Ma Stump Puller

1996 ========== W/ Yoji Anjo Vs. Takashi Iizuka & Kazuo Yamazaki (UWF-I Challenge '96 High Tension 01.03.1996) A pretty middling Golden Cups tag. The NJPW lads try to start things off with a brawl yet Anjo and co get back in right afterwards and take the advantage with some outside brawling as well as beating up Iizuka with the regular double team work. Takayama and him have a eh exchange over the arm but this is very much a UWF pro wrestling match than anything else, not really a lot of actual shoot-style at all here. Yamazaki literally just walks in and starts headbutting the shit out of Taka just to punch that point in. Anjo gets all of the heat here through as he mocks Yamazaki's headbutt-orientated work and is just generally his typical annoying self. As for Iizuka, he's fine as a act but his work is noticeably pretty dry. He's competent, but as per guys his build (technically impressive mid-card acts) tends to drift and the crowd aren't really interested in his antics any beyond him landing a big Hase-lite Uranage and rolling cross armbreaker. Anjo steals most of the heat here by illegally interfering in the match a decent ton and then blaming it on the other team, later resulting in Yamazaki kicking the dude in the face when he's trying to work submissions on his partner. Takayama's work is fine enough as well: he lands some big suplexes, knees and whatnot, but nothing of particular notice. Most of this is smooth work but it's not really much worth talking about generally. There's some nice double team bits where both teams get in their shit albeit this feels mostly stuck in first gear. Anjo gets his ass kicked in the last third by the NJPW lads, with a notable highlight being him rolling through a German suplex into a Kimura, which Yamazaki is also able to counter into his own for a false finishwith Taka breaking it up before going into a running knee + German combo. This leaves him pretty much open for Anjo to land a Uranage and his Ground Cross 200 for the tap-out win. Outside of the last third being entertaining, this is fairly boring and not particularly interesting: this felt less like a UWF match and more-so a random NJPW undercard without pins. Yamazaki has some decent dynamics with Anjo but it isn't really enough to escape the fact that everyone kinda seems a bit middling here, especially Iizuka. Functionally fine, struggles to make any impact. RANK: Forgettable W/ Yoji Anjo Vs. Gedo & Hiromichi Fuyuki (UWF-I vs. WAR 27.05.1996) This is a typical post Choshu UWF match in that it's very much not UWF-style whatsoever, but instead a daft WAR paced bout. There's a lot of comedy spots: Takayama and co fool around, Fuyuki and co prove that they aren't exactly pushovers, albeit they do cheat....a lot. Taka gets a lot of abuse from the WAR lads in particular at the start after he underestimates them with trash talk and a test of strength bit with Fuyuki (namely because the poor lad can't reach his hand lol) It's a bit dumb seeing Gedo and him do Fujiwara impressions as they exchange headbutts, as well as Anjo landing a apron leg drop (that he instantly regrets afterwards) into a kneebar by Taka to follow up on the momentum. They do try to throw in some kinda shooty elements here and there but it isn't done particularly well despite Anjo and co's attempts. Speaking of him, Anjo got to show off his more agile stuff as well which was cool to see: he's a lot more capable than you'd think but tends to hide it under his usual antics. Gedo spends most of the middle selling (well more half-ass grunting and moving around) as the lads do a lot of fairly low impact working holds. Anjo blades in the second half and thus we go into the heat segment, which doesn't really get much of a reaction and relies massively on the ref being a complete dumbass in the process as the pair cheat their asses off overtly at many points with weapons and the like. It was very funny watching Fuyuki trolling the guy after all of the trash talk (including just hurling dirty ass underwear around his head) nothing much of note really happens here until he gets too cocky which allows Anjo to stun him with some punches; he's unable to escape his grasp for long though. Anjo gets some great color from the blading despite the work done not really matching that at all, not helped by Gedo just up and up missing a moonsault by miles but still trying for the cover. Burton (as 200% Machine, the weird mascot of the Golden Cups) comes in for the interference with some messy double suplexes on the pair before Taka lands a German suplex on Gedo. Anjo finally recovers and applies the Ground Cross 200 hold to the guy for the submission win with Fuyuki arguably demanding he fights him on the outside before leaving. All in all, a pretty unremarkable match: I'm not a fan of messy WAR-style matches like these. Lot of nothing brawling and some sloppy moves. Gedo and Fuyuki were fine as a heel duo but Anjo as a underdog selling for them? Hard to really get behind, and the crowd were mostly lukewarm to this. Takayama honestly does not a ton beyond his usual strikes and German suplex. A nothing match, really, and went on for far too long (this was about 18 minutes!) this could've been trimmed down very easily and got really slow in the middle. I suppose if you want a breather from the intense shoot-style so far it works and the comedy does work in places, it's just not very well put together. RANK: Forgettable W/ Yoji Anjo & Kenichi Yamamoto Vs. Gedo/Jado & Hiromichi Fuyuki (UWF-I Vs. WAR Tosen 07.06.1996) This is cut to 9 minutes of the original 20 off the only existing footage of this event which I'm not annoyed about because I've never been a fan of these goofy Golden Cup/WAR pairings and adding in more people doesn't help things. This has a ton of small clips throughout but generally keeps coherency. The trio ambush the WAR guys before the bell and beat down on Fuyuki for ages, with him predictively blading. There's no shoot-style to be found here at all: Yamamoto slaps on a full exposed cross armbreaker and nothing happens, the guy just sits in it until Gedo kicks him out of the hold, which tells you how little it is valued here. There's some decent work from the trios when they aren't just heat-seeking with messy brawling and working holds, through but that didn't really happen here a ton. Half of the match is the individual WAR members getting broken apart with outside work while the trio just keep beating up Fuyuki outside the ring endlessly. Gedo/Jado work fine as a underdog pair under fire and without their main man to assist they have to pull for any advantage possible. Fuyuki's frantic yelling and Terry Funk-lite scrambles when he does recover are also solid as he has to salvage what's left of his consciousness when he isn't getting beat down by the Golden Cups trio outside, especially with Anjo's mean brawling and sheer malice at points with his kicks. Fuyuki making his big comeback to a good pop was a lot of fun as well as he walks through Anjo with a lariat and lands a trio-powerbomb on Takayama and co. Yamamoto is the rookie so he has to job, through he's able to survive dual splashes from Gedo/Jado as well as surviving a Stretch Plum from Fuyuki. We get a real nasty inverted Gordbuster by the trio before Yamamoto eventually taps out to a figure four. I don't like the brawling style of this and the clips definitely don't help with that chaotic structure. There's some good work in here throughout and most of the people here get chances to show off their stuff but at the same time it's way too jumbled to be very effective so it's just a blur of stuff happening. The crowd liked it and it was obvious that the WAR lads thrive under such a messy environment but I just didn't see anything amazing out of the UWF-I guys outside of Anjo being himself and some good strikes from Yamamoto. Shockingly despite Takayama later being infamous for his messy brawls with the likes of Misawa, Suwama and many more, he just doesn't really shine when it comes to this style at the moment. I'm willing to say this was the best match out of the WAR/Golden Cup feud though. RANK: Decent W/ 200% Machine/Burton Vs. Genichiro Tenryu & Arashi (UWF-I Scramble Wars 26.06.1996) This is decent enough as a WAR-paced brawl, but shoot style it definitely fucking isn't. Tenryu and co get ambushed before the bell as he's able to beat up Machine with his typical boots and strikes, leading to a pretty stiff strike exchange between Takayama and Tenryu: it's certainly not clean and it most assuredly isn't very organised either, with Taka just stumbling around at points and trying to no sell (and failing, because Tenryu is most definitely not holding any punches back lol). That being said, it's a lot of fun and establishes the pace right away as not being conventional. 200%/Burton works fine enough with Arashi, even if he's by far the weakest link of the match, even more-so than the evermore disappointing Arashi. He's not terrible (even manages to squeeze in some stuff like a cross armbreaker) but Arashi's attempt in blending into the environment just makes Tenryu's refusal to engage most of the time even more noticeable. Burton spends the match as basically the heater as Taka frails around and gets mad at the pair beating him down. Second part of the match is Taka and co beating down on Arashi with holds and strikes: lot of pretty basic action for the most part that doesn't really kick beyond third gear. 200% Machine gets his ass beat with a belly to belly and a vicious German. Taka breaks up a pin and Tenryu responds with a big lariat to knock him down, leading Tenryu to easily get the win with a dodgy back elbow drop (barely looked like it hit) kneeling Enzuigiri and second running lariat for the win. This is a match that sadly is built to tease something we never get: a singles match between Takayama and Tenryu, which would've been awesome. This never occurs due to a whole mix of factors, but it ultimately makes this match as a whole pretty much just filler beyond the few times both lads get to scrap with each other. Burton/Machine is functional as the fall-guy of the Golden Cups but he gives nothing interesting here and Arashi is as mediocre as usual. Maybe watch this if you are a fan of messy shoot/pro-wrestling style clashes, I guess. The main issue was that a good few people were really putting on the brakes and not giving much of a inch here, especially Tenryu: while I still love the guy it's REALLY obvious he just doesn't care about this match and sticks to the basics. Takayama definitely gives a lot more and leaves a good impression despite losing. RANK: Forgettable Vs Kimo (UWF-I Mid-Summer In Jingu 17.08.1996) ........ok this requires some explanation. Kimo Leopoldo is a legitimate MMA fighter mostly known for making all sorts of shit up about himself and being one of the first "personalities" of the sport, being well known despite his shoddy record. Despite this being billed as a "UWF-I" event with worked matches on the card this wasn't a worked fight whatsoever and you can tell that by two things: the massive hardway gash Taka gets in this fight and the length: barely a minute long. Kimo basically tackles the guy to the ground and slaps the shit out of him, pulls his hair for leverage when he tries to escape from half-guard and manages to get on the back of Taka before inevitably choking him out. Kimo post-fight does give Taka credit in that he hits hard, which will foreshadow a good few things to come in his career. It's literally not a worked fight so I can't really judge it by any measure. Maybe the UWF-I were starved for big names but this was a near-perfect premonition of how future MMA matches with UWF-I talent (Anjo, Takada, etc) would pan out. RANK: ??? Vs. Toshiaki Kawada (UWF-I Sudden Death ~ 5th Anniversary Special Performance Final 11.09.1996) While many people know of their AJPW rivalry, this was the match that started everything, including Takayama's interest in joining the promotion. This was pretty damn hard to find as almost all official copies of this have this match omitted: probably because of rights issues. I didn't know these guys had a match before their later AJPW rivalry together so I was curious as to how this plays out. This ONLY exists as a original fan recording with muffled sound and fairly bad quality, so it feels like you are watching a arthouse film more than a actual wrestling match as the whole thing plays out with a green filter. This starts off incredibly as Kawada doesn't clean break after pinning Takayama in the corner, boots him in the face, and Taka has his "you motherfucker" wild eyes face afterwards and just stares him down for a minute or so. Tense as anything. They battle over a headlock and Taka tries using his strength to push Kawada down, but he's able to use that momentum against him and wrestles the guy to the mat first. They go into slap fights after that with Kawada taking Taka's back and hitting him with elbows to open him up for a rear naked choke: when he tries to escape this, Kawada pulls him downwards into his signature kicks and tries for a backdrop, but Takayama manages to snap him away from that position into his own choke: he tries to dislodge away with a arm drag as Taka keeps hold even when they hit the mat, forcing him to rope break. The start firmly establishes that Kawada can hold his own however can only do so much in these conditions. Taka tries for his own kicks but Kawada awesomely catches his kick and takes him down, going for just stomping his face to force him to roll over into a single leg Boston Crab. Taka reaches for the ropes and takes over in stand-up, using his knees to floor Kawada and attempts to apply his signature cross armbreaker, Kawada pre-empts that and rolls him up mid move to apply his own which does end up successful until the ropes are hit. They struggle a bit as Kawada goes for his kicks again and Taka takes him down, with both struggling on the mat as Taka applies a Achilles Tendon hold until he has to break away due to Kawada booting him in the face consistently. He tries to put on a brave face as Taka is kicking him but sells a roundhouse to the head excellently, flopping to the mat for a knockdown. Taka follows it up with his German, Kawada expertly blocks the impact to the floor and hurls big kicks and a backdrop before Taka also no sells and counters a Gamengiri, going for a brutal big boot. Kawada plays possum to act like he's weakened but then hits four Gamengiri shots in a row to finally put down the big man, with each slowly taking him off his feet until a final shot puts him down for the count. All in all, pretty well done. Kawada obviously isn't the most well adapted to this environment and that plays into his style here: he focuses more on his signature bombs and attempts to hit submissions usually aren't particularly effective. He is mostly assuredly a fish out of water and focuses in on that by using what he does know (namely his kicks) as tools to aid him in escaping the things that he's simply not very good at. That said, Kawada has always been the best out of the Pillars when it comes to making technical work look interesting (I mean Kobashi has that one good technical match with Johnny Smith.....) and this is good proof of that. He's not GREAT per-se but he knows how to balance grappling with strikes for a unique experience. Takayama showed great chemistry and looked incredibly convincing as the more dangerous and seasoned opponent. Lots of fun and a breeze to go though. RANK: Great Vs. Masahito Kakihara (UWF-I UWF Road 30.09.1996) One thing I appreciate from this match is the fact that the lads actually commit to stand-up work here: it's not just 30 seconds of sloppy slapboxing before someone snaps a takedown or whatever, they spend a good few minutes just trading leg kicks and the occasional slap or two. Eventually Kakihara fakes out a grapple with a hard roundhouse and some face slaps for a early flush knockdown. They go into some decent back-and-forth mat work as Kakihara hones in on leg locks and they both manage to squeeze in rope breaks on the other with kneebars despite struggling to escape. Taka runs in for some fairly wiffy knees until Kakihara starts stumbling, allowing Taka to roll into a weird toe hold attempt. I didn't like Kakihara being stuck in a fully extended Achilles Tendon hold and then not tapping which made Taka have to go for goofy slaps to the head instead. The lads struggle on side control until Taka lands a flush German suplex and gets into a single leg Boston Crab and then into a almost Cena-level STF (seriously, this didn't look great) but Kakihara makes up for that with a great sliding cross armbreaker for another rope break after he escapes. Kakihara lands some blocked high kicks and Taka does his stumble routine with some wiffed knees of his own and a bad kick until he gets taken down again. I do like the part where Kakihara slides in for a sprawled takedown and ends up in a nasty neck crank when Taka manages to shove his forearm in his face while twisting his body: looked fairly creative while looking pretty gnarly, basically Misawa's version but far more painful looking. Taka tries for a cross armbreaker from back mount which is smartly worked into another kneebar mid-transition. They work up to Taka trying for a toe hold while standing up but he gets blasted by the exposed leg left over and gets rocked with some roundhouses when he gets knocked back on his knees. The second half has more stand-up work as Taka spams knees and kicks and tries for his big bombs as Kakihara smartly reverses a second Everest German into a kneebar. This leads into Kakihara squeezing out the last of the rope breaks with more submissions, however stand-up buggers him again as Taka just keeps laying on knees until he just kind of shoves him over. He baits Kakihara into thinking he's going for a leg lock by grabbing his right leg before going into a cross armbreaker for the win: the exact same way he lost last year to Yamazaki. Not great, but I think this works at the end of the day for a protracted fight. Kakihara has a lot of tricky work and is generally solid in all aspects of shoot-style, so he can guide the more inconsistent Taka to something real solid. Speaking of him, while the mat-work was fine enough and immensely improved from basically everything else thus far, I felt like he was especially sloppy strike-wise: a lot of missed or just not very convincing blows here, namely because he has to commit to either knees that he pulls back a lot or wild slaps. Urgency when escaping holds was fairly lax so this definitely didn't have a lot of realism, working more as a more lighter/less strict shoot-contest. I still liked it a lot though. RANK: Good Vs. Kazushi Sakuraba (UWF-I UWF Road 20.11.1996) They only show a digest version of this so only 8 minutes are left intact of the original 13 with small cuts made for downtime. I never actually knew these two fought before Saku left shoot-style and given this is way at the end of the UWFI's tenure, it's not shocking that this is trying to get the man over slightly as they were starved for native stars at this point and NEEDED to get these lads over so they both look good here despite Saku being a undercard guy for a long while. Match itself is pretty good, actually. Saku works his submissions well and Taka also works his advantages well, looming over his opponent with knee strikes and slaps whenever. That's basically the dynamic of the entire match as they go back and forward with Saku hunting down Taka at points with real sharp, real smooth holds and transitions, at times blindingly fast. Taka sells the predicament really well on his end, screwing his face up and playing things defensively to avoid getting caught, hanging around near the ropes and using his knees to counter any big takedown attempts rather than risk sprawling. Saku gets in his own shit on the striking with well-timed counters, roundhouses, and even wacky dropkicks. Speaking of wacky, the guy manages to counter a cross armbreaker into a Scorpion Death Lock, which was awesome if only because it's something Saku would absolutely pull out for shits and giggles in a real fight. Saku also has some great underdog babyface fire near the end as he fires off against Taka and has to stumble around to survive his knee shots and try to nab the win quick despite the immense disadvantage, stuck in the corner and literally just throwing for the fences. Eventually, of course, his dreams get shattered after Taka lands a big slap to the face to stun him, goes into a thunderous German Suplex before finishing things off with a kneebar while he's dazed and confused. As stated, this is a real solid outing that has both men work to their strengths: Saku as a clever mat-worker that eventually has to resort to strikes to peel Taka off the ropes as the size difference is just too much to handle; Taka as a established bruiser with hard strikes and lackluster grappling, yet eventually outmatches the young challenger when he figures out his gameplan. It's not long but VERY well paced and lots of fun to watch as a late UWF-I outing. RANK: Great Vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara VI (UWF-I UWF Road 23.11.1996) This is cut down to about 7 minutes of the original 10 minute runtime, mostly the cuts are between moments of downtime or counts. Anyway, these two have faced off countless times: this is the last time they will meet in the UWF, with them having a final battle in the very short lived KINGDOM promotion. The match works around the typical (some might say overused) Taka is better at standup/Kanehara is better at mat-work dynamic they always have had but at this point they are very well evenly matched and Taka isn't so easy to break down as he was in prior years so Kanehara has to really struggle for advantage. Kanehara's strikes are also fairly decent, but Taka can use his size to loom over and snipe his head with knees and slaps while he can barely do the same due to the height difference, especially when he closes the distance and practically forces him to go without his roundhouses. There are some slight botches here and there (in particular Taka going for a powerbomb to counter the cross armbreaker but getting the guy 2 inches off the ground instead, which was really quite embarrassing) everything is fairly smooth and performed convincingly enough otherwise. Taka takes full control in the second half and just keeps blasting Kanehara with knees to the head over and over alongside submissions but Kanehara is able to eventually use his aggression against him by getting Taka between his legs in guard position and timing his angry slap strikes into a Omoplata position, wrapping his trapped arm and rolling into what is essentially Danielson's Yes/LeBell Lock with a few extra steps for the seamless submission win. Unlike other bouts between the two this one makes it well aware that Taka has Kanehara's number throughout and is well versed to his style by this point: while Kanehara could torment the guy on the mat before, now he's having such a hard time that he ends up in submissions himself more often than not and it's well articulated here all the way to the finish which is built around Taka overextending due to that new-found confidence on the mat. He works well from that position and shows off a lot of well-timed aggression alongside fairly strong mat-defence: his stuff has never been great on that front but Kanehara works a good dynamic with him there and makes him look pretty strong, and it helps that Takayama has legitimately improved a lot compared to prior years with his transitions looking quicker and his submissions being a lot more convincing. It's not their best bout together, probably their best constructed and least sloppy though. RANK: Good Vs. Kenichi Yamamoto II (UWF-I UWF Road X 25.12.1996) Golden Cups civil war here as these two once again face off. What really works about this match is how it's very clearly a sprint and doesn't really pretend otherwise about it, both guys just start swinging right away. Takayama tries slowing things down with knees as the scrappy youngster isn't having any of it and keeps putting on pressure before Taka gets dazed and they tease him bumping for a Dragon Suplex. He resists but Yamamoto quickly goes for a super low-brow German suplex instead, which Taka no sells and charges into the guy for some head slaps and a kneebar attempt. More slappy stand-up into Yamamoto getting a takedown of his own into side mount. He tries to pull for something but Taka uses his legs to dislodge him and then catches the guy in a rolling cross armbreaker when he tries to escape back mount, forcing a rope break. Taka lands more heavy knees that don't all look great but work for how he's just using them to control things rather than a big knockout. Yamamoto keeps hammering with big stiff slaps to the face until Takayama tries for his own big fancy jumping knees to the head which inevitably get countered and caught. His opponent goes into a deep single Boston Crab which Taka just sells awesomely for, gritting his teeth and practically screaming. He doesn't use the ropes here interestingly enough; instead back kicking the inner thigh, forcing him to drop the hold. Takayama runs in with a rugby push before landing a jumping knee into Fujiwara armbar, forcing the tap out. Yamamoto looks gutted in the aftermath as he just kneels down and looks at the ground for a bit. Really decent little match here that manages to throw a surprising amount of intensity for something as short as this, with some good strikes and basic but effective mat-work. RANK: Good Vs. Nobuhiko Takada (UWF-I UWF Road Z/Final 27.12.1996) Interestingly this is the final match ever of the promotion and the end of the UWF brand. Takada is incredibly close to his quick retirement from shoot-style in general (outside of some loose dates here and there) and would be moving on to his actual MMA ambitions (which would be a terrible idea as it tanked his reputation and status completely despite him being a draw). This shows why that is the case more or less as Takada is completely outclassed by his younger and more hungry counterpart. Takada mostly sticks to a pretty boring gameplan: ground Taka with stiff kicks, hold him in side-mount for what seems like forever.....hope something happens afterwards. His defensive style means that a good portion of the start is just both men doing pretty much nothing on the mat and stalling for time. Even when Taka gives up his back to escape Takada's wangling for holds, he does nothing in response; which seemed pretty silly. Eventually they start gearing up for bigger things as Takada slaps on a few submissions here and there with the match especially picking up after a smooth backdrop from him into cross armbreaker. Taka keeps up the intensity with his usual charging around alongside his signature knee shots: after he catches Takada's leg after a few kicks, he's able to respond with a flush roundhouse to the face, which knocks him down. Taka also scrambles for a cross armbreaker for a very close rope break. This leads into Takada taking the lead with kicks before another Taka rushdown into a somewhat sandbaggy German suplex. There's a good spot where he counters a cross armbreaker and manages to roll Takada up, landing some stiff slaps to distract him enough to grab for a kneebar. He tries this trick again when Takada escapes and steps into another armbreaker attempt but this time his opponent is ready for him as he's able to counter his single leg Boston Crab, grabbing his ankle and disrupting his balance. This leads into a successful cross armbreaker at last which gives Takada the win. This gets good after a very slow build-up, but Takayama is the guy putting in most of the actual exciting elements, terestingly enough. We get a very basic Takada performance which while solid enough as a mat wrestler and in terms of strikes, never really came across like he was the "ace" of the promotion: he seemed pretty passive all in all and relied a lot on countering Takayama than actually pushing the initiative. I've seen a lot better out of the guy as this seemed like a low-point in terms of quality; he seemed checked out by this point and firmly focused on his MMA stuff. As such, this match at times tends to lack agency and slows down a lot. It's these issues and more that would make this the final match of the UWF franchise, ending on a good but rather bitter note. RANK: Good =========== Thus ends the legacy of the UWF and begins the establishment of Kingdom as a unofficial successor. How will Takayama do in a new promotion with new rules, new opponents (ish) and as a top act?

1995 ========== Vs Tom Burton III (UWF-I Pro Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship 16.01.1995) The start of the match has Taka's advantage be pegged in pretty easily as he hunts down and knocks down Burton to the mat, being able to capture his back before aiming for his signature cross-armbreaker, which Burton needs to get to the ropes for. He is basic in his holds, throwing out a side headlock transition and double wrist lock attempt respectfully. He doesn't really wrestle "shoot" style, more so just conventional wrestling with the occasional submission. There's a good spot here where Takayama hurls knees and kicks but his inexperience means he catches his leg on the rope for one (which is a nod to the 1994 Nakano bout) which costs him a potential win. Takayama learns from his mistakes as he fires off less here: he also plays Burton by getting him in position for a cross armbreaker attempt before quickly grabbing his leg and going for a kneebar, which was a small but smartly worked bit. He also pulls out a legit Boston Crab for shits and giggles. He knocks down Burton with a knee and German Suplex but Burton eagerly recovers and gets back into things; a bit too eager as Taka quickly catches him for a Fujiwara Armbar afterwards. Burton gets some pockets of offence with some joint manipulation but Taka mostly keeps the match under control. A few more knockdowns with slaps and knees puts his opponent deep in the hole, and despite Burton's spirited attempts to escape the German from being applied again by scrambling for control Takayama is quickly able to bring him down and tap the guy out with a side headlock. All in all, a decent shoot-style match that isn't really remarkable in any real way. Burton is competent on the mat but very antiquated; Takayama showed some good strikes and was fast as hell on the mat at times, looked like a real star here. All in all, not essential viewing for UWF Takayama but a fun side-piece that gets over his developing strengths well against a opponent who was giving him massive troubles a few years ago (though that's probably because of Burton's rapid decline in importance since the start of his tenure) RANK: Decent Vs. James Stone (UWF-I Sakigake 18.02.1995) This is more or less a padding match for Takayama to boost his numbers up. James Stone is more well known as FBI member Little Guido, and it's amusing to see the guy here as a clean shooter type without any of his usual antics, through he does bring in a little comedy at the start when he gets startled by Taka stomping forward and trying to fake him out. Taka is confident in his stiff kicks but he gets a bit too comfortable doing so, allowing his opponent to sprawl him down to the mat for a side headlock. Stone takes some pot shots and sneaky stuff to get the bigger man off his game a bit here, with some surprising technical work at points in doing so. It's nothing fascinating by even the standards of the time, but he can work the conventional holds and clearly isn't being carried here. Taka in turn is able to make his opponent struggle a lot in the middle segment, hurling out a good few submissions that require him to quickly escape to the ropes (namely a facelock and cross armbreaker respectfully). There's a goofy bit where Taka gets a knee in and Stone does like a delayed sell or whatever, shaking his head all over the place before stumbling to the mat; looked kinda silly but nothing offensive. Taka gets two more knockdowns with slaps and a thunderous stiff German Suplex (the first one Stone needs to signpost a bit longer than usual to get Taka to actually do something impactful to knock him down, which does look clunky if you pay attention to that) but eventually he gets beat after getting caught in a Guillotine choke. Fine enough for a undercard bout but nothing really super special: Guido's technical training comes into full view here as he pulls out some nice counters, but he's mostly here to bump and sell, which he does fairly solid outside of some questionable bits here and there. Taka is still kinda clumsy at points but he's noticeably mostly on the money, with good knees and kicks. Good showing but don't expect anything spectacular. RANK: Decent W/ Kazuo Yamazaki Vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Kiyoshi Tamura (UWF-I Pro Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship Match 20.04.1995) We get probably the quickest knockdown in living UWF history as Takayama stiffs Sakuraba with a slap and then a accidental knee to the head while he's falling down results in him getting a nasty bump in the first 15 seconds of the match. Outside of that, nothing that interesting: a young Saku practically eats up Taka on the mat but the audience know matches don't end this quick so they don't bite into anything. Taka is reasonably fine during these exchanges but predictively relies on a lot of fundamentals that you would really expect a decade earlier in UWF 1.0. Same thing with Tamura but Taka throws out some better strikes and some hard knees. We also get some Tamura/Yamazaki action and it's rather smooth, with the latter getting over the younger man with some even grappling exchanges and him selling a slap like a sledgehammer. Also get some exchanges between him and Sakuraba that I fairly enjoyed: Yamazaki plays on the backend but still acts like a smart vet with some crafty work of his own to get around the speed of the rookie. Taka is as iffy as he usually is but I think his grappling is fairly decent here and he pulls out some interesting options throughout like a weird shoulder lock variation on the mat. Saku also gets in some strong enough technical work as mentioned above, but I found his selling to be somewhat iffy here, at times not really selling the agency of holds being applied; it's not terrible or anything but definitely a bit off-putting considering most of the action involving him did focus around being on the ground. Finish has Taka get numerous leg shots by Tamura while in stand-up, which causes him to stumble and be incapable of hurling out the knees and pretty much Predictively this allows Tamura to catch his leg and use it as bait on the mat, making Taka commit to full defence to prevent kneebars before then quickly springing to a cross armbreaker while exposed for a easy tap out: Yamazaki used the same trick earlier on but Saku was weary enough to defend until he got to the ropes. Fine enough for a mid-card bout: Saku and co look pretty solid for two future legends of the U-style (for different reasons, of course) if a bit featureless at points. Yamazaki gets out a reasonably good performance and worked well with the two, making sure to get them over while also showcasing his experience in stand-up and mat work. Taka is mechanically the weakest out of the four but the most explosive, having a lot of time to just hurl big shots out and be intense, which is something he's way better at than trying to do shit on the mat. Solid enough but kinda just there overall despite the quality of performers here. RANK; Decent W/ Kazushi Sakuraba Vs. Tom Burton & Hiromitsu Kanehara (UWF-I Sakigake II 17.05.1995) Taka mostly bullies Burton at the start with his strikes and strength while Sakuraba, even as early on as here, shows some of that technical excellence that he'll be defined by in his actual fights as he works on the mat very gracefully while still going for some aggression in pulling for a cross armbreaker transition after sliding over a side headlock to take the back. Kanehara does a lot better against the guy with some flush strikes and some explosive wrestling between the pair. Seeing them scramble for legit toe and leg locks was pretty well done, ending in Kanehara gaining the advantage and Sakuraba having to use a rope escape. Taka and Kanehara obviously have great chemistry from their numerous prior encounters so no real issues with them as a duo. Taka gets a surprisingly half-decent submission attempt with a rear naked choke, but Kanehara is able to catch his legs during this and gets in a really unique figure-four toe hold in the process, forcing Taka to abort and reach for the ropes. Burton gets in and basically gets wrestled down and bullied again as per expected. The pace of the match itself is mostly third gear for the start and middle portions: the technical work is fine and all but nothing particularly fantastical. Sakuraba spends most of this on the backend as the younger rookie of his team, and he does decent enough in that role even when having to convincingly sell for guys like Burton, who's middling in places in comparison to his partner. The pair get wasted by him in particular when he's able to knockdown Taka with slap uppercuts and some high kicks before just instantly wrecking his partner with a Superman Punch (well more of a slap given the rules, but still...) which was a awesome spot. They get Taka over as well by having him knockdown Burton three times in a short burst as his knees and kicks are just too much to handle: not as well done in terms of a sequence but does the job fine. Sakuraba and Kanehara continue their mat-work with the pacing being fantastic: the two just move so fast that it's almost impossible to properly keep up with everything but it's also at the same time very smooth as they seemlessly go from transition to holds. Some might think it's a bit too seemless and lacks struggle (which is true to a extent) but I think the pair They do a bit of a swerve as you think Burton is going to job to Taka, but he actually manages to get multiple successful submissions on the guy; it's Kanehara who takes the fall as his leg gets caught, leading to a successful kneebar submission win. Solid tag bout that pretty much establishes Kanehara as the MVP of the match: being able to get great mat work out of a fresh faced Sakuraba or hurling shots with Taka are two very different situations but he manages to juggle both amazingly despite the immense differences in pacing and intensity. Everyone else does pretty good...mostly. Burton is always quite meh but holds his own as per standard with some basic holds and strikes. Taka is a mixed bag with some good strikes and alright mat work but clumsy in places. Sakuraba as stated above is VERY smooth on the mat, even if his strikes are very much lacking. RANK: Decent W/ Yoji Anjo Vs. Kanehara & Masahito Kakihara (UWF-I Soul The UWF Spirits 13.07.1995) Debut of Golden Cups! These two haven't quite became the comedic group they will be later on though. The start of this is fairly good as Taka tries doing his running slaps and Kanehara just hits him flush in the face and knocks him down. These two have faced off countless times already and know how the other person works, so Kanehara has some smart counters to Taka's cross armbreaker and leg work but can't do much in stand-up with Taka looming over and landing knees. He tries for a belly to belly that he almost botches into a head spike (if not for Kanehara landing shoulder first) but ends up losing full mount and has to give up a cross armbreaker attempt after Kanehara works to one himself in a strong sequence. Some miscommunication here as the two land dual knees at the same time with Taka eating one to the groin. Anjo/Kakihara is some real fun stuff as Anjo's intelligent mat-work contrasts with Kakihara's strikes, ending in the latter eating a German suplex but he doesn't sell it because the other guy needs to get tagged in. Kanehara also has some solid stuff with Anjo as he tries to close the distance but ultimately gets thrown down and into a great cross armbreaker transition for another rope break. Middle half has some nice stuff as the duo go for knee strikes while Kanehara gets some big throws out: really loved Anjo countering a big backdrop transition into a surprise armbar after Kanehara tried to follow up, looked slick as anything. We even get some classic trolling as he feigns squaring up to Kanehara before tagging out swiftly after. Taka spends more time getting his ass beat (in particular a real nasty stiff right hand slap by Kakihara which sends him reeling) and has to get in Anjo again. He's not much of a striker but he's able to apply enough pressure to take Kanehara's back and then choke him out for a rope break. When Kakihara finally gets in against the guy we also get a great roundhouse for another knockdown. Latter half of this has the two work on Taka with low takedowns and submissions: he gets in (some) offence but mostly has to play defensively to the two sharper strikers, even trying a rolling wheel kick out of desperation before eating a hard kneeling roundhouse. Anjo also gets in more strong work on the two as he's able to close distance and grapple, catching Kanehara's leg so Taka can tag in and run him over with strikes. Last few minutes have the Cup duo continually lose points via knockdowns and rope breaks until Kanehara's leg gets caught once again by Anjo and thrown into a tight STF, forcing the upset tap-out. Not everything works here and there's definitely some lulls, but I felt like this was a strongly paced match with a lot to offer: people really neglect how polished Anjo is when it comes to mat-work in particular here as he is by far the better man out of the Cup duo. Taka is fine but still a bit iffy despite massively improved mat-work, he seems actually engaged for once. Kakihara also got in some great strikes and looked very solid, especially when hammering down that advantage. Bit slow to start off with but has a lot to offer once things get going. RANK: Good Vs. Tatsuo Nakano (UWF-I Soul The UWF Spirits 22.07.1995) Takayama tries to end this quick with a furry of knees, but Nakano doesn't give a fuck and just no sells. I would complain about this but it's Tatsuo Nakano, he's EARNED that right a long time ago. He even purposely gives up control of the back after a mat-sequence so him and Taka can throw hands more, which after a short sprawl causes Taka to take a fall after some well aimed kicks to the head. I love how well Nakano just negates Taka's work: he goes to the legs to work them over but Nakano catches him in his own submissions, in striking he's able to tank a lot of offence to lure Taka in close range, which allows him to stagger the guy with stiff slaps to the face and then kicks to round things up. Everything done by his opponent he has answers for. This trend continues: Taka is able to break even at points but Nakano hunts him down and makes him lose points over and over with knockdowns and rope breaks. His usual bullying and size aren't helping whatsoever, and we really get that selling from Taka here where he's just trying his damnest for something/anything to get him the advantage, so he pulls out some obscure stuff to try to get a foothold. Eventually this happens: Nakano gets too comfortable in close range, which gives Taka the chance to just hurl him to the ropes and land some stiff knees to the body. He's stunned enough that he's able to capitalise with a huge German suplex, which scores the first knockdown for him. Nakano is really shell-shocked but he's just able to grab the ropes with what little remains, but he gets hammered with knees before getting caught in a rolling Guillotine Choke for the upset. Really well paced short match that kinda highlights how unpredictable shoot-style can be: Nakano holds all of the cards in the first half and it only takes a small mistake on his part for all of it to not matter. Takayama is a competent seller that gets over just how hurried he is when he finally gets on top, doing everything in his power to stay there. Nakano is solid here with some great controlled matwork combined with surprisingly stiff offence at points. A really solid sprint of a match with two heavy hitters just scrapping. RANK: Good Vs. Takashi Iizuka (NJPW New Japan Pro Wrestling Vs. UWF International 09.10.1995) The NJPW/UWFI first crossover show is mostly known for being a bit of a mess: featuring a out of prime Choshu running over Yoji Anjo in under 5 minutes alongside Keiji Muto beating Takada at his own submission game: if that doesn't tell you who was the lesser of this business relationship, nothing will. Most people know Iizuka as his later Crazy Bouzu persona but before then he was actually a accomplished tag worker and very technical when he needed to be. Iizuka knows the basics and keeps up the natural heat with this UWFI/NJPW company feud with some unclean breaks and some heated antics, which Taka follows suit in his own ways so the tension is mutual, which the crowd easily bite on. He also does his dropkick spot, missing once more to get taken down by his opponent in turn. Iizuka and co have decent exchanges on the mat, but nothing special or amazing, mostly just takedowns and some smart leg work to keep the bigger guy down; simple psychology but it works given Iizuka isn't supposed to be some amazing striker or anything. Taka works in some good holds (like a Grovit) and is outright the heel here, hurling in dirty slaps and undynamic working holds to keep advantage on his side. There's a good spot near the end where Iizuka counters Taka's knees with a awesome duo of Blizzard Suplexes, albeit that only gets a one count. Iizuka grabs on a double wrist lock and a rear naked choke to try to capitalise on the advantage he's been given, but that same eagerness eventually bites him in the ass when Taka inevitably adapts to Iizuka's lack of versatility and manages to counter a second wrist lock into his signature cross armbreaker, which Iizuka is unable to block correctly and ends up tapping. A pretty middling match and the lads have some really disconnecting moments between each other here between transitions, which makes things pretty weirdly paced. I also wasn't a fan of Taka just making Iizuka look like shit by no selling his finisher despite getting hit with TWO of them at the same time and he generally didn't really sell the effects of Iizuka's prior submissions after winning either, which put a bad taste in the mouth. The 1996 tag match with these two is a lot better than this, quite frankly. Quite bland quality wise and a strong styles clash as many of the matches on this card were. RANK: Forgettable Vs. Kenichi Yamamoto (UWF-I All-Out Contend Battle UWF International vs. New Japan Pro Wrestling 11.10.1995) Bad business sense as we get yet another NJPW/UWF-I event just two days after the Dome show: this sold significantly less, mainly for the lackluster faces showing up. This is the only overtly non-NJPW match for some reason. Takayama's size becomes immediately a problem as he's able to space Yamamoto out with kicks, push him into the ropes, and then pick him up for a big old takedown slam to the mat. There's some alright work on the mat as they exchange fluid holds while also throwing out some slaps and palm strikes, ending in Yamamoto having to lunge for the ropes after he gets stuck in a Triangle Armbar. Yamamoto tries to shoot down Takayama and disable the guy using ground work but he ends up giving up his back and gets caught in a rear naked choke, which they kinda have to weirdly drop so he can escape and go for the legs. In stand-up, Taka quickly takes advantage with his knees, scoring a quick knockdown. We get some bad looking slaps from Yamamoto as well as a random suplex out of nowhere. Yamamoto tries going for the arm with a Kimura but he can't get a good hold on Taka and keeps getting slipped out, ultimately heading to the ropes. He tries shooting again, but Taka is able to get him into a Guillotine which also gets countered into a kneebar. Taka reaches the ropes once more, and when Yamamoto tries to risk it with a big rolling wheel kick, he completely misses, rolling into Taka's knee. This leaves him back exposed and stuck in the corner, which allows Taka to just basically boot the guy in the body for a easy knockdown. Yamamoto tries to get back in the fight but he's obviously done by this point, and it's easy pickings for Taka to hit him with a few knees and roll him clumsily into a weird neck crank Americana for the submission win. This isn't great. Yamamoto is still quite green and inexperienced (he'd only been working for a year at this point) and there's a lot of staggered offence and pauses where both guys are kinda just looking at the other like "well? " waiting for something to happen. Nothing too offensive but it happens enough times to where it takes me out of the match. The action on the mat was fine but nothing particularly interesting: Takayama isn't a mat worker that can lead by his lonesome but he can at least work counters just fine, even if it isn't his element. Not a bad match but definitely something to where I'm not going to watch it again. RANK: Decent Vs. Kensuke Sasaki (UWF-I Full War All-Out Contend Battle UWF International vs. New Japan Pro Wrestling 28.10.1995) UWF-I were still riding the interpromotional gravy train as we get yet another event for the two working together. These two will have a far better match later on in far different conditions but this is a interesting oddity. I think what's interesting is that they don't just pull a Choshu and have him wrestle a normal match: Kensuke legit tries to work shoot-style here, or at least attempts to mimic the home-front fundamentals at points. Lots of Sasaki just either overpowering Taka or just focusing on the basics: it's a weird thing to see him throw big slaps or try to work legit mat-work, but it's certainly not dreadful and he knows his limits in that regard, staying to his strengths. He noticeably doesn't really give Taka much leeway in strikes, taking a ton of them and refusing to buckle or even sell that much until Taka literally knocks him down with a headlock. This continues throughout the match as Taka throws shit at Sasaki and he kinda just stonewalls all pretensions of selling and goes for his own weird body slaps instead. Like, the dude takes a knee to the head and still won't stop trying to get his shit over by holding to the body. Eventually Sasaki loses patience and tries for some more pro-wrestling stuff but Taka gets a boot and a flash submission for probably the first instance of him working on top as he struggles in applying numerous submissions, eventually ending with the pair struggling for a cross armbreaker. Taka follows up with some knees and a somewhat sandbaggy German suplex, following up with a nice knee to the head. Sasaki basically just goes "ok my turn" gives Taka a nosebleed with immensely stiff slaps before going for a German, a back suplex, and a running lariat, which Taka crumple-sells for so you know it's the finish as he applies the Strangle Hold Beta for the win. Obviously a political match: Taka gets in his offence, Sasaki gets in his: but it has some charm into it as Sasaki as a shoot-style worker is a weird sight but he kinda works here when he's not no-selling or being awkward even if he is very obviously limited. Taka puts in a regular performance, more or less what I'd expect: varied strikes and minimalistic mat-work with dashes of the pro-wrestling stuff he'd start using more and more. That said, the action gets pretty bombastic and there's some strong bits here and there. Not great, but a enjoyable outing if you tolerate the above mentioned. RANK: Good W/ Anjo Vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Masahiro Chono (UWF-I All-Out Contend Battle UWF International vs. New Japan Pro Wrestling 25.11.1995) If you were shocked that ANOTHER show was produced after the first three then I'm not sure what to say. This is the first match in the UWF-I involving Takayama that is overtly not shoot-style whatsoever. any pretence of this is thrown out of the window here from the start as Tenzan yells shit on the mic before rushing in to brawl with Taka. He throws headbutts, Taka no sells. He lands knees in response, Tenzan no sells. They scuffle for a bit before Chono gets in and asks for Anjo, who's like "nah bro" and stays where he is. After a minute of awkward clubs to the back and some rope breaks he finally bothers to do so. Anjo gets in and tries for a test of strength spot, which got the crowd going. Chono refuses, so like the troll he is, Anjo tags out. When Taka goes into their corner and gets pushed out of the ring, Anjo gets a cheap shot on Tenzan and knocks him out with kicks while Taka lands a big dropkick to knock Chono out. Taka hurls a protective guardrail into the ring out of nowhere and things get heated right from the get-go; crowd are loving this despite the lack of actual work going on. Golden Cups work over Tenzan in the corner with kicks and some stiff running knees from Taka. Anjo tries for a regular rest hold and rightfully gets thrown out of the ring for trying it, setting the pace well for the last bit or so. He also eats some nasty stiff Mongolian Chops in return: Tenzan lays them in pretty hard here, it's none of the usual shoulder slaps. Anjo gets worked over for a good while with some iffy exchanges until he recovers, landing multiple kicks on Tenzan. Taka does some knees before going into a rest hold almost at once. Taka gets in a dropkick when Tenzan tries to tag out after a Boston Crab and escapes a powerbomb attempt from Chono, following up with.....you guessed it, more knees! Chono counters him and double teams with Tenzan, who wasn't even really selling the dropkick at all. Taka tries for more knees but gets countered after trying for a choke, with Tenzan slapping on a half-assed armbar to sit around in for a bit. Crowd pops for Anjo countering a scoop slam from Chono into a Fujiwara Armbar, as well as Anjo getting caught in a STF after his desperation kick is caught, which was a cool exchange. Match finally picks up after Chono accidently nails Tenzan with a Kenka Kick, allowing Anjo to apply the Ground Cross 200. Tenzan recovers and lands a big diving headbutt to Anjo while he was applying the hold, which was awesome. Both teams land low blows to escape holds (Chono from a Takayama German in particular) and the finish has Chono tap out the guy after a Kenka kick into a Guillotine head and arm choke for the win. This starts pretty bleh and continues to be naturally quite messy: these two teams don't have very good chemistry and it shows a lot in the stuttered exchanges and some very clunky motions. This is far more of a heat-orientated match and it works in that regard as both teams get the chance to really rile the crowd up with sheer aggression, even if the strikes are mostly not hitting the mark and there's a lot of stopping and starting in the momentum. Chono is very solid for what he was at this point as he sticks to what he can do well as a brawler, Anjo and Taka are a good duo as always even if Anjo tends to overshadow the far more limited bigger lad. Tenzan is Tenzan. Decent but workrate classic this most definitely wasn't. RANK: Decent ============ 1996 will continue the cross-promotional trend as the UWF-I scrambles for relevancy, this time against WAR. The second half will showcase the dying days of the promotion as Takayama gets a huge push: will he have earned it?

1994 ========= Vs. Tatsuo Nakano (UWF-I The Kings Road 25.02.1994) Takayama gets pissed when Nakano turns his back on him before the match, leading to him trying to bumrush him with a furry of strikes. While Taka is still pretty eh when it comes to them, his old trick of being immensely frantic disguises that somewhat, especially at the end where Taka is able to impressively sprawl out of a takedown attempt and land a flush knee to Nakano's face in the process, which actually did look not half-bad. Nakano no sells, naturally. Nakano's gameplan is to take Taka down to the mat, but he's surprisingly outmatched there as Taka is able to keep control... at least until he tries for a very obvious Achilles Tendon hold which Nakano counters into a heel hook. Smart work there. Taka's clumsiness in stand up fucks him here as his leg gets stuck on the top rope after a kick (this little spot will be repeated a few times but it's the first time shown here) allowing Nakano to cut him down with low kicks. This becomes the main theme of the match as Taka rushes in to land more knees while Nakano stays more on the outside, throwing kicks to unbalance the bigger lad. When he's hurt enough, he gets in close with some stiff slaps to do more damage. There's a funny bit where Nakano is landing so many low kicks that he ends up falling over himself and doing a little roll. It's also funny seeing Taka do his Mummy-style shamble selling as he keeps getting hit with kicks until a knee to the head knocks him down. Taka hits probably one of the worst thrust kicks in shoot-style history but it knocks Nakano down and he tries pulling another Achilles hold, but Nakano just counters the pressure and forces him to hit the ropes again. Eventually this combination of strikes allows Nakano to get in again for a rear naked choke, dragging Taka to the mat to finish him off. Nowhere near as good as their future 1995 match (we'll get to that!) this suffers from a more green Taka working. Nakano's kicks aren't always the best, especially when he's gassing himself up doing them and stumbling around in places as he's a bit too ambitious at points. The mat work is per standard and doesn't really pick up beyond third gear, making this a pretty nothing match all in all. I wouldn't say it was bad but nothing worth really checking out either ultimately, which is a shame because Nakano is a good worker. RANK: Forgettable Vs. Yuko Miyato (UWF-I Pro Wrestling World Tournament: First Round 03.04.1994) A quick and simple mid-card bout for Takayama, this time against Shigeo/Yuko Miyato who is a 10 year Sayama trainee. Through he'd never be on bar with any of the established acts, he did have a very respectable career for himself and now spends his days beating up the next shoot generation in the UWF Snake Pit. He's still being pushed but more-so as a gatekeeper by this point, usually taking a lot of losses to the more established acts. Taka starts this off predictably with a rush of knees and slaps, but Miyato quickly gets him down with a lovely Judo throw and attempted cross armbreaker. When they reset after the rope break, Miyato's eagerness actually bites him in the ass as a attempted takedown is countered into a very rare successful Grovit by Taka but Miyato expertly twists him down to the mat which allows him to counter. As expected, a lot of this goes into Taka's knees and slaps in stand-up vs his opponent on the mat, which both men opt to commit to a good bit here. Taka's defence on the mat is mixed: sometimes he does fine, sometimes he just ends up kinda getting screwed and needing a rope break: his stuff still isn't the most convincing but he's definitely getting better. He tries some ground knees at one point that his opponent no sells. Taka eventually lands a awesome German suplex after overwhelming Miyato with shots, throwing in some extra kicks afterwards for good measure. He can't translate that into a actual win and eventually Miyato is able to get him down to the mat once more after a takedown. They square off a bit more, with Miyato landing some good slaps before getting caught for a second German setup. He blocks it, but Taka is able to quickly snap on a sleeper hold, which very nearly gets the win if not for the ropes. Taka tries for another rush of strikes but Miyato catches him for a sideslam toss into a tight head and arm choke for the VERY abrupt win: even the crowd were kinda confused by how fast he taps, especially given he's inches away from the ropes. Weird ending aside, this is a perfectly fine undercard bout that doesn't do a whole lot, it's just sorta there. Taka's stand-up at least looks a lot better here compared to other matches, even if he's a bit gangly at points given his height: taller fighters tend to have a lot of trouble aiming shots downwards, which is the case in pretty much all of Takayama's matches on top of having to actually pull them so they don't do tons of damage. The mat work is pretty standard: outside of a solid start, this tended to keep those parts minimalistic and mostly to the basics; safe, but immensely complacent as a result. RANK: Decent Vs. Billy Scott (UWF-I Pro Wrestling World Tournament: Semi Finals 10.06.1994) Taka takes advantage early with stiff knees and slaps, some of which I believe legitimately do come into contact with Scott in places: he lands a heavy kick at one point that leaves Scott literally cowering in the ropes, which while may be a dramatic sell, I don't buy for something like this. This follows a pretty simple formula in that Taka is best at stand-up, Scott is best at mat-work and going for close range grappling and submissions. Sound familiar? Scott's grappling and throws are pretty solid as you'd expect from a Robertson trained talent: fairly smooth and with some strong submissions that I've definitely not seen much at all. Taka by comparison can't really do the same but he uses his size well to loom over and tremble his smaller opponent in places, going for brute strength rather than working anything fancy. His strikes are still fairly hit-and-miss, some of them looking good while some barely hitting the mark. His mat work is also fairly decent, and he pulls out some strong defence to handle himself well here. His main weapon apart from his strikes is his signature cross armbreaker, which is pulled out sparingly but used to great effect for drama: when Taka does apply it proper it's a big race against time for his opponent to reach the ropes, no fooling around in that regard. The transitions are a bit unconventional (like Scott at one point does a literal School Boy as a way to get Taka off his feet and into a Achilles Tendon) and can look a bit iffy at times but I enjoyed the David/Goliath dynamic and how Taka kept getting outpaced or worked around. We get a steady build to the finish as Scott pulls out a goofy backdrop and Taka hits a dropkick, with the latter landing bombs until Taka's momentum gets halted after Scott catches his leg mid-kick, throws into a deep Dragon Screw before going into a single legged Boston Crab for the win. This used a basic dynamic and used some good variation to keep things fresh: it helps that both men know how to incorporate that into the proceedings throughout, including some nice transitions by Scott on the mat alongside Taka hurling out his usual sharp knees and slaps. It definitely isn't going to break the bank for a UWF-I quality undercard, but it's reasonably solid and doesn't really stall at any point, which is always a plus these days. These two will have better work together later on but Scott and co work a neat package here with something for everyone. RANK: Good Vs. Mark Sliver II (UWF-I Pro Wrestling World Tournament: Finals 18.08.1994) They work Sliver's real knee issues into the match by having Takayama run in and kick it until he falls over and loses. Sliver gets some bad slaps in and pushes Taka over until his opponent goes for a big inner thigh kick that knocks Sliver right down and the ref calls it off after a attempt to count. It's definitely a worked injury at least here given Sliver is able to get up afterwards just fine (albeit leaning in the corner) as opposed to the first match together where he was just completely done. I don't know if they wanted this to be quick because the matches here ran rather long or Sliver just couldn't commit to a legitimate match. I'm not ranking this. RANK: ??? Vs Kanehara V (UWF-I The Kings Road - Tag 1 08.10.1994) Even in the heavyweight division these two just can't get away from each other. Anyway, this is probably their most well known match together as it is essentially 20 minutes of utter carnage as the two go to war. I really liked how they work their past dynamics here as each really want to put down the other: Taka goes for big punts and knees, trying to go for his usual stampede antics while Kanehara leans more on the striking end than prior matches, honing in with low kicks while dodging Taka's crazy offence, even a few high-flying moves like a dropkick and whatnot. While I do like the stand-up segments for what they are worth (as stated, these two have great chemistry and know how to get a crowd buzzing from stiff shot to shot) but they haven't quite figured out the riddle of mat-work yet as things quickly default to Takayama being stuck on the ground having to struggle for defence and rope breaks while Kanehara hunts for holds continuously. They can't seem to translate their amazing stand-up sequences onto the mat, either due to a skill imbalance or just them not having a formula to work with. I'm fine with teasing submissions and showcasing endurance with someone taking multiple close shaves to get the crowd rooting for them, but this went on a bit too much and seeing as I've watched these two from the beginning, I'm kinda burnt out from seeing this over and over. Having the legitimate 6'5 Takayama just consistently on the backend for 20 minutes as well felt off for me, especially given how he had taken a decisive win over his opponent a year ago; feels like they've just stepped back from that to go back to these old structures again. It being a draw may annoy some but it was fine for me given this had warranted that given the fatigue factor. This does have great moments but I think these two struggle to pace out the longer length when push comes to shove, which is a shame because if this was just 10 or maybe 15 minutes, I'd like it a lot more. RANK: Decent Vs. Dan Severn (UWF-I The Kings Road - Tag 2 14.10.1994) This is obviously nowhere near as epic as when these two men will take each other to the very limits nearly a decade or so later, but it's a perfectly fine bout that has Severn just toss around Takayama and terrorise the poor lad with his usual antics. Severn isn't quite as good as he will be in a few years when he figures out the whole "pro-wrestling" thing but he can still throw someone as large as Taka with no real issue with his legitimate amateur wrestling credentials. Taka's offence is still rather iffy even at this point and time but he can throw a good knee at the very least, which is enough here to score a knockdown on Severn. Alas, this is just a casual work-day for Severn and he casually shakes it off, later hurling around Taka a few more times as well. He does get caught in a cross armbreaker at one point, but he's able to scramble for the ropes effectively before he would need to tap. He also sells for another knockdown by Taka after getting barraged with some (limp) knees, later going on to destroy him with a German suplex into a terrifying looking modified arm Bow and Arrow/choke for the win. This is a swift and quick match, marred with a lot of big shots and sheer violence. Severn is pretty good and Taka is....well he's fine at the moment, even if his strikes look pretty iffy even here. Severn isn't much better in that front but he hides that well under his sheer aura of menace. RANK; Decent Vs. Naoki Sano (UWF-I Next Challenger Final 30.11.1994) Takayama comes into this with his typical aggression, hurling out knees and kicks. Sano is more than accustomed to that and manages to get in some slaps of his own before trying to take him down to the mat. Taka impressively counters into a cross-armbreaker attempt off the takedown but that isn't able to be applied properly, with Sano blocking the attempts to get the hold applied and reversing the leverage. The middle section is basically both guys going through some competent mat work; nothing inexcusable but nothing particularly interesting either. Sano works on the legs when he can but Taka's mat defence is fairly solid, so he can sprawl and roll out of most of it instead of abusing rope breaks. Sano does take full mount at one point and pulls for a Kimura but Taka is able to get his long legs to the ropes before that happens. Most of Taka's actual offence is him basically charging in and hurling kicks and knees, which don't always look great but are at least convincing enough that you buy Sano having issues as they do manage to hit their mark most of the time. He stuns Taka with some signature Savate kicks and teases the German suplex, but ends up taking one himself after Taka manages to break the wrist control and nail the full thing. Last minute or so is just both men hurling slaps and knees: Sano takes a fall but quickly gets back into things with a takedown, engaging in a cross armbreaker (which Taka rolls out of) and manages to counter a second German into a Americana, which forces his opponent to tap out. Not bad stuff generally but this is pretty middle of the road for UWF material. Takayama looks fine in the field and Sano brings some well needed experience and raw stiffness at times to make this a bit better. You get what you expect to happen here but this is still a solid match all in all, with some good mat work and strikes combined with a pacing that never gets too slow or out of the action for long. I will say that these two will be MUCH better in Kingdom together as the mat-work will look a lot more natural compared to the more stiff version we get here between the two. All in all, while not something amazing for a end of year bout, it does showcase that Takayama is slowly figuring out the tools needed as his mat-work at least here felt a lot more coherent as opposed to how he was in 1992 and whatnot. ========= 1995 will begin Takayama's swing into pro-style matches to go alongside the UWFI's partnership with NJPW as well as his work alongside Anjo and co in the Golden Cups.

1993 ========== Vs. Burton II (UWF-I Final Battle In Budokan 14.03.1993) Taka has already got a KO victory after Burton's attempts to ground him failed utterly. Like with many long matches, this starts off hot with Burton hurling Taka around and taking his mid-section. Taka, however has improved from the last time: he isn't so easily disabled from the ground anymore, and he quickly proves that by grabbing Burton into a Fujiwara Armbar, needing Burton to reach for a rope break. There's some unintentional comedy as one random in the crowd keeps trying for a "Burton" chant very loudly, which people end up laughing at. A lot of the early exchanges are basically Taka trying to show he can do mat work, but Burton keeps pulling out rope breaks or counters to just wiggle out of any definitive finishes here. The mat work is mostly just typical UWF catch work, with both men trying to nab legs and arms for submissions. I do like how Taka's strikes being not very good plays into the match here slightly as Burton is able to slip through his tame slaps into takedowns and even some close shave submissions, even being able to time kicks into leg work. Unlike their last match, Burton shows agency, consistently slipping through Taka's stand-up and shooting for takedowns and submissions, making this a lot better paced in general, as well as addressing the fact that Taka isn't good enough at strikes yet for Burton to be properly scared. The crowd pops when Taka takes Burton down in a role reversal and manages to slap on a single leg Boston Crab, which almost nabs the submission if not for the ropes. Taka teases some extra submissions but to no dice, through he is able to get a KO off his eh knees and even attempts a Enzuigiri at one point when Burton catches his leg again, but gets dodged. I do like how the lads do mix things up here now and then, stuff like the above mentioned and some changes to strategy: at one point Burton just gets fed up with not getting the win and starts hurling strikes and pulling for a German suplex, but that actually fucks him over as Taka is able to hit his own after a counter and a pair of big old dropkicks out of the blue. Last minute has Burton land a nasty snap German and Taka taking a big knockdown, which leaves him pretty dazed. He sells fairly well as he tries to stay in the match as best he can, eventually hitting a loose boot that sends Burton flying. He grabs on a single leg Boston Crab again but the bell sounds before the potential tap-out. Burton doesn't sell anything afterwards while Taka does, making for a weird disconnect to end the match. All in all, not the best draw I've seen by a fair bit. The duo tend to repeat a lot of the same stuff at points and a LOT of this is just them in side mount more or less as they awkwardly try to pace this out without both getting tremendously gassed in the process. I appreciate that they add in some excitement here and there with some solid action, even if the technical work isn't really anything special: if you've watched UWF-I undercards at all this isn't really breaking the bank. I did think this was quite good in places however, just way too long. Burton isn't bad though, I'll give him that. RANK: Decent Vs. Mark Fleming (UWF-I The Fight of Champions 10.04.1993) This wasn't aired officially but exists as a decent quality fancam alongside the rest of the show bar the main event. Fleming is a well known Thesz trainee and you can clearly see that by his fairly old school approach to this match and others, but was harmed business wise by the fact that he's pretty much Karl Gotch tier in terms of taking wrestling 100% seriously as a sport, thus didn't really get much of anywhere despite pushes both here and elsewhere at points, because being that serious in a carny business like wrestling tends to not work out. He starts this off by predictively trying to wrestle Taka into submission, but he's able to avoid his grasp. Fleming is able to trip him up in places, which tends to leave them sitting in side mount until a rope break or something to that extent. Taka does get some counters here and there but he's never been a mat guy, so a lot of it tends to be kinda slow and not particularly convincing. There's a lot of resets here and despite some exciting moments completely thrown in by Taka (namely his big running knees and just regular blows, which while still wild and somewhat sloppy do at least have a aura of danger about them) Fleming stays to the same method of just running into his opponent with takedowns and some brawling at points. Taka is a lot more wild here and it actually seems like a actual shoot in places as Fleming gives him zero room to do his usual big knees or general offence. He lands a Butterfly Suplex and shoulder charge for a knockdown; when Taka gets up he tries using the ref to block himself for breathing room but gets charged anyway. Fleming lands a rear naked choke for a rope break before hitting his opponent with a spinebuster into a STF: a obvious callback to Thesz as that was a move innovated by him. Outside of some exciting moments this mostly just kinda doesn't really go anywhere interesting. Fleming gives Takayama zero leeway to do any of his shit, so he's stuck having to sit around for Fleming's wrestling, which while technically crisp is rather flat and isn't really interesting for the most part, especially with someone who isn't good on the mat and can't play off him much at all. More or less just a filler undercard showing that I honestly had to watch again for this as I forgot most of it. RANK: Forgettable Vs. Bad News Allen (UWF-I The Fight of Champions II 06.05.1993) Even near the age of 50 and with a lifetime of wrestling already under his belt, Bad News was such a badass that he just casually walked into the UWF and started taking names. Dead serious here, Allen won a LOT of matches in the UWF, especially given his legitimacy as a Inoki student and Olympic Judo career made him a ideal foil, even if he wasn't a natural to shoot-style and certainly wasn't conventional. Here, he's facing a still maturing, still awkward Takayama in their first bout together. Taka pushes Allen after a staredown and that basically seals his fate here. Allen gets him off his feet quick with a leg sweep takedown after taking his slaps but gets to the ropes before anything can happen. This gets repeated again after some very messy stand-up work as Allen gets another takedown, but Taka hits the ropes after a brief struggle as Allen works on the arms. Once again this happens, as Allen's strength allows him to just push over Taka after getting past his tame strikes. They decide to go into a striking segment, with Taka taking advantage with some knees before.... well, a bad, bad fuck-up. The Russian and English Bushido version of this edits this next part out of the broadcast (so you get a awkward cut that doesn't really make much sense without context) but the original footage still exists. Basically, he aims for a belly to belly, but can't quite get Allen through the whole hold, leading to him falling nearly on his face. Pretty scary stuff. He tries to follow up with some kicks but Allen just no sells and looks real pissed off, enough that even the ref doesn't even count it as a knockdown in fear of drawing his wrath. He potatoes Taka hard with some stiff elbows before they reset again. He also hits Taka with a stray illegal closed fist that catches his eye, forcing the ref to step in. Taka tries to get back in the game but two more leg sweeps allow Allen to get a cross armbreaker for the win. Not going to lie, this was... kinda shit? Like Allen spams the same Judo throws over and over while Taka botches his only big spot of the match, leading to Allen just shutting down and dominating from then on in. There's nothing here that was anything interesting and the mat work was mostly just Taka rolling to the ropes almost all the time. The stand-up was PAINFULLY awkward, with Taka looking lost in places as he struggles to do anything beyond limp slaps and kicks and can't work off someone more chaotic, leading to a lot of moments where I struggled to tell what exactly was going on. I've seen Allen have better matches during his time here, this just seemed like a bad match that got worse after the botch. Really don't bother with this one. RANK: Forgettable Vs. Bad News Allen II (UWF-I Pro Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship 18.07.1993) This feels like their original match if the botch hadn't happened. Taka shows disrespect towards Allen by not shaking his hand instead of shoving him, he has the exact same gameplan of running it and just throwing shit until something sticks while his opponent has to kinda take everything and hope he can grab on something to get this down to the mat. Taka's stuff still isn't very convincing but he throws a lot so it's less noticeable and gets a good German suplex after a minute or so of wangling for control. Allen's moments come when he can get the younger guy down to the mat where he can go for his signature cross armbreaker, which he manages to do but is way too close for the ropes. He also has a pretty amazing arm-trap judo throw into side mount choke that Taka barely escapes from. He tries for more aggression but predictively gets tossed down into a deep double wrist lock, once again forcing a break. Of course he tries the exact same thing again because he's that one dimensional and Allen finally picks him off with a cross armbreaker. Humbled by the experience, they shake hands post-match. Naturally this is essentially a rethread of their original match bar the botch, only shorter by a minute. The narrative of Takayama being a cocky youngster that gets completely dominated once his predictable style is picked apart works here given his inexperience, and Allen is more generous and gives Taka a lot of room to do what he wants in the first minute or so before going into Judo throw city, which while not the most varied did showcase a side to the guy that I don't think many tend to see: namely his ability to work legitimate mat-work and holds into his repertoire. Might be worth checking out as a curiosity and was definitely better than the first match as the two get along a lot better. RANK: Decent Vs. Gene Lydick (UWF-I The Fight of Champions III 13.08.1993) This ruled. I think a interesting note to make of this match in particular is that Takayama tries a lot of stuff that he typically doesn't throw out: he tries to be a bit more versatile than his typical knees and kicks, opting more for rolling wheel takedowns, leg work, some fancy side kicks at points, a Enzuigiri etc. It's decent enough given he's typically not doing stuff like this whatsoever in his matches and mixes things up a bit. Lydick is pretty strong across the board and very competent when it comes to throws and mat work especially, hitting some vicious German suplexes across the length of this bout alongside Taka, who does the same. Both men score strongly at the start, hitting multiple takedowns and knockdowns on the other man before eventually slowing down into more of the style expected. Middle portion has Taka try his hardest to work over Lydick's legs to make sure he's out and out, but he actually does himself in throughout this process, using up multiple rope breaks and neglecting his knee strikes, which gave him the most success to that point. It's interesting in a meta-sense to see how Taka's rookie nature sorts into how he loses this by playing up to a bad submission game than simply to use what's most effective here. I doubt this match is THAT clever but still. Lydick eventually recovers and lands some submissions of his own, but Taka is able to escape them, namely because Lydick tries pulling for the cross armbreaker, which is Taka's speciality, allowing him to defend any attempts at it. He finally gets back to the knees and kicks which score him another knockdown. The road to the finish is intense as both men go gun-ho with slaps, with Lydick being able to clear the distance and land a big belly to belly into a single leg Boston Crab for the win. This follows a pretty simple but strongly paced formula of big moves followed by little impact mat work: the big power moves are done quite well while the mat work is decent enough but nothing to where you'd be impressed by this point. Taka's mat game is pretty bland and Lydick certainly knows what his role is, his mat work is a little bit iffy here and there, maybe that's just who he's working with but still, it's not a strong point of this match: that goes to the crazy deadlift suplexes and sharp intensity between the two. Lydick conveys well how he has to essentially close the distance by taking some blows from his opponent for the potential of landing a big throw to equal things out: that idea of gambling in a environment like this shows up here and there but I feel like it was a critical element of the match, especially in the second half where they both can't afford to go back and forth for long due to the reduced time limit for Jr matches. Takayama looked immensely good here as his knees and strikes felt a lot more stiff and controlled; not a lot of the rapid-fire sloppiness I've seen the last year and a half. The result is a match that struggles to have a identity when it comes to the mat but has a clear motive when it comes to stand-up work, which I feel both men exceled at far more than the latter. Definitely check this out. RANK: Good Vs. Kanehara IV (UWF-I Standing Bout Battle 05.09.1993) The first time Takayama is main eventing a card, and it's with his eternal rival once again in the Jr League. the crowd already knows about his consistent winning steak over the guy and so the two prepare this match specifically around that factor. Kanehara thus dominates during the early sections with sharp strikes to the legs and head alongside smooth mat-work. Taka's strikes are still all over the place and they don't tend to look particularly great most of the time, especially next to someone who hits a lot harder (Kanehara's thing in RINGS would be his legitimately impressive punching power) so naturally he plays the underdog despite his immense size advantage. Taka has some smart counters on the mat but stays to the conventional holds and submissions for the most part, with no real innovation on that front. Taka's selling is generally decent, with him buckling under Kanehara's leg kicks at times and struggling to escape his holds without getting rolled into another one and forced to use a rope break. In particular Kanehara really works over the legs, using a lot of ankle locks and kneebars: his transition work into these is at times incredibly well done and very smooth on his part. Said submissions hype up the Korakuen crowd a ton, with them piping up when Taka eventually manages to get some offence in of his own, but that doesn't last long as Kanehara quickly counters his hold into another leg lock. The only botch of the match comes when Taka messes up his German suplex spot (Kanehara just doesn't jump for it) and results in them awkwardly sprawling into a sideslam instead, through Taka does make up for this with a good reverse chinlock for a near fall tease. While Kanehara isn't the best at emoting or has much of a personality, I do like him getting frustrated at Taka consistently using the ropes to escape stuff over time as he's more frantic and holds things on for longer despite breakage. The second half of this is a bit more chaotic as the two go for their wild, less controlled pacing: namely lots of strikes and whatnot with a increased pace. I liked Kanehara also finding workarounds for Taka's stand-up, exposing gaps to close the distance or grab on a submission, but then getting so beaten up that he can't really do much about it anyway due to fatigue. We get some role reversal as Kanehara ends up needing rope breaks to escape rogue submissions numerous times until he eventually relents after a Boston Crab and some more stiff knees to a big crowd reaction as this is Taka's first win over Kanehara since he debuted last year, ending his streak of losses. This gets really good in places but struggles with some unconvincing strike exchanges and a repetitive structure that gets rather old. There's some adjustments over time but these come after a fairly long first half. The leg work was good, shame Taka didn't really sell it beyond a knockdown or two afterwards. Kanehara is still the better workrate-wise and definitely gives Taka a lot, but he's improved well for a rookie and doesn't look half-bad minus the dodgy strikes when not hurling knees. The crowd really boosts this up but frankly I'd say the match they had last year trumps this by a fair mile. RANK: Decent Vs. Tommy Cairo (UWF-I Pro Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship 05.12.1993) This is yet another Jr League match against Ironman Tommy Cairo, mostly known for being around during the very early days of ECW before it took off. He's definitely not very good (even by UWF Gaijin standards) but he's fine for a filler undercard guy to job out to the actual big acts. Taka takes Cairo down early with low kicks real early, takes a fall before charging into the guy and landing a big German suplex, which Taka no sells and goes back to booting his bad leg until he falls back down. Cairo sells the whole thing like he's about to cry as he lamely attempts to get his hands up before Taka lands more hard kicks for what seems like forever (including a nasty side knee to the face) before he tries rolling into a toe-hold, which I think he botches the first time around as he ends up hitting the ropes and has to disengage for more kicks. He gets it right the second time and Cairo quickly taps out. This is definitely not something that I'd suggest running out and watching, but progression wise this is probably the first time we've seen Takayama as a destructive force just running through somebody with knees and kicks until they can't move anymore. It's a shtick he'll master in the early 2000's to become a must-see main event machine, but as of yet he's still working out everything. That said, Cairo makes the guy look like a million bucks and Taka definitely has a handle on how his lanky legs give him just so much room to land all sorts of different shots until the finish. It's messy stuff but I thought this was a acceptable squash match. RANK: Decent.....for what it is. Vs. Greg Bobchick (UWF-I Pro Wrestling Second Junior League 15.12.1993) Gonna be 100% honest: I have zero idea who Bobchick is. This is also his second last match before he disappears from pro-wrestling as well so I imagine he wasn't a prospect that lasted very long in general. He battles for the second place spot in the Jr League with Takayama, whom had did surprisingly good beyond a singular loss to Gene Lydick, which cost him a spot in the finals against Kanehara again. Bobchick starts things off with mostly takedowns, but his opponent is able to sprawl out of them with his knees or with some surprising agility on the mat, even when his back is exposed: for a guy this big you really wouldn't believe just how mobile Takayama was when he was younger. He is even able to counter one attempt with a surprise kneebar, which forces a rope breakage. Despite a (very messy) Judo throw by Taka later on, he's not able to actually do a whole lot to Bobchick and subsequently gets taken down proper, albeit Taka is still able to defend himself enough that it allows him to still get in the game. Bobchick's general work is fine enough: he's very competent on the mat for what it's worth and knows how to wrestle, but he's a bit dry and doesn't really have much in terms of personality or intensity: I can't buy him just casually exchanging holds and think this is actually him trying to win, it feels more like a spar that he's taking slightly more seriously. He hits some decent enough shoot-style German suplexes and mostly focuses on the back of Taka with chokes and whatnot, but can't clinch a definitive hold. This ends in a pretty bad anti-climax as Bobchick seems to fuck his ankle up when doing a grounded sleeper (I looked back at the footage and it seems that he pulls his ankle pretty badly during the hold by accident as he has it wrapped up over his other leg, so it appears to get hyperextended as he's struggling in the hold) and thus Taka wins by literally doing nothing. Sadly this drags the match way down as the beginning section is fine enough but not really of much interest, it's just the usual "x tries to take big man down to the mat" paired with some good defence and some knees in-between as Taka shows competent defence and improved mat-game. Not really Takayama's fault here through: sometimes accidents just happen. RANK: Forgettable ========== This ends Takayama's Jr career as next year he'd graduate and join the main roster, which would begin a marked improvement in his performances namely due to working with more experienced talent. We'll see in detail soon enough.

Other Deep Dive stuff Introduction Through Takayama's wrestling years are pretty well documented by now, not a ton is really focused around the first 5 years of his career which was almost completely dedicated to being a shoot-style wrestler in the likes of the UWFI as well as showing up for most of the very short-lived successor-promotion known as Kingdom. This has been a curiosity for a while as I'm a big fan of Takayama in general, so the idea of seeing him in a completely different environment was a very interesting proposition. I've reviewed and documented almost all of his matches from those five years to go over here, through this will only be focusing on mainly his actual shoot-style matches, so I won't be including his more comedic Golden Cups work in NJPW and the like; I will be throwing in some inter-promotional work regardless as it is practically impossible to avoid once we go into 1995/1996 when Choshu starts to get involved with the UWFI and whatnot. I'll also probably skip over the REALLY short stuff, namely the matches under a minute as they really don't do anything mindblowing for the most part. I'll also be throwing in some bonus matches for the occasional indie date afterwards when Taka got to wrestle shoot-style again, though mostly for UWF reunion cards. I'll be ranking the matches the same as the Tiger Mask thread, reminder of that below: 1. Great 2. Good 3. Decent 4. Forgettable This is more of a formality so anyone who's skimming these can get a quick synopsis of what to watch and not to watch without having to read through paragraphs. =========== Vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara (UWF-I Sekai Gannen: Hakata Live 26.06.1992) This is Takayama's first ever recorded match ever, and it's quite noticeable from his shaved buzz-cut, a signature of most wrestling rookies starting off, as well as his considerably skinnier body: seeing him so lean and thin is a shock given most people are used to his larger frame. Taka and Kanehara will have endless matches over the years but this is their first meeting together. The lads are still pretty green, with Takayama just flat-out stumbling over in the first 30 seconds and Kanehara having to cover for him by going to the mat. His selling is still very good through; he sells a Achilles Lock by just outright screaming and hugging the ropes, which is weird to see given his later "tough guy" status. The match itself is very frantic, with Takayama having the advantage on stand-up with his knees and slaps while Kanehara is the more competent on the mat, so we get a lot of interaction between the pair as they push their respective strengths. Takayama's strikes need a LOT of work and don't look very good at all (seriously, he does like some tap-kicks in the middle-half of this that look dreadful) but I at least appreciated the attempt. That said, the crowd still get into this when he's having to escape from Kanehara's submissions due to his natural underdog stauts. He uses the ropes a lot to this effect and can't really do much about it: even his counter-submissions are countered fairly effectively and turned against him. There's a weird thing in the middle where they both seem to hit low blows on the other (Takayama's seemed accidental while Kanehara just outright palm strikes it as a receipt) which looked a bit awkward and didn't really do anything. Eventually Kanehara gets one too many holds in and manages to win with a single-leg Boston Crab before transitioning to a kneebar for the win. Some good moments but both lads are naturally a bit clumsy and there's not really a narrative or story beyond Takayama escaping submissions and trying to survive. As for the big lad himself, he's nowhere near his best yet but shows potential, especially in his knee strikes (which will become a signature of his wrestling style) but at the moment he's still very green and struggled in making the mat-work look convincing when on the offensive, with a lot of contrived moments. Kanehara was a lot better in general, through he didn't really bring much intensity to this at all and his strikes were also kinda eh in places. A decent start but a LONG way to go for both men. RANK: Decent Vs. Kanehara II (UWF-I The Root of Wrestling 28.08.1992) Takayama has already lost to Kanehara three times over (two of which are unrecorded) things have to change now, right? Not exactly. Taka takes the early advantage after a scrappy start, hitting a side kick that does clear damage by how Kanehara backs off suddenly in pain, but Taka's messy strikes means he can't capitalise, allowing Kanehara to grab on a side-takedown and drag this down to the mat. They have a decent exchange there as Kanehara slaps on a cross armbreaker and struggles for it, with Taka having to reach for the ropes when his defence is finally ripped away. The lads build up a good narrative in which Taka is able to knock around Kanehara in stand-up but can't make any definitive breakthroughs while Kanehara opts for mat-work and vicious takedowns but Taka is able to keep safe through rope breaks and defensive work. There's a awesome spot in the middle section where Taka hurls himself for a reckless leaping kick while Kanehara is backing up in the corner which hits the guy, but also allows his opponent to take over when he hits the mat. The action isn't super amazing, but the pair manage to get some great heat here as they both get closer and closer to their endgame goals. Taka gets some sensational falls (involving some stiff wide slaps and a huge German suplex in the second half that the crowd explodes for) but can't get a definitive win. At one point Kanehara just goes "fuck it" and forgoes the takedowns for spinning Savate kicks and slaps, which catches his opponent very much off guard and allows for a knockdown of his own, which was a great reversal to surprise everyone with. I just like how messy this gets around about the end: both guys just start throwing out dropkicks and big bombs in a attempt to finish the other off, and there's a big sense of uncertainty here as Taka looks the most confident he's ever looked thus far. Eventually Taka starts to gas out, allowing for Kanehara to clinch multiple submission false finishes until he can get in for the kill, stunning Taka with slaps before rolling him onto the mat and into side-mount. A quick Americana taps him out for the fourth loss in a row. This isn't incredible in terms of technique but the heat and pure chaotic energy this produces more than makes up for that. The duo have a natural chemistry that allows Kanehara to get the best out of the (still green and clumsy) Taka in the best ways involving furious strike exchanges, slaps, knees, all the stuff you'd expect, even if Taka still can't strike very good and still looks very awkward given his size and whatnot. The brawls that Taka will have later on his career are almost influenced completely by matches like this where he's off the chain and throwing for the fences. Taka sells really good with how he can crumble sell for one minute and explode in violence the next, managing to once again get the crowd heated up for his win over his rival. Mat work is mostly basic but competent on Kanehara's half but is more of a side-attraction to everything else going on here so it's excused in my mind. Not a "good" shoot style match by any means but it's pure fun and definitely a good addition to the Takayama/Kanehara endless feud. Arguably stole the night in terms of quality (especially given the main event is a 3 minute Albright squash). RANK: Good Vs. Tom Burton (UWF-I World Heavyweight Title Match 21.09.1992) Takayama is facing up against Thomas Burton, well known for.... being a jobber in the WWF? In all seriousness, Burton had a pretty respectful career for himself both here and elsewhere, being a useful guy who could do odd jobs anywhere but his UWF work is where he was given the most room to wiggle around in. Burton actually gets a good bit of work against Takayama, catching him off guard with some grounded work and a heel hook at one point. He's no Albright by at least a few miles but he can at least have some sort of convincing style here as he continually keeps Taka down and away from his height advantage. He tries to sell Taka as being too much to handle in terms of stand-up.... Taka's striking stuff at this point is still pretty dreadful through, so you have Burton running from his dude landing limp slaps and slow kicks for the most part like he's some scary prospect, which is really funny, but I doubt that was what they were going for. My other issue is that Burton just kinda holds on to Taka's body here for dear life during these mat-sequences: he doesn't try for submissions or really anything, he just sorta gets to the body in a half-comfortable position, holds on and waits. As you can imagine, this is fairly boring to watch and not going to lie, the early sequences are just all this with the odd point where Taka either gets some control or reaches for the ropes. I would appreciate it more if it was apart of a longer gameplan to maybe force Taka to lose via points or just wearing him out for bigger stuff but nothing of sorts is really communicated here. Burton tries to inject some fire into this by hitting Taka with a few loose shots after a rope break out of frustration, but Taka just goes into the same stuff he'd been doing the whole match for about nine minutes until he decides to use his knees to nail Burton enough for a big German suplex, which was pretty cool but then the match just drifts back into the same pattern again of Taka getting taken down, going to the ropes and then resetting. Eventually Taka starts actually throwing stuff and the crowd pick up for it because the first half was so boring. Burton doesn't change his gameplan at all and keeps just holding Taka's midsection endlessly until the finish has Taka hit him with a slap and a kick to the face, which knocks him out of the ring. I get why this exists as a device to get the young Taka over as a act with resiliency, but man, this is just not very good namely because it's maybe too realistic: Burton is a wrestler and basically just wrestles Taka to the ground for the entire match with no real gameplan beyond getting Taka on the mat: he shows no agency, and that fucks the pacing of this badly. Not very good, and it's not really Taka's fault here: he's still a noobie and can't direct a match like this. Burton is not the man to be pushing so much when there's not a lot to go against at all. RANK: Forgettable Vs. Mark Sliver (UWF-I Combat Sport: Takada Vs. Kitao 23.10.1992) Really feeling like I'm cheating here given this match only lasts for about a minute and a half and it's not the good kind of short match either for reasons I'll get into. Sliver runs in and pushes Taka onto the floor early, but ends up eating a submission after his leg gets caught by Taka and his Sayama-lite Enzuigiri counter is ducked under. Sliver gets caught and screams a ton while in the hold, which is unusual for such a early bit like this. This carries on as even with the rope break and the ref calls a break for a bit until resuming. Sliver tries going business as usual with some wild swings but his leg once again gives out and the match is quickly called off with Taka declared the winner. Apparently this was a legitimate injury as Mark Sliver will be gone from UWF-I for a while (he'll try to come back a few times but his leg will keep giving out) said injury will somewhat plague him despite his fairly decent work (he has a bonkers match with Kakihara that I'd absolutely suggest watching when you can). Obviously this is a non-match given the length and lack of action; it can't really be considered by any standard whatsoever which is usually why I don't like doing matches this short. RANK: ???? Vs. Kanehara III (UWF-I Final '92 The Root Of Wrestling 20.12.1992) Kanehara has beaten Takayama numerous times at this point, and this time the stakes are higher as the latter has gotten to the finals of the Jr League over two opponents only to be met with the same man again. He proves that he isn't going to be so easily beaten this time by taking the initiative by getting a Achilles Hold on early after blocking a roundhouse, needing Kanehara to reach for the ropes for the first time. Takayama's strikes still aren't perfect (his slaps even by this point don't look good at all despite all of the experience) but his knee shots are already looking quite smooth and hard-hitting. There's a awesome spot early where Kanehara just picks up Taka and hits a amazing rolling backdrop to get a takedown proper on the guy, which even with him assisting is no easy feat. Taka returns the favour with a big Capture Suplex into cross armbreaker not to be outdone. What I love in particular about this match is the HEAT: the crowd are really into this and little bits and pieces by the duo really highlight how this is more than just a regular match: the sneaky kicks on the ground by Kanehara, Taka just rampaging around and refusing to give his opponent any space, even when a loose slap may have potentially caught Kanehara's eye for a illegal move. Taka doesn't give a shit, he just runs at him full force with a jumping knee to get that knockdown, and any chance he gets to inflict more damage is taken in a heartbeat. We also get a vicious kick to the head after Kanehara catches one from Taka, which looked pretty stiff. Taka also hits a German as per standard, and it's also equally as good. They do tease Taka getting the big win a few times here, namely in the middle; Taka gets him down for a sleeper for a rope break, before following it up with some flush knee shots for a knockdown. However, Kanehara is way too stubborn and manages to get Taka for a second takedown and a jumping heel kick, which evens the score. The second half is built around Taka withstanding a ton of abuse from Kanehara on the mat, namely to his legs to immobilise him. Taka is dangerously low on points, so every break is a step closer to failure; something the crowd pick out and keep thunderously cheering for the tables to turn. Taka is positioned as competent but ultimately outmatched on that front: outside of some reversals and a accidental elbow in the eye when he's escaping a hold, he has no real luck handling Kanehara's submissions. Near the end he's spent and needs to use his legs to merely push Kanehara away, especially after some stiff slaps knock him down again. One too many result in yet another mat exchange: Takayama's flaw is giving his back up to escape side mount, which allows his opponent to grab on a rear naked choke for the win. Really awesome bout that's by far the best out of their series thus far. The crowd is really up and roaring for every close shave strike and hold and the duo really exploit this with some great stagger-selling and fatigue building throughout. Kanehara is solid and Taka, while still pretty iffy, gets really good here when he's unloading with strikes despite getting gassed in the latter half. It's not a scientific match by any means of the imagination but these two have a grove together that just boosts the pair up: Taka has this natural intensity to everything he does even if he's sloppy at points and Kanehara who's mechanically solid but typically a bit dry gets to feed off that to give his stuff a lot more pro-style drama behind it. Strong stuff. RANK: Great =========== I'll be going through these year by year as not to bloat this up too much so next post will cover his 1993 tenure.

Not for the Vader stomping Inoki part though, for the incredibly silly bait and switch main event

Tbf Bart did have a pretty good stint in Japan and had a MOTY tag team match in 2001, Billy ain't got that

Probably has the best consistency of matches I've ever seen from a wrestler: pretty much every Fujiwara match is guaranteed to be at least fun to good, and the very rare bad Fujiwara match is almost never because of himself and more-so what he has to work with (The horrific 1993 match with Kashin/Ishizawa was a weird hybrid Greco-Roman nightmare, the 2000 Sayama match was because the latter wasn't in shape and trying to pimp his Seikendo-style nonsense). Other than that, he's a easy top 10 purely because of how much great material is out there and the breadth of opponents he had great matches with. Dude's 70+ and he can still have fun matches in the right conditions, that alone deserves all the praise in the world. Easily one of the smartest wrestlers when it comes to nuanced work all across the board as well: few can sell pain and fatigue as convincingly as he can, which is probably why some of his best matches are with people who can dish it out almost equally as well.

He was in a pretty fun comedy match during the Fujiwara/Arakawa nonsense in ZERO-1 and he shows up in some dingy-ass indie matches that look like they take place either in literal basements or random ass bars. That being said, if I wanted "angry guy who works big headbutts with technical work" I'd just go with Tamon Honda instead, namely because I don't need to cover the ends of the Earth to see a good chunk of his work. Top 100? Very doubtful unless his work is truly THAT good, which I didn't get a big read off his early MUGA matches.

Anyone who struggled to get good work out of both Misawa and Kawada in back to back matches where he got most of the time to do his thing most definitely does not fit on a list like this. His "prime" work in AJPW was early 90's RWTL stuff and even then I'd say he was one of the weaker Hansen partners in terms of chemistry (Brody) workrate (DiBiase) or even just impact (Vader). Maybe he was better than the Johnny Smith pairing? I'd say so, even if that's just because Smith isn't a very interesting worker.

I would say it took a WHILE for the guy to get properly good. There's a lot of middling work in his early years and he plays up a bit too much to the goofy old-school WoS stuff in his matches, which for me took me away from actually enjoying them. I guess it's a different style but even then, I can't really grapple with it very well. I also found that he was much better at playing a prick heel than Danielson was, whom I never really brought as a actual legit heel in his early days: it always felt like he was just acting as a heel for the sake of being a heel rather than making you believe he was a heel, if you catch my drift. Nigel felt much different, especially during his World Champion days where he was just endlessly bitter with that chip on his shoulder: the whole thing with playing up his injuries and getting the crowd to BOO when he talked about how much he gave up to be a wrestler is pure genius, plain and simple. Of course we can say "what if" and if he had a few more years of being in a good physical state, maybe in TNA with a sustained push, but his peak lasted a good while despite said injuries because he was a fantastic innovator who worked well with a massive assortment of talent. You could find a spot on the top 100. Not anywhere close to top 40 or whatever, but a pretty respectable spot all things considered.

Thanks! This was made a while back before I'd gone back to Albright's 1995 stuff properly and I'd say there's even more stuff I could potentially add to the list if I really wanted to do so; namely because he does a lot of heavy-lifting for 1996 Hansen before he settles into more of a vet role, which was fun enough viewing. His hybrid-shoot work paved the way for others like Takayama/Kakihara later on.

As of recently, I would also suggest watching his first Retirement Series match with Kiyomiya. Even if his 2021 style is extremely polarising, I think most can agree that Muto uses incredibly strong storytelling that he didn't really have at that level in his prime to enhance his ring quality WAY more than it should be for a 60 year old wrestling. Kaito is fantastic in his own right, but Muto definitely deserves his flowers in that match as well given how well they work together.

She's great at the bloated "epic" Okada-Isms that go obnoxiously long I guess.

There's definitely some revisionism I feel when it comes to Funaki's quality in pro-style.....mostly because there's a perception with a lot of his recent work that he's just going through the motions and doing the bare minimum (which is understandable but I don't agree mostly) so that seems to be scaled to "he was never great" full-stop, which is definitely hard to agree with, especially given I'd argue even way back in his NJPW days he was being earmarked for big, big things despite how little experience he had. His PWFG material might not be huge but it also definitely showcases a far more meticulous style that he really didn't get to pull out more often afterwards.

I think people just generally don't like the style that HoT brings as they feel it reduces the quality of everyone involved and turns matches into bundles of heel stalling and cheap heat. I tend to disagree with that a fair bit (especially considering HoT is not a new concept at all for heel teams given the likes of Voodoo Murders and whatnot, it's a lot more traditional as a dynamic than people expect) but that's essentially the jest of the argument. That said, the style has tangibly brought out some quality matches and feuds: the battle over the NEVER 6-man title between Togo vs the rag-tag team of Ishii/Goto/Hashi produced some surprisingly good matches and got a lot out of what have been mostly middling belt runs. Togo doesn't play a massive role in-ring outside of some (fairly good) 6-man matches between the trios but it's still quite decent. There's also a fairly enjoyable JTO tag between him and Gedo vs TAKA and Kanemaru that's just them trying to heel each other out the whole time lol. I think the NOAH/NJPW match he had recently against Go and Masa was solid if only for him stooging like anything for the duo. Other than that, it's mostly filler tag work. It's not gonna make someone who wasn't a fan into one, but bad most definitely not.

Recently seen this guy in a Fujita tag in 1998, thought he looked pretty damn good for someone his size. Kinda reminded me of a far worse Akira Taue when it came to "lanky big lad doing shit you wouldn't expect" antics, and said impression only got stronger when I seen him in UWF just belly flopping all over a rookie Sakuraba. Really should do a deep-dive of him in the future because he seems like a fascinating character despite the over-push he got post Le Banner win.

I would say TAJIRI counts for this given he's never had THE match that was all him at the end of the day. He has a lot of good to great showings (the Rey Smackdown saga, the Nishimura MUGA series, etc etc) but never the "best" match, I would say. Maybe that's because he was never on the top top billing but his career is essentially a lot of reliable work but never really hitting any potential super peak.

Has his moments but very complacent and is more than happy to stay in the NJPW-bubble of inflated matches and padding through the roof forever more. The Shibata match was the last time he got out of his comfort zone and it was really more of a "kicking and screaming" kind than anything else. When he does something interesting with himself that's not just mildly adding a few extra moves to pad matches out more I'll be ready to discuss his versatility. At the moment he's obviously full of good matches to bring up, but at a point where everything is just starting to melt together into one padding-stuffed cake, how much can that be ignored?

Kashin is WAY more varied and has a ton more to work with than Takaiwa for me, namely because Takaiwa never changed or adapted, kept doing the same stuff over and over and over again. I could never handle a deep-dive of the guy because it would all be the same bomb-sequences or recklessness. There's times where it really works and I enjoy his presence in matches, but a lot of the time it's just rethreads of stuff he did in the 90's but slower and less explosive. The NOAH stuff is probably the last time he felt refreshing and if he's not doing his usual bomb-spamming then he struggles to show off much else outside of that. His Black Tiger stuff sucks ass. Idk what happens but he just loses all ring quality he has left and becomes a generic brawling heel that sits around and sucks the energy out of any match he's in with either stalling or very basic wrestling; maybe you might get a Death Valley Driver near the end but it'll always be kicked out so it doesn't matter either way. I get having him on a list like this but his flaws are incredibly obvious and get worse over time.

It's short by HHH standards for me given his typical "big match" length lol. I did check the length of the Rollins match and it's only 10 seconds shorter (Cagematch has it as 25:50) but I will say it feels much longer than that given the slower pace based around slow and boring leg work.

It's hard to grade the guy because while I think he's had some great matches, was probably one of the few proper hated heels in a long while and was a very competent wrestler, the main issue I always had was the need to overextend, overdramatize, just drag matches WAY beyond their reasonable sell by date to fit in more shit. People have made this claim many times so I'll keep it short, but there are so many HHH matches that would've been great if they'd just cut it way down. Bryan at WM 30 was a perfect example of how shorter matches made his stuff more fresh and interesting; it feels like his position meant that no one could just walk up and say "cut this down" so you have to suffer through a lot of long stuff for the sake of being long. It really harms the positives of his longevity because he wants to work longer than he can realistically do and it shows as he needs a LOT of time in-between sequences because he's gassed up. Throw whatever blame at Misawa and co for extending matches beyond reason, Trips contributed to that culture a ton more than people expect. He got post knee-explosion Kevin Nash to something presentable in a ladder match despite him gassing up 5 minutes in as per his own admission. I mean, it wasn't GOOD or anything but gotta throw a bone to the guy

Other Deep Dive stuff Introduction I've spent the last few weeks trying to figure out if Kendo Kashin is actually worth his flowers or if he's just a unmotivated/lazy performer. Here are the facts learned from watching 100+ matches, spread out from his rookie years all the way to his very recent RJPW and NOAH stuff. Here's some basic info on the guy "Is Kendo Kashin lazy?" This is the most common complaint about the guy. In some aspects, yes: Kashin tends to repeat sequences over and over, and in a meta-sense the audience know his routine well and respond way before anything happens because they know how things go step by step. He is a very sequence-based performer. He doesn't really improvise, he just has a set of things he wants to do and goes through them one by one. His routine might change somewhat based on him adding in a new element or two depending on who he's with, but his general formula stays the same. This makes him consistent in many matches, but also complacent. There are matches where he's clearly just in auto-pilot, yes but I would say that's fairly rare most of the time. "What's his defining feature?" Kashin is mostly defined by his trollish antics and character work: the best I could compare him to is someone like The Destroyer, someone who's consistently pulling sneaky shit to mess with people, either in the match or not. This makes him enjoyable as he'll always have something new to throw onto the table that'll grab your attention and the rest of the audience. "How does he wrestle?" Kashin confuses people a lot at first because you generally think a Jr-masked man is going to be a Rey or a Liger or at least some sort of agile performer with fancy elegant spots or some sort of high-flying gimmick. The truth is that he's frankly none of those things: Kashin works a very specific, grounded style that looks weird at first but there's nuance to how and why he does it in how he's able to aggravate and annoy his opponents to the point where he can slip on a quick submission and win things fast while they're distracted. If Kashin can win with cheap antics, he will and he won't really care afterwards. Him dicking around is at times just aimless trolling sure however there's usually a rhyme or reason as to why he does what he does. A lot of it is influenced from Ishizawa's German Catch stint where wrestling was portrayed more as a pantomime than the serious profession it was at the time in NJPW. "Does he have good matches?" Absolutely. Some people tend to go all the way with saying that Kashin either never had a good match or if he did have one, he was 100% carried which I really can't agree with considering the evidence on the table. He has plenty of good to outright amazing matches in him when he's working with talent that gets the best out of his style. Yes, there's obvious lulls in his history of performances (especially in his second half where he gets rusty due to working sporadically in IGF and the like due to his spousal commitments) but if you can appreciate how he works, there's plenty to go off. "What are his best matches?" This is a good lead-in to how I'll be formatting his best stuff: mainly into his pre-Kashin days as Tokimitsu Ishizawa, bratty submission lad, his best workrate matches and then his best comedy matches. That distinction is made so that every aspect can be covered as opposed to simply a small look into just one aspect, which while beneficial for smaller wrestlers with less range, it doesn't do Kashin much justice in that department. I'll not ramble about the matches too much bar the really significant ones. Tokimitsu Ishizawa: Best of Through much of the Young Lions around this time was undocumented, there's a considerable amount of material still around and it's definitely enough to warrant a separate section, especially given Ishizawa pre-gimmick change is a more subdued, grounded mat-based wrestler; some say his work here is far better than his later Kashin work simply because of that fact. Under the surface is a more heelish figure who gets easily frustrated and tends to lean into dirty antics when he's not getting his way, something noticeable in a lot of his matches. To appreciate the guy best there's about five or so matches really worth your time: Vs. Liger (NJPW Dream Win IV 24.01.1994) This match has a bait and switch in that Ishizawa attacks Liger before the bell and tries some heel shit to get a upset cross armbreaker win. Liger gets out and proceeds to beat the ever-loving shit out of the little snot for 9 minutes to the point that the audience turn and start rooting for his opponent instead of just him. Not much workrate but a great early example of Kashin's selling and psychology in how he focuses on playing the defensive/counter-heavy style that he'll be essentially doing for the rest of the 90's, showing a ton of guts as he tries and fails to succeed against someone who clearly can walk through him with ease. Vs. Shinjiro Otani (NJPW Hyper Battle 09.03.1993) While these two will have a long rivalry with each other later on, this is a particularly interesting early battle between them as it's almost all set on the mat in no-frills submission work. Of course, these two are still Young Lions at the end of the day so those technical trappings are apparent in some areas. That said it's mostly just a clean mat scuffle with some drama near the end as they both get fed up with the deliberately slow pace and start bombing each other to a rugged conclusion. Vs.Yuki Ishikawa (NJPW G1 Climax Special Tag 4 24.09.1993) 7 minutes of some really well done, really solid mat work exchanges. Very few submissions as those are saved for rope breaks and as proper match enders, not as rest-holds or the like. The pace is frantic, with both men engaging in a lot of one-upmanship as they both struggle to out-do the other in basically everything that matters. Great heel work near the end as Ishizawa gets frustrated and starts bending the rules, it building to a basic but very well done conclusion that makes perfect logical sense with the rest of the match. Shoot-style mixed with great heat-seeking antics always works really well for me and it's GREAT here. If you can just watch one of these matches I'd say pick this one. Vs. Naoki Sato (UWF-I All Out Contend Battle 25.11.1995) Sato is a pretty good worker already but this in particular was a fun watch. Ishizawa is aggressive with his amateur background aiding him with takedowns, almost always wired to find ways around Sato's natural advantages with this going not so well sometimes as he gets caught in submissions when he gets in too deep. First half is just competent back and forth grappling until Ishizawa pulls another tantrum and starts stomping and cheating which turns the second half into a desperate fight for survival as Sato and co just start going right into big shots and submissions. Frantic yet not sloppy at all and surprisingly fast-paced in places once it got going. Vs. Dean Malenko (Best of the Super Jr III Tag 2 24.05.1996) Malenko is obviously the superior of the two but Ishizawa shows his intelligent mat-work by managing to handle his mentor a good few times here with his submission wangling. This is also the best transition into the Kashin persona you are really going to get as he goes way beyond what he normally would work with and starts going for the nasty hand-biting and whatnot when push comes to shove. Malenko is smooth as anything here as you'd expect yet by comparison I think Kashin really shows just how much he can actually do here as he goes step to step against his mentor with his sharp counters and unexpected submission attempts. A fantastic sub-10 minute sprint. If you liked those, here are some extras: Vs. Sakuraba (NJPW Battle Final Tag 15 10.12.1995) W/ Nagata vs Sakuraba & Kanehara (NJPW New Japan Pro Wrestling Vs. UWF International 09.10.1995) W/ Yasuda vs Sakuraba & Kanehara (UWF-I All-Out Contend Battle 11.10.1995) W/ Malenko vs Shoichi Funaki & Yuki Ishikawa (NJPW Super Grade Tag League IV 09.10.1994) Kendo Kashin: Best of (Workrate) Kashin is a tricky costumer because his antics and gimmick don't always allow the wrestler underneath to shine effectively not helped by the man being massively influenced by the styling of German Catch where sequences tend to repeat into themselves for the sake of having them. That said, he does have great matches. Here are the best five for new viewers. Vs. Atlantis (Michinoku Pro 3rd Fukumen World League 24.08.2003) The best example of Kashin's heel antics playing up great with a strong babyface. Atlantis had to crawl through a match earlier in the card to reach this spot, namely after Kashin stole a win against him earlier in the World League, so he's weakened and Kashin has virtually all of the advantages. Absolutely brutal heel work by him throughout as he hones in on the arm and just generally is such a massive bastard: everything he does is spiteful and designed to hurt Atlantis in every measure possible: grinding him down until Kashin is certain he can finish with a submission. There's some comedy in the middle half that's fairly alright just as a goofy interlude but the ring work is the best feature about this and Atlantis' comebacks are as expected well done and get the crowd going. Great technical work paired with solid heel/face psychology made this a easy inclusion here. Atlantis is great but Kashin's heat-seeking antics make this more than just a typical Japan lucha outing. Vs. Otani (NJPW Super Grade Tag League VII 08.12.1997) Realistically I could've put ANY of these two in a match together on here because they work so well, this one is widely accepted to be the best one namely because of the non-stop action paired with intelligent limb-targeting and counters on both sides of the coin. Otani's arm gets wrecked here and he doesn't just sell it all the way though the match (which these days is a rarity) but he also smartly incorporates the bad limb into the match by creating spots where he baits out Kashin into bad positions by using the arm as bait to grab him into submissions of his own. Everyone in the crowd is hot for Kashin and he pulls out a strong babyface performance as he struggles with Otani's bombs and general sheer grit stacking on as time goes on, leading to more risky moves to try to finish things proper. It's a heated match while balancing the intensity with solid storytelling between the two. Vs. Liger (NJPW Hyper Battle 1998 14.03.1998) Spoilers: Kashin is a big old asshole in this one, namely out of desperation to out-do his former mentor. This is enhanced with the whole 1997 storyline of Liger being in Kashin's corner and trying to help him against the more experienced bullies of the division with Kashin just completely focused on burning all of that down just so he can get the big win. His shit is fairly minimalistic here but it works so well alongside the vicious nature of how he does it as well as Liger selling for everything super effectively as only one of the greatest emoters in wrestling history could. It comes down to a matter of fatigue as Liger can't get his bombs in with a crappy arm (and even if he can, he can't make the pin soon enough to win) and Kashin just keeps hunting down the guy with more baggage. It's a great passing of the torch in a weird, twisted way. Vs. Minoru Tanaka (Best Of The Super Junior VI 21.05.1999) The most technical Kashin had been since his Young Lion days, this was a fantastic outing where the two just scramble on the mat over and over for their signature holds: Tanaka with his kneebars and Kashin with his armbreakers. Tanaka's strikes are a bit too light and tend to wiff a lot, but outside of that I thought this was a heated exchange, but also essentially just a spotshow of submissions as the lads just go back and forth with them over and over, with a lot of cheating from Kashin alongside brilliant transitions from Tanaka into offence. It's really a difference between a experienced heel and a hot-headed babyface in a fantastical race to the finish. Isn't going to be for everyone but lots of fun. Vs. Ryuji Hijikata (AJPW Summer Action Series 19.07.2003) Ryuji is mostly a pretty bleh Battlarts guy but he gets his big break here in the middle of Kashin's title reign to get his moment in the sun. Great bombs and strikes from the former as Kashin struggles to get any lead on him and outright gets destroyed in places because of just how much this guy can pull out. Don't expect a masterpiece but it's a great example of Kashin selling and bumping to get over a guy to the point where you think this random mid-card bloke might actually nab the belt for himself. No easy task, yet done here quite easily. Extras: Vs. Carl Greco (AJPW Champion Carnival 2003 12.04.2003) All of his German Catch footage (Vs Eckstein, Kovac) Vs. Fuchi (AJPW Grand Champion Carnival 13.04.2002) His 1997 Struggle series (Koji Kanemoto duo matches, Yamazaki and Liger tags) Vs. Suwama (19.09.2016) W/ Kojima vs. Fuchi & Kawada (AJPW Super Power Series 2003 25.03.2003) Kendo Kashin: Best of (Comedy) This is a bit harder to grade because comedy is subjective and I really, REALLY don't like most of his NOAH shit, half of which is the same gags over and over. There's enough to include here, through. Vs. Fuminori Abe (RJPW Strong Style Pro-Wrestling 17.12.2021) Abe is talented but he gets the memo here and decides to use that talent in wacky and goofy ways, which works for him at the start until it doesn't. He's also young enough to essentially fangirl over Kashin to the point of trying to copy his style but of course failing at it as he can't outdo the master cheater. It's nothing special in terms of moves or whatever, sure, however there's nonetheless some competent mat work and the finish makes sense given Abe's eccentric attitude. Fun stuff. Vs. Masato Tanaka (NOAH Gain Control in Nagoya 23.02.2022) Tanaka in a comedy match sounds dumb...and it is, but it surprisingly works well here. Kashin pulls out the usual gags but you can tell underneath kayfabe-wise that he's got it in for Tanaka and pulls out some more serious offence. Of course Tanaka is the straight man and doesn't give two shits about Kashin doing whatever he's doing, leading to a frantic and bizarre ending that felt right out of COVID-era wrestling. Not for everyone but I thought this was a solid watch given the two having decent chemistry and Tanaka being a trooper as per usual. Vs. Atsushi Aoki (AJPW 4th Royal Road Tournament 2016 (17.09.2016) The whole thing here is that the ref is massively biased against Aoki and allows Kashin to cheat, leading to a pretty dumb match where Aoki's just bitching about the unfairness or hitting some good moves. Kashin works well with what he's given and he's pretty entertaining when just pulling out nonsense for the win. Nothing much else to say, it's just a simplistic match format with some fun sequences. Vs. Super Sasadango Machine (DDT Judgement 2016 (21.03.2016) I could really put all of Kashin's DDT material here but this was so out there that it had to be added. This is a "Ultimate Royal Barbed Wire PowerPoint No Power Blast PWF Rules Match" which is pretty simple as you can imagine. First half is literally Sasadango selling merch via Powerpoint, the second is a weird trip of a match where it's just gag after gag. Not everything hits, but it's a lot of confusing nonsense as per DDT standards, and it's just a experience to try to figure out what is happening in places. Bizarre, strange....yep that's it. Vs. Toshiaki Kawada (G1 Climax 07.08.2005) Kashin really doesn't have any chance in hell of handling Kawada even in the fatigued state he's in, so he just fucks around with him and keeps beating up a young Taichi on the outside casually when he's on the backend. There's some good work in here as Kawada has to keep control of things and succeeds: mostly. Kashin is as sneaky as ever though so we get a lot of fun character interaction between the pair as Kashin keeps messing around and his opponent keeps throwing bombs and huge shots to keep things under control. It's a simplistic dynamic carried by Kashin's connection with the crowd. They really got into this in the last minute or so when things get tense and time is seemingly running out for the cheeky shooter. Fascinating watch between two guys who'd you never think shared a ring with the other. Extras: The rest of Kashin's DDT title reign W/ Abdullah the Butcher vs. Fuchi & Daijiro Matsui (AJPW Royal Road 30 Giant Battle 2nd 30.08.2002) W/ Nagata vs. Sasaki & Nakanishi (NJPW Nexess 03.05.2004) Vs. Necro Butcher Vs. Rob Van Dam (IGF Genome6 Toukon Bom-Ba-Ye 15.08.2008) Vs. Kenoh (NOAH Great Voyage 2021 In Yokohama 07.03.2021) Conclusion Hopefully this has helped to widen your spectrum of how capable Kashin is in terms of what he can do in the ring. It's probably not going to make him a top ten super pick for yourself, but I figured he was worth something considering his huge career and how much I'd watched of the guy. He's definitely not some hidden gem or anything (though I will pretend as such to cope lol) despite this I firmly believe he's very much underlooked in many circles and absolutely deserves more credit.

I think there's a case for Kojima given his longevity: even at 51 he's still having consistently good matches and hasn't shown any major signs of decline apart from not being as prone to big bumps and taking out some of the more agile moves out of his matches. Outside of that, he's still the same dude he was 20 years ago more or less, which can be a positive or a negative depending on how you look at it. It's just a shame that his Pro-Wres Love days are so unknown because Kojima was a supreme force when it came to keeping a crowd focused and loud, as well as being a really underrated carrier when the chips were down. Seriously, lots of great stuff once you start looking around. He's most definitely not superior to Nishimura or Fujita but that's another thing altogether.

To add on to this, there's a solid semi-squash in 1985 UWF with him against Mach Hayato as well which is a super strong outing. The first half is just Sayama eating up the guy until they go more into the usual routine after they build up his comeback for a good while. It's maybe not as bombastic as the above mentioned, but it's still a compelling performance given how ape-shit the crowd gets from him working on top.