January 21, 1994 in Tokyo, Japan
Budokan Hall drawing 10,360
Look I don't want to alarm anybody unduly but this Battle Dimension Tournament '93 Grand Final is taking place at the Nippon Budōkan (日本武道館), host to the inaugural Olympic judo tournament of 1964 (and again in 2020 can you believe or wait for it!), decades of All-Japan Judo Championships, and I guess some bands too or whatever (for the record I agree with those who argued in 1966 that the Beatles would desecrate and defile the noble Budokan [I like the Beatles, it's not about that, it's about what Mishima must have wanted at the time]) so this is pretty major. They have brought in a brass band and everything, look:
Oh man this parade of fighters in the Budokan is so full-on right now. I do not need to remind you, I am sure, that the Battle Dimension Tournament Grand Final itself will be contested between Akira Maeda, shocking non-winner of last year's Mega Battle '92 and hero to all (even, no, especially to the young boys he no doubt mistreats terribly), and Georgian kyokushin karate stylist Bitsadze Tariel, who we have recently established is truly enormous. It should be great! And please do not think for even a moment that the third-place bout between last year's champion Chris Dolman and Volk-Han-eliminator Nikolai Zouev is not also a very promising thing to me (and I hope to us all). Because this is a tournament final, various dignitaries of considerable dignity are introduced in a dignified manner befitting their station (and dignity), though there is nothing as feelings-generating here as when Jon Bluming showed up (this is probably for the best, I lost most of a day). And now we are ready to go!
Andre Tourmanidze is an almost unreal victim of male-pattern baldness (I am myself far from unscathed so I do not say this not to shame but to express solidarity with his plight) and here faces Fred Oosterom, who is by far the leanest RINGSist we have seen so far, just long and super lean. It seems he would prefer to strike at range whereas Tourmanidze would like to ruin his knees forever with vicious holds made all the more savage, I would argue, by his baldness. I would suggest to you that if there is an older guy who is balding kind of fearlessly (in that he has not shaved away what remains in a cowardly attempt to mislead the world into thinking this was all his idea when in fact it is the grim, grim judgment of nature) and he wants to work leg-locks? You should absolutely fucking refuse such a man. He has survived a head-kick knockdown, this Tourmanidze, to throw with the kubi-nage neck-throw of a headlock takeover, and then later with the kind of kata-guruma (shoulder-wheel) that doesn't even require the leg but instead nifty gripping (and so has been refined greatly in the last decade of judo as contested by Eastern Europeans and Central Asians, bless them all and also their merciless waza) and finish with a kata-gatame (shoulder-hold) arm-triangle choke at 6:26. I know nothing of this Tourmanidze's pre-RINGS martial beginnings but the commentators do seem to say judo kind of a lot when he is around so that seems at least possible. Certainly he is, in one way or another, of the mat.
Peter Smit, who we have not seen in kind of a while, and who is looking a little loose around the middle, if I may be frank with you right now about another man's body, is in next with Bart Vale, and I literally cannot believe how much like Bart Vale Bart Vale looks right now:
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| I mean come on |
Rob Esdonk and Rene Roza are going to have a kickboxing match now and I am going to not be able to tell you much about it. Both of these guys are very tall and slim and one of them has either by choice or necessity taped-up his longish braid and it actually looks kind of great. I have every reason to believe that they are hitting each other for real here but again admit freely that I am an idiot about such things (and perhaps others?). I will note again how tall these guys are (really very) as I inform you that Rob Esdonk has taken the bout by decision after five truly kick-boxed rounds.
YOSHIHISA YAMAMOTO VS. VOLK HAN IN THE BUDOKAN GET READY FOR MY ENJOYMENT as Yamamoto comes out with black trunks (thank you, yes, someone, finally) and yellow kickpads, Han in darkest blue thigh-trunks (you know, like, thigh trunks?) and light blue pads and let's go let's have some RINGS YES SPINNING BACKFIST INTO TAI-OTOSHI (BODY-DROP) and Yamamoto is coming in hot over the water that is Volk Han who is not overcome by this but instead counters with relentless holdery including first leg-locks and secondly his standing Double Agony in Man te-gatame/mae-hadaka-jime arm-lock/front-choke combination which he actually takes the to ground which is also where he applies a juji-gatame that thrills everyone and now there is a rope break THIS IS TOO MUCH TO BEAR. Yamamoto puts Han down with a hard shot to the body! Now he has his back and not only his back but his head and neck in hadaka-jime a strangle of great efficacy but Yamamoto bails on it and switches to a shoot(esque) version of an inverted Indian death lock I guess but Han nimbles his way out of that and tries first his split-leg hold and then just a bunch of other ones and Yamamoto uses his second escape. NO VOLK HAN STOP don't do those arm-wringers so fast you really will hurt someone and this is all supposed to be for fun. Yamamoto so harries Han in the ensuing ne-waza sequence that Han must himself make use of the ropes and there is finally room to breathe (for me) except no I was mistaken there is not there is instead the juji-gatame of Volk Han to the point of rope escape ROLLING KNEE-BAR YAMAMOTO HIZA-JUJI HIZA-JUJI have I mentioned the commentary yet (it is excellent). At present Volk Han has come very close to forcing Yamamoto's own arm into the ropes with a gyaku-ude-garami entanglment and that offers intriguing tactical possibilities, doesn't it, like trapping your opponent's grip in a position that will force them into a shido in a match of judo (this is not at all as possible as it used to be due to changes in gripping rules and that is for the best but think about the similarities though). The crowd is so into Yamamoto struggling for these rope escapes now that it is stirring. He's not getting away this time though because this time there is a sit-out crucifix biceps-slicer/compression that I have never seen anything like before but can immediately tell what is up with it because it makes sense.
At intermission, WOWOW shows us the final moments of each match thus far in our Battle Dimension Tournament '93, which is a fine service but as I have watched all of those within the last few days I am okay without them (I do still appreciate it, though, as it is a strong use of intermission). When we rejoin new happenings we do so with Yuji Shimada calling both Mikhal Simov and Dick Vrij to the middle of the ring to begin a match to be contested in a series of three-minute rounds (I believe five or fewer). Simov is wearing boxing gloves so there is no way he could only be only pretending to fight, whereas Vrij wears none, so who knows with him. They are two rounds in and doing well but I am still in that last match, I don't mind telling you! In the third, Vrij knocks Simov down, and then when he gets up, puts him back down and juji-gatames him at 1:40. I have obviously never applied juji-gatame to someone wearing boxing gloves and will never be in a position to do so but it looks pretty fun!
This third-place Battle Dimension match between Nikolai Zouev and Chris Dolman could be very neat, as I mentioned above. It isn't even that Dolman does all that much, as he is a pretty heavy forty-eight years old here (forty-nine in a couple of weeks) but he has such a great presence in a low-key way, and Zouev is just really quick and good. So let's see! Dolman looks to maul in a creaturely way early; no surprise there. Zouev, though, grabs a figure-four or ude-garami grip and, from it, threatens with juji-gatame; that's just good græppling, everybody, and Dolman is forced to acknowledge as much by grabbing hold of a rope so he can stand up from it all. One of the ways you can tell RINGS is the best is that Chris Dolman can grab a standing mae-hadaka-jime, just the plainest front choke, and the crowd assembled at the Budokan can be like HHWWOOOOOAH for a second. Dolman attacks with the major outside reap of osoto-gari; Zouev favour the minor outer hook of kosoto-gake; and so they dance. In time, Dolman's increasingly subtle ashi-waza foot sweeps find their mark, and then he smooshes down atop Zouev and comes close with an ude-garami for a bit. Zouev is getting his shit in too, though, as is said: there are leg-locks; he has, and applies them. OH MY GOODNESS WHAT A FINISH OKAY Zouev comes in for a seoi-nage shoulder(ing) throw which in truth becomes an uchi-makikomi sutemi-waza (inner-wraparound sacrifice technique) that Dolman rides out for a brutal hadaka-jime (naked strangle) with an arm trapped between his legs in a near-crucifix position (if you look closely, you can see that Zouev feeds his own arm into position to make the choke look all the more gnar).
YES.
YES.
Chris Dolman has followed his 1992 tournament win (in 1993) with a deeply respectable third-place finish in 1993 (which is really 1994) and that finish was so true it was so true and I don't know how Akira Maeda and Bitszade Tariel are going to top this other than through the sheer magnetism and star quality (how can he not shine) that allows us to have these feelings that we do for Akira Maeda I guess. National anthems! Play the Georgian national anthem before we engage in our shoot-style græppz so that I know that it is real, please. Raise the flag of that nation in the Budokan also. The Japanese anthem follows, as is proper.
OKAY HERE WE GO can you believe Maeda wasn't in the final of this last year? Here he is now though and he takes Tariel to the mat with a super low double-leg within seconds and forces a rope escape with a side-choke almost at once. Now they are back up and kicking! Tariel throws savage kyokushin blows into Maeda's chest as though he were a mere bull or bear or American GI and this is too much for Maeda who tackles him to the mat again and forces another enchoked rope break. When they are on the mat, Maeda's superiority is clear; when they stand, he gets kyokushin'd so bad like so bad. As Maeda settles into the mighty scarf-hold of kesa-gatame he in fact does not settle, forgive me, but presses on and earns another point with juji-gatame; if Maeda can just keep from being brutalized utterly by kyokushin punches he should be able to pull this one out! Another low, tackling morote-gari sends Tariel flopping to the mat and again to the ropes to flee the choke; he is running out of such escapes! And now it is Maeda who delivers myriad blows to the body as though it were he whose way was kyokushin! (It is, in part.) I THINK HE'S GOING TO FINISH THIS JUJI-GATAME NOW ahhhhh no Tariel made the ropes. Tariel fills him in terribly with knees in the corner! The crowd can't take it! Neither can this guy on commentary! Neither can this guy on his couch! Another rope escape on a choke from Tariel, and he is now down to his last one. Yet another low tackle leads to yet another choke but Maeda switches to a kata-ashi-hishigi single-leg-crab and oh wait I guess Tariel had another rope break, sorry. Maeda stands up, blows a sizable snot rocket, and takes a mean kick to the groin. BUT NEVER MIND HIS GROIN HE IS NOW THE VICTOR HE HAS WON WITH HIZA-HISHIGI THE KNEE CRUSH OR DISLOCATION and he is rushed backstage, Maeda is, and his young boys (Tsuyoshi Kohsaka is among them) attend to him. This is odd that he is backstage now! One of the men at commentary is shown in tears at Maeda's win, like when Shinpei Ogami lost it over Yuji Nagata last year (he was right to do it). Chris Dolman arrives to offer Maeda his congratulations, which is very nice of him to do.
And that's it! Maeda is your champion! Which he had been previously but now it has been formalized. In an austere in-ring ceremony (he has come back out) alongside Tariel and Dolman, Maeda is presented with golden laurels as the music of the then-still-living "Macho Man" Randy Savage is played sombrely as though to acknowledge that in time he would not be, and that we will all follow after him soon enough. R.I.P. Randy Savage the Forerunner.
WHAT DID DAVE MELTZER SAY:
January 31, 1994: "Rings finished its Battle Dimension tournament before 11,036 at Budokan Hall on 1/18 with Akira Maeda winning making Bitarze Tariel submit in the championship match. In a surprise, after the match, Maeda, who has ignored pro wrestling since Rings formed and said it was something in his past, challenged Nobuhiko Takada and Masakatsu Funaki to appear on his 3/19 show at the Yokohama Arena. The inability for Rings to sellout Budokan for its annual tournament final shows it has slipped to third place behind Pancrase and UWFI in the so-called shootfighting popularity ranks, which caused Maeda to acknowledge his competition offices.
1/21 Tokyo Budokan Hall (Rings - 11,036): Andre Tsuranamize b Alstan, Bart Vail b Peter Smit, Estan b Roza, Volk Han b Yoshihisa Yamamoto, Dick Leon-Vrij b Humoff, Chris Dolman b Nikolai Zouev, Battle Dimension '93 tournament championship: Akira Maeda b Bitarze Tariel"
February 7, 1994: In a discussion of an inter-promotional Onita/Tenryu match: "[T]he booming Japanese business with so many different companies doing big business at the same time can't last forever, particularly with the Japanese overall economy having taken a tumble over the past year. The stretch marks at the seems of the Japanese wrestling business are already beginning to be noted in the past few months--crowds of less than 1,200 for the smaller groups at the formerly automatic sellout' Korakuen Hall, and Rings failing to come even close to selling out Budokan last week for its Battle Dimension tournament final or the second Fujinami-Tenryu match at Sumo Hall coming nowhere close to a full house. The belief is it is inevitable the business can't continue at this level, so go for whatever big money match you can find in 1994 before the fall is so severe that the easy money matches even become hard money matches."
February 14, 1994: "There is a feud going on between Akira Maeda and Weekly Pro Wrestling magazine. Not sure the ramifications but believe Maeda has banned them from covering his shows. Maeda has been saying that RINGS isn't pro wrestling and that he (Maeda) isn't a pro wrestler, since pro wrestling has the reputation of being worked and even though what Maeda does is also worked, he goes to great lengths to hide that fact. Weekly Pro said that Maeda was a pro wrestler and that if he wasn't, his shows should be covered by Combat Sports magazines rather than pro wrestling magazines. Maeda had a five hour long elbow operation on 2/4 but will be back in time for the 3/19 Yokohama Arena show."
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