RINGS 5/23/97: FIGHTING-EXTENSION 1997 Vol. 3

Fighting-Extension 1997 Vol. 3
May 23, 1997 in Sendai, Japan
Miyagi Sports Center drawing 3,850

THE RINGS BOX IS WEIRDLY NUMBERED AT THIS POINT AND SO WE JUMP AHEAD BY LIKE TEN DISCS BUT WILL THEN RETURN TO THE USUAL SEQUENCE ALTHOUGH NONE OF THIS COULD BE OF INTEREST TO YOU THE READER COULD IT AS WE READY OURSELVES FOR FIGHTING-EXTENSION 1997 VOL. 3. What is perhaps of more immediate interest or indeed concern is that this disc, while it plays just fine on my battle-scarred shogun of a laptop (long may it reign), will not rip on the computer I use to do that, and so the bad news is that I have no video to share with you this time but the good news is that this is your chance to fall in love with the written word all over again. RINGS Official Rankings, I can tell you, are largely unchanged but see Akira Maeda re-enter their lists in the tenth position, while the top three of Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Kiyoshi Tamura, and finally Volk Han, now their king, is almost unbelievably correct.

Masayuki Naruse is getting weirder, just in his movements, his aspect, his whole deal. Willie Peeters, on the other hand, seems to be getting more conventional? Gone is his weird jackalgrin and strange energy and in its place he has an indiscernible shoulder tattoo and dourness. I would say that this bout was the best work of neither man, particularly when Willie Peeters threw a knee into Masayuki Naruse's forearms and Naruse hit the deck, but there were moments of strength, too, like Peeters' sumi/hikikomi-gaeshi (corner/pulling-reversal) sutemi-waza (sacrifice technique) from a mae-hadaka-jime front choke, and Peeters' convincingly panicked response to the match-ending hadaka-jime (naked strangle) at 7:22. Next, Mitsuya Nagai and Valentijn Overeem have a match of such fiery spirit that if it was not a shoot I do not feel bad for thinking it was because of how fiery they were in it; Nagai wins by heel hook in a brisk 4:58 and he is beside himself with joy and who should rush out to join him in celebration is Masayuki Naruse because no matter now much weirder Masayuki Naruse gets he and Mitsuya Nagai are friends. 

OH GREAT HERMAN RENTING IS BACK but longtime readers will know I don't really mean that. He commits a foul against Yoshihisa Yamamoto nearly at once as though to prove yet again he is not to be trusted. What are you doing closed-fist punching on the ground like a goon? This is RINGS and we are trying to have a civilization. He also seems to be head-butting a little down there, too, and that was definitely an elbow, and Yamamoto is all cut up:

Renting has been assessed, as you can see above, one yellow card and one red card. I don't know if this one was a shoot, but I am pretty sure Yamamoto held the hadaka-jime choke the ended the match at 3:37 a little longer than he strictly speaking needed to, and while I am not going to go so far as to say that I approve of it, I will certainly say that I understand it. But this is what you get by asking Herman Renting to come to your show at all. You shouldn't do it.

KIYOSHI TAMURA VS. GROM ZAZA is next and let me tell you that when I began to RINGSblog this evening I put in a disc and it didn't work very well and while I am at peace with discs not working I was also a little bit like noooooo Tamura/Zazaaaaaa and was relieved to find that it is actually the next show's disc that I can't get to work and so it won't be that bad. Ah ok, before we get Tamura/Zazaa we get Tsuyoshi Kohsaka teaching another technique, this time sleeper hold and yes this is absolutely Tsuyoshi Kohsaka teaching hadaka-jime, the naked strangle, coolly and clearly enumerating several key points.

As has been the case in his earlier lessons (ashi-hishigi, heel holdo), he first demonstrates the principle, then offers several applications. He emphasizes driving your hips mercilessly into your partner's back to flatten them right out and kind of pop their chin up: 

And don't forget to turn into, rather than away from, the choke to escape it!

If uke, in his foolishness, crosses his ankles, don't forget to annihilate them with ashi-dori-garami: 

As ever, I admire Tsuyoshi Kohsaka's pedagogy! It hurts me a little to learn that he will be demonstrating juji-gatame on the disc that doesn't work but I think we talk about juji-gatame a lot here already so if we had to miss one maybe it's ok that it is that one even if it is a favourite. Perhaps I can read to you from Neil Adams' Ippon Books Masterclass volume Armlocks in its stead?  

AND NOW FOR TAMURA VS ZAZA AT LAST. Zaza opens by shoving Tamura against the ropes and throwing him much too dramatically overhead on the rebound; this is a disappointment only seconds in, in that it is not a particularly credible throw. He moves deftly into juji-gatame to redeem himself and maybe he does a little as a fine ne-waza (ground-technique) exchange develops that sees Zaza end it with a rope break in retreat from ashi-kansetsu (leg-bone-locking). Another overly dramatic throw; Grom, please; you're killing me; you're killing us. Tellingly, these huge throws get very little from the crowd, and they respond much more to the less airborne but vastly more credible Karelin lift (the Aleven's lift of Fire Pro lore). Hey Grom hey Grom hey Grom: take it easy with those throws ok Grom? What is going on. They are just these huge lifts in the mode of sukui-nage (scooping throw) or te-guruma (hand-wheel) and they are objectively nice throws but it is just not appropriate how lightly Tamura is going up for them and I suppose he is to blame too. Zaza stays down for a count of ten after a Tamura high-kick at 8:15 but the way he made a knee at nine and then dove down into the mat for ten was not good. This match was a weird disappointment! 

Joop Kasteel is not getting any less enormous as he readies himself for Volk Han's fiendish entanglements. It is a satisfaction that never diminishes, or at least shall we say has yet to diminish, tangling up a much bigger, much better-built fellow in katame-waza (græppling techniques) and proving anew the supremacy of waza, is it not? It is neat to be able to show how much stuff works! And then of course it is a pleasure to teach that bigger, better-built fellow, over not that many mat-hours, if we take a broad view, how to first shut down all of your things, and then, after not all that many more, develop the things with which to destroy you. It is the aim of all teaching, is it not, to raise up around you legions you could crush you but who, in their fealty, crush instead your enemies? This was a very poor Volk Han match that ended at 5:10 by kata-ashi-hishigi/single-leg-crush/Achilles lock.   
 This has not been a great show and I feel like Bitsadze Tariel vs. a swollen, lumpy Akira Maeda is unlikely to save it, but I am going in with an open mind and an open heart. It takes Maeda longer to pull himself up along the ropes after an escape than you'd like to see, I can tell you that much with certainty. Tariel has been an effective RINGS guy for a long time but he's never really moved all that well which is fair in that he is enormous but what I mean to say is that there is not a lot of motion here despite the four times Maeda has been knocked down so far. At around 6:38 we have the worst application-of and rope-escape-from juji-gatame we have yet seen; my god. Tariel taps to hadaka-jime a little while later at 7:18 and the people seem fairly (in at least two senses, maybe more) unmoved.


ALRIGHT NOT SO GREAT but that's ok really as the last few have been beyond unreal. Let us explore . . .

WHAT DAVE MELTZER HAD TO SAY

May 19, 1997: 

"With EFC officially folding and releasing all its fighters from their contracts, SEG signed EFC heavyweight champion Maurice Smith on 5/13. Smith is expected to be introduced on the 5/30 UFC show, possibly in the role of color commentator, to build up a 7/27 PPV champion vs. champion match against UFC champion Mark Coleman. Exactly how Smith's EFC championship will be addressed on the UFC broadcast is unknown at press time but it is believed his EFC championship and WKA heavyweight kick boxing championship would both be acknowledged on the next broadcast. Negotiations to hold that show at the Yokohama Arena in Japan, as a co-promotion with the Samurai 24-hour fighting cable channel, appear to have fallen through for many reasons. Among them is that Smith is under contract to RINGS in Japan and thus wouldn't be able to appear on a UFC show taking place in Japan, and the inability to put together a show that would mean something both in Japan and the United States. The Japanese promoters, H2O promotions out of Nagoya, were wanting a Don Frye vs. Genichiro Tenryu match, and UFC officials didn't like that pairing because of the risk of Tenryu, 47, getting seriously injured in such a match. The Japanese promoters wanted to use pro wrestlers Koji Kitao and Koki Kitahara as well for their name value because they were close to the WAR group, and UFC didn't want that close a connection to pro wrestling and thought such a show would lack interest in the United States which is still where the promotion has to draw from. The Japanese promoters didn't want Yoshiki Takahashi because of his affiliation with Pancrase, even though a Takahashi vs. Jerry Bohlander match seems to be a natural from a booking standpoint stemming from the 2/7 PPV show. There were also numerous technical problems with producing a show in Japan for broadcast in the United States that needed to be worked out but time was running out on getting it done with enough time to properly put together the show. There is still talk of holding a show in Japan later in 1997."

and

"4. Ken Shamrock beat Vader via submission with an ankle lock in 13:21 in what was billed as a No Holds Barred match. There must have been some sort of a late booking change as the graphic and Howard Finkel's ring announcement talked about standing eight counts, similar to the dramatic UWFI knockdowns that both would be familiar with, but Jim Ross then said that rule had been changed. Shamrock got a pretty big pop coming out. As the early action went to the ropes, Ross tried to explain the difference in that a UFC has no ropes. Ross was very positive in his explanations of UFC and said he enjoyed the shows, while Jerry Lawler seemed to be getting mad, both worked and otherwise, as many veteran wrestlers who don't react when life goes on do when something changes the business they are in. The match was very good in that it was realistic enough to be suspenseful in a sport way. It still had enough pro wrestling maneuvers to not look like a UFC match. Vader rolled out of the ring several times early as Shamrock got the early edge. Shamrock hit a suplex and went for a kneebar but Vader rolled out. Vader took control with stiff clotheslines and took Shamrock down with a wakigatamae. Shamrock used a triangle choke (sankakujime) but Vader lifted him up and threw him. Vader suplexed Shamrock over the top rope to the floor with Shamrock selling his knee as if it was injured on the landing. Vader ran him a few times into the ring steps. Vader ended up with a bloody nose. Vader went for a standing ankle lock but Shamrock rolled out of it. Vader went for a choke on the ground but again Shamrock escaped. Vader missed a moonsault (actually it grazed Shamrock). Shamrock bodyslammed Vader and went for both an ankle lock and a half crab but Vader made the ropes both times. Shamrock threw a lot of hard knees and forearms into the corner similar to a Misawa or Kawada type offense and every bit as stiff. Vader cut him off with a solid shot to the head and as he went down to capitalize on it, Shamrock maneuvered him into an ankle lock for the tap out victory. This wasn't the kind of a match that you could do every night which explains why the UWFI and RINGS guys generally only work one match per month. ***1/4"

DAVE SAID SANKAKU-JIME and also waki-gatame BUT SANKAKU-JIME


"Antonio Inoki, Satoru Sayama, Kazuyuki Fujita and Naoya Ogawa are all scheduled to come to Slamboree this week. Ogawa has never seen American wrestling live and they wanted him to understand it. Don't know if it'll even be acknowledged on the WCW broadcast. There is talk about trying to put together a deal with RINGS for a match for the 8/10 Nagoya Dome with Ogawa vs. David Khakhaleishivili. The Russian, who is the current world heavyweight champion in sambo (having won a tournament in Japan late last year), was the 1992 gold medalist in judo in Barcelona, beating Ogawa in the gold medal match so this is a natural sports rivalry."

and

"he Rickson Gracie vs. Nobuhiko Takada match appears in jeopardy. Nippon TV, the same network that broadcasts All Japan, was one of the main sponsors of the proposed 8/15 Tokyo Dome show, but pulled out because of the costs involved, particularly the large guarantees that both Gracie and Takada were promised to get the match to happen. The idea of the show was to present an entire card of pro wrestlers vs. Vale Tudo shoot matches with the wrestlers from Battlarts, Kingdom and RINGS involved, although politically getting RINGS involved wouldn't have been easy.

Royce, Helio and Rorion Gracie were in Japan this past week and held a press conference on 5/6. Royce, 30, who hasn't fought since his 1995 draw with Ken Shamrock, claimed he was in negotiations with two Japanese offices but didn't specify which ones, and said that he wanted to fight in Japan, said he was interested in competing in a UFC-style tournament and issued a challenge to Mike Tyson. Naoya Ogawa's name was brought up and Gracie praised him and said he'd be interested in fighting him as well."

aaaaaand

"Ricardo Morais and Addilson Lima from Brazil are booked for RINGS on 6/21 at Ariake Coliseum in shoot matches. Caught the 4/22 RINGS show from Osaka and it was a great show. Only Tony Halme vs. Dick Vrij and Akira Maeda vs. Volk Han were obvious works [Halme/Vrij? really? was I thinking wishfully?--ed]. It was pretty clear most of the other bouts were shoots. I'd suspect Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kousaka wasn't a shoot, although you couldn't tell from watching it as they worked the match not to have the dramatic spots that they do in their worked shoot matches nor the near submissions and near knockout spots. Just another example of just how good Tamura really is. Halme, who weighed 288, looked really slow and it appeared that Vrij could have taken him apart at will although it was a work, but he was wide open too often. Vrij kicked him in the face and shut his eye on the first kick as an accident and the finish didn't look like a planned finish but Vrij was taking it so easy on him it was clearly a worked match [I am not going to watch it again but I really think this one was a shoot!--ed]. Maeda vs. Han was a good match. Maeda needs to get in a lot better shape and being out of shape looks bad in a shoot style match, however his work is much better now because he's given up on the kicks which in recent years have gotten so slow he looks bad, and concentrated on the submission and matwork where he still can look impressive."

June 2, 1997: 

"RINGS ran on 5/23 in Miyagi before a sellout 3,850 with Akira Maeda over Bitzsade Tariel in 7:18 with the choke sleeper on top. It was pretty much a maintenance show and from the line-up appeared to be a totally worked or mainly worked show. The next show is 6/21 at Tokyo Ariake Coliseum and the top two matches are scheduled as Brazil vs. Russia in shoots. Ricardo Morais faces Yuri Cortikin of Russia, and in a strange match, Addilson Lima faces Alexandre Payadorov, who is the 51-year-old sensei of Illoukhine Mikhail, who Lima beat in a controversial shoot match last year. Maeda said that he will have a big singles match in August against Tsuyoshi Kousaka, compete in the 1997 Battle Dimension tournament in the fall and winter, and then in the summer of 1998 have a match against a big name from Brazil or pro boxing and then retire.

5/23 Sendai (RINGS - 3,850 sellout):Masayuki Naruse b Willie Peeters, Mitsuya Nagai b Valentine Ofraim, Yoshihisa Yamamoto b Herman Renting, Kiyoshi Tamura b Grom Zaza, Volk Han b Joop Kasteel, Akira Maeda b Bitzszade Tariel"

A MAINTENANCE SHOW is probably not a bad way to describe what just happened, is it? I can all but guarantee the next one will be better! Thank you for your time once more!