While not officially billed as such, or contested under the round rules that this UWF has utilized for matches under this umbrella, it’s very hard not to simply call this is what it plainly is in all but name, which is a Different Style Fight.
Of those in its time, it is absolutely one of the most interesting.
Hamaker is another Dutch martial artist, amateur wrestling this time, without so much as a Cagematch profile, or anything much to find save for a bare bones Sherdog page. One of those MMA before MMA types of guys, who also has a super interesting look as a tall and real muscular guy with your classic turn of the 90s perm mullet to boot, and while not brimming with it, a certain physical charisma too him. In short, in every category but experience, of which he has none, Hamaker is the ideal opponent for a match like this, especially against Fujiwara.
This lacks the high drama and sheer bombast of many of the big Maeda different style fights earlier in the second UWF, but that’s more than made up for by the fact that it is Yoshiaki Fujiwara in here.
Given a big newcomer, Fujiwara eschews a lot of what you maybe expect for one of these matches, even with Hamaker being an amateur wrestler and not a boxer or kickboxer or even a sambo guy, and puts on one of the great displays of solution-oriented wrestling of its time. It’s a field at which Fujiwara excels, arguably more than anyone else ever, and while I don’t think this is really even in the top twenty to twenty five examples of such the concept in Fujiwara’s career, it’s a great show of how this works, as well as just how much fun it can be.
If not a masterclass, it’s another beautiful showing from the master.
There is no one obvious throughline to grab onto, this is the Fujiwara stuff you really only show to people who already believe or at least who are well on their way, but it’s easy enough to catch the idea. Against a big guy but a super raw one, Fujiwara spends the match trying to figure something out that can work. Big boy Fred is constantly able to muscle out tor use his length to get to the ropes whenever a mere suggestion of trouble comes about though, so anything Fujiwara gets to fleeting in one way or another. Combine it with all of the little struggles in holds, either to get something on, get to something else, or escape/counter out when Hamaker has something of his own on, and in a quieter way, there’s still that struggle to grab onto.
Above all, the joy in the match is not just in the size mismatch or the style or the obvious to grab onto, but far more in how Fujiwara assembles the trap that eventually works, taking advantage the first time Hamaker is even a little out of his element and springing it on him. The slow knife, allowing Hamaker to place himself in the noose rather than forcing it onto him himself, and all wonderful approaches of that nature.
Hamaker finally bites off a little more than he can chew away from the ropes, and after a big muscle takedown and try for a half crab, Fujiwara yanks him down and forward in the middle and perfectly into a heel hook for the win.
As the match suggests in its approach and proves in its overall quality, once again, pro wrestling is the strongest.
HANDWERK 