Sakigake Gantetsu & Tony Arce & Vulcano vs. Solar I & Robin Hood & El Brazo 15:37. Even while standing on the apron, the two Brazo brothers in this match (El Brazo and Robin Hood) were mainly dedicated to getting the crowd to chant. Robin Hood would probably have been an actual good worker if he wrestled in a more serious manner. Solar seemed embarrassed by the behavior of his teammates. Sakigake Gantetsu was being a polite rookie and didn’t come close to resembling the future Kaientai DX leader he would eventually become. Tony Arce y Vulcano were solid and reliable but somewhat unspectacular, as usual. This was a pretty good way to start off this wrestling-filled day. Decent match. **½ 

UWF Super Middleweight Title Tournament Semi-final: Canelo Casas vs. El Pantera II 8:45. The work shown in this match was pretty good lucha for the time. Pantera hit a tope suicida out of nowhere that looked really cool. Canelo Casas hit a tope over the top rope, which was followed up by an amazing tope con giro by Pantera. Both workers did well, but this wasn’t as good as it could have been. It didn’t help that this was the second match on the show, while these two could have been booked higher on the card, for sure. Casas was very good, and he did his fair share of bumping and flying, but Pantera was even better, as Pantera hit his moves even smoother. In fact, Pantera was arguably the most graceful high flyer in the world at the time. That being said, Casas won the match via a very nicely-executed super quebrada. This match was short but sweet. Very good match. ***½    

Silver King & El Texano & Dos Caras vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. & Lightning Kid & Jerry Lynn 15:14. Lightning Kid was 19-year old Sean Waltman, and he certainly lived up to his name, as he looked like a kid here, and he was lightning-like fast. The Kid hit some spectacular high flying moves during his tours for this league, but this particular match wasn’t his finest outing in this league. The Kid’s cannonball to the floor was certainly awesome though. The most interesting thing about Waltman’s work at the time was his recklessness. The more experienced luchadores didn’t take it easy when The Kid was in there, and The Kid even ended up bleeding from the mouth. Jerry Lynn seemingly tried to be impressive and fit in with these breathtaking high flyers, and he was okay here, but he didn’t really impress too much. It looked like Lynn was going for some nice moves, but he often failed to deliver something really interesting in this match. This doesn’t mean he wasn’t a good worker at the time though, because Lynn had proven himself in pretty good matches he had with The Kid in 1991 in Texas-based Global Wrestling Federation, which were matches that were seemingly heavily influenced by Japanese junior heavyweight wrestling and Mexican lucha libre. Dos Caras executed a nice tope suicida, but other than that, he was just kinda there. Dr. Wagner Jr. showed more than we had seen from him thus far in the Universal footage, and when he wrestled his brother Silver King, both brothers sold well for each other, with King doing some big bumping. King executed a beautiful somersault into the ring off the apron onto The Kid. King & Texano, Los Cowboys, showed very good teamwork, as usual, and they stood out the most in this match, along with The Kid. Good match. ***¼  

UWA World Women’s Tag Team Title Decision: Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada vs. Kaoru Maeda & Lady Apache 17:16. What a tremendous opportunity to see two of the best AJW workers (Manami Toyota & Toshiyo Yamada) on this show. Since Universal was a full-fledged Mexican-style lucha libre league in Japan, it was perfect that we had a Mexican luchadora in this match, Lady Apache. Kaoru Maeda had left AJW and had been wrestling for Universal since 1990, so it was interesting to see her face AJW wrestlers. That being said, Kaoru had almost never been in the same match as either Toyota or Yamada up until this point in time. This was Apache’s first tour of Japan, so she was still very new to the joshi puroresu style of the Japanese. And while Apache’s style wasn’t nearly as crisp and intense as that of the Japanese girls, you could tell that she understood the stylistic differences and tried her best to impress as much as possible. Toyota and Yamada were the two most impressive wrestlers on this tour, as their style was so much more intense and impactful-looking than anyone else’s. Kaoru still remembered and still was able to hang in there with the AJW stars, as this was before she became a so-called “hadcore queen.” It was fascinating to see how well Toyota and Yamada managed to get Apache involved in this high-level AJW-style bout. They were very willing and able to allow Apache to be herself yet were not afraid to force corrections whenever necessary. This process was a bit easier and more predictable for them whenever they were in there with Kaoru, due to Kaoru’s AJW background. The fact that this was a middle of the card day show match on a men’s wrestling show did not seem to stop Toyota from trying to give the best performance possible. She was clearly trying to steal the show while also contributing heavily to the overall advancement of the match in every way possible. Unfortunately, though, in what should have been the biggest highlight of the entire day, Toyota’s super quebrada to the floor missed the target. Yamada saved the day by hitting an excellently executed high kick off the top onto Apache for the pin. While Apache was the weak link of the match, as expected, her performance turned out to be a pleasant surprise. Of course, we should have known, since we should trust in the mind and vision of El Gran Hamada, the master behind this tremendously exciting league; Federacion Universal de Lucha Libre. Very good match. ***¾ 

UWA & UWF Intercontinental Tag Team Title: Coolie SZ & Bulldog KT vs. Villano IV & Villano V 15:49. Coolie SZ (the future Jado) was indeed pretty cool, as he looked like a lucharesu version of Bret Hart. And just like the Hitman, he was saddled with a heavy tag team partner. They should have renamed Gedo "Anvil KT" instead of Bulldog KT. Needless to say, Gedo was the least impressive performer in this match. Los Villanos Quarto y Quinto were two of the most talented members of the Mendoza family, and they gave a solid performance here. This turned into a surprisingly good match. Jado was quite impressive and scored the submission win. Good match. ***¼ 

UWA World Tag Team Title Decision: Gran Hamada & Kendo vs. Brazo de Oro & Brazo de Plata 13:05. Once the crowd was done chanting and clapping for the attention-seeking Kendo and Los Brazos, everyone could finally pay attention to watching El Gran Hamada in action. The only way to truly describe this match is that it was an expected disappointment (pardon the oxymoron). That’s because Gran Hamada gave a really good and consistent performance, but everyone else underdelivered all the way through. Of course, there was still an evening show left to be worked, so the fact that this almost felt like an intermission was perhaps fitting. However, considering that this was a title decision match, there’s no way this can be called good. Okay match. **¼   

Show rating: 7.5/10.0. Very good show.

YouTube Review Playlists