HAATAGE DAIISEN

March 4, 1991

Yusuke Fuke . . . does everything he can, considering he’s only had three matches up to this point, despite having an opponent who can’t be bothered to do much of anything.

Johnny Barrett . . . accepts his fate, being paired up with The Fuj, but goes out fighting instead of just curling up and waiting for it to happen.

Bart Vale . . . is definitely not of Scottish heritage (and like the old saying goes, ‘If it’s not Scottish, it’s crap!).

YUSUKE FUKE vs. WELLINGTON WILKINS Jr.

Yeesh, this isn’t exactly the ideal way to make a first impression. Actually, that’s not quite fair to Fuke; he showed some complexity with his mat work, but it’s pretty much wasted in this match with this opponent. Much like his couple of UWF appearances, Wilkins doesn’t show any real aptitude for working this style of match. With there not being any limit to how many times he can use the ropes to break holds, it doesn’t matter what Fuke does because Wilkins can just save himself and have the ref stand them up. Other than a couple of pro-style suplexes and the finishing submission that he locks in, Wilkins’ showing is as simplistic as it gets. When you’re being outworked and outwrestled by a kid having his fourth ever match, you have no business working these sorts of matches.

YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA vs. JOHNNY BARRETT

Hey, this is actually a pretty fun match. It’d be easy to give all the credit to The Fuj, but Barrett is surprisingly watchable. It helps that Fujiwara is willing to let Barrett show some of what he can do, instead of just tying him up in knots. So, Barrett takes him down and holds him in a headlock or tries to lock in an armbar, before the crafty veteran is able to escape, turn the tables, and send him scurrying to the ropes. The big difference between this and the opener is that Barrett isn’t completely lost, he’s willing to try and fight through or reverse whatever Fujiwara does to him, and only bolts when he needs to. Fujiwara nearly wins by KO after a headbutt, and Barrett gets fired up and charges Fujiwara in the corner and throws a barrage of kicks, that drop him to a knee. Barrett goes for broke by trying a juji-gatame, and loses control of the arm, and Fujiwara comes right back with an Achillies hold, and even then, Barrett tries to fight out of it and reach for the ropes before he finally taps.

MINORU SUZUKI vs. WAYNE SHAMROCK

It’s not a surprise that these two could have a good match together, but a thirty minute draw isn’t the way to go. Much like Wilkins showed in the opener, the ability to use the ropes to break holds without any sort of penalty or limitation kills off a lot of their ability to create drama. There are a few times when a submission is made to look dangerous, Shamrock’s Northern Lights suplex into a chickenwing had Suzuki scooting toward the ropes like his life depended on it. But moments like that are the exception rather than the rule. More often than not, Suzuki will get something cinched in and Shamrock is close enough to the ropes to just grab them and have them get broken up. Suzuki’s half crab as the time was ticking away was probably their best moment, and Shamrock all but killed the drama to it. With how deep he had the crab locked in, the crowd was already hot, and Shamrock pulled himself toward the ropes and Suzuki pulled him back to the middle of the ring, and the crowd got hot again. But instead of just selling, and letting the time tick away, Shamrock just pulls himself back to the ropes and eventually gets the break. There are a few occasions where a rope break isn’t necessary, which does speak to how skilled each of them is. The best moment is probably when Shamrock seems to have Suzuki trapped in a sleeper, and Suzuki works his way into a reversal and tries to lock in a kata-gatame.

In the confines of this match, their strikes and potential for KO finishes isn’t any more valuable. Suzuki’s dropkick was always respected in the UWF, even if it wasn’t on the level of something like Fujiwara’s headbutt. But he hits Shamrock with three of them, consecutively no less, and it’s a call of down and Shamrock is up at nine. As the match wears on, no matter what Suzuki is able to hit him with, Shamrock always makes it up at nine. So, once again, any sort of drama is out the window. Ultimately, all this really accomplishes is creating a little bit of uncertainty as to exactly where each man sits in the grand hierarchy of PWFG. The match is well worked as far as execution goes, nobody else on the undercard, who the company wasn’t named for, did anything close to Shamrock and Suzuki’s best moments and sequences. But with everything in the company still being established, it was just too early for this sort of match.

MASAKATZU FUNAKI vs. BART VALE

Before the match even begins, we’re able to safely add “interviews” to the growing list of things that Bart Vale can’t do well. The only area where Vale clearly has an advantage over Funaki is in facial hair. The way the match plays out isn’t much of a surprise; Vale’s biggest strength is his kicks, so Funaki just needs to take him down and tie him up on the mat, which he does time and again. Vale can use his strength to pull himself to the ropes or to reverse things and get on top of Funaki, but he can’t do anything with it and after far too long, Funaki either gets the ropes himself or is able to get his own reversal and make Vale grab them. Actually, ‘after far too long’ pretty much sums up everything about this match. Vale’s best shot is when Funaki catches a kick and Vale hits an Owen Hart-style enzuigiri, and even that had a delay to it. One of Vale’s first attempts at using a submission came when he caught one of Funaki’s kicks and took him down and tried to get an Achillies hold, and after what felt like forever, it was Funaki who got the hold applied and sent Vale to the ropes. Other than the enzuigiri, Vale connects a couple of kicks that Funaki puts over nicely, even though they don’t look good at all. Funaki catches another kick, and before Vale can react, he transitions to a backdrop suplex and locks in a facelock to tap him out. Considering how their respective matches on the final UWF show turned out, this was a real possibility for being the main event of the first show of 1991, and Vale’s showing here is only further indication of how ludicrous it was that he went over Yamazaki.

Conclusion: This certainly isn’t a great way to kick off the PWFG era, but a lot of great things came from very meager beginnings.