January 22, 1997 in Tokyo, Japan
Budokan Hall drawing 11,800
(Video here)
Let us look to the vital resource of prowrestlinghistory.com to learn the details of the undercard now, shall we:
Wataru Sakata beat Sean McCulley (19:41) via submission.
Grom Zaza beat Masayuki Naruse (10:12) via submission.
Tsuyoshi Kohsaka beat Mikhail Ilioukhine (10:04) via submission.
Nikolai Zouev beat Mitsuya Nagai (13:01) via submission.
Akira Maeda beat Maurice Smith (5:35) via submission.
Bitsadze Tariel TKO Yoshohisa Yamamoto (6:19) for third place in the Mega Battle Tournament 1996.
Poor, poor Yoshihisa Yamamoto. What a fall. We will at the appointed hour turn to the works of Meltzer to find out all we can of the above matters but for now I think it best to attend at once to . . .
MEGA BATTLE TOURNAMENT 1996: GRAND FINAL VOLK HAN VS. KIYOSHI TAMURA YAAAAHHHHH our video begins with both græppzmen already in the ring but one can surely imagine the fervor of those assembled in 日本武道館 Nippon Budōkan as the demonstrably sikk entrance themes of each resounded throughout its whole deal. There is a good amount of TAMURAAAAA being yelled as instructions are received from the kind of iconic Yuji Shimada (iconic to me, to my friends, to some other people probably). Volk Han begins by whipping Tamura around with a wrist-lock to allay any concerns we may have had that this will be shooting and people could be shoot-hurt on shoot-purpose in any of this. He throws, Han does, from a gyaku-ude-garam/figure-four arm-lock and then we are off the to the races in Tamura/Han shoot-style ne-waza, which is to say holds (gatame) are exchanged at a pace that is unreal (in both the literal and superlative senses and actually I suppose in a pejorative sense too, all at once): juji-gatame, ude-garami arm entanglements, ashi-kansetsu (leg-bone-lockings) of wide array. When Tamura takes the back and the pace slows, it is only for an instant, as the two roll to the ropes together and are restarted. When Han catches Tamura's leg, his kicky kicking leg, Tamura flips out of it in a kicking way, and the crowd is like WHOOOAHHHH and I am mostly noticing the pretty enormous size difference between these two: Han is in with truly huge people so often (Bitsadze Tariel, Hans Nijman [R.I.P.], etc.) that one can easily lose sight of his sheer wolfish length, or at least I can. AHHHHH I thought that was going to be it, Tamura had Han fully extended on a juji-gatame (and yet not hyper-extended, as he had Yamamoto in their [apparently shoot?] semi-final) with Han seemingly too far from the ropes to do anything about it but, again, this (wolf)man is a long one. Han's approach to gyaku-ude-garami (reverse arm-entanglement) is totally instructive, by the way, even if this is shoot-style (which it is for sure) and not shooting proper (it is definitely not) in that while it is of course mighty as a kansetsu-waza (bone-locking-technique) in and of itself, it is also enormously (and maybe more?) useful as a way to grip, to sweep, to juji-gatame. This is a super match and they are going like hekk, both of them, but if I may observe what is to me a minor limitation, it is that the drama of the rope breaks is too dramatic: there is too much hauling of each other towards the ropes for the break whist the hold is already applied to the point of apparent excruciation; to me this is not ideal, I guess? Ah but in the end there is none of that, and Volk Han emerges as your (my, our) MEGA BATTLE TOURNAMENT 1997 Champion by way of kata-ashi-hishigi (single-leg-crush):
AND SO TERE WE HAVE IT and one wonders (at least I do) if, while clearly recognizing Kiyoshi Tamura's potential and also just his current unbelievableness, Maeda was wary to crown him his MEGA BATTLE champion so soon, lest he inadvertently signal the superiority of UWFi over his own (græppz)men of RINGS? Of course, now Tamura is no less a man of RINGS than any, and is in truth the forever-man of RINGS, and this is all the merest speculation. CONGRATULATIONS TO VOLK HAN WAY TO GO.
WHAT DID DAVE MELTZER SAY (tonnes of stuff, let us find comfort in it, given our recent loss [of a RINGS disc so not that bad of one, everybody is still ok]):
January 6, 1997:
"Caught the last Rings and Pancrase shows for 12/21 and 12/15 respectively. It appeared that the Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Kiyoshi Tamura semifinal in the Battle Dimension tournament was either a shoot, or these two are the two best workers in the entire business today (and Tamura isn't all that far from that level in some ways), and a great shoot match at that. The other semifinal with Volk Han vs. Bitzsade Tariel was definitely not a shoot nor a good match. Maurice Smith's match on the show against Bitzsade Amilan appeared to be neither a shoot nor a good match either. The match where Masakatsu Funaki won the vacant King of Pancrase title beating Jason DeLucia was almost completely standing up. They were pretty even mainly kicking each other until Funaki kicked DeLucia's lower leg and it was clear he hurt him because DeLucia immediately got pissed off which he never does and was favoring it big-time and was put away fairly quickly after the telling blow."
Also, in response to a reader complaint about shoot-fight coverage in the WON (and also about the disappearance of "readers' plugs"):
"DM: As the world changes, so must the Observer. In the Observer, responses to the PPVs from shoot organizations are only slightly behind that of WWF and WCW so evidently there is readership interest. In fact, I was shocked to get about the same level of response to Reality Superfighting, a C-level shoot group on PPV as World War III from WCW on the same weekend and more than the WWF's It's Time PPV a few weeks later. On the hotline, we get far more response to recap reports on UFC and EFC events than we do from ECW, although not as much as WWF or WCW. When it comes to letters, there was a point earlier this year when, with the exception of ECW, we were getting more letters on shoot groups than on worked groups. Besides, you can't make the generalization that pro wrestling consists of only predetermined finishes and worked matches because All Japan Women, LLPW, UWFI and RINGS in Japan have all at one time or another promoted legitimate shooting matches, and Pancrase consists of perhaps exclusively shooting matches and they are all pro wrestling organizations. The readers plugs were abandoned for a variety of reasons, the most important of which was simply lack of space. We don't even have room for letters many weeks."
January 13, 1997:
Volk Han shows up in Best Technical Wrestler voting, but did not really fare that well:
"BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER
1. DEAN MALENKO (233)1,590
2. Chris Benoit (134)1,288
3. Shinjiro Otani (74)596
4. Steve Regal (35)454
5. Jushin Liger (36)359
6. Kenta Kobashi (15)305
7. Manami Toyota (18)289
8. Eddie Guerrero (1)253
9. Masakatsu Funaki (3)211
10. Bret Hart (7)136
Honorable Mention: Dan Kroffat 122, Volk Han 120, Rey Misterio Jr. 114"
January 20, 1997:
"Weekly Pro Wrestling in its 1/21 issue ran a report claiming that in 1996, there were 1,423 pro wrestling shows in Japan with a total attendance of 3,081,288. These figures can't be taken as face value because many of the promotions, particularly the smaller ones, heavily exaggerate their attendance figures. New Japan and All Japan are less prone to exaggeration of figures, not that it doesn't exist in those groups as well. Based on the figures, New Japan ran 131 house shows and drew 595,296 fans (4,544 per show) while All Japan ran 128 house shows and drew 411,950 fans (3,218 per). All Japan women actually ran the most house shows of any promotion in the world in 1996 doing 267 shows. Of the two major semi-shoot organizations, Pancrase ran 13 shows and averaged 5,085 fans per event while RINGS ran ten shows and averaged 5,558 per show. All in all, there were nine different promotions (New Japan, All Japan women, All Japan, FMW, WAR, UWFI, Pancrase, RINGS and the old-time group that put together the Rikidozan special show) that legitimately had shows that drew in excess of 10,000 fans. Two others (JWP and Tokyo Pro) had shows that reportedly drew in excess of 10,000, but the JWP show legitimately drew closer to 6,000 and the Tokyo Pro show was a free card put on during the summer at a major beach as part of a festival which may have legitimately had 65,000 people at the beach, but it could hardly be said that it drew 65,000 people for the wrestling."
"RINGS on 1/22 at Budokan Hall besides the three main events already announced (Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura in Battle Dimension championship match, Maurice Smith vs. Akira Maeda and Bitzsade Tariel vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto for third place) will also have Nikolai Zouev vs. Mitsuya Nagai, Illoukhine Mikahil vs. Tsuyoshi Kousaka, Masayuki Naruse vs. Grom Zaza and Wataru Sakata vs. Sean McCulley (who has done several NHB shows around the world)."
February 3, 1997:
"The major show of the past week was RINGS biggest card of the year, the 1996 (I know it's 1997 but that's how they do things here) Battle Dimension tournament final on 1/22 at Budokan Hall which drew 11,800 fans. Volk Han captured the championship for the second time (he won the 1994) beating Kiyoshi Tamura in 12:36 with an achilles tendon submission. In the third place match in a major surprise, Bitzsade Tariel defeated Yoshihisa Yamamoto via TKO in 6:19. The other top draw match saw Akira Maeda defeat Maurice Smith of EFC and kick boxing fame with a neck lock in 5:35. RINGS matches are predominately worked although there are occasional shoot matches on the undercard and occasionally even in important matches although none of the aforementioned three were likely to have been shoots. The biggest announcement at the show was Sean McCulley, who has done some NHB tournaments both in the United States (with WCC) and in Europe, who lost in the opener to Wataru Sakata, after the match announcing that Kimo will join this promotion in 1997.
1/22 Tokyo Budokan Hall (RINGS - 11,800): Wataru Sakata b Sean McCulley, Grom Zaza b Masayuki Naruse, Tsuyoshi Kousaka b Illoukhine Mikhail, Nikolai Zouev b Mitsuya Nagai, Akira Maeda b Maurice Smith, Battle Dimension tournament third place match: Bitzsade Tariel b Yoshihisa Yamamoto, Battle Dimension tournament championship:Volk Han b Kiyoshi Tamura"
February 10, 1997:
"I saw the Tamura vs. Volk Han championship match from 1/22. As I've probably written before, Tamura is possibly the single most underrated worker in the business in that he's the only one who can do a worked match and make it not only so believable it looks like a shoot, which not one American worker can come close to doing, but also at the same time get super heat for such a performance that he almost reminds me of a shoot style Shinjiro Otani. He's also got superstar charisma and look, but the downside is he's 185-190 pounds and that may keep him from ever being the No. 1 guy in this promotion which books so many large foreigners. The spot was basically groomed for Yamamoto, who was scheduled to win the tournament, but in the semi, there was some problem regarding the finish and the two went in without a finish and did a shoot match that surprisingly, at least for Yamamoto, Tamura won, although when Yamamoto was doing a real shoot he dropped from his normal 215 down to 200 so he only had about ten pounds on Tamura. Han, the master of submissions, and Tsuyoshi Kousaka of this group come close to the same talents as strong style workers. Having said that, Tamura vs. Han this time got super heat and was a great worked pro wrestling match within this style, but it was worked too much like pro wrestling in that there were spots that were clearly out of place like flying moves, nip ups and pro wrestling throws that don't hold water. I don't even want to get into Maurice Smith vs. Akira Maeda."
OH MAN I WISH HE WOULD but alas he will not and so what is left but to thank you for your time here today in this but brief account of a single match HOWEVER that will surely change when next we reconvene!
***4/4/17 UUUUUUUUUUPDATE***
OK SO I mentioned to TOM, also of the RINGS box, that my copy of disc 68 was blank, and he checked his, and it was blank too (alas) so I contacted the legitimately heroic IVP Videos--also of the RINGS box (and of endless other things; if you are the sort of person who enjoys to watch the sorts of things we talk about here together I recommend the services of IVP Videos above all other services for securing those things to watch)--and it turned out his worked and he uploaded an .iso of the show for me! It didn't even take me all that long to figure out what to do with a file of that kind! And so you can see the whole show here! Long may it reign! We already knew the main event was legit (I mean this in the sense of praise; the match itself was a work), but it turns out the undercard was totally stron as well: 1) Wataru Sakata mae-hadaka-jime'd Sean McCully to end a chippy but solid affair at 19:41; 2) Grom Zaza, who strode to the ring in a Georgian Olympic t-shirt (surely his right as a "shoot" Georgian Olympian), threw Masayuki Naruse with a lovely harai-goshi (sweeping hip) into a kesa gatame (scarf hold) applied as kubi-hishigi (neck crush) to win at 10:12; 3) Tsuyoshi Kohsaka and Mikhail Ilioukhine had the 日本武道館 Nippon Budōkan crowd hummmmmming in their spirited-as-hekk contest Kohsaka took at 10:04 (heeel holdooooo); 4) Nikolai Zouev wore an awful lot (full-length tights over a singlet as though he were Bret Hart) whilst overcoming the lovable Mitsuya Nagai by I guess an ashi-tori-garami ankle lock in 13:01; 5) Bitsadze Tariel completing Yoshishisa Yamamoto's dark shitty exit from the Mega Battle Tournament he was probably booked to win when it was first drawn up, knocking him out (it is fake, don't worry), the referee waving off that match even as the glassy-eyed (that's how you "sell," nicely done) Yamamoto rose at the count of six; and finally 6) Akira Maeda beat Maurice Smith in a totally good little match and I am mystified as to Meltzer's objection to it! Or if not objection, his desire not to even get into it! Because it totally worked: the story of the match was that Smith, obviously the better striker, was also too quick and too strong for Maeda's old-kneed morote-gari double-leg takedowns to get him anywhere at all, as Smith would either sprawl atop him or just side-step them completely. After several minutes of Maeda looking a thousand years old because of this, Smith sprawls atop yet another poor takedown attempt, but Maeda hits a crafty/cræftig sit-out, grabs a mae-hadake-jime front choke, and Smith taps the mat with his huge boxing-gloved hands at 5:35. I liked it! I don't know if I went into it with expectations of a huge debacle, given Meltzer's thoughts, but I thought it was good!
ANYWAY let us again sing the praises of IVP Videos, who shall enjoy my custom once more when I order all the U-Style shows a few months after I run out RINGS and yet hunger for the (admirably realistically faked) FIGHT.
UPDATE UPDATE: All the videos have been taken down, like all of them.
See you next time! Thanks!
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