UWF CREATE

August 13, 1990

Bart Kopps Jr. . . . looks like the precursor to Gary Albright, the amateur foreigner who can suplex his opponents into oblivion.

Yoji Anjo . . . shows that, for all of his big hair and bright colored tights, he’s more than capable of putting the hurt on anyone across the ring from him.

Dick Leon Vrij . . . gets some revenge for his Tokyo Dome loss by treating The Fuj like his personal punching bag.

YUSUKE FUKE vs. MASAHITO KAKIHARA

This isn’t exactly good, and it’s probably unreasonable to expect it to be with a pair of rookies who are both having their first match. What stands out more than anything else is their intensity and willingness to swing wildly at each other. It’s easy to see that a more formidable opponent would be able to dispatch either of them without much trouble, but with both men being on equal footing, they can go buck wild without consequence. They both pull out a few unexpected things; the best is Kakihara’s jumping knee when Fuke tries to scoop up his leg. Fuke pretty much has control when they’re on the mat, including a pretty slick segue from a sleeper into a juji-gatame, and when Kakihara starts to get him in a sleeper of his own, he’s smart enough to roll them both into the ropes and force the ref to break them up. They show some flashes of potential, which is pretty much all that can (and should) be expected from them at this point. The time limit draw suggests that future matches between them will be in order, which is fine for the time being. It gives them a chance to figure some stuff out before they get thrust against the likes of Suzuki, Anjo, Miyato, etc.

TATSUO NAKANO vs. BART VALE

Nobody will ever accuse Nakano of being a great worker, but Vale is so much worse than him by pretty much every metric imaginable. You know someone isn’t doing much in a match when Nakano is the one getting frustrated and telling them to do something. For all the kicks that Vale throws, almost none of them make decent contact or even really look good. The crowd wakes up a couple of times when it seems like Nakano is about to finish the match; the first time is after a big flurry of elbows and headbutts when Nakano gets a mount, and then later after a vertical suplex. It looks so hopeless for the American that everyone watching starts wondering when Nakano is going to get around to ending the match already. But instead, Nakano practically puts himself into position for Vale to do a powerbomb and then Vale gets on a sleeper to force Nakano to tap. If there was ever a surefire indication of these matches being worked, this is it.

MINORU SUZUKI vs. BART KOPPS Jr.

Even though this is more exciting than good, it’s still good enough to make me wish that Suzuki had been booked against the other Bart. It’d have been interesting to see what a motivated Nakano could do with someone like Kopps, and it’d have been equally interesting to see what sort of sadistic fun Suzuki could have with Vale before letting him go over. Kopps sticks with his amateur stuff while Suzuki uses standard fare shootstyle work, and that works out just fine for the most part. The really cool moment is after Suzuki does a legbar and makes Kopps burn a rope break; Kopps is still getting himself in order and Suzuki charges in for his dropkick. Kopps sidesteps it, but he’s clearly caught off guard by the attempt, and Suzuki just gets up and grins at him. The big highlights of the match are Kopps’ throws and takedowns, especially the belly to belly. Kopps’ issue is that he lets his amateur instincts take over and they cost him chances to get ahead in the match. It’s great that he can throw Suzuki like this, but he wants to rush right in and tie him up on the mat instead of leaving him there and letting the referee call him down and dock him points. So, despite the match being relatively even as far as the actual work being done, Suzuki is far ahead on the scoreboard.

Since Kopps can’t win the match with any sort of pin, he has to try for submissions and Suzuki is too good to get caught by something simple. And being outside of his wheelhouse, Kopps is the proverbial sitting duck for any number of basic shootstyle holds, just watch how easily Suzuki is able to scoop up his leg and get on the single leg crab, while Kopps has very few chances to get Suzuki in anything too dangerous. Kopps eventually finds the right combo to end the match, hitting Suzuki with a nasty German suplex and getting on the juji-gatame for the submission. Even though he’s hurt from the suplex, Suzuki still makes him struggle and fight for the armbar. And, unlike the previous match, it doesn’t feel tacked on or out of place in the least. Kopps had no trouble keeping up with Suzuki and taking the punishment just as good as he dished it out until he finally got the opening he needed.

AKIRA MAEDA vs. YOJI ANJO

This is a nice follow up to Anjo’s match with Yamazaki from January, it’s not as good as that match because Maeda isn’t nearly the seller that Yamazaki is (although, to be fair almost nobody else in the company is). It’s a bit of a disappointment that Maeda pretty much squashes Anjo in the last few minutes, making him burn points and rope breaks and submitting him to an ankle lock pretty handily. But the ten or so minutes before that were a damn fun ride. Anjo wants to step up to Maeda and, despite losing the match, he does just that. He pummels him with his signature knee strikes and outwrestles him on the mat several times. Somewhat early on Maeda takes Anjo down and gets a legbar, Anjo starts rolling toward the ropes and tries to reverse the momentum and come up with his own submission, but Maeda is able to exert enough pressure that Anjo has to forgo it and use the ropes to escape. Later on, Maeda snags a kick and takes Anjo down into a cross kneelock and Anjo does the same rolling counter, and this time he manages to come up with a quasi-sharpshooter and it’s Maeda who needs to bail. There’s another nice sequence when Maeda wants to wrap him up in a headlock and Anjo starts turning to alleviate the pressure and tries to counter into his own submission, but Maeda counters him back and winds up with a chickenwing armlock. It’s certainly no surprise that Maeda can hold his own in extended mat segments, but it’s been quite a while since he’s needed to.

There are some smart touches with both of them using the ropes to get out of potentially dangerous situations without using points, such as Maeda snagging one of Anjo’s kicks and Anjo grabbing the ropes to both stay upright and force the ref to separate them, but since Maeda didn’t have an actual hold applied, it didn’t score against Anjo. Again, Maeda hogs the offense in the last few minutes before he puts him away. Anjo probably should have gotten in one last counter or at least a solid knee strike, just to give Maeda a scare. But they still do a great job making their point. Anjo may not be in Maeda’s league just yet, but he’s not nearly as far away from it as some might have thought.

YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA vs. DICK LEON VRIJ

Although this doesn’t go very long and isn’t especially deep, it’s a total clinic why The Fuj is in a class all of his own. He’s coming off a win over Maeda, so it’s not like beating Vrij for a second time does anything for him. So, he gives the Dutchman free reign to do whatever is needed in order to stay over and look strong. Vrij unloads with kicks and punches, which Fujiwara sells masterfully, and Vrij’s attitude is always on display. After a barrage of strikes that causes the ref to step in, he’ll give Fujiwara a playful little slap in the head. At the same time, The Fuj is smart about how the match plays out. Despite everything that Vrij does, there’s not much as far as the actual points go. Fujiwara doesn’t take any away from Vrij, and Vrij only gets a single down after a series of body punches. It’s like the opposite of the Suzuki/Vale match in that regard, the “score” of the match suggests that they’re relatively even, but the actual events of the match look like anything but. Fujiwara smartly stays close to the ropes and corners, so that Vrij can fire away at him, and let the referee split them up, so that Vrij can do his stuff and Fujiwara doesn’t lose any points.

The only place that Vrij is clearly not in control is on the mat, which is hardly surprising considering his kickboxing background. But, instead of making him look incompetent when they go to the mat, Fujiwara lets him try a few things and then rolls them into the ropes for another referee separation. The fact that Fujiwara submits the Dutchman is hardly relevant by the time the match ends. The crafty veteran took a small opening and snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. If anything, it’d be baffling if he couldn’t pull out something like that. But Vrij spent close to eight minutes clobbering The Fuj left, right, and center, and grinned the whole time, and that’s the lasting impression. And, if the guy with the bleach blonde buzzcut can do that with someone like Fujiwara, just imagine what he can do to the lesser guys on the roster.

NOBUHIKO TAKADA vs. MASAKATZU FUNAKI

One year to the day after their previous match, these two have another relatively mild encounter. Go figure. Some pairings just don’t seem to have much chemistry together, and it appears that Takada and Funaki are one of them. There’s nothing overtly bad about their work, but it’s far from engaging. They spend a lot of time on the mat wrenching each other’s legs and not really getting anywhere. They sometimes come out with something good, like Funaki’s early ankle lock and instead of bailing for the ropes, Takada manages to escape and get a legbar that he turns into his own ankle lock and forces Funaki to get to the ropes. And it’s impressive to see Funaki block Takada’s chickenwing and work his way out of the hold and back on his feet. When Funaki unloads on Takada with palm strikes and scores the first down and nearly wins by KO, the crowd comes alive, and it almost seems like a waste that they spent so much time jockeying on the mat. The ref stop finish is either an unfortunate coincidence after what happened between Funaki and Yamazaki, or some clever booking to play off the accident as well as put Funaki over without truly beating Takada. It’s not a bad match, but it’s a sour end to what was a rather fun card.

Conclusion: There’s a couple of disappointments, but for the most part this is a solid at worst show, with quite a few fun matches. I have to wonder if the people in charge already knew that the company was on borrowed time, because it sure seems like they’re setting the stage for some good stuff down the road.