Control21

I think Ken "Wayne" Shamrock should be kept on my roster and taken out of the draft based on the fact that he's always been a shoot-style guy. He had a brief run in AJPW in 1989, bounced around a bit in the US as "Vince Torelli," and then tried out for UWF Newborn in 1990 which led to an extended run with UWF, PWFG, and then Pancrase. That's seven years of working shoot-style or UWF-adjacent promotions until he joins WWF in 1997 for a few years before going back to Japan to work for PRIDE and such. Eight years of working in Japan. Clearly, he's always been a guy closer to shoot-style than traditional pro-wrestling.

I like the 1995 concept as well, but anything in the 90s would be interesting if you ask me.

I would definitely be interested if one ever starts.

My apologies, I didn't mean to cause a scene or get emotions up. I just love shoot-style and shoot-style adjacent wrestlers so I'm naturally eager to work with those types of wrestlers my first time doing this...and I'm trying to be realistic with how I roll out the wrestlers already on my roster and pace myself, so I don't burn myself out. I probably shouldn't have said anything.

I'll be honest...it's slightly frustrating to be stonewalled a bit because I want to add a type of wrestler to my roster to fill a certain role. You have 60+ guys on your roster Rain, don't you think it would be the polite/fair thing to do to let one of the new guys take advantage of the roster turnover as well to get a guy they want? Just seems like my requests are being handwaved. I get this is an established group with a certain hierarchy and group dynamics naturally come into play...but come on.

I see Gary Albright is on the free agent list now. Can I go ahead and claim him?

I don't mind doing that, but I just figured I would make my desire for someone like Vader known and take advantage of the current turnover with some of the rosters and maybe get him on a more permanent basis. I just want people to know that I'm not asking for random wrestlers for no reason. Vader worked UWFi in real life (a descendant of UWF) and was mainly working in Japan in the late 1980s, so things match up to some degree. Shoot-style promotions often used "monster gaijins" to go against their native roster just like any other Japanese promotion.

Vader was working NJPW a lot in 1988. I don't think it would be that much of a stretch for Vader to work UWF (especially since UWF was able to bring in guys like Backlund in 1988).

Are you running both WCW and WWF now? Just curious because if the WCW roster is going to open up then maybe I can get Vader to start his UWFi run a few years earlier than in real life. I really want one of those "monster gaijins" in the vein of Gary Albright or Vader on my roster. Just putting that out there...

UWF Heartbeat - Osaka Dream Bout (12/22/1988) Tatsuo Nakano vs Yoji Anjo As with the last few shows, this opening match was mostly a physical grappling battle that basically put to the test the stamina of both wrestlers and probably was a proving ground for both of them while educating the crowd. They seem to be applying a lot more advanced shoot-style concepts steadily through these matches. Nothing special, although Anjo and Nakano both keep looking better. ***3/4 Shigeo Miyato vs Kazuo Yamazaki Not a match that will blow you away, but Yamazaki does look really good here and Shigeo Miyato also keeps improving. Yamazaki controls most of the match but Miyato does shine here and there. By this point, it is clear Yamazaki is the #3 guy in the promotion. He makes it clear here by more or less easily winning the match without much trouble. ***3/4 Akira Maeda vs Norman Smiley A bit of a dominant win for Maeda. Norman Smiley doesn't get much of a chance to show his stuff, which is a shame. Felt like a squash match at times but Maeda was clearly the main guy and probably the most popular wrestler in Japan in 1988. Maeda basically keeps Smiley from gaining any advantage on the canvas and bosses him around with his strikes. Not much to write home about. ***1/4 Bob Backlund vs Nobuhiko Takada This was a spectacle. Backlund is recruited to UWF as a "scientific wrestler" (he makes this clear in the pre-match interview) and as always, is up for a good fight with Takada. Backlund didn't fully adjust to the UWF style but who gives a damn, he's incredibly entertaining and makes things work even if he does some pro-style stuff. Takada has experience in that department too so the match definitely shines in its best moments, but drags in some parts that prevent this from being a full-on classic. Backlund does come across as a legit threat to Takada and gives off Karl Gotch-esque vibes at times with his wrestling abilities. He has decent counterwork on the canvas here as well, keeping things moving when needed. His suplexes and throws come across as big and the crowd eats them up. The ending is a bit odd as there are "screwjob" elements to it, but Backlund is clearly doing his antics to keep the finish "up in the air." It is unclear to me if Backlund was working for a different finish and the referee stepped in to make sure Takada won cleanly, or if the finish was meant to be an "I didn't tap! " sort of thing. While the 80s was a great decade of wrestling, we rarely got to see great experimental art pieces such as this. A fun and eclectic mix of both worlds (pro-style and shoot-style). ****1/2

As predicted, Bam Bam had no problem with Benoit...great win by Muta over Tiger Mask II, that sounds like it was a great match. I guess we'll have to wait longer for Spivey and Flair to deliver in the ring, but it should be a worthwhile wait. Rockers vs Twin Towers was a fantastic main event with The Rockers really carrying their momentum forward.

Great stuff. I loved the interactions between Frazier and Dundee. Can't wait to see how things play out in the next episode

He's not that bad. I think the new gimmick helps him a lot. I get mid-90s Bret Hart vibes from his current run. The fans seem to love him. I thought his match with Kaito was great.

I don't understand why this bothers people so much. Isn't the concept of the "hometown commentator" shitting on the rival promotion a thing that goes back to the beginnings of televised wrestling? It's not for everyone I guess but it builds heat with both viewers and rival fans.

Great recap. Nice way to get caught up with everything. Can't wait to see what's next.

As always, WCW opens shows up with some very tasty matches. Anderson vs Benoit and Tiger Mask II/Dragon Azul vs Chono and Crush sound excellent. The main event, as expected, delivered. The Rockers are one of the hottest tag teams in North America it seems. Benoit vs Bam Bam sounds like a mismatch. Bam Bam should win that easily.

A dominant return for Tiger Jeet Singh. Very fun episode overall.

UWF Fighting Network Hakata (9/24/1988) Shigeo Miyato vs Yoji Anjo This was alright. We see more of a shoot-style formula here and they kept the matwork decent, and the striking was very solid as well, but they also resorted to some pro-style elements like extended headlock or rest holds that didn't really fit with the vibe. The KO finish was a nice touch as it was sort of unpredictable. ***1/2 Tatsuo Nakano vs Tsunehito Naito A complete squash that looked like it was on the verge of turning into a shoot when Naito seems to displease Nakano with one of his strikes. Nakano just absolutely demolishes him after this with a painful-looking single-leg Boston crab. Naito was apparently a UWF dojo trainee at the time and never makes an appearance again in the promotion. Yikes. (**3/4) Nobuhiko Takada vs Norman Smiley Nothing really special here, Norman Smiley was good as expected, but it also felt like Takada got his stuff in and then Smiley was allowed to occasionally get his spots too. The last two minutes were the best part of this match in terms of Norman Smiley showing off his smooth transitions. It would have been interesting to see Smiley in UWFi or RINGS during the 1990s when shoot-style was more evolved, as he certainly had the flash and quickness to make things interesting. ***3/4 Akira Maeda vs Kazuo Yamazaki Decent main event all things considered, although it felt more like a pro-style match than a shoot-style match at times. It picked up towards the end, with Yamazaki seemingly trying to launch a comeback and Maeda refusing to relent. The crowd was firmly behind this match, and they were very pleased that Maeda won. ***3/4 UWF Fighting Network Nagoya (11/10/1988) Shigeo Miyato vs Tatsuo Nakano Nothing too exciting, but solid work, which is a common theme when you get matches between these two. As these two were more or less the "young lions" of UWF at the time, they start the trend we would see in later shoot-style promotions of "young lions" opening shows with solid grappling battles. Nakano looked like he was going to win, but Miyato pulls off a nice submission at the end. ***1/2 Mark Rush vs Yoji Anjo Mark Rush is an amateur wrestler that has the Andrei Kopylov-esque appearance of being your cool uncle that also happens to be a dangerous grappler. He looked pretty solid here and Anjo does a nice job of being a dance partner for a first-time shoot-style guy without much experience in pro wrestling. ***3/4 Kazuo Yamazaki vs Bart Vale This was pretty entertaining. This was Bart Vale's first appearance in UWF Newborn and while he did look green around the edges, he also got in some cool spots and came across as a legit threat to Yamazaki at times. Vale is more of a Kenpo fighter than a grappler, so his submission skills aren't anything special, but they are decent enough. Yamazaki gets a cool suplex at the end and transitions into a kneebar quickly for the submission victory. ***3/4 Nobuhiko Takada vs Akira Maeda Fantastic. It's also the first match in UWF Newborn to utilize the point system where each wrestler has five knockdowns, and three rope breaks count for one knockdown. The first few minutes have some nice grappling. While it isn't RINGS-esque grappling, it is probably the best we've seen so far in UWF Newborn. Everything has an intent and purpose. Maeda appears to have the advantage during the first half of the match, getting Takada to scramble for rope breaks and getting a few knockdowns scored on him. The drama builds around Takada launching a comeback while down 4-2, seemingly on the verge of losing. He gets Maeda for another knockdown and Takada works Maeda on the canvas and eventually gets him to use his third rope break to get the score at 4-4. Then the last minute or so features one of the best finishing stretches you'll find in 1988. Maeda and Takada trade heavy blows as the crowd absolutely eats it up and blows the roof off Tsuyuhashi Sports Center. Takada gets the final knockdown on Maeda and wins via TKO. Great stuff. ****3/4

Personally, I would hope we don't reboot anytime soon because I had a lot of things planned for UWF Newborn...

In general, I agree with the idea of being careful about rolling out famous gimmicks too quickly. I recognize that there is no guarantee we'll get to certain points where things happen that are exciting to people, but I would encourage some restraint when it comes to that type of thing. Another thing I would propose is limiting the number of foreign wrestlers one can have permanently signed to their territories. During this time, it was quite rare to have wrestlers like Tenryu or Hashimoto permanently signed to a western promotion. We can keep these wrestlers in a general "talent pool" in case someone wants to start a territory in Japan or Mexico, for example. And then people can use some of the wrestlers for "tours" like we currently do, but not have them permanently attached to any roster. I was thinking that perhaps having guys like Tenryu or Tsuruta in another promotion might deter some from joining if they wanted to run NJPW/AJPW.

If there's a general feeling that rosters are getting bloated, then perhaps a universal roster reduction starting next year would help, bring the cap down to 50 or 45, or something like that. There are also other ways to manage roster bloat, such as limiting the number of "main eventers" one can have or whatever, but that is getting into the weeds I think and I don't think a lot of people would be happy with that sort of micromanagement. I don't see any major issues with the game right now regarding roster sizes, talent "hogging", or what have you. It might also be a good idea to have a feedback thread every few months to make sure everyone is happy with the way things are going and listen to any concerns. As I said earlier, I think we are fine with setting a general frame of realism, but making things open to interpretation because if we did things by the book 100%, things might get boring for some. I know that if I was limited to the real-life UWF Newborn roster of only 6-7 guys and the occasional "special attraction" like Gerard Gordeau, things would get repetitive quite fast...so I appreciated being able to stretch the timeline a bit. It's going to be difficult to generate rookie lists if we got too strict about who is eligible or not, so I favor a more lenient approach (as long as they were active that year in some form or another).

I agree with this, it's probably the best way to go about it.

Well, we have Dan Severn running wild now when he shouldn't have been near available until the mid-90s, so.... I'd say at this point there's some room for interpretation. Which is totally fine unless you totally break the realms of realism or possibility.

Thanks for all you do to keep this going Grimmas!