Super Tiger vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara (UWF) 09/11/1985
This was a great match to continue this rivalry. Super Tiger had defeated Fujiwara in the previous two bouts. The story of the entire match was that of Fujiwara trying to tame this wild animal and his flurry of attacks. From the start we get Tiger unleashing his devastating kicks. Fujiwara goes right after the left leg. Fujiwara’s attack on the leg was intense. He smoothly transitioned from hold to hold with great focus and intent. Tiger did an excellent job selling the leg while still throwing kicks with his right leg. Both wrestlers were consistent with their work. The match had great escalation that was properly done throughout. This first stage set the groundwork for the next phase.
Tiger countered Fujiwara’s leg attack by absolutely battering him with kicks with his other leg. He kicks him everywhere: on the legs, on the torso and on the head. These were some nasty kicks. At one point he does a spinning kick right to Fujiwara’s face while Fujiwara is backed up in a corner. I replayed the spot about five times. He also begins to kick him with his left leg in the torso in an act of defiance. It was a great no-sell but at the same time was still able to sell the leg. When Tiger would kick the torso with the right leg Fujiwara would go down with one or two kicks. With the left leg, Fujiwara took like four kicks but still did not go down. The kicks with the left leg were not as effective as the ones with the right leg. It’s a clever way to no-sell and sell at the same time.
The escalation continued onto this third phase. Here it seemed both wrestlers have had enough of each other’s BS and just starting throwing suplexes and some nasty strikes. It was Tiger’s frustration that got the best of him here. He drifted away from what was working for him earlier in the match. At one point he even tried to do a Fujiwara armbar which Fujiwara easily escaped. The finish saw Fujiwara reverse a suplex attempt with an elbow to the face and some other type of armbar (I’m bad with move names). It was a bit anticlimactic even though I understand what they were going for. They wanted to go for the quick “gotcha” victory in order to show Tiger’s mistake. They could have reincorporated the leg here to really hammer home the point they were trying to make. Fujiwara finally gets the win against Tiger and did so by staying consistent with his plan.
Final Rating - ****¼
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