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Nowhere near the fun of Takayama's hot-head debut, the follow up is...awkward, I guess? Lots of stumbling and fumbling, both on their feet and on the ground. The strikes are pretty sloppy but they definitely connect. Kanehara kicks Takayama in the face multiple times and there's a bunch of wild knees and open hands thrown. Takayama doesn't do much of anything here. He survives the single leg crab once but can't do it twice.

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After what seems like MONTHS (but maybe only a month), we're back with a grab bag of wrestling goodies, plus we break dive into the Vader/Takada feud from UWFi. Direct link is HERE! https://fightingnetworkfriends.podiant.co/e/36a61f163dd798/ to stream, or subscribe to the RSS feed. You can also find us on Apple Podcasts. FNF 021: Match Grab Bag & Vader Vs. Takada After another long break, we are back, and though Andy's microphone seems blown out (apologies) we are better than ever! This episode, we are doing something we've wanted to do for a while - just reccing random matches to each other from all the world of wrestling, reviewing 6 matches total in the second segment. From Inoki to Danielson to Takeda to Andre to modern Lucha - this was a super fun segment to record. In the third segment, we are FINALLY delving into the three match series between Nobuhiko Takada and Super Vader from UWF-I. We break down their 93, 94 and 95 matches, talk about highlights, which is our favorite, what works, what doesn't and of course - our t-shirt. These matches are MUST WATCHES if you like spectacle and hell PRO WRESTLING, so watch and listen. Topics discussed: - Where the fuck have we been? - Brennan has been diggin' holes, Andy drivin' vans - T-Shirt update (spoiler: they rule and you're getting them soon) - What's been working for us in 2018? - Tons of match discussion. If your least favorite wrestling podcasts are when people just breakdown matches, this isn't the episode for you. Matches covered: Antonio Inoki Vs. Don Frye - 4/4/1998 American Dragon Vs. Low Ki (Tap out only) - 6/7/2002 Masashi Takeda Vs. Yuko Miyamoto - 7/12/2009 Dick Togo Vs. Antonio Honda - 1/30/2011 Aramis Vs. Dragon Bane - 9/2/2018 Andre the Giant Vs. Killer Khan - 4/1/1982 AND Takada Vader 93 Takada Vader 94 Takada Vader 95 Youtube Playlist: http://tinyurl.com/fnf021 Follow us on Twitter: @fightfriends @trillyrobinson Email at: [email protected] Instagram: @fightnetworkfriends Youtube at: http://tinyurl.com/FightFriends Store at: http://fightingnetworkfriends.bigcartel.com

Loved the opening, with Vader smacking Takada and Takada kicking him out of the ring. He keeps kicking, hacking at Vader's leg until Vader grabs him and chokeslams him. Vader's pretty nasty in this match, at one point, forcing the referee to nearly choke him off Takada when he's got him pinned down int he ropes. But he's also very giving, bumping and selling for Takada while still managing to rattle him with clubbing blows. Takada kicks a lot in this match, as is expected, and once again, he's going for the armbar. But he's able to duck-and-weave around Vader's strikes, and tweak things here and there in order to find openings for the armbar. Takada's selling sucks though, especially down the home stretch, where he'll just pop back up to his feet like one of those clown bop bags. And the finish felt a little too contrived but whatever, still a fun match with some strong moments from Vader and good resolve from Takada.

Easily, the best match of the trilogy and clearly Vader returns a little more well-versed in the shoot stylings. Much more aggressive with his strikes, with the big forearms and knees, and a better use of his power to keep Takada off his feet, not snapping off kicks. Takada's strategy is the same as before: chop the beast down and submit with the jujigatame. Sometimes he'll even throw Vader with a suplex but the end goal is the same. Vader doesn't stay down though and keeps popping him with shots. Loved when Takada finally levels him with kicks and goes for the armbar and Vader counters with a brutal palm thrust to the face. Also Vader grabbing him mid-strike to ragdoll him with the German suplex. Awesome. The fans are behind Takada but his comebacks aren't enough, and finally, Vader drops him with the deadlift powerbomb and continues the assault until Takada can't make the 10 count. Great match.

An interesting match-up and it's obvious Vader is uncertain about a lot of things in this match, from Takada's kicks to the stuff on the ground. He hesitates to lock up and when his usual clobbering approaching doesn't do the trick, he tackles Takada and tries to pound him into submission. Takada kicks the leg and keeps kicking til Vader hollers, and the final armbar sold Takada as the legitimate badass he so desperately wanted to be perceived as.

U-STYLE (3/13/2004) A disappointing show with an underwhelming (but still good) main event. This is the last show I have in this set. Manabu Hara vs. Ryuki Ueyama This was pretty decent with Hara looking stronger than usual on the mat. When Ueyama comes out slapboxing, Hara takes him down with a really slick legcatch counter into the armbar takedown. Hara mostly dominates with holds while Ueyama scrambles for leverage, while Ueyama goes after Hara's legs with kicks and manages a pretty cool armbar takedown of his own. Hara's able to hit his back-to-back German suplexes and Ueyama answers with some...uh, not so pretty German suplexes of his own before he taps Hara with the heel hook. Crafter M vs. Seichi Ikemoto Good debut for Ikemoto, who is feisty and wily and gets around pretty well on the mat, pairing nicely with trashbag pants Crafter M. Plenty of tangle ups on the ground before Ikemoto pops Crafter with a high kick to the jaw -- good thing he's wearing that mask, right? Crafter's crafty on the mat and will grab limbs from precarious situations and try to submit, like with his double wristlock. But Ikemoto eventually grabs the armbar himself to win the match. Solid, competitive match. Dokonjonosuke Mishima vs. Kazuki Okubo Mishima's weakest U-STYLE match to date. He stills tries some fancy stuff, some of which doesn’t hit the mark, but nonetheless, it's fun to watch him try. He's able to take Okubo down with a rolling necklock but Okubo is right in the ropes. Okubo is finally able to knock Mishima down after some knees and a high kick in the corner, and he snags a front necklock but can't finish Mishima off. Okubo esacapes that weird legtrap submission that won Mishima his last match but in the end, Mishima rolls him up into another weird legtrap submission for the tap out. Takaku Fuke vs. Hiroyuki Ito This is probably the weakest match of the show, spent mostly on the ground with Fuke working through basic holds and Ito trying to outstrike Fuke when he gets the chance. Ito fires off a few good mounted punches and open hands, and his frustration earns him a yellow card, but before it can heat up too much more, Fuke catches him in a triangle and Ito passes out. Wataru Sakata vs. Naoki Kimura Kimura has seemingly reverted back to his awkward teenage years but that's okay because Sakata is here to punish him...but not too much, sadly. A few assertive front mounts, some body punches, a couple fist rubs and forearm washes, but not much else. Except he does hit Kimura with a Gotch-style piledriver! Kimura obviously doesn't do much here for three-quarters of the match and then hits about the worst German suplex I have ever seen. Loved Sakata kneeing Kimura's double leg takedown approach. After some more big knees, Kimura's able to catch him, dump him, and take him down with a backpack sleeper. He starts to fire off more aggressive strikes but alas, Sakata quickly shuts him down and taps him with the single leg crab. Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kyosuke Sasaki A match-up I was eagerly anticipating and one that sadly underwhelmed. But it's still Tamura so you're at least getting something very good. Sasaki shows no respect at the outset and he is all over Tamura, trying to hook him with something, as they scramble and trade strikes. Sasaki tries for plenty of things but Tamura's defensive is too good and when Sasaki catches him, Tamura slickly maneuvers out. There's a cool spot where Sasaki has the arm and Tamura flips out in an attempt to counter, but Sasaki holds onto the arm and takes Tamura to the ropes. A lot of slower moments in between but still calculated work by both dudes. The strikes pick up toward the end but nothing too crazy. Tamura rocks him with a few kicks, Sasaki's able to catch a kick and take him down with a single leg but Tamura is fast to the ropes. By the end of it, Tamura's playing with Sasaki like a cat with a half dead mouse, finally putting him out of his misery with a few hard kicks to the midsection. I'll throw it on the recommendation list but it's a low one.

Yeah, this was pretty fun. Still don't give two shits about Hashimoto really but in got in some decent kicks and hit a new uranage. Abe's still so good with some of his counters -- that dragon screw legwhip was beautiful. I liked the spot where Hashimoto elbows Abe, who in turn, stumbles over and elbows Kamitani off the apron. Nomura's still a great little shitkicker and laid into Daichi with some big slaps. Kamitani was motivated and threw his weight around so can't complain about this house show tag.

We've ALL been waiting for the day when the titan's clash, and Gary Albright and Tom Burton go one-on-one. Right? RIGHT?! Burton's got the fans hyped but obviously, Albright's going to destroy him. Gary hits a suplex within the first 10 seconds and Burton proceeds to get thrown around and clobbered with nasty elbows. Gary legit KOs Burton with his final brutal German suplex and can't even lift him for the dragon suplex before the ref calls the match. Not much of a match but Albright is scary.

Is this the first time Takada rocks the purple trunks? Maybe. Silver is rocking the black trunks and he manages to give Takada somewhat of a challenge. But this is mostly Takada working the mat, which is whatever, until he finally kicks Silver in the goddamn ear and taps him with a heel hook. Not very good.

Steve Day is less awkward here and gets in a few decent suplex throws, including a German, but again, he's clueless on the mat. Yamazaki doesn't do anything too fancy. Early on, he gets a cool legscissors takedown into the leglock and by the end of it, he's pissed and standing on Day in the ropes and firing off leg kicks until Day crumbles. After Day delivers the German, Yamazaki's able to slowly work his ay into an armbar for the submission. Meh.

The best match of the show and an easy recommendation. It's 10:00 minutes. It's Dickhead Anjoh, it's Slappy Kaki, and there's plenty of heat between the striking, and the aggressive takedowns and submission attempts.When Kakihara misses his big spinning heel kick attempt, which he misses about 78% of the time, Anjoh adds some salt by kicking him in the face. Some real nasty shots from Anjoh toward the end but Kakihara pulls off the upset by submitting Anjoh with the leglock. Good stuff.

This was the best Fleming has looked since he first popped up in UWFi. He really gets to show off his power vs. Miyato with big suplex throws and a little more refined technique against Tamura, like his hammerlocked takedown into the headscissors. But Tamura is the slickest and wipes the mat clean with Fleming. Nakano isn't very slick either but he's scrappy and a little shit, which is why we adore him, and he knees Tamura in the face a couple of times. The exchanges between Nakano and MIyato are always very feisty and they didn't disappoint here. Nakano dumps him with a German suplex and Miyato answers by spiking him with a crazy uranage. Fleming still can't apply his shitty STF and while it doesn't work on Tamura, it works on Miyato. A really fun undercard tag.

Yoshihiro Takayama's pro-wrestling debut and it's exactly the big aggressive debut you'd expect from Takayama. He immediately open hands the hell out of Kanehara and gets in plenty of giant knees and slaps. Kanehara is obviously trying to get him down to the mat for a submission but he's having a hard time doing it. He gets in a few good shots at Takayama and finally lets him have it, backdropping Takayama to set up the submission. Really fun debut from Takayama.

Takada's first big UWFi "epic" and a very fun match up top, with Albright grabbing suplexes and Takada being the charismatic striker trying to kick Gary's head off. He also delivers a pretty sweet Saito suplex to Albright so lots of suplex love in this match -- loved Gary's back-to-back belly-to-bellies. The groundwork slows it down and isn't very interesting until Takada starts blasting Albright with leg kicks and counters the German with the toe hold. I liked that Gary's first shitty German suplex seemed like a result of his bad knee buckling but then he hits the second shitty German and it's definitely Takada sandbagging him -- who then just lays there like a goof to give Gary the KO victory. Cool moments but not a great match.

Ready? Tamura leg cuts Matthew and submits him with a rear naked choke. This was like 20 seconds long. Tamura rules.

Not a very good match but totally a GREAT match. I loved it. Kitao's this big dumb judo guy eating leg kick after kick, waiting patiently for the right moment. Oh, and t's coming. I love that his counter to the double leg takedown is just standing there. At some point, Yamazaki's nose gets busted but he still wants to German suplex Kitao but settles for a sleeper hold, to which Kitao counters by trying to dump him over the top rope. Kitao's selling after he slowly crawls to the ropes to break a heel hold is off the charts. Kitao's monent comes when he swats Yamazaki's spinning heel kick out of the air. Then he proceeds to destroy Yamazak - a nasty running knee, a big uranage, and endless leg and butt kicks until Yamazaki can no longer stand on his own two feet. Altered Beast Kitao is the best Kitao, and Yamazaki is one of the best shithead underdogs.

I love Yoji Anjoh and his fucking smirks. What a run he's had in UWFi so far. Steve Day is another Wonderbread amateur and not very good. You get the sense throughout that Anjoh is waiting patiently to finish him off while Day tries to wrestling his way out of a paper bag. Anjoh gets a pretty slick leg trip into an STF attempt but the finish was shitty. Steve Day is not a good opponent for Yoji Anjoh.

Takada really loved the most American dudes ever. This was a whatever match. Fleming is sloppy at everything but at least he's trying, and Miyato's just trying to survive the attempts.

Hey it's two pudgy guys trading open hands and trying to grapple. Burton still sucks at this point in his UWFi career but thankfully, Nakano is Nakano and we get some fun Nakano moments between him snapping him over with a suplex or slapping Tom silly. When he almost gets knocked through the ropes, Nakano's pissed and quickly submits him with the dreaded single leg crab.

This was way too long but it had its moments and fires off hot with both guys swinging for the fences. Silver's rawness is sort of his saving grace and he has a couple of cool suplexes, including a backdrop driver and a high-angle German. Of course, Kakihara is slappy happy and mostly works Silver over with takedowns and holds. The matwork slows this down quite a bit but the moments in between are fun. Silver is probably the third best gaijin behind Albright and Scott at this point.

Another fun spirited young boy match with Maeda being feisty with his strikes and Kanehara looking to suplex>submit. What they may lack in finesse they make up for with their hearts and determination. But there's some cool shit like Maeda blocking Kanehara's defensive kicks when he's got him in the single leg grab. It heats up heading into the finish with some big strikes and submission attempts. I really liked the desperation of Kanehara's single leg crab/side facelock when Maeda won't tap. They're both exhausted and swatting by the end of it and Kanehara wins after a German suplex into the armbar. One of the better matches of the show.

Not a whole lot to add. It's neat. I like Bockwinkel's pre-match hype. He can still go -- good arm control off the ropes, good takedowns and counters. Robinson's obviously slowed down quite a bit at this point but he manages to get in few good shots on Nick and vice versa. He really works the headscissors. A total dad's match.

Oh shit, that's my birthday. It has to be a great match.

The best match of the show, aside from maybe the opener. Yamazaki flies at him with a kick and Albright quickly takes him down and starts pounding away with a few great body shots. Yamazaki is trying to play defense, trying to go after the arm, but Albright’s just too darn big. After a little temper flareup, Albright snaps him over with a belly-to-belly. When Yamazaki finally gets the armbar, Albright right on the ropes. Yamazaki then stuns him with a knee to the midsection and German suplexes Albright to set up the crab hold but again, too damn big. Loved Albright running over and clobbering Yamazaki in the back of the head before German suplexing him and when Yamazaki is barely back up and on his feet, Albright hits a second German for the immediate KO.