[1994-06-10-UWFi] Vader vs Kiyoshi Tamura

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Loss]

Tamura goes for a slap right away, Vader takes off the head gear in frustration, the crowd starts a big "TA-MU-RA!" chant and I guess things are about to get really fun. Tamura gets in a few shots, but wrestles very hesitantly, while all Vader has to do is swat him like a fly and he goes halfway across the ring. Tamura spends the next few minutes ducking and running, but Vader corners him. You think it's all over but the cryin', but Tamura makes a surprise comeback out of the corner. He's getting in a few quick kicks, and you keep expecting the tide to turn in Vader's favor, and it doesn't. Once Vader starts in with the strikes, Tamura suffers, but he's still way more in the fight than you expect. Vader bomb and this is history. This is a very good, very fun match, and in some ways is like a UWFI version of the Vader/Dustin Clash match.

[Kevin Ridge]

Yay Vader. Tamura fights out of the Vader corner on slaughter. Then my computer goes absolutely insane trying to read this disc. Twenty minutes it’s not functioning at all. I manage to finally get it to restart. Not risking watching this again. Damn you shoot wrestling. I swith over to youtube to catch the rest and Vader powerbombs Tamura which gives me some satisfaction for this ordeal.

[Exposer]

This was an excellent sprint. Tamura slaps Vader and lets him know he isn't to be fucked with. Tamura goes after Vader's leg as Vader just uses his tree trunk arms to swing at Tamura's head. Tamura gets a couple of takedowns and the crowd is fucking shitting themselves. Eventually, Vader's big mitts and the Vader bomb take down the hard fought Tamura. The crowd was fucking molten and this was an extremely fun 7 minutes.

[soup23]

THis is a really fun seven minutes. Tamura is picking his spots and juking and jiving because he knows he cant afford to get caught by vader. vader's selling is great and the crowd is losing their shit. Vader finally catches him and puts him away. Post match is a nice moment with Vader putting Tamura over and still selling the leg.

[Superstar Sleeze]

The look on Vader's face when he traps Tamura in the corner twice just says: DEAD MEAT. Each time Tamura comes out kicking and Vader is left screaming in agony. Eventually Vader gets a hold of Tamura and you know it is just a matter of time. Tamura shows a lot of moxie, but Vader is just too much man for Tamura too handle.

[PeteF3]

Awesome stuff, with Tamura really having you believing at points. But every time Vader touches him, he pays for it. Once again Vader bulldozes through Tamura's 15 points and scores a TKO win, but he really had to earn this one.

[Zenjo]

A big arena spectacle match. The type of contest that New Japan would aim to produce on its Dome shows. A straightforward storyline and structure that worked a treat. Tamura used his speed advantage to continuously kick away at the quad. Before long the cumulated damage had Vader in pain. Excellent selling as he did his utmost to put over the underdog. Once the big man came back however, his massive weight advantage was overwhelming. Not one for the purists, but rather fun.

[JKWebb]

haha yes! A slap to Vader's face to start this off, and off comes the headgear. I'd be feeling pretty stupid at about that point. When your opponent has that much size on you, the little kicks at the leg are a good approach. I love how Vader will cut him off from time to time with one big blow, then back to the kicks. Vader corners him, and Tamura gets a quick blow to the face and fires out. Vader starts to scream from pain due to the continued kicks to the left leg, then Tamura slaps on the submission. Tamura's leg submissions look great. I loved the fall away slam from Vader. Eventually, Vader is too much for Tamura, and he finishes him off. This felt so real and competitive. This was great! I loved it for as short as it was.

 

#469 - placetobenation.com/countdown-top-500-matches-of-the-90s-400-451/2/

[ohtani's jacket]

I'm gonna try to be positive about Loss' #469. Firstly, it appealed to that most Japanese of sensibilities of a fighter showing fighting spirit in a loss. Second, the flurry Tamura has where it seems like the impossible might happen is a really cool moment in the bout. Thirdly, these are the type of Vader bouts I liked in Germany. What irked me most, though, wasn't that this wasn't shoot style. I can live with it being a crazy spectacle. What bugged me was the finish. Couldn't Vader have learnt a shoot style hold instead of throwing out pro-style moves? If they didn't want Vader to TKO Tamura with strikes, I would have liked to have seen Vader grab an armbar or something unorthodox from the big man, But that's just me.

[TheU_2001]

I just watched this for the first time. I thought it was a great, but short match. Tamura sure has some guts going right after Vader here, and for a moment it looked like he may upset Super Vader. But the big man proved to be too much for him. Vader eventually overcomes all the kicks, and takes him down with strikes, and eventually some slams. He finally finishes him with a power bomb, which doesn't really fit in shoot style, but was a neat visual. Vader enters to the theme from Halloween Havoc 1989 by the way. ***1/4 (out of 5).

[ShittyLittleBoots]

This match - THIS MATCH! An absolutely outstanding 7 minute sprint David vs. Goliath sprint where Vader clobbers the shit out of Tamura & Tamura answers to it by kicking the shit out of Vader, in particular his leg. It's all super heated & just lovely, lovely stuff. 100% my jam. ****1/2

[fxnj]

It took me way too long to check this out. David vs. Goliath sprint is one of my favorite subgenres of wrestling, and this match is one of the greatest examples of it out there. I think complaints about Vader pulling out pro-style moves are misguided. From what I understand, his character in UWFi was basically a worked version of Brock Lesnar's in the UFC, in that he was presented as this pro wrestler invading a roster of "real" fighters relying on his size and strength. Look beyond the suplexes and you'll see this match demonstrates Vader actually had an excellent grasp of shoot-style psychology and how to adapt his style to it. Awesome size vs. technique dynamic at play here. You know Vader is big enough to KO Tamura with his pinky finger, but Tamura fights a smart fight where he focuses on keeping his distance chipping away at the pro wrestler with leg kicks while occasionally going for the finish with a leg submission. There's some tremendous usage of spacing and ring positioning in the early going here, with the corner spots being used to great effect in building excitement without giving away too much. Also a really nice detail how Vader doesn't bother checking the leg kicks until he's visibly hurt and growing in desperation. The takedowns and leg submissions were great, and Vader's selling was absolutely perfect in getting the younger opponent over as a serious threat. For a few moments in this match, I legitimately believed Tamura had a shot at pulling off the upset, which is a huge testament to how good Vader was at getting him over here. LOVED the spot where Vader scored a knockdown on Tamura only to immediately take a knee onto the mat from how fucked his legs were. When he starts busting out the throws there's this great explosiveness in how he picks Tamura up and a sort of uncooperative feel in the throw itself that you just don't see in pro-style matches. I normally hate UWFi's reliance on the point system to dictate match outcomes and drama, but they use it to great effect here to protect Tamura while getting heat on Vader. You just knew Tamura had a little bit of fight left in him, but you can't fault Vader for beating the UWFi guy under his own rules. ****3/8. Also, funny that Loss remarked that Vader/Dustin was those guys trying to have a match like this in WCW, as that was my exact thought as well towards the end of this, though I think it pretty easily smokes the WCW version.

[superkix]

Tamura, confident in his ways, slaps Vader before the bell because...well, that's just what you do to the monsters in your life, right? Tamura's strategy is an obvious one: take Vader down at the kneecaps. Kick kick kick until he crumbles. Vader's able to catch him with a few shots but then Tamura lets loose a series of slaps and high kicks. For a big dude, Vader's selling is terrific here, as Tamura hacks him down and puts him in a kneebar. Vader struggles to find his mark as Tamura continues kicking, again using that kneebar to take Vader to the ropes. In the end, however, Vader's able to club him down, slam him, and hit the big powerbomb for the TKO victory. IAs said before, it's the classic shoot-style David vs. Goliath and it rules.

[Superstar Sleeze]

SUPER Vader vs Kiyoshi Tamura - UWFi 6/10/94

How damn good is Vader? What amazing selling! I have come to learn from the RINGS stuff that Tamura is a legit great in his own right, but this only works because Vader is so committed to selling everything. The way he hollers out in pain. I often say Brock is the best seller on today's roster, but I think the case can be made for Vader being the seller in the 1990s he is that damn good. Everyone says it because it is true...this is a mighty fine David vs. Goliath sprint. Tamura slaps Vader before the bell and Vader removes his headdress. It is on punk! Tamura like a gnat is kicking Vader's leg and Vader is just swatting him away. Playing with his food. This is a semi-finals of a tournament...Takada vs Albright is the other semi. The look on Vader's face when he traps Tamura in the corner twice just says: DEAD MEAT. Each time Tamura comes out kicking and Vader is left screaming in agony. Tamura does get a kneebar on him twice and manages a total of four rope breaks. Eventually Vader gets a hold of Tamura and you know it is just a matter of time. Vader lights up Tamura the first time with that crazy bear paw swipe. A wounded bear can be the most dangerous. It is tied 12-12. Tamura gets one more kneebar, but after that it is all Vader in the corner. Vader just hits those big meaty blows. Then he goes full pro-style, big powerslam and then THROWS TAMURA DOWN IN THE POWERBOMB! TKO! Tamura shows a lot of moxie, but Vader is just too much man for Tamura too handle. ****

[cactus]

The story of this match is the same as most of Vader's UWFi matches. His opponents out-class him when it comes to things like striking and mat-wrestling, but Vader's so damn powerful that it doesn't make much of a difference. Vader's palm strikes are enough to neutralize most fighters, and you are dead as fuck if he's able to slam you. Vader's coming off his first UWFi loss and he's pissed off and Tamura slapping him across the face at the start of the match doesn't help things. Tamura's strikes are deadly, but he's going to have a hard time trying to lay them in as all it takes is one swing from Vader and this one could be over. Tamura gets in some decent hope spots in and Vader sells Tamura's strikes like a wounded lion. Vader's able to get in two hard throws and that's this one over. Vader is rehabilitated after his high-profile loss, but Tamura also looks like a million bucks after putting in a fearless effort trying to take down the Mastadon. ★★★★¼