Kazuo Yamazaki vs Nobuhiko Takada (UWF) 12/05/1984
Overall I will say this is a great match despite some flaws that I found with it, particularly due to the style of match. A large portion of this match was very slow and boring. A lot of the mat grappling was very badly done. When Takada had Yamazaki in a hold Yamazaki showed little to no effort to escape. He looked like he was just letting Takada try different holds on him the way you would with a younger sibling when you were kids. This is something that is present in a lot of matches in this shoot style of wrestling. It does not look like a struggle, it looks like cooperation. The crowd proves this theory as they only reacted when the match left the mat. During the mat grappling portions the camera would sometimes point at the crowd and everyone looked bored to death. You really can’t say that they were focused on the work. They were just waiting for something to happen.
Once the match kicked into the next gear it really got good. The mat work in this portion was really great because it was the opposite of the mat work earlier in the match. Both men wrestled with intensity and urgency. The grappling was clean and the strikes were impactful. Yamazaki’s performance was excellent. His comebacks were exciting. Whenever he fought back the crowd went nuts. Takada was a proper dickbag here. He did everything to suppress Yamazaki’s momentum. One spot I really enjoyed was when they were sparring and then went to a neutral position and Takada just slapped Yamazaki. The dynamic between the two was clearly defined and was consistent throughout the match. The finish saw Yamazaki pick up a quick pin with a bridging German suplex. It was a great pay off to the story they told in the match.
Final Rating - ****
No comments:
Post a Comment