ASTRAL STEP 1^st

May 11, 1991

Willie Peeters . . . is pretty much the only one on the undercard who stands out for reasons other than being rotten.

Bill Kazmaier . . . somehow manages to not be the worst worker on this card.

Dick Vrij . . . may be lacking in the actual wrestling department at the moment but has the charisma to at least make up for some of it.

HERMAN RENTING vs. PIETER SMIT

This looks more like one of mixed bouts that UWF occasionally put on rather than a shootstyle wrestling match, which I guess shouldn’t be a surprise since this is Maeda’s promotion. But it looks like both Renting and Smit forgot about the ‘style’ part of ‘shootstyle.’ They do some nice things, but there’s very little from either of them to create excitement or drama. It seems like neither of them was willing to concede anything and make themselves look like a lesser fighter, despite the fact that some of the obviously pulled kicks make it crystal clear that this isn’t a legit contest. A good example is the first time that Smit is able to get the juji-gatame on. He gets the hold fully on, but there’s no sort of selling or urgency at all from Renting that he might be in danger of losing. He doesn’t flail around and try to grasp his hands to take away Smit’s leverage, and he doesn’t try to dash to the ropes to break the hold. He just lays there for a sec and casually clasps his hands. Smit gets on another armbar for the eventual finish, and it seems like Renting was getting ready to crawl to the ropes, he gets up on all fours, but then just changes his mind and lays back down and submits. Granted, Maeda got the short end of the stick in the proverbial UWF divorce settlement with Takada and Fujiwara getting the bulk of the UWF roster, so he was very much starting from scratch here. But this looked more like a practice session than an actual match.

WILLIE PEETERS vs. MARCEL HAARMANS

There’s more excitement in the first thirty seconds of this than the entirety of the opener. Both men show some real intensity, and Peeters has no qualms about putting himself into positions that Marcel could potentially take advantage of. And after a couple of occasions when Peeters’ attacks end up working against him rather than for him, it makes one wonder whether Peeters’ next attempt at a throw or knee strikes will help him score the win or if it’ll lead to his undoing. But rather than play it safe and fight more cautiously, Peeters continues fighting his style, confident that if Marcel catches another knee and turns it into a legbar or if Marcel blocks the throw or uses the momentum to roll through and get on another headlock, that he’ll be able to escape again. Peeters’ gamble pays off when he catches Marcel with a head kick that absolutely puts his lights out. Marcel had a few nice moments as well, so this isn’t entirely a one-man show, but virtually everything that makes this memorable is from Peeters.

CHRIS DOLMAN vs. BILL KAZMAIER

I can only imagine the story of how Kazmaier ended up here, seeing as he makes Tom Burton look like Yamazaki. He gets one down on Dolman from a punch to the stomach. Other than that, his offense consists of some tentative leg kicks and charging at Dolman and pushing him back. His work on the mat is hardly more inspired, Kaz isn’t completely useless on the mat, he can start the proverbial car, but he can’t actually drive. He’ll snag a kick and push Dolman down or Dolman will take him down and he can use his size and roll himself into a mount, but he can’t do anything to capitalize on those situations. The finish is the best thing to see here by at least a megameter: Dolman tries for a juji-gatame and Kaz is able to clasp the hands and picks him up for a slam, only for Dolman to sandbag him and roll back into the hold and break the grip and submit him, and Kaz gets to show that he at least understands the idea of selling. It’s a good thing that WCW came calling soon afterwards. Kaz probably could have done all right for himself in UWFI or PWFG, both of which had smaller guys to sell and bump for him on their rosters. But RINGS, with the air of legitimacy that they’re clearly trying to present, had to be the worst possible fit.

AKIRA MAEDA vs. DICK VRIJ

It’s not much of a surprise that this is the only match on the card that feels like an actual shootstyle match, seeing as it’s the only one between two guys who have any experience doing that style. Vrij isn’t exactly a smooth worker, but what he lacks in that department he makes up for in charisma. He has a few cool moments, like when he dodges a spin kick and then does one of his own to mock Maeda, and he snags one of Maeda’s kicks and kicks Maeda in the upper thigh and knocks him down. But, by and large, Maeda is never in any real trouble from him. Even when Vrij backs Maeda into the corner and starts firing away with kicks and knocks him down, it never feels like Maeda is in great danger. Vrij doesn’t have much to offer outside of the kicking attacks either, and once Maeda recovers from the short onslaught he manages to catch one of Vrij’s kicks and take him down into a single leg crab and tap him out. This doesn’t hit the level of Vrij’s UWF matches, because Maeda wasn’t going to sell and put his attacks over the way that Anjo and Fujiwara did, but this is still good enough to stand out amongst everything else on this card.

Conclusion: Another lukewarm opening to a promotion that eventually found its way. But, hell, everyone has to start somewhere.