Control21

He's not that bad

Both Smiley and Suzuki put on a great display of grappling here. There were very few striking exchanges. They were more interested in testing their mettle on the mat, and Smiley was impressive. He had great chemistry with Suzuki, and the technical quality in this match was RINGS-esque. Another thing I liked about Smiley here was that he had a very good sense of how to sell submission holds and convey the urgency in trying to escape them. Sometimes in UWF Newborn, certain wrestlers either failed to convey the urgency needed to shift the match into another gear or fell back into a "no-selling mode" for some reason. It's not a major problem, but watching Smiley put on a lesson in this regard is sort of sobering. In any case, this wasn't a one-man show, and Suzuki had his fair share of shine. At this point, Suzuki is rapidly improving. He still holds on to some pro-style elements, but the mat demon we would all later know is slowly coming into his own. He has a great move at the end where he turns a hammerlock into a rolling butterfly modification. Very fun opener if you're into mechanical craft. ****

Wow, what a match! This is the best Maeda vs Takada match I've seen, beating out their meeting from November 1988. This was a great back-and-forth contest, and Takada really seemed to have Maeda's number here. Takada has figured out Maeda's bag of tricks and knows all the counters, and Maeda doesn't really seem to realize this until the last moment. It's a great narrative because in the previous matches, Takada didn't exert control of the match as he did here, and Maeda is chasing Takada to get his win back from earlier in the year. Maeda leads the series with the most wins, and letting Takada beat him twice would be devastating. Maeda seems to find that his best hope is on the mat, and indeed, he seems to exert more control here. Takada is wise to this, though, and takes his opportunities whenever he gets the chance on his feet. Maeda has a very tough time dealing with Takada's vicious striking, which sets the tone of the match early on. Takada gets Maeda whenever he tries to go for his Muay Thai clinch knee strikes in the clinch, which costs Maeda one or two costly points after getting knocked down. This is a very pro-Maeda crowd, and Maeda gets more desperate and exhausted as the match wears on. Perhaps Takada gets a little too confident as he gives Maeda an opening at the end, letting up a bit too much. Maeda comes firing back to get a much-needed point off Takada, and this causes Takada to panic a bit. The finish is awesome. Takada blocks Maeda's Capture Suplex attempt, but in doing so, he leaves his leg open. Maeda seizes his opportunity and gets a kneebar on Takada, dead center in the ring. What looks like a devastating loss for Maeda quickly turns into an all-important victory. This is what shoot-style and the UWF ethos are all about. A true classic. *****

Another masterclass from Yoshiaki Fujiwara. When people talk about how great Fujiwara was as a defensive wrestler, this is the type of performance they have in mind. He is constantly on the back foot against Maeda, but he is constantly looking for ways to counter and reverse. There's always an element of danger because Fujiwara can change the tide of the match at any second. Maeda appears to be in control for one moment, and then suddenly Fujiwara can reverse a Boston crab attempt into a beautiful leg scissors, which totally flusters Maeda. Maeda's performance in this match is fantastic as well. He plays off Fujiwara's strengths and allows him to shine, while creating enough of a threat to make the crowd buy into a potential Fujiwara upset. That pays off big time, because this match has one of the best finishing stretches I've seen. Maeda gets flustered with Fujiwara's magisterial ability to play defense, and he goes all out with offense....but this gives Fujiwara the opening he needs to get a huge victory. The undisciplined kicks turn into a captured leg, and Maeda's attempt to break Fujiwara loose with undisciplined palm strikes turns into a Fujiwara armbar attempt that is right in the middle of the ring. There is no escape for Maeda here. Only defeat. Fantastic match that should serve as a textbook example of how to structure a wrestling match around defense and sudden turns in the tide. ****3/4

UWF Idea (6/21/90) Tatsuo Nakano vs Mark Rush Perfectly serviceable opening bout. Mark Rush looked like he was in really good shape here. I think I mentioned this before, but he's like the American Kopylov because he moves like a bear. He's not an exciting grappler like Kopylov, of course, but it feels like he can break Nakano whenever he gets a hold of him. Rush does a good job of giving Nakano enough room to make his comeback at the end pretty sweet. ***1/2 Yoji Anjo vs Minoru Suzuki This was pretty even and enjoyable. Lots of action and back-and-forth throughout, with Suzuki getting plenty of shine while Anjo was quite resilient. Suzuki is clearly the most talented of the two, but he's still quite brash and doesn't understand that it takes more than pure talent to establish oneself consistently in the UWF. Anjo takes advantage of the openings Suzuki leaves him, which frustrates Suzuki once he realizes it. It seems to pile on as the match continues, and this eventually gives Anjo a big enough advantage where he can put Suzuk away for good. Suzuki tries for a shoot-style flapjack of sorts after getting knocked down by Anjo, and Anjo quickly pounces on this wild attempt with a cross-armbreaker. Suzuki learns a hard lesson here. ***3/4 Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Shigeo Miyato Decent match that saw Miyato pick his chances against Fujiwara and even get under his skin at times, but Fujiwara is just too good, and he is clearly in control throughout the match despite Miyato's best attempts to score an upset. Fujiwara gives just enough that it is possible to get behind Miyato, but at the same time, you know Miyato is going to lose. It creates a nice dynamic for a fun, 10-minute match. ***1/2 Masakatsu Funaki vs Kazuo Yamazaki Excellent display from both Yamazaki and Funaki. Funaki, in particular, looks incredible. He moves like he is in the best shape of his UWF career, and Yamazaki is up to the task of testing the young prodigy. There are some good grappling exchanges in this match, but the real highlight is the striking exchanges, and things get pretty heated. This is true especially towards the end, when Funaki slices up Yamazaki's face with some incredible palm strikes. Yamazaki gets a nasty cut near his eye, and the referee has to call off the match, giving Funaki the TKO victory. Funaki was really the driving force in this match, and you could definitely see glimpses of the animal he would turn into by the time Pancrase starts rolling. Good stuff. ****1/4 Nobuhiko Takada vs Akira Maeda Wow, what a match! This is the best Maeda vs Takada match I've seen, beating out their meeting from November 1988. This was a great back-and-forth contest, and Takada really seemed to have Maeda's number here. Takada has figured out Maeda's bag of tricks and knows all the counters, and Maeda doesn't really seem to realize this until the last moment. It's a great narrative because in the previous matches, Takada didn't exert control of the match as he did here, and Maeda is chasing Takada to get his win back from earlier in the year. Maeda leads the series with the most wins, and letting Takada beat him twice would be devastating. Maeda seems to find that his best hope is on the mat, and indeed, he seems to exert more control here. Takada is wise to this, though, and takes his opportunities whenever he gets the chance on his feet. Maeda has a very tough time dealing with Takada's vicious striking, which sets the tone of the match early on. Takada gets Maeda whenever he tries to go for his Muay Thai clinch knee strikes in the clinch, which costs Maeda one or two costly points after getting knocked down. This is a very pro-Maeda crowd, and Maeda gets more desperate and exhausted as the match wears on. Perhaps Takada gets a little too confident as he gives Maeda an opening at the end, letting up a bit too much. Maeda comes firing back to get a much-needed point off Takada, and this causes Takada to panic a bit. The finish is awesome. Takada blocks Maeda's Capture Suplex attempt, but in doing so, he leaves his leg open. Maeda seizes his opportunity and gets a kneebar on Takada, dead center in the ring. What looks like a devastating loss for Maeda quickly turns into an all-important victory. This is what shoot-style and the UWF ethos are all about. A true classic. ***** UWF Mind (7/20/90) Norman Smiley vs Minoru Suzuki Both Smiley and Suzuki put on a great display of grappling here. There were very few striking exchanges. They were more interested in testing their mettle on the mat, and Smiley was impressive. He had great chemistry with Suzuki, and the technical quality in this match was RINGS-esque. Another thing I liked about Smiley here was that he had a very good sense of how to sell submission holds and convey the urgency in trying to escape them. Sometimes in UWF Newborn, certain wrestlers either failed to convey the urgency needed to shift the match into another gear or fell back into a "no-selling mode" for some reason. It's not a major problem, but watching Smiley put on a lesson in this regard is sort of sobering. In any case, this wasn't a one-man show, and Suzuki had his fair share of shine. At this point, Suzuki is rapidly improving. He still holds on to some pro-style elements, but the mat demon we would all later know is slowly coming into his own. He has a great move at the end where he turns a hammerlock into a rolling butterfly modification. Very fun opener if you're into mechanical craft. **** Masakatsu Funaki vs Shigeo Miyato There were some good striking exchanges, and Funaki continues to look great, but this match never really left 2nd gear. Miyato seems happy to avoid grappling with Funaki for extended periods. As a result, Funaki buys his time, picking his spots in the process. Miyato's strikes do occasionally cause a bit of trouble for Funaki, and it's not like he never poses any danger in this match. Funaki is just on a different level, though. After Miyato lands a few hard shots on Funaki's stomach, Funaki decides enough is enough and puts away Miyato pretty quickly. ***3/4 Yoji Anjo vs Tatsuo Nakano This wasn't bad, and it certainly picked up towards the end. The pace was a bit slower than it needed to be before that, though, and it seemed like Anjo was a passenger in this match until the finishing stretch. Nakano is a bit of a bully against Anjo, and Anjo resorts to patient grappling to avoid going toe-to-toe with his opponent. Perhaps this patience pays off, because Anjo survives Nakano's onslaught and snags a wicked double wristlock out of nowhere after a German suplex attempt. Decent. ***1/2 Akira Maeda vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara Another masterclass from Yoshiaki Fujiwara. When people talk about how great Fujiwara was as a defensive wrestler, this is the type of performance they have in mind. He is constantly on the back foot against Maeda, but he is constantly looking for ways to counter and reverse. There's always an element of danger because Fujiwara can change the tide of the match at any second. Maeda appears to be in control for one moment, and then suddenly Fujiwara can reverse a Boston crab attempt into a beautiful leg scissors, which totally flusters Maeda. Maeda's performance in this match is fantastic as well. He plays off Fujiwara's strengths and allows him to shine, while creating enough of a threat to make the crowd buy into a potential Fujiwara upset. That pays off big time, because this match has one of the best finishing stretches I've seen. Maeda gets flustered with Fujiwara's magisterial ability to play defense, and he goes all out with offense....but this gives Fujiwara the opening he needs to get a huge victory. The undisciplined kicks turn into a captured leg, and Maeda's attempt to break Fujiwara loose with undisciplined palm strikes turns into a Fujiwara armbar attempt that is right in the middle of the ring. There is no escape for Maeda here. Only defeat. Fantastic match that should serve as a textbook example of how to structure a wrestling match around defense and sudden turns in the tide. ****3/4 Nobuhiko Takada vs Kazuo Yamazaki A bit of a disappointing main event after the Fujiwara/Maeda match. I think the story here was Yamazaki and Takada both being cautious and hedging their bets, not trying to overcommit. Perhaps they wanted to avoid making the same mistake Maeda did against Fujiwara. There's a decent amount of cautious striking, and there is an initial reluctance to get to the mat. Takada eventually gets more confident, and he grows into the match as Yamazaki steadily exhausts his own energy in trying to play it *too safe.* It's a cool development, because, as in real fights, you can certainly wear yourself down by buying too much time in the slow lane. Takada realizes this and goes in for the kill. Takada is just too cerebral for Yamazaki's own good. ****

I think there are ways to underscore an undersized, tough-as-nails archetype without indulging in an offense that sometimes feels like the designs of someone who wanted to be a stuntman instead of a pro wrestler. The table spot during the Fairway to Hell match was kinda the epitome of my complaints with Allin. That spot was designed for Allin to take a cool bump for TikTok. It felt so detached from everything else in the match that I really just rolled my eyes. And then there's the Sammy Guevara match from last week, where he kinda bounced around needlessly at times after taking a simple bump. I love guys like Spike Dudley, but his role was much more centered around the match itself than TV. I don't know, it just all feels silly to me. All I can say is, to quote Liam Gallagher, "not for me, mate."

I wish I saw the comparison between Darby Allin and Rey Mysterio, but I really do not.

I think it is kinda overblown, honestly. The Darby Allin stuff is something I'll never get. I'm not convinced he's on an all-timer run. But he takes a bunch of sick bumps (which always seem to have less purpose to me compared to someone like Jeff Hardy or Mick Foley) and sells melodramatically. I guess that's all you need to get people to buy into your gimmick.

It also doesn't help that it is a self-feeding loop. A match gets a lot of hype, Meltzer rates it 5 stars, Twitter accounts spread the news....the cycle continues

Pillman dropping so low makes me kinda sad. I think I blew it by not voting for him

Tsuyoshi Kohsaka jumping into the top 300 is pretty neat.

Sakuraba falling so much makes me sad. Kohsaka finishing higher than he did in 2016 is pretty awesome, though.

In my case, there's certain stuff that is still hard to find (like certain UWFi shows), and some people like Lorefice or Tabe make it possible to fill those gaps because no one has bothered to upload it. It's also nice to have stuff in high quality. For example, some of the UWF shows on the internet (like the August 1990 show) have very shitty quality, and the UWF DVDs released in Japan are much cleaner.

Hell, I even buy stuff from Tabe!

Yeah, these downward trends compared to 2016 are depressing

Yeah, I agree with you about this project being a good snapshot in time of the fanbase. That's probably where most of the value comes from. Unfortunately, unless you are really dedicated as a wrestling fan, your tastes are going to be dictated by what you are exposed to on TV or social media. The "niche" styles will continue to suffer because of this. I think even the "major" candidates like Volk Han or Jim Breaks will fall. It's just a question of how much.

The Funaki matches are good. It's like eating plain, dry turkey. Not for everyone, but it is a hearty meal, I suppose.

The Snowden book. It received a lot of positive coverage in the WON and such.

I thought his WWF run was OK, nothing terrible, even if it wasn't great. I wish people were at least familiar with his pre-Pancrase work. He wasn't Volk Han or anything, but he was very consistent and helped the style evolve.

A huge book came out about him recently. Figured that would help raise his profile

Wow, I'm surprised Ken Shamrock didn't finish higher

I was hoping Zangiev would crack the top 500 at least. I didn't have high expectations for Tibor Szakacs, but Vince finishing above him is frustrating

Someone ranked Bas Rutten #14. That's beast

Dick Vrij being the lowest-ranked wrestler with double-digit votes is pretty funny (in a good way)

UWF The Memorial (5/4/1990) Dick Vrij vs Yoji Anjo Fun match, Dick Vrij gets to shine a bit here, although I felt he leaned too much into the grappling side of the match. Perhaps this was to show that he was capable of holding his own on the mat and demonstrate improvement from his debut against Fujiwara. In any case, this had a nice flow to it. Anjo had a better sense of how to target limbs for submissions, but Dick Vrij was able to use his strength on the mat to grind down Anjo. Vrij had some cool heel-ish antics here, including shoving Anjo once or twice. It felt like Vrij held back on the striking; perhaps he was a bit nervous about inadvertently hurting Anjo. In any case, the finish was great. Anjo sold brilliantly after Vrij got him with a jumping high kick and a knee strike to the stomach. ***3/4+ Kazuo Yamazaki vs Tatsuo Nakano Anytime you get Nakano and Yamazaki in the ring, they will likely deliver, and they certainly did in this match. They played off each other's strengths quite well, and the decision to keep things on the mat for most of the match paid off as they leaned into the grittier side of grappling, while building things up towards the finish. Nakano's nose gets bloodied in the process, and that only adds to the match atmosphere. Nakano pulls out all the stops, including headbutts, to try to gain an advantage. Yamazaki knows how to navigate rough waters, though, and his determination ends up resisting Nakano's firebrand pitbull mentality in the end. The last five minutes or so are excellent. Nakano really shines here, and Yamazaki did just enough to make him look like a legit threat until the very end. ****1/4 Akira Maeda vs Masakatsu Funaki This probably could have been a bit better overall, but they still delivered as expected. The matwork wasn't bad at all, and with this leaning towards the grappling side more than the striking side, you want intention and purpose in your matwork, and this match wasn't lacking in that department. Funaki seemed to be reluctant to engage in a striking contest with Maeda, and worked instead to pick off a heel hook or kneebar on the mat, but Maeda seemed quite aware of Funaki's goals, and made things very difficult with some nice defensive wrestling. This caused Funaki to exhaust more energy than he wanted on the mat, allowing Maeda to get back into the bout without suffering too much damage. Eventually, this strategy paid off as Maeda seized an opportunity to clinch an exhausted Funaki and set him up for some vicious knee strikes that created an opening for a rear-naked choke. I think both could have raised the floor of the match a bit with heated striking exchanges, but perhaps they are saving this for later. **** Minoru Suzuki vs Nobuhiko Takada Kind of a weird match. The focus on upper-body grappling and handfighting was interesting, but the pace was a bit too slow than it should have been. It felt like Takada was less interested in the match than Suzuki was, and this created a lack of tension that could have taken this match to the next gear. The work itself was decent, if not unspectacular. Suzuki is improving as a proficient, intelligent wrestler as time goes on in UWF Newborn. His match with Funaki in April 1990 was excellent, and I think he was trying something similar here, but Takada had other things on his mind, I suppose. ***1/2 Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Fred Hamaker Pretty fun "different style" match. Fred Hamaker is a Dutch SAMBO/freestyle wrestler, and he acts like one, throwing around Fujiwara several times, but his submission game is primitive. There's some gritty matwork as a result, and Fujiwara has a good performance in making Hamaker come across as relatively decent and a legitimate threat. **** UWF Fighting F (5/28/90) Masakatsu Funaki vs Yoji Anjo Another excellent contest between Funaki and Anjo, which is a follow-up to their encounter in 1989. This one didn't have the same type of frantic energy throughout, but they made up for it with intelligent matwork and keeping things interesting enough throughout with a threadline. The narrative in this match was about Funaki using his pure talent and skill to overcome Anjo's willpower. Anjo, of course, is not on the level of Funaki skill-wise, so he has to rely on his grit and underdog mentality to get one over the fast-rising superstar. Funaki has some moments where Anjo seems to get the better of him, but he never seems to be in real danger. Still, it's a struggle for him because he's not quite used to squashing the underdog as a guy in the superior role. Funaki does find a way, though, after Anjo opens himself up with some bold knee strikes that allow Funaki to create a cool reversal armdrag takedown that leads to a cross-armbreaker. ****1/2 Akira Maeda vs Minoru Suzuki A good match, if not a bit frustrating at times. I love Maeda, but sometimes he seems to want the guy working from underneath to do more work than he does. This was evident in an extended leg lock sequence where Suzuki and Maeda were trading leverage, and Maeda just sort of chose to lie on his side and not display any urgency. This lasted about two minutes, and kinda caused the match to drag a bit. In any case, things pick up in the last 5-6 minutes. Suzuki has some good flashes of grappling brilliance, like a rolling kneebar and a Huzinga roll. He even catches Maeda with a dropkick, which seems to catch Maeda by surprise. Suzuki attempts to go for the upset, but Maeda catches him with a rear-naked choke. The crowd was pretty invested at this point, and it gave the match some payoff, but I really wish Maeda had allowed the match to have the same level of urgency in the beginning. **** Nobuhiko Takada vs Tatsuo Nakano I think this had the potential to be a classic, but the relatively slow start held things back a bit. Takada was better on the grappling side here compared to Maeda in the previous match, and he worked quite well with Nakano. At the same time, the second half of this match probably demanded more of a hot start in terms of striking. The finish was a bit weak, too. Nakano was probably exhausted, but I felt one more final stand could have sent this match into another level. The crowd was really buying into Nakano in the last few minutes, and you could hear the air being sucked out of the room when the referee called for the bell. Perhaps it was premature, and perhaps it was a more realistic finish. I could see the argument for the latter, but I felt Nakano had one more round in him, going toe-to-toe with Takada. What we got, though, was still very good overall. ****1/2 Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Johnny Barrett Decent match, and I liked how Fujiwara worked a compelling narrative with Barrett. Barrett is a huge grappler who clearly overpowers Fujiwara, and Fujiwara has to find a way to navigate that mismatch and find a way to win. Barrett is not terrible, but his grappling is very basic, and he can't take the match past first gear on his own. Fujiwara has to work extra hard to keep things moving, and it is enjoyable when it does. Unfortunately, things stall at certain points. The finish was nice, and Fujiwara's genius was on display throughout the bout. ***1/4 Kazuo Yamazaki vs Shigeo Miyato This was a good main event. I'm a bit surprised Yamazaki and Miyato got top billing here, but it's a nice change of pace. Miyato really did his best to win this match and got a few points off Yamazaki. Perhaps in his excitement, Miyato left himself too open, and this gave Yamazaki a chance to get back in the match. The finishing stretch is awesome, with Miyato pummeling Yamazaki and seemingly in the driver's seat. Miyato tries to follow up on a knockdown, but Yamazaki times him with some vicious kicks and gets him to the mat for a kneebar. Very enjoyable. ****1/4