MOVING ON 3^RD

July 3, 1991

Yuko Miyato . . . takes his rightful place at the very bottom of the U-Inter totem pole, being unable to beat the lowly foreigner who was coming off a loss to the relative rookie.

Kiyoshi Tamura . . . puts on the first verifiable classic match of the UWFI era; not too shabby for barely being two years removed from his debut.

Kazuo Yamazaki . . . shows J.T. Southern that playing guitar and feuding with Van Hammer isn’t exactly the worst gig in the world.

YUKO MIYATO vs. TOM BURTON

Well, if nothing else this fleshes out the roster hierarchy a little bit more. Being a big burly guy that can throw a few suplexes didn’t give Burton much help against Tamura, but it’s wonderfully effective against Miyato. So, apparently Miyato’s role as perennial towel boy in the UWF has carried over to U-Inter. There’s pretty much nothing that happens for the first five minutes; Miyato wants to keep Burton at bay with his kicks, but they do precious little to fend him off and Burton keeps stalking Miyato looking to shoot in, but nothing much comes of it. Once they announce that five minutes are gone, then Miyato springs to life with a series of leg kicks that knock him down and then locks in a couple of submissions that force rope breaks, and it looks like Burton is bleeding away his points. Then, Burton catches a kick and takes Miyato down with a belly to belly and a legbar for a rope break, and Burton keeps bombing Miyato with suplexes and throws and winds up submitting him with a crab hold. There were also a couple of odd moments as far as the refereeing went; one of Burton’s first offensive bursts was a series of knees to the midsection that knocked Miyato down and kept him down for a bit, but the ref never makes a call or starts a count. Also, one of Miyato’s legbars gets locked in when Miyato is clearly under the bottom rope, but the ref still docks a point from Burton. The last couple of minutes were certainly a change of pace; Burton looked like the precursor to Albright with the way that he was throwing Miyato around. It makes one wonder if Takada saw the potential in a rival of that mold and realized that the two losses he’d already suffered meant that Burton couldn’t be that guy.

YOJI ANJO vs. KIYOSHI TAMURA

Despite losing in the end, Tamura’s stock continues to rise after an almost epic performance. Tamura and Anjo put on a Bonafide mat classic; showing more grace, skill and fluidity than any other pairing in any other UWFI match up to this point. Anjo is usually a good enough wrestler to justify his smarmy attitude, but Tamura’s speed and skill shows him early on that he can’t afford to toy around with him the way that he probably assumed. Tamura can escape a hold in the blink of an eye and get one of his own on. So, if Tamura is able to think one move ahead, then Anjo has to think two and he’s good enough to be able to pull it off. One only needs to look at Tamura’s reaction after Anjo outsmarts him and makes him use the second rope break. He’s just as frustrated at himself for getting outsmarted, as he is at the fact that Anjo put one over on him.

After a series of knees and kicks to the ribs knock Tamura down and expose his ribs as a weak spot, it looks like Anjo finally made his point and that he’s got the kid beat. He does, but Tamura doesn’t make it any easier for him to get there. He still shows that he can take him by surprise by nearly wrapping him up in a chickenwing armlock and still showing remarkable speed at getting out of a legbar. Anjo also knows how dangerous it is to go right at Tamura with strikes, so he takes a different approach, to both further wear him down and also show off his famous smarminess. He locks Tamura in a relatively simple hold, a single leg crab, and makes sure to do it in the center of the ring. The actual hold poses no threat to Tamura, but the effort of pushing himself up and crawling to the ropes only puts that much more stress on the ribs. Tamura’s body finally gives out on him after a knee to the gut and a windmill suplex that Anjo uses to set up a legbar. Tamura still has no problem getting free of the hold, but he's unable to turn it into his own crab hold, and he finally collapses into the ropes. Anjo hits one more knee and tries a throw that Tamura can’t even go along with. One last crab hold, this time sunk in as much as possible, finally forces Tamura to give it up.

The fact that Anjo wins hardly matters to anyone watching. The big takeaway is that the kid, who is by all accounts still a rookie, just stepped up to Anjo and showed how good he really is. On some level it’s reminiscent of the UWF matches that Yamazaki had with Maeda and Fujiwara, although Yamazaki had a lot more experience than Tamura does here. But the end result is the same. The kid may have lost tonight, but it’s obvious that he’ll get his shots later on, and if he’s already performing at this level after such a short time, then the rest of the roster had better take notice.

KAZUO YAMZAKI vs. J.T. SOUTHERN

Despite the disparity in ability between the two men, this is actually watchable for the most part. For as limited as Southern may be, Yamazaki is willing to let him look a little competent by doggedly keeping him locked up in a few different holds, even if they weren’t more than just rest holds. Seeing J.T. Southern bust out an STF was certainly unexpected. However, the real fun is when Yamazaki decides to stop being such a gentleman. He starts with a couple of vicious low kicks that actually wake up Southern. He gets more aggressive and fights back with some strikes of his own and he even takes Yamazaki down with a suplex. But his lack of mat skills creeps back up on him, he’s able to get Yamazaki into position for a chickenwing and then an armbar, but he can’t actually get anything locked in, and after patiently waiting for the opening it’s Yamazaki who gets the armbar and sends him to the ropes. Yamazaki goes back to his low kicks, and Southern tries to fight back but Yamazaki seamlessly grabs a legbar when Southern pushes him down and J.T. submits in short order.

NOBUHIKO TAKADA vs. TATSUO NAKANO

Well, this is a main event mismatch if there ever was one. Nakano was able to get past Anjo because he had the one knack that Anjo wasn’t able to counteract, but that isn’t a problem for Takada. Realistically, Takada makes Nakano look as good as possible without sacrificing his own credibility. Nakano wants his German and Takada stops him from doing it at all costs, which, in its own way, gives credence to the move. The first two times that Nakano tries for it, Takada blocks it and forces Nakano to do something of a rolling takedown and forcing Nakano into a mat battle that he has no chance of winning. Nakano does surprise Takada with a vertical suplex, which doesn’t hurt him, but it does give Nakano an opening to get off a series of kicks and knees that causes a knockdown. After that, Takada decides that enough is enough and tries a lot harder to finish the match, unleashing some strikes on Nakano, as well as a throw of his own that leads to a single leg crab and a rope break. Nakano thinks he sees the opening for one more German suplex and once again Takada blocks, but Nakano is ready and tries to take Takada down into a sleeper. But Nakano just isn’t good enough on the mat to beat Takada, and Takada is able to work his way into a cross kneelock and submit Nakano. Nakano never had a prayer of winning, but it was nice to see Takada do a few things, and allow Nakano to get off a few things, to show that he’s not a complete lost cause; and while he’ll never be on the level of a Takada or Yamazaki, that he’s got enough skill and talent to hold his own.

Conclusion: The Anjo/Tamura match is a legit classic. The rest of the card, not so much, but it’s still more than watchable.