UWF Debut 4/11/84
El Texano & El Signo vs. Mach Hayato & Mano Negra 21:09
Ryuma Go vs. Vinnie Valentino 10:10
Rusher Kimura vs. Scott Casey 9:06
Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo 13:17. Read Review ***
Akira Maeda vs. Dutch Mantell 8:33
UWF Video Bout 10
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Jack Snuka 11:11
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Mark Lewin 8:40
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. UFO 7:28 of 13:50 shown
3/5/82
Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Davey O'Hannon
Tiger Toguchi vs. The Iron Sheik
Gran Hamada & Kengo Kimura & Tiger Mask vs. Black Man & Colosso Colosetti & Steve Wright
MSG Series 1982: Rusher Kimura vs. Riki Choshu
MSG Series 1982: Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Dick. Murdoch
4/17/84
Mano Negra & Nobuhiko Takada vs. El Signo & Negro Navarro 17:29
Ryuma Go vs. Dutch Mantel 10:54
2/3 Falls WWF Light Heavyweight Title: Perro Aguayo vs. Gran Hamada 13:10. Read Review ***3/4
7/23/84
MS-1 vs. El Fantasma
Rusher Kimura & Ryuma Go vs. UFO & Rocky Della Serra
Akira Maeda & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. The Tiger & Nobuhiko Takada. Read Review ***1/2
7/24/84
Rusher Kimura & Ryuma Go vs. UFO & MS-1
Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Nobuhiko Takada vs. Leo Burke & Rocky Della Serra
The Tiger vs. Mach Hayato. Read Review ***
Akira Maeda vs. Pierre Martel
The Tiger & Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Akira Maeda 16:24. Read Review ***1/2
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Fantasma 7:31
The Tiger vs. Mach Hayato 9:17. Read Review ***
Tiger Mask demonstrating his training regiment and offensive techniques
9/7/84: Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Read Review ***1/2
9/11/84: Super Tiger vs. Akira Maeda 18:58. Read Review ****
U.W.F. Video Bout Series Vol. 9
7/13/85: Yoji Anjo vs. Tatsuo Nakano.
7/25/85: Yoji Anjo vs. Satoru Hiromatsu
9/6/85: Yuko Miyato vs. Osamu Hoshina
9/11/85: Yoji Anjo vs. Osamu Hoshina
Video Bout 11 9/7/84 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Frenchie Martel 11:13
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Pierre Leffeiel 11:35
Video Bout 13 1/7/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Masami Soranaka vs. Bernard Wright
Nobuhiko Takada & Osamu Kido vs. Mike Brannan & Johnny Londos
Video Bout 15
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Yoji Anjo
2/14/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Martin Jones
4/11/84 Omiya HH: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Bob Sweetan
7/23/84 Korakuen HH
MS-1 vs. El Fantasma
Rusher Kimura & Ryuma Go vs. UFO & MS-1
7/24/84 Korakuen HH
Akira Maeda vs. Pierre Martel (Frenchy Martin)
Rusher Kimura & Ryuma Go vs. MS-1 & UFO
10/5/84 Korakuen HH
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Cuban Assassin 13:40
Akira Maeda & Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Osamu Kido 25:35. Read Review ***
9/8/84: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Pierre Martel
UWF 10/17/84
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Cuban Assassin 15:36
Super Tiger vs. Stephen Pettipas 17:08
Akira Maeda & Osamu Kido vs. Phil Lafleur & Tapu Samoa 16:33
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 26:48. Read Review ***3/4
SWS 4/1/91
Minoru Suzuki vs. Apollo Sugawara 9:03. One of the most bizarre shoots I've ever seen. Suzuki was trained to fight & Sugawara was trained to make things easy on one another, and while this was supposed to be a work, they were just never on the same page. Suzuki approached it like another PWFG match where he didn't simply feed himself to Sugawara, and Sugawara just seemed completely befuddled as to what to do. Suzuki was using real footwork and backing him into the corner like he was fighting for real, but he wasn't actually trying to hurt Sugawara. Sugawara just seemed spooked though by Suzuki walking him down and landing a few quick, light shots that at least resembled real blows in their technique. When Suzuki shook off the lock up rather than falling into a suplex or something, Sugawara had no idea how to handle this invading menace, and began to shell up even more. In a pro wrestling sense, nothing had actually happened so far, but now Suzuki began to grow frustrated, and started toying with Sugawara, slapping him more to incite and embarrass him into committing to some sort of attack than to hurt him. Sugawara didn't seem to have any interest in figuring out how to deal with this foreign shooting thing, and continued to just hang close to the ropes doing nothing beyond offering a lock up that Suzuki continued to refuse to accept. Sugawara eventually got tired of looking like a pussy and getting punked after Suzuki connected with a solid palm to his face, and finally charged, locking Suzuki up against the ropes, but Suzuki got the underhooks and shuts him right down. Suzuki got a couple good open hand combos in, and Sugawara just looked so foolish trying to answer with one of those awkward, pro wrestling style wish they were front kicks. Sugawara finally got a good short punch in when Suzuki had him pinned in the corner, and they began to exchange angry headbutts in the clinch as the ref did his best to wrestle Suzuki off Sugawara, and a second tried to untangle their legs from the outside while an official almost made it into the ring probably to call it before Suzuki finally disengaged. Sugawara began complaining to Suzuki then the ref, only to eat a solid upper palm. When the ref instead complained to Sugawara for trying to land a few no technique closed fist punches that Suzuki didn't hang around for, Sugawara said the hell with it and just walked out jawing at the ref, who immediately awarded Suzuki the victory.
John Tenta vs. Koji Kitao 7:19. SWS booker The Great Kabuki put Tenta up to provoking Kitao in hopes of getting Kitao expelled from the promotion. From the outset, Tenta didn't really cooperate with Kitao's attempts to engage, provoking him by making him look too slow & deliberate. Due to this, there was never really a match, but rather mostly a staring contest with Tenta deflecting Kitao's sporadic attempts to do something, and dismissing him with a slap or some jawing. Kitao, who took exception to Tenta being a bit rough on a takedown, did escalate things, but he really had no other choice but to make legitimate offensive attempts given Tenta had shown to be completely unwilling to go along with the usual fakery. Kitao didn't show much honor in this though either, teasing the eye gouge in a sort of theatrical Jackie Chan Snake Fist sort of manner. When Tenta grabbed Kitao's arm trying to lock up, Kitao snapped at him with the eye gouge attempt, which Tenta luckily avoided. Kitao continued to stand with fingers poised, prompting Tenta to start swearing at him and questioning if they were really going to be blinding each other tonight? Eventually, the ref tried to intervene in their jawing contest, but wasn't as quick or alert as Tenta, so Kitao was able to connect with a kick to his back, taking him out for the DQ. Tenta taunted Kitao with a victory pose, and Kitao seemed prepared to just walk away, content to escape the fight by getting himself purposely DQ'd, but Kitao grabbed the mic, breaking kayfabe by telling the crowd that pro wrestling is fake and his opponent Tenta, also a decorated sumo who was undefeated in his brief career, was fake. Kitao was promptly fired after this incident.
7/19/79
Alexis Smirnoff vs. Higo Hamaguchi
Rusher Kimura & Ashura Hara vs. Ox Baker & Haystacks Calhoun
Andre The Giant vs. Mighty Inoue
10/22/84
Osamu Kido & Super Tiger vs. Phil Lafleur & The Cuban Assassin 19:16
Akira Maeda vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 17:23. Read Review ***
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Nobuhiko Takada 17:27. Read Review ***1/2
No Fall Death Match: Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 25:34 of 27:19. Read Review ****1/4
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Nobuhiko Takada 23:18 of 23:57. Read Review ***3/4
12/26/84
Nobuhiko Takada sparring
Yoshiaki Fujiwara sparring
Super Tiger kicking demonstration
Super Tiger vs. Kazuo Yamazaki sparring
Yoshiaki Fujiwara sparring
Battle Royal
1/16/85 Osaka Rinkai Sports Center
Akira Maeda vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 19:09
Death Match: Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 22:40. Missing last 2 minutes. ****1/4
1/7/85
League Match: Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 19:59. Intense grappler vs. striker match in the vein of Fujiwara vs. Super Tiger, though Yamazaki can't dictate with his striking the way Tiger can, so he was on the defensive a lot more, and relying on bursts of offense. Fujiwara focused on attacking the arm, while Yamazaki looked to hurt Fujiwara with one big strike so he could go to town on him with a Tigeresque barrage of knee drops and soccer kicks. What made this so good is in all areas is they were able to conjure the atmosphere of viciousness to the point where Yamazaki seemed brutal even when his kicks were misfiring, and Fujiwara's punch combination almost worked despite him missing 1/3 of the time. Fujiwara did a lot more selling here then in later years, and did a nice job of seeming vulnerable to his upstart adversary when he wasn't able to use his submission mastery to keep him on the defensive. You figured the veteran would win, but it wasn't wrestled with that obviousness, both wrestlers were often in danger, and the fault was more that they weren't coming as close to finishing as they should have been. Even against a "lesser" opponent, Fujiwara was totally serious here, no goofy headbutt or "fun" spots designed to get a rise from the crowd. The match was excellent from the outset, and never wavered in effort or intensity. Fujiwara controlled the early portion with his armwork, but then Yamazaki found his opening & wouldn't relent, working Fujiwara over in the corner with kicks until he was down, then dropping a knee on his forearm & putting the boots to him rather than breaking because Fujiwara was under the ropes in ther corner. This, of course, mostly just riled Fujiwara up, and he came back with his series of inaccurate punches in the corner, but still, even if Yamazaki was the smaller man, he was much better off making this a standup war because Fujiwara is the superior grappler. Once Yamazaki proved he could take Fujiwara's punishment, and give back a lot more of his own, he really took over the match & had Fujiwara on the defensive, forced to rely on his wily submission escapes & counters to gain an advantage. Yamazaki came back with elbows & leveled Fujiwara with one of those nasty slaps across the face we normally associate with Fujiwara. Increasingly, it was almost one way traffic on their feet, but while Yamazaki still didn't avoid the mat, he wisely chose to venture there on his own terms, for instance locking an armbar after stomping Fujiwara several times in the ropes. Still, as with his mentor Tiger, sooner or later, Fujiwara's ground prowess would wind up ruling the day, in this case he ultimately slammed his way out of a triangle & took over. As with the Fujiwara/Tiger matches, it was a bit long for what they were trying to accomplish, though that did give it a big match feel, and kind of settled into the same narrow pattern of Yamazaki overwhelming Fujiwara with his strikes that should have hurt him a lot more than they somehow did then trying for a submission, but ultimately getting reversed on the mat by the better technician. That's not to say it wasn't all quite good, individually it was pretty much all standout, but after a certain point the sequences weren't so much adding to one another as becoming redundant. I mean, at some point when you've seen them take the most ferocious strikes & survive countless locked in submissions, you began to feel that no one was really even making progress toward the finish, which would probably just happen at some indiscriminate point even though Yamazaki just getting a KO or Fujiwara just winning with some kind of arm lock were painfully obviously logical endings. Certainly the limit on the number of stomps to the head Fujiwara should have been able to survive was once again exceeded in just the first series. They finally worked their way to a nice finish where, after the entire match was kicks & submissions, Yamazaki stunned Fujiwara enough with a series of kicks to pull off a German suplex after a big high kick. The problem is rather than end it there, Fujiwara was inexplicably up first, & an unreasonably spent Yamazaki somehow had no defense for his piledriver of all things. Just goofy. Then Fujiwara did the hammerlock twice since Yamazaki made the ropes the first time before finishing it with a completely unrelated crossface to set him up for another match against Yamazaki's mentor, Sayama. While they are perhaps doing too much in order to maintain their superhuman pro wrestling abilitiy to endure punishment, this both makes for some more epic encounters as well as more random seeming finishes. ****
Super Tiger vs. Akira Maeda 22:18. Tiger is probably the greatest striker in the history of pro wrestling because he actually strikes as though he's in a real fight rather than someone whose opponent is just letting them do whatever they want. He uses footwork & feints to set things up, and is so far superior in that aspect than even the guys who crossed over from MMA & kickboxing bother to put the effort into being. And man, he is just so quick & explosive. I really enjoyed the striking in this match because they were willing to stare at each other, and be hesitant. While that sounds kind of dull, these weren't lengthy sequences of inactivity by any means, but rather they would actually exercise a healthy amount of caution before attacking because there could be repercussions, rather than just taking turns standing there and allowing their opponent to clobber them. These repercussions included Maeda taking Tiger down, as even though Maeda enjoys striking, he realizes his advantage in this matchup is weighing on his much smaller opponent. Maeda was a lot more active on the mat than usual, but still, that was very much the area of the match that was lacking. If Yamazaki was a lesser version of Tiger in the previous match, then Maeda was clearly a lesser version of Fujiwara in this match. Maeda was fiddling with Tiger's arm a lot, but while Fujiwara always seemed a very dangerous hooker who had the potential to capture an appendage at any time, Maeda's submission skills are very rudimentary, and more importantly, he was unable to generate any genuine drama or intensity to elevate his groundwork. Even when Maeda was sort of working a submission, the feeling was more of annoying Tiger with a controlling and grinding ground game than of imminent danger. While the standup was far more credible due to their movements and feints, & somewhat more exciting because Tiger is more skilled & diverse at it than Yamazaki and Maeda actually connects with his blows, even this portion lacked the all out intensity & grudge match atmosphere that Yamazaki & Fujiwara were able to create from the outset to make up for that. That being said, the last few minutes were fantastic with some brutal blows back and forth where they were finally almost able to make you believe they were really shooting on one another. Though Tiger is a human highlight reel, as you'd expect from a Maeda match, it was mostly quick explosions followed by lengthy deliberate controlling segments. It's more a match that had it's moments than Yamazaki/Fujiwara, which was fantastically consistent throughout, but as it took a while to get really good, it did give the illusion of building a lot better than a match where they're just going from start to finish. The finishing sequence really saved the match with Maeda finally letting loose & throwing caution to the wind, I just wish it went a little longer Tiger took him out with a headscissors. Tiger, Yamazaki, & Fujiwara all gave excellent performances tonight, and while Maeda was better than usual, he was still a very distant 4th. ***1/2
1/20/85
Last Mask Match: Super Tiger vs. Nobuhiko Takada 13:07. As you’d expect, pitting the two showiest shooters in the league produced a far flashier match than normal. In fact, it was the most junior heavyweight style match we've seen from Tiger in quite a while. I really wanted to love it, but despite it surprisingly even being a solid psychological contest, playing off the obvious, as Tiger’s shoulder was all taped up from his death match loss to Yoshiaki Fujiwara, it just never felt convincing enough. Takada was able to mount a legitimate shoulder attack because he catered his own strength - his kicks - to Tiger’s fragile area then tried to finish with his patented cross armbar. However, the kicks from both men wear fairly light , and generally this match just seemed to be worked too loosely to be all that credible. Tiger kept fighting the armbar, but finally Takada overwhelmed him with kicks for the major upset. This result was a huge surprise give Tiger had only lost his first singles match in the promotion four days earlier, and had yet to even lose a singles match to Akira Maeda. Having the ref stop the match because Tiger was too beat up to continue gave Tiger a bit of an out, while not taking away from what Takada had accomplished. ***
Akira Maeda vs. Osamu Kido 25:46. Kido is one of those wrestlers who more or less every Japanese fan respected, but I’m not sure how many of them truly enjoyed his matches because he never seemed to need a reason to be too conservative and dull. Maeda was more than happy to oblige, and they did a very slow match, mainly keeping things on the mat with one grasping an appendage or attempting to wrench it into a submission. The problem with some of the early UWF shows both in the 1st and 2nd run is there weren’t enough guys on the roster, so they’d have matches that were way too long to try to give the fans their money’s worth time wise. The last few minutes were good, but 15 minutes would have been more than ample for these two. Kido finally caught Maeda in a chickenwing armlock for the 2nd huge upset of the night. **
2/18/85 Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Akira Maeda 19:10 of 22:12. Even in his final days, Maeda was certainly never someone you’d describe as a boring fighter when he was being active, but one thing that kept him from being a standout is his activity level varied greatly from opponent to opponent. Generally, Maeda would be more than willing to go for it when in with an opponent who wanted to work, but let’s just say he’d concede that a lot of matches weren’t going to be making anyone’s match of the year ballot before he even stepped into the ring, and be even more prone to durdling. Maeda’s activity level was minimal against Kido, but tonight he appeared poised to make an effort against the always game Yamazaki. Even in his youth, Yamazaki was an excellent manueverer. For me, the primary reason he was the best of the UWF-I wrestlers lies in his ability to credibly, effectively, and slickly manuever himself or even his opponent in and out of holds. The level of counterholds and the difficulty and credibility of the transitions are just far greater and more realistic in a Yamazaki match than that of his peers. Yamazaki was obviously still developing here, and much of this match was controlled by the big star, Maeda. It got off to a good start, and seemed well on it’s way to being the high end match you’d assume these two would deliver, but Yamazaki simply wasn’t booked to be a legitimate threat to Maeda. At some point after Maeda had been in control for minute after minute, Yamazaki just disappeared. I kept waiting for Yamazaki to finally mount his comeback, but once Maeda seized control he didn’t allow Yamazaki to do, well, anything. Except for the fact he lasted over 20 minutes, Yamazaki wound up coming off more as a jobber than someone knocking on the door of the promotion's top tier. There was some good, stiff action, but just not enough of it given how long they were out there. **1/2
1/20/85
Last Mask Match: Super Tiger vs. Nobuhiko Takada 13:07. As you’d expect, pitting the two showiest shooters in the league produced a far flashier match than normal. In fact, it was the most junior heavyweight style match we've seen from Tiger in quite a while. I really wanted to love it, but despite it surprisingly even being a solid psychological contest, playing off the obvious, as Tiger’s shoulder was all taped up from his death match loss to Yoshiaki Fujiwara, it just never felt convincing enough. Takada was able to mount a legitimate shoulder attack because he catered his own strength - his kicks - to Tiger’s fragile area then tried to finish with his patented cross armbar. However, the kicks from both men wear fairly light , and generally this match just seemed to be worked too loosely to be all that credible. Tiger kept fighting the armbar, but finally Takada overwhelmed him with kicks for the major upset. This result was a huge surprise give Tiger had only lost his first singles match in the promotion four days earlier, and had yet to even lose a singles match to Akira Maeda. Having the ref stop the match because Tiger was too beat up to continue gave Tiger a bit of an out, while not taking away from what Takada had accomplished. ***
Akira Maeda vs. Osamu Kido 25:46. Kido is one of those wrestlers who more or less every Japanese fan respected, but I’m not sure how many of them truly enjoyed his matches because he never seemed to need a reason to be too conservative and dull. They did a very slow match, mainly keeping things on the mat with one grasping an appendage or attempting to wrench it into a submission. The problem with some of the early UWF shows both in the 1st and 2nd run is there weren’t enough guys on the roster, so they’d have matches that were way too long to try to give the fans their money’s worth time wise. The last few minutes were good, but 15 minutes would have been more than ample for these two. Kido finally caught Maeda in a chickenwing armlock for the 2nd huge upset of the night. **
2/18/85 Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Akira Maeda 19:10 of 22:12. Even in his final days, Maeda was certainly never someone you’d describe as a boring fighter, but one thing that kept him from being a standout is his activity level varied greatly from opponent to opponent. Generally, Maeda would be more than willing to go for it when in with an opponent who wanted to work, but let’s just say he’d concede that a lot of matches weren’t going to be making anyone’s match of the year ballot before he even stepped into the ring. Maeda’s activity level was minimal against Kido, but tonight he appeared poised to make an effort against the always game Yamazaki. Even in his youth, Yamazaki was an excellent manueverer. For me, the primary reason he was the best of the UWF-I wrestlers (Tamura exceeds him in the end, but most of his standout work was in RINGS) lies in his ability to credibly, effectively, and slickly manuever himself or even his opponent in and out of holds. The level of counterholds and the difficulty and credibility of the transitions are just far greater and more realistic in a Yamazaki match than that of his peers. Yamazaki was obviously still developing here, and much of this match was controlled by star Maeda. It got off to a good start, and seemed well on it’s way to being the high end match you’d assume these two would deliver, but Yamazaki simply wasn’t booked to be a legitimate threat to Maeda. At some point after Maeda had been in control for minute after minute, Yamazaki just disappeared. I kept waiting for Yamazaki to finally mount his comeback, but once Maeda seized control he didn’t allow Yamazaki to do, well, anything. Except for the fact he lasted over 20 minutes, Yamazaki wound up coming off as a jobber. **1/2
2/18/85
Super Tiger vs. Mach Hayato 16:08. Very little junior style this time, but that mostly just served to make it even more one-sided, as Tiger ran through Hayato with his kicks. Some good stuff from Tiger, but it was basically an elongated jobber match.
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Osamu Kido 26:35. Fujiwara was a lot more intense & fierce, slapping Kido around nastily in the brief standup portions & mostly owning him on the ground, where he cranked the Kimuras much tighter than you'd expect in a work. Kido kept hanging in there, and Fujiwara was beginning to get frustrated, stomping him after a rope escape. Finally Kido countered a judo throw taking out Fujiwara's knee with a knee as Fujiwara was shifting his weight to flip Kido. Kido then put the boots to the knee & concocted some sort of stump puller/standing kneebar hybrid where he theoretically put the pressure on the kneecap left to right with Fujiwara screaming until the ref stopped it. This isn't any kind of legit submission, as there's not enough control to really leverage the joint against the grain, but within the story of the match, this was pure evil. I liked the standup in this match quite a bit with Fujiwara really seeming nasty, but there wasn't that much of it, really just a shot here and there breaking up the lengthy low activity ground sequences that were just kind of laying on one another and tugging at an appendage in hope of something somehow giving. The match had potential, but it was the sort of match that, without any real wrestling or BJJ knowledge, ultimately wound up being an awkward battle of wills where they just tried one submission with no real leverage or body control until they finally got bored and switched to another. The 2nd half was considerably better, as they did more of a conventional pro wrestling submission style, rather than so much weighing on one another, and the intensity and ill will increased, but it's difficult to sustain heat in a 25+ minute match without much activity.
3/2/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Super Tiger vs. Martin Jones 14:28. Jones, one of the best of the best British grapplers, was allowed to be competitive with Sayama. He didn't exactly understand the UWF style, but he certainly had leverage and technique, and was able to tie and trip Sayama up. Though certainly much better than the Sayama/Hayato match, it had the same problem in that it wasn't nearly as effective as it used to be as a juniors style match because while Jones can certainly slap on a submission, he doesn't have a legit credible ground game to make up for what he was taking out of his arsenal. Ultimately, Sayama controlled with his striking when he had distance, and while Jones was able to slow him down enough to make the match compelling, it still never felt like he could win. I would have liked to have seen more chain wrestling, as I feel like this is the area where their skills really meet, and they are capable of enough speed that they could certainly have gotten away with it. ***
Kakutogi Road League: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Masami Soranaka 15:14. The work was surprisingly fluid, and the workrate much higher than the typical UWF match, as they did their best to you keep a junior style pace even though it was mostly on the mat. Takada was largely in control, which made sense given Soranaka had debuted in October, but Soranaka was scrappy, pulling some nice counters into submissions, and generally managing to survive despite making it look like he was about to lose any moment. Takada seemingly came into this thinking he was going to walk over Soranaka, and started to get frustrated when that didn't happen, resulting in him upping the ante with nasty kicks and even a tombstone. Though they predictably stayed in submissions longer than I would have liked, as was the UWF style, in general, they did a good job of making this dramatic without sacrificing much more realism than the general UWF match does. Soranaka seemed to be one of those guys who could do a little of everything, and would have excelled in the melting pot New Japan junior heavyweight division. Apart from being a 40 year old rookie, there was nothing not to like about him, as he was already a technically good and well rounded worker, who was solid in striking, suplex, and submission, with good athleticism and body control, and some intangibles. This match built well, and although Soranaka, of course, lost, he put up a far better fight than anyone would have expected, and earned a lot of respect in the process. ***1/4
Kakutogi Road League: Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Saturo Hiromatsu
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Caswell Martin
Osamu Kido vs. Ray Steele
Super Tiger vs. Masami Soranaka 13:19. One of the most realistic matches we've seen so far from Sayama. Particularly when it came to kickboxing, the footwork and movement was excellent because Soranaka was playing along. Takada also showed really good footwork in his match earlier, so it's disappointing that, as per usual in pro wrestling, even the trained fighters that know how they are supposed to move in a real fight just get lazy as time goes on, figuring it's not worth bothering to move properly because the opponent isn't going to do it anyway. Soranaka was a great rookied, and really seemed to have a good overall understanding of the fight game. Definitely the downside of this match is it's not that competitive, but that's to be expected given you have the leagues top star against a rookie. Soranaka brings out a lot of good things in Sayama though, and because he's a shooter rather than a former pro wrestler (even though he's been around wrestling despite not competing), he's a much easier person to have a reasonably believable match with, especially since he doesn't have any offense he has to get in. The strategies quickly become evident here, as Soranaka reasonably wanted to take this to the ground to avoid Sayama's explosive stand-up game, but he has to be enough of a threat on his feet to make that happen. Rather than the usual lame offering of the clinch, Soranaka dropped down into a body lock, sure to secure the underhooks. When that failed, Soranaka had to eat a kick in order to try to counter with a takedown. Sayama was more than happy to go to the ground on his own terms, as he has a good throw and submission game. He just doesn't want to ever be on his back. Soranaka was mainly getting dominated as you'd expect, but when Sayama countered his Kimura attempt with a trip and tried to go into a ankle lock, Soranaka pounced on the armbar. Soranaka finally had a few moments on the ground, but for the most part he has to be creative, for instance trying a Kimura when Sayama didn't let him get back to his feet after kicking out of a snap suplex. Eventually, Sayama had enough, working Soranaka over with a series of strikes before fishing with an overhead belly to belly into a Kimura. There wasn't a lot of drama here, as little was done to even try to pass off the illusion that Soranaka had a chance here, but the level of wrestling was about as high as we've seen from something that wasn't meant to be one of the leagues signature distributed big matches. ***1/4
Akira Maeda & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Dalibar Singh & Omar Atlas. No Finish
7/25/85
Kakutogi Nettai Road League Match A Block: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Keith Haward
Kakutogi Nettai Road League Match A Block: Super Tiger vs. Akira Maeda
Kakutogi Nettai Road League Match A Block: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Osamu Kido
9/11/85
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Nobuhiko Takada 26:18. I've never been as impressed with their original U.W.F. matches as some other people because they save all the action for the second-half. The first half is mostly parity, not surprisingly working better when they are kickboxing then when they are trading submissions. Certainly, the effort is much greater than in their 90s matches though, with much better story and more attention to detail, as well as speedier and more motivated versions of both combatants. These two still had a lot to prove, both because they are booked as being on more equal footing, and due to being behind Sayama, Maeda, & Fujiwara in the pecking order. Takada is at his best when he is spamming big kicks, and the second-half was just fireworks. He is so much quicker here, and is actually the better of the two because it's mostly a standup bout without much depth or dimension. The matwork isn't particularly evolved, but works better when they immediately go into a submission when someone is jarred by a suplex or slow to react recover from getting put down by a kick. Takada actually does a really loose triangle here, but Yamazaki slams his way out and goes into an armbar. It's surprising how many different techniques Takada uses in these days compared to the '90s when he's literally only interested in the armbar or the big kick. It really feels like he's thinking when you see him answer Yamazaki's right kick feint by sweeping out the left plant leg. Beyond it being the story of the match, these two seem pretty equal here, in part because they never really get into the extended grappling sequences that expose Takada. Yamazaki winds up more in home run hitter mode, as Takada has both the reach and the speed, so Yamazaki is always searching for the equalizer. Both men land several brutal kicks, but finally Yamazaki eats a series of middle kicks that do enough damage that he can't quite capitalize on catching one of them, and thus Takada is able to finish him by taking the leg back and depositing another in the liver. It was a little better than their 12/5/84 match, but again won't wind up topping my year end list of the best U.W.F. matches. ***3/4
Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 19:31
U.W.F. Video Bout Series Vol. 1 Commercial Tape 7/8/85 Hiroshima Kenritsu Taiikukan
Akira Maeda vs. Keith Haward 3:00 of 16:03 shown. Haward competed in freestyle wrestling at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 11:22 of 14:04 shown
Super Tiger vs. Osamu Kido 10:45 of 11:52 shown
Video Bout 2 7/13/85 Shizuoka Industry Museum
Super Tiger (Sayama) vs. Keith Haward
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Osamu Kido
Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Video Bout 3 7/17/85 Osaka Rinkai Sports Center
Osamu Kido vs. Keith Haward
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Akira Maeda
Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Great for its day. Tremendous heat. Very stiff & intense.
Video Bout 4 7/21/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Keith Haward
Super Tiger vs. Nobuhiko Takada. Excellent technique and strong strikes. Excellent match with a great finish.
Akira Maeda vs. Osamu Kido
U.W.F. Video Bout Series Vol. 1 Commercial Tape 7/8/85 Hiroshima Kenritsu Taiikukan
Akira Maeda vs. Keith Haward 3:00 of 16:03 shown. Haward competed in freestyle wrestling at the 1976 Montreal Olympics.
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 11:22 of 14:04 shown
Super Tiger vs. Osamu Kido 10:45 of 11:52 shown
Video Bout 2 7/13/85 Shizuoka Industry Museum
Super Tiger (Sayama) vs. Keith Haward
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Osamu Kido
Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Video Bout 3 7/17/85 Osaka Rinkai Sports Center
Osamu Kido vs. Keith Haward
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Akira Maeda
Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Great for its day. Tremendous heat. Very stiff & intense.
Video Bout 4 7/21/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Keith Haward
Super Tiger vs. Nobuhiko Takada. Excellent technique and strong strikes. Excellent match with a great finish.
Akira Maeda vs. Osamu Kido
U.W.F. Video Bout Series Vol. 5 Commercial Tape 8/25/85 Gifu Industry Pavilion
Kakuo Prospect A League: Osamu Kido vs. Nobuhiko Takada 7:31 of 18:43 shown
Super Tiger vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 10:38 of 14:47 shown
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Akira Maeda 9:27 of 20:33 shown
U.W.F. Video Bout Series Vol. 5 Commercial Tape 8/25/85 Gifu Industry Pavilion
Kakuo Prospect A League: Osamu Kido vs. Nobuhiko Takada 7:31 of 18:43 shown
Super Tiger vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 10:38 of 14:47 shown
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Akira Maeda 9:27 of 20:33 shown
U.W.F. Video Bout Series Vol. 6 Commercial Tape 8/29/85 Omiya Skate Center
Akira Maeda vs. Nobuhiko Takada 6:30 of 13:54 shown
Super Tiger vs. Osamu Kido 8:44 of 14:41 shown
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 9:53 of 14:09 shown
U.W.F. Video Bout Series Vol. 7 Commercial Tape 9/2/85 Osaka Rinkai Sports Center
Osamu Kido vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 7:00 of 11:55 shown
Super Tiger vs. Akira Maeda 7:49 of 18:57 shown
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 9:17 of 18:22 shown
U.W.F. Video Bout Series Vol. 8 Commercial Tape 9/6/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Super Tiger vs. Nobuhiko Takada 8:01 of 13:44 shown
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Osamu Kido 16:03 of 17:42 shown
U.W.F. Video Bout Series Vol. 6 Commercial Tape 8/29/85 Omiya Skate Center
Akira Maeda vs. Nobuhiko Takada 6:30 of 13:54 shown
Super Tiger vs. Osamu Kido 8:44 of 14:41 shown
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 9:53 of 14:09 shown
U.W.F. Video Bout Series Vol. 7 Commercial Tape 9/2/85 Osaka Rinkai Sports Center
Osamu Kido vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 7:00 of 11:55 shown
Super Tiger vs. Akira Maeda 7:49 of 18:57 shown
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 9:17 of 18:22 shown
U.W.F. Video Bout Series Vol. 8 Commercial Tape 9/6/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Super Tiger vs. Nobuhiko Takada 8:01 of 13:44 shown
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Osamu Kido 16:03 of 17:42 shown
Video Bout Series Vol. 9
7/13/85: Yoji Anjo vs. Tatsuo Nakano (clipped)
7/25/85: Yoji Anjo vs. Satoru Hiromatsu (clipped)
9/6/85: Yuko Miyato vs. Osamu Hoshina (clipped)
9/11/85: Yoji Anjo vs. Osamu Hoshina (clipped)
UWF Video Bout 10 9/11/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Jack Snuka 11:11
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Mark Lewin 8:40
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. UFO 7:28 of 13:50 shown
U.W.F. Video Bout Series Vol. 9
7/13/85: Yoji Anjo vs. Tatsuo Nakano.
7/25/85: Yoji Anjo vs. Satoru Hiromatsu
9/6/85: Yuko Miyato vs. Osamu Hoshina
9/11/85: Yoji Anjo vs. Osamu Hoshina
Video Bout 11 9/7/84 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Frenchie Martel 11:13
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Pierre Leffeiel 11:35
Video Bout 13 1/7/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Masami Soranaka vs. Bernard Wright
Nobuhiko Takada & Osamu Kido vs. Mike Brannan & Johnny Londos
Video Bout 15
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Yoji Anjo
2/14/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Martin Jones
Video Bout 11 9/7/84 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Frenchie Martel 11:13
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Pierre Leffeiel 11:35
Video Bout 12
12/5/84 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Scott Maghee vs. Masami Soranaka
9/7/84 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Akira Maeda vs. Mark Lewin
Video Bout 13 1/7/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Masami Soranaka vs. Bernard Wright
Nobuhiko Takada & Osamu Kido vs. Mike Brannan & Johnny Londos
Video Bout 14 12/5/84 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Osamu Kido & Keith Haward vs. Akira Maeda & Pete Roberts 29:20 of 30:00 shown
Video Bout 15
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Yoji Anjo
2/14/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Martin Jones
NJ STV Classics 11/5/81 Kuramae Kokugikan Lumberjack Death Match (Ex VQ): Antonio Inoki vs. Rusher Kimura
UWF HH 4/17/84 Kuramae Kokugikan: Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 10:37 + 2:34
UWF HH 1/16/85 Osaka Rinkai Sports Center HH: Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 22:40. A classic that continued the pattern we had been seeing from these two where Tiger totally dominated the stand up, but wanted to defeat Fujiwara via submission rather than knockout. The problem with this is Fujiwara totally owned the ground, and would take over as soon as he defended Tiger's initial submission, putting him in danger he really didn't need to find himself in if his goal was simply to win. That being said, the tables had turned and the dynamic had shifted to where Fujiwara was the one who was seeming like the massive underdog rather than the former junior heavyweight kingpin Tiger Mask who had now made us forget he was fighting above his weight class. Both men did a great job of making the opponent pay for their mistakes, and one of the great things about this match is there was no down time here at all, as soon as the advantage changed, the match went from one fighter being in big danger to the other. Tiger's repeated knee drops, which tended to come as soon as he escaped a submission & got back to his feet, were truly vicious here, and set him up for a series of soccer kicks that were arguably even more brutal. Anytime Fujiwara found himself in the corner, he was in for a world of hurt, especially because he really had no answer to the point he would just turn his back and/or cover up at some point. That being said, it was often Fujiwara who retreated to the corner, knowing the ref breaking them up because they were in their ropes might be his least bad defense. For the duration of the match, it really felt like the finish should come at anytime because Tiger was really beating the living hell out of Fujiwara, and the rest of the match was submissions back and forth. They really upped the ante tonight in the amount of punishment that was dished out; Fujiwara had likely never taken a beating anywhere near this in his life! Super Tiger was undefeated in singles so far in UWF, with two wins over Akira Maeda and Fujiwara, but just when you thought he was going to run through this league the way he did through the New Japan junior division, Fujiwara managed to come good, taking the mount off the counter and working the arm until Tiger finally tapped. Each match between these two has been better than the previous. ****1/4
SWS HH 4/1/91 Kobe World Memorial Hall
Minoru Suzuki vs. Apollo Sugawara 9:03. One of the most bizarre shoots I've ever seen. Suzuki was trained to fight & Sugawara was trained to make things easy on one another, and while this was supposed to be a work, they were just never on the same page. Suzuki approached it like another PWFG match where he didn't simply feed himself to Sugawara, and Sugawara just seemed completely befuddled as to what to do. Suzuki was using real footwork and backing him into the corner like he was fighting for real, but he wasn't actually trying to hurt Sugawara. Sugawara just seemed spooked though by Suzuki walking him down and landing a few quick, light shots that at least resembled real blows in their technique. When Suzuki shook off the lock up rather than falling into a suplex or something, Sugawara had no idea how to handle this invading menace, and began to shell up even more. In a pro wrestling sense, nothing had actually happened so far, but now Suzuki began to grow frustrated, and started toying with Sugawara, slapping him more to incite and embarrass him into committing to some sort of attack than to hurt him. Sugawara didn't seem to have any interest in figuring out how to deal with this foreign shooting thing, and continued to just hang close to the ropes doing nothing beyond offering a lock up that Suzuki continued to refuse to accept. Sugawara eventually got tired of looking like a pussy and getting punked after Suzuki connected with a solid palm to his face, and finally charged, locking Suzuki up against the ropes, but Suzuki got the underhooks and shuts him right down. Suzuki got a couple good open hand combos in, and Sugawara just looked so foolish trying to answer with one of those awkward, pro wrestling style wish they were front kicks. Sugawara finally got a good short punch in when Suzuki had him pinned in the corner, and they began to exchange angry headbutts in the clinch as the ref did his best to wrestle Suzuki off Sugawara, and a second tried to untangle their legs from the outside while an official almost made it into the ring probably to call it before Suzuki finally disengaged. Sugawara began complaining to Suzuki then the ref, only to eat a solid upper palm. When the ref instead complained to Sugawara for trying to land a few no technique closed fist punches that Suzuki didn't hang around for, Sugawara said the hell with it and just walked out jawing at the ref, who immediately awarded Suzuki the victory.
Koji Kitao vs. John Tenta 7:19. SWS booker The Great Kabuki put Tenta up to provoking Kitao in hopes of getting Kitao expelled from the promotion. From the outset, Tenta didn't really cooperate with Kitao's attempts to engage, provoking him by making him look too slow & deliberate. Due to this, there was never really a match, but rather mostly a staring contest with Tenta deflecting Kitao's sporadic attempts to do something, and dismissing him with a slap or some jawing. Kitao, who took exception to Tenta being a bit rough on a takedown, did escalate things, but he really had no other choice but to make legitimate offensive attempts given Tenta had shown to be completely unwilling to go along with the usual fakery. Kitao didn't show much honor in this though either, teasing the eye gouge in a sort of theatrical Jackie Chan Snake Fist sort of manner. When Tenta grabbed Kitao's arm trying to lock up, Kitao snapped at him with the eye gouge attempt, which Tenta luckily avoided. Kitao continued to stand with fingers poised, prompting Tenta to start swearing at him and questioning if they were really going to be blinding each other tonight? Eventually, the ref tried to intervene in their jawing contest, but wasn't as quick or alert as Tenta, so Kitao was able to connect with a kick to his back, taking him out for the DQ. Tenta taunted Kitao with a victory pose, and Kitao seemed prepared to just walk away, content to escape the fight by getting himself purposely DQ'd, but Kitao grabbed the mic, breaking kayfabe by telling the crowd that pro wrestling is fake and his opponent Tenta, also a decorated sumo who was undefeated in his brief career, was fake. Kitao was promptly fired after this incident.
WOS /82: Kwick-Kick Lee (Akira Maeda) vs. Crusher Brannigan
Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
WWC 1/88: Super Black Ninja (Keiji Muto) vs. El Mueta
SWF: Hashif Khan (Shinya Hashimoto) vs. Mr. Hito
SWF /86: Keiichi Yamada & Mr. Hito vs. Viet Cong Express 1 & 2
CWA 4/4/81: Masa Fuchi & Mr. Onita vs. Eddie Gilbert & Vinnie Romeo
SWF: Kensuke Sasaki & Sumu Hara vs. Bulldog Bob Brown & Goldie Rogers
AWA: Bruiser Brody vs. Leon White (Vader)
WOS /81: Sammy Lee (Satoru Sayama) vs. John Muscles England
WOS /82: Kwick-Kick Lee & Big Daddy vs. Crusher Brannigan & Tony Walsh
4/11/84 Omiya HH: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Bob Sweetan
7/23/84 Korakuen HH
MS-1 vs. El Fantasma
Rusher Kimura & Ryuma Go vs. UFO & MS-1
7/24/84 Korakuen HH
Akira Maeda vs. Pierre Martel (Frenchy Martin)
Rusher Kimura & Ryuma Go vs. MS-1 & UFO
10/5/84 Korakuen HH
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Cuban Assassin 13:40
Akira Maeda & Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Osamu Kido 25:35
9/8/84: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Pierre Martel
12/7/82 Allentown: Shodai Tiger Mask vs. Mr. Saito
NJ 11/14/77 Budokan Martial Arts Match: Satoru Sayama vs. Mark Costello
7/25/95 Korakuen Vale Tudo Exhibition Match: Satoru Sayama vs. Tiger Mask 4
9/26/95 Komazawa Vale Tudo Exhibition Match: Satoru Sayama vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi
NJ 4/23/82 Omiya HH: Tiger Mask vs. Jose Gonzalez
NJ 1/5/83 Koshigaya HH: Tiger Mask vs. Carlos Estrada
9/2/85 Osaka Rinkai Sports Center HH: Super Tiger vs. Akira Maeda
1/16/85 Osaka Rinkai Sports Center HH: Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Captured
Maeda behind the scenes & training footage
8/29/85 Omiya Skate Center: Akira Maeda vs. Nobuhiko Takada
8/25/85 Gifu Industry Pavilion: Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
9/2/85 Osaka Rinkai Sports Center: Akira Maeda vs. Super Tiger
10/9/86 Ryogoku: Akira Maeda vs. Don Nakaya Nielsen. Highlights
Takada & Funaki
Behind the scenes footage & highlights from the final months of the 2nd UWF
U.W.F. Last Match Commercial Tape 9/11/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Nobuhiko Takada
Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
Akira Maeda, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, & Karl Gotch on TV shows
3/5/82
Yoshiaki Yatsu vs. Davey O'Hannon
Tiger Toguchi vs. The Iron Sheik
Gran Hamada & Kengo Kimura & Tiger Mask vs. Black Man & Colosso Colosetti & Steve Wright
MSG Series 1982: Rusher Kimura vs. Riki Choshu
MSG Series 1982: Seiji Sakaguchi vs. Dick. Murdoch
4/17/84
Mano Negra & Nobuhiko Takada vs. El Signo & Negro Navarro 17:29
Ryuma Go vs. Dutch Mantel 10:54
2/3 Falls WWF Light Heavyweight Title: Perro Aguayo vs. Gran Hamada 13:10. ***3/4
12/5/84 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Scott Maghee vs. Masami Soranaka
1/7/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall HH: Masami Soranaka vs. Bernard Wright
4/23/85
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Saturo Hiromatsu
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Caswell Martin
Osamu Kido vs. Ray Steele
Super Tiger vs. Masami Soronaka
Akira Maeda & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Dalibar Singh & Omar Atlas. No Finish
5/18/85 Shimonoseki Baseball Stadium: Osamu Kido & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Joe Solkoff (Joe Malenko) & Super Tiger
5/18/85: Akira Maeda vs. Nobuhiko Takada
Tag Title: Fantastics vs. Midnight Express
4/19/85
AWA World Heavyweight Title: Rick Martel vs. King Tonga
AWA World Tag Title: The Road Warriors vs. Larry Hennig & Curt Hennig
Sgt. Slaughter vs. Giant Kamala
5/5/85 NWA World Heavyweight Title: Ric Flair vs. Kevin Von Erich
5/31/85 Korakuen: Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
NWA World Heavyweight Title Ric Flair vs. Kevin Von Erich
5/5/85
Tag Title, 2 Rings: Fantastics vs. Midnight Express
Cage: Sergeant Slaughter & Crusher Blackwell vs. Masked Superstar & King Tonga & Sheik Adnan Al-Kaissey
2 Ring 12 Man Tag: Kevin Von Erich & Kerry Von Erich & Mike Von Erich & Michael P.S Hayes & Terry Gordy & Buddy Roberts vs. Chris Adams & Gino Hernandez & One Man Gang & Giant Kamala & Rip Oliver & Steve Williams
AWA World Tag Title: The Road Warriors vs. Larry Hennig & Curt Hennig
A couple Sayama interviews including roundtable conversation with Beat Takeshi Kitano, Fumio Takada, & Jun Miho
Super Tiger training clips & match highlights
U.W.F. Video Bout Series Vol. 7 Commercial Tape 9/2/85 Osaka Rinkai Sports Center
Osamu Kido vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 7:00 of 11:55 shown
Super Tiger vs. Akira Maeda 7:49 of 18:57 shown
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 9:17 of 18:22 shown
U.W.F. Video Bout Series Vol. 8 Commercial Tape 9/6/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Super Tiger vs. Nobuhiko Takada 8:01 of 13:44 shown
Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Osamu Kido 16:03 of 17:42 shown
Satoru Sayama & Kazuo Yamazaki go to Hong Kong where they visit a Shaolin Temple and various parks and dojos to train Kung Fu, Kowloon, Tai Chi, Kenpo, etc. Lots of somewhat cheesy old school training segments that could just as easily have been an '80s martial arts movie.
5/18/85 Shimonoseki Baseball Stadium: Osamu Kido & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Joe Solkoff (Joe Malenko) & Super Tiger
5/18/85: Akira Maeda vs. Nobuhiko Takada
Captured
Maeda behind the scenes & training footage
8/29/85 Omiya Skate Center: Akira Maeda vs. Nobuhiko Takada
8/25/85 Gifu Industry Pavilion: Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
9/2/85 Osaka Rinkai Sports Center: Akira Maeda vs. Super Tiger
10/9/86 Ryogoku: Akira Maeda vs. Don Nakaya Nielsen. Highlights
THE UWF MATCH Commercial Tape 8/29/87 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Yoji Anjo
Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
NJ 9/7/87 Kyoto Prefectural Gym: Antonio Inoki & Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Akira Maeda
9/7/84: Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 19:07. Read Review ***1/2
Super Tiger vs. Akira Maeda 9/11/84. Read Review ****
Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 12/5/84 24:30 of 27:19. Read Review ****1/4
Super Tiger vs. Akira Maeda 1/7/85
Super Tiger vs. Nobuhiko Takada 1/20/85
Super Tiger vs. Mach Hayato 2/18/85
Super Tiger vs. Marty Jones 3/2/85
Super Tiger vs. Osamu Kido 7/8/85
Super Tiger vs. Keith Haward 7/13/85
Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 7/17/85. Digest
Super Tiger vs. Nobuhiko Takada 7/21/85
Super Tiger vs. Akira Maeda 7/25/85
Super Tiger vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 8/25/85. JIP
Super Tiger vs. Osamu Kido 8/29/85. Digest
Super Tiger vs. Akira Maeda 9/2/85
Super Tiger vs. Nobuhiko Takada 9/6/85
Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 9/11/85
4/11/84 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Akira Maeda vs. Dutch Mantell
9/7/84 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Akira Maeda vs. Mark Lewin
9/11/84 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Akira Maeda vs. Super Tiger. Read Review ****
12/5/84 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Akira Maeda & Pete Roberts vs. Keith Haward & Osamu Kido 30:00
1/7/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Akira Maeda vs. Super Tiger
1/20/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Akira Maeda vs. Osamu Kido
2/18/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Akira Maeda
3/2/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 25:59. One of the most intense battles of the original UWF, and perhaps the best example of a Fujiwara style match at its most intense. This really felt like a big match, with everything they did having some weight and juice to it. Though the match started slowly, and in fact never really got out of that patient and considered methodical style, it had a very interesting non cooperation aspect to it where every time one fighter would initiate the lock up, instead of conceding to the clinch for no reason like every other match, the opponent would refuse to play nice and instead take the free opportunity to land a slap or a kick. This set the tone for the whole match, which admittedly didn't have tons of action, but in this case they were reasonably hesitant because both fighters were looking to take the cheap shot, and that rendered a ton of intensity of the variety that doesn't normally exist in the honorable world of martial arts without feeling like silly pro wrestling shenanigans. Especially given these two weren't going to wow you with the smooth elegance of the art form, I found their smoke and mirrors to be particularly effective in luring me into a match that I was expecting to durdle for a while. In all honesty, this may be the only good match I've seen where the feeling out portion was actually the highlight. Maeda finally gained the advantage with a drop kick out of a tentative clinch, and started viciously punting Fujiwara on the ground. To some extent their regular submission oriented match begin soon after this, but they we're able to bypass the more feeling out portion on the ground and go right into working submissions that were somewhat credible. Fujiwara was mostly dominating, which you'd somewhat expect given Maeda was sure to win, except he actually didn't! Maeda eventually had enough of Fujiwara outmaneuvering him on the canvas, and went into his usual big kicks and suplexes, seemingly to finish Fujiwara off, as this is Maeda's realm, but Fujiwara survived long enough to duck a telegraphed kneel kick and pounce on a triangle for the upset! Though definitely not as exciting as the Fujiwara vs. Sayama matches, and Maeda certainly doesn't bring nearly as much to the table as Sayama, it showed the best side of Fujiwara in the sense that Maeda has a higher enough opinion of his own matwork that he was willing to fully engage Fujiwara there, and was more of a threat, but Fujiwara won this through guts and determination. In the end, this match might be more original than great, but it definitely held my attention due to the clever work from Fujiwara. ***3/4
7/8/85 Hiroshima Kenritsu Taiikukan: Akira Maeda vs. Keith Haward
7/13/85 Shizuoka Industry Museum: Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
7/17/85 Osaka Rinkai Sports Center: Akira Maeda vs. Nobuhiko Takada
7/21/85 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Akira Maeda vs. Osamu Kido
7/25/85 Tokyo Ota-ku Taiikukan: Akira Maeda vs. Super Tiger 16:01. While this has much more in common with their 1/7/85 match as a conventional worked pro wrestling match, and is actually far less interesting, I feel it pairs more with their 9/2/85 sort of shoot as the battle of wills between Sayama & Maeda was coming to a head outside the ring, even though they still kept it together inside the ring. Maeda exerted his will throughout this contest, making it very submission oriented match, and not a very good one, leading to Sayama getting his way in the standup oriented rematch. Sayama was largely on the defensive trying to stay on his feet & then get back up, though he obviously didn't try very hard at the latter because with Maeda doing nothing to actually control him on the ground, he could literally stand any time he wanted to. The problem with this match is Sayama needed to make the match interesting, but by just being the good soldier & telling the story of why he's losing as best he could, he wound up just going along with Maeda grounding him & putzing around with his feeble contortions. Maeda had a number of exciting matches during his career, but was never a particularly good or credible ground fighter even though that was the style that he enjoyed, it was always the guys who actually knew what they were doing like Yamazaki & Han making the match, both pulling a few things out of him as well as putting him in the better role for the audience where he provided some fireworks with his strikes & suplexes rather than grinding things to a halt as he did when just left him to his devices. The match still started strong as Maeda's efforts to engage in a grappling match with Sayama were so much more fervent here than on 9/2, actually getting Sayama down early with his idea of (a very poorly executed) double leg takedown, after catching a kick, with his captured suplex after catching one of Sayama's clinch knees, etc. Sayama used more footwork in this one, in part because Maeda showed little interest in striking with him, but also didn't deliver on his early promise. Instead of playing the small man vs. big man game, he increasingly served himself up on a platter by fighting on the inside with Maeda so Maeda could get him down off a suplex. The bout hasn't aged that well because they just keep going for submissions while displaying no real knowledge of how to get them, focusing 99.9% on cranking a limb while just laying across the opponent not doing anything to control any other portion of their body or help them actually isolate their joint of choice.The match eventually ended in oh so credible fashion when Sayama missed an enzuigiri & Maeda clumsily secured that most credible of pro wrestling standbyes, the Boston crab! There was very little striking in this match, and consequently, even though these were the two biggest stars in the company, the crowd was pretty much dead throughout, which supports Sayama's tract that the kickboxing base was necessary to the success of the style. This was better than watching Hogan flex his muscles or Flair do another spot for spot performance of his one match, but it's close to the least interesting Sayama match of the 1980's.
8/25/85 Gifu Industry Pavilion: Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
8/29/85 Omiya Skate Center: Akira Maeda vs. Nobuhiko Takada
9/2/85 Osaka Rinkai Sports Center: Akira Maeda vs. Super Tiger 18:57. A truly fascinating contest where the clashing alpha personalities of the two dominant forces in the promotion came to a head inside the ring as they probably battled with some vague notion of deciding the future direction of the company, and instead just decided that the company had no future. Though the U.W.F. had grown increasingly shoot oriented in the year and a half it existed, morphing from the humble origins of luchadors & WWF show wrestlers into something more & more hardcore & legitimate, Maeda & Sayama were two huge stars that always wanted to win, both in front of the audience & behind the scenes. It would surely be reductive to say it came down to a matter of tastes, styles, egos, or whatever, and that even kind of comes off in the bout they wound up having. Even though they had something of a shoot, the supposed rift between Sayama's kickboxing & Maeda's submission grappling still actually didn't play out, as they ultimately did a match that was essentially in Maeda's version of Sayama's style. By that I mean, Sayama wasn't using the footwork that elevated his worked shoots toward the realm of believability, nor was Maeda really doing his remedial matwork. It really looked like Maeda's usual style of striking, except that as they pretty much stood in front of each other & bombed away, they were much more violent & aggressive in putting their whole bodies into throwing faster & harder shots that they weren't pulling as usual. Actually, rather than the art of kickboxing that Sayama managed to bring even though the opponents stood around flatfooted, this fight still exemplified that main problem with pro wrestling striking, except they did try to avoid & defend themselves in a basic sort of way, not exiting the pocket, but at least reacting to the blow they saw coming & blocking it or maneuvering their body out of the primary damage range/zone if they could. It's possible Maeda was unhappy that they were doing Sayama's standup match this time instead of his submission match as we saw on 7/25/85, but the bout definitely didn't devolve into a shoot as someone got prickly, as had been the case in the past with Maeda, they clearly were wailing on each other from the outset. One could say this was one of the first Pancrase matches, as they were not pulling their strikes, but they not only didn't use closed fists, they were clearly cooperating to some extent at points even though they were putting each other in danger & trying to legitimately damage each other most of the time. I shouldn't make it sound like Sayama wasn't fighting with strategy, he was surely giving up at least 50 pounds and even though he had superior striking technique & more explosion, he couldn't just stand toe to toe with Maeda. He tried to land the middle kick and circle off to maintain some space, but he was going backwards too much & clearly didn't have the stamina to fight what Lyoto Machida would later establish as a karate style MMA fight, so instead of capitalizing on his speed and movement advantages, Sayama spent way too much time covering in the pocket while he withstood Maeda's onslaught & poised for his next offensive. The striking portions were legit, but neither had any kind of a wrestling base, so getting the fight to the ground was rather awkward, and that's really why fights could play out much easier & better in Sayama's style than in Maeda's, which normally required him to hit a suplex to get started. Sayama wasn't taking bumps for Maeda, but still conceeded to ground portions, which basically occured when the person in the disadvantageous position surrendered further rather than finally try/work to disengage. The mat wasn't really a threatening position for either though, as when you add no BJJ background to no wrestling background, they weren't doing much beyond playing footsies, and when you combine a sweltering building with the stress & overexertion of actually trying to make things work without the usual cooperation, I think Sayama was mostly just happy to get a break while Maeda muddled around, daring him to actually come up with something to make him regret that decision. Unlike the standup where there was a very obvious difference in how aggressive they were landing blows, they didn't appear to be be applying any more pressure than usual when they actually had something of a submission, and the audience was dead silent as they were throughout the 7/25 match. As they spent more and more time delivering comatose inducing matwork, you almost forgot that a few minutes ago they seemingly wanted to kill each other on their feet. One would actually have thought that they were getting along again until Maeda grabbed the rope to get the bout returned to their feet, and proceeded to knee Sayama low for no apparent reason, leading to the DQ. It's almost certain that Maeda was supposed to lose given he defeated Tiger in their previous match, so one can deduce that Maeda may just have been looking for an out, as he should have been growing calmer, if anything, given they'd gotten away from actually shooting on one another and there was nothing new to give him a reason to pull a stunt. However, one can't be certain from the camera angle if the knee clipped the groin or not, so it's perhaps as likely that someone finally did enough damage with a legitimate blow to make whatever the planned finish was irrelevant. Maeda has always been a shady character, but from what I can see, I'm leaning toward Sayama just claiming it was a low blow. Maeda was subsequently reprimanded & never worked for the promotion again. The workers, who were already resentful of Sayama for being the booker & primary creative force in the promotion didn't side with him though, and while he did step in a U.W.F. ring six more times as this was playing out, he quit the promotion and then pro wrestling entirely. U.W.F. never ran another show after Sayama's final appearance on 9/11/85, with Maeda & co. returning to New Japan for the next 2 1/2 years before taking the next step toward blending the barrier between fake and real fighting. Very good match.
8/29/87 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara
5/12/88 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Akira Maeda vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 24:56
6/11/88 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Akira Maeda 25:18
8/13/88 Tokyo Ariake Coliseum: Akira Maeda vs. Gerard Gordeau R4 1:10
9/24/88 Fukuoka Hakata Starlanes: Akira Maeda vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 10:50
11/10/88 Nagoya Tsuyuhashi Sports Center: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Akira Maeda 20:04
12/22/88 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Akira Maeda vs. Norman Smiley 8:42
1/10/89 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Akira Maeda 28:58
2/27/89 Tokushima Shiritsu Taikukan: Bart Vale vs. Akira Maeda 10:44
4/14/89 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Akira Maeda vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 12:13
5/4/89 Osaka Baseball Stadium: Akira Maeda vs. Chris Dolman R4 0:30
5/21/89 Tokyo Bay NK Hall: Akira Maeda vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 13:36
6/14/89 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan: Akira Maeda vs. Nobuhiko Takada 20:05
7/24/89 Hakata Starlanes: Akira Maeda vs. Yoji Anjo 10:42
8/13/89 Kanagawa Yokohama Arena: Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 18:16
9/7/89 Nagano-shi Undo Koen Sogo Taiikukan: Akira Maeda vs. Johnny Barrett 6:49
10/1/89 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Akira Maeda vs. Shigeo Miyato 6:15
10/25/89 Hokkaido Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center, Kiyoshi Tamura Debutsen: Akira Maeda vs. Kiyoshi Tamura 2:19
11/29/89 Tokyo Dome, Kakutogisen: Akira Maeda vs. Willy Wilhelm R2 1:28
1/16/90 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Akira Maeda vs. Nobuhiko Takada 23:04
2/9/90 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 14:14
2/27/90 Minami Ashigara-shi Taiiku Center: Akira Maeda vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 9:25
4/15/90 Hakata Starlanes: Akira Maeda vs. Tatsuo Nakano 7:42
5/4/90 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Akira Maeda vs. Masakatsu Funaki 18:02
5/28/90 Sendai Miyagi-ken Sports Center: Akira Maeda vs. Minoru Suzuki 13:11
6/21/90 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Akira Maeda vs. Nobuhiko Takada 18:02
7/20/90 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Akira Maeda 12:47
8/13/90 Kanagawa Yokohama Arena: Akira Maeda vs. Yoji Anjo 13:52
9/13/90 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan: Akira Maeda vs. Nobuhiko Takada 10:35
10/25/90 Osaka Jo Hall: Akira Maeda vs. Masakatsu Funaki 16:59