Talk about it here.

Gotta love the smirk on Fujiwara's face, along with his general arrogance, during most of this. More of a spectacle than most PWFG, which is a nice change of pace, because this style is starting to test me.

I really like this match a lot, I thought it was a really neat and clever performance by Fujiwara.

What's with the other guy not releasing the hold after a rope break? This was a fun match with Fujiwara ruling it as always.

Fujiwara was so smug here. For a sec it got me to believe that this was turning into a shoot, which I guess is the point.

What we said at segundacaida:

 

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Zaour Chabadze

 

TKG: So Chabadze is a Russian champion Arm Wrestler and I was going into this fully expecting a hard head vs. claw match. While that would have been spectacular this was every bit as good if not greater. For an arm wrestling champ Chabadze isn't built like Scott Norton or Big Daddy Goodridge. Instead he has just this huge apelike wingspan as his arms look twice the length of his torso and are filled with just multitude of muscles. Match is really all about Chabadze dominating Fujiwara on the ground through arm strength. Fujiwara tries to keep his arms together and tries to manipulate his center of gravity to keep from just being thrown around by Chabadze' s wings. And eventually Chabadze gets fed up and asks for a standup. there's this huge pop as guy who dominated on ground needs standup. Fujiwara goes to corner wipes the sweat off his body by rubbing himself against turnbuckle. And slaps Chabadze across the face. Man this match rules.....

 

PAS: The reason this match was better then anything on the show was the way Fujiwara can establish hierarchies. While Malenko v. Galdava was alot of fun as was Koslowski v. Olegg, they were basically worked as two even guys rolling on the mat looking for advantages. Here Chabadze is a monster, he can take Fujiwara down at will as is so strong that Fujiwara is helpless on the mat. So the crowd is super hot because it looks like the aging legend is going to get steamrolled, does he have any tricks left this is the worlds greatest Rocky 4.

Awesome arm wrestler v wrestler match up.

Chabadze had a weird stance to start the match. Leaning in with his head and his arms down at this side. Was hoping for Fujiwara to headbutt him in the face.

It didn't register in the Malenko match because Joe's not a tall guy, but these Russians are fucking towering. It's shallow but these guys are honestly way more intimidating-looking than the NJPW Soviets. Chabadze throws Fujiwara down with suplexes, but Fuj establishes himself with a fucking incredible shot to the mouth that drops Zaour instantly. Chabadze has Fujiwara tied up but leaves his heel open for Fujiwara to hook it for the submission. Great big vs. little man match-up. I can deal with these bite-sized shootstyle matches, even in bunches.

Chabadze working on top early, using his size advantage to control Fujiwara. A similar story to Flynn/Sano but here the big guy controls everything. After a rope break Fujiwara knocks him down with a slap and is thrown down into a choke as a reward for a rope break. Chabadze grabs a leglock and takes it down, but Fujiwara grabs one of his own and forces a tap. Cool showing for Fujiwara and nice preening afterwards, but not a great match.

 

**3/4

This is only the second Fujiwara match I've seen. His attitude and charisma made this match. The story and structure looks fine on paper but his execution takes it to the next level. Nothing mind-blowing, but it was cool.

This was almost too short to have a decent story. Basically, Chabadze gets the early lead, then turns cocky when he was clearly in control and pays for it.

 

Chabadze showed that he at least belonged in the ring with Fujiwara, which is tough to do when someone enters shootstyle from another discipline. And yes, he's a big sucker!

Really loved the opening with Chabadze controlling Fujiwara on the mat and taking him over with little throws. He seems to have a good mind for the worked match. Fujiwara walking over and smacking him in the face after Chabadze tells him to bring it was awesome. Then Chabadze starts throwing him wirh suplexes but when he tries to turn him over with a single leg, Fujiwara grabs the heel and submits him. Fun match.

I really liked how Fujiwara made Chabadze (holy crap does he look huge) look like a monster before catching the heel and submitting him.  That half nelson where he was grinding Fujiwara's neck into the mat was gnarly.