[1995-07-22-UWFi] Kazushi Sakuraba & Naoki Sano vs Joe Malenko & Yoji Anjo

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Ditch]

After having a dud of a match with Takada, Joe gets to redeem himself in a match with guys who consistently give a shit. Also, more Sano vs Anjoh for Loss! I wish Joe had been brought in more, as opposed to assorted mediocre gaijin that hung around for years. He certainly would have been up for it.

[Loss]

I liked this, but not as much as the tag 9 days earlier. I try, but I just haven't been able to get into Joe Malenko all that much. There's Sano/Anjo for me, as Ditch said, but it's pretty limited.

[Tim Evans]

I liked this. Malenko wasn't strike heavy like the other guys and brought some good mat work. The Sano/Anjo parts ruled.

[PeteF3]

The previous tag will need a rewatch, because I thought this smoked that like a cheap cigar, and is in fact the second-best shootstyle match of the year after Takada/Vader. This was awesome all-around. Lightning-quick matwork, super intensity, gorgeous wrestling, and guys getting thrown all over the ring, all at once. Just too much innovative shit to count here, though I particularly liked Sakuraba getting caught in a butterfly lock by Malenko and trying to break it with knees into his back before conceding the point and going to the ropes. Anjo & Malenko actually execute a "cut the ring in half" strategy on Sakuraba, with Anjo even dragging him away from the corner at one point. Sano works a hot tag, house afire sequence and even throws a dropkick (!) before putting Joe away. The Lydick/Nelson match had a more traditional southern tag structure but this had way more advanced wrestling. Terrific, terrific bout and a breakout performance by Sakuraba.

[Zenjo]

One of those occasions where the end result was less than the sum of its parts. It wasn't the wrestlers fault either. The quality of their work was impressive. Everybody brought something to the table. Malenko was weak at striking but highly skilled on the deck. The others were more balanced shoot style combatants. The ever reliable Sano being best of all. The problem was the format holding them back. It's so hard to transfer the heat after a tag, particularly with an over zealous official demanding clean breaks all the time. They did their best to keep the action flowing, yet it was inevitably disjointed.