[1989-06-14-UWF] Masakatsu Funaki vs Yoji Anjoh

[Jetlag]

This was pretty much a shootstyle brawl with plenty of bitchslaps and stomps. So, exactly what it should be. Man, did Funaki just treat everyone like garbage then? It brings out Anjoh's inner dickhead tough to even things up. The grappling was fine enough and they kept things going for the entire 20+ minutes which ain't easy, but the highlight was clearly them kicking the crap out of eachother. Funaki's time in europe had clearly rubbed off on him as he went for stuff like mid section headbutts or cravate holds which he executes like a WoS wrestler. He sure loved his spin kicks, but the thing I most dug were his short low kicks. Really entertaining match.

[superkix]

This was decent, with plenty of wild and loose strikes from both sides. There was some slop to this match but Funaki had some cool takedowns, including a nasty reverse cravate and the double arm suplex into the butterfly lock. The most compelling stuff came during Anjoh's legwork, which was sold well by Funaki and had Anjoh circling with kicks like a shark in bloody waters. Funaki gets a little revenge with some big spinning back kicks but when he tries to finish Anjoh off with a German suplex, Anjoh snags an arm and takes him down with the double wristlock for the submission win.

[Superstar Sleeze]

Masakatsu Funaki vs Yoji Anjoh - UWF II 6/14/89

Cool to finally get a feel for some of the UWF II midcard after much pretty much nothing but combinations of Maeda, Yamazaki and Takada. The energy of this match is off the charts. Funaki bitchslaps Anjoh at the bell and IT IS ON! Amazing stand up fight brawl ensues. Anjoh hits some crazy kicks in this. There is a mule/spinkick that catches Funaki flush at one point that looked just nasty. There were some wicked headbutts too. It really should have been scored as a knockdown. This was some really great catch wrestling as you can see how they are taking down one another and positioning them for submissions. Everything is fought for and earned. I loved how many strikes there were in the mounts and the holds. They were constantly whacking each other in the face on the mat or kicking out the legs during standup takedowns. There was plenty of good pro wrestling too. Like Anjoh doing a half crab but standing on the other knee. I forget which one I think it was Anjoh kicked out of a deep heel hook by using his free leg to kick Funaki in the face. Thats how more people should have gotten out of the Anglelock. At one point Anjoh was going back for the single crab and Funaki's free foot just flies up and catches him flush in the face for a knockdown. I loved how Anjoh on a rope break for Funaki forced the ref to count Funaki down even though Funaki had already run out of rope breaks and it was going to be scored as such. It was a psychological thing. Funaki comes roaring back. Gets a Butterfly suplex and I mark out for the Butterfly Lock as that was my finisher growing up. It is actually a legitimately painful hold if you dont believe me my younger brother will attest to it. I would put my younger brother over like 90% of the time, but the couple times I would go over, it was with the Butterfly Lock so it was cool to see Funaki apply it here. We even get a Samoan Drop! The finish is insanely quick. Funaki gets a wicked legsweep. I am a mark for legsweeps, but as they go to the mat, Anjoh is able to apply a hammerlock or chickenwing it is unclear to garner the submission victory. As much as I like shoot style and now that I have watched a good amount, I still find myself having trouble rating it. Conventional pro wrestling, I am rating on narrative, character development, energy and emotion. Here I still dont have much in the way of a criteria. I find these matches are not as sticky. Conventional pro wrestling is easier to remember because it is a story. So point A causes point B causes point C so it becomes easier to remember because there is a logic. I dont want to say this devoid of logic, it is just clear to me. That being said I really enjoyed this because of the energy, struggle and ferocity. I am giving it a monster rating of ****1/2

[Control21]

I agree with Superstar Sleeze, I went ****1/2 on this as well. This was a very fun match between two hungry upstarts. Anjo kept the pace with Funaki, who was demonstrating why he was held in high regard at this point in his career. Fun striking exchanges followed by committed and purposeful grappling. Can't ask for much more.