superkix

It takes a while for them to get going but it picks up with Miyato overstepping his role and Nakano trying to silence him. I mean, Yuko tries to stand his ground, grabbing Nakano with a uranage slam but Nakano just wants to keep him quiet (but also kicks him in the nuts). Fun back-and-forth building to the finish, with Yuko knocking him down with the solebutt kick to the gut and Nakano capture bustering him to set up the final crossface chickenwing.

Hey, this was pretty good. Plenty of struggle on the mat with Silver trying hard to do something and Kaki staying in control for much of the match. Silver's rough and tumble and would've made for a good generic AJPW gaijin or something. No finesse but all heart and mullet, which is what we need most sometimes. At one point in the match, Silver snags a kick and clobbers him with a sickle lariat and when Kaki tries for his big spinning heel kick, Mark catches a foot and drops down into a kneebar, which leads to a heated little spat. Silver plants him with a uranage but ends up trapped in a kneebar, with Kaki pulling him away from the ropes and re-applying for the submission.

At this point, I'm ready for Takayama to have a new dance partner but whatever, it's Kanehara again in the same old dance. Kanehara once again controls on the mat and Takayama is still slappy and sloppy. He's able to hit another big German but in the end, taps to a double wristlock. Not a bad open, but an open.

I haven't watched much NOAH this year because I've got better things to do but from what I've seen, I love Nakajima's transformation and yeah, it's basically Tetsuya Naito's "tranquilo" with hard kicks, but it works for him with his shithead smugness. He definitely has some of the best snap kicks in pro-wrestling and paired up against Sugiura's snug elbows, you get some gnarly strike exchanges. But it's got simple things I love, like Nakajima blocking Sugiura's snapmare attempt to hit him with a second snapmare>kick combo. And Nakajima really heats up the strikes down the finishing stretch, between the back-to-front repeat kicks, the nasty slaps, and that fucking punt kick to the face! Brutal. There are plenty of cool moments and as a match, it's definitely the best thing I've seen from NOAH this year, which, granted, isn't much, but still, it beats what I have seen, as well as most of NJPW's convoluted bullshit.

This went from not good to okay upon re-watch. Allen has the credentials and he does get a decent throwdown into an armbar attempt but he also doesn't look like he's trying too hard. Albright, on the other hand, loves to suplex and slings him with a belly-to-belly, then German suplexes him, puts him in the grounded full nelson before Allen gives up the ghost. Here's hoping the rematch is something else.

This wasn't very good either. Yamazaki kicking everyone was probably the highlight. Fleming sucks and I guess Takada looked pretty good against a guy like Mark Silver, who sells plenty but also gets some shine, putting the boss himself in the dreaded single leg. Takada of course finishes it out, kicking Silver in the head and submitting him with the armbar. Mehhh.

It's Ray Lloyd aka WCW's Glacier making his UWFi debut against none other than KiyoshI Tamura. This has to rule, right? Wrong. Baby Glacier shows off a big kick but promptly gets taken down and put into a kneelock. Tamura just keeps taking Lloyd back to the ropes with holds, and everything Lloyd tries to do is sloppy and unsuccessful. Tamura did what he could and finally submits him with the single leg crab. Not good.

Well, it's happened. Tom Burton was involved in the best match of a show. Granted, the show wasn't very good in general but credit where credit is due. Honestly, it comes down to the Kaki/Burton exchanges because as we know, Kaki is slappy and he ambushes Burton. The transition from Burton's double leg takedown attempt to a shoot piledriver was so good. And then when Burton tries another takedown, Kakihara smacks his head and Burton crawls like a big baby out of the ring and to the floor. So I guess the best part is Burton getting beaten up but he still manages to hit a decent double arm suplex. Nakano wasn't at his best here but he did have some nice interactions with Miyato, which led to him hitting a German > dragon suplex after a flurry of strikes. In the end, Miyato gets the big win and Burton hulks out on him only to get solebutt kicked in the gut and submitted with a grounded headscissors.

Any idea what happened to Masakazu Maeda? It appears his pro-wrestling career was over after his 5/8/92 match and now Takayama has been plugged into the opening rivalry with Kanehara. Anyway, this was better than their previous match. It's still sloppy with lots of flailing around and wild strikes but I guess that's part of the charm. Takayama hits a nice German suplex and Kanehara knocks down Takayama with a nasty high kick to the throat! He also tries to follow up with some big spin kicks to no avail but still high kicks Takayama in the head a bunch and finally taps him with the kneebar. This was pretty fun and probably the second best match of the show.

We got RINGS, U-STYLE, so why not a guide to UWFi? I've been watching everything in chronological order, struggling through Tom Burton matches, and while there are a lot of stinkers, there is plenty to enjoy in the wacky world of Nobuhiko Takada's shoot-style paradise. Here's the "best of the best" by year, starting with 1991. 1991 Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara (5/10/91) Kazuo Yamazaki & Tatsuo Nakano vs. Yoji Anjoh & Yuko Miyato (5/10/91) Tatsuo Nakano vs. Yoji Anjoh (6/6/91) Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoji Anjoh (7/3/91) Nobuhiko Takada vs. Tatsuo Nakano (7/3/91) Tatsuo Nakano vs. Yuko Miyato (7/30/91) Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Billy Scott (7/30/91) Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tatsuo Nakano (9/26/91) Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoji Anjoh (9/26/91) Yoji Anjoh vs. Billy Scott (10/6/91) Masahito Kakihara vs. Jim Boss (12/22/91) Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Gary Albright (12/22/91) 1992 Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yuko Miyato (1/9/92) Kazuo Yamazaki & Yoji Anjoh vs. Gary Albright & Jim Boss (1/9/92) Kiyoshi Tamura & Yuko Miyato vs. Mark Silver & Tatsuo Nakano (2/15/92) Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Masakazu Maeda (2/29/92) Gary Albright vs. Kazuo Yamazaki (3/17/92) Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Masakazu Maeda (5/8/92) Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Koji Kitao (5/8/92) Nobuhiko Takada vs. Gary Albright (5/8/92) Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara (6/28/92) Kiyoshi Tamura & Yuko Miyato vs. Tatsuo Nakano & Mark Fleming (6/28/92) Yoji Anjoh vs. Masahito Kakihara (6/28/92) Kiyoshi Tamura & Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Gary Albright & Mark Silver (7/12/92) Masahito Kakihara vs. Mark Silver (8/28/92) Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoji Anjoh (8/28/92) Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Mark Silver (9/21/92) Masahito Kakihara vs. Tatsuo Nakano (9/21/92) Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kazuo Yamazaki (10/23/92) Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara (12/20/92) Nobuhiko Takada vs. Naoki Sano (12/20/92) 1993 Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Dan Severn (1/10/93) Naoki Sano vs. Masahito Kakihara (1/10/93) Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (2/13/93) Gary Albright vs. Dennis Koslowski (4/10/93) Naoki Sano vs. Masahito Kakihara (4/10/93) Gary Albright vs. Dennis Koslowski (5/6/93) Naoki Sano vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (5/6/93) Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoji Anjoh (7/18/93) Gene Lydick vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (8/13/93) Vader vs. Kazuo Yamazaki (8/13/93) Naoki Sano vs. Yoji Anjoh (8/13/93) Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yuko Miyato (10/4/93) Nobuhiko Takada vs. Billy Scott (10/4/93) Vader vs. Nobuhiko Takada (12/5/93) Gene Lydick vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara (12/15/93) 1994 Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoji Anjo (2/25/94) Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara (2/25/94) Victor Zangiev vs. Yoji Anjo (4/3/94) Dan Severn vs. Masahito Kakihara (4/3/94) Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kazuo Yamazaki (4/3/94) Yoshihiro Takayama vs. Yuko Miyato (4/3/94) Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Naoki Sano (5/6/94) Kazushi Sakuraba & Masahito Kakihara vs. Gene Lydick & Steve Nelson (6/10/94) Salman Hashimikov & Victor Zangiev vs. Kazuo Yamazaki & Yoji Anjo (6/10/94) Vader vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (6/10/94) Gene Lydick & Billy Scott vs. Masahito Kakihara & Kazushi Sakuraba (8/18/94) Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Tatsuo Nakano (8/18/94) Gary Albright vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (8/18/94) Vader vs. Nobuhiko Takada (8/18/94) Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (10/8/94) Kiyoshi Tamura & Dan Severn vs. Yoji Anjo & Steve Nelson (10/8/94) Vader & John Tenta vs. Gary Albright & Kazuo Yamazaki (10/8/94) Victor Zangiev & Tatsuo Nakano vs. Yoji Anjo & Yuko Miyato (10/14/94) Nobuhiko Takada vs. Naoki Sano (10/14/94) Vader & John Tenta vs. Gary Albright & Kazuo Yamazaki (10/14/94) Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Dan Severn (11/30/94) Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Masahito Kakihara (11/30/94) Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara (UWFi, 5/10/91) A cool little match-up. I loved how Kakihara faked like he was going to just grapple with Tamura before he unleashes his traditional flurry of strikes. Tamura shows off some skill on the mat but again, Kakihara’s hands are all over him like fly swatters. When he does get some breathing room, Tamura’s in-ring awareness is shines through, as he’s constantly grabbing limbs, settling into holds and avoiding the bigger blows from Kakihara to get a takedown. When Kakihara misses the big spinning heel kick, Tamura stays on him with knees to the ribs and a nasty shot to the face. When he starts swinging for the fences, missing wildly, Tamura coolly takes him down with a belly-to-belly slam. Kakihara finally grazes him with another spinning heel kick and follows up with another that squarely hits the mark. He then applies a front necklock, deadlifting Tamura with almost a brainbuster. The exhaustion faction plays into the finish of the match, as Kakihara is sluggish, trying to trade kicks with Tamura, and Tamura catches a leg for a takedown. Kakihara’s able to counter with a leglock of his own, but Tamura re-counters and Kakihara taps out. Kazuo Yamazaki & Tatsuo Nakano vs. Yoji Anjoh & Yuko Miyato (UWFi, 5/10/91) This was a lot of fun. Nakano spent the early minutes shielding himself from Miyato's quick hands and Anjoh's elbows. He does get off a nice throw>elbow to the back of Anjoh's head before he tags in Yamazaki. Yamazaki and Anjoh mostly fight for holds on the ground, which is fine, but when Miyamoto destroys Nakano's nose during a spat of palm thrusts, the match really settles in for a great bumpy ride. Nakano's pissed and retaliates with a German suplex. When Yamazaki tags in, he immediately high kicks Miyato in the head. Whenever Nakano and Anjoh are in there, they're sneaking in dirty elbow shots to the head -- Anjoh really gives it to Nakano at one point. Yamazaki's selling during the finish stretch where he's just taking punishment from both Miyato and Anjoh was really good. Tatsuo Nakano vs. Yoji Anjoh (UWFi, 6/6/91) This turned into quite the dirty scrap, as Anjoh stayed aggressive throughout this match, smashing Nakano's nose during a barrage of stiff shots. A bloodied Nakano manages a full nelson suplex on Anjoh, but then Anjoh locks in the choke sleeper, Nakano's blood smeared across his arm, and Nakano tries to fight out but ultimately taps out. And Anjoh doesn't let go. What a dick. Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoji Anjoh (UWFi, 7/3/91) This match is great. Tamura is already so good early into his career, having only wrestling eight or so matches prior to facing Anjoh. He's slick as catshit, utilizing his speed to his advantage -- I mean, it's hard to even keep track of him at times. Anjoh can't do too much on the mat without Tamura managing to slip out and away. He'll grab an arm and Tamura will maneuver his legs around to get back to a vertical base, controlling Anjoh with a front facelock. While Tamura keeps going back to the rear naked choke, Anjoh targets the leg throughout to set up the finish. But there's just so many cool little moments in this match. At one point, Tamura rolls through with an armbar attempt and Anjoh catches the leg but Tamura simply stands up out of it. When Anjoh isn't going after the leg, he's throwing knees. He repeatedly knees Tamura in the back of the head but Tamura doesn't let go of the arm, slipping out to his feet and smacking Anjoh. Tamura's front necklock counter with the go-behind into the rear naked choke was a thing of beauty. Then he just starts stomping the back of Anjoh's head, putting the fear of God in him. By the end, things aren't quite as silky as they're both fighting over holds and avoiding takedowns. The referee doesn't do shit when Anjoh grabs Tamura's hair as he's trying to turn him over into the crab hold. In the end, all that legwork pays off for Anjoh as he's able to crank on a sick single leg crab hold for the submission victory. Nobuhiko Takada vs. Tatsuo Nakano (UWFi, 7/3/91) Fun match. Takada was able to avoid the German suplex throughout, but there were some fun teases and transitions, with Nakano grabbing the rear naked choke and rallying the fans behind him. Match really picks up when Nakano rushes him against the ropes with strikes and snap suplexes him. Takada's kicks looked good, Nakano's underdog defense worked well -- I especially liked the catch into the calf hold and then turning that into a pretty nasty side headlock on Takada. Tatsuo Nakano vs. Yuko Miyato (UWFi, 7/30/91) This was actually a lot of fun. Things get really heated in there at times with their strike exchanges and, like pretty much every match, Nakano's nose gets busted. There is a lot of good counterwork and takedowns, and when Nakano's pissed, he dumps Miyato with the German suplex. There's also a point where he almost capture suplexes Miyato out of the ring as things escalate in violence. A good little Nakano showcase and a strong finish with the choke to win. Really good stuff. Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Billy Scott (UWFi, 7/30/91) This was short and semi-sweet. Scott looks like such a dope with his mullet and singlet but when he comes out hot and heavy with the palm thrusts and knees, he becomes more of an asskicker dope. I thought there was good struggle on the mat, even though Yamazaki looked like he was going through the motions at times, and I liked Scott's out-of-nowhere backdrop into the elevated single leg crab. Yamazaki adds a little spicy mustard to his kicks toward the end, and Scott trying to build momentum to the German was cool, only to get German suplexed in turn and choked out with the front guillotine. Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tatsuo Nakano (UWFi, 9/26/91) A fun contrast of styles, with Tamura utilizing his smooth takedowns to stay on top of Nakano and look for an opening on the mat. The match takes a bit to get going but when Tamura goes for a double leg takedown, he runs smack into Nakano's classic reflex knee to the face. That gives Nakano a bit of confidence, as he starts trying to bulldoze Tamura down but of course, Tamura being Tamura manages to find a way to coolly reverse a hold or counter the attack. At one point, Tamura tries for a headlock takedown and Nakano grabs a rear choke – almost a crossface chickenwing – and drags him down to the canvas. Tamura continues trying to get holds on Nakano but the little meatball doesn't really budge...so he starts smacking him around instead, or dumping him straight on top of his head with a waterwheel throw. Nakano keeps fighting 'til the very end as he tries elbowing out of the hold before submitting. Kazuo Yamazaki vs. Yoji Anjoh (UWFi, 9/26/91) I liked Anjoh's early defense, avoiding the German and keeping Yamazaki on the ground. His leg trip into the Fujiwara armbar was neat. They spend most of the match on the mat before Anjoh starts laying into Yamazaki with knees and kicks for a couple of knockdowns. There's a weird spot where Yamazaki finally hits the German suplex hold and Anjoh looks to counter that with a double wristlock but then rolls off with some delayed selling. The finish was cool too, with Anjoh trying for the rolling kneebar and Yamazaki countering with the neck crank. Yoji Anjoh vs. Billy Scott (UWFi, 10/6/91) Billy Scott continues to find comfort in shoot-style and this was probably his best solo outing to date. But still has an awful haircut.They open with a mad scramble and Scott lets Anjoh know early on that he ain't taking any of his shit. He kicks Anjoh in the face when they're tied up on the ground and when they're back on their feet, they're flinging hands and going kind of nuts, which is great. The groundwork throughout is a mess but that doesn't stop Billy from trying. I really like his German suplex lift into the Rock Bottom and his arm-trap judo throw but he can't really follow up on the mat. He does throw some mean palm strikes though. In the end, Anjoh catches him with a nasty knee strike in the corner, throws him with a dope belly-to-belly, but on the mat, Scott rolls him up, fucks the finish and Anjoh ends up tapping to a weak-looking neck crank. Good match nevertheless. Masahito Kakihara vs. Jim Boss (UWFi, 12/22/91) A stiff little sub-five undercard treat with Slappy Kaki coming right out of the gate and swatting the hell out of Boss repeatedly. Boss doesn't really know what to do but gets some retribution by dumping Kakihara with a release German suplex and then running over and punt kicking him in the head. He shoves the ref aside and keeps pounding on him in the corner as the fans let him have it. Kaki slaps his way back in control and his final head kick KO to Boss looked scary. Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Gary Albright (UWFi, 12/22/91) A good match-up with Albright using his size and weight on the mat and Tamura, of course, using his finesse to get Albright on the ground for a submission. Albright at one point has Tamura's leg and Tamura is able to take him down with a slick kneebar transition. Albright keeps trying for this inverted necklock and he ends up snapping Tamura over with a necklock suplex>inverted necklock. Of course, he throws a few more suplexes and ends up KO'ing Tamura with a German.

There's a lot of shooting in this tag. Tamura is kind of a dick and humiliates SIlver on the mat, and Albright doesn't like it. Yamazaki also shoot stomps Silver in the face when Silver blows a spot.

Really awesome shoot-style tag because it definitely blurs the lines between shoot and pro-wrestling very well. Mark Silver, really representing 1992 in all its glory, won me over and became quite the fighting underdog when the fans turned on Tamura who basically bullies SIlver on the mat throughout the match. Really rides that back mount and at one point, SIlver lifts his hands and asks "why?". Things get really heated when SIlver tries to retaliate but Tamura goes back to dominating him and sending him to the ropes. Yamazaki's "I don't want to be here" energy is so good. He definitely gives Silver something more to work with and their exchanges felt gritty and seamless. Love Yamazaki's go behind German suplex. Yamazaki gives him some big kicks and Silver sells them great but it looks he was supposed to take Yamazaki's spinning heel kick counter, doesn't, stands there awkwardly trying to figure out what to do, and then Yamazaki, clearly pissed, shoot stomps him in the face and tags in Tamura. So now Tamura and Yamazaki are both shooting on Silver, Silver just wants some retribution against these assholes, the fans want Silver to tag in Albright, and Albright is ready to fucking kill somebody. We get the finish everyone was waiting for. Tamura tries to do his thing against Silver but Silver immediately goes to the ropes, drops Tamura with a uranage, and finally tags in Albright, whose like "f this a-hole" and annihilates Tamura with suplexes for the KO. Not a happy man at the way Tamura humiliated Silver and boy, did Tamura pay. Yikes.

It's Takada up against another white dude Southern jobber playing collegiate American wrestler. This time, it's Steve "Do It to It" Cox, who looks like Bruce Pritchard saddled with an Olympic gold medalist gimmick. He manages some decent enough amateur takedowns but he's real animated and Takada is his usual boring self on the mat, so it goes nowhere fast. Takada finally starts in with the leg kicks, blocks the suplex, and slaps the armbar on Cox. Donezo.

Very disappointing match considering the fire these two possess. Lots of teases but no real payoff. It's a whole lot of nothing until Miyato fires off a backdrop suplex but that's kind of it. They heat up for like a microsecond before Miyato solebutt kicks Kaki in the stomach and submits him with a rear choke. Meh.

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.

We will have some extras left. Shoot me a DM with your preferred size and I'll try to snag one for you.

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.