[1985-05-18-UWF] Joe Solkoff & Super Tiger vs Osamu Kido & Yoshiaki Fujiwara

[Ma Stump Puller]

Clipped by ten minutes, but there is a full version out there as well if you dig deep enough. It doesn't add a whole lot bar a solid exchange between Malenko and Fujiwara.

This stars a very young Joe Malenko in what is probably his first televised match as apart of a quick tour with the company, where he was predictively used to mostly job to the main stars. This starts off solid as Kido runs down Tiger and gets a few German suplexes off alongside well as a Scorpion Death Lock that he at once falls to the floor as a way to modify the move for extra leverage Fujiwara also gets in to land some nice scrappy worked punches before Sayama gets his own namesake armbar applied on the guy, following it up with a slap and roundhouse for a knockdown. Fuji scrambles to survive and has to dirty break with some petty punches to the body out of spite. Loved the little stagger he does shortly after that bit as well, showing that he's still trying to maintain his aggression despite being clearly damaged goods. Sayama sees him shaking around and therefore goes into hammering his legs with stiff shots, which doesn't knock Fuji down but causes him to be barely able to keeping himself upright and hugging corners. When Malenko gets in, he's just kinda leaning to the side, trying to keep himself together. Again, it's awesome subtle selling by a true master of the craft. Malenko's work is greenish: he hits a weird floating fallaway slam that looks bad on one hand but he also knows how to work the fundamentals and has a awesome counter to Kido trying to hook his leg for a takedown, going into a drop-toe hold transition and attempting a kneebar.

He's admittedly also not quite the best seller in places, though this is a expected limitation for someone of his stature. He does fine for his role here, mostly getting grinded down by Kido's mat work and building to a decent hot tag. Tiger gets in and scores a knockdown off a multi-strike combo ending with a smooth spin kick to the head. The road to the finish has Kido be broken down with a particularly long cross armbreaker so Fuji finally gets back in. He's still selling the leg damage so he spends some time just hanging on to the ropes while his legs get battered. Fuji plays patently while they tease him getting counted out with a definitive knockdown. He's able to dodge a Enzuigiri shot from Sayama when he catches his leg before quickly snapping on a deep Achilles Tendon hold for the quick win. This isn't a must-watch or anything but it's a pretty great extension to the Tiger/Fujiwara feud, with Kido and babyish Joe being really good additions despite not having quite as much heat or action with their moments. Solid stuff all round with some absolutely great dramatics on top, can't really go wrong.