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Post by fxnj on Mar 13, 2019 18:12:14 GMT -5
As far as matches with the aim of showcasing a new style to fans, this is about as good as it gets. January 1986 was the first time the UWF guys had toured with NJPW since the exodus, so, rather than immediately jumping into the UWF/NJPW feud, NJPW first put them in a series of singles matches against each other with presumptive aim of giving fans a taste of how they had developed and what set them apart from the NJPW. This Maeda/Fujiwara match is an excellent example of how to do that. Just as you'd expect from UWF guys, the matwork looks snug and hard fought with them respecting the shoot submissions. Still, they keep things fast paced and don't spend too long on any particular hold. I think even fans who normally dig hardcore shoot-style matwork can get into it. The match also has a clear build, beginning with some feeling out matwork, then Maeda taking control with his kicks, then a brief Fujiwara comeback, and then the finish. Fujiwara is is great selling the impact of Maeda's kicks, and its really cool how seems to grow more smug as the match goes on and Maeda seems unable to finish him. Awesome flash submission finish from Fujiwara as well.
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Post by dkuchler31096 on Aug 15, 2020 4:29:49 GMT -5
This match freaking bored me to tears. If you're going to showcase a new style show some more fire for God sake. I felt like the selling wasn't expressive enough and though the mat work was very cool and crisp at points the wasn't entirely engaging enough. I just felt it was limb selling for the sake of limb selling and the flash finish was too sudden for me. I thought the match would change a gear the first time Fujiwara slaps Maeda but they just pardon my french grapple fuck and lightly slap each other until the finish. **1/4
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Post by KB8 on Oct 10, 2022 10:39:26 GMT -5
Needless to say I would vehemently (yes, vehemently), disagree with the above.
More of the same from these two, which is very good pro wrestling. It's one of the first UWF showcase matches since they re-joined the New Japan fold and you couldn't have picked a better showcase. If nothing else, in case these crowds had forgotten in the two years they'd been gone, it reminded everyone how dangerous Maeda is as a striker and how much of a lethal counter-wrestler Fujiwara could be. The early going has some great matwork and fighting over holds. Maeda takes Fujiwara over with a sharp hip toss that about puts him on his neck, Fujiwara reverses a half crab by rearing up on his head and booting Maeda away with the free leg, they fight over an arm, a leg, just really good stuff all around. Then as it goes along they start to groove into the tried and true Fujiwara/Maeda dynamic. Maeda is an assassin and starts winging those kicks, roundhouses to the midsection, leg kicks, wheel kicks to the head, dipping all the way into that bag of nasty shit. Nobody absorbs blows like Fujiwara and some of his corner defence was incredible, then he'd try and catch some of those kicks and they'd slip through the guard, partially landing and visibly hurting him or fully landing and almost ending him. After about a dozen of these he starts to get belligerent, smirking and half strutting away from exchanges even though you know he's trying to get under Maeda's skin. Of course it takes next to nothing to get under Maeda's skin, so the latter maybe forces the issue a bit too much and Fujiwara clonks him with a headbutt. Maeda responding with one of his own that landed right in the cheek bone was amazing. Maeda getting a little frustrated and leaving himself open made for an awesome finish, with Fujiwara shooting off an elbow and catching him with the flash armbar. As a matchup this feels almost like the prototype for Ishikawa/Ikeda. Not that there had never been any striker v grappler matchups before Fujiwara/Maeda, but these two had some of that same grey area where Fujiwara could still strike when he needed to and Maeda was no slouch on the mat. Fujiwara/Sayama, for example, was almost entirely grappler v striker, because Sayama had no chance when it came to grappling. Being a proto Ishikawa v Ikeda is a pretty cool thing to be.
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Post by elliott on Sept 4, 2023 13:51:12 GMT -5
The list of things in wrestling cooler than Akira Maeda throwing spinning wheel kicks is a short list. Terrific match with all the great grappling, striking & selling you'd expect from this matchup.
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