Control21

Titan One of the most promising wrestlers to come out of CMLL during the 2010s, Titan has become a mainstay in both his home promotion and NJPW. He is one of the most exciting and explosive wrestlers around in terms of pure athleticism. He is also able to build a sound match structure around these abilities, which is often a skill that other athletically gifted wrestlers lack or ignore. Titan is also an incredible seller and utilizes believable selling with good ring psychology to make his matches feel emotionally real. He is quickly becoming one of CMLL’s top stars and has become a fan favorite in Japan as well. With the resume that he is building, I think a deeper discussion about his career is worthwhile. Recommended matches – vs Master Wato (5/28/2023) vs Barbaro Cavernario (2/22/2019) vs Soberano Jr (2/27/2023) vs Polvora (1/1/2013) vs Virus (1/28/2014) vs Mascara Dorada (9/29/2023) vs El Desperado (5/26/2023) Seichi Ikemoto Ikemoto is primarily a MMA competitor, but he has done his fair share of wrestling matches as well, most notably in U-Style and GLEAT. He has also worked AJPW, NOAH, and Hard Hit. His output has been very consistent and his grappling skills make him stand out just about every time he steps into the ring. One of the more unheralded deep Puro wrestlers that might benefit from a closer look if people enjoy more technically proficient wrestling. vs Crafter M (3/13/2004) vs Ryuki Ueyama (10/9/2004) w/Ryuki Ueyama vs Kiyoshi Tamura & Takaku Fuke (12/7/2004) w/Takanori Ito vs Minoru Tanaka & Yu Iizuka (6/11/2022) vs Tetsuya Izuchi (8/20/2022) vs Yu Iizuka (9/4/2022) w/Tetsuya Izuchi vs Shinya Aoki & Yu Iizuka (3/21/2023) Daisuke Nakamura Daisuke Nakamura has earned a reputation in MMA circles for being an incredible and flashy grappler, having great bouts with the likes of Hideo Tokoro and several others. On the wrestling side, he approaches things in a similar way, relying on his speed and athleticism to work the mat in a very smooth fashion. Nakamura got his start in U-Style, and had a great match with Frank Shamrock. He has bounced around the Japan indies scene for a while, and has recently found a home in Kyushu Pro, where he had a great match with Hitamaru Sasaki in 2021. vs Kazuki Okubo (12/7/2004) vs Frank Shamrock (11/23/2005) w/Yu Kobayashi vs Takatoshi Matsumoto & Tsuyoshi Okada (9/21/2019) vs Hitamaru Sasaki (9/6/2021) Hitamaru Sasaki Hitamaru Sasaki, aka Kyosuke Sasaki, was a U-FILE dojo trainee, who studied under the tutelage of Kiyoshi Tamura and debuted in Tamura’s promotion, U-STYLE. Since then, Sasaki has traveled the Japanese indie scene and has built himself a solid resume over the years. Not strictly a shoot-style guy as he has worked regular matches as well. Similar to some of the other former shoot-style guys, he’s a great technician and can have a good-to-great match occasionally. vs Takehiro Murahama (4/6/2003) vs Dokonjonosuke Mishima (6/29/2003) vs Hiroyuki Ito (10/6/2003) vs Kiyoshi Tamura (3/13/2004) vs Kensuke Sasaki (8/18/2004) vs White Moriyama (10/1/2022) vs Hikaru Sato (1/3/2023) Dennis Koslowski Dennis Koslowski was a Greco-Roman wrestler who won the bronze at the 1988 Seoul Olympics and the Silver at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. He didn’t have that many matches, but his work in UWFi was usually solid and had some moments of brilliance, such as his matches against Kiyoshi Tamura and Kazuo Yamazaki. He didn’t have too much trouble adjusting to UWFi’s style. Not a particularly flashy name, but he’s another name that could be considered by people who enjoy “purity” in their pro wrestling. vs Kazuo Yamazaki (2/14/1993) vs Yuko Miyato (8/13/1993) vs Masahito Kakihara (10/4/1993) vs Kiyoshi Tamura (12/5/1993) Duane Koslowski The brother of Dennis Koslowski, Duane Koslowski competed in the Olympics as well but never medaled. He worked for more promotions in Japan than Dennis did, appearing in a match for UWF Newborn at U-COSMOS against Nobuhiko Takada before jumping to PWFG where he had a handful of matches. Duane Koslowski was more of a power suplex and throws wrestler, whereas his brother Dennis was more focused on finesse. Duane became a solid wrestler over time and even earned a nomination in the Wrestling Observer for the Rookie of the Year award in 1993. vs Nobuhiko Takada (11/29/1989) vs Wayne Shamrock (7/26/1991) vs Kazuo Takahashi (8/23/1991) vs Yuki Ishikawa (8/29/1993)

Card Announcement: UWF Newborn - "Fighting Base Sapporo" March 22nd, 1989 Sapporo, Japan Nakajima Sports Center Yusuke Fuke vs Manabu Yamada Kiyoshi Tamura vs Yasuto Sekishima Minoru Suzuki vs Shigeo Miyato Wayne Shamrock vs Tatsuo Nakano Dick Vrij vs Kazuo Yamazaki Bad News Allen vs Bart Vale Dennis Koslowski & Duane Koslowski vs Victor Zangiev & Salman Hashimikov Bob Backlund vs Atsushi Onita Satoru Sayama vs Joe Malenko Akira Maeda vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara

That Killer Khan vs Terry Gordy match sounds brutal

Looking forward to seeing who becomes the first WCW World Women's Champion. Debbie Malenko had a good showing and looks set to be a contender already!

He was one of the trainers for UWFi and did some appearances as an official/commissioner of sorts. Sakuraba was trained by Billy Robinson and so was Albright, along with a few others (Little Guido, Billy Scott, Kiyoshi Tamura, etc)

Damien with a big win over Rotunda! I didn't see that one coming. Tom Zenk looked very impressive against Steiner. I wouldn't call that an upset as Tom Zenk is a tremendous wrestler when given the opportunity to showcase his talents. Chris Walker looks great as well. You are making good use of him here. Saito and Goto as the babyfaces make for an interesting dynamic. I think that's a good call on your part. Keep 'em coming!

Stan Hansen in the AWA will be a good fit. Looking forward to seeing what he brings to the table. Tony St. Clair and Dory Funk both had very impressive wins! Carlos Colon vs Chicky Starr sounded like a great match as well. Also, I think Koloff vs Slaughter and Tsuruta vs Armstrong delivered for the fans. Two great matches to round things off.

Excited for WrestleWar, especially the 8-man tournament to determine a title challenger. Jerry Lawler getting a title shot is also something to look forward to. The Power Plant has been busy, and I'm eager to see how Scott Norton does once he gets more mileage in the ring. He could be a huge star for WCW. The tag team scene is very interesting. Seems like a huge void is there for any team to fill and become the next dominant force in the division.

Looking forward to the Crockett Cup. Tons of exciting talent are sure to be involved! Manny Fernandez vs Dick Slater is promising to be a great match. Too Cold Scorpio getting a nice rub from Dynamite Kid could do wonders for his NWA career moving forward.

Some tasty shows with Steve Austin continuing to look impressive against Chris Adams and Bobby Eaton. Bret Hart vs Bam Bam is a great main event to cap things off. Ricky Steamboat's title reign is also off to a flying start after defeating Barry Windham again.

The buildup for Savage vs Warrior has been very well done. I love the way the Von Erichs are being used as well. Lots of good stuff happening in WWF this month.

Give it to Nagata, or see if Akira Maeda wants the job.

If anyone is interested, someone made a very good video on the history of the UWF in the 1980s. It's well worth your time. The only thing I would add/correct is that Sayama was trained by Karl Gotch and was his live-in student for a while. Although later on, Gotch soured on Sayama for a variety of reasons.

Gedo and/or whoever is involved with the booking needs to be fired. The fact NJPW is being booked like this is shameful.

I enjoyed the matwork here. As Jetlag said, it was really well done in the context of the style of the time and the creative stuff stood out. The pacing was good as well. Good stuff all around ****1/2

Yeah, this was great. I was going to go ****3/4 but I felt like a draw was the least ideal finish. Still, this was very enjoyable and a classic matchup between a Wigan-trained catch wrestler and someone from a more continental background. Tibor past his prime is still a great wrestler, and the tactical nuances in this match kept me engaged throughout. Fallon doing some heel-ish stuff but not being over the top with it added a good dynamic match. One of the better WoS/JP matches I've seen. ****1/2

It's a shame we don't have more 60s footage available. I just watched some of his matches today and he's great. I think footage of him in his prime would be even better. The only clip I found from the 60s was - Thanks for bringing his name up again @GOTNW!

I agree with Superstar Sleeze, I went ****1/2 on this as well. This was a very fun match between two hungry upstarts. Anjo kept the pace with Funaki, who was demonstrating why he was held in high regard at this point in his career. Fun striking exchanges followed by committed and purposeful grappling. Can't ask for much more.

Very doubtful. Vince's ego is too big for him to start from scratch, and in today's world, I doubt any major TV company would want to touch him.

UWF Core The 1st Anniversary (4/14/1989) Yoji Anjo vs Minoru Suzuki This was a decent and fun opener featuring a young Minoru Suzuki fresh from New Japan, and a feisty Yoji Anjo who was eager to prove his worth against the new guy. Things take a while to heat up, but the last 5-10 minutes are engaging and make things interesting enough. ***3/4 Shigeo Miyato vs Tatsuo Nakano Nothing too exciting, but it wasn't bad either. Miyato and Takano kept things interesting and changed the pace a bit at times with some hard suplexes and throws. Both Miyato and Nakano are visibly becoming better wrestlers by this point, and they seem to grasp the UWF Newborn house style better with each passing match. *** Akira Maeda vs Kazuo Yamazaki This was quite fun and had the promise to become a great UWF main event but Kazuo Yamazaki ended up getting cut above the eyebrow after an errant blow from Maeda, and the bleeding seemed to be too much for the referee to allow the match to continue. The crowd seems to buy into the sudden finish and the realism behind it, so it didn't take away from things too much. *** UWF May History 1st (5/4/1989) Minoru Suzuki vs Shigeo Miyato Solid. Miyato and Suzuki were up to the task of entertaining the crowd with great technical wrestling. Suzuki is more raw at this point, and it looks like Miyato is more proficient when it comes to grappling and counterwork, but the young Suzuki does put up a fight when needed. ***3/4 Yoji Anjo vs Mark Rush This was a match with a slow tempo that picked up at certain points when needed. It wasn't a blow-away match, but it was engaging enough for me to not lose interest. I thought Mark Rush looked better in his last match, but Anjo is able to keep things flowing. ***1/2 Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Masakatsu Funaki Funaki's first match in UWF Newborn and he comes out swinging against Yoshiaki Fujiwara, his former mentor from the NJPW dojo. This is a pretty fun match where Funaki takes it to Fujiwara and demonstrates his flashy skills, while Fujiwara relies on experience and grittiness to outlast the young upstart. The finish wasn't entirely clean, but that didn't take away from the match too much despite the crowd being disappointed to a degree. ****1/4 Kazuo Yamazaki vs Nobuhiko Takada This was a bit long, but still a very engaging match with a nice closing stretch where Yamazaki begins to land some haymakers on Takada. The match features some slower-paced grappling, but they tell a logical story and they pick things up when needed. Yamazaki looked very solid here, and Takada is Takada as you would expect. **** Chris Dolman vs Akira Maeda Serviceable main event. Chris Dolman isn't a fancy worker but does bring enough credibility to the table to make this match compelling and gets some nice throws in on Maeda. Maeda controls most of the match with his striking, and it ends as you would expect with Maeda getting the win. The round system does a nice job of setting up a good match structure for both. **** UWF May History 2nd (5/21/1989) Minoru Suzuki vs Kiyoshi Tamura A nice debut for Kiyoshi Tamura, who demonstrated all the potential he had in five minutes against Minoru Suzuki. Suzuki was in control for most of the match and didn't look threatened much, but this was still pretty interesting for what it was. ***3/4 Yoji Anjo vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara Not bad at all, although the pace did feel like it dragged at times. Anjo had some spirit in him when he tried to lock up with Fujiwara, but the elder statesman of UWF was just too good and maybe a step ahead in terms of working the match. ***1/2 Bob Backlund vs Masakatsu Funaki Much like Takada vs Backlund a few months before this, this was a strange yet interesting clash of styles where Backlund seems to be a good fit for the UWF style, but has an interesting way of presenting himself at the same time. Funaki gets a little stiff with Backlund, and Backlund appears to be a bit unsettled by it. Still, the match stayed together and the finish was a bit disappointing but the work was good enough. ****1/4 Nobuhiko Takada vs Johnny Barrett Johnny Barrett had some talent, but I'm not sure if he was a good fit for Takada here, or for the UWF in general. This was probably the weakest match on the card. Takada didn't work too hard to carry Barrett, although he probably needed that to make the match more compelling. Nice limb work from Barrett, but not much to write home about. **3/4 Akira Maeda vs Kazuo Yamazaki Passable main event, although not as good as Takada's match with Yamazaki earlier in the month. Maeda was in control a bit more compared to Takada, and the match probably suffered due to that. Not that Maeda is terrible at working from the top, it's just that this probably could have benefited from Yamazaki having more of a fighting chance. ***1/2

Loving the feud between Gino and David Von Erich. That definitely could have been great on paper, especially in 1984.

Great job with the lead-up to SB2 and the event itself. I enjoyed reading. Ron Simmons teaming with Bret Hart is a great choice.

Some of the comments here have aged incredibly poorly. Sting is a great wrestler and his career should speak for itself, but I guess some people just aren't impressed because he wasn't Ric Flair or something? Sure, whatever

His UWF work and Lucha stuff are enough for me to consider him as a top 100 candidate. It's incredibly good