ASTRAL STEP 2^nd

August 1, 1991

Mitsuya Nagai . . . has the distinction of being the first RINGS rookie.

Chris Dolman . . . proves why the old adage of ‘substance over style’ rings true when he completely shuts down the shootstyle equivalent of Kenny Omega.

Dick Leon Vrij . . . basically becomes a made man by beating the stuffings out of Akira Maeda.

The tape begins with the customary bit with all the fighters on the card being introduced inside the ring. The music choice for the night is some amazingly bad hip-hop, on par with the WrestleRock Rumble!

HERMAN RENTING vs. MITSUYA NAGAI

The fact that Young Boy Nagai isn’t just out there to be Herman’s tackling dummy says a lot about either how little the promotion thinks of Herman, or how much they think of Nagai. Nagai puts on a pretty decent showing for himself. He’s clearly the more aggressive fighter, even if a good number of his kicks don’t land all that cleanly. Herman wants to take him down, but he can’t accomplish very much on the occasions when he’s able to do so. Most of that is due to Nagai being close enough to the ropes so that the ref breaks them up without Nagai actually using a rope break, but the few times that Herman tries to push Nagai into a mat battle, it’s Herman who winds up grabbing the ropes. Nagai also shows off some quick and clever escapes when Herman is looking for a sleeper or a headlock, although he’s no Tamura in that regard. And after Nagai misses a spin kick, it seems like Herman finally has the chance to put him away, but Nagai just rolls Herman over and locks in a juji-gatame and taps him out.

CHRIS DOLMAN vs. TOM VAN MAURIK

Although this is certainly flashier than the opener, it’s not really any better or worse. The flash makes it seem more exciting, but flash isn’t a substitute for substance, which is a lesson that Tom learns the hard way. He throws a few pretty kicks, but they don’t do him much good when Dolman can easily take him down and lock in holds that force him to use the ropes to bail. Tom gets one down on Dolman, from a series of knees to the body, but Dolman gets two of his own as well as two rope breaks. Once Dolman is able to start scouting the kicks, any chance of winning for Tom pretty much dries up. Dolman starts catching them and taking him down and pummeling him, and it doesn’t take long at all for him to lock in a heel hook and end it.

WILLY WILHELM vs. PIETER SMIT

Aside from the one down that Smit scores, which stands out for the wrong reason, and arguably the finish, this is pretty nondescript. Their work is far from smooth, and there’s no sense of build or storytelling from either of them. They lock up and grapple and roll on the mat for a bit until there’s either a rope break or an escape. The only thing that seems to have any thought put into it is the finish. Wilhelm had tried for the juji-gatame several times and Smit was ready with an escape. Wilhelm goes back to the hold, knowing exactly what Smit is going to do, when Smit does the escape Wilhelm takes him by surprise and cinches in a choke.

AKIRA MAEDA vs. DICK LEON VRIJ

Who would have guessed that out of the three aces from the UWF offshoots, that it would be Maeda who does the first job? The heavy wrapping on his knee played a role in it, but at the end of the day Vrij comes out of this looking like an unstoppable monster. He comes right at Maeda as soon as the bell rings and starts throwing knees and kicks, and he doesn’t let up until Maeda goes down for the last time. Maeda manages to fire back with a few kicks, and they have almost no effect. It looks like Maeda is finally going to get something going when he surprises Vrij with a throw and looks for an armbar, but Vrij escapes and resumes his thrashing. Maeda gets a little space and throws a kick, and Vrij catches it and kicks Maeda in his wrapped up knee and knocks him down, and everyone knows that Maeda is screwed. Vrij waits for Maeda to get up and hits a knee to the body and a head kick and Maeda is down and out. The layout of this is brilliant. Vrij becomes a made man with this win, and the idea that he came into the match hurt keeps Maeda’s ace credibility intact. The RINGS roster isn’t very deep yet, but they’ve still got enough guys to keep Vrij busy for a bit to keep him strong, as well as names for Maeda to work and rehab himself, and build to the rematch.

Conclusion: Aside from the surprise result of the main event, there’s nothing especially earth shattering on this card. It’s relatively short (four matches, and only one goes over ten minutes) and solid overall. So, it’s not a bad pickup but nothing to rush out and grab.