ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE

July 26, 1991

Lato Kirawire . . . proves that the impossible is in fact possible; he makes Bart Vale look like a competent worker.

Minoru Suzuki . . . has his second thirty-minute draw, in what’s far and away the best PWFG match to date!

Masakatzu Funaki . . . is presented with his first real challenge in a PWFG ring, but unfortunately, he doesn’t rise to the occasion.

MacDUFF ROESCH vs. KAZUO TAKAHASHI

This is easily the best match that Roesch has had in his shootstyle career. There’s not too terribly much to credit Roesch for, outside of being in the right positions for Takahashi to put him in holds, and then for Takahashi to put himself in holds. And, for the second time in as many matches, Takahashi looks fabulous here. He effortlessly goes from hold to hold when he’s trying to lock in something, and his counters and escapes are the highlights of the match. The one thing that the PWFG roster seems to have down to a science is ring positioning. Whenever someone gets an especially dangerous hold applied, they make sure to be close enough to the ropes for a quick break, rather than whomever is trapped having to flail and crawl his way there. The crowd seems to pick up on it too, as shown by their reaction after Roesch gets his winning facelock applied in the middle of the ring, and despite his attempts to fight it off, Takahashi has to give it up. Between Takahashi and Fuke, the future certainly looks bright for the PWFG rookie crew. It’s just too bad that, thus far, their job description is putting over jacked up foreigners who don’t have a prayer of keeping up with them.

BART VALE vs. LATO KIRAWARE

Any match where Bart Vale is the better worker is a match in dire straits. His performance here isn’t marginally different than any of his other PWFG or UWF matches, but Lato is so much worse in every way possible. The mat portions are as dull and plodding as you’d expect from a kickboxer and whatever the hell Lato’s forte is, because it sure isn’t this. Lato’s only striking success is when he gets Vale in the corner and swings at him. Lato isn’t even able to use his size to his advantage in any meaningful way, Vale actually uses Lato’s size against him. He leverages Lato into a hip throw and his win comes when he stuns him with a couple of kicks and then scoops Lato’s leg and takes him down and works his way to a crossface. The most complimentary thing I can say about this is that it shows that Fujiwara’s teachings are rubbing off on Vale, even if only a little.

WAYNE SHAMROCK vs. DUANE KOSLOWSKI

This is fun to watch in the same way that an MMA match is, but there’s not much to write about. Duane is more assertive here than he was in his UWF match with Takada, but he’s still got the amateur mindset and not that of a performer. Shamrock makes up for that a little by getting angry at a couple of points, but the match never breaks down that way. They mostly work the mat, but most of that time is spent with them both trying to get into position to do something. Other than Shamrock’s sleeper and Duane’s escape as well as the Achillies hold that Shamrock wins with, neither of them gets anything firmly locked in. Duane hits a couple of nice throws, but they hardly seem to matter when the one throw that Shamrock does is what allows him to lock in the winning submission. It’s not an overall bad start for Duane, the potential is certainly there, it’s just a matter of seeing if he can ease up and show some personality.

Next is an apparent mixed match/shoot between Yusuke Fuke and Lawi Napataya (it’s worked like a legit match, but it’s not included in Fuke’s MMA record for whatever that’s worth). It’s just five rounds of Fuke trying to take him down, and Napataya being able to shake him off or use the ropes to stay upright, and Napataya trying to keep Fuke at bay with kicks. Napataya throws kicks and Fuke catches them and tries to take him down, but he’s never able to do so. Napataya connects a couple of kicks in the fifth round, one of which might have been illegal judging from the crowd reaction, and those couple are apparently enough to give him the decision.

NAOKI SANO vs. MINORU SUZUKI

With this being the first match of the night that involves two capable workers, it’s no surprise that it’s the best match of the show up to this point. Unless you’ve already seen the match or read the spoilers carefully, there are several points where it seems like the end is coming for sure. But, until one of them gets a hold firmly locked in, such as Sano’s sleeper or Suzuki’s legbar, it’s never a given that the hold being attempted is going to have its intended consequence. This is especially true for Suzuki’s juji-gatame attempts; Sano seemingly knows every possible means of escaping or countering the hold, including a wild move where he completely spins himself into the ropes to force a break. Unlike the draw that Suzuki and Shamrock had on the debut show, this is never obvious about its final outcome. Also, unlike Shamrock’s match on this show, the anger and intensity bubbles to the surface and results in a palm strike exchange between both men that busts up Suzuki’s nose. The pro-style spots, namely Suzuki’s piledriver, are an odd inclusion here, but it still comes off well. The piledriver itself was a quick reaction to a sudden escape by Sano, rather than Suzuki specifically looking to do it and he spikes Sano pretty good with it. There’s another seemingly odd moment when Suzuki attempts a pro-style roll up, but he only uses it to get Sano into position for a legbar.

The only thing that really feels off putting is in the last minute or so. Suzuki hams it up a bit after another series of palm strikes from Sano, he stumbles around closer to what you’d expect from someone like Terry Funk and then charges in with a suplex and tries for a chickenwing armlock. Suzuki is seemingly too spent to get the chickenwing on and instead opts for a less dangerous half-crab, which predictably isn’t enough to tap out Sano, and then they wrench on each other’s legs as the time limit runs out. Seeing as Sano was already established and had a win over Shamrock (which Suzuki hadn’t been able to do), it would have been just as easy for Suzuki to fight for the chickenwing armlock and finally lock it in as time expired. But that little bit of peculiarity doesn’t come close to tearing down what they accomplish. None of the matches on the first two PWFG shows, let alone the undercard of this one, even sniff this one when it comes to engrossing work and taking advantage of the time given.

YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA vs. MASAKATZU FUNAKI

All things considered, this is a pretty anticlimactic follow up to the Sano/Suzuki match. Despite Fujiwara and Funaki being positioned as the top two guys in the company, this feels more like an exhibition than anything else. There’s no sense of urgency from either of them until the very end when Funaki is doing his damnedest to win by KO and gives The Fuj the opening to wrap him up and force a submission . There are times that they show why they’re considered two of the best at this style; watch the way that Funaki is fighting for a chickenwing armlock and when he sees that Fujiwara’s leg is exposed, he seamlessly switches to an Achillies hold and forces a rope break. A bit later, Fujiwara manages to catch Funaki’s leg when he tries a kick, but Funaki is able to avoid getting tripped up and it’s Fujiwara who gets taken down. They’re both damn near perfect at selling the effects of the other’s trademark strikes, Funaki’s kicks and Fujiwara’s headbutt. This was the first match of the PWFG era that truly presented both men with a real challenge, but neither of them saw fit to approach it as such. Their UWF match the previous September wasn’t a classic, but it still tops this one.

Conclusion: The Sano/Suzuki draw is very much worth going out of your way to see, but there’s nothing much else here. It says a lot when Bart Vale is in one of the top three matches.