In the tournament, Daniel uses a throw to defeat Mike Barnes, something Barnes didn't see coming. Traditional Okinawan Karate also includes throws, holds, and grappling, that are usually missing from Japanese styles and derivatives.
Some found it difficult to believe that Daniel would be bullied with mere beatings again after fighting for his very life against Chozen in Part II. But it actually makes sense when one looks at what happens to Daniel's daughter Samantha during season 3 of Cobra Kai. In the school brawl at the end of season 2, Sam has a fight to the death with Tory Nichols (who assaulted her with the intention of killing or at least brutally disfiguring her), then spent the whole of the next season suffering panic attacks, and it really affected her negatively the next two times she had a fight with Tory. Given that, it stands to reason that Daniel's reactions to Mike Barnes were because he was still processing the fact that Chozen had actually tried to kill him in the previous movie. While Daniel survived and defeated Chozen, he took a hell of a beating in the process that was worse than anything Johnny's crew from Cobra Kai had dealt him. That had to have been a long, restless plane ride back to the United States afterwards.
The ref in this movie gets a lot of flak for constantly being unwilling to disqualify Barnes. But given how in Cobra Kai, it's shown that one of Silver's favorite tactics is to bribe the referee, it would make a lot of sense if the ref here is also being bribed. Daniel's too hyped up on adrenaline and fear to notice, and Mr. Miyagi isn't familiar enough with tournament protocol to realize.
The exploration of Kreese's backstory with Terry Silver in the third season of Cobra Kai makes him both a better and worse person here. "Better" because we see how he started out, along with how he gained his future personality with the death of Ponytail, and that Terry literally made a lifelong promise to the guy who saved his life. And "worse" because he truly has no limits or boundaries. In 1969, it was "Anything you need, I'm there for you. I owe you, for your whole life." In 1985, Kreese calls in a favor to say, "Can you help me traumatize this kid who's ruining my karate career?" and Silver says, "Traumatize? I'll make him suffer." Then in 2018, Kreese calls upon Silver again to help him wage war against not just Daniel, but also his family and his Miyagi-Do students, and Johnny Lawrence and his Eagle Fang students.
A lot of Daniel's negative behavior in Cobra Kai can be attributed to unprocessed trauma as a result of this movie, especially when he constantly is running into guys who seem nice at first but then turn out to be putting on a façade, including people like Kyler, Robby, and eventually, Kreese and Silver once again.
Silver being the only antagonist in the entireThe Karate Kid franchise to make Mr. Miyagi work a little should give the audience the impression just how dangerous of a fighter he really is, especially now that Miyagi has passed by the events of Cobra Kai. As Season 4 and 5 shows, he gives Johnny and Daniel (at least in their first bout together) brutal Curb Stomp Battles, and pushes Chozen over the edge to the point where he nearly kills him. As if dealing with Kreese isn't bad enough, this man makes his war buddy look like Miguel Diaz fighting Bert.
