[1992-09-02-PWFG] Bart Vale vs Kazuo Takahashi

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Nice match! I like Takahashi from what I've seen of him on the '92 yearbook, and I've said the same about Vale before. Takahashi in particular seems like a guy who should have been a star. Not sure why he wasn't.

[shoe]

I thought this was good. It seemed more like a competetive squash. Takahashi sold the knockouts real well. Vale has some amazing kicks and good strikes. I loved how Takahasi had Vale either in a heel hook or an ankle lock, to escape all Vale does is punch him in the ribs. That was awesome.

[tomk]

What we wrote at segundacaida:

Bart Vale v. Kazuo Takahashi

 

TKG: HOLY SHIT, this ruled. Takahashi is a guy who could make Stan Lane's kicks look devastating. Meanwhile Bart Vale has learned how to kick. Bart Vale has actually gotten pretty good as all his offense looks really sharp, his defense (when he's on the bottom in a mat sequence ) is really engaging, and his pacing is just solid. The best Takahashi is when he's working as underdog trying to hang with a guy above him. Bad Bart Vale is bad because he's worked as though he's higher echelon worker while his actual stuff looks garbage. Here he actually felt like a high level guy. And Takahashi can sell scrappy guy taking a beating like nobody else.

 

PAS: This was spectacular, Takahashi may be the guy I am most bummed about leaving for Pancrase. He has gotten almost 1993 Kikuchi great at selling and taking a beating. Vale was a real stink bomb for the UWF2 and the early PWFG, but at this point he may even be better then Shamrock. There was a great exchange where Takahashi is desperately trying for a leglock, and gets cut off by a highkick which he sells like death. You can see Fujiwara in the corner totally marking out, and making Fujiwara mark out means something.

http://segundacaida.blogspot.com/2006/12/p...mi-show-16.html

[WingedEagle]

This feels completely heatless, even for Japan shoot standards. Takahashi eats a ton of knockdowns on solid strikes by Vale, before hulking up and being knocked down for good. Perhaps this worked in the context of big picture booking, but I found it pretty weak compared with the other action from PWFG & UWFI on the yearbook.

 

**1/2

[PeteF3]

For all those love handles, Vale can move pretty damn well. I don't remember a single thing about Takahashi or Ishikawa from the first match (one guy threw wicked headbutts), but he comes across better here because he's in a more immediately urgent situation, facing a bigger and more credentialed opponent. He tries a few takedowns, but Vale spins out of one and just rains punches down onto his ribs to get out of another, and then rather casually puts him away with a bunch of palm strikes. I hope the payoff when Fujiwara or whichever native finally knocks Vale off lives up to the build that it's getting.

[garretta]

This was a Vale squash. Takahashi looked seriously outclassed. I don't recall a gaijin being pushed as unstoppable the way Vale seems to be here (except for the one loss against Fujiwara). I would think they're building toward Vale-Fujiwara III before too long.

 

I didn't see Fujiwara, but I agree that anything that gets him to mark out is something else again. Of course, maybe he's thinking of the money he'll make from a third match with Vale.

[dawho5]

Vale throws great kicks and uses his range well.  Takahashi is essentially Kikuchi here, but he seems to do well in that role.  Vale's ground game is so different from all of the slick Japanese fighters.  He is all power and trying to bull/strike his way out of everything.