Nippon Budokan, Tokyo
4th May 1990
att. 14130
Before we get into the emotional and physical fray of a UWF show (and please, keep reading to meet our special guest writer!) I think it is probably important that, given the haphazard order that I have approached UWF shows, I recap where we are as of May 1990 in order to give some shape to the story.
In 1988 we met the original shoot-style six: Akira Maeda, Nobuhiko Takada, Kazuo Yamazaki, Yoji Anjo, Shigeo Miyato, and Tatsuo Nakano. In this year they would introduce the occasional foreign guest (Norman Smiley, Bob Backlund, Mark Rush, and Bart Vale) and wreck the career of their own trainees in one match (Tsunehito Naito). The jockeying for top slot was contested between Maeda and Takada, with Maeda seeing out the year as kingpin.
Things changed dramatically in 1989, and yet somehow remained the same. Akira Maeda beat all-comers to remain on top. However, the defections of Yoshiaki Fujiwara and his mentees Minoru Suzuki and Masakatsu Funaki from New Japan shook up the midcard scene considerably. Johnny Barrett was the only foreigner who would return time and again, though a number of memorable one-offs including Willy Wilhelm and Trevor 'Power' Clarke kept things fresh. Young trainee Kiyoshi Tamura excited and delighted in his few appearances, though he was hospitalised by Maeda in their brief bout in October.
