[1990-07-20-UWF-Mind] Norman Smiley vs Minoru Suzuki

[Control21]

Both Smiley and Suzuki put on a great display of grappling here. There were very few striking exchanges. They were more interested in testing their mettle on the mat, and Smiley was impressive. He had great chemistry with Suzuki, and the technical quality in this match was RINGS-esque. Another thing I liked about Smiley here was that he had a very good sense of how to sell submission holds and convey the urgency in trying to escape them. Sometimes in UWF Newborn, certain wrestlers either failed to convey the urgency needed to shift the match into another gear or fell back into a "no-selling mode" for some reason. It's not a major problem, but watching Smiley put on a lesson in this regard is sort of sobering. In any case, this wasn't a one-man show, and Suzuki had his fair share of shine. At this point, Suzuki is rapidly improving. He still holds on to some pro-style elements, but the mat demon we would all later know is slowly coming into his own. He has a great move at the end where he turns a hammerlock into a rolling butterfly modification. Very fun opener if you're into mechanical craft. ****