Kakutogi Road: The Chronological History of MMA
Chapter 37: PWFG TURN OVER act. 1 6/25/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
By Michael Betz & Mike Lorefice 4/13/21

Sun Tzu once observed that "Even the finest sword plunged into salt water will eventually rust." Surely, he was speaking prophetically of a future epoch, a time when there would be a conflict raging for the hearts and wallets of the Japanese public and the PWFG clan, under the leadership of Yoshiaki Fujiwara, would allow the formidable edge of their blade to become blunt and ineffective via a lack of vision and steady leadership.

We have now made it all the way to the middle of 1992, and the shoot-style wars are starting to heat up, which will have a two-fold effect of both forcing innovation within the combat-sports landscape and eventually leading to a culling of the weak by eliminating all challengers until only one victor emerges. Yes, the stage is now being set to force this entire affair into a zero-sum game where the winner takes it all, and the few that are left playing will simply have to be content with the scraps. We are still roughly a decade away from PRIDE FC taking the mantle of being the last meaningful challenger to remain standing, so we will continue to observe how this will all play itself out. 

The date is 6-25-92, and we are back within the quaint surroundings of the Korakuen Hall. It would seem that Fujiwara is continuing to take things in a more modest direction, compared to his contemporaries. In fact, this very night, Akira Maeda and his band of RINGS mercenaries are having a rival show just north of Tokyo in the city of Sendai. That event drew almost double the 2,200 people that are here for this showing, but is nothing compared to May, when the UWF-I drew 14,000+ to see Takada/Albright and Rings squeezed over 10k for a throwaway main event with Akira Maeda vs rando-man. An attendance amount is by no means a definitive barometer on the quality of the product, but in this case is probably a sign of a disturbing trend, in revealing that the PWFG has not been able to keep strides with the waves that their two competitors have been making, deservedly or not. The only major show they have been able to put out so far was their April event with Maskatsu Funaki vs Roberto Duran, which may be too early to tell, but is unlikely to have moved the needle in any meaningful way.

ML: PWFG has run a much more ambitious schedule in 1992 than they did in 1991. Yokohama Bunka Gym, Tokyo Gym, & Osaka Furitsu Gym are all mid-sized arenas, and the Miami show was the first big foreign excursion we have seen from the shoot leagues. This and the 2/24/92 show are more modest affairs, but three of their seven shows last year were also at Korakuen Hall, with Hakata Starlanes and Hamamatsu City Gym also being smaller shows. I definitely wouldn't say that PWFG aren't trying, their biggest problem is they simply don't have that one guy people will show up for no matter what, while RINGS and UWF-I do.

Things are underway with Bart Vale giving a heartfelt tribute to the man that was most responsible for his breaking into professional wrestling, Masami Soronaka. Soronaka was a major figure behind the scenes for the PWFG, being Fujiwara's right-hand man, handling talent scouting, booking, and training. He had a background in Kodokan judo, karate, and sumo, before joining the original UWF in 1984. He went on to marry Karl Gotch's daughter, and moved out to Florida to help Gotch, and run a wrestling school. He died shortly before this event took place on 6-18-92, and was surely a major blow to Fujiwara and the organization. Vale talks about how he was a great man who helped him immensely with getting into wrestling, but no amount of words could equal what Fujiwara is saying here, as he silently mourns the loss of his friend.

ML: Soronaka may not have been the most ambitious matchmaker, but his loss was crucial to the decline of PWFG. He was in charge of foreign talent & arguably close to Fujiwara's equal in running the out of the ring affairs even though he was in Florida most of the time, but now more or less all the behind the scenes activities, which I get the idea Fujiwara considered a burdenous means to an end, now fell squarely on Fujiwara's shoulders. It also made Vale more important, which can never be a good thing, by virtue of him now being the man in Miami.

Our first match this evening will be a repeat showing of Jerry Flynn vs. Ryushi Yanagisawa, which was one of the highlights of last month's show, although it isn't encouraging to see them repeat themselves so quickly. The match starts with Flynn showing some impressive footwork, utilizing the side-stance in a most excellent fashion, especially for a man of his size. He seems to be getting the better of Yanagisawa in the opening stages, so eventually, Ryushi opts to go for a deep single-leg takedown, but Flynn keeps his winning ways going with a nice sprawl. Flynn isn't quick or crafty enough on the mat to keep any lasting pressure on Ryushi, so it isn't long before the tide turns, and Yanagisawa scores the point from Flynn taking a rope escape.  The rest of this match had an excellent flow to it, and I would say that it was better than their last showing from that standpoint. On the downside, the intensity was lacking at times. These two have great chemistry, but too often in this match, it felt like they were having a light sparring session between two friends, which is not what you want to project in a wrestling match, shoot or not. The match ends at 11:46 with Flynn winning via submission. ***

ML: One of the trends we have been seeing is the rookies often fight the same opponent over and over. I assume this is to make things less difficult for them, the more they can train, prepare, and work with the same foe to build familiarity, the less their overall inexperience and unfamiliarity hurt their performances in the short-term. I was expecting them to build upon their first match, which was good because, for once, we had two well trained kickboxers doing a credible standup encounter. While it is extremely important to be well rounded, they unfortunately strayed so far from what they did well in the first match in an attempt to shore up their weaknesses that we just wound up with a rather dull and pedestrian grappling bout. In the long term, maybe this led to some better things, but for today, it was a huge step in the wrong direction. This wasn't awful, but it was never compelling.

Next up is Minoru Suzuki vs Yuki Ishikawa. Ishikawa is going into this with one shoot and one work on his PWFG résumé. With his shoot he showed some nice takedown defense skills, but was somewhat submission deficient, and in his worked bout he came across as a more plodding version of Kakihara, so having a match with Suzuki (who seems to be something of a loose cannon lately) should be interesting.

Whatever this was, it was intense. Suzuki tries to bang with Ishikawa in the beginning, but gets outclassed when he misses a high kick, which creates an opportunity for Ishikawa to take him down with a low-single. Suzuki is just too quick and slick and is able to reposition himself almost immediately, but instead of trying to sink in a choke from behind while his opponent turtles up, he instead opts to start wailing away with strikes to the back of the head. If that wasn't enough to punish the rookie's insolence, he starts throwing in some soccer kicks for good measure. Ishikawa was able to stand up and free himself from this assault, but not for long, as Suzuki took him right back down to the mat. From here, Suzuki just kept riding Ishikawa, keeping the pressure on him, both with his bodyweight, and short hard shots to the side of the head. Suzuki wasn't trying to bludgeon his foe with major ground'n'pound, but was simply using strikes to annoy his opponent into making a mistake. Ishikawa fought valiantly, but like Fuke before him, he simply doesn't have the speed or tools to hang with Suzuki, and other than getting a few shots in, this was an easy shoot-victory for Suzuki. Nice to see another shoot, but someone needs to find Suzuki a worthy opponent.

ML: You can really see the appeal of shooting to Minoru Suzuki in a match like this. It's such a great opportunity to utilize his speed in order to humiliate the opponent in somewhat cruel and sadistic ways. Ishikawa is a game opponent, and does his best to take it to Suzuki, but Suzuki is both too fast and as too much knowledge of how to react to the initial surge to wind up taking right over. This was short and one-sided, but it was definitely interesting and edgy.

Now for Masakatsu Funaki vs Kazuo Takahashi. Funaki has been operating beneath his talents for..well, his entire run in this promotion honestly. This has especially been the case these last few months. His fight with Duran could have been good publicity had Duran bothered to take it seriously and show up in any kind of shape, and he looked smooth as silk in his last showing against Takaku Fuke, but it was a completely one-sided squash that didn't help anyone. He always looks good, but his only matches worth mentioning are those that he's had with Ken Shamrock, and we've already seen that on three occasions now. It will forever be one of the great mysteries of the cosmos as to why they didn't make a major push around building a series of Suzuki vs Funaki matches that could have torn the house down, but instead insisted that Fuanki just kind of float through his time here in some kind of state of abeyance.

Here we will see a repeat of 10-17-91 where Masakatsu Funaki and Kazuo Takahashi will do battle, once again. This is a fine match on paper, and their showing in October 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 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. After this sequence 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. ***

Now for the moment of dread. The current "Champion of the World," Bart "America" Vale is back, riding high from his recent "victory" over Ken Shamrock, and is just in time to give Fujiwara a title shot. Shamrock isn't present tonight, so we must only assume that he has been wilting in a corner, bewailing his current fate. I can only assume that this match is but a noble gesture to give Fujiwara the right to redeem himself, by allowing him to take away this most prestigious title via trial by combat. While certainly not one for the ages, this wound up being a lot better than I expected, which isn't saying much. With the exception of the ending, this was almost free of any striking whatsoever, which was a two-edged sword as it spared us from Vale's goofy kicks which would have surely taken us into camp territory, but also served to take a long match (almost 20mins) and make it feel even longer. To be fair, both men were on their best behavior, and both put in a sincere effort to make this work. Vale was as intense as Vale could be while wrestling with Fujiwara, but he isn't going to be confused for Lou Thesz anytime soon and has no business doing a 20min grappling exhibition. This should have been under ten mins, but except for the ending (which saw Vale "KO" Fujiwara with the lamest chokehold in shoot-style history), it was passable and would have been fine on an 80s UWF card. That, of course, isn't going to cut it anymore in this new era of advanced shooting technology, as Fujiwara doesn't have the gimmicks or charisma to get away with being yesterday's news and his stagnation is soon on its way to cost him dearly.

ML: This is one of the most inexplicable booking choices the PWFG has made. Fujiwara didn't lose a match in 1991, but now loses three out of four in 1992 (granted the Nielsen match was an accident), dropping 2 in a row to Vale rather than finally putting over Funaki, Suzuki, or Shamrock. I get Fujiwara losing to Vale in his hometown of Miami, but even though Fujiwara did defeat Bad Bart in January, this seems the most obvious get my win back match ever, except that it doesn't happen. If we ignore the actual matches and just look at the results, Vale is suddenly the hottest fighter in the promotion, winning his fifth match in the row including one over his rival for the top foreigner spot, Shamrock, and two over the arguable top native, Fujiwara. The win over Fujiwara in Miami was more reasonable given the amount of standup in that match, but today Vale was shockingly even able to defeat Fujiwara in a ground based contest. These two did their best to make it less unrealistic than their usual match, but the lack of speed here compared to everything we saw earlier is just so striking. What they did was, I suppose, arguably passable enough by the 1988 standards of the UWF, but was never remotely interesting or exciting, and seemed incredibly dated. As expected, this was the worst match on the show by a mile.

Conclusion: I don't mean to beat a dead horse and keep harping on how the PWFG is making all the wrong moves, but it's frustrating seeing the potential they have within their roster not be given the catalyst it needs with some vision and strong booking. The brass at this outfit seems content on just meandering through each card without any real strategy or purpose. I had never given it much thought until today, but if Fujiwara gave Ken Shamrock the kind of stratospheric push that Albright is being given in the UWF-I right now and tried to base the rest of the card around finding good opponents for Funaki and Suzuki, then they may have had a real chance. Ken had the charisma, look, and gravitas to be a good candidate to build your promotion around, even if he hadn't paid his dues with years of experience. Still, this may be a moot observation as there may not have been anything that would have stopped Funaki from enacting his vision of starting his own promotion based around shooting, but it would have made more sense than what I'm seeing now. At this point, I'm more interested in what will happen when this starts to morph away from being based around the UWF-style and turns into a more standard puroresu promotion, after the great exodus of talent in late 92.

ML: Albright fits into the monster gaijin role that the pro-wrestling promotions, who shall we say rarely reinvent the wheel, have been successfully promoting for years, while Shamrock, despite being aggressively roided, still looks like someone who should be fighting Funaki and Suzuki on an even level, especially in the days before weight classes. In many ways, Shamrock really is the star of the promotion because he has a tough featured match on every show, whereas the other top 4 guys kind of alternate, but there's really no particular reason for him to be a bigger star then Funaki or Suzuki, especially in Japan where having one key native draw is almost make-or-break for the smaller promotions. To me, the big problems are that they won't first pick between Funaki and Suzuki by having one beat the other, and then secondly have Fujiwara put the winner over. Since none of that ever happens, there's a sort of perpetual limbo where Fujiwara is #1 but not really, and Funaki and Suzuki are #2A & #2B, mainly based upon similar results against Shamrock, who trades wins & draws with them but never fights Fujiwara (until the end of '92), and Vale (who loses to Funaki & Suzuki but beats Fujiwara).

*In other news*

Rumors are circulating that World Karate Association Heavyweight Champion, Maurice Smith, will have a mixed match against Masakatsu Funaki in October.

The drama within the pages of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter continues to heat up as it pertains to Nobuhiko Takada and Trevor Berbick. Gene Pelc wrote in once again to take Dave Meltzer to task. Here is his latest letter, quoted verbatim:

 "Living in Japan, I unfortunately don't get a chance to see your newsletter but a friend informed me you printed my letter in which I explained my connection with UWF International and first-hand understanding of the agreement between UWFI and Trevor Berbick and James Warring. He also said you again asserted that Berbick didn't accept the rules and was made to fight under adversarial conditions and that Warring was somehow double-crossed.

Concerning Warring, I again repeat that I always said the fight was a "shoot." There was absolutely no incentive for Warring to "go the distance" and not knockout Billy Scott. He would have realized the same purse if he went the distance, knocked Scott out in any round, won by decision, or lost. The only condition was that he participate honestly to the best of his ability. If, as you wrote, Warring thought it was an exhibition but was surprised to find Scott shooting, why didn't he knockout the kid? Everyone I knew was amazed that a world champion boxer couldn't take out a young amateur wrestler who had only studied UWF style for a few weeks. Again, Warring had absolutely no incentive to carry a kid who was trying to shoot on him. This makes no sense.

Concerning Berbick, I've enclosed two letters from people to whom Berbick said that he was ready for Takada and that if Takada tried kicking the legs, he would destroy Takada. Jim Dougherty was the television interviewer and announcer who spoke with Berbick several times. Pat McCarthy was a judge for the match. Both gentlemen's letters clearly explain that Berbick knew the rules and was prepared to make Takada pay dearly for kicking the leg. I also enclose a copy of a photo which shows Berbick wearing karate-style leg protectors in the ring. A boxer never wears this type of protection. Only someone who knows he is going to defend kicks to the legs wears this type of gear. This is proof that he knew and accepted the rules going into the ring. The shame on him was when ran out of the ring. I also enclosed a copy of the rules which were read, signed and accepted by Berbick, his manager and his lawyer. These rules were attached to the contract. Paragraphs one and five couldn't be more clear, could they?

Gene Pelc

UWF International

Tokyo, Japan

And here is Meltzer's response, also quoted verbatim.

DM: According to a letter sent by Jim Dougherty to Gene Pelc on Jan. 16, he spoke of a television interview before the fight in Korakuen Hall in Japan. "Mr. Berbick and his lawyer were told during my interview that kicks to the lower legs were in the rules and both Berbick and Warring sat in the stands as an official of the UWF explained the rules to the fans. Trevor, in fact, stated that if he was knocked down on the mat that he could take care of himself. He referred to growing up in a very tough neighborhood and having learned how to wrestle and street fight. In the dressing room hallway, downstairs, Berbick exclaimed in a very loud voice that if he was kicked in the legs that it would be the start of World War III and that he would tear Takada's head off. If Warring or Berbick claim that they were not aware of the kicking rule, they certainly forgot their remarks, my remarks and the UWF demonstration they witnessed one week prior to the fight. It is my opinion that Berbick is a bad loser and Warring is a bad loser as well. We saw a similar attitude demonstrated by Mr. Lee Iacocca of Chrysler last week, so this behavior is not unexpected of the fighters in question." Judge McCarthy wrote: "Having been a part of the Takada vs. Berbick mixed match, I find it somewhat unbelievable that rumors suggest that Berbick was unaware of the low leg kick rule. I was witness to a number of conversations where Mr. Berbick, in a boastful manner, described what and how he would handle the wrestler kicking low." The two key rules Pelc referred to were: 1) The bouts shall combine the techniques of wrestling, kickboxing and boxing. Such techniques shall include punching, kicking, kneeing and wrestling with submission holds included. All fighters shall wear the equipment as is usual for his sport as practiced in the U.S. and Japan; and 5) Strikes are permitted to all parts of the body except the groin, and such strikes may not be delivered to a joint of the body with intent to disable. Wrestler may apply submission holds to such joints. 

The use of head-butts and elbow strikes shall not be permitted. I never wrote that Berbick was unaware that it was legal for Takada to kick his legs so that really isn't an issue. In fact, he, according to Lou Thesz, spent much time before the fight complaining that he wanted that rule out so obviously he was aware of it and wanted it out and when he didn't get it out and Takada kicked him in the legs, he walked out of the ring. But I can also cite an interview by a wrestling reporter with Berbick before the fight when he was looking for quotes and told Berbick that "Takada says he's going to knock you out in the first round, what do you say?" and Berbick's response was, "Isn't this just an exhibition?" This was never reported in Japan because the reporter was trying to "protect" the legitimacy of the fight in Japan. The same reporter he told me how stupid it was for Berbick to say that because if he said it to a reporter who wasn't going to protect the business and how would Berbick have known one from another, it would have exposed the fight."