December 19, 1995 in Osaka, Japan
Furitsu Gym drawing 5,382
THE MEGA BATTLE TOURNAMENT 1995 SEMI-FINALS HAVE BEEN SET and as you can see in the above "screen capture" our brackets dictate Volk Han face Yoshihisa Yamamoto, whilst Hans Nijman (R.I.P. Hans Nijman please remember to care for his widow and widows more broadly in the ways the prophet Muhammad [may peace be upon him] teaches and indeed demands of us) faces Akira Maeda and, all too soon, his own mortality (R.I.P. Hans Nijman). Also, I don't want to alarm you or maybe I do when I tell you that in a non-tournament bout, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka will see action against Zaza Tkeshelashvili, known better to us perhaps by his nom-de-guerre/sobriquet-rouge GROM ZAZA in what promises to be a match I expect way too much of but let's just see; let's just see.
Before that, though, there must be this: Bulgarian boxer Emil Krastev against the increasingly venerable Wataru Sakata. I have known but a single Bulgarian in all my days but I think very highly of him and therefore so too of the Bulgarian people generally. Sakata takes Krastev down with relative and understandable ease in the opening minutes but is also badly hit and downed; so far this all makes perfect sense. Sakata's rolling juji-gatame attack is well executed except for how it rolls Krastev directly into the ropes for the break; immediately thereafter, Krastev boxes Sakata down again. There are knees and kicks from this Krastev, too, and it is in fact a spinning kick to the head that puts Sakata down for the TKO at 3:50. That kick looked great! Sakata really dove into it, not unlike the way Shinsuke Nakamura dove into Kazushi Sakuraba's knee at what I guess must have been Wrestle Kingdom 7? I think the best Kazushi Sakuraba NJPW matches of recent years, since we are on that now (and why wouldn't we be) for me are, in order of descending sikkness, Nakamura at WK7, Minoru Suzuki at WK9, and Katsuyori Shibata at Dominion in Osaka but those last two are super close together.
AND NOW FOR THE MAIN EVENT only it is the second match of the show but this is not entirely foreign to those of us who would tape the Saturday Night's Main Event(s) of our youth(s) which if I am remembering this right would put the Hogan match on second for television ratings reasons or something? Remember the one where Bad News Allen (or Brown, if you must) had Hogan so totally beaten that he got on the house microphone and announced that it was Ghetto Blaster time? (That is the racist name given his enziguri, isn't that weird; note too that no mentions of his judo Olympianism were permitted on air, because Bad News was from the streets [he was not from the streets]. It is nearly as though the promoter he was working for at the time felt Allen's blackness rendered him something less than fully human, or something? Maybe there are other ways to account for how they had him wrestle a black-faced Roddy Piper, and booked him to be afraid of snakes? Read all about it in the as-yet-unarchived-but-look-here-it-is-anyway "Bad News" Allen Coage WON obituary, probably my all-time favourite obituary Dave Meltzer has written, and consider if you will the scope of that.) ANYWAY HERE IT IS, TK/GROM, CAN YOU EVEN BELIEVE IT:
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| tkgromshakes.blogspot.com |
DID YOU KNOW seoi-otoshi (shouldering drop) is one of the best throws to do to beginners in randori, because it is a super low and soft fall and yet gets them used to the rolling forward ukemi or breakfall they simply must learn lest they perish (before their appointed hour [although who can say])? It's true, I do it all the time! You can also teach important things about gripping, like not leading with their power/lifting hand (tsurite) but instead the sleeve-side/pulling hand (hikite)! I do not mean to imply Grom Zaza has anything to learn about any of these subjects! TK settles into kesa-gatame, the scarf-hold, and steps over into juji-gatame but Grom escapes and an ashi-kansetsu leg-lock duel begins (rope break, Zaza). This is so good that it seems an insult to it to even note that, somehow? Zaza shoots low for the ankle-counter/ankle-pick of kibisu-gaeshi only for TK to offer a shoot(style) enziguri as though in tribute to "Bad News" Allen Coage about whom we spoke so very recently, how weird is that. Zaza pursues a harsh crab-style ashi-kansetsu as Kohsaka flees and makes the ropes to the great relief of all assembled (this is so good, so good). TREMENDOUS KNEES put Zaza down, what is happening, this is unreal. Another ashi-kansetsu leg-lock exchange, ok, let's take things back down a little, rope break TK. AXE-KICK ZAZA! SUMI-GAESHI (corner reversal) to MAE-HADAKA-JIME (front choke) TK! COUNTERED BY GNAR ASHI-KANSETSU, ZAZA! Rope break TK, phew.
Grom's kibisu-gaeshi ankle pick flows naturally to another ashi-kansetsu leg-lock, what a neat little combination he's got going there, but does it not leave him open to the heel hook of Kohsaka? Indeed it does! The rope breaks are coming at a great rate, and we are still getting the occasional knockdown, like for example the one that TK just now suffered at the hands of Zaza's knees (that doesn't make sense), and he is down to his last down (Zaza must be close too but I have lost track). HEAVENS WHAT A FINISH as Grom Zaza throws TK with his own seoi-otoshi but there is slightly too much space and so when that happens here is what your head and neck do:
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| tkneckpain.blogspot.com |
THAT MATCH WAS PERFECT.
We return to earth from the heavens as Pieter Oele and Vladimir Klementiev stage a workmanlike display that ends with an Oele fore-arm choke 6:54. Mitsuya Nagai and Nikolai Zouev follow, and are, as we have come to expect, absolutely totally good. The koshi-waza (hip techniques) are robust, the sumi-gaeshi (corner reversals) cræftig, the gyaku-ude-garami/Kimura-grip sweeps expertly timed, the kicks to Zouev's head while he is down in the corner surprisingly vicious (I have no idea why that was not a yellow card). Zouev times a rolling leg-sweep just as Nagai went high (or perhaps it was not timed at all, but merely fortuitous) and the crowd loses it (not wrongly). He's got a great way of attacking with gyaku-ude-garami, this Zouev does, whilst hooking a leg over the far-side arm, or even the head, or even the head and arm and a leg, good for him:
That a rope-break should prove the only escape to the predicament described and depicted above comes I am sure as no surprise given the extremity of the duress therein (which kind of extends to us from even seeing it; such is the power of art). Nagai is a gamer, though, and before you know it he as perpendicular as can be with his juji-gatame attempt as Zouev bridges and bridges and bridges to relieve pressure (we have all been there whilst juji'd, those of us who have been juji'd, have we not.) There was a part a moment ago I meant to tell you about when Zouev had Nagai's back and was working towards a choke but made the all-too-common error of crossing his ankles which led to an excellent hiza-tori-garami (knee-taking-entanglement) "spot" that the crowd was super into, here is that hold:
Highlights of the previous MEGA BATTLE round ready us for the Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Volk Han bout that could be really be something. The shrieking crowd seems to agree that that is possible! Man, Volk Han is just not going to relent with that gross standing gyaku-ude-garami/Kimura, is he; I think at this point it falls to me to try to stop minding it but I feel that I am being prevented from doing so by my basic humanity. A slick ne-waza exchange follows, and as both men pop back up to their feet to rapid applause one half-expects them to stare at each other for like eight seconds whilst circling in an indie respect spot but that is not exactly what happens (once, after a quick [for us] exchange of ne-waza that led to me and one of my judo pals popping right back up at a [for us] pretty major match at a [for us] pretty major tournament, we slapped hands briefly before getting back at it in a gesture that it occurred to me later might well have made the whole thing look like a work [it was not] {don't think judo works amongst training partners/teammates can't happen though, and do not be surprised that the most high-profile judo player accused of having done so is Antonio Inoki's brave pal Seiji Sakaguchi: "Coach Koji Sone was accused by Anton Geesink's teammates in the 1965 World Judo Championships of having Sakaguchi throw the match against the more rested Matsunaga in order to allow Matsunaga [to] take on the weary Geesink in the final round.[2]"). WAIT HOW IS THIS NOT THE FINISH:
Instead of raising his hips by like a literal hair (well maybe a little more than that, like maybe a literal hare) to finish, Han switches to a made-up (everything is made up, stay woke) hooking hold that does nothing instead and it is a bullshit decision to have done so. If you're going to fully extend on juji-gatame AND go so far as to trap the near-leg so uke can't roll out over the far shoulder (Yamamoto's shoulder remains young enough, it would probably stay in) then that's the finish, pal, that is the fvkkn finish, unless the story of the match is going to be that one guy has a broken arm for the rest of the match and like the next six weeks or whatever. I EXPECT BETTER CONCEPTUALLY OUT OF THESE TWO. And a minute or so later, Yamamoto goes ultra-light and is scooped up and dumped effortlessly by Han, what is going on, nobody buys that. Is it awesome when Volk Han pushes Yamamoto's leg down out of a sankaku-jime (triangle choke) attempt and then stomps inside his knee whilst holding the other leg in the kata-ashi-hishigi ankle lock? Yes, of course it is, but I cannot help but feel that the damage has already been done (to my art-feelings). The crowd did not give more than the faintest care when Han scooped and dumped Yamamoto and it looked super fake, I can tell you that! They are being won back by a spirited exchange of ashi-kansetu leg-lockery that begins in the very centre of the ring and continues for a good long while before Han's rope escape. A nice finish, at least, when Yamamoto throws his way out of Volk Han's standing hadaka-jime choke with the same seoi-otoshi that figured so prominently in Kohsaka/Zaza (that it was a looser and lesser throw than either Kohsaka's or Zaza's is understandable and ok), transitions to juji-gatame in a flash, forcing Volk Han to tap despite rolling over his (this case pretty old) far shoulder to relieve pressure. It gives me no pleasure to report that Yamamoto/Han was 10:17 of A Mixed Bag, but the bare fact of Yamamoto getting a win over Volk Han thrills the crowd and I get it, that's major, he is a MEGA BATTLE FINALIST.
During Yamamoto's post-fight interview in the locker room we hear from the main hall the opening strains of Maeda's music, surely the food of grappz (play on, give me excess of it, that, surfeiting, the græppetite may sicken and so die). The chant of MA-E-DA MA-E-DA resounds more resoundingly than usual, even, as his bout with Hans Nijman (R.I.P. you are with Lemmy now) draws near. MAEDA IS DOWN IMMEDIATELY as he is met with a big knee as he dropped low for the two-hand reap of morote-gari and once he answers the count it is he himself who is morote-gari'd to the mat and the crowd is totally silent except for like three guys who go MAEDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA in turn. Maeda is being swarmed and beaten as though he were walking alone at night on the Commons; this is dark. Will anything come of this kibisu-gaeshi ankle-pick? No, merely a kesa-gatame scarf hold and a rope break. Maeda catches a kick and drops for a leg-lock and the crowd is like OMG MAYBE? but no, rope break. It worked next time, though! Maeda your winner at 3:48, moving on to face Yoshihisa Yamamoto in the tournament final next year because yes it's true we've reached the end of 1995 RINGS!
WHAT DID DAVE MELTZER HAVE TO SAY:
January 2, 1996:
"12/19 Osaka Furitsu Gym (RINGS - 5,382): Kurastefu b Wataru Sakata, Grom Zaza b Tsuyoshi Korasaka, Peter Ura b Kuramenchev, Mitsuya Nagai b Nikolai Zouev, Yoshihisa Yamamoto b Volk Han, Akira Maeda b Hans Nyman"
"Basically a slow week with the biggest show being the semifinals of the RINGS Battle Dimension tournament on 12/19 in Osaka. It came down to Akira Maeda beating Hans Nyman in 3:48 and Yoshihisa Yamamoto beating last year's champion, Volk Han in what would be classified as an upset but really quite predictable since this year was designed to get Yamamoto over. The finals are 1/24 at Budokan Hall and since it's Maeda 37th birthday, he's almost certain to win. For Yamamoto, just beating Han and getting to the finals and coming close is enough of a victory since the style for younger wrestlers is to take steps slowly and the win over Han was such a step. Han vs. Nyman for third place will be the semi."
January 6, 1996:
"Final 1995 attendance figures in Japan (we'll cover the United States in a few weeks and also have a rundown of the biggest drawing cards of the year--Keiji Muto was the No. 1 drawing card in the world in 1995) saw All Japan run 138 shows and draw 442,850 fans or a 3,209 per show average, a slight drop (-4.5%) from its 1994 average of 3,359. In 1992 and 1993 the group averaged in the range of 3,800 per show. New Japan drew 1,084,066 fans in 164 shows (that's including shows that are really New Japan shows but weren't New Japan in name such as Anton Promotions, Heisei Ishingun and a few late year UWFI shows) for an average of 6,610 fans per show which is probably the highest average per year for any promotion that runs a regular (as opposed to once monthly) schedule in at least the recent history of wrestling. It's a whopping 42.9% increase over averaging 4,627 in 1994. The company averaged about 5,000 in 1993.
FMW's claimed figures for 1995 were 153 shows and 401,094 for a 2,622 per show average, a drop from 3,294 average last year. However, FMW began greatly inflating its announced attendance publicly after Atsushi Onita retired in May because the decline was so drastic, so there is little accuracy in the announced average and the decline was far more severe.
UWFI ran eight shows this year, with an average per show dropping from 15,812 to 7,825, or a 51% decline, which probably tells the story on why they are only in business as a worked rival group of New Japan. In 1994, Rings ran 13 shows averaging 5,909, while in 1995 it ran 12 shows and averaged 5,506 (-6.8%). Michinoku Pro increased from 121 to 134 house shows, and increased its average attendance from 908 to 934 (+2.9%). Pancrase ran ten events both years, but its average per event dropped from 7,950 in 1994 to 5,525 in 1995 (-30.5%). Basically between those three, and the fact that Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi also went out of business in 1994, it says that the shootwrestling fad is showing a real decline in Japan even though interest in UFC events is huge.
All Japan women went from 224 events and a 2,180 per average in 1994 to 247 events and a 1,744 per average in 1995. Roughly half of the 20% decline is pretty much just taking the one Tokyo Dome show out of the average.
Announced figures by IWA and JWP are generally greatly exaggerated, although it is believed that IWA averaged about 1,200 per show doing 81 house shows.
Overall attendance in Japan (not including North Korea) increased from a reported 3,193,150 to 3,291,181 or a marginal three percent increase, but that's with an increase to 35 companies (that's including offshoot groups like Heisei Ishingun as a separate company to get 35 although there really were at most 21 serious companies in Japan last year) and an increase from 1,170 shows to 1,345 and with more stadium shows this past year than ever before. Overall the story of 1995 in Japan was that New Japan had a banner year but none of the other companies showed any kind of significant increase, most declined and overall you'd have to say the big shows were successful but overall the business day-to-day was in decline. It's really an expected evolutionary pattern as the entire industry goes from being a day-to-day business to a business built around major shows with minimal excitement stemming from anything not considered major."
OK that's it, see you in 1996! Thank you once again for your time!
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