[1984-12-05-UWF] Nobuhiko Takada vs Kazuo Yamazaki

[superkix]

The first five minutes or so is a feel out process between Takada and Yamazaki as they bite with strikes and try to maintain arm control on the mat. But when Takada bridges out of a hold, Yamazaki kicks him in the ribs and the match finds its sweet spot as Yamazaki starts unloading on Takada with kicks and knee drops. He works his way back to the arm but Takada is able to fight out, landing a short spurt of kicks and planting Yamazaki with a tombstone piledriver. When that doesn’t work, he pelts him with stiff strikes and pulls out the running jumping tombstone! Yamazaki rules in this match, really kicking it up a notch (literally) heading into the final stretch as he fires back with his own hard-hitting offense, including a great belly-to-belly suiplex. I like the crossface chickenwing teases on both sides, before Yamazaki uses it almost as a distraction to deliver the German suplex hold for the surprise victory. A short and sweet exhibition.

[Superstar Sleeze]

I can only imagine what someone like Parv would think about the first ten minutes of this match. Dreadfully dull and I like this style.

 

Nobuhiko Takada vs Kazuo Yamazaki - UWF 12/5/84

 

I love shoot-style, but bad shoot-style commits the worst sin any man can commit by being boring. The first ten minutes of this is dreadfully dull. The only cool spot is when Yamazaki bridges and Takada kicks the leg out from a side mount. The rest is just battling over a cross armbreaker (Takada) and a toehold (Yamazaki). Takada seems to be taking Yamazaki down and bringing the fight to Yamazaki. The match picks up about 12 minutes in (the whole thing is 24 long minutes and you feel every minute) when Takada applies a double wristlock that has Yamazaki scrambling to the ropes. Yamazaki responds with a series of fiery kicks and takes Takada down. Takada on stand up slaps the fuck out of Yamazaki. One of those great I am trying not to sell but damn did that sting sells by Yamazaki. I thought they lost some momentum by Yamazaki pancaking Takada for a while. There were some good kicks. What really saves the whole match is that the finish stretch is wicked hot. Really shows how much better these are compared to Maeda. Takada was delivering BADASS Jumping Tombstones and I love how he was pinning and then upon kickout going right for the double wristlock. Some really good kicks by both men. Surprised Yamazaki was able to turn the tide with a jumping roundhouse kick. Takada sold it really well. Yamazaki pounced and really never let up. It was some nasty submission attempts and snap suplexes, the German was the one that did Takada in. I don't know the hierarchy of UWF, but this was pretty shocking to me. I fully expected Takada to win especially as he was firing off Tombstones and kicks. They totally got me to bite on his Crossface Chickenwing. The Yamazaki transition and then like two minutes explosion of kicks and suplexes to win was great. Felt very NJPW juniors in that if you cut out the first 12 minutes you have a great match, but the first twelve minutes really drag, but the last five minutes are fire. ***

[Clayton Jones]

I wouldn't call this a short and sweet match but I definitely wouldn't say it felt every minute of its runtime. I enjoyed the feeling out early as much as the hard hitting second half. And man was it hard hitting, even by their standards these two really beat the shit out of each other. Takada runs hot and cold with me and I've rarely seen him thrive in matches where the point isn't to make him look like a worldbeater. But he was great here. Yamazaki was very convincing taking him to the limit and while there's nothing exactly exceptional about this match, I did think it was very good and well worth a watch.