Universal Wrestling Federation (Japan) - Original UWF

Original UWF

The original roster included Rusher Kimura, Akira Maeda, Ryuma Go, Mach Hayato, and Gran Hamada. Soon, however, they were joined by Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Nobuhiko Takada, Satoru Sayama (the original Tiger Mask) and Kazuo Yamazaki, and this changed the orientation of the UWF's wrestling from the traditional style to a more martial arts oriented style. Maeda, Fujiwara, Takada, Sayama and Yamazaki had been martial artists before joining New Japan Pro Wrestling, and they began incorporating realistic moves, including submission holds and kickboxing-style kicks, which created a new form of wrestling called shoot-style. Kimura, Go, and Hamada, unable to cope with the new style, decided to leave and join All Japan Pro Wrestling instead.

In 1984 another former New Japan wrestler, Osamu Kido, who had trained under Karl Gotch, joined the UWF. But just as the promotion fledged, Maeda and Sayama, the top two stars, began bickering with each other over the shoot-style's essence. Maeda wanted to focus the matches on submissions, while Sayama, a former kickboxer, wanted to focus on kicks. This came to a head in 1985, when the two allegedly stopped pulling their punches and kicks, in a match that fans in Japan refer to as "going cement." A second, brutal match of this kind took place in September of that year, when Maeda and Sayama again began to lay in their strikes. The match ended when Maeda did not pull a kick and instead kicked Sayama hard in the groin, causing a disqualification.

As a result, Maeda was suspended and later fired by the UWF. Sayama, embittered with wrestling after this match, left the UWF and was not heard from again in the wrestling world for 11 years. The promotion dissolved and the rest of the roster went back to New Japan where they formed a stable and feuded with New Japan's top stars of the era in an "invasion" angle, which later inspired World Championship Wrestling's New World Order.