Kakutogi Road Presents: U.W.F. 1984 Year In Review
*Editors Note: Mike Lorefice (of MMA/Puroresu mega-center) will have his comments be preceded by his initials. *
No one could have known that in September of 1984, a group of disgruntled professional wrestlers from Japan would change the world by doing something as seemingly simple as injecting some much-needed realism into the wrestling landscape, digging into their various influences in “real” martial arts to bring a breath of fresh air into “fake” fighting. Like many other examples of events that altered history, this had less to do with any sort of formal calculation on the parts of the participants but was more of a case of serendipity abounding once again. To understand the dynamics that led to this cataclysm, we must first go back a year.
In 1983 the New Japan Pro Wrestling promotion was doing record business, going as far as to sell out 90% of all their events. However, its founder Antonio Inoki had recently invested a lot of money into a failing biotech company based in Brazil which prompted him to skim a considerable amount of revenue that the New Japan promotion was bringing in to try and offset his losses. These financial shenanigans eventually became known to the rest of the company, where certain members prompted a coup, thereby forcing Antonio Inoki and his head booker, Hisashi Shinma, to resign. Since its inception in 1972, NJPW was based around its hero and main attraction, Inoki, but in June of 1983, he suffered an injury, which going by historical precedent would normally lead to a downturn for a pro-wrestling business. However, this wound up not being the case as business continued to boom, despite his being sidelined by injury, thanks to his other stars within the promotion, especially guys like Riki Choshu, Tatsumi Fujinami, and Jr. Heavyweight sensation, Satoru Sayama.
This forced people to take notice and see that Inoki wasn’t the only one responsible for the successes of New Japan, but this newfound respect given to other members of the roster did not do anything to increase their pay, and in fact, some had even received pay cuts due to money being funneled into corrupt side ventures by Inoki and Shinma. This perfect storm was all it took to prompt Inoki and Shinma to want to seek a fresh start, thus the idea of the U.W.F. was born, not out of artistic desire, but rather a necessity borne of self-preservation. The wheels were in motion to make the transition when Japanese television company, TV-Asahi, stated in no uncertain terms that they would refuse to continue to air NJPW without the involvement of Inoki.
In those days, Japanese pro wrestling was dead in the water without a tv-deal, and no amount of personal indiscretions on the part of Inoki would be enough for the brass of NJPW to be willing to lose out on one. So, this leads to all being forgiven, and Inoki being reinstated as president. This surely had the side-effect of disillusioning many of the up-and-coming stars within the promotion as their time in the spotlight would have to now be curtailed, or at least blunted, to make room for Inoki, once again.
While Inoki was back in the good graces of television executives everywhere, Shinma, on the other hand, was still persona non grata . He was now being forced to trudge into the unknown, this time without the star power of Inoki. Because of this, he was now in dire need of a fresh face to build his new promotion around, which is where Akira Maeda came into play. Maeda was a Sediokaikan karate practitioner in the late 70s and was allegedly discovered by Shinma at a karate tournament in 1977. Maeda was actually of Korean descent, which helped gift him with an athletic 6’3, 240-pound frame, which many of his Japanese contemporaries lacked.
At first, it looked like things were doomed for the U.W.F. from the get-go, as when Inoki was still on-board Fuji Television expressed interest in televising the product, but when Inoki left, so did Fuji. Maeda was deemed to be an unproven commodity, and thus too risky for their investment. To make matters more bizarre, when the U.W.F. held their first event on 4-11-84, it was a dog’s breakfast of styles, ranging from tepid puroresu where Japanese natives would square off against Americans that seemed like they mistakenly missed their flight to Amarillo, TX, and wound up at the Korakuen Hall instead, to inspired, hard-hitting, Lucha Libre. To view the first U.W.F. event would make someone think that this outfit had an identity crisis on its hands. Surely, one would have never gotten the impression that this promotion would have led to being one of the most important to ever exist, not only for its influence on Japanese pro wrestling but even to the effects it has had on modern-day MMA.
Thankfully, hope was around the corner when an influx of disaffected talents joined forces with Shinma and Maeda. After three months of languishing without a clear sense of direction, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Satrou Sayama, Nobuhiko Takada, and Kazuo Yamazaki all joined the roster, and almost instantly breathed purpose and life into this fledging outfit. All of the above, with the exception of Takada, had notable experience with “real” martial arts, in addition to their professional wrestling training, which proved to be an instant complement to Maeda’s natural abilities. This shift to a direction based around realism and martial arts was further accelerated when performers like Rusher Kimura, Ryuma Go, Mach Hayato, and Gran Hamada (who were all part of the original roster) all felt like their styles didn’t mesh with the new direction the company was taking, and all, eventually, bailed as a result.
Besides their martial arts camaraderie, the glue that bound this upstart group had to be that each one of them felt held back to some degree under NJPW and Inoki. Fujiwara was a standout collegiate judoka before joining the New Japan Dojo and becoming one of their first graduates in 1972. However, he never received much in the way of a main event push during his initial run with New Japan but did manage to garner some respect behind the scenes for his judo acumen, even prompting Inoki to have him tag along in his corner for his infamous bout against Muhammed Ali.
Sayama was the biggest surprise here, as he had quit NJPW over Shinma’s financial mismanagement. However, he decided to go all-in for the U.W.F. even going as far as to blast NJPW in interviews with the Japanese press, claiming that Inoki held his younger wrestlers back. Wisely, the newfound U.W.F. didn’t let a good controversy go to waste and took this opportunity to proclaim NJPW and other wrestling companies as pure hokum, and brazenly declare that they were providing real shoots to the public. Long before Eric Bischoff was deemed a revolutionary for giving away RAW results on live television, the U.W.F. crew engaged in guerrilla warfare, by breaking all the unwritten conventions of kayfabe at the time, by not only acknowledging the existence of other wrestling promotions but even taking the time to blast them as well, decrying them as frauds and charlatans.
Their unconventional antics led to them being very popular in Tokyo and other major metro areas, but the lack of a television deal limited their ability to break out to a wider audience. Two major problems began to arise behind the scenes, the first was a growing wave of resentment from many of the wrestlers of how Sayama would constantly insist on winning all of his matches, and the other was their inability to become more than a cult promotion. This 2nd problem was the biggest obstacle as it led to poor ticket sales whenever they would tour more rural areas of Japan. To compound matters, Sayama’s concept of a sport based around shooting (which later became Shooto) was already in his heart, and he was trying to encourage the UWF to move to an entirely shoot-based format, with “shooting” rules. Sayama also wanted to only stick to major markets, and run shows once a month, as anything more than that would be problematic as shooting takes a harder toll on the body than cooperative pro wrestling matches.
Sayama was already financially stable when he went into the UWF, due to the success of his Super Tiger Gym, but the rest of the wrestlers on the roster, in addition to the back office, were struggling financially. This caused many of them to be leery of Sayama’s ideas, as they felt that it would be unable to draw enough money with only real fights and didn’t want to risk not frequently traveling to different cities like most standard pro-wrestling companies. Sayama was dogmatic and adamant about his philosophies which irked many in the company but was too popular to just be dismissed outright. This problem would soon rectify itself as Maeda and Sayama (who were also increasingly bickering about the direction and essence of the promotion) eventually came to blows on 9-2-85 when what was supposed to be another routine match led to a shoot, Maeda being fired, and Sayama quitting pro wrestling in disgust. (We cover this incident in much greater detail in Kakutogi Road: Volume 1). Of course, with their two main stars out of the picture there was no way to survive going forward, and the company soon folded. Perhaps the greatest irony was that the UWF would later adopt Sayama’s booking philosophy of only having one monthly show, when they reformed in 1988.
With all of this said, we are now ready to examine the best that 1984 had to offer. We are doing this because Mike Lorefice, and myself, would continually find ourselves with lingering questions while doing our regular columns. Was Suzuki always good, or did he slowly grow into it? Did Fujiwara always look like a 70-year-old crypt keeper? How much has the style changed between 84 and 92? These are just some of the things that we seek greater clarity on, which in turn should not only provide us a better context to work with but our readers as well. We will be punctuating our regular columns with an examination and highlight the best moments of the UWF’s life from 84-90. So, without further ado… let us proudly present:
UWF: 1984’ Year in Review.
Chronological List of the best matches of 1984 UWF:
4/11/84: Gran Hamada vs. Perro Aguayo 13:17
ML: The first UWF card beared no resemblance to shoot wrestling, but was rather a standard New Japan card of native vs. gaijin battles plus a couple lucha libre matches with performers who toured with New Japan. To show just how far we are away from what we’d come to expect from this promotion, the highlight of this show shockingly started with outside interference, and ended with the heel bludgeoning the face with scissors until he was disqualified. This may not be the UWF we know and love, but this was a very effective lucha libre brawl dominated by the dickish Perro Aguayo, with Gran Hamada looking great when he was actually allowed to do anything. Hamada was so far behind, really before the match even started, as Perro jumped him before the bell, then his seconds, including El Texano & El Signo, mauled him on the outside. Hamada had massive speed and athleticism advantages, but even when they were on the move, was just as often bowled over by the larger heel. Aguayo was much better as a rudo, as his offense has never been more than serviceable, but he can gain some traction with sort of dickish, low skill maneuvers. Hamada finally made his hot comeback, including a nice tope, but Aguayo brutally cracked him with an open chair, sending Hamada to the floor where his second, Mano Negra, very obviously bladed him. Perro than gored the bloody Hamada with scissors the ref finally had enough of his dastardly tactics, a very unsatisfactory early finish to a match that seemed to be building to something quite good, though it didn’t prevent Perro & friends from several more minutes of beating Hamada down & further opening the wound. ***
4/17/84 2/3 Falls WWF Light Heavyweight Title: Perro Aguayo vs. Gran Hamada 13:10.
ML: While similar to their previous match in terms of what they did overall, they ordered things better here, so it felt more like an actual wrestling match, and generally made it a faster and more entertaining. One thing that was surprising is Aguayo didn’t win a fall, especially since he was completely dominant in their April 11 match, and was still doing quite well here other than on the scoreboard. Aguayo started out trying to wrestle, charging at the bell into a back body drop and soon going for a senton atomico that Hamada avoided. Hamada hit a nice pescado, but rather than let him start to go off, Aguayo immediately came back with a low blow and brought out the scissors, once again bloodying Hamada. Again, Aguayo was disqualified, but since he had nothing to lose, he was able to go wild with the scissors in between falls, which set him up to dominate the second fall. The start of the second fall was mostly Perro punching the cut open further, until Hamada made a nice comeback with a tope, and posted Aguayo for revenge. From here, they picked things up for more or less a lengthy back & forth finishing sequence, thankfully in the Japanese style. This brought things back to an actual wrestling match, and did a much better job of showcasing both men’s abilities. There was a pretty nasty spot where Aguayo didn’t catch Hamada properly trying to counter his reverse diving body attack off the 2nd, so he decided to just slam him on his head. The actual finish seemed weaker than many of the near falls, but ending with a clean pin was a big improvement. Though Hamada had the best match on the first two big shows, this was to be his last match with the company, as the arrival of Satoru Sayama & Kazuo Yamazaki shifted the promotion away from the flying lucha libre style. Hamada ended up jumping to All Japan (later followed by Rusher Kimura & Ryuma Go), a promotion that ironically never cared about wrestlers his size or style, which sadly put a damper on his career in Japan until he began the lucharesu revolution in 1990 by starting his own version of Universal. ***3/4
7/23/84: The Tiger & Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Akira Maeda 16:24
MB: Herein marks the true debut of this promotion. After their inaugural event on 4-11-84, Shinma ran 4 more events that month, all of which were minor variations of the first. Then they ceased activity for three months, presumably to regroup, with Sayama, Fujiwara, Takada, and Yamazaki now the core ensemble of featured performers. Even young Betz had little tolerance for tag-team matches, but this was a good choice to present the new direction of the company, and put Japan on notice that there was a new posse in town. It also helped establish the ancient booking style that the UWF-I would become so fond of, where they could appease the ego of Takada by occasionally having him to lose in such a format. Because, as we all know, tag-team losses don’t count. What followed was fun, refreshing, and way ahead of the curve for 1984. This was still a nascent and developing style, so while it wasn’t a good example of a real fight, or even what a shoot-style one would look like 8 years later, it was a huge stride towards injecting more realism into the proceedings. Gone are the Irish whips and comically fake punches, and we are instead treated to more realistic takedowns, nice judo, and submissions like the heel-hook and ankle lock (as opposed to the surfboard and spinning toe-hold). Clearly, it was still pro wrestling, and in what was perhaps its greatest irony, it was Sayama that was the biggest offender in this regard. The Tiger provided flying knee drops, flashy kicks, and plenty of theatrics, which is amusing since he probably had the greatest heart towards real shooting of anyone when compared to his contemporaries. This was 16min of silly fun, and because of its fast-paced/loose nature was more entertaining than a lot of the more “serious” matches that followed, but it’s the first glimpse into this outfit finding their unique voice. Graded on 1984 pro wrestling standards I would give it *** ¾
ML: The Tiger & Nobuhiko Takada vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Akira Maeda 16:24.Satoru Sayama made his debut here at the start of the second tour in one of two matches he worked as simply The Tiger before realizing he was Super. While he is clearly the best kicker in the promotion, initially he didn’t shift the UWF toward the realistic style it would become known for, as he was still doing much of his athletic Tiger Mask style. This was still just an energetic big New Japan tag match with all the signature high spots of that time, the diving headbutt (more than halfway across the ring), missile kick, powerbomb, and so on. Even though Sayama is a junior heavyweight who hadn’t wrestled in a year going up against two heavyweight stars, he was treated as more than an equal, something we would continue to see here, with the match designed to feature him to set up the two key programs from the early UWF, Super Tiger vs. Fujiwara and Maeda. Tiger was massively over, with the crowd being surprisingly vocal for everyone, and pretty much single handedly made the match. Takada, on the other hand, was the weak link with only three years of experience. He was still a bit awkward at times, but certainly game, and showed great potential as a junior style kicker. Maeda stayed in the background to some extent, while still clearly being the big gun for his team with his Kwick-Kicks and somewhat bomby offense .Fujiwara didn’t do a lot to stand out offensively, as expected, but he was the glue that held the match together, adding some realism and doing a good job of making the opposition look good. I liked that Fujiwara was able to block Takada’s suplex and use the underhooks to set up his own German suplex, but his bridge was poor, and this just seemed so random and out of nowhere as the finish. ***1/2
7/24/84: The Tiger vs. Mach Hayato 9:17.
ML: Purely a high flying New Japan junior heavyweight match, with the first moonsault attempted in the UWF, though Hayato avoided. It was great to see Sayama doing his thing again after a year away from the sport, but he was obviously a bit rusty, Hayato is certainly no Dynamite Kid, and the match also suffered from the lack of familiarity between these two, as I believe this was their first pairing with Hayato coming over from All Japan. This had by far the most action of any UWF match we’ve seen so far, but it was also the sloppiest. Hayato wasn’t a great worker by any means, but he also had a lot of offense, including a sweet slingshot senton to the floor, so this wasn’t one of those matches that stagnated when the babyface wasn’t on offense. A fun match, but certainly below the high level of the typical Tiger New Japan match. ***
9/7/84: Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara 19:07.
MB: As we continue deeper into '84, we can see that Karl Gotch’s role has expanded from being a mere guest of honor to that of a full-fledged brand ambassador. He greets the crowd while a vignette of him training with Takada & Fujiwara plays, and he is fully embracing this new direction. Right away we can see a greater step into more realistic waters, with Sayama carefully feinting before engaging, and both men giving us mat-work that leads to actual submissions. Oddly, Sayama is the gentle one here, putting Fujiwara in a correct armbar, but slowly, giving him plenty of time to escape. Fujiwara, on the other hand, cranks his Kimuras with far more torque than seems appropriate for a work, making Sayama’s rush to the ropes feel legit. I must award more points to Fujiwara for putting Sayama in a legit armbar-to-triangle entry, where he squeezed with real pressure, only he was shrewd enough to angle Sayama close enough to the ropes for an easy escape. This was before the days of point deductions, and with unlimited rope-escapes, it was easier to execute submissions properly, as long as your opponent was close enough to a rope. This still had plenty of pro wrestling moments with some piledrivers, flying knee drops, and even a figure-four leg-lock, but in spite of that, it holds up better than some of what we’ve been witnessing in 1991-92 because they managed to create and maintain an air of intensity, almost feeling like a grudge match at times. *** ¾
ML: The UWF as we know it more or less began here. While far from a perfect martial arts match, this left many of the shenanigans behind, and aspired to deliver a new, real fight oriented style. Granted, it was more of a soft transition than a hard one, as Tiger still tried the diving kneedrop and moonsault, but now while it was maybe still half a New Japan match, most of the non piledriver craziness missed. Tiger really had to change his game dramatically, and all the high flying acrobatics he shelved were what made him one of the most popular & successful wrestlers in the world during the previous 3 years. Given how far ahead of his time he was in the junior heavyweight style, this was probably never going to be his best style, but he also really couldn’t take things much further in the junior style than he already had, and his interest was an innovation rather than stagnation. Meanwhile, Fujiwara was an easy choice to lead the way, as he wasn’t really gaining a lot from the pro wrestling style anyway, much of it was a compromise to fit in with the other showmen. Fujiwara did a nice job of both using his size advantage and being a sadistic badass here. He really owned Tiger on the mat, beating him by working the arm early, then catching kicks, which were the main part of Tiger’s game that actually translated to shoot style, when Tiger tried to actually play to his own advantage. Fujiwara injuring Tiger’s left knee later also provided an excuse for less gymnastics than the crowd surely expected. The match was well laid out when Fujiwara grinding away for the majority, making Tiger work for everything, but Tiger delivering energetic bursts when he could actually work at distance to thrill the crowd. Fujiwara controlled a lot more than one would expect, especially coming off the 7/23/84 tag match where Takada did all the selling so Tiger could get the star treatment, but Tiger eventually countered Fujiwara holding his foot with a spinning kick, and hit two high kicks into a crossface chickenwing for the win. ***1/2
9/11/84: Super Tiger vs. Akira Maeda 18:58.
MB: MB: Only four days have passed, and we are already getting to see another giant step forward in this style. For the first time since…ever, we get to see two personal wrestlers move and act like they are in a real fight. As soon as the bell rings, both men are parrying, feinting, and generally acting as if their actions had consequences, as opposed to the ancient tradition of most pro wrestlers who stay dormant and allow their opponents to do whatever they please. From the onset, it’s clear that Sayama has to figure out how he is going to get inside the perimeter of his much larger foe. He does this wonderfully about a minute into the match when, in an excellent display of subtle ingenuity, he rapidly chains together a series of quick feints, first with a palm strike, then a takedown, and lastly a quick low kick followed by a single leg. Maeda is flowing better with Sayama in the standing portions compared to Fujiwara, perhaps due to his karate background, but the ne-waza had its credibility stretching moments. Whereas Fujiwara wisely waited until he was already close to the ropes before attacking a joint, both Sayama and Maeda were guilty of slapping on a half-force submission in the center of the ring, and then practically having to drag the other one to the ropes for an escape. Theatrics aside, this was a very entertaining and solid early showcase for this style. Thankfully, despite the combat being dipped in an entertaining syrup, the intensity of these two never allowed the action to become farcical. *** ¾
ML: This was the first UWF match that felt like actual shoot style. I mean, it was probably still 25% New Japan, but it finally mostly had the air of noncooperation, and a real sense of danger to the big kicks and submissions. The basis of the match with some great standup movement, footwork, and feints from Tiger leading into primitive takedowns was very good. One of the problems was both are miles better on their feet, and while Tiger was mostly losing on the ground again, as he did in the Fujiwara match, Maeda is somewhat bland and random there. The heat was tremendous with both men being super over, and the match was very intense, which along with the novelty of the style, went a long way toward making up for Maeda’s liabilities. Still, this was mostly better than Tiger vs. Fujiwara because the standup was great, and it was more unpredictable. On the ground, Fujiwara certainly brings a lot more than Maeda, both in terms of craft and guile, but whereas Fujiwara mostly ground Tiger out on the mat, Tiger was allowed to show a lot more offense here, and looked typically outstanding. In the end, this match was actually more believable while also being a lot more exciting, and even the few crazy highspots such as Tiger’s tombstone into the moonsault didn’t take me out of the match this time. Tiger again won with the chickenwing crossface, and this was one of the biggest upset wins of his career, as while both Tiger and Maeda rarely lost in New Japan, Tiger did it in the junior heavyweight division. The win over Fujiwara showed Tiger’s potential as a heavyweight, but beating the promotion’s top star in his first attempt really showed that this promotion might finally be one that value skill over weight. ****
10/5/84: Akira Maeda & Super Tiger vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara & Osamu Kido 25:35.
ML: An interesting match in the evolution, with Sayama continuing to adapt his junior heavyweight style by developing his striking game, on one hand really setting himself apart with his speed and athleticism and seeming a truly unique performer, on the other hand seeming by far the most New Japan of a bunch. Sayama is nonetheless a savant, and the problem was the other three aren’t very inventive, to the point of almost seeming interchangeable by all basing their offense around getting the opponent down so they could work a Kimura. Sayama, on the other hand, wanted to spend as little time on the mat as possible, both because the opponents were arguably better there, and definitely because it basically negated all his athletic advantages. Kido was a good addition, as he is a technically proficient worker who has always been more fiery than flashy. There’s a problem with the video at the very end, but somehow Fujiwara goes from being in the crossface that Sayama has been beating everyone with to using it on him to hand Sayama his first defeat in the UWF, somewhat avenging his singles loss on 9/7/84. ***
10/17/84: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 26:48.
ML: Yamazaki was the most realistic fighter in the promotion this year. He probably knew less about shooting than Sayama, his teacher, but he was barely known in New Japan, where he was just a young boy, having debuted just two years earlier. This was actually a benefit in the sense that he wasn’t hampered by feeling compelled to stay true to the high flying style he made famous like Sayama was. In the first main event we’ve seen to feature Yamazaki, we can quickly see that he’s actually fairly well rounded, understanding the footwork necessary to get his strikes in, as well as to set up his single-leg takedown. Yes, Yamazaki was literally the only wrestler here who seemed willing to utilize a proper takedown. Takada, for his part, was much more active this year than in his supposed heyday, and that willingness to scramble, or even just keep turning to maintain the opponent’s back made a huge difference over his main technique in the later years, which was to disguise his cluelessness by laying there calmly, appearing to be plotting his next move. Takada’s high workrate was definitely an asset here, that went a long way toward making up for some of the holes in his technical game, though at this point, he was one of the better grapplers in the league, kind of by default of having been in the junior heavyweight division where you had to be versed in all styles. Right now the undercard style was still more towards New Japan style, but the main event seemed to be the one match that was mostly martial arts oriented. Here, we saw the first real resistance to the (backdrop) suplex, with Yamazaki putting up enough of a fight that Takada wound up coming down on his own head. Yamazaki nearly lost control of his powerbomb, but did manage to pull it of, setting up the bizarre finish where he tried for an Americana, but Takada somehow finished with a no leverage Kimura off his back. This match was truly a huge step forward, as (outside of a couple pro-wrestling high spots that were close enough to being realistic in their opinion) they managed to do a really long match that was never a dull despite not having any of the flourishes it would have included had it been done in New Japan. ***3/4