September 10, 1993 in Tokyo, Japan
Korakuen Hall drawing 1,755
My goodness do I enjoy seeing people in RINGS warm-up gear getting light work in before the doors open at Korakuen Hall, especially if one of them is our dear(est?) friend Yoshihisa Yamamoto doing kicks and also neck-work of a kind I left behind me in my twenties (I had some issues, then some physio) clad in vertically-striped black-and-white-tights that I would legitimately like to have a pair of and not because of irony but instead because of a sincerity that would terrify you.
We begin our time together with Akira Maeda speaking over footage of Korakuen Experiment: Round 4 bouts displayed here in a black-and-white that now cannot help but call to mind Yamamoto's tights. He wears them to the weigh-in they show in the locker room (hey bro how's your weight eh I don't know it's gonna be close bud I don't know haha well I guess we'll find out soon enough ok man good luck with it) and the question of whether or not these weigh-ins were a shoot immediately presents itself, doesn't it? There is no reason it wouldn't be, I guess, as there are no weight classes in this Fighting Network (much like the street, though it resembles the street in no other aspect, as these are, with the resounding exception of Gerard Gordeau, athletes not savages [Gerard Gordeau is not here this time, please do not mistake me or be frightened]).
Satoshi Homma has a great silver jacket that says ZENSHO and a breezy way about him that is irresistible (to me, I would not presume to speak for you on the subject of whom you may or may not resist) and here meets Fumio Akiyama, whose shirt says SAW and whose music is a pounding exemplar of the synthesizers of the then-recent past. Referee Yuji Shimada has his hands all over Satoshi Honma right now; it is hard not to notice. At ringside is Akira Maeda's ever-watchful eye (and other parts of him). You know, it would not surprise me at all if they actually had these young boys shoot on these Korakuen Hall shows. I know I mentioned the excellent Anthony Carelli/Santino Marella interview on the Steve Austin show, but did I mention the part about how before the public shows he runs for his professional wrestling class at his sprawling Battle Arts complex, he has his opening-match wrestlers and the like shoot in the gym to see who gets to go over that night in front of friends and family? When Santino mentioned this, Steve Austin was like "that remiiiiiinds me of the boooooys in the New Japaaaaaan dooojoooo" and Santino was like yesss and I was like yesssssssssssssssssss. Honma just murdered Akiyama with knees for the knockout at 1:25 of the second round, and my question is, was it shoot murder? I have no questions, though, about the shaggy backstage handsomeness with which he now speaks; it I know clearly:
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Tsurumaki and Yamamoto are going at it hard here, and they are using a close camera right at the corner way more than usual, and it is really emphasizing how hard these palm strikes to Tsurumaki's very square head really are. Yamamoto is fired way up, and is yelling things after knockdowns; maybe he just can't stand Nobuhiro Tsurumaki for real? In round five, he works for his no-gi (obviously) sode-guruma-jime/sleeve-wheel-choke/Ezequiel, and by "works for" I mean drives his forearm into Tsurumaki's trachea a lot. In time (2:15) it is knees that are Tsurumaki's undoing; Yuji Shimada steps in; he has seen too much. This is the least chill Yoshihisa Yamamoto we have yet seen.
Next up is a submission græppling exhibition between Takahashi Makoto vs. Konno Hiroshi, both clad in shirts and tights and wrestling shoes and martial arts obi as they demonstrate a number of throws and takedowns and holds and strangles whilst the ring announcer explains perhaps the way these techniques are scored in the particular submission style they are exponents of? The crowd is silent throughout this able demo except for an especially choice flying knee-bar, at which point there is a distinct murmur. I like the sumi-gaeshi (corner-reversal) into juji-gatame (crossmark-hold) as much as anything on display here but it is of course only natural that that would be the case (our club is heavy on sumi/obi-tori/hikikomi-gaesshi as they are preferred techniques of our head instructor and also perfectly suited [as far as sutemi-waza/sacrifice-techniques go] to the adult-beginners who make up the majority of our students and I know you had been wondering about all of that for a while now).
Ah ha so when I spoke of no weight divisions in this Fighting Network I spoke too soon and also ridiculously because here we have two very slight kickboxers in Shigeo Imai and Minoru Shinkai, and the videotape emphasizes their slightness at the weigh-ins, so I have been revealed and humiliated as a fool yet again. This is contested under Muay Thai rules, as far as I am able to discern, and ends in a five-round draw that was certainly spirited and that I have no doubt had things to say to students and admirers of that art.
Okay back to throws and holds LET'S HEAR IT FOR THROWS AND HOLDS EVERYBODY as we welcome Masayuki Naruse and Dieseul Berto waaait a minute, Dieseul Berto is no doubt Diesel Berto which is to say father to Andre Berto who went the distance with Floyd Mayweather last year? Yes this would very much seem to be the case. In his pre-fight pre-tape he seems like a nice enough fellow and I wish him well here! I am pretty high Masayuki Naruse though so right now I am feeling pulled in all kinds of directions (two). Holy shit Dieseul Berto looks strong as hell:
Is a spinning back-hand strike worth it if your back is taken as it lands? Masayuki Naruse has much to consider as Berto ably rides him to the mat, even as he rolls through for one of those odder heel hooks where the foot is nestled up by one's (chinny-chin-)chin. Ah, but is it not now Berto who has spun about to attack with his own ashi-gatame? And so they dance. If you thought Dieseul Berto, father (I think, I am really pretty sure) of Andre, would be a striker and a striker alone, you would find yourself mistaken to the point of embarrassment and maybe even ruin because right now he is going for juji-gatame; explain that. Truly one of the better dueling leg-lock spots soon follows, and the crowd is up and ready, and Naruse implores them to be upper and readier, and they comply immediately. This is really good! Does Diesel Berto have any more matches here, I wonder? Had he done a bunch of UWF? Because this guy is brilliant at this, and kicks hard enough to surprise even this Korakuen Hall crowd, and Korakuen Hall crowds have seen some kicking. Masayuki Naruse locks up a sankaku-jime (triangle choke) without the arm in which is both less effective and more dangerous so it is not permitted in the judo of the Kodokan, so don't even try it there, you ghastly beast. Naruse is bussssted up because Berto is unreal in there man just unreal. AH OKAY in the end Naruse sinks the kata-ashi-hishigi of the straight Achilles hold to win at 11:25 but let me tell you the more important thing to know about this match: this match was awesome, like genuinely awesome and I liked it so much.
Mitsuya Nagai and Andrei Kopilov are going to have an awful time trying to top that but maybe they will have a great time of it actually with regard to how much they enjoy trying to build something beautiful and true together. Also, remember how Mitsuya Nagai had a stunning classic of a match with Volk Han a while ago? So you never know! The low-key videotape to get us used to the idea of these two having a match together shows a nice moment wherein Kopilov offers Yamamoto (those tights; again those tights) tips on finishing the ashi-gatame (leg-lock) he was running through before the show, here look:
Just tonight I have realized that Andrei Kopilov physically resembles a truly lovely guy who I have long considered a friend of our club and also of me, a judo and BJJ black belt who is just the most positive person I have ever been around, and whenever he drops by (it is not all that often, alas) all the people who are new to the experience of him are like "this guy . . . this guy is my kind of guy" because he just radiates this love of people and of the waza they sometimes get up to. So I already liked Andrei Kopilov but maybe now I love him? And seeing him coach Yamamoto through his ashi-gatame solidified all of this for me. Everything is different now (just this one thing). THIS CROWD LOVES THIS MATCH they are going HWWWOOOOOAAAAHHH when Nagai comes close with a juji-gatame only for Kopilov to somehow turn that into a standing leg-lock (who knows man who knows). Kopilov finishes! With a gyaku-ude-garami/reverse-arm-entanglement/Kimura/double-wrist-lock so near the ropes we were all sure Nagai would escape to them but no his legs were entangled in niju-garami (it's an entanglement). That was a thrilling sprint!
Maybe this has been the best KORAKUEN EXPERIMENT so far! Thank you for your attention to it! There is just a tonne of relevant and semi-relevant Melzter to share with you today, so here, I will unfurl it at once.
WHAT DID DAVE MELTZER SAY:
September 27, 1993: This mentions RINGS only passingly, but I thought it would be of sure interest to the shoot-style enthusiast and so it is, like I myself am, here for you: "The next PPV show in the United States will be the UWFI's "Shootwrestling--It's real" card which airs 10/5 and will be a two-hour show taped the previous night in Osaka, Japan. According to Joe Hand, a pioneer of promoting boxing on closed-circuit television, his Front Row Entertainment will come back with a second UWFI PPV show just three weeks later on 10/25, or just one day after the WCW Halloween Havoc show. Hand said that as of right now there were no plans to PPV the December UWFI show from Tokyo's Jingu Baseball Stadium (Nobuhiko Takada vs. Vader was announced officially this past week as the main event on that show billed as a battle to recognize the real world champion with Takada's UWFI title at stake and Vader being WCW champion, although he may not be by December if Dusty Rhodes has his way) because he felt early December would be a tough time to sell a PPV event based on past experience. Both cards will be priced at $14.95, as opposed to the $24.95 that WCW is pricing its now-monthly PPV events at or the $27.50 WWF is pricing most of its five-per year events at (with Wrestlemania going at $29.95). Forgetting arguments about differences in quality or style of product, the UWFI show goes in with the insurmountable disadvantage of being a product unfamiliar to the U.S. audience, having no television of any kind in this country to sell the style and wrestlers. Its style and competitors are only known to the most ardent tape traders and Observer readers in the United States, which is a very small base to draw from. From an economic standpoint, Hand's company is budgeting $895,000 as costs of putting this show together, of which $285,000 will be his advertising budget, largely consisting of buying spots on Major League Baseball games during the final week of the season and one $75,000 spot on the Monday Night Football game on 10/4. These commercials won't attempt to sell the names or abilities of any of the participants, but instead try to sell the violence and the idea that it is pro wrestling that is real, which it isn't entirely true although it certainly looks far more realistic and is based more on realistic moves than any other pro wrestling promotion in the world with the possible exception of RINGS. "This is not for children," said Hand, who was vehement about this show being a success. "I don't want to see Takada as the next Hulk Hogan." Hand claimed PPV analysts have told him to expect a 1.0 to 1.5 buy rate for the event, which sounds ridiculous on the surface since that would be equal to SummerSlam, although at an 0.5 buy rate, his company would make a $228,385 profit and there have been Tough Man tournaments that have done 0.5 buy rates as late as this year and they don't have any television show building up their product nor are the competitors names and personalities well known, which is Hand's argument in saying this will be a successful and profitable promotion. Of course WCW's recent PPV shows have hovered in that area, and that is with years of history (which admittedly is a negative in many instances), several names with significant name recognition among wrestling fans and hours of both cable and syndicated television to sell the events. Hand said his company's plan is to do two or three PPV events from Japan on a one-day taped delay over the next few months before trying to promote a live PPV event from the United States. The Osaka card is scheduled to have a double main event of Takada vs. Billy Scott and Super Vader vs. Naoki Sano, however in press information given out by Hand's company, the Vader match is not listed on the PPV. This may be due to WCW believing it has the exclusive rights to promote PPV and house show events with Vader in the United States, since Vader is definitely going to appear on the Osaka show itself. However, if this is even in Vader's contract, that should be a moot point because Vader and WCW at press time have not signed a contract although they may work out the deal before you are reading this. Matches listed in a press release by Hand's Front Row Entertainment for the first show are Takada vs. Scott, a tag match of U.S. vs. Russia with Gary Albright & Dan Severn vs. Salman Hashimikov & Vladimir Berkovich, Dennis Koslowski vs. either Kazuo Yamazaki or Yoji Anjyo, and other matches not advertised. However, in Japan advertising for the card, which I would assume to be more reliable, the tag match has the Russians against Severn & Koslowski. Probably the most important element in being able to get this show "over" to those who do buy it would be the announcers, and we've been unable to find out who they will be."
September 29, 1993: "9/10 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (RINGS - 1,755): Homma b Bunsei Akiyama, Minoru Yamato d Kotaro Shinkai, Yoshihisa Yamamoto b Nobuhiro Tsurumaki, Masayoshi Naruse b Berto Dieseul, Andrei Kopilov b Mitsuya Nagai."
October 5, 1993: Pancrase here, but we are in such a deep scene here that I am sure you are in:
"OTHER JAPAN NOTES:
Pancrase Wrestling, which is at least believed to be by those who tell me the only "pro wrestling" promotion where the winners and losers aren't predetermined, had its second show on 10/14 in Nagoya. I'm told they go until either a knockout or they lock on a submission, similar to UWFI and Rings rules, although it's obvious by how the matches go that this is a different breed because nobody "sells" and attempts are made to always defend, move like a boxing match, and to block moves, which you don't see on UWFI and Rings shows in the marquee matches. All the wrestlers have dropped a lot of weight and look more like light heavyweight boxers because all the training is done for conditioning rather than muscle bulk which would be the case if one was training for a legitimate combat sport. The entire five-match card had only 23 minutes of wrestling, most of which were in the main event (Wayne Shamrock vs. Yoshiki Takahashi going 12:23). Because of the belief that it is real, the 11/8 match in Kobe with Suzuki (who was a champion amateur wrestler before going pro) vs. World Karate Association world heavyweight champion Maurice Smith (yes, another kick boxing world champion) is getting a lot of publicity with the magazines pushing it strongly as being a legitimate contest. They don't call any other groups illegitimate, but by emphasizing this match as being a shoot, doesn't it pretty much say that all others must not be? At the November 29, 1989 UWF card at the Tokyo Dome, Suzuki was knocked out by Smith in a mixed match which was a shoot. Akira Maeda has his first match in nine months on the RINGS 10/23 show in Fukuoka."
And in the course of discussing a Savage/Hogan work/shoot/angle entanglement: "It should be noted during the 1987 Maeda-shoot kick non-angle with Riki Choshu, that several of the American wrestlers on the New Japan tour and virtually all on the simultaneous All Japan tour believed it to be nothing more than an angle, suspension, injury and all, even though it wasn't, and the belief it was an angle by some of those wrestlers continued up until the point Maeda started the new company rendering throwing those beliefs out the window."
October 18, 1993: This UWFi lead story is a thing to behold and I encourage you to do your utmost to behold it as best you are able:
"UWFI SHOOTFIGHTING: IT'S REAL?
Thumbs up 294 (76.6%)
Thumbs down 67 (17.4%)
In the middle 23 (06.0%)
BEST MATCH POLL
Nobuhiko Takada vs. Billy Scott 87
Hashimikov & Berkovich vs. Albright & Severn 74
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yuko Miyato 52
Dennis Koslowski vs. Masahito Kakihara 31
Tatsuo Nakano vs. Yoji Anjyo 12
WORST MATCH POLL
Badnews Allen vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 163
Hashimikov & Berkovich vs. Albright & Severn 25
Greg Bobchick vs. Gene Lydig 17
Based on phone calls, fax messages and letters to the Observer as of Tuesday, 10/12. Statistical margin of error: +-100 percent.
No television exposure, no mainstream media publicity, no interviews, no known personalities, a style completely unfamiliar and no hard-sell Events Center-like segments to hype the show sounds like a recipe for a disastrous failure in the pay-per-view arena. Complete disasters aren't unheard of, either. Both the LPWA and the Herb Abrams UWF tried PPV shows in recent years that drew less than 3,000 buys nationally. In the case of the latter, that was with main eventers who were at least known commodities to most wrestling fans, but with a product with little television exposure except on third-world Sports Channel cable stations. Even Vince McMahon's attempt to promote a bodybuilding pay-per-view event last June, using his own huge syndicated and cable wrestling network as the springboard, hyping it to the level of one of his wrestling PPVs and creating a one-hour weekly cable bodybuilding show specifically to hype the PPV and personalities involved in it, ended in disaster with approximately 4,500 buys nationally. So, logically, what chance did a Japanese promotion doing "shoot-style" wrestling with none of the above have in garnering PPV buys?
Plenty, at least according to Joe Hand, whose Front Row Entertainment promoted the PPV portion of the event to the United States and Canada. Hand claimed the Union of Professional Wrestling Force International (UWFI) PPV show garnered roughly 100,000 buys (which would be an 0.48 percent buy rate). If this number is accurate, and keep in mind tradition when it comes to PPV numbers announced by the companies producing the show, it not only would have to be considered a huge success, but by wrestling industry standards, be considered a success of mind-boggling proportions. It would be slightly more buys than WCW's Fall Brawl on 9/19 in Houston, which drew an estimated 0.46 percent buy rate and 95,000 buys which had all the aforementioned promotional advantages. The most recent WWF PPV event, SummerSlam, which was one of the best hyped PPV shows ever, did an estimated 265,000 buys (1.2 percent buy rate). Hand reported that the buy rate numbers he received were not consistent system-by-system, with the variation by systems ranging from 1.1s down to 0.2s, and said he was most impressed with the showing in Quebec (better than one percent) since his show went head-to-head with the American League Championship Series game involving the Toronto Blue Jays. Highlights of the PPV were scheduled to air nationally on the syndicated George Michael Sports Machine show and a segment is scheduled on UWFI for the TV-show "Hard Copy."
Hand said the show garnered a small profit. If the 100,000 buys is accurate, at a $14.95 price tag, the promotion's gross on the event would be $673,000. In an earlier interview, Hand said his company was budgeting $895,000 for expenses, of which $285,000 would go to advertising. In late October the show will be replayed, rather than a new PPV show broadcast since UWFI doesn't have another show between now and late October. The UWFI's next major show will take place 12/5 at the 48,000-seat outdoor baseball stadium in Tokyo, but won't air on PPV in this country because Request and Viewer Choice didn't have an available date for airing a lot more than the fact that the main event would be unable to be broadcast on that specific show. A second PPV show will air in February 1994, and Hand, who claims the next show will do an even more illogical 1.5 buy rate (if it does, Hand's company will make a $1.7 million profit on the event and it would beat out every wrestling PPV event next year except Wrestlemania), is planning on running quarterly PPV shows next year.
Others in the wrestling industry with PPV contacts strongly dispute these numbers, citing areas where the UWFI show did only one-fourth the number of buys as recent WCW shows and less than one-twentieth of WWF shows. On the other hand, several callers from various parts of the country left messages saying the phone lines were jammed attempting to order the show and they were unable to get through, reports that we haven't received of late from either WWF or WCW PPV shows. In Pittsburgh, one group that phoned in poll results noted they had to wait until the replay show to view it because of the inability to get through all the busy signals representing last-minute buys. I was stunned that the number of our poll responses ran ahead of the pace of most recent WCW and WWF PPV shows, when I was expecting responses at about 25 percent of the level of the major PPVs, even though the audience reading this publication would be far more likely to purchase an international wrestling PPV event than any other audience. As of press time, we were awaiting independent information from a variety of sources and insider PPV industry newsletters as to their read on the show's buys. There is no doubt that the advertising of the event as "real wrestling," largely on sports broadcasts the week before the event, created more mainstream curiosity in this event than any wrestling PPV show in recent years with perhaps the exception of Wrestlemanias. The question going into the event was whether that curiosity would translate into buys. The real big question now is whether the people who bought the show are interested in seeing the product again, and whether that audience can sustain itself through quarterly shows. If the 100,000 figure is accurate, it was largely based on the curiosity of seeing pro wrestling that was purporting to be "real," since only a microcosm of that audience would have ever seen UWFI on tape beforehand or have any knowledge of its wrestlers, none of whose names were used in marketing the event. Whether that curiosity can be turned into interest in the style and the competitors and whether the audience that purchased the event found it interesting enough to want to see it again will determine whatever long-term fate UWFI wrestling has in the United States. Based on our totally unscientific poll, the prospects of return business among those who saw the show look bright.
To understand what is UWFI, one first has to look at how it became what it is. This story dates back to 1982, when New Japan Pro Wrestling was the most successful pro wrestling company in the world. New Japan was coming off a banner year, selling out 90 percent of its house shows and drawing 20 ratings weekly on Saturday night from 8 to 9 p.m. on the countries' No. 2 network. The company's biggest star and countries' most famous and most popular wrestler at the time was Antonio Inoki, although with names like Andre the Giant, Hulk Hogan, Riki Choshu, Tatsumi Fujinami, the original Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama), Dynamite Kid, Abdullah the Butcher and Dick Murdoch as regular main eventers and the best crop imaginable of potential superstars underneath, this was hardly a one-man band. Nevertheless, the underneath wrestlers weren't getting paid what they felt was fair, with the claim later coming out that the New Japan profits were going to finance Inoki's outside of wrestling money-losing business, in particular a cattle farm in Brazil. Inoki's popularity was viewed by the consensus as the major cog in the successful wheel. But when he was injured and had to take several months off wrestling, the group continued to sellout virtually every show. Many of the wrestlers saw this, combined with their pay level, and revolted, going public with their claims that Inoki was using his power of controlling the company to take money the wrestlers should be getting and funneling it into his outside losing businesses. When this went public, Inoki was forced to resign as company President (although he eventually reclaimed his power), but was allowed to stay in the company as its top star. Hisashi Shinma, the Chairman of the Board of New Japan and Inoki's long-time personal business manager (and at the time figurehead president of the WWF as well), took the major hit in the fallout of the scandal and was forced out of the company. Sayama, whose popularity set the stage for the role lighter weight wrestlers would eventually play in Japan, had retired from wrestling, perhaps fearing reprisals, after he had set the wheels in motion for the scandal to eventually go public. He then wrote a book, called "kay-fabe," which exposed pro wrestling as pre-planned entertainment.
At the time, Akira Maeda was a high-card wrestler who would lose to Fujinami, Choshu, Inoki, Hogan, etc., have non-finishes with the Murdoch, Kengo Kimura and Masked Superstar level wrestlers and beat most everyone else. Shinma had originally recruited Maeda to New Japan when he saw him as a teenager in a karate tournament. With his height, looks and athletic ability, Shinma had groomed Maeda to be the heir to Inoki's throne. With Shinma thrown out, he decided to form his own wrestling company in April of 1984 called the Universal Wrestling Federation, with Maeda as his top star. Maeda brought along with him his best friend, Nobuhiko Takada, a young wrestler who had shown flashes of brilliance as a prelim wrestler and it was well-known would be an eventual world junior heavyweight champion, and Kazuo Yamazaki, even smaller, but groomed to be a factor eventually as a junior heavyweight. Shinma also signed up veterans Rusher Kimura, who had a big-money feud with Inoki a few years earlier, and Ryuma Go. Later Osamu Kido and Yoshiaki Fujiwara joined. In the gym, Fujiwara, who for most of his New Japan career had been a jobber but had suddenly received a push by the company exploiting his reputation as a "shooter" within the business, was known as the master of submission moves and the No. 1 pupil of Karl Gotch, "The God of Professional Wrestling," as he was known in Japan. The group ran shows using the New Japan style of wrestling, but with only moderate box office success, for about three months. Several of the wrestlers at this time already, likely under the influence of Fujiwara, who was the group's elder statesman so to speak, wanted to switch to a more reality-based moves group, but Shinma and some of the older wrestlers like Rusher Kimura and Ryuma Go were against the move. At the time, the manager of Sayama's business affairs contacted the group and offered Sayama, who would by far be the biggest box office draw they could ever hope to get besides Inoki himself. As part of the provisions, Sayama took the stance that he'd only join the promotion if Shinma, the founder, was expelled, stemming from the heat regarding the scandal. The group, feeling it needed Sayama's drawing power more than Shinma's brain, agreed to those terms. This left the group run by head-strong younger wrestlers, all trained by Gotch, who wanted to change pro wrestling to largely a vision of Gotch's wrestling, based on incorporating unspectacular looking but legitimately painful if actually applied "real" submission holds into the product. Kimura and Go immediately quit, thinking the style would be death at the box office. Since several of the remaining wrestlers also had either karate or kick boxing backgrounds, they incorporated kicks, body punches and open-hand face blows with the palm and slaps into the new style. To say the new product took Japan by storm would be inaccurate. The "different" product, which was not as realistic looking and was far more dramatic than today's "shoot style," gained a cult following in Tokyo where it overflowed Korakuen Hall for every event with the hardcore UWF-maniacs selling the 2,000-seat arena out faster than the two major promotions could at the time. They would sell standing room tickets the day of the event, and often they would draw 900 to 1,200 SRO fans which in a building that small made the fans stuffed in as tight as a Tokyo subway during rush hour. Maeda in particular decried all other wrestling promotions as being "fake" but that UWF was real. Largely for that reason, it became the favorite group of Tokyo hardcores who believed UWF wrestling to be the real thing. Matches ended out of nowhere with submission maneuvers that fans, once they became educated to it, would put on each other and realize were unbreakable. In addition, the blistering stiff kicks to the head and body were like nothing ever seen before in pro wrestling rings and gave it even more of an aura of authenticity. Under any scrutiny it was obvious it was a much more realistic-based and some of the kicks were as brutal as anything in a boxing or kick-boxing match and far stiffer work than had ever been seen in Japanese wrestling before. But it was still a work. The group had a minimal following outside of Tokyo, largely due to the inability of the public to understand the style and no television to get it over. Eventually there were all kinds of behind-the-scenes troubles, scandals and money problems, and even a gangland-style murder that aired live on television involving Sayama's apparent mobster business associates. Sayama retired again, this time for good, and in September of 1985, the UWF ran its final card and closed shop. Sayama eventually opened a gym and trained young men in his new sport, which he called "shooting." It achieved little in the way of visibility or popularity since he himself never competed. Ironically, of all the groups that claimed to be "shooting," Sayama's unknown group of students was the only one that ever really was.
Maeda, Fujiwara, Takada, Kido and Yamazaki returned to New Japan in January 1986 for one of the most eventful 12 months of Japanese wrestling history. Remember that Maeda in particular had decried pro wrestling as being fake in the press and at the UWF matches. He had bad-mouthed Inoki in particular as not being a real wrestler as before the UWF shows he'd challenge Fujinami (New Japan's best worker and No. 2 native behind Inoki in the pecking order) to come to the UWF rings and wrestle with no ropes (for no rope escapes of submission moves) "for real" and then mockingly say something to the crowd to the effect of, "You know why I say Fujinami and not Inoki" and everyone in the crowd laughed together. Now, because he had no other job and because his previous statements and cult popularity could be used to draw incredible money for New Japan, he was back working for Inoki's company. Inoki and Maeda never did have their long-awaited singles match which would have easily set what would have been an all-time gate and attendance record in Japan, because Maeda would never agree to put Inoki over. But Maeda had several singles matches during that year that were memorable. Once at Korakuen Hall, which quickly became known as Maeda and the UWF's home court so to speak when in New Japan rings, he was booked against Kerry Von Erich. The UWF audience came specifically to see Maeda destroy an American superstar "worker." When they worked an even match ending in a double count out, fans stormed out of the building furious even though there were two matches left in the card. Another match with Andre the Giant became infamous in wrestling lore. Maeda also knocked-out Keiji Muto in a bar fight that was well publicized. He also participated in the most successful mixed match in history beating kick boxer Don Nakaya Neilsen on the undercard of an Inoki-Leon Spinks mixed match which drew the largest television audience for pro wrestling in Japan in many years (a 28.9 rating in Prime Time). The UWF wrestlers started appearing regularly on New Japan television, thus the chicken wings, Fujiwara armbars or wakigatamaes, cross-knee locks, achilles tendon holds, etc. started getting over to the general public as finishing maneuvers. The entire New Japan style of fast-paced high flying and big moves was changed with the submission moves incorporated into the style. Because of the strong UWF personalities, New Japan had a banner year at the box office and more heat than ever at the arenas. However, during that same period, its TV ratings nosedived to the point where TV-Asahi moved wrestling from prime time to Saturday afternoon, where it remains today. Many attributed the declining ratings to the casual audience not understanding or wanting to see all the unspectacular but realistic submission moves after years of the spectacular fast-paced style New Japan had become famous for.
In November, 1987, there was an event known forever as "the shoot kick." Heat had been building up behind the scenes between Riki Choshu, a former Olympic games wrestler who had become a legend in New Japan, and Maeda as the annual tag team tournament was starting out. While the general public knew nothing was up, word had spread that trouble might develop between the two amongst the Tokyo hardcores, and the place would be during a six-man tag team match on Maeda's home court, Korakuen Hall, on November 19. Troubles built up when it became apparent neither was going to sell to make the other look good. Finally when Choshu held Kido in a scorpion deathlock, Maeda came in the ring and with Choshu defenseless because his arms were holding Kido down, blasted him in the eye with a kick that broke two bones underneath his eye. The match largely fell apart at that point although Takada did jump in and do the prescribed finish for Choshu's lariat. Maeda was immediately suspended from New Japan and with Choshu injured, the tag team tournament, traditionally the highlight tour of the year, became anti-climactic. About one month later, New Japan gave Maeda the terms to allow him to return. He'd be suspended for several more months from Japan, although they would set up a tour of low-paying unrealistic-style Mexico as "punishment" that he'd have to fulfill. In addition, upon returning he'd have to put both Choshu and Inoki over in singles matches. Maeda wouldn't accept the terms, and got financing to re-start the UWF.
Few gave the UWF much hope of surviving. Interest in pro wrestling in Japan in 1987-88 was in a decline, largely due to the predictability and frequent non-finishes of main event matches and the public belief that the wrestlers were more mercenaries going to the highest bidder because of several wrestlers jumping promotions which in old-style Japan where people kept jobs for life, was against the cultural mores of the time. The first UWF didn't make it and never gained much of an audience outside Tokyo. The group debuted at Korakuen Hall on May 12, 1988 and sold all tickets out in 15 minutes. Over the next two years, the UWF was the hottest promotion in the world, selling out virtually every show, most of the time the first day tickets were put on sale. Its most successful show was on November 29, 1989 at the Tokyo Egg Dome. They sold 40,000 tickets for $2 million the first day tickets went on sale, blistering all previous records for one-day sales (the SummerSlam '92 at Wembley Stadium sold more tickets the first day they went on sale although with much lower ticket prices). The show drew 60,000 fans live, at the time the third largest crowd in pro wrestling history and a record at the time in Japan, and $2.9 million, which was an all-time world record at the time. It also was put on closed-circuit television in nine locations, drawing another 15,000 fans. Between live tickets, merchandise sales and closed-circuit revenue, the show grossed $5.6 million, which is a record never topped to this day in Japan. The promotion cooled off a little in 1990, but still sold out most of its shows. However, a promotional dispute between Shinji Jin, the company President, and Maeda, at the end of 1990, wound up with the group suddenly folding.
As important it is in examining this facet of wrestling to cite the success of the UWF's shows, it is probably more important to note the affect UWF had on the major pro wrestling groups in Japan, because if it gains a foothold or success here, a question is begging to be answered. Will the major and minor promotions, as the major promotions in Japan did successfully, change their style to incorporate successful facets of UWF to create stronger wrestling companies, or will they simply ignore it? Of course, UWFI is a long way from gaining a foothold here. In 1986, when Maeda and company came back to New Japan and appeared weekly on network television, it exposed and got over many new submission holds. This caused the style of wrestling to change. Many moves previously thought of as "dead-time" or "rest-holds" became "near-submissions" so it changed, because matches didn't need to contain as many spectacular moves and flying moves to escape "dead-time," the entire style and psychology of matches changed. In addition, stiff, fast kicking became incorporated into pro wrestling. At the beginning, it resulted in a slight-decline in television viewership because matches were slower, but it seems to have been a successful formula over the long run. In 1988, when the UWF blew by everyone in the wrestling business, it caused All Japan and New Japan, left in their dust, to re-evaluate their business. Both groups, All Japan in particular, eliminated the screw-job ending from the repertoire. All Japan, which used to end its main event competitive matches largely with double count outs to protect stars and egos, ended every, as in 100 percent every, match with a clean finish. After several months of doing so, this largely turned their arena business around and is responsible for the current atmosphere at its shows. New Japan never quite got to 100 percent, but easily 95 to 98 percent of its matches end with clean finishes as well, and the crowd reaction to the few that don't is decidedly negative. New Japan's current status in the wrestling world speaks for itself. There are many that feel the single most important factor, and admittedly there are dozens of them, for WCW's abysmal house show attendance is that so many fans were turned off and eventually turned away from the company because of unsatisfying finishes at both the house show and on major cards.
Although the UWF crew had always stuck together from the beginnings in 1983, differing offers to differing personalities saw Maeda and his "younger-brother" Takada break up "the family." Maeda formed a promotion called "Fighting Network Rings," which he proclaimed wasn't pro wrestling and was 100 percent real. To get over that point, he used nobody ever associated with traditional pro wrestling in his company, relying largely on foreign ex-sambo (amateur submission style, also known in some circles as Soviet judo) wrestlers, kick boxers and karate champions with himself as the main draw. While most insiders in Japan accept that occasional "shooting matches" occur in Rings prelim matches (as have happened in the past in All Japan women matches when they put the gloves on), the key matches aren't. Fujiwara formed Pro Wrestling Fujiwara-Gumi with the backing of Hachiro Tanaka, who also owned SWS. PWFG eventually folded with Fujiwara returning to New Japan, although they now promote in Korakuen Hall one show every few months using mainly Florida independent wrestlers. The main PWFG wrestlers, Masakatsu Funaki, Wayne Shamrock and Minoru Suzuki started their own promotion called Pancrase that debuted last month, claiming to be real shooting with winners and loser not predetermined. Takada got backing and formed UWFI, taking most of the old UWF wrestlers with him.
UWFI soon signed American scientific wrestling legends Lou Thesz, Billy Robinson and Danny Hodge and flew them in for their big shows as this sort of thing adds credibility in Japan. When the shows started selling out Budokan Hall in Japan, interest in expanding to the United States started, which eventually led to this PPV show.
Positives and Negatives of the show:
Match quality was a positive. Most of the matches were good when judged against the limitations the style would allow. Based on reactions we've heard, to the untrained eye, they appeared to be real, or at least real enough to not insult someone trying to suspend their disbelief, which is necessary for this style to make it. Obviously a trained eye would see things differently, but its audience isn't going to consist of many people with a trained eye. This is also a potential negative. If this group gains any sort of real popularity next year, too much popularity will be its albatross because if it gets too popular, eventually mainstream media will discover it isn't what it claims to be which would be a lot more damaging to something worked this style than an American style where largely everyone knows what it is going in and realism is no longer an issue.
Production wasn't good. The show had no creativity. It simply aired eight matches, with no announcers building up what was coming next or even mentioning any of the matches that were coming up until after the sixth match when they previewed the final two matches. It's ludicrous that neither Takada or Albright's name were never even mentioned until six matches had been completed. Since this was largely an audience unfamiliar with any aspect of what this was or who the people were that were doing it, it desperately cried out for an instructional video demonstrating several submission holds so the action on the mat as they struggled to break clasped arms and pull the arm into a short-arm scissors wasn't viewed as "dead time" rather than a "near finish." They also needed to highlight four or five of the wrestlers (Koslowski, Tamura, Albright, Takada and Scott) to whet the public's appetite and give them an idea who the stars are when the show began so people had things to look forward to and needed more clips showing them in action, their big moves, etc. They needed interviews with Americans talking about the style and their upcoming matches, particularly Koslowski, Albright and Scott or even Badnews if he wanted to make a comparison of it with traditional pro wrestling. Films of some of the Japanese in training, perhaps showing all-out kicks to the heavy bag or to protected sparring partners, would get over the power in their feet. If that story Gene Pelc said during the show about Takada kicking the machine and it registering more force than someone hitting it with a baseball bat is true, then that clip should have been shown. I guarantee it would make everyone respect Takada as a bad-ass and a real world champion, both of which are necessary for the company to gain any significant following. They needed to show clips of Takada's previous wins, in particular Trevor Berbick since everyone knows him, and Koji Kitao (which actually did air although nobody would have known because it was just one guy kicking a big guy who went down) since there is some general public knowledge of sumo wrestling in the United States because of Chad "Akebono" Rowan. They needed to show Tamura beating Matthew Saad Muhammad since the match only went 25 seconds and Muhammad had a pretty decent boxing name to sports fans. They needed to show Koslowski clips from the Olympics, Albright destroying people on previous shows, and films of Billy Scott taking on James Warring to give him credibility as a challenger. If this is to be successful, the eventual success depends on marketing personalities, getting them over, and then airing matches with them against each other. The public won't pay to see boxing matches on PPV with personalities that they don't know, but boxing matches on PPV with "over" personalities (Chavez-Whitaker), even among lighter weight guys, draw three times as much money on PPV as Wrestlemania nowadays, let alone any other wrestling events. Things like doing tale-of-the-tapes for both guys on the screen together before every match would have added to the interest of each match
The announcers failed to get over the Japanese as anything other than nice guys who are nameless, faceless kicking and submission machines. Does anyone who viewed the show remember the difference between Tamura, Kanehara, Anjyo or Kakihara? The only name that came out of the show with any remembrance would be Takada.
Play-by-play man Jim Dougherty was pretty bad, and was crucified among callers after the show. Besides his constant knocking of pro wrestling in America, which got old, and his mentioning about how "you've never seen slow-motion on pro wrestling before" when it's actually prevalent every week, he only seemed slightly familiar with the subject. Gene Pelc, who handled color and is part of the promotion was very good overall. His talking about strategies, particularly in Koslowski-Kakihara, made the matches more interesting. Still, even he failed to do anything that would enable to audience to differentiate between the Japanese. In addition, some of the athletes on this show have some incredible real athletic credentials. While in some cases they were superimposed on the screen, they were never emphasized. Even though his performance was awful and he's too old and came in out of shape, Badnews Allen was a legend in the world of judo before he was a pro wrestler which is largely the reason he works for this group. All four men in the tag match have tremendous credentials in amateur wrestling and Koslowski and Severn's record books are lengthy. Lou Thesz was good in doing color the final two matches in that he was enthusiastic, but unless you were a hardcore pro wrestling fan, you wouldn't have known who he was and his credentials as well needed to be given since you have to assume this audience was largely sports fans who were curious about something and with no knowledge of any aspect of it.
The majority of the thumbs downs were more because they didn't like the style because of what it wasn't, and for the most part, what it couldn't be (no babyfaces and heels, no overt angles, a "boring" style) and maintain the legit aura which is its only drawing point. Several thumbs downs came from workers and promoters of the independent nature who ranged from mildly unhappy to downright outraged at the constant knocking of American style as being staged and rehearsed during the broadcast. Even many who voted thumbs up and enjoyed the show themselves questioned whether the style would be marketable in the United States.
1. Yoji Anjyo beat Tatsuo Nakano in 9:22 with a sleeper. The match consisted of Anjyo doing short flurries of kicks and Nakano controlling him on the mat. Nakano scored a knockdown with a german suplex, but also got a bloody nose and his left eye almost shut from the kicks. Nakano was in control when Anjyo came out of nowhere with a sleeper. This was a good match.
2. Dennis Koslowski beat Masahito Kakihara in 8:55 with the boston crab. The strategy here was that Koslowski, who won the silver medal in Greco-roman as a superheavyweight in Barcelona, with bigger and stronger and dominating on the mat. But standing, Kakihara's faster hands and feet gave him the advantage. Kakihara scored a few times with kicks. Finish saw Koslowski catch the foot, then Kakihara tried to reverse and use the other foot but Koslowski caught that as well and put him in the crab. The strategy made the match interesting to watch although it wasn't one of the best matches on the show.
3. Hiromitsu Kanehara scored a knock-out on Tommy Cairo in 3:49 with a knee to the face which looked good in slow-motion. Cairo is a bodybuilder type from Philadelphia who works for ECW. He scored with a few suplexes but was obviously not in the skill class as the guys that had appeared thus far in the show.
4. Kiyoshi Tamura made Yuko Miyato submit in 8:19 with a hold where he crimped his neck. Technically this was the best match on the show with quick back-and-forth action on the mat with lots of smooth moves into submissions, escapes and reversals and strong kicks from both men. Tamura looked great here. Miyato was pounding him when Tamura scored a take down and quickly got the submission.
5. Gene Lydig beat Greg Bobchick with a short-arm scissors in 7:37. Lydig is an American, I believe from Nashville, who has been working here regularly. Bobchick is an indie wrestler from Michigan who I believe wrestled in college and has a Rick Steiner like build. Pretty basic uncomplicated match with headlock takedowns. Lydig scored a back suplex and put on a submission. Both guys looked green.
6. Kazuo Yamazaki made Badnews Allen (Allen Coage) submit to a half crab in 13:34. Allen was introduced as former American pro wrestler Badnews Brown, but "when he comes here he has to wrestle the real professional wrestling style." Allen is 51-years-old, way overweight and his knees were shot, but it appeared Yamazaki didn't want to mess with him anyway. I'll bet half the people who saw them list him as an Olympic bronze medalist in judo thought it was a lie and the other half who believed it (it's legit) that knew him as a pro wrestler were shocked. It looked bad since Allen controlled most of the match before losing but showed nothing, which made Yamazaki look ineffective as well. Nothing happened and the match was terrible.
7. Salman Hashimikov & Vladimir Berkovich beat Dan Severn & Gary Albright in 13:09. Even though all four of these men were top class amateurs, this match was the most pro-wrestling like, which is either a positive or a negative depending on your point of view. The Russians were both former amateur champions, Hashimikov held several Greco-roman world titles and Berkovich was a European champion although neither has competed in many years. Hashimikov also held the IWGP title for New Japan in 1989 and worked a WCW PPV show in St. Louis in 1990. Severn has a lengthy amateur wrestling background including a many-time national champion in sambo. Albright wrestled at Nebraska and placed three times in the NCAA tournament (highest finish was second) and competed for years as a superheavy in freestyle on the national team. Berkovich came in out of shape, which was so obvious it was even acknowledged by the announcers, and was out of place, which made it even more unrealistic since his team was going to win. The match was largely an angle to set up a Hashimikov vs. Albright match, which I suspect will take place on the 12/5 big show. The Americans dominated, as one point being ahead 10-1 in points. Berkovich got a bloody nose and fat lip from the wild slaps and kicks by Severn. Hashimikov made the tag and immediately put Severn in an airplane spin and dropped into a short arm scissors for the submission. He didn't break it very fast after the submission so Albright jumped in and they did a pull-apart between the two of them. The match had heat like a pro wrestling match and was pretty exciting, but also pretty transparent.
8. Nobuhiko Takada retained his world title making Billy Scott submit to the short arm scissors in 13:00. The announcers got this over good by having Scott as the decided underdog who would never quit which kept things interesting since it was a one-sided match. Takada looked like a machine with his kicks. Scott took a lot of legit punishment with hard kicks to the leg and both his eyes were nearly shut from the blows. Apparently he was in real bad shape the next day. On the PPV they billed this as a world title match although in Japan it was a non-title match. Match told a story and got both Takada over as a true fighting machine as champion and got Scott over as an underdog with a lot of heart that wouldn't quit, so it was very good."
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