[1985-06-21-UWF] Akira Maeda vs Osamu Kido

[Ma Stump Puller]

Kido matches are the best when he's being taken out of his comfort zone and forced to work a more proactive technical style as opposed to how he can look like in many a match to come in his career: very calculated and tricky on occasion, not exactly Mr Excitement at the end of the day. Mechanically this match is pretty great: Maeda and Kido are fantastic when it comes to working the technical portions, making their transitions and counters natural, like they're figuring it out in real-time as opposed to just doing them for the sake of the move. For example, Kido doing the Billy Robertson headscissors in side mount bit is a pretty basic submission in terms of shoot-work, you'd expect that in nearly any match, but Kido then having Maeda shake out and him then going for sticking his knee on Maeda's face when his double wrist lock is blocked as a set-up to apply the headscissors again (as in, he just did all of that to get a better position of the move, big brain) is just a really smart way of conveying defence/offence working alongside each other to make for a really solid exchange as opposed to just sitting and waiting for the big move/transition to happen. There's a lot of that in action here from Kido as he will seamlessly go from submission to submission, but do so in a way that even a casual watcher can look at and go "ahh that's why he did that" because it only makes sense after the fact. This is a art that hasn't carried over a whole lot in decades to come.

Maeda is generally on the defensive here due to just never having all of his bases covered and letting his opponent either slip out or slip out and then put him in danger with a counter-hold, which is cool since it lets him be a bit more versatile beyond the usual domineering Maeda people can get used to seeing. Despite some good holds Maeda is still firmly on the backend of exchanges as Kido continues to wangle out of his best attempts and almost taps the guy out with a single leg Boston Crab at one point. Was fun to see the two throw shitty little tap kicks as Kido basically just messed with his opponent rather than do much damage. Finish is REALLY good as Maeda just explodes with a stiff kick combo as he lets out all of the mounting frustration, running out of steam eventually and having to basically lean on his opponent in the corner. Kido just rides the storm and tackles him down to make him tap with the single leg right in the middle of the ring. It's a really epic moment that just showcases Maeda just lashing out at his wits end and getting absolutely punished for it, which is wild to see when you consider he's been pretty well protected in Original UWF so far when it comes to wins/losses.

The match itself as you'd imagine is quite strong; it's predominantly mat-work (not the RINGS fast kind either) that's smartly paced out and surprisingly full of dynamic moments between the two. Maeda's explosiveness with Kido's experience and sheer knowledge make for a potent combo that really impressed at the end of the day. Would recommend strongly. If Kido had matches like these afterwards for longer than a couple of years or so he'd be a lot more known.