UWF 24/09/1988 - FIGHTING NETWORK HAKATA (04/31)

UWF Fighting Network Hakata
Hakata Star Lanes, Fukuoka
24th September 1988
att. 4000

After a slightly confusing (but entertaining) show, comprising three regular-style UWF bouts in the emerging genre known as 'shoot-style' alongside three actual shoot-boxing bouts and one match thrilling in its indeterminacy of style and rules between promotion kingpin Akira Maeda and fabled Dutch grump Gerard Gordeau, UWF scale things back for the first in their Fighting Network pair of shows.

After some scrolling text (white on black, very Nagisa Oshima) that I think heralds our interesting new addition to the rules (more later) comes a classic-if-slightly-workmanlike peppily-soundtracked montage featuring wrestlers training and fans arriving at the SHOOT bowling alley-cum-wrestling venue of the low-ceilinged Hakata Star Lanes. It is good and breezy fare but it feels as if it was cobbled together on the day. For instance: we see Kazuo Yamazaki jogging around the venue in a manner that rings slightly false for a man so clearly meticulous in his preparations.

An introduction to shoot-style wrestling in Japan (0/31)

An incomplete introduction to shoot-style in Japan
(this introduction dedicated to Maximumrocknroll film critic Carolyn Keddy.) 

UWF is a professional wrestling promotion. It is not the 2006 promotion started by t-shirt entrepreneurs Earl and Dave Hebner because UWF stands for Universal Wrestling Federation.

The UWF that we are talking about is not the one run by Bill Watts in Oklahoma City. It is also not the national gambit of Herb Abrams that ran on DirectTV. We are also not talking about the German company owned by Rico Mecke. The UWF that we are referring to is owned by Akira Maeda. It was a promotion based in Japan.