February 18, 1996 in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Sport Hall South drawing 8,500
STILL ABUZZ FROM THE THRILL OF THE MAEDA/YAMAMOTO MEGA BATTLE TOURNAMENT '95 GRAND FINAL AND ALSO THE GENERAL CONDITION I SUGGEST WE THINK OF AS "TK UNBOUND" WHEN LAST WE SPOKE we head now to Amsterdam for another FREE FIGHT GALA. The WOWOW broadcast begins with a recap of the previous year's event of the same name, which you might recall included a brief but tremendous Chris Dolman documentary? Fittingly, Chris Dolman is on the scene once more. Also we are shown clips from what I believe to be a round-table television chat show discussion about the growing popularity of free fight and probably the ethics of it and the place it should hold in a civilized society? At one time I would have advocated passionately on its behalf but now I am largely disgusted by the putrid cretin spectacle of it all and my legit view is pretty much unmix the martial arts! Time is weird! RINGS is still super good though. Anyway what I want to draw your attention to is that joining Dick Vrij and Hans Nijman (whose death grows ever nearer and not just the low-key way it does for us all, R.I.P.) for the chat is Bas Rutten, whom all rightly love. I think it is worth noting that he walks onto the scene like Riker:
Dick Vrij speaks quite passionately. Oh no Gerard Gordeau is there too, everybody look out or he will do something gross to people and also blind Yuki Nakai. A poll amongst the show's viewers (I think this is what is being shown, I have no Dutch other than that which would be understood by any who speak a West Gernmanic language and hold also an enthusiasm for its earlier forms) seems to suggest 57% of them are ok with free fight, 43% disapprove which is not far off from how I think about it really. One wonders if with all of this talk, we are going to see a completely shoot show here? It seems conceivable to me that it could be: Akira Maeda is not on the card, nor is Volk Han, so the results, even if they ran completely counter to RINGS-hopes, could only be moderately inconvenient and not actually ruinous. Why not shoot to a finish? I know Dennis Raven, seen here teaching a kata-gatame (肩固 shoulder hold/arm triangle/head-and-arm choke) yoko-gaeshi (sweep) from hikikomi (pulling position) in the RINGS Holland gym, would probably be ok to take his chances:
One way you can tell this is all happening in the Netherlands rather than in Tokyo (or environs) is I guess all the tape of plainly-Dutch canals; another is that the opening match has Yoshihiro Yamamoto in it. His opponent is Wataru Sakata, which is much more ordinary a thing (it could happen pretty much anywhere but of course I mean no disrespect). My speculation that this might well be an all-shoot card is undermined immediately as Sakata tumbles to the mat disingenuously after several half-hearted slaps and knees. What follows is a fine shoot-style exhibition from Yamamoto, who finishes in a mere 3:28 with gyaku-ude-garami, the reverse arm entanglement known by Kimura's name, and also of course as the Hoverboard Lock when executed by young KUSHIDA (who is nearly 34 but whose energy is boyish), who was trained, did you know, by Takada and Tajiri (imagine it).
Valentijn Overeem and Tjerk Vermanen seem pretty seriously serious though as they stalk one another in their gi pants. Valentijn looks super thin--for him, I mean--and I do not say this only because I am thinking about what his brother has become, although that is certainly part of what this is. Overeem comes reasonably close with a mae-hadaka-jime front choke in the earliest going but in the end it is by means of kata-ha-jime coming out of a rolling crucifix that he finishes at 3:05, and it's quite nice:
I am of the I guess unusual view that ECW was dumb and I rank among its dumbnesses its shameful campaign of misinformation (disinformation?) regarding the judo-legality of kata-ha-jime (it has never been illegal, Joey Styles should apologize).
The next fight raises the grim prospect that the rest of this show might well be lanky Dutch skids fighting badly but for real, which at several points in my life I would have been totally up for but which this afternoon seems a dark tedium. Jimmy Portier knocks out John Benner at 2:23 of the second round with a blow so unmighty that I question everything again; Michael Tielrooy stops Edwin Gertenbach at the end of the first but man it is tough to pay attention.
MITSUYA NAGAI VS. RUDY EWOLDT ok this is way more like it, at least as a proposition, so let's see what they get up to and what's more let's approach this open-hearted. Nagai would like a leg-lock but what he mostly gets is squished and attacked with an ude-garami that I am not sure comes all that close to finishing but which no doubt kept him on his toes for a few moments there. They are stood up but soon are back down in entirely the same position (niju-garami, double entanglement, half-guard) with Ewoldt on top and thinking thoughts of entangling an arm until his foeman must yield. I am looking at the situation of their many legs (all four of them) and am thinking of the leg bolt-lock of ashi-kanuki, probably because my pals and I ran through all of the weird old Mikinosuke Kawaishi ashi-kansetsu leg-locks the other night (plus some others! it was super fun!):
Rene Rooze(remember him?)'s knockout loss that follows in a mere 1:08 to Rob van Esdonk I am going to declare a definite shoot because of how gross the punches were and how hideously his head wobbled around on his then-useless neck. It's ok because things like that don't have consequences for people.
TSUYOSHI KOHSAKA VS. WILLIE PEETERS THOUGH:
Kohsaka shoots low for the two-hand reap of morote-gari but this ring is tiny and they are tangled in the ropes pretty much immediately and are stood. Out of the clinch, TK whips Peeters around and to the mat with the pulling drawing ankle block of sasae tsurikomi ashi 支釣込足 (recall how Hidehiko Yoshida tripped Wanderlei Silva down and you are there) and takes his back. This ring is so tiny though! Another takedown, another rope break. Peeters seems totally unable to stop these takedowns but the ring is unable to contain them. I think Peeters is down to his last rope break (this round) already! The best he manages for offence is when he ends up on top for a little while doing nothing after he sprawls out of yet another Kohsaka morote-gari before TK puts the run to him with a leg-lock that Peeters takes to the ropes but makes a big show of not actually grabbing them (he is not charged with a break so I guess it worked but come on). Some palm-strikes end the round along with a definitely-illegal punch from Peeters that scoundrel. Chris Dolman is his second and is wearing business casual.
ROUND TWO begins with no wait round two ends with TK driving Peeters to the mat and strangling the prone Dutchguy with hadaka-jime in eleven seconds! They are both awarded little trophies by someone with possible biker-gang affiliations, I don't know:
Or dear lord it is Dirty Bob Schrijber, look out, Emil Kristev: no matter what anyone told you it is not ok for you to do this, please go home to your family. To his credit, Bob keeps it reasonably clean (I think I saw some fingers pretty near eyes but cannot say with certainty) and finishes with a standing mae-hadaka-jime front-choke against a guy wearing boxing gloves at 4:07.
This whole show has fallen far short of the taste (level) expectations we have come to hold of Fighting Network RINGS on WOWOW. In addition to the the overall seedy lowness and grim energy, they are just whipping through these fights carelessly, the pace is awful. And now a guy with the most-tribal (in degree, not number) of tribal back-tattoos you are ever likely to see is fighting Hans Nijman and this deeply feels like something I used to be a part of and haven't been for kind of a long time and don't want to be again. Nijman takes the win over Allen Harris with a front choke at 1:29 of the second round but at what cost to them, to us, to art, to culture.
Lee Hasdell and Andre Mannaart fight to a draw, Dick Vrij overwhelms Hubert Numrich (a man with a totally shaved have except for a long triple-braided rat-tail, a man who fights out of "Rick's Gym" ) at 1:37 by brute waza-less forearm choke, and I need to go for a walk.
WHAT DID DAVE MELTZER SAY:
February 12, 1996: "Rings next date was announced as 3/25 in Niigata with Yamamoto vs. Bitzade Tariel and Volk Han vs. Dick Leon-Vrij as the double main event. Akira Maeda will miss the show due to knee surgery so Yamamoto, who they've been grooming ever since he lasted nearly 20:00 in a legit Vale Tudo match with Rickson Gracie, will have to carry the ball."
February 19, 1996: "The World Wrestling Peace Festival show was moved this past week from 5/18 to 6/1 in order to avoid conflicts both with major non-wrestling conventions in Los Angeles and with the already released PPV wrestling schedule.
The original date came sandwiched between a UFC event on 5/17 and a WCW PPV event on 5/19, and also coincided with a WWF house show in Madison Square Garden. The WWF asked the group to move the event back to both avoid conflicting with the MSG show and also not to come one day before their own scheduled In Your House PPV show on 5/26. The organizing committee had then considered moving to 5/27, which would be Memorial Day, however that would conflict with both WWF and WCW doing live Raw and Nitros.
The show is scheduled now for three parts, with the first part containing high school and college wrestling matches, the second part containing traditional pro style matches with ten to 16 wrestlers each from the major promotions in the United States, Mexico and Japan. The final three matches are scheduled to debut shootfighting in the United States with one match each from UWFI, Rings and Pancrase."
March 4, 1996: "Rings announced shows on 4/26 at Osaka Furitsu Gym and 5/25 they will return to Russia where they did a sellout house last August."
I FEEL BAD OK THANKS EVERYBODY SEE YOU NEXT TIME
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