Ryushi Yanagisawa

5.7/27/92: Kazuo Takahashi vs. Yuki Ishikawa