MB: No one could have known that in September of 1984, a group of disgruntled professional wrestlers from Japan would change the world by doing something as seemingly simple as injecting some much-needed realism into the wrestling landscape, digging into their various influences in “real” martial arts to bring a breath of fresh air into “fake” fighting.  Like many other examples of events that altered history, this had less to do with any sort of formal calculation on the parts of the participants, but was more of a case of serendipity abounding once again. To understand the dynamics that led to this cataclysm, we must first go back a year.

In 1983, the New Japan Pro Wrestling promotion was doing record business, going as far as to sell out 90% of all their events. However, its founder Antonio Inoki had recently invested a lot of money into a failing biotech company based in Brazil which prompted him to skim a considerable amount of revenue that the New Japan promotion was bringing in to try and offset his losses. These financial shenanigans eventually became known to the rest of the company, where certain members prompted a coup, thereby forcing Antonio Inoki and his head booker, Hisashi Shinma, to resign. Since its inception in 1972, NJPW was based around its hero and main attraction, Inoki, but in June of 1983, he suffered an injury, which going by historical precedent would normally lead to a downturn for a pro-wrestling business. However, this wound up not being the case as business continued to boom despite Inoki being sidelined by injury, thanks to his other stars within the promotion, especially guys like Riki Choshu, Tatsumi Fujinami, and Jr. Heavyweight sensation, Satoru Sayama.

This forced people to take notice, and see that Inoki wasn’t the only one responsible for the successes of New Japan, but this newfound respect given to other members of the roster did not do anything to increase their pay, and in fact, some had even received pay cuts due to money being funneled into corrupt side ventures by Inoki and Shinma. This perfect storm was all it took to prompt Inoki and Shinma to want to seek a fresh start, thus the idea of the U.W.F. was born, not out of artistic desire, but rather a necessity borne of self-preservation. The wheels were in motion to make the transition when Japanese television company, TV-Asahi, stated in no uncertain terms that they would refuse to continue to air NJPW without the involvement of Inoki.

In those days, Japanese pro wrestling was dead in the water without a tv-deal, and no amount of personal indiscretions on the part of Inoki would be enough for the brass of NJPW to be willing to lose out on one. So, this led to all being forgiven, and Inoki being reinstated as president. This surely had the side-effect of disillusioning many of the up-and-coming stars within the promotion as their time in the spotlight would have to now be curtailed, or at least blunted, with the promotion once again focusing on all things Inoki.

While Inoki was back in the good graces of television executives everywhere, Shinma, on the other hand, was still persona non grata. He was now being forced to trudge into the unknown, this time without the star power of Inoki. Because of this, he was now in dire need of a fresh face to build his new promotion around, which is where Akira Maeda came into play. Maeda was a Sediokaikan karate practitioner in the late 70s, and was allegedly discovered by Shinma at a karate tournament in 1977. Maeda was actually of Korean descent, which helped gift him with an athletic 6’3, 240-pound frame, which many of his Japanese contemporaries lacked.

At first, it looked like things were doomed for the U.W.F. from the get-go, as when Inoki was still on-board, Fuji Television expressed interest in televising the product, but when Inoki left, so did Fuji. Maeda was deemed to be an unproven commodity, and thus too risky for their investment. To make matters more bizarre, when the U.W.F. held their first event on 4-11-84, it was a dog’s breakfast of styles, ranging from tepid puroresu where Japanese natives would square off against Americans that seemed like they mistakenly missed their flight to Amarillo, TX, and wound up at the Korakuen Hall instead, to inspired, hard-hitting, Lucha Libre. To view the first U.W.F. event would make someone think that this outfit had an identity crisis on its hands. Surely, one would have never gotten the impression that this promotion would have led to being one of the most important to ever exist, not only for its influence on Japanese pro wrestling, but even to the effects it has had on modern-day MMA.

Thankfully, hope was around the corner when an influx of disaffected talents joined forces with Shinma and Maeda. After three months of languishing without a clear sense of direction, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Satoru Sayama, Nobuhiko Takada, and Kazuo Yamazaki all joined the roster, and almost instantly breathed purpose and life into this fledging outfit. All of the above, with the exception of Takada, had notable experience with “real” martial arts, in addition to their professional wrestling training, which proved to be an instant complement to Maeda’s natural abilities. This shift to a direction based around realism and martial arts was further accelerated when performers like Rusher Kimura, Ryuma Go, Mach Hayato, and Gran Hamada (who were all part of the original roster) all felt like their styles didn’t mesh with the new direction the company was taking, and all, eventually, bailed as a result. 

Besides their martial arts camaraderie, the glue that bound this upstart group had to be that each one of them felt held back to some degree under NJPW and Inoki. Fujiwara was a standout collegiate judoka before joining the New Japan Dojo and becoming one of their first graduates in 1972. He never received a main event push during his initial run with New Japan, but did manage to garner some respect behind the scenes for his judo acumen, even prompting Inoki to have him tag along in his corner for his infamous bout against Muhammed Ali.

Sayama was the biggest surprise here, as he had quit NJPW over Shinma’s financial mismanagement. However, he decided to go all-in for the U.W.F., even going as far as to blast NJPW in interviews with the Japanese press, claiming that Inoki held his younger wrestlers back. Wisely, the newfound U.W.F. didn’t let a good controversy go to waste, taking this opportunity to proclaim NJPW and other wrestling companies as pure hokum, and brazenly declaring that they were providing real shoots to the public. Long before Eric Bischoff was deemed a revolutionary for giving away RAW results on live television, the U.W.F. crew engaged in guerrilla warfare, breaking all the unwritten conventions of kayfabe at the time by not only acknowledging the existence of other wrestling promotions, but even taking the time to blast them, decrying them as frauds and charlatans.

Their unconventional antics led to them being very popular in Tokyo and other major metro areas, but the lack of a television deal limited their ability to break out to a wider audience. Two major problems began to arise behind the scenes, the first was a growing wave of resentment from many of the wrestlers of how Sayama would constantly insist on winning all of his matches, and the other was their inability to become more than a cult promotion. This 2nd problem was the biggest obstacle as it led to poor ticket sales whenever they would tour more rural areas of Japan. To compound matters, Sayama’s concept of a sport based around shooting (which later became Shooto) was already in his heart, and he was trying to encourage the UWF to move to an entirely shoot-based format, with “shooting” rules. Sayama also wanted to only stick to major markets, and run shows once a month, as anything more than that would be problematic, as shooting takes a harder toll on the body than cooperative pro wrestling matches.

Sayama was already financially stable when he went into the UWF, due to the success of his Super Tiger Gym, but the rest of the wrestlers on the roster, in addition to the back office, were struggling financially. This caused many of them to be leery of Sayama’s ideas, as they felt that it would be unable to draw enough money with only real fights, and didn’t want to risk not frequently traveling to different cities like most standard pro-wrestling companies. Sayama was dogmatic and adamant about his philosophies which irked many in the company, but he was too popular to just be dismissed outright. This problem would soon rectify itself as Maeda and Sayama (who were also increasingly bickering about the direction and essence of the promotion) eventually came to blows on 9-2-85 when what was supposed to be another routine match led to a shoot, Maeda being fired, and Sayama quitting pro wrestling in disgust. (We cover this incident in much greater detail in Kakutogi Road: Volume 1). Of course, with their two main stars out of the picture there was no way to survive going forward, and the company soon folded. Perhaps the greatest irony was that the UWF would later adopt Sayama’s booking philosophy of only having one monthly show when they reformed in 1988.

With all of this said, we are now ready to examine the best that 1984 had to offer. We are doing this because Mike Lorefice, and myself, would continually find ourselves with lingering questions while doing our regular columns. Was Suzuki always good, or did he slowly grow into it? Did Fujiwara always look like a 70-year-old crypt keeper? How much has the style changed between 84 and 92? These are just some of the things that we seek greater clarity on, which in turn should not only provide us a better context to work with but our readers as well. We will be punctuating our regular columns with an examination and highlight the best moments of the UWF’s life from 84-90. So, without further ado… let us proudly present:

ML: 4/11/84: Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo 13:17. The first UWF card beared no resemblance to shoot wrestling, but was rather a standard New Japan card of native vs. gaijin battles plus a couple lucha libre matches with performers who toured with New Japan. To show just how far we are away from what we'd come to expect from this promotion, the highlight of this show shockingly started with outside interference, and ended with the heel bludgeoning the face with scissors until he was disqualified. This may not be the UWF we know and love, but this was a very effective lucha libre brawl dominated by the dickish Perro Aguayo, with Gran Hamada looking great when he was actually allowed to do anything. Hamada was so far behind, really before the match even started, as Perro jumped him before the bell, then his seconds, including El Texano & El Signo, mauled him on the outside. Hamada had massive speed and athleticism advantages, but even when they were on the move, was just as often bowled over by the larger heel. Aguayo was much better as a rudo, as his offense has never been more than serviceable, but he can gain some traction with sort of dickish, low skill maneuvers. Hamada finally made his hot comeback, including a nice tope, but Aguayo brutally cracked him with an open chair, sending Hamada to the floor where his second, Mano Negra, very obviously bladed him. Perro than gored the bloody Hamada with scissors the ref finally had enough of his dastardly tactics, a very unsatisfactory early finish to a match that seemed to be building to something quite good, though it didn't prevent Perro & friends from several more minutes of beating Hamada down & further opening the wound. ***

4/17/84 2/3 Falls WWF Light Heavyweight Title: Perro Aguayo vs. Gran Hamada 13:10. While similar to their previous match in terms of what they did overall, they ordered things better here, so it felt more like an actual wrestling match, and generally made it a faster and more entertaining. One thing that was surprising is Aguayo didn't win a fall, especially since he was completely dominant in their April 11 match, and was still doing quite well here other than on the scoreboard. Aguayo started out trying to wrestle, charging at the bell into a back body drop and soon going for a senton atomico that Hamada avoided. Hamada hit a nice pescado, but rather than let him start to go off, Aguayo immediately came back with a low blow and brought out the scissors, once again bloodying Hamada. Again, Aguayo was disqualified, but since he had nothing to lose, he was able to go wild with the scissors in between falls, which set him up to dominate the second fall. The start of the second fall was mostly Perro punching the cut open further, until Hamada made a nice comeback with a tope, and posted Aguayo for revenge. From here, they picked things up for more or less a lengthy back & forth finishing sequence, thankfully in the Japanese style. This brought things back to an actual wrestling match, and did a much better job of showcasing both men's abilities. There was a pretty nasty spot where Aguayo didn't catch Hamada properly trying to counter his reverse diving body attack off the 2nd, so he decided to just slam him on his head. The actual finish seemed weaker than many of the near falls, but ending with a clean pin was a big improvement. Though Hamada had the best match on the first two big shows, this was to be his last match with the company, as the arrival of Satoru Sayama & Kazuo Yamazaki shifted the promotion away from the flying lucha libre style. Hamada ended up jumping to All Japan (later followed by Rusher Kimura & Ryuma Go), a promotion that ironically never cared about wrestlers his size or style, which sadly put a damper on his career in Japan until he began the lucharesu revolution in 1990 by starting his own version of Universal. ***3/4

7/23/84: The Tiger & Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Akira Maeda 16:24.Satoru Sayama made his debut here at the start of the second tour in one of two matches he worked as simply The Tiger before realizing he was Super. While he is clearly the best kicker in the promotion, initially he didn't shift the UWF toward the realistic style it would become known for, as he was still doing much of his athletic Tiger Mask style. This was still just an energetic big New Japan tag match with all the signature high spots of that time, the diving headbutt (more than halfway across the ring), missile kick, powerbomb, and so on. Even though Sayama is a junior heavyweight who hadn't wrestled in a year going up against two heavyweight stars, he was treated as more than an equal, something we would continue to see here, with the match designed to feature him to set up the two key programs from the early UWF, Super Tiger vs. Fujiwara and Maeda. Tiger was massively over, with the crowd being surprisingly vocal for everyone, and pretty much single handedly made the match. Takada, on the other hand, was the weak link with only three years of experience. He was still a bit awkward at times, but certainly game, and showed great potential as a junior style kicker. Maeda stayed in the background to some extent, while still clearly being the big gun for his team with his Kwick-Kicks and somewhat bomby offense .Fujiwara didn't do a lot to stand out offensively, as expected, but he was the glue that held the match together, adding some realism and doing a good job of making the opposition look good. I liked that Fujiwara was able to block Takada's suplex and use the underhooks to set up his own German suplex, but his bridge was poor, and this just seemed so random and out of nowhere as the finish. ***1/2

MB: Herein marks the true debut of this promotion. After their inaugural event on 4-11-84, Shinma ran 4 more events that month, all of which were minor variations of the first. Then they ceased activity for three months, presumably to regroup, with Sayama, Fujiwara, Takada, and Yamazaki now the core ensemble of featured performers. Even young Betz had little tolerance for tag-team matches, but this was a good choice to present the new direction of the company, and put Japan on notice that there was a new posse in town. It also helped establish the ancient booking style that the UWF-I would become so fond of, where they could appease the ego of Takada by occasionally having him to lose in such a format. Because, as we all know, tag-team losses don't count. What followed was fun, refreshing, and way ahead of the curve for 1984. This was still a nascent and developing style, so while it wasn’t a good example of a real fight, or even what a shoot-style one would look like 8 years later, it was a huge stride towards injecting more realism into the proceedings. Gone are the Irish whips and comically fake punches, and we are instead treated to more realistic takedowns, nice judo, and submissions like the heel-hook and ankle lock (as opposed to the surfboard and spinning toe-hold). Clearly, it was still pro wrestling, and in what was perhaps its greatest irony, it was Sayama that was the biggest offender in this regard. The Tiger provided flying knee drops, flashy kicks, and plenty of theatrics, which is amusing since he probably had the greatest heart towards real shooting of anyone when compared to his contemporaries. This was 16min of silly fun, and because of its fast-paced/loose nature was more entertaining than a lot of the more "serious" matches that followed, but it's the first glimpse into this outfit finding their unique voice. Graded on 1984 pro wrestling standards I would give it *** ¾

7/24/84: The Tiger vs. Mach Hayato 9:17. Purely a high flying New Japan junior heavyweight match, with the first moonsault attempted in the UWF, though Hayato avoided. It was great to see Sayama doing his thing again after a year away from the sport, but he was obviously a bit rusty, Hayato is certainly no Dynamite Kid, and the match also suffered from the lack of familiarity between these two, as I believe this was their first pairing with Hayato coming over from All Japan. This had by far the most action of any UWF match we've seen so far, but it was also the sloppiest. Hayato wasn't a great worker by any means, but he also had a lot of offense, including a sweet slingshot senton to the floor, so this wasn't one of those matches that stagnated when the babyface wasn't on offense. A fun match, but certainly below the high level of the typical Tiger New Japan match. ***

9/7/84: Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 19:07. A really important match because the UWF as we know it more or less began here. While far from a perfect martial arts match, this left many of the shenanigans behind, and aspired to deliver a new, real fight oriented style. Granted, it was more of a soft transition than a hard one, with Tiger still trying the diving kneedrop and moonsault, but now while it was maybe still half a New Japan match, most of the non piledriver craziness was avoided by the opponent. Tiger really had to change his game dramatically, and all the high flying acrobatics he shelved were what made him one of the most popular & successful wrestlers in the world during the previous 3 years. Given how far ahead of his time he was in the junior heavyweight style, this was probably never going to be his best style, but he also really couldn't take things much further in the junior style than he already had, and his interest was in innovation rather than stagnation. Meanwhile, Fujiwara was an easy choice to lead the way, as he wasn't really gaining a lot from the pro wrestling style anyway, much of it was a compromise to fit in with the other showmen. Fujiwara did a nice job of both using his size advantage and being a sadistic badass here. He really owned Tiger on the mat, beating him by working the arm early, then catching kicks, which were the main part of Tiger's game that actually translated to shoot style, when Tiger tried to actually play to his own advantage. Fujiwara injuring Tiger's left knee later also provided an excuse for less gymnastics than the crowd surely expected. The match was well laid out when Fujiwara was grinding away for the majority, making Tiger work for everything, but Tiger delivering energetic bursts when he could actually work at distance to thrilling the crowd. Fujiwara controlled a lot more than one would expect (since he was the one doing the job), especially coming off the 7/23/84 tag match where Takada did all the selling so Tiger could get the star treatment, but Tiger eventually countered Fujiwara holding his foot with a spinning kick, and hit two high kicks into a crossface chickenwing for the win. ***1/2

MB: As we continue deeper into '84, we can see that Karl Gotch's role has expanded from being a mere guest of honor to that of a full-fledged brand ambassador. He greets the crowd while a vignette of him training with Takada & Fujiwara plays, and he is fully embracing this new direction. Right away we can see a greater step into more realistic waters, with Sayama carefully feinting before engaging, and both men giving us mat-work that leads to actual submissions. Oddly, Sayama is the gentle one here, putting Fujiwara in a correct armbar, but slowly, giving him plenty of time to escape. Fujiwara, on the other hand, cranks his Kimuras with far more torque than seems appropriate for a work, making Sayama's rush to the ropes feel legit. I must award more points to Fujiwara for putting Sayama in a legit armbar-to-triangle entry, where he squeezed with real pressure, only he was shrewd enough to angle Sayama close enough to the ropes for an easy escape. This was before the days of point deductions, and with unlimited rope-escapes, it was easier to execute submissions properly, as long as your opponent was close enough to a rope. This still had plenty of pro wrestling moments with some piledrivers, flying knee drops, and even a figure-four leg-lock, but in spite of that, it holds up better than some of what we've been witnessing in 1991-92 because they managed to create and maintain an air of intensity, almost feeling like a grudge match at times. *** ¾

9/11/84: Super Tiger vs. Akira Maeda 18:58. This was the first UWF match that felt like actual shoot style. I mean, it was probably still 25% New Japan, but it finally mostly had the air of noncooperation, and a real sense of danger to the big kicks and submissions. The basis of the match with some great standup movement, footwork, and feints from Tiger leading into primitive takedowns was very good. One of the problems was both are miles better on their feet, and while Tiger was mostly losing on the ground again, as he did in the Fujiwara match, Maeda is somewhat bland and random there. The heat was tremendous with both men being super over, and the match was very intense, which along with the novelty of the style, went a long way toward making up for Maeda's liabilities. Still, this was mostly better than Tiger vs. Fujiwara because the standup was great, and it was more unpredictable. On the ground, Fujiwara certainly brings a lot more than Maeda, both in terms of craft and guile, but whereas Fujiwara mostly ground Tiger out on the mat, Tiger was allowed to show a lot more offense here, and looked typically outstanding. In the end, this match was actually more believable while also being a lot more exciting, and even the few crazy highspots such as Tiger's tombstone into the moonsault didn't take me out of the match this time. Tiger again won with the chickenwing crossface, and this was one of the biggest upset wins of his career, as while both Tiger and Maeda rarely lost in New Japan, Tiger did it in the junior heavyweight division. The win over Fujiwara showed Tiger's potential as a heavyweight, but beating the promotion's top star in his first attempt really showed that this promotion might finally be one that value skill over weight. ****

MB: Only four days have passed, and we are already getting to see another giant step forward in this style. For the first time since...ever, we get to see two personal wrestlers move and act like they are in a real fight. As soon as the bell rings, both men are parrying, feinting, and generally acting as if their actions had consequences, as opposed to the ancient tradition of most pro wrestlers who stay dormant and allow their opponents to do whatever they please. From the onset, it's clear that Sayama has to figure out how he is going to get inside the perimeter of his much larger foe. He does this wonderfully about a minute into the match when, in an excellent display of subtle ingenuity, he rapidly chains together a series of quick feints, first with a palm strike, then a takedown, and lastly a quick low kick followed by a single leg. Maeda is flowing better with Sayama in the standing portions compared to Fujiwara, perhaps due to his karate background, but the ne-waza had its credibility stretching moments. Whereas Fujiwara wisely waited until he was already close to the ropes before attacking a joint, both Sayama and Maeda were guilty of slapping on a half-force submission in the center of the ring, and then practically having to drag the other one to the ropes for an escape. Theatrics aside, this was a very entertaining and solid early showcase for this style. Thankfully, despite the combat being dipped in an entertaining syrup, the intensity of these two never allowed the action to become farcical. *** ¾

10/5/84: Akira Maeda & Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Osamu Kido 25:35. An interesting match in the evolution, with Sayama continuing to adapt his junior heavyweight style by developing his striking game, on one hand really setting himself apart with his speed and athleticism and seeming a truly unique performer, on the other hand seeming by far the most New Japan of a bunch. Sayama is nonetheless a savant, and the problem was the other three aren't very inventive, to the point of almost seeming interchangeable by all basing their offense around getting the opponent down so they could work a Kimura. Sayama, on the other hand, wanted to spend as little time on the mat as possible, both because the opponents were arguably better there, and definitely because it basically negated all his athletic advantages. Kido was a good addition, as he is a technically proficient worker who has always been more fiery than flashy. There's a problem with the video at the very end, but somehow Fujiwara goes from being in the crossface that Sayama has been beating everyone with to using it on him to hand Sayama his first defeat in the UWF, somewhat avenging his singles loss on 9/7/84. ***

10/17/84: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 26:48. Yamazaki was the most realistic fighter in the promotion this year. He probably knew less about shooting than Sayama, his teacher, but he was barely known in New Japan, where he was just a young boy, having debuted just two years earlier. This was actually a benefit in the sense that he wasn't hampered by feeling compelled to stay true to the high flying style he made famous like Sayama was. In the first main event we've seen to feature Yamazaki, we can quickly see that he's actually fairly well rounded, understanding the footwork necessary to get his strikes in, as well as to set up his single-leg takedown. Yes, Yamazaki was literally the only wrestler here who seemed willing to utilize a proper takedown. Takada, for his part, was much more active this year than in his supposed heyday, and that willingness to scramble, or even just keep turning to maintain the opponent's back made a huge difference over his main technique in the later years, which was to disguise his cluelessness by laying there calmly, appearing to be plotting his next move. Takada's high workrate was definitely an asset here, that went a long way toward making up for some of the holes in his technical game, though at this point, he was one of the better grapplers in the league, kind of by default of having been in the junior heavyweight division where you had to be versed in all styles. Right now the undercard style was still more towards New Japan style, but the main event seemed to be the one match that was mostly martial arts oriented. Here, we saw the first real resistance to the (backdrop) suplex, with Yamazaki putting up enough of a fight that Takada wound up coming down on his own head. Yamazaki nearly lost control of his powerbomb, but did manage to pull it of, setting up the bizarre finish where he tried for an Americana, but Takada somehow finished with a no leverage Kimura off his back. This match was truly a huge step forward, as (outside of a couple pro-wrestling high spots that were close enough to being realistic in their opinion) they managed to do a really long match that was never a dull despite not having any of the flourishes it would have included had it been done in New Japan. ***3/4

10/22/84

Akira Maeda vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 17:23. Yamazaki was always one of Maeda's best opponents, but being so inexperienced here in their 1st singles match, it was more difficult for him to command enough respect to pull much out of the established superstar. Normally, their matches were more striking oriented, and that's one of the reasons they were so good. This match was way too mat oriented though, and really exemplified the divide between the interesting standup portions of Maeda's matches, and the dull matwork. Yamazaki kept inciting Maeda, and they would start to build up some good intensity on their feet, only to go right back to the mat, where Maeda ground things to a halt with almost complete inactivity. Each good moment where you thought it's finally about to become an excellent match just seemed to evaporate with another lengthy grasp of the arm. This is one of the best matches of the year in terms of being cautious about committing to strikes, and avoiding them, a signature of Yamazaki. However, it felt like they believed there simply couldn't be too many strikes landed, so where I was looking for the lead to set up a big follow-up (that we got from the 12/5/84 Yamazaki vs. Takada), they were instead using it to set up the takedown into the submission attempt, which would have been OK if they actually did anything with the ground positioning or submission holds, rather than just kind of lying across the oponent, holding something. Good, but also frustrating. ***

MB: Despite being Sayama's number 1 pupil, Yamazaki patterned himself towards a more cerebral style than that of his sensei. Perhaps Sayama felt trapped within his Tiger Mask gimmick, and believed he still had to pepper his matches with flamboyant spots, so we probably never got to see the unfiltered Satoru. Because of this, I wonder if Yamazaki turned to be a purer distillation of what Sayama wanted to be. Still, regardless of why the apple fell somewhat away from the tree, the fact remains that Kazuo had a ton of potential, which was sadly never realized to its fullest. Gone are the planchas and somersaults, but the creative footwork and measured approach remain. That's not to say that Yamazaki is a strictly better version of Sayama, however. Sayama had a ton of charisma which isn't something that can be taught and was something that Yamazaki lacked. The chemistry between Maeda/Yamazaki led to a more realistic outing compared to Sayama/Maeda, but it was drier as a result. The first noticeable thing is the matwork, where Yamazaki shows creative ways to fight submissions, with lots of bridging, rolling, and kicking to try and fight his way out, as opposed to just crawling across the ring for 10 minutes looking for a rope to cling to. Maeda on the other hand shows a lot more athleticism, but is prone to stretches of meandering, seemingly content to pad things out when he can. This wasn’t a barn-burner for the ages, but I felt that it moved the needle in a positive way for what was possible in this format. For example, there was one nice sequence where Yamazaki was feinting a tie-up, and when Maeda reached out his hand, Yamazaki unloaded with a low-kick, staggering Maeda. Now we are seeing what can happen when pro wrestlers are acting like the guy standing across from thems is an actual living threat, as opposed to a pliable toy that will conform to whatever they may desire.  Like a lot of Maeda matches pre-RINGS (when he still had a useable knee) this was a little dead in spots, but still a solid *** ¼

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Nobuhiko Takada 17:27. Comparing this to the previous Akira Maeda vs. Kazuo Yamazaki match, it's very clear that Fujiwara's matwork is much more viable, dramatic, and dynamic than Maeda's because he explodes into the arm lock, while Maeda barely moves or exerts any energy. Fujiwara's match is sort of starts and stops, in the good sense of him doing a big takedown into the arm lock, getting what he can out of it, and then making another dramatic move. These big moves are well timed and set up, so they actually work, even when they perhaps shouldn't in a more realistic sense. Maeda's match, on the other hand, was kind of all stops, in that neither the takedown nor the submission hold were impressive in any way, it all seemed more a mask for another period of inactivity until a few more good kicks. Takada may not possess any counters you wouldn't see in a World of Sport match, but he was so much more active than Yamazaki was, always resisting or reversing what Fujiwara was trying to do. Takada's energy and enthusiasm really went a long way towards making his work interesting at this point, as well as covering his technical deficiencies. This match wasn't fancy (arguably a good thing for this style anyway), but it was snappy, with Fujiwara bringing enough technique to balance Takada's pure speed & athleticism. It just has so much more forward thrust than Maeda vs. Yamazaki, and much more consistent energy & activity. ***1/2

12/5/84

No Fall Death Match: Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 25:34 of 27:19. Paired down in the best possible manner to resemble a real fight, this was the first true UWF match, losing the flying, running, tombstone piledrivers, and other New Japan staples in favor of truly vicious striking and desperate struggling on the ground. Right away, it was easy to see what a huge improvement this was over their first match, as we finally got a savagely aggressive uninterrupted display of credible martial arts violence, and ultimately an all out striking beatdown. The movement was better, and the striking was a lot more fierce. This was less spectacular, but the increased credibility and brutality made up for that. This was the first, and perhaps the last, match that's been built around repeatedly, mercilously kicking the opponent when they are down. What's unique here is that this was a sports based presentation (in the real sense of the expression rather than Tony Khan's cartoon vision of it where you can win with your hands in your pockets the majority of the match) where unlike the British style where the ref actually does his job of protecting the fighter for the most part, it was actually legal to do basically whatever they wanted to their downed opponent unless the ref was giving him a 10 count to get back up. Due to this rule, and the lengths Tiger went to in order to exploit it, this felt like a much more vicious and sadistic style, hence fitting the death match billing even though it's not the kind of silly prop based presentation of a death match we've come to expect where it takes a minute to set up each spot that's probably not bringing the match any closer to conclusion than it would have if they didn't use the gimmicks. While Fujiwara still did quite a bit of selling, the fact that he's just kind of protecting himself lying in a fetal position because there isn't much else he can do to stop Tiger's onslaught of soccer ball kicks made him taking a little while to get back up after each onslaught less unbelievable. This wasn't the most outwardly exciting UWF match we've seen so far, but this style was now working because instead of relying so heavily on pro wrestling highspots, they were instead able to create more drama by making the submissions seem so dangerous and the strikes seem so deadly that you had to escape urgently or die. Fujiwara may have lost their first encounter, but he learned that he had a big advantage on the ground, and that Tiger was proud enough to get sucked into the losing battle of trying to match Fujiwara on the mat, rather than just destroying him in standup. This was once again evident very early, as Tiger landed a big high kick, but then wound up grappling because when Fujiwara charged in and tied him up, Tiger opted to try to counter with a Kimura rather than simply disengage, which worked for a few seconds until Fujiwara predictably just took the top. Tiger showed some better strategy at times, kicking Fujiwara's leg out then going to the mat on his own terms by dropping into the leg lock. That being said, it was clear that his mentality of finishing with a submission rather than just knocking the opponent out mostly got him into trouble against the superior grappling of Fujiwara. Fujiwara made an attempt to be more competitive in standup in this encounter, but his laughable big flurry of body blows belonged in the WWF, as they basically all missed or grazed. Tiger then savaged him with some soccer ball kicks and knee drops that already would have led to a ref stop in current MMA. Fujiwara did somewhat redeem himself with three rabbit punches when Tiger was sideways against the ropes waiting for the ref to break, leading to the shady Fujiwara taking his back and dropping into a rear naked choke, which Tiger sold magnificently with some disturbing coughs. Though Fujiwara was no real threat to hurt Tiger in a fair striking exchange, he was able to be successful enough with his striking by increasingly playing heel in a manner that actually didn't ruin the match in the process, nailing Tiger when he was in the ropes rather than giving an honorable clean break. Tiger would only take so much of this though, and when he totally turned the match with a spinning heel kick, he just savaged Fujiwara with another brutal series of soccer ball kicks and knee drops. Fujiwara almost came back quickly, but now that Tiger finally committed to fighting smart, Fujiwara was just outgunned, and could do little beyond try to cover up to keep Tiger from cracking his coconut with some of the most vicious knee drops you'll ever see, as well as fierce head kicks. Tiger's onslaught was an awesome sight to behold! And it is doubly fantastic seeing him make big bully Fujiwara hopelessly cower in fear, and have his own coughing fit. Fujiwara finally managed a comeback with a few punches in the ropes, and sacrificed himself with his patented headbutt in all-or-nothing desperation move, as it was the only potential equalizer he had in a standing arsenal. Tiger recoved first though, and continued to do what was working, with Fujiwara finally seeming to not beat the 10 count, only to have the ref simply stop at 8! It was obvious long ago that Fujiwara could no longer really defend himself, and the only downside was the match became a bit repetitive and unbelievable due to Tiger having to stomp 17 mudholes in Fujiwara to finally win. It had yet to be established that living to fight another day actually made sense, so Fujiwara trying to continue only to force Tiger to deliver another concussive beating made more sense in 1984 than it would now. It was pretty shocking that Tiger not only beat Fujiwara again, but did so much more convincingly, in arguably the most brutal beating of the entire pro-wrestling year. ****1/2

MB: The grudge match atmosphere intensifies as they have declared this a “No-Fall Death Match” which I assume is a fancy way of saying, “submissions-only.” This was very similar to their first encounter, only with the volume turned way up, and the stakes feeling much higher. I’m still blown away by how intricate Sayama moves and feints the entire time he is engaging Fujiwara. It reminds me of how Igor Vovchanchyn used to constantly move his hands to disguise his attacks, but in Sayama’s case, it’s not just his hands, but all the other nuances he adds to it, as well. You don’t know if he is going to palm-strike, shoot in, or kick you because he effortlessly feints all those attacks simultaneously. Fujiwara, on the other hand, plods around like you would expect your average judoka to do, taking Sayama’s fierce kicks without any sort of defense. The match was framed as Sayama being deadly from the outside, while Fujiwara was the greater threat once the distance closed with his throws and submissions. That’s not to say that Sayama didn’t have some nice grappling moments, there was one especially nice moment where he reversed a throw from Fujiwara with a standing Kimura, followed by a throw of his own, but this was mostly a striker vs grappler setup. The intensity continued to ratchet up as the match progressed with Sayama eventually fighting like a man possessed, kicking a downed Fujiwara at every opportunity. Sayama’s acting was just as important as his physicality for making this work, and he did a great job conveying having to wage an almost impossible war to eventually achieve his goal of victory. Fujiwara also did a decent job, coming across as a sadistic veteran, but undercut himself with his insistence on giving us the most dubious of attacks, the infamous winding-headbutt. The ending was strong, with Fujiwara eventually being unable to get up from too many kicks while down, but the best part was the end where Sayama had a look on his face that he just barely escaped this monumental challenge. ****

Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Nobuhiko Takada 23:18 of 23:57. I liked the concept of the opening here with the side-headlock and traditional pro wrestling armbar failing, so Takada had to step it up and use an actual amateur wrestling takedown, chaining a single-leg attempt into a double-leg. While it's true that they didn't do all that much early on, that was really by design to show how difficult the new style is now that people aren't cooperating, and thus the usual nonsense no longer worked. They built everything around and out of a few basic positions, essentially starting in the same couple places but doing different counter sequences out of the base position. What they did was still pretty loose, but it was at least more a combination of wannabe amateur wrestling and judo than of New Japan junior division matwork. The match was extremely paired down, with both hesitant to commit to their strikes, and thus barely landing any early on to avoid the risk of exposing themselves. In the second half, they became less cautious and more willing to open up. They did a really nice job of building the match up, but at the same time, I feel like I undoubtedly was more impressed by what they finally weren't doing than what they actually replaced it with. Takada definitely showed more willingness to help create the new style than Maeda, who was still busy doing body slams, but at the same time, Takada is far less effective when you remove even most of the strikes, and a lot of his speed and athleticism, all of which are among his biggest strengths. Yamazaki was good, but more due to actually being somewhat technically sound for the time period from training in real fighting. This was more his match than Takada's obviously, but he never really felt in control the way he did in later years when you could really very easily see all the things he was doing to make the opponent better. They saved the big explosion for the finale, and they certainly found the extra gear. The match became incredibly intense as Takada was just blistering Yamazaki, and it kept looking like Yamazaki would lose any second. The fans were just eating this up, and it only made them pull harder for Yamazaki. After taking two tombstone piledrivers and several crushing kicks, Yamazaki finally turned the tables, causing the fans to go nuts. While they worked up to the fireworks well, by that point I'm not so sure I really wanted to see an overhead belly to belly suplex anymore. After seeing Tiger nearly murder Fujiwara, Yamazaki kind of randomly winning with a German suplex seemed pretty feeble (I believe this match went on first on the actual show, which would make it come off better given it was nowhere near as intense and high stakes). In the end, this isn't the sort of match that really ages well. I mean, most of the excitement about it is that it was closer to a shoot than anything we have seen before it (other than Tiger vs. Fujiwara), but I don't think that it was a match that really came close to bringing out the best in either, and I would rather see most of their later 1980's matches from New Japan or U.W.F. if I were just watching something purely for enjoyment. I think it was actually fairly comparable to their 10/17/84 match quality wise, as that was more action packed and exciting, while this was more credible and well developed, but at a cost. Actually improving on the mat would be a much better path than finding the balance between their two matches, but they had to start somewhere, and it isn't fair to expect them to go from constantly assisting each other to being a well-rounded ground fighting experts. This was definitely a good start. And obviously, though a very good match, over the course of history, it mainly showed the stupidity of the 2nd U.W.F. & UWF-I bookers. Even if not a golden boy like Takada, Yamazaki had all the potential, ability, and fan respect to succeed as at least a legitimate 1B to Takada’s 1A, if only the victories weren’t lacking as the years progressed. ***3/4

MB: Being the padawan of one of the most iconic Japanese wrestlers to walk the earth had to have been a double-edged sword for Yamazaki. On one hand, you couldn’t have asked for a more knowledgeable trainer than early 80’s Sayama, as he was a wide repository of pro-wrestling in addition to the wide range of martial arts that he studied. Also, many of Yamazaki’s early opportunities surely came from his connection to Sayama, and it probably allowed him to be considered on equal footing with Takada in these days. Unlike his NJPW run, where he spent most of his first two years losing to anyone with a pair of wrestling trunks, here in the UWF he was a prestige player, even if he wasn’t in the same sphere as veterans Sayama/Maeda/Fujiwara. Also, in NJPW he lost to Takada more times than I can count, but here (despite having lost two hard-fought battles in the UWF to Takada prior to this) he is being presented as an equal, and we can only presume that his sitting under the shadow of Sayama had a lot to do with this. The downside, of course, is Sayama quitting pro-wrestling in disgust in September of 1985 (which we covered in detail in Vol.1 of our first Kakutogi Road column and will do more so in our 1985 Year in Review) and basically telling the industry to get bent while he started what would now be considered the first true MMA promotion had to have negative repercussions on his career going forward. This will be their 3rd encounter in the UWF, and while we are prone to rag on Takada in our normal columns, there is no doubt that he was a talented and charismatic performer that could give a great pro-wrestling match when he felt motivated to do so. The match starts by telling us that these two are on very equal footing, but that Takada has the edge in quickness, and Yamazaki must find a way to overcome this. The first few minutes saw Yamazaki have to fight off an onslaught of armbar attempts from Takada, which was all done in a surprisingly credible fashion. Yamazaki would grab his wrist and stack his weight on Takada, which accomplished both deflecting the armbar and passing Takada’s open guard. Again, this may seem elementary in 2021, but had to be mind-blowing technology to a pro-wrestling audience in 1984. Takada spent the next 8-9 mins constantly applying pressure, forcing Yamazaki to be purely on the defensive. Just when it would seem that the only way out for Kazuo is to either outsmart or out-cardio Takada, it was actually untamed aggressive that started to turn the tide. Something snapped in Yamazaki after almost being finished with a Kimura, and this prompted him to start wailing away at Takada’s legs, effectively chopping the tree down. Yamazaki overextended his assault by opting for a single-leg takedown, which turned the momentum back to Takada, who continued to put Yamazaki on the run up until the last minute where Yamazaki was able to chain a couple of suplexes together for the victory. This was easily the best match that the UWF had in 1984, and is still a classic today. The only minor complaints would be Takada’s inability to squeeze his legs together when attempting an armbar, and a couple of appearances from the Boston Crab. (To be fair that nefarious crustacean from the northeast plagued us all throughout the 90s as well, so it’s hard to criticize.) Easily **** ¼, and wouldn’t be topped until their final UWF match on 9-11-85. Sadly, Yamazaki would only be given three more singles wins against Takada in his career, none of which came by the time they were in the UWF-I, where it would have been one of the smartest moves they could have made. When I wake up in the night and find myself lamenting the wasted days of Yamazaki’s later showings, I am reminded that in the bizarre world of professional wrestling, hard work and talent can usually only take you halfway up the mountain, but without a special je ne sais qua there is no way to get to the very top. This is likely why the lazy Takada was able to stay ahead of Kazuo almost every step of the way throughout their careers, as despite his rock-star attitude in the '90s, he had a charisma that connected with the public, and was able to leverage that to his advantage.

1. Super Tiger. Satoru Sayama is often considered the Sandy Koufax of puroresu, so amazing (as well as style changing and innovative) in the New Japan junior division from 1981-1983, where he produced so many great matches, especially against Dynamite Kid & Kuniaki Kobayashi, that no one argues against his hall of fame credentials despite his "career" being so short. As the most breathtaking wrestler ever to grace the squared circle up to that point in time, it’s hard not to be initially disappointed with his shoot style work. After all, it was his graceful flying more than anything else that truly set him apart, and obviously that was not going to be allowed in a “real” fighting scenario, though he was pretty lax about that, especially early on. However, in many ways, his work in the the first U.W.F. that's largely been ignored actually further sets him apart as one of the great innovators, as it gave him a platform to utilize his explosive speed and amazing quickness in both similar and different manners. Once you get past the fact that he’s not going to be as exciting in shoot style as in junior style, it’s hard not to be impressed by the thrills he provides in this forum, as his speed, quickness, and athleticism still sets him dramatically apart from the rest of his contemporaries. Sayama at #1 is really the only given and inarguable ranking on this list, as even in a style that theoretically negates and eliminates many of his advantages, he's still light years ahead of the pack. If there’s a flaw in Tiger’s U.W.F. style, it’s certainly that it’s at least a bit too much like pro wrestling, until December. Tiger isn’t usually landing backflips, though he tries, and his m.o. is certainly to choose entertainment over realism at most turns, but that makes it even more amazing just how well he's able to make these moves that would be silly to anyone outside of Michael Pereira work within this "shoot" setting. Tiger arguably has enough discipline to not get too out of control, and as such is more akin to a precursor of Volk Han in terms of making shooting exciting without being preposterious. Almost every match he is involved in is at least good, which isn't close to the case with anyone else in the promotion, and he's really dramatically more interesting than the others, with an ever evolving style that proves him to be one of the few wrestlers that has been able to employ technically sound striking based on footwork, movement, feints, fakes, and generally things that work in a real fight rather than when the opponent is standing there begging to be clobbered.

2. Gran Hamada. Outside of Sayama, Hamada was the only truly excellent wrestler in this promotion in 1984. This ranking is surely highly controversy because he only worked the first tour, 5 out of the 40 U.W.F. shows, and his matches weren't remotely shoot style. That being said, he appeared to be one of the best workers in the world in 1984, which cannot be said for anyone below him. His match was by far the best match on the two shows he wrestled on that we have footage of, whereas Fujiwara vs. Maeda was considerably mediocre. The promotion ultimately wasn't the right fit for him, but he was a far better worker in both the lucha libre and the New Japan style than any of the original batch.

3. Kazuo Yamazaki. Yamazaki debuted with the promotion in the opening match of the July tour, their second series, against Mexican wrestler Gallo Tapado, but with the style quickly changing as the luchadors exited and the style became more realistic with every tour, Yamazaki quickly broke through to main events status, having one of the memorable programs of the year with Nobuhiko Takada. Though he was only two years into his career, in some ways that with an advantage, as he was essentially an unknown quantity, so he wasn't locked into doing the same old routine that everyone loved. At this point, he had probably spend more time training in real fighting than in pro wrestling, so it was easier for him to alter his game to what he did when the bright lights weren't on. As a whole, he was the most realistic performer in this league. He was very well rounded, definitely much better in standup, but very capable on the ground. His striking was really good because he focused more on using his footwork and feints to set it up, making it seem difficult to connect without just eating a just as powerful kick back.

4. Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Fujiwara was definitely better suited for what the U.W.F. was becoming than for New Japan, as his realism on the mat had a home here, and his setup and timing worked much better in a style that wasn't supposed to be constant excitement. Even in the days when he could arguably pass for 45 years old, he was not particularly athletic, certainly not flashy, and the weakest striker of what would become the core stars of the league. He was a very solid meat and potatoes performer though. He could lay out a nice match, delivering the substance, and leaving the style for his opponent. He was the most technically proficient mat wrestler in the promotion, and while his submission style wasn't exactly thrilling, he could really eat the clock grinding away in between explosive moments, while leaving the thrilling comebacks to the opponent. He was a smart worker, and in these days he mostly took himself and his matches seriously.

5. Nobuhiko Takada. Takada was more suited for what the promotion starting out as than for what they became, but he was young enough to really be willing to try to change his style. His effort, energy, and activity, especially on the mat, were much higher than in 1990's, and he was generally fun to watch. Physically, he just had so many advantages, as he was more or less big enough to be considered a heavyweight, but at the same time athletic enough to be a junior. Just a nice combination of power and speed, with a kick oriented style that really carried the day. He was definitely better in the later stages of the match that in the developing portions, but he had a lot to offer those such as Yamazaki & Fujiwara who understood how to mostly use him to the matches advantage.

MB: Due to the real style of this promotion only starting to take shape in mid-September of this year, it didn’t seem like I had enough information to make a proper “best-of” list when it came to the individual performers, but I will examine the main 5 performers, and see what we can takeaway from all of this, especially with how it compares to where we are at in the '90s.

Satoru Sayama: Sayama was the superhero of this outfit, and it’s almost a shame that we didn’t get to see how his style would have evolved going into the '90s. Of course, he evolved more than anyone by being the first to give us a true MMA promotion, and therein lies the conundrum with assessing him. Seemingly, he had the greatest desire to see real shooting take place, going as far as to abandon the soft pleasures of being a Japanese superstar to forge ahead on a thankless and difficult road, promoting real fights about 8 years before the rest of the world cared. He was the flashiest of the original UWF performers, but also showed some of the best footwork and nuance in shoot-style history. Even in '92, we haven’t seen anyone move, parry, or feint, like Sayama, but perhaps like Volk Han after him, he was always looking to try and take things in the most entertaining direction possible. With Sayama you could always count on an entertaining match, if not the most realistic. Still, it’s not really fair to overly criticize him for this because he was going into this as the embodiment of a high-flying daredevil, and for him this was actually a paired down version of his usual persona.  

Akira Maeda. Out of all the main performers this year, I feel that Maeda is the hardest to assess. That’s because we haven’t seen much of the real Maeda, yet. He spent most of the year wrestling a more traditional pro-wrestling style against whatever random American/European that had a free weekend to spare, so his matches with Yamazaki and Sayama are the few glimpses that we got to see of him in this new style. One clear thing was that his karate background served him well, and in his match against Sayama, it looked like two pro fighters that understood that they couldn’t simply walk right into the other’s space without paying a harsh penalty for it. We will have to wait for 1985 to run its course to get a better analysis, but I fear that the problem with Maeda is that he is content to kill time in his matches, and doesn’t seem to carry the same sense of urgency that the rest of the roster has been maintaining in their bouts.

Kazuo Yamazaki. Yamazaki is probably my favorite performer in the history of the UWF, and 1984-1985 was where his star shone the brightest. While he isn’t as charismatic or athletically skilled as his mentor, Sayama, he has an awesome cerebral persona about him, like at any moment a wave of repressed emotion is going to boil up to the surface and cause problems for his opponent. He was always subtle, nuanced, and did whatever he needed to do to make the match better, and falls into the category of professional wrestlers that were the glue that kept the middle-of-the-card together, despite never getting to taste the glories of being in the top spot. Yamazaki is also the wrestler out of this group that seems to have changed the least from here to the '90s. It’s still the same Kazuo, only his bulkier future physique being the main difference. He was great from 84-00, and it’s almost a crime that he was squandered in the UWF-I.

Nobuhiko Takada. As much as Mike & I deservedly rag on Takada in our normal columns, I fully support the 1984 version of Nobuhiko. He was a well-rounded performer who put a lot of effort into his work in these days. Interestingly, he didn’t rely on a lot of kicks as he did in later years, but wrestled a lot more, constantly looking for a quick takedown and submission. He did strike, but sparingly, and was more effective because of it. Takada probably showed the worst devolution from '84 to '92. If this version of Takada showed up in '92 era UWF-I, he wouldn’t exactly be cutting edge, but would still be a nice fit. Stardom was sure to breed laziness, and by the time the UWF-I ended in '96, he may as well have been wearing spandex and a cape to the ring.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara. While my suspicions are correct that Fujiwara always looked ancient, he was a much more palatable presence these days. By the time the PWFG rolled around, he didn’t seem to take himself as seriously, which was probably good for his real-life state of mind, but bad for his promotion. He was far less comical here than he would become in later years, and even his absurd headbutt wasn’t as offensive in these days. He did a good job of conveying himself as a sadistic submission machine, going as far as to sometimes sink submissions in far deeper than what you would expect in a worked contest. As it stands, he is someone that you have to have a certain amount of begrudging respect for even though his lack of athleticism pushes the boundaries of credulity.

1. 12/5/84 No Fall Death Match: Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara

2. 9/11/84: Super Tiger vs. Akira Maeda

3. 4/17/84 2/3 Falls WWF Light Heavyweight Title: Perro Aguayo vs. Gran Hamada

4. 12/5/84: Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Nobuhiko Takada

5. 10/17/84: Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Nobuhiko Takada

Honorable mention. 9/7/84: Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara

MB:

1: 12/5/84: Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Nobuhiko Takada. This was hands down the best match that the UWF put out in 1984, and was probably one of the best of that year in any style. The added drama, both with the story in the ring alongside the knowledge that Yamazaki was finally getting a chance to shine, was enough to push this over the top. It didn't hurt that Takada brought his A-Game here, constantly pressuring Yamazaki with his speed, crafting a narrative that Yamazaki had a hopeless quest in front of him. It wouldn't wind up being their best match, and Takada can't execute a proper armbar to save his life, but it was great nonetheless and still holds up today.

2: 12/5/84 No Fall Death Match: Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara. A much better version of their prior match, with extra intensity, and very few pro-spots outside of Sayama's knee drops. Even those felt nasty in the context of this match, so there wasn't much wrong here, outside of Fujiwara's headbutt nonsense. A great blend of pro-wrestling energy with a martial arts flavor.

3. 9/11/84: Super Tiger vs. Akira Maeda. I felt that this match was groundbreaking in several respects. Firstly, this was the first time since he was fighting for real that Akira Maeda moved and acted like he was in a real fight. It wasn't just him though, as seeing these two stick, move, feint, and generally act like two people in a professional fight, was revolutionary in the world of 1984 professional wrestling. In fact, this was a glimpse of of what real MMA would come to look like, as it showed that fighters had to have footwork and a game plan on how to set up their attacks, even if they were planning on winning with a submission. Yes, their idea of having to get a fight to the ground via suplex rather than your more standard wrestling or judo based takedowns may seem hokey to the modern eye, but this was truly a sign that they were starting to tap into a much deeper well than they could have possibly fathomed. 

4. 9/7/84: Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara. This was a little weaker than their follow-up in December, but was still a very solid showcase, nonetheless. It suffered from having some added silliness that the rematch didn't such as a figure-four leglock and Sayama flying off the top rope on a couple of occasions, but it did show some legit submissions being applied, with legitimate intensity, which had to be a first for pro wrestling since the '30s.

5. 7/23/84 Akira Maeda & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Nobuhiko Takada & The Tiger (Sayama). The shoot flavors were only starting to get mixed into the stew here, so this was still leaned heavily on the pro-side of the spectrum, but it was incredibly entertaining and still had more gravitas than just about anything else that was going on in the early '80s.

Honorable mention. 10/22/84: Akira Maeda vs. Kazuo Yamazaki. This was perhaps the best match of the year in terms of showing what this style could look like with a minimum of pro wrestling spots. This was still very early into the shoot experience, so this wasn't void of professional tropes, but there was a lot less of it here than anywhere else this year. This made for a less entertaining experience, but was also fascinating because it showed that there was a lot of uncharted territory within this style, waiting to be discovered.