[1990-04-15-UWF-Fighting Area] Nobuhiko Takada vs Yoji Anjo

[Loss]

Talk about it here.

[Phil Schneider]

It has been kind of a chore to get through these undercard UWF matches, I am hoping the Fujiwara sundae makes up for the overcooked Takada boiled chicken. Some nice kicks here and there, and some moments of fire by Anjoh, but this wasn’t good.

[goodhelmet]

Before people start piling on Phil's comments, this was given **** by Tabe and here are his comments...

 

"NOBUHIKO TAKADA VS YOJI ANJOH (Great match! Maybe the best Anjoh match I've ever seen.)"

 

I can't even remember watching this match so I am not taking sides. Just want to emphasize there was a reason this was put on the set before we get any "Why was this match selected?" comments.

[Loss]

I liked this more than Phil and think it was a great match in spite of any flaws. But just like Maeda in the Takano match, Takada's performance kept this from becoming a classic. There is a nice underdog story with Anjo coming at the kingpin pretty aggressively, but this same layout would be improved as a match a few years later when Takada had pretty much the same match with Tamura in UWFI. Mechanically, Takada is fine, but he doesn't have much charisma, so he comes across as the Dory Funk Jr. of the UWF in this one.

[Dylan Waco]

Also worth noting that Tabe is about the biggest Takada fan on the web and has been for as long as I can remember

[PeteF3]

Christ, I'm finding these discrepancies comical at this point. Shave five or so minutes off of this and it's a legit MOTYC. Yeah, I said it. The stand-up strike exchanges were dynamite with Anjo throwing great palm strikes and Takada having the advantage when he kept his distance by throwing kicks. Takada even lands a VICIOUS spin kick that is worth preserving as it's probably the only time in his professional career that that ever happened. Some great "near falls" on the mat, but also a lot of LONG stretches where one guy or another is in a pro wrestling-style lateral press position and nothing much is happening--hence the length being an issue. Finish also sort of comes out of nowhere even by shoot standards. Still really good, and for the record my favorite Anjo singles match is still the one with Tenryu.

[Childs]

I've always liked Anjo, and he brought the energy I expected to this. I loved all of his knees to the body early and his desperate open-handed combinations as he tried to stage rallies later in the match. Takada also gave a solid performance. He landed some sharp counter kicks, and I liked the way he kept turning the momentum with suplexes when the smaller Anjo tried to fight inside for too long.

 

I've realized that a lot of my irritation at Takada comes back to his leglock. I can't fathom why no one ever insisted that he torque on it a little more or work the heel and toes or I don't know, something. He should've taken leglock lessons from Fujiwara. Anyway, he did the lame-ass leglock here, but it wasn't such a momentum killer, because Anjo did a nice job of working to reverse out of it.

 

These guys were both better standing and trading, so the ending probably would've been hotter if they had done that instead of finishing on the mat. But it was a good match, less lethargic than I expected based on Phil's description.

[ohtani's jacket]

There are many unsavory things about Takada but lack of charisma isn't one of them.

[soup23]

Good match and I loved Takadas constant counters to the throws but this could have used some editing and there was a lot of wondering and restlessness on my part in watching.

[Kevin Ridge]

Ah, Takada. Anjo looks like he was going to spill over the top rope at some point. I don’t like when Takada makes it seem like he knocked out on those 10 counts for the first few seconds and then jumps up to his feet about 7 and ready to go. Crowd was getting behind Anjo but this match wasn’t really for me.

[Cox]

This was similar to Maeda/Nakano, except there was a non-zero chance that Anjo could win, and the match was worked as such. This was a little less pro-wrestling than the previous match, so it was a bit harder for me to get into, but it seemed like it was technically a fine match. The crowd wants an upset badly by this point and they are once again denied.

[Zenjo]

Had a nice underdog dynamic. At times Takada was schooling the young upstart, but soon found he was being given all that he could handle. Anjo showed plenty of fire and was also willing to fight dirty to get the job done. There were some brutal shots exchanged and exciting moments. It even looked like the upset was on at one point. It could easily have gone higher without a few quiet holds whilst they had hot momentum. Takada comes across to me as such a cerebral wrestler, always looking like he's thinking and strategising.

[garretta]

More action and point-scoring than most shoot-style matches, as Anjo's outclassed early but doesn't give up and comes back to make a match out of it. The finish comes out of nowhere, as I literally didn't see the hold that got Takada the submission. Some nice nearfalls if this had been a traditional match. This style's still not my favorite, but this match had enough to keep me entertained.

[drew wardlaw]

I'll give a pass to almost anything with stiff strikes, it's my version of the death match I guess, so I liked this. Simple underdog story here. Takada looked like he wasn't working too hard, and it came off that way. When Maeda did it, it felt like arrogance and underestimating an opponent, but Takada doing it just looks lazy. So maybe that's an issue of charisma for Takada. I loved Anjo's sloppy aggression. That along with the strike exchanges were a real highlight for me, and actually I think this could serve as a good intro for someone looking to get into the shoot style, if they can stand the matwork. That's where this one falls flat for me. Not much urgency there.

[dawho5]

I thought this was an interesting match because it was a better version of Takada vs. Fujiwara. That one had Takada as the younger guy going against the more experienced veteran Fujiwara and having to use his stand up striking to counter Fujiwara's advantage on the ground. Here that story works better with Takada actually having better, but different stand-up. Anjo is clearly the quicker of the two on his feet and tries to use that to get the upper hand on Takada. But Takada knows when and how to counter when Anjo leaves himself open during his flurries. So it's not truly an advantage he can go to. Anjo also takes a lot more chances with risky submission attempts to try and surprise Takada, which gets him caught more often than not. I liked this better than the Maeda squash. Anjo never had a chance, sure, but at least Takada gave him quite a bit more than Maeda gave Nakano.