MOVING ON 1^ST

May 10, 1991

Kiyoshi Tamura . . . shows more flashes of brilliance and looks well beyond his actual experience level.

Yoji Anjo . . . takes his rightful place as the definitive sneering brazen slimebag in all of shootstyle.

Tom Burton . . . talked a pretty tough game in his pre-match interview but was left thoroughly defeated and embarrassed.

KIYOSHI TAMURA vs. MASAHITO KAKIHARA

Although this is more fun than it is good, it’s impossible to watch this and not walk away with the impression that these two have a bright future. Tamura is shown to be the better overall fighter while Kakihara shows remarkable resilience with some of the things he’s able to suck up. Most of the highlights surround Tamura’s craftiness, such as the early headlock that he gets on that Kakihara escapes pretty quickly, then Kakihara tries for a throw and Tamura blocks it and Kakihara opens himself up to a facelock which is the first rope break. A bit later, Tamura does the same throw that Kakihara wanted and pulls it off and gets on another headlock which leads to another rope break. There’s another sequence early on where Kakihara hits a couple of kicks and seems to have Tamura in trouble with a barrage of palm strikes, only for Tamura to dive in for a leg and secure a cross kneelock. As the match wears on, Kakihara shows that it’s nigh impossible to count him out for good. The first time it seems like Tamura has him is with a sleeper, complete with Tamura making sure to scoot them back to the center of the ring, but Kakihara still fights his way to the ropes. The second time that Tamura goes after the leg, they’re right next to the ropes, but Kakihara sees an opening to save a point and gets hold of Tamura’s ankle and starts wrenching it and it’s Tamura who winds up having to bail.

However, after a bit it becomes obvious that Tamura is just too good and too crafty for Kakihara to beat at this point. It’s not that Kakihara is hugely overmatched, but what takes a Herculean effort for him to do, is something that Tamura seems to be able to do with ease. Knowing that he can’t match Tamura on the mat, Kakihara looks for his strikes to wear him out, but Tamura manages to cover up and weave around to avoid taking the full brunt. On two different occasions, Kakihara goes for broke with his spin kick, only for Tamura to dodge it. He finally gets it on the third try, but it only keeps Tamura down until the ref gets to seven. The finish is more than a little appropriate, and it basically sums up the whole match; what Kakihara can do, Tamura can do better. Tamura catches a kick and does an Achillies hold and once again Kakihara grabs the free leg and does the same thing, but this time Tamura just throws a couple of kicks to ease the pressure and cranks his hold even harder and Kakihara forgoes the hold and taps. They may not be ready to hang with the likes of Takada, Yamazaki, or Anjo just yet, but the potential for it is there and that, along with their intensity and willingness to go at one another, is enough to make this better than anything from the PWFG debut show.

KAZUO YAMAZAKI/TATSUO NAKANO vs. YOJI ANJO/YUKO MIYATO

The work here isn’t always the greatest, which isn’t much of a surprise with Miyato and Nakano involved, but the stiffness and hate involved makes this a lot of fun. One wouldn’t think that shootstyle could do something akin to a southern tag match, but that’s pretty close to how this plays out. Anjo and Miyato heel things up throughout the match, with Anjo throwing cheap shots at Nakano, and Nakano taking the bait and returning fire with some illegal shots of his own and getting docked a point. There’s another bit where the ref tries to separate Nakano and Miyato and Miyato throws an illegal elbow and Nakano responds with a German suplex, which should have cost them a point, but it was uncalled because of the ref break. Neither Miyato nor Anjo is willing to face off with Yamazaki for very long, and that results in a funny moment when Anjo bows up and tells Yamazaki to bring it, only to run to the corner and tag out. Both of them understand that Yamazaki is the tougher opponent, so they do what they can to work over Nakano and trim points as well as Miyato landing a palm strike that splatters Nakano’s nose. When Nakano is able to tag, it seems like they have no chance, and between a couple of nasty kicks and Yamazaki’s submissions, Anjo and Miyato find themselves down six points while only taking away two of Nakano and Yamazaki’s.

The big difference in the match is Anjo’s smarminess, he may not be able to stand toe-to-toe with Yamazaki in a straight up match, but he’s able to get under his skin and into his head. It’s there when he feigns being ready to fight only to tag out, Yamazaki throws kicks at Miyato but loses his footing, and Miyato is able to fire back with some kicks of his own to the ribs that causes a knockdown (and some of Yamazaki’s usual excellent selling). Miyato and Anjo smell the blood and continue attacking the midsection with kicks and Yamazaki starts bleeding away his team’s points and their drastic lead quickly turns into a sizeable deficit. Anjo tags back in and hits some more of his own kicks and a series of knees to the midsection and winds up keeping him down for good. There are some slow bits to this, particularly in the first half with Nakano prominently involved (although this is still much preferable to watching he and Miyato try to do as little as possible for as long as possible), but once they flesh out the story of Anjo/Miyato trying to avoid Yamazaki, and then the finish of Anjo being able to lead Yamazaki away from his strengths and exploit a weak spot, this becomes all kinds of fun. And it’s well worth getting through those early parts to get the payoff.

NOBUHIKO TAKADA vs. TOM BURTON

If nothing else, Takada is good enough to not make this a complete squash, although it may as well have been. Other than his little run toward the end, Burton’s only real success is when he’s able to use his size to send Takada to the mat with tackles and a couple of lariats, and after a bit even that starts working against him because Takada is able to lock in holds while he’s down and force Burton to use the ropes. Between his wrestling and striking, Takada has no problem taking away Burton’s points. The only time it looks bleak for Takada is when Burton hits the German suplex and then locks in the single leg crab in the middle of the ring, and that’s due to the location of the hold as well as Takada’s selling, but he still manages to drag them to the ropes. And wouldn’t you know, once Takada is able to recover he hits a big strike flurry and then takes Burton over with a suplex of his own and submits him with a crab hold. In a way, Burton’s brief surge foreshadows Takada’s future struggles against guys like Albright and Vader, but that’s pretty much the only thing to take away from this.

Conclusion: This is certainly a step up from the first PWFG show, although having guys like Yamazaki, Anjo, and Tamura on the roster will do that. The main event isn’t anything great, but this is still a show worth checking out.