HAATAGE DAINISSEN

May 16, 1991

Yusuke Fuke . . . once again shows a lot of promise, despite being saddled with an opponent that he can’t do very much with.

Wayne Shamrock . . . is now two-for-two for having overly long and mostly boring matches on PWFG shows.

Masakatzu Funaki . . . gets in a live workout with an opponent who’s presented as little more than a 300+ pound tackle dummy.

MINORU SUZUKI vs. KAZUO TAKAHASHI

It’d be easy to see the result and the match length and get the impression that it’s a rookie getting squashed by someone more experienced. But that’s not exactly how this plays out. Yes, Suzuki is able to use his experience to put the kid away, but Takahashi makes him earn it. They spend quite a bit of time jockeying on their feet, trying to take each other down, rather than Takahashi only being out there as a warm body for Suzuki to get some practice. No, the work isn’t especially great or engaging, but its effective in the sense that it shows that Fujiwara’s trainees aren’t just being thrown to the proverbial wolves, and that they’re skilled enough to hold their own. It doesn’t take Suzuki especially long to get his win; he feigns going for another takedown and hits a knee to the gut to get him called down and when Takahashi counters Suzuki’s attempt at a waki-gatame, he counters him back into a juji-gatame and taps him out.

BART VALE vs. YUSUKE FUKE

There really isn’t a whole lot that sets this apart from Fuke’s match on the debut show with Wilkins. Fuke is once again matched up with a foreigner who isn’t very adept at working matches like this, and as a result his efforts are pretty much wasted. Fuke has no problem at all scouting Vale’s kicks and taking him down, but once they’re on the mat, there isn’t much that he can do. So, Fuke tries to lock in various holds, and finds himself either countered into something like a headlock or sleeper or on the few occasions that he does get something on, they’re close enough to the ropes for Vale to free himself. As expected, Vale has absolutely nothing on Fuke when it comes to the mat, and their mat segments with Vale in control mostly consist of Vale just using his size to lay on Fuke or Fuke maneuvering around, ostensibly to find an escape, and actually giving Vale openings to do something, such as the half nelson. There’s a tiny bit of build to the finish, with the idea that Fuke had no problems at all shooting in and taking Vale down, and Vale was finally prepared for it and popped him with a jumping knee for the KO. It was fun to see the crowd rally behind Fuke when it seemed like he might be able to put Vale away. Hopefully at some point Fuke can get away from these slugs and work with someone capable and show what he can actually do.

YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA vs. WELLINGTON WILKINS Jr.

This honestly goes a lot longer than it needed to, since A) the outcome isn’t exactly in doubt and B) Wilkins isn’t good enough to make an upset seem likely. The only times Wilkins can get ahead is by wearing down The Fuj with strikes, such as the big slap that allows him to hit a German suplex and try for the juji-gatame or working his way out of a legbar and dropping knees on him in order to get his own armlock. But Fujiwara is too crafty and too experienced to get outsmarted that way. The disparity is fully on display when Wilkins thinks that he’s worked his way out of an armbar and Fujiwara lets him roll over and then applies pressure, in what’s essentially an inverted Fujiwara armbar. And just like in his match from March, it’s made abundantly clear that, without being able to use the ropes to escape, Wilkins would be dead in the water as soon as anyone gets a hold on him cleanly. The fact that this goes on for nearly twelve minutes is a testament to Fujiwara’s professionalism and/or his mercy, because it’s obvious that he could have ended this in about three minutes if he really wanted to.

NAOKI SANO vs. WAYNE SHAMROCK

Honestly, the only thing that separates this from the Shamrock/Suzuki match from the debut show is the fact that this has a finish. Once again, Shamrock has an overly long match with very little in the way of engrossing work. They spend the bulk of the match on the mat, and, with only a few exceptions, neither of them gets anything on too cleanly and when someone does it results in a quick rope break. Maybe the idea is that working the mat so tentatively gives credence to each other’s mat skills, but it sure doesn’t make for an interesting match. They have a couple of nice moments; Shamrock bridging up and rolling over in order to ease the pressure of Sano’s chicken wing was one of their few highlights, but they’re much more likely to be seen laying on the mat and trying to get something on and one of them will do a surprise counter or reversal, but he can’t get anything on either. And they just do that until the ropes come into play one way or another and the ref stands them up.

Shamrock’s inexperience also shows up a few times. With the mat game essentially being a wash, it comes down to strikes and throws to decide the match. On the surface it appears that Shamrock has the edge in striking, he absolutely batters Sano with fists, knees, and kicks, but during the course of the match Shamrock gets him down twice, once from a German suplex and another from a DDT. Meanwhile, Sano hits his famous rolling kick on Shamrock for a down call, so, who really wins the strike battle? There’s another exposing moment when Shamrock wants a German suplex and Sano does a front roll into an ankle lock and Shamrock basically belly flops himself into the hold, although, they do it again a bit later and it comes off much smoother. I suppose one could say that Sano’s win comes down to him putting all three facets of shootstyle together (trading strikes and connecting a few shots of his own, planting Shamrock with a Dragon suplex, and then tapping him with a Waki-gatame), but, they could have gotten the same message across in half this time, if not more.

MASAKATZU FUNAKI vs. JOHNNY BARRETT

This is less of an actual match and more like a sparring session for Funaki. Other than a few kicks, Barett’s successes are few and far between. Both times that he seems to be in a position to lock in a submission, Funaki is able to escape it without the aid of the ropes, despite them being close enough to grab. Barrett gets a single down from an innocent looking knee strike, and it only drops Funaki to one knee. Funaki more or less spends the match toying around with Barrett, showing what he can do and having no trouble making his few advantages seem nil. The only thing that seems really egregious is Funaki’s suplex that sets up his finishing juji-gatame. Funaki had already thoroughly outclassed Barrett, so there really wasn’t any reason for him to negate his size on top of everything else. Then again, the only foreigner who’s looked all that capable has been Shamrock. Barrett is probably the next one in line, but it’s still quite a drastic drop.

Conclusion: I understand that the roster isn’t exactly stacked yet, but cards like this aren’t helping anyone or doing much to excite the fans.