September 21, 1994 in Osaka, Japan
Furitsu Gym drawing 4,980
IS THE HUMBLE OATCAKE THE TEASIDE SNACK MOST DECOROUS WITH THE ETHOS AND TENNETS OF SHOOT STYLE I ask myself as for the first time I take the RINGS blog on the road to the extent to which I am at a small café on a road that is not the same as the road my house is on and yet is still really quite near it ARE YOU READY FOR ’94 FIGHTING NETWORK RINGS TOURNAMENT, its brackets now before us:
Even before the parade of fighters, the commentators draw our attention to the SPECIAL MATCH that sits atop this opening round tournament card and that is Dick Vrij versus Akira Maeda in a rematch of their 7/14 Osaka bout in which Maeda stomped Vrij pretty solidly on the back after the bell in what had to be a work because if Akira Maeda is shoot upset he goes straight for the orbital bone, jack. Hey how great are these annual tournaments, though? And, to take a step back for a moment, how absurdly fvkkn sikk is RINGS, right? I see no reason for this not to be the time to note that the overall quality of these RINGS shows continues to surprise and delight; I never doubted TOM when he said that RINGS was the best overall presentation in the long history of græppz (worked; shot; who can say, and, what’s more, what is a shoot, anyway?) but I am pleased anew each time out to find that this continues to very much be the case.
I had hoped my oatcake would last longer but it is so good that it is nearly gone as Pieter Oele enters the rings to face Aldinov Roussimov, a heavyweight boxer whose gloves are being laced as we speak. Oele, though a striker himself, opts for no gloves, the better to grapple (græpple) one assumes, and so the possibility of the ude-hishigi-juji-gatame assisted by big boxing glove grips is very much in play here. When he gets in close, Roussimov fires off these quick little combinations to the body that impress me but I watch maybe a couple of boxing matches a year before I just feel too awful about it to watch others so I am remarkably easy to impress with boxing. The oatcakes here are thirty cents more than the cookies but seventy cents less than the scones so it’s a pretty easy call as far as that goes but the tea biscuits are thirty cents less so there’s more to it than that. This bout is a battle of knockdowns, some plausible, some im-, but the final one in which Pieter Oele hacks Roussimov down at the legs is choice. After each match it looks like they are going to show the tournament bracket again and light up the name of the winner and highlight the little line that runs to the next round and this is a wholly admirable move.
The next match is Willie Peeters against Mikhail Ilioukhine and this has the potential to be a high-level exemplar of whatever this is exactly that we’re doing and I say that despite Willie Peeters never quite living up to the unreal promise he exhibited in his earliest RINGS bouts. This is not a criticism, exactly, in that on the whole his body of work is excellent; that he did not turn out to be a Volk Han avant-la-lettre (Peeters was there for a while before Volk Han showed up or was made flesh or however that happened but I guess I am talking about what happened later so avant-la-lettre makes no sense to say here, what am I doing) is not really a knock against him and I say this in a spirit of sympathy and fellowship rather than one of condemnation. Ilioukhine is huge and jakkkked and throws with uchi mata into juji-gatame from two different angles so how could one do anything but celebrate him unreservedly. Peeters really fires those knees to the head in there from the clinch, though, doesn’t he. Good man. HOLY SMOKES okay Peeters hit a knee to the face off of a break in what was easily the most convincing and compelling knockdown of the worked RINGS matches thus far, and the knockdown that comes off a shoteeeeiiiii to the face a minute later is not that far behind. Peeters is killing Ilioukhine as though to rebut my earlier suggestion that he has been anything less than perfect in every way. Ilioukhine is dogged with his ashi-kansetsu (leg-bone-locking) attacks, and forces Peeters to the ropes a couple of times, but Peeters just keeps hitting him super hard all the time. Ilioukhine utterly dumps Peeters with what begins as a kata-guruma (shoulder wheel) but which ends much more like a Death Valley Driver and I am of course reminded of the time a lifetime ago when the then-young (yung) Gilbert Melendez hit what was in truth more of an Air Raid Crash in SHOOTO and quite a number of us at Death Valley Driver pitched in money to sponsor Malendez and have it say DEATH VALLEY DRIVER on his shorts for his next fight. That was a lot of fun! Several message board pilgrimages/exiles later, and now well into the Twitter era that has murdered the boards (Twitter has given much but let us not lose sight too of what it has taken) and here several of us are, very much concerned with the same preoccupations that led us to the old green DVDVR board to begin with. KATA-ASHI-HISHIGI IN SINGLE-LEG-BOSTON-CRAB FORM ILIOKHINE IS YOUR WINNER AT 9:56.
Mitsuya Nagai, whose job it feels like is largely to lose heroically to foreigners for whom plans have been made, has drawn Bitsadze Ameran, no better than the second-best Georgian kyokushin exponent named Bitsadze in RINGS at any given time. Wait a minute, is Bitsadze Tariel not I this tournament? But he is my second-favourite karate guy after Willie Williams obviously! Maybe there is a bye system I do not understand, but as of right now I am concerned. Ameran is wearing a red singlet, maybe, under his gi pants (I really should be saying 下穿 shitabaki or ズボン zubon instead of gi pants shouldn't I; I will mend my ways in 2017). Nagai takes this pretty spirited bout by hiza-hishigi (knee-crush/calf-slicer) at 7:24 and while Ameran is no Tariel he did throw some pretty excellent kicks in this one so I should probably lay off.
Mitsuya Nagai and Masayuki Naruse are bound together (perhaps forever?) in my mind so it is only fitting that Naruse's match should be next but it is against Hans Nijman (dead in a hail of bullets and VW Golfs R.I.P. Hans Nijman) and so one wonders how this will go for him. I don't know that I can even properly conceive of a MEGA BATTLE TOURNAMENT or BATTLE DIMENSION TOURNAMENT or whatever we will settle on for this one that would see both Nagai and Naruse in its second round so I am very doubtful right now. Hans Nijman jump(kicks) the gun and has to be called back to his corner before Yuji Shimada properly calls FIGHT and we are underway! Both fighters are wearing light blue shorts so it would be very difficult to tell them apart were not one Mitsuya Nagai and the other Masayuki Naruse OH DEAR Hans Nijman came very close with a juji-gatame at which point the commentator said groundo a-technique and here I am saying ne waza and it is not unlike the part in the first Mick Foley book where he talks about how his indie days taught him that Japanese fans wanted his shirts to have English on them and American fans wanted Japanese ones because that is the nature of desire and I believe Hans Nijman just killed Masayuki Naruse with a kind of cradle suplex backdrop that will probably have to be banned. Naruse is up at nine from a barrage of kicks but then really just one kick later he is down for good at 4:37. Nijmans and Peeters talk it over as they head to the back and Willie Peeters is like look man I don't know just stay away from situations involving multiple Volkswagen Golfs I just don't see how any good can come of anything like that.
Here comes Tony Halme, who at this point in his life had already been in the UWF, NJPW, WWF (as Ludvig Borga, obviously), but not yet the UFC (where he was done away with pretty much at once by Randy Couture, no shame there) nor yet a seven-year member of the Finnish parliament (The Eduskunta) and a representative of the ethnic-nationalist True Finns party (they are not called that anymore). I have just now learned that he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound in 2010, and that Jim Ross didn't really shed a tear about it ("I won't speak at length about those that have passed away but Tony obviously had issues and was not a great guy to be around") so this bout against Dimitri Petkov has taken a dark turn before it has even begun. Petkov launches the boxing-engloved Halm with a deep koshi-waza (hip technique) and nearly secures juji-gatame in its aftermath and really is doing all the work of this match, as Halme is just winging the widest punches ever wung for the knockout at 5:14 and I won't speak at length about those that have passed away but Tony obviously didn't do to much in that match but I guess they have plans for this guy. Do those plans involve beating some guys and then losing to Akira Maeda? Only time will tell.
Grom Zaza, whom all admire, now faces Andrei Kopilov, with whom no one's problem could ever truly be. Zaza is so grey and handsome now, look:
That ashi-kansetsu (leg-bone-locking) should emerge as important techniques early in this bout comes as no surprise, nor does Grom Zaza's kata-guruma (shoulder wheel) attempt, but when he turns it into a kind of low, shoot torture rack, it is pretty weird and neat. Kopilov favours elaborate, Han-esque leglocks and I respect that; his kani-basami ([flying] crab scissor) into the cross knee-bar of hiza-juji-gatame is also praiseworthy. I like both of these græpplers a lot, and yet if only one can advance in this '94 Fighting Network RINGS tournament I am pleased that in the end it is Grom Zaza by rolling gyaku-kata-gatame (reverse shoulder hold/arm triangle) at 8:42 of a spirited bout.
AKIRA MAEDA VS. DICK VRIJ is our main event and already underway with a good amount of kicking. Both the first takedown and the first juji-gatame attempt, perhaps surprisingly, go to Vrij, but so too the first yellow card for an infraction I cannot discern and do not feel compelled to go back and try to figure out right now because this RINGS blog (like all RINGS blogs) is about momentum. Vrij is lighting our hero up and hhooooolllly smooookes that was some head kick! And then like a reverse thrust kick to the ribs and a knee to the head and Maeda has fallen out betwixt the ropes and to the floor at 2:54 and your winner by TKO (it does not seem that technical to me but instead actual) is Dick Vrij! So Maeda is out, he's done? Oh man as Vrij leaves the rings and Maeda is helped by his seconds there is some kind of scrum? This feels super real but at the same I am sure I am being "trimmed"!
WHAT DID DAVE MELTZER SAY:
September 12, 1994: "Rings announced its complicated Battle Dimension '94 tournament which starts on 9/21 in Osaka. Akira Maeda and Volk Han are the top two seeds, so they don't have to wrestle in the tournament until the quarterfinals on 11/19 at the Ariake Coliseum (finals are in January at Budokan Hall). The next highest seeds, Bitarze Tariel, Willie Williams, Chris Dolman, Dirk Leon-Vrij, Nikolai Zuev and Yoshihisa Yamamoto, join the tournament in the second round on 10/22 in Fukuoka. First round matches are 9/21 in Osaka headlined by Tony Halme vs. Dimita Petkov and Andre Kopilov vs. Grom Zaza while Maeda vs. Vrij in the non-tourney match headlines. They also announced a show on February 19, 1995 in Amsterdam, Holland."
Ooooooooh okay, so it isn't at all as I had thought it was, but at the same time I am pretty blameless here because it is very complicated and I have almost no Japanese and also am an idiot.
October 3, 1994: "RINGS ran a show on 9/21 at Osaka Furitsu Gym with a major upset on top as Dirk Leon-Vrij knocked out Akira Maeda in 2:54 and they announced Vrij broke Maeda's ribs early in the match with a kick and that Maeda would be out of action for at least six weeks and would have to forfeit his spot in the Battle Dimension '94 tournament because of the injury.
9/21 Osaka Furitsu Gym (RINGS - 4,980): Peter Ura b Thomas Lusimoff, Micha b Willie Peeters, Mitsuya Nagai b Amilan, Hans Nyman b Masayoshi Naruse, Tony Halme b Dimitir Petkov, Grom Zaza b Andrei Kopilov, Dirk Leon-Vrij b Akira Maeda"
October 17, 1994: As part of a totally compelling rundown of all the major international promotions, Dave writes: "UWFI and Shoot style - Although so-called "shoot style" wrestling has evolved from the 1984 forming of the original UWF, and peaked in the late 1980s with the popularity of Akira Maeda, this group in many ways in reminiscent of the early days of U.S. wrestling and old-style territorial promotional conflicts. There's the we're real, they're fake aura; there's the grandstand challenges; there's the using legendary wrestlers with reps for being real like Lou Thesz, Billy Robinson and Danny Hodge (which no doubt they were in the gym and could have been had they wanted to, but in reality when they were pro wrestlers, they worked their matches just like everyone else) as spokespeople, etc. Yet, look at the booking. Very simple angles based on winning and losing. In this case, there's three men, Gary Albright, Nobuhiko Takada and Super Vader who the company revolves around. They trade-off beating one another. And the results have been, on a per-show average (misleading since they only run about once a month), the best drawing company in the world. Takada and Vader split their first two meetings. Takada recently beat Albright, but then Albright returned and made Vader submit in a tag match. So who's really No. 1? That's the question the 16,500 fans who come to Budokan Hall every show ask.
But as popular as UWFI is in Japan, it seemingly failed to make its mark in the United States. Its first PPV was a moderate success, particularly introducing a new style on a show where not one performer had any real name value. But the second show didn't get anywhere near the interest of the first. A third show is upcoming, but it's doubtful it'll make any waves. The UFC seems to have cornered the market on "real" and there is little interest in UWFI. There have been attempts to gain a foothold in England, which went wild for WWF a few years ago but the bloom is starting to come off the rose there, but thus far no major inroads have been made.
UWFI badly needs another wrestler who can be pushed to the Albright level. If they have that, and Takada can maintain his popularity, they'll be in good shape for another year. What would really hurt them is if Vader leaves, which is always a possibility considering New Japan has to know how big a hole he's left behind and they have the working deal with WCW which puts pressure on Vader to work New Japan. In addition, while Vader's money deal here is great, his bread is still buttered in WCW.
The other two shoot-style groups are Pancrase and RINGS. Pancrase has a fervent following among its hardcores as real wrestling, with its own triumvirate on top of Wayne Shamrock, Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki. Pancrase is unique in that the matches are short, look far more real than anything else on the pro wrestling scene and its competitors are really in shape, far beyond that of any other organization. Pancrase's new wave "Hybrid Wrestling" caught fire after its first show one year ago, but now is behind UWFI when it comes to overall popularity.
RINGS is left with the remnants of the popularity of Maeda, who at one-time was "it" in the Japanese wrestling world. Although he's the top draw and focal point of the promotion, even his most ardent fans have to see Maeda is more a famous name and a reputation than an impressive competitor. But he can still sell tickets, although the days of him selling out the Tokyo Dome in three days are long over. To its credit, RINGS survived while Maeda was recovering from knee surgery, but its monthly shows seem to draw about 5,000 now. RINGS is yesterday's news trying to hang on, to the point they are now shooting pro wrestling type shoot-angles such as the recent Maeda-Dirk Vrij angle. Pancrase, which is in preliminary discussions about attempting to market itself in the United States, is trying to be tomorrow's news. Today's news is UWFI, which is kind of an amalgamation of shoot style and New Japan style with old-time booking philosophy."
Pretty fascinating, right? I hope you agree! As always I thank you for your time and hope you will join me again.
No comments:
Post a Comment