UWF MOVE

September 13, 1990

Shigeo Miyato . . . once again proves to be a perfectly capable worker, despite his position on the card.

Yoji Anjo . . . continues showing his growth and improvement by dragging one of the usually useless foreigners to his best match inside the UWF ring.

Masakatzu Funaki . . . shows why his last couple of big wins ought not be considered flukes, by stepping up to the legendary figure known as The Fuj.

YUSUKE FUKE vs. MASAHITO KAKIHARA

In a way, this makes for a fun continuation of their match from the month before. This doesn’t feel as out of control as the other match, they’re both much more restrained, with each of them looking for the opening to go for the kill. Kakihara’s preferred method is with his strikes, throwing a lot of kicks and slaps, and Fuke is good at blocking and dodging them for the most part. But, when Kakihara gets the chance, he pelts Fuke with a series of shots which result in a down, and the crowd going crazy. Fuke wants to take Kakihara to the mat and submit him, and there are several points in the match that he appears to have him dead to rights, such as the juji-gatame and the front neck lock, only for Kakihara to angle and wiggle his way free and turn the tables with something of his own, like a sleeper. Fuke winds up winning out when he surprises Kakihara with a jumping knee and cranks on a single leg crab and gets the submission that he was looking for, but both of them come out of this looking good.

SHIGEO MIYATO vs. BART VALE

Here’s some further proof that the Newborn UWF was swirling the bowl, they’re apparently pushing Bart Vale. This actually isn’t all that different from the match Vale had with Nakano at the previous show, Vale does little more than throw mediocre kicks. If Bischoff was making fun of Shawn’s superkick, then he’d have had a field day taking shots at Vale. They go to the mat a couple of times, with Miyato having to lead Vale by the nose. It’s obvious how clueless Vale actually is when Miyato starts going out of his way to show him up, and he isn’t able (or willing) to do anything about it. After the metric ton of kicks that he was throwing, Vale connects one that puts Miyato down for seven, and Miyato gets back up and starts throwing kicks of his own that easily put Vale down. Vale attempts the powerbomb that led to him finishing off Nakano, but Miyato manages to escape and then he takes Vale over with an overhead suplex. In the span of a few minutes, Miyato manages to make Vale’s two biggest attributes look negligible. Miyato does find some semblance of professionalism for the finish. He tries a front head lock and Vale throws him off, with Miyato essentially taking a back body drop, and Vale goes right to the sleeper and gets the tap out.

MINORU SUZUKI vs. TATSUO NAKANO

Although it’s disjointed and ugly, which isn’t exactly a shocker with Nakano in there, this does manage to be a little bit of fun. Suzuki tries to keep Nakano on the mat and win by submission, and Nakano knows that he can’t beat Suzuki at that game, so he tries to wear down Suzuki with strikes and throws. One of their best moments comes when Nakano hits a big German suplex and Suzuki manages to snare Nakano in a chickenwing armlock afterwards, but still sells the effects of the suplex. Nakano also avoids Suzuki’s dropkick and hits a lariat to the back of the neck that results in him being called down, and a vertical suplex gives him another one, and the scoreboard gives the idea of parity between them. The finish is a bit anticlimactic, but it still plays well. Suzuki takes Nakano down and gets a heel hold on, and Nakano tries to do the same thing to Suzuki; it’s a sequence that goes back to the original UWF, with each of them wrenching the limb to see who would bail to the ropes first. Unfortunately, Nakano isn’t close enough to the ropes to bail, and he’s certainly not in the same league as the likes of Maeda, Takada, Anjo, etc. for being able to win this sort of exchange. Suzuki exerts pressure, Nakano tries to exert more, and Suzuki responds by cranking even harder and Nakano blinks first and submits. It would have been nicer if they continued playing up the story of them playing to their strengths, with Suzuki countering a throw or catching an errant kick and getting the heel hold, but the finish isn’t totally out of place for someone like Nakano.

YOJI ANJO vs. JOHNNY BARRETT

This is a bit like the Miyato/Vale match, only Anjo and Barrett are both much better than Miyato and Vale. Barrett has never been anything special in the UWF ring, but he looks worlds more capable here than Vale ever has. His kicks look good, and he has some idea of how to use his size to his advantage. It also helps that Anjo is willing to work several sequences to give Barrett openings to control things, even if nobody thinks that he poses any real threat to Anjo. There are two instances where Barrett connects with a suplex and uses that to try to get a submission locked in. He’s not able to get it either time, but the attempt is still nice. His cross kneelock toward the end pushes things a bit, but Anjo had just taken him down to his last point and took him over with a suplex, so it’s not implausible to think that Anjo got careless because he figured he had the match in the bag. After the rope break, plus a down call because Anjo took too long to get up, Anjo looks to finish things quickly, but Barrett still makes him work for it. Anjo hits a series of knees and kicks but can’t drop the big man. Anjo takes him over and tries for a headlock, and then a chickenwing armlock, and finally has to use the more dangerous reverse juji-gatame in order to submit him. The Yamazaki match from January still stands as Anjo’s best individual outing, but this is a great look at exactly how much better he’d gotten throughout the year.

AKIRA MAEDA vs. NOBUHIKO TAKADA

All things considered; this is a rather lackluster end to a classic rivalry. It’s not a bad match by any means, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the matches they had in 11/88, 1/89, or 6/90, all of which were longer and found their own ways to be engaging and competitive. With only a couple of exceptions, this never feels like it gets past the feeling out stage. We see the almost obligatory dual legbar sequence, which Nakano tried to replicate earlier, although neither of them is really crafty and/or a good enough showman to make it work the way that The Fuj, Kido, or Yamazaki can. They obviously know what to expect from one another, and it’s fun to see them try to fool each other. They’re both good at moving their heads at the last millisecond to avoid a potentially lethal kick, and when either of them gets an opening to unload, they make it count. Takada catches a kick, and instead of going right to his ankle lock, which he’d done several times during their matches, he keeps Maeda on his feet and tries to use the opening for a free kick to the midsection. Early in the match Takada manages to surprise Maeda with a waterwheel drop, and when he looks for another one, Maeda manages to hook the arms and roll Takada into a juji-gatame and submit him. But it doesn’t come off as a surprise finish or a brilliantly clever counter. Partially because of how unexpectedly quickly it happens and also because of how established both of them are. The match has its moments to remind you of how dangerous each of them is, but it just never gets a chance to develop into the sort of match that a rivalry such as this (even if they didn’t know this would be the end of it) deserved.

YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA vs. MASAKATZU FUNAKI

After two flukish wins over Yamazaki and Takada, both by ref stoppage, it’s nice to see Funaki win a big match in a more definitive way. But simply winning the match is only going halfway. Just look at Vale’s match with Miyato to see how little the simple act of getting one’s hand raised means after a mediocre performance. This isn’t the all-time classic that Fujiwara/Maeda from the year before was, but the match is laid out in a similar way. Funaki may not be seen as the juggernaut that Maeda was, but he’s shown how dangerous he can be with his palm strikes, and Fujiwara goes into the match with the mindset of doing everything possible to avoid them. Not unlike how Fujiwara went into the Maeda match with the idea of avoiding, or at least cushioning, Maeda’s kicks.

It’d be easy to label the early mat segments as ‘filler’ and it’s not entirely unfair to do so. The exchanges and holds that they work have no bearing on the finish, or anything that happens leading up to it. But that’s not to say that its only purpose is to eat up time. Funaki is known as a powerful striker, so it makes sense for Fujiwara to keep them on the mat and prevent Funaki from being able to take the match in that direction. Funaki may not be in Fujiwara’s league as far as working the mat goes, but he’s certainly not inept, so Fujiwara doesn’t have a whole lot of success on that front. He’s able to make Funaki yelp a couple of times and he has to use the ropes in order to get out of a heel hold. But, for the most part, the purpose is to keep Funaki tied up and that’s what Fujiwara accomplishes. When Funaki is able to work his way to his feet and get out of an ankle lock, he finally gets a chance to dictate the match, and he immediately knocks Fujiwara down and takes a point from him. Fujiwara gets to his feet and tries to get in close enough to take Funaki back down, but at the same time, he doesn’t stray too far from the corner or ropes so that he’s got a little assistance in staying upright as well as ducking and covering when Funaki makes his move to unload more shots on him.

Fujiwara manages to sucker in Funaki into a lock up, only to drill him with a headbutt and nearly win the match via KO. But that momentary bit of success is the beginning of the end for The Fuj. Fujiwara winds up turning the match into a strikefest, and while he’s able to hurt Funaki, between the headbutt and body punches, Funaki finally connects some good shots of his own and goes from stunning Fujiwara to him being unable to get to his feet in time. Funaki’s win streak continues and this time there’s no aura or hint of his win being tainted by luck (be it his good fortune or his opponent’s misfortune). However, at the same time, Fujiwara doesn’t lose a milligram of credibility by taking the loss. If anything, Fujiwara would be even more dangerous in a rematch because he’d be that much more determined to avenge his defeat.

Conclusion: While there isn’t anything mind blowing here (aside from maybe the Anjo/Barrett match not being awful), it’s a remarkably solid card with everything being enjoyable in some form or other, capped off with a good main event.