Free Fight Gala 1995
February 19, 1995 in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Sport Hall South drawing 4,350
THIIIIIIIIIS IS INCREDIBLE our first RINGS HOLLAND show opens with a glimpse of Chris Dolman and his students roaming the streets of the Red Light(o) Dist(u)rict(o), Dick Vrij working the door at some club as though he were a shoot Kevin Nash (with Russian accent) given the night off by John Wick's mercy (what remains of it) in John Wick, and had that been all we were given before the card itself began we would have known ourselves blessed but no instead we are given as though by grace THE CHRIS DOLMAN STORY which begins, of course, in judo:
 |
| Chris |
 |
| fvkkn |
 |
| Dolman |
We also get this historically important Dutch SuperSquad (a name I have just now given them, they have not themselves claimed it to the best of our knowledge) photo with, among others, Dolman (look for him on the left with sweet glasses), Anton Geesink (look for him in back, he is super tall) and Willem Ruska (look to the right, he is jacked beyond all reason and sense):
As a transitional image between that world and what would come we are offered this:
And so to wrestling, to sambo, to all manner of what we might call DolmanISM were Chris Dolman himself an early 00's Pancrase faction (he may have been, I will check), including a 1985 World Sambo Championship, a relatively minor title in the world of græppling, true, but it must be said that of all those who entered their names in the lists, one man won the day and to him that day grants all its glory:
 |
| a dark day for Gary Barber |
After a look at 1988 free fight wildness we are offered a glimpse inside Dolman's seemingly ideal domesticity, his family big and healthy, his drapes quite lovely. At his birthday party, he backhand chops the air above his candles to put them out. Later, his wife beams: "He's so strong, and he's so self assured, I know he will beat Maeda . . . I hope. I hope. And I keep my fingers crossed for him. And I'm very proud of him. At his age, he's a very strong and special man." His devoted student Dick Vrij: "He's the best complete fighter in the world and he's also a very good friend of mine and we have a very good relationship together." As a devoted student myself I recognize and identify with Vrij's earnestness here and am touched by it. "We don't regard each other like teacher and student," Dolman offers; "we are like friends." This is all so great
And now the young boys and young men and also just I guess like regular men of RINGS Japan arrive, among them their leader and tyrant 前田 日明 Maeda Akira himself:
I know this is a lot of images and almost certainly too many, forgive me, but RINGS Japan and also Volk Han have gone to see where clogs are made and also to pick out scarves and touques that match their tracksuits and it is too great a burden for me to carry alone:
 |
| tkclogs.blogspot.com |
 |
| there's always a Volk Han lurking |
 |
| IT SAYS HOLLAND ON IT |
I mean, my god.
That towering judoman Jon Bluming would be present for this Free Fight Gala should come as no surprise given the prominence of his students here; for more on Jon Bluming, about whom we have uncovered remarkable things in the university newspapers of days long past, please see this one. As we settle in, I find myself wondering if anything on this card itself can live up to the first fifteen minutes of this broadcast that can only be described . . . as WOWOW.
Hans Nyman (fighting in the land of both his birth and his death, R.I.P.) begins the evening by knocking out Andrei Kopilov in only 3:11, and the only thing I wish to remark on in it is how a bell was tolled (oh shit momento mori) with each of the referee's counts, and that has got to be the last thing you need when you're trying to collect yourself after being clobbered, one DING two DING three DING four OK OK OK OK. Is this a Dutch custom?
Waaaait is this some kind of DANTAISEN 団体戦 or Team Fight taking shape here? Naruse, Yamamoto, Nagai, and Maeda are all in the ring representing RINGS Japan (you knew this), as are Willie Peeters, Rudy Ewolt, Dick Vrij, and Chris Dolman for RINGS Holland. If this is truly to be dantaisen, what will its format be? Senposen, in which bouts are arranged by seniority? Taishosen, in which each side sets its order as it pleases? Or will it be the knockout-competition of kachinukisen 勝ち抜き戦 in which the winner stays until s/he is defeated, a draw ending the run of both competitors? I am not making any of these up I swear to you! They are all formats of (judo) dantaisen of which I am aware! There could be others I don't know about but these are all great! And not even just for competition between clubs but sometimes for fun you can split the class and fight a light dantaisen as a kind of randori 乱取り (chaos-taking)! I think this is taishosen though. If only they had added a fifth to each side (as is customary) we could have gotten another Kohsaka match (they brought him along and everything) but alas no.
Masayuki Naurse and Willie Peeters are set to begin and whilst Naruse has very much found his look with the sleeveless black hoodie, Peeters is still kind of flailing around, aesthetically. His in-ring attire this day consists of a black singlet, black zubon (dogi pants), a black belt, boxing gloves, and a massive yoko-otoshi (side/lateral drop) that has wiped Naruse almost completely out to the delight of the crowd (that last part was not his attire but it happened and I went with it because it felt right). A couple rounds in, we are seeing a lot of yoko-otoshi and kesa-gatame (scarf hold) from Peeters, and these are things we should all be pleased to see from anyone. Naruse is getting barely anything in but such is his rôle here before the people of Amsterdam, I suppose. In time, Willie Peeters takes the decision win over a nose-enbloodied Masayuki Naruse in match that really showed neither athlete at his beset but which pleased the people and was fine.
Yoshihisa Yamamoto of whom we never tire faces Rudy Ewoldt of whom we remember almost nothing, it has been some time, has it not, Rudy Ewoldt (a dark thought: maybe it hasn't). Kohsaka leads Yamamoto to the ring and one cannot help but reflect on the extent to which TK would launch and then smother him and indeed both competitors here should he be allowed to pursue his metier with all liberty. The first round is fairly rugged, Ewoldt's corner attending to a cut across the bridge of his nose early, Yamamoto a little upset that Ewoldt has punched him closed-fist in the face (Ewoldt opens his hand repeatedly in the direction of the referee to plead his case but come on, Rudy; come on). Round two is a lot of clinching and slapping and corners looking at eyes (this is really just Ewoldt's corner). Round three has Yamamoto all cut up around the eye, too, and none of this is from anything all that good, I am sorry to say. I have now lost track of what round this, what with all the breaks to be attended to by their corners. It is kind of awful? I don't know if it's a shoot as such or more of a worked shoot that has broken down not to the point of messing with the finish but enough that everything is terrible? In any event it is the worst Yoshihisa Yamamoto match you're going to see (he wins the five-round decision).
Something that is different about a RINGS show in Holland is that there are not only ring-card girls but they are attired luridly, like extra luridly, way more than you might even expect. Dick Vrij though is a man of focus and discipline and will not have his eye turned when there is work to be done like for example knocking Mitsuya Nagai out in 1:22. Nagai and indeed the entire RINGS Japan contingent insists he is ok and ready to go but he does not, he is forbidden from going. No wait they have restarted it? And that's it for Nagai at 2:28 (a bunch of knees and stuff). This show is not so good! Vrij celebrates with a guy who loves trance probably:
AND NOW OUR MAIN EVENT which is being described as Chris Dolman's last match in his home town (that's heavy) and while that is surely appropriate as he is like fifty years old at the time of this it is at the same time heavy (as I mentioned earlier). Who does not love and admire Chris Dolman? What low slug of a man reveals himself thus? Certainly not Volk Han, seen here in a suit:
OH SHIT JUDO JACKETS WHICH IS TO SAY THE UWAGI PORTION OF THE JUDOGI OR KEIKOGI well actually these are sambo kurtka and you can tell from the reinforced shoulder area (it is done slightly differently); Maeda's is blue and so I thought he was just wearing a blue judogi but when Dolman came out in red I was like ooooooooh okay because I know a lot about the martial arts and it's pretty impressive to people. Maeda begins by kicking (of course) but before long the bear-like Dolman closes the distance and mashes him up against he corner until they are restarted in the centre of the ring. Dolman throws appallingly bad kicks but these only serve to endear him to us further as he know flattens Maeda to the mat, maulingly. Not seeing the entry he would like against the kame (turtle), Dolman elects to return to tachi-waza (standing technique) and before long at all he whips Maeda to the canvas with a sutemi-waza (sacrifice technique) from the kind of deep grips we most associate with sambo and indeed with the great judo players of the former Soviet lands (the Russian/Georgian/Soviet influence on judo remains the single largest non-Japanese element in its technical history, the French in its organizational history). The first round ends with little by way of katame-waza (grappling technique) but I have a lot of patience with these two and am willing to put up with really a lot. Early in round two, Dolman threatens Maeda's leg to the point of rope break but otherwise there is not much to be said, in truth. Dolman grants Maeda a pity morote-gari (two-hand-reap/double-leg takedown) that comes very close to exposing the entire business as round two draws to a close. WHAT WILL ROUND THREE HOLD? LET'S GO IN EXPECTING THE BEST and yes it happens nearly at once, Dolman by ude-hishigi-juji-gatame 腕挫十字固:
Akira Maeda must have really liked Chris Dolman a lot! That match wasn't much, in truth,but it was a nice moment for Chris Dolman and we should want Chris Dolman to have as many of those as he is able.
SO NOT A GREAT SHOW coming just after the great show that was perhaps the greatest show of RINGS we have seen and therefore arguably the greatest of all shows HOWEVER the first fifteen minutes or so, the documentary portion, is well worthy our attention I think and it certainly pleased me to attend to it.
The Pro Wrestling History page suggests (and I find this suggestion credible) that there were a bunch of other matches that didn't make WOWOW (maybe they made Eurosport? I saw their cameras in the building). Here are the complete results from that august place of such things:
Free Fight Gala 1995
February 19, 1995 in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Sport Hall South drawing 4,350
Hans Nyman KO Andrei Kopilov (3:11).
Piet Bernzen beat Ronny Rivano (10:00) via unanimous decision.
Willie Peeters beat Masayuki Naruse (5th) via unanimous decision.
Yoshihisa Yamamoto beat Rudy Ewoldt (5th) via unanimous decision.
Dick Leon-Vrij KO Mitsuya Nagai (1st - 2:28).
Chris Dolman beat Akira Maeda (3rd - 0:51) via submission.
??? Faroek KO Robert Openneer (2nd - 1:40) in a "kyokyushin karate" match.
Rene van der Zanden beat Steve ??? (10:00) via decision.
Jeffrey Heims beat Tom van der Meijden via forfeit.
Herman Renting beat David Levicki (10:00) via unanimous decision.
Joop van der Ven beat John Ouwerkerk (1:55) via submission.
Nico Anches beat Faizel Reding (5th) via decision in a "kickboxing" match.
Kenneth Felter KO Martin Van Emmen (3rd - 2:55) in a "kickboxing" match.
A lot of locals, I guess. I hear Steve ??? can totally bang, so good on Rene Van der Zanden for lasting the distance. Ah yes ok, WOWOW actually shows highlights of all of these bouts after they have spoken with first Dolman (avec famille) and then Maeda in the locker-rooms. Some of these look to have been shoots to me, at least in highlight form, but again, I am a known idiot. Akira Maeda and his RINGS Japan pals/victims are shown posing with Japanese tourists in front of the Eiffel Tower as their Grand Tour continues.
AH BUT WHAT DID DAVE MELTZER SAY:
March 6, 1995: "Besides New Japan running the show in North Korea in April, two other Japanese offices are or have run shows in foreign countries. Rings ran on 2/19 in Amsterdam, Holland with a very successful show drawing a sellout 4,350 and turning away a lot of people. The show, which will air on television both on Euro-Sport (the same network which airs New Japan [they also have judo -- ed.]) and in Japan on 3/5, was said to have been much more brutal than Rings shows in Japan. As a shoot, both Yoshihisa Yamamoto and Mitsuya Nagai were both rushed to the hospital and there was a lot of blood in the matches. Yamamoto's opponent, Rudy Ewoldt, had his left eye totally shut and his right eye mostly shut. Akira Maeda returned the favor doing the job for local sambo wrestling legend Chris Dolman (50-years-old) in the main match and what was billed as Dolman's final match ever in his hometown. As a way for Maeda to save some face, they made it a Judo Jacket match which would be Dolman's specialty and he won with a reverse armlock submission :51 into round three. David Levicki, who was in both the UFC II and in the Rickson Gracie UFC in Japan, was on this show losing by points to local Herman Renting. Next Rings is 3/18 at Ariake Coliseum probably with Maeda vs. Dick Leon-Vrij, Volk Han vs. Nikolai Zouev (even though Han is the champion, he is 0-2 in previous matches with Zouev) and Bart Vail vs. Bitarze Tariel.
UWFI also announced a foreign show on 3/2 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Nobuhiko Takada is leaving this week to do promotion work for the show. Apparently UWFI is now on television in 20 countries and is said to be very popular right now in Israel and in South America. They also have a show 3/17 at the 6,800-seat Osaka Furitsu Gym so they're again running smaller shows but running more often in comparison with last year. They ran 2/18 at Tokyo Bay NK Hall (7,000 sellout) with Takada over Kazuo Yamazaki on top in 4:36 and Kiyoshi Tamura over Masahito Kakihara in 2:06 with a choke sleeper. I guess the influence of UFC and Pancrase has caused both UWFI and Rings to do shorter matches to give them more legitimacy to the fans."
"2/19 Amsterdam, Netherlands (RINGS - 4,350 sellout): Hans Nyman b Andrei Kopilov, Piet Bernzen b Ronnie Rivano, Willie Peeters b Masayoshi Naruse, Yoshihisa Yamamoto b Rudy Ewoldt, Dick Leon-Vrij b Mitsuya Nagai, Chris Dolman b Akira Maeda, Herman Renting b David Levicki"
That towering judoman Jon Bluming would be present for this Free Fight Gala should come as no surprise given the prominence of his students here; for more on Jon Bluming, about whom we have uncovered remarkable things in the university newspapers of days long past, please see this one. As we settle in, I find myself wondering if anything on this card itself can live up to the first fifteen minutes of this broadcast that can only be described . . . as WOWOW.
Hans Nyman (fighting in the land of both his birth and his death, R.I.P.) begins the evening by knocking out Andrei Kopilov in only 3:11, and the only thing I wish to remark on in it is how a bell was tolled (oh shit momento mori) with each of the referee's counts, and that has got to be the last thing you need when you're trying to collect yourself after being clobbered, one DING two DING three DING four OK OK OK OK. Is this a Dutch custom?
Waaaait is this some kind of DANTAISEN 団体戦 or Team Fight taking shape here? Naruse, Yamamoto, Nagai, and Maeda are all in the ring representing RINGS Japan (you knew this), as are Willie Peeters, Rudy Ewolt, Dick Vrij, and Chris Dolman for RINGS Holland. If this is truly to be dantaisen, what will its format be? Senposen, in which bouts are arranged by seniority? Taishosen, in which each side sets its order as it pleases? Or will it be the knockout-competition of kachinukisen 勝ち抜き戦 in which the winner stays until s/he is defeated, a draw ending the run of both competitors? I am not making any of these up I swear to you! They are all formats of (judo) dantaisen of which I am aware! There could be others I don't know about but these are all great! And not even just for competition between clubs but sometimes for fun you can split the class and fight a light dantaisen as a kind of randori 乱取り (chaos-taking)! I think this is taishosen though. If only they had added a fifth to each side (as is customary) we could have gotten another Kohsaka match (they brought him along and everything) but alas no.
Masayuki Naurse and Willie Peeters are set to begin and whilst Naruse has very much found his look with the sleeveless black hoodie, Peeters is still kind of flailing around, aesthetically. His in-ring attire this day consists of a black singlet, black zubon (dogi pants), a black belt, boxing gloves, and a massive yoko-otoshi (side/lateral drop) that has wiped Naruse almost completely out to the delight of the crowd (that last part was not his attire but it happened and I went with it because it felt right). A couple rounds in, we are seeing a lot of yoko-otoshi and kesa-gatame (scarf hold) from Peeters, and these are things we should all be pleased to see from anyone. Naruse is getting barely anything in but such is his rôle here before the people of Amsterdam, I suppose. In time, Willie Peeters takes the decision win over a nose-enbloodied Masayuki Naruse in match that really showed neither athlete at his beset but which pleased the people and was fine.
Yoshihisa Yamamoto of whom we never tire faces Rudy Ewoldt of whom we remember almost nothing, it has been some time, has it not, Rudy Ewoldt (a dark thought: maybe it hasn't). Kohsaka leads Yamamoto to the ring and one cannot help but reflect on the extent to which TK would launch and then smother him and indeed both competitors here should he be allowed to pursue his metier with all liberty. The first round is fairly rugged, Ewoldt's corner attending to a cut across the bridge of his nose early, Yamamoto a little upset that Ewoldt has punched him closed-fist in the face (Ewoldt opens his hand repeatedly in the direction of the referee to plead his case but come on, Rudy; come on). Round two is a lot of clinching and slapping and corners looking at eyes (this is really just Ewoldt's corner). Round three has Yamamoto all cut up around the eye, too, and none of this is from anything all that good, I am sorry to say. I have now lost track of what round this, what with all the breaks to be attended to by their corners. It is kind of awful? I don't know if it's a shoot as such or more of a worked shoot that has broken down not to the point of messing with the finish but enough that everything is terrible? In any event it is the worst Yoshihisa Yamamoto match you're going to see (he wins the five-round decision).
Something that is different about a RINGS show in Holland is that there are not only ring-card girls but they are attired luridly, like extra luridly, way more than you might even expect. Dick Vrij though is a man of focus and discipline and will not have his eye turned when there is work to be done like for example knocking Mitsuya Nagai out in 1:22. Nagai and indeed the entire RINGS Japan contingent insists he is ok and ready to go but he does not, he is forbidden from going. No wait they have restarted it? And that's it for Nagai at 2:28 (a bunch of knees and stuff). This show is not so good! Vrij celebrates with a guy who loves trance probably:
 |
OH SHIT JUDO JACKETS WHICH IS TO SAY THE UWAGI PORTION OF THE JUDOGI OR KEIKOGI well actually these are sambo kurtka and you can tell from the reinforced shoulder area (it is done slightly differently); Maeda's is blue and so I thought he was just wearing a blue judogi but when Dolman came out in red I was like ooooooooh okay because I know a lot about the martial arts and it's pretty impressive to people. Maeda begins by kicking (of course) but before long the bear-like Dolman closes the distance and mashes him up against he corner until they are restarted in the centre of the ring. Dolman throws appallingly bad kicks but these only serve to endear him to us further as he know flattens Maeda to the mat, maulingly. Not seeing the entry he would like against the kame (turtle), Dolman elects to return to tachi-waza (standing technique) and before long at all he whips Maeda to the canvas with a sutemi-waza (sacrifice technique) from the kind of deep grips we most associate with sambo and indeed with the great judo players of the former Soviet lands (the Russian/Georgian/Soviet influence on judo remains the single largest non-Japanese element in its technical history, the French in its organizational history). The first round ends with little by way of katame-waza (grappling technique) but I have a lot of patience with these two and am willing to put up with really a lot. Early in round two, Dolman threatens Maeda's leg to the point of rope break but otherwise there is not much to be said, in truth. Dolman grants Maeda a pity morote-gari (two-hand-reap/double-leg takedown) that comes very close to exposing the entire business as round two draws to a close. WHAT WILL ROUND THREE HOLD? LET'S GO IN EXPECTING THE BEST and yes it happens nearly at once, Dolman by ude-hishigi-juji-gatame 腕挫十字固:
Akira Maeda must have really liked Chris Dolman a lot! That match wasn't much, in truth,but it was a nice moment for Chris Dolman and we should want Chris Dolman to have as many of those as he is able.
SO NOT A GREAT SHOW coming just after the great show that was perhaps the greatest show of RINGS we have seen and therefore arguably the greatest of all shows HOWEVER the first fifteen minutes or so, the documentary portion, is well worthy our attention I think and it certainly pleased me to attend to it.
The Pro Wrestling History page suggests (and I find this suggestion credible) that there were a bunch of other matches that didn't make WOWOW (maybe they made Eurosport? I saw their cameras in the building). Here are the complete results from that august place of such things:
Free Fight Gala 1995
February 19, 1995 in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Sport Hall South drawing 4,350
Hans Nyman KO Andrei Kopilov (3:11).
Piet Bernzen beat Ronny Rivano (10:00) via unanimous decision.
Willie Peeters beat Masayuki Naruse (5th) via unanimous decision.
Yoshihisa Yamamoto beat Rudy Ewoldt (5th) via unanimous decision.
Dick Leon-Vrij KO Mitsuya Nagai (1st - 2:28).
Chris Dolman beat Akira Maeda (3rd - 0:51) via submission.
??? Faroek KO Robert Openneer (2nd - 1:40) in a "kyokyushin karate" match.
Rene van der Zanden beat Steve ??? (10:00) via decision.
Jeffrey Heims beat Tom van der Meijden via forfeit.
Herman Renting beat David Levicki (10:00) via unanimous decision.
Joop van der Ven beat John Ouwerkerk (1:55) via submission.
Nico Anches beat Faizel Reding (5th) via decision in a "kickboxing" match.
Kenneth Felter KO Martin Van Emmen (3rd - 2:55) in a "kickboxing" match.
AH BUT WHAT DID DAVE MELTZER SAY:
March 6, 1995: "Besides New Japan running the show in North Korea in April, two other Japanese offices are or have run shows in foreign countries. Rings ran on 2/19 in Amsterdam, Holland with a very successful show drawing a sellout 4,350 and turning away a lot of people. The show, which will air on television both on Euro-Sport (the same network which airs New Japan [they also have judo -- ed.]) and in Japan on 3/5, was said to have been much more brutal than Rings shows in Japan. As a shoot, both Yoshihisa Yamamoto and Mitsuya Nagai were both rushed to the hospital and there was a lot of blood in the matches. Yamamoto's opponent, Rudy Ewoldt, had his left eye totally shut and his right eye mostly shut. Akira Maeda returned the favor doing the job for local sambo wrestling legend Chris Dolman (50-years-old) in the main match and what was billed as Dolman's final match ever in his hometown. As a way for Maeda to save some face, they made it a Judo Jacket match which would be Dolman's specialty and he won with a reverse armlock submission :51 into round three. David Levicki, who was in both the UFC II and in the Rickson Gracie UFC in Japan, was on this show losing by points to local Herman Renting. Next Rings is 3/18 at Ariake Coliseum probably with Maeda vs. Dick Leon-Vrij, Volk Han vs. Nikolai Zouev (even though Han is the champion, he is 0-2 in previous matches with Zouev) and Bart Vail vs. Bitarze Tariel.
UWFI also announced a foreign show on 3/2 in Tel Aviv, Israel. Nobuhiko Takada is leaving this week to do promotion work for the show. Apparently UWFI is now on television in 20 countries and is said to be very popular right now in Israel and in South America. They also have a show 3/17 at the 6,800-seat Osaka Furitsu Gym so they're again running smaller shows but running more often in comparison with last year. They ran 2/18 at Tokyo Bay NK Hall (7,000 sellout) with Takada over Kazuo Yamazaki on top in 4:36 and Kiyoshi Tamura over Masahito Kakihara in 2:06 with a choke sleeper. I guess the influence of UFC and Pancrase has caused both UWFI and Rings to do shorter matches to give them more legitimacy to the fans."
"2/19 Amsterdam, Netherlands (RINGS - 4,350 sellout): Hans Nyman b Andrei Kopilov, Piet Bernzen b Ronnie Rivano, Willie Peeters b Masayoshi Naruse, Yoshihisa Yamamoto b Rudy Ewoldt, Dick Leon-Vrij b Mitsuya Nagai, Chris Dolman b Akira Maeda, Herman Renting b David Levicki"
OK SEE YOU NEXT TIME THANK YOU AS ALWAYS FOR YOUR ATTENTION TO THIS MATTER THE NEXT ONE WILL PROBABLY BE BETTER
No comments:
Post a Comment