Perro Aguayo vs. Gran Hamada, WWF Light Heavyweight Title (UWF 4/17/84 handheld)

When Hisashi Shinma broke away from New Japan with a group of workers to form the original UWF, he really had no idea how to promote it other than christening it as a mini version of New Japan. So on the first tour, he brought in UWA guys Perro Aquayo, Mano Negra, Negro Navarro, El Signo and Texano, Los Misioneros de la Muerte. The idea was to create a juniors division with Gran Hamada as the lynchpin.

Some people will be familiar with the match Perro Aguayo and Gran Hamada had on the UWF's debut show in Omiya, a mano a mano brawl where Gran Hamada bled a bucket. That match was on the DVDVR Other Japan set. This is a handheld of what is essentially the blow-off match from the final night of the April tour. To the best of my knowledge, it has not been widely circulated. It took place at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo, otherwise known as Sumo Hall.

This wasn't your typical lucha libre title match. I'd classify it as a junior workrate sprint with some super libre brawling.

Gran Hamada was a small guy, probably a good inch or two shorter than he was billed, but what he lacked in stature he over-compensated for by developing his body. He had gigantic legs for a guy his size, but they enabled him to have a powerful springing action whenever he got up from the canvas. I don't think I've ever seen anyone spring into action quite like Gran Hamada. Perro Aguayo was a tremendous brawler in his time. His style was simple and direct, but he knew how to get heat, and he was just about the perfect rudo. Gran Hamada never short changed a bump once, going the whole hog on all of them, so the two of them had good working chemistry.

The match started off with Perro ruling the roost. He could've legitimately won the first fall by overpowering the smaller Hamada, but it didn't take long for him to whip out his folk, or some other type of foreign object, and get himself unashamedly DQ'ed.

The stage was set for Hamada to brace the odds like all true babyfaces, and while I wasn't enamoured with the sudden drop kick he used to fight his way back onto offence, after a rather glorious "pocket rocket" style tope, he became one of the only guys I've seen sell a tope like it took more out of him than his opponent. A lot of guys stagger around after a tope, waiting to transition into the next offensive stretch, but Hamada climbed back into the ring, used the top rope for support, staggered past the ref and collapsed into the ropes on the opposite side. The ref checked whether he could keeping going, and the whole sequence was good pro-wrestling drama.

What followed was a neat "juniors" period where they traded moves and pinfall attempts. If I felt like quibbling, I'd mention that this is the part where Aguayo showed why he was never a truly great worker as the order he rolled his spots out in, and his inconsistent selling, meant that it was a little shaky, but for the live audience it was an exciting sequence of nearfalls. My favourite part where the forearm exchanges, where Hamada knocked Aquayo to the canvas, but his roll-up moves were also slick. Hamada also did a great job selling Aquayo's kicks and the famous big boot, dropping to one knee before heading straight to canvas.

Aside from the junior exchanges where "if your move doesn't beat me, I'll get up and do mine" comes into play, the only real problem with the match was the submission attempts. The heat was good, but they dropped them after a certain number of beats and the follow-up work after dropping the holds wasn't as good as it could've been. Nevertheless, the stretch run was peppered with a few solid transitions (like Hamada flooring Aquayo with a strong looking punch), and Hamada's big impact stuff looked great since he either bounced with the impact to accentuate the force or rolled over onto his face to show he was throwing everything into the fight.

The finish came after an Aquayo tope, when he tried to suplex Hamada back into the ring and Hamada flipped over the top and hit a huge (and awesome looking) backdrop driver. For some reason, the ref did a fast count and the crowd became all talkative about how fast it was. Nevertheless, Hamada was their new champion.

Good match. There wasn't a hell of a lot of substance, but it was a good match nonetheless. Hamada's selling and execution were the highlights, and Perro showed that while he wasn't a perfect worker, he was plenty good in the 80s. The crowd were into it, too, which is something I remember from my own experience of going to a live show in Japan. Japanese fans are enthusiastic about nearfalls and get sucked into each "chance," as they say in Japan. There was a lot of coaching for Hamada to "cover, cover, cover," and the match worked, which is what it's all about.