MOVING ON 4^th

July 30, 1991

Tatsuo Nakano . . . follows his last couple of good showings by reminding everyone why he’s the resident bumbling fool of all shootstyle.

Billy Scott . . . gives everyone a very good first impression of himself.

Yoji Anjo . . . may as well be in a handicap match, for as much as his tag partner for the evening contributes.

TATSUO NAKANO vs. YUKO MIYATO

If nothing else, this is an improvement over their matches from Maeda’s UWF, even if it’s still not exactly good. It’s a bit like the match that Nakano and Anjo had in June, in that the hate and stiffness takes center stage. Neither of them is much of a mat worker, and their early matwork is really only useful for killing time. But, once Miyato starts throwing kicks and Nakano returns fire, this picks up nicely. The down that Miyato scores with a knee to the midsection seems a bit questionable, but Nakano returns fire with a German suplex and a couple of his own downs and racks up a decisive point advantage. Nakano even does a suplex that sends them both tumbling over the top rope, like what Bret and Dynamite were doing in Stampede. Nakano decides to quit playing to his strengths, and instead of continuing to utilize his throws, he goes for the kill with a sleeper hold and Miyato turns his ankle and Nakano winds up submitting. He puts on a good showing, but Nakano came from ahead to lose.

KAZUO YAMAZAKI vs. BILLY SCOTT

What’s this, Yamazaki is paired off with a capable foreigner. What am I watching, and what happened to the U-Inter show? The difference between Billy Scott and J.T. Southern is apparent right off the bat when Yamazaki throws a couple of low kicks, and instead of toppling like a house of cards, Scott responds with some knees of his own. Indeed, between his intensity and knack for coming up with counters when it’s least expected, he looks like a near perfect foil for Yamazaki. And between seeing Yamazaki getting fired up and trying to punish him with kicks, and Scott catching a kick and hitting a nasty German and then going right to a single leg crab to force a rope break, the crowd is with them for pretty much the entire match. Yamazaki finally gets one up on Scott when he escapes a German and hits one of his own, and a still-dazed Scott goes for a takedown and charges himself into a front choke, but for as good as Yamazaki has shown to be, this is one occasion where his win looks to be just as much due to luck as it was skill.

NOBUHIKO TAKADA/KIYOSHI TAMURA vs. YOJI ANJO/JIM BOSS

If Anjo was paired up with pretty much anyone else, this would have been a good main event. Anjo and Tamura start the match like they’re ready to pick up where they left off at the last show, and between the crisp matwork and Anjo’s nastiness (not to mention Takada showing some nastiness of his own), the Takada/Anjo exchanges are also quite nice. Unfortunately, Jimbo and his permed mullet pretty much tank things whenever he tags in. His kicks have the follow-through of someone dipping their toe in the pool to see how cold it is, and his mat skills look pretty much nonexistent. His only contributions to the match are the fact that he gives Anjo time to rest and he gets one knockdown on Tamura. If his job description for the night was something along the lines of Tom Burton on the last couple of shows (hanging in there for about ten minutes with a prelim or young gun) then it wouldn’t be a big deal, but a main event that tops thirty minutes isn’t the setting for someone who brings so little.

The crowd clearly knows what’s going on as well. They’re at a fever pitch (even if this isn’t a Budokan sized crowd) for the opening sequence between Anjo and Tamura, and they stay heated whenever Anjo is involved. But as soon as they get a look at Jimbo and his love taps with his feet, they respond with scorn and indifference. It’s hard to imagine that virtually anyone else on the roster couldn’t have filled the role as Anjo’s partner and brought something more to the table. Hell, Burton had a miniscule amount of credibility to his name after beating Miyato at the last show. And what’s even more absurd is that Anjo wins the match by submitting Miyato to an armbar, so it wasn’t even a case where Boss was just a warm body to take a loss. In terms of the actual wrestling, there’s some great action from Takada, Anjo, and Miyato, and that’s pretty much all that I’ll ever need to say about this.

Conclusion: Looking at the overall show, from a strict wrestling standpoint, I can’t really say this is a bad wrestling show. It’s just too bad that the booking of the main event leaves such a bad taste.