The Chronological History of MMA
Chapter 14: PWFG Battle of the Lions 9/28/91 Fukuoka Hakata Starlanes
By Michael Betz & Mike Lorefice 7/7/20

We are back again, this time at everyone's favorite bowling alley, the Fukuoka Hakata Starlanes, only this time with the PWFG crew in tow, ready to continue the road that can only lead to innumerable Kakutogi glories.We are welcomed to a montage of the PWFG clan training and warming up, when one quickly realizes that all pro wrestlers are really bodybuilders at heart, for between the various sleeveless neon muscle shirts, and Minoru Suzuki's hot pink Zubaz, we aren't sure if we are about to witness a wrestling event, or a Flex Magazine photoshoot. Hope is quickly restored when we find an ever-aging Fujiwara, who seems to be immune to the pastel charms of this wayward generation, wandering around before the show's start, overlooking the merchandise table, before giving us an interview.

When we last saw Lato Kiraware and Kazuo Takahashi, Takahashi had a very respectable showing against Greco-Roman specialist Duane Koslowski, while Kiraware was forced to completely embarrass himself, as Fujiwara's personal punching bag. Kiraware comes out swinging, putting forth some reasonably stiff palm strikes, which Takahashi is only able to cover up and deflect a portion of. After taking some stiff shots, Takahashi wisely shoots in with a deep single and takes Kiraware to the mat. Surprisingly, the strikes don't stop once the fight hits the canvas, as Takahashi throws some punches to both the face and midsection of Kiraware, looking to try and create an opening, but Kiraware was too close to being underneath the rope, so the ref orders a restart. This was a gift for Lato as he wastes no time in firing off some more palm strikes, landing an especially epic one, flush into Takahashi's face around 3 ½ mins into the match. A dazed Takahashi starts to counterattack from the clinch, even delivering a headbutt to Lato (which apparently are legal in PWFG due to Fujiwara being a specialist) but is taken down to the mat and forced to start defending from his guard. They both continue to deliver stiff slaps to each other while on the ground, before Takahashi starts to wiggle out from underneath, and attempts to stand up, which causes Lato to deliver a vicious suplex, which leads to Lato scoring a knockdown. The rest of the fight is basically Kiraware slapping the daylights out of Takahashi and is ended when Takahashi is caught in a guillotine, after attempting another single leg takedown.

I cannot believe I'm saying this, but this was a good match. No, it didn't have any impressive positional changes, or grappling wizardry on display, but out of all the worked PWFG matches so far, this probably felt the closest to an actual MMA fight, minus the flashy suplex, and Kiraware not completely following up his attacks when Takahashi was dazed. In fact, outside of those with a trained eye (and especially to the audience that witnessed it) this would totally pass for real, and that is really the magic behind this style. To be able to feature pro wrestling in a stripped down, no nonsense fashion and still be entertaining is a tough balancing act, and we have to give Takahashi a lot of credit, as his willingness to take some stiff shots really pushed what would could have been a mediocre entry into the realm of greatness.

ML: Takahashi is clearly positioned as the better wrestler while Kiraware has the better hands as well as a massive size advantage. Takahashi, as always during these days, mainly tries for the takedown, but beyond the difficulty of taking down the killer whale anywhere, usually when he does, Lato conveniently manages to fall right into the ropes to force the restart in standup. Kiraware does a lot of that action figure, turn at the waste kind of striking, using some solid open hand slaps but never mixing it up in any way. He has one big suplex, but is basically just trying to hold Takahashi off until he figures out a way to win, which comes in the form of countering a takedown with a guillotine. This match was believable enough to be a solid restrained undercard bout in this style, but also kind of bland & repetitive without much skill on display.

Next up is Takaku Fuke vs Wellington Wilkins Jr, and right away we are forced to notice Fuke's attempt at an '80's Tarzan motif. Gene Lebel was famous for sporting a pink gi, and would claim that it helped distract his opponents, but he did not have anything on Fuke's trunks, which are a result of what would happen if you crossed leopard print with an Oreo cookie.

Right away this is off to a blistering pace, as Wilkins fires off a high kick, only to be taken down with a lighting fast single leg, which Fuke transitioned out of into a modified straight armbar attempt, prompting a rope escape from Wilkins. After a leg-lock duel, Wilkins switches gears and knees Fuke several times in the chest, but one knee went low, and wound up being an unintentional groin strike.

The rest of the match saw a plethora of takedowns, positions changes, submission attempts, etc, before Fuke ends the bout by securing an armbar just shy of the 11min mark. This was reasonably entertaining, but moved too fast to really build any tension or feel like more than the perfunctory outing that is was. However, it was interesting to see it right after the first match, as we can see the contrast of ways to work a match within this style. This was not over the top by any means, but needed more space to really breathe.

ML: An active, lively contest, more in the UWF-I style complete with PWFG's new variation on their hokey scoring system. Fuke is improving considerably with each fight, and seems on the verge of a breakout match when pitted with a stronger opponent than Wilkins, who if a fine follower here, but doesn't offer a lot beyond low blows that kill the momentum. While not as believable as the opener, Fuke has enough skill to make me take notice.

Now we have the most excellent Naoki Sano vs Master Soronaka's number 1 pupil, Bart Vale. It's a shame that we only get a few more matches from Sano after this, as he was a real asset here, and it would have been interesting to see him as one of the early Pancrase guys, as opposed to staying on the pro wrestling trajectory that he was on. As it was, he was basically being loaned out by the SWS promotion, who had a working relationship with Fujiwara and the PWFG at this time, so it was probably never intended for him to be more of a helping hand, but it was great to see him here while it lasted.

Vale wastes no time in throwing the high kicks, but is stopped cold with an excellent Ippon-seoi-nage (One Arm Shoulder Throw) from Sano. Grappling exchanges ensued, with Vale attempting a couple of kimuras to no avail, and Sano getting a short-lived mount position. Vale would continue his foot attacks, as always, he is quite slow, but Sano makes him pay for his sluggish execution and catches the leg off a slow kick, and immediately turns it into a takedown.

Vale acquits himself better on the ground, as the speed disparity between the two isn't as noticeable, and he is better able to utilize his height advantage. We are soon led to our first groan worthy exchange as Vale spins around and plops down to the mat off of a thigh kick from Sano, only for Sano to grunt and summon all the power of his forebearers to execute a single-leg Boston Crab, in a most dramatic fashion. This leads to a rope escape of course, and from here, Vale starts loosening up a bit and begins to throw some palm strikes, along with some kicks, which leads to another sequence where, after missing a roundhouse, Sano gets a takedown and pulls out the double-leg variation of Boston's favorite submission. Vale had this scouted though, as he was able to reverse it by doing a push up and forcing Sano to fall on his head.

The rest of the fight more or less alternates between Vale seeking a TKO via kicks to the midsection, and Sano fishing for toe holds, but the end came when once again Sano pulled deep into the well, and slapped on another crab from Boston, to which the crowd went nuts over, and submitted Vale a little after the 15min mark.

This was.ok. It was entertaining, as Sano always is, but after watching the first two matches, which while different from one another, were both in the more modern take on this style, this wound up feeling kind of hokey. This would have played a lot better if it had been on a NEWBORN UWF, or NJPW card a couple of years prior, but things are already starting to quickly evolve, and the holes in the old ways are becoming too obvious. This probably was partly due to Sano not being as experienced in this style as others on the roster, and Vale's slow delivery didn't help in creating the illusion that this needed either, but still, an enjoyable match.

ML: Vale would wade in with a movie kick until Sano took him down into a submission. Vale always seemed to have the upper hand in this match because he could get a reversal & attack with his own submissions, while, for the longest time, Sano oddly wasn't really trying to do anything on his feet but counter into a takedown or throw. Sano did well with the inside leg kick when he finally became willing to throw, and the match turned from there, with Sano doing damage & even scoring two knockdowns on his feet, the later leading to his 1/2 crab victory. This was okay, but it was more a 1988 UWF match, and it lacked the believability and intensity to really make you buy into all the near finishes. Sano has been excellent so far, but he isn't experienced enough in this style to be asked to carry Vale, who Funaki could do nothing with. This was a good win for Sano, but I'm not sure what purpose it really served given his limited availability, probably just payback for PWFG running over everyone in SWS.

Next is Masakatsu Funaki vs Mark Rush, and hopefully this will be a great showcase for Funaki, as the only opportunity he's really been giving to shine here so far was against Ken Shamrock at the prior months outing. Rush did a respectable job last time, against Takahashi, but is still an unknown, as he had no prior experience before or after the PWFG, so this should be interesting.

Right away Funaki is floating around Rush, and peppering him with leg kicks, and even though Rush managed to catch a kick and get Funaki on the mat, it didn't matter as Funaki is able to easily get out, and reverse his bad position. We can quickly see that Funaki is on a whole different level than Rush, or really anyone for that matter, and Rush is only going to get away with what Funaki lets him.

Funaki toys with Rush throughout, and Rush's only notable offense was attempting a standing reverse Kimura a la Sakuraba, that he took to the ground and attempted to follow through on for several mins, otherwise this was all Funaki. One great sequence is when Funaki follows up a thigh kick with an uppercut from the clinch, and from there executes a nice standing kimura throw (a variation of the Sumi Gaeshi). Funaki wins via an armbar transitioned off a head leg-scissor hold.

It's always nice to see Funaki, and certainly interesting to see what a skill disparity between him, and someone that probably had a background in amateur wrestling, but it's still a mystery why they keep sticking Funaki in these pointless matches. Had they switched him and Vale, then everyone probably would have been the better for it. Vale tended to look decent against lower-tier performers, and would have probably mixed well with Rush, and Sano/Funaki was a proven formula as they already had two good matches over in the SWS promotion, but perhaps that's why they avoided this approach, in an effort to not go to the well too many times.

ML: A better performance from Funaki, who was more willing to make this a one-man show. Funaki opened up more here, both in standup where he showed his speed & footwork evading the wrestler so he could land his strikes, and on the mat where he transitioned more quickly & explosively. It was a more entertaining performance because he was less in lockdown mode on the mat, and was making things happen rather than waiting around to make his move. Rush was again decent, while he didn't do anything amazing, he was at least a willing and capable foil. The problem with many of these shoot style matches is the weak link brings the match down to his level, usually through inexperience and lack of training, but Funaki was able to maneuver around Rush in a manner that made Funaki look several steps ahead of anyone else on this card. The main reason not to recommend this is it was a squash, but I still think it was the best match on the card so far.

Now we have what we are all looking forward to, Minoru Suzuki vs Ken Shamrock. When we last saw Suzuki, he gallantly defended the honor of pro wrestlers everywhere by defeating the human oil slick, Lawi Napataya, in a shoot. Shamrock on the other hand had his reputation cemented as the top foreign talent in his prior bout with Fuanki. This is the 2nd time these two have met, as they both had an excellent 30min draw against each other at the inaugural PWFG event.

Things start off with an intense stare down, and we are off. Right away I'm impressed with Suzuki's footwork, very springy, and always feinting in a way that leads you to think he could shoot in at any moment. Shamrock fires off a high kick followed by a palm strike right away, and he is completely jacked here, just dwarfing Suzuki.

Suzuki gambles on shooting in with a deep single leg from a mile away, but is stuffed by Shamrock. However, Ken gives up his superior positioning by diving for some kind of toe-hold attack, giving his back to Suzuki. Suzuki uses this reversal of fortune to work for a crab, but Shamrock shows us the secret that we have all been looking for, that one simply needs to slap the next person in the face that tries to get you in this Boston contraption.

From here, Suzuki falls back for a straight ankle lock, much like Shamrock tried against his first confrontation against Royce Gracie, and just like Gracie, Ken went with his opponent's momentum to wind up in top position. After both fighters tried various unsuccessful leg attacks, they went back to their feet, and kept jockeying from the clinch. One nice sequence showed Ken give Suzuki a stiff knee to the midsection, which gave Suzuki an opportunity to hook Ken's free leg and attempt a kneebar from the takedown.

Suzuki couldn't quite extend the leg far enough, so he used a kimura grip to put the added threat of a toe-hold into the equation, and was able to put enough torque on that maneuver to force Ken to take a rope escape. Next we see a beautiful takedown set-up from Suzuki, as he does a very subtle short stomp to Ken's thigh, and immediately dives in to go for a clinch, followed up by a standing switch, while Ken is momentarily distracted.

It didn't wind up working, as Ken did a switch of his own, which caused Suzuki to turtle up, and Shamrock showed us a technique to deal with a turtled opponent that I had never thought of, which was to grab his opponents foot and dive over the opposite shoulder, as to wind up repositioned in a place where you have enough leverage to finish a toe-hold. While some would look back into this hazy shroud that is early '90's catch-inspiried grappling, and only see rudimentary ideas, if we dig a little deeper, we can see some interesting truths made manifest. Namely that wristlocks, toe holds, and other leg attacks, put the entire BJJ orthodoxy on shaky ground as they are techniques that are able to be hit from all sorts of angles, including what would otherwise be terrible positions.

Shamrock succeeded in getting a rope escape from his unusual foot attack, and they both returned to clinch warfare soon afterwards. The rest of the match saw various armbar and leg attacks from both men, punctuated by Ken's need to slap the stuffing out of Suzuki in between the ground exchanges, but the match ends when Suzuki hits a standing Kimura on Ken, only to be reversed into a Dragon suplex, which gave Ken a knockout victory.

This was excellent, and a great way to end the show. While it wasn't able to build as much drama as their first fight, due to being about 14 mins shorter, it didn't have any of the dead spots of that bout either, and was non-stop from the opening bell. If I had to pick between the two, I would still give their first match the edge, in terms of quality, but make no mistake, this was very good, and an excellent showcase of the new possibilities that are emerging. It's strange that real fighting is being advanced by a group of people that are pretending to fight for real, as if they were in a real fight.

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

Final conclusion: Even with some of the weaker matches, this is still hands down the best wrestling org on the planet at this stage of the game. The UWF-I arguably has the potential to claim that throne, but mediocre booking, and Takada's antics will surely prevent that from happening. As it stands, there is nothing better going on right now, and I'm really impressed at how far ahead of the time this outfit really was.

ML: The prelims may not have been great, but without the hamfisted headbutting antics of Fujiwara, every match at least felt like a serious & legitimate attempt at a martial arts match. Beyond the promotion running smoother without the diversion, the show was important for seeming to properly settle the top gaijin spot, with Shamrock surprisingly successfully following up his upset win over Funaki, while Bad Bart was gunned down on the undercard.

*In other news*

The Sediokaikan organization out of Japan is continuing to make strides to become the premier choice in the Karate/Stand-Up fighting sphere. They recently had their Karate World Cup event on 10-10-91, showcasing a lot of great talent within the Sediokaikan Karate style along with competitors representing their respective disciplines in Kickboxing, Savate, Muay Thai, and Tae Kwon Do. Some highlights include a stunning upset as Dutch Savate fighter Gerard Gordeau defeated Masaaki Satake in a thrilling bout. This Sediokaikan event has a format in which the first round is contested with both men wearing a gi under Knockdown Karate rules (punches only from the torso down, and kicks legal to all parts of the body, minus the groin or knee). If there isn't a winner after the first round, then both competitors take off their gi top and fight another round, and if there still isn't a winner then both fighters put on gloves and have up to two rounds of kickboxing. After all that, if there still isn't a knockdown or judges' decision, then the fight is decided by a brick breaking competition.

In this case, the fight was every fluid and even throughout, with the judges being unable to decide a winner, even after 4 rounds, so they went to the tie-breaking brick round, and Gerard Gordeau was able to break about 2-3 more bricks than Satake. This is especially shocking, as Satake has been a three-time Sedikaikan champion, and also had a winning kickboxing record going into this fight, so he was the odds on favorite to win this competition.

Gordeau completely dominated his next opponent, but was taken out in the quarterfinals by an Australian kickboxer, Adam Watt, who went on to face Toshiyuki Atokawa in the finals. Atokawa is a small, but ferocious competitor, who wound up winning the tournament when his continued leg assaults on Watt were eventually too much to handle, and Watt was unable to stand up on two feet.

Interesting things are developing between Sediokaikan and the fledging RINGS promotion headed up by superstar Akira Maeda. The head of Sediokaikan, Kazuyoshi Ishii, recently made an appearance at the 9-14-91 RINGS event, along with his top student, Masaaki Satake, and Maeda returned the favor by joining Ishii for commentary duties at the Karate World Cup event on 10-10-91. Furthermore, it looks like Ishii will be loaning out Satake and Nobuaki Kakuda (another top Seidokaikan star) for Maeda's next event. This is great news for Maeda, as the lack of a deep roster has been very apparent in the three events that he has had so far and is in dire need of a talent boost.

It is being reported that the UWF-I has rebooked Bob Backlund for a rematch with its main star Nobuhiko Takada. Hopefully this next meeting will be better than the last, as Takada quickly dispensed with Backlund in a little over a minute, in what was a very disappointing finish for a main event with a foreign star with the name value of Backlund.