I don’t think the Franklin fight was a work or that Ken threw it. I think it just played out in a weird way. Ken didn’t shoot for an ankle. He stepped forward to punch and we went down because his toes got caught on the mat and grabbed at the leg after he simple fell down.
The Kimbo fight was definitely fishy as hell. Not only did Ken fail to finish a locked in RNC with Kimbo flattened out, but they also appeared to be talking to each other during the fight.
Kimo, I don’t know. He seemed to give up position in that fight.
The Bart Vale “fight” was never meant to be anything but a stiff style pro wrestling match in a pro wrestling organization and it was in Florida, not Japan. I’m sure Bart Vale claimed it was legit since he used to say all his rasslin matches were real fights.
A probable work from Ken is the Matt Hume fight in Pancrase. It looked like the most scripted shit ever. It was claimed by some of his Lion’s Den boys that it wasn’t exactly a work but that Ken was told to carry Hume and try to make it exciting. I don’t buy that. Matt Hume was a very skilled guy and not someone you can “carry.”
I’ve never heard anyone question either Kimo fight and don’t see why anyone would.
Vale didn’t pull his punches when he was supposed to. Bitch move.
In a real fight he would have nothing for Ken.
Hume was indeed very skilled, but Ken absolutely could have carried him.
However, that was billed as an exhibition match.
I guess that didn’t translate well because it’s still on official records records when it shouldn’t be.
The sunset flip to keylock finish was a dead giveaway.
Hmmm! Perhaps you should cogitate some more on the bart vs ken match, it was in Japan, Bart only had 2 events in Florida, in the first he was against yoshiaki fujiwara, who he insinuated was toshio fujiwara, the famous Muay Thai fighter from meijiro . I’m talking about the pwfg events, Bart had quite a few amateur events using pancrase rules
Hume vs ken was advertised as an “exciting wrestling exhibition” , they were throwing the UWF audience a bone in that most of the matches had very little tit for tat