July 22, 1997 in Osaka, Japan
Furitsu Gym drawing 4,500
AH BUT WHAT OF RINGS 6/21/97: FIGHTING-EXTENSION 1997 Vol. 4 the astute reader asks and well what can I tell you but that the disc didn't work and neither did TOM's when I asked him and yet we press on but before we do let us first have a look at the results as posted at the venerable Pro Wrestling History site which is only exceedingly rarely in error:
Wataru Sakata beat Yuri Bekichev (3:54) via submission.
Masayuki Naruse beat Lee Hasdell (12:58) via submission.
Mitsuya Nagai beat Andre Mannart (0:20) via submision.
Ricardo Morais drew Yuri Korchikin (20:00) in a "vale tudo" match.
Adilson Lima TKO Alexander Fedorov (10:10) in a "vale tudo" match.
Yoshihisa Yamamoto beat Maurice Smith (6:00) via submission.
Nikolai Zouev beat Kiyoshi Tamura (10:30).
Accepting that all RINGS happenings are vital (the notion upon which our entire undertaking is premised), I would submit (haha) to you that the above results look perhaps marginally less vital than some others, and so we are possibly not quite as impoverished by the loss (at least for now, maybe I'll get this one later) of this show than we might be by some others, although I should note that if my understanding of a language I don't speak is correct, this show was going to have Tsuyoshi Kohsaka continuing his instructional segment, this time on the subject of ude-hishigi-juji-gatame 腕挫十字固, the arm-crushing-crossmark-hold we treasure and hold so dear. Let's not pretend we are not lesser for not having seen that. It is doubtful Dave Meltzer will have described that particular segment and yet it is customary that we now to turn to what he said in the both the lead-up-to and aftermath-of that show:
June 9, 1997:
Future-RINGS competitor Randy Couture in the debased and lesser UFC:
"4. In the over-200, Randy Couture (1-0) beat Tony Halme (0-1) in :57. This was billed as an amateur wrestler against a pro wrestler. Jeff Blatnick said that "We all know the WWF is not competition but Couture is used to competition." Halme was billed at 300 pounds, meaning Couture was giving up 75 pounds. Halme looked heavier than he did when he legitimately weighed 288 at the RINGS show in April. Couture immediately took Halme down and began punching him. Halme turned his back, and Couture got the choke in."
June 16, 1997:
"Mitsuya Nagai of RINGS and Ryushi Yanagisawa of Pancrase both passed the test to join the All Japan Kickboxing alliance and Yanagisawa is debuting on 7/25 and both may be groomed to appear on upcoming K-1 stadium shows. Yanagisawa said if he does well in his kick boxing debut that he'll leave Pancrase."
and
"Akira Maeda is going to referee rather than wrestle on the RINGS 6/21 Ariake Coliseum show, which may indicate that much of the show will be shoot. The top two matches are definitely shoots, and another as yet unannounced match scheduled is Maurice Smith vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto which is also a shoot. At the last show on 5/25, Volk Han had an interesting match with Joop Kasteel in that it looked so tight it could have been a shoot [no I think it was just sort of terrible--ed.]. They were on their feet trading slaps although Kasteel wasn't as aggressive as he usually is in shoots. When they finally went to the ground, Han immediately clamped on a submission and Kasteel tagged out, so it was totally unlike a worked Han match [in that it was quite bad--ed.]. Kiyoshi Tamura fought Russian Olympic freestyle wrestler in what was definitely a worked match. Tamura did a great job as usual in carrying a totally green guy to an entertaining match by selling for his suplexes [this ruined the match--ed.] and doing great transitions into submissions before winning with a knockout kick. Maurice Smith said that his dream match would be Frank Shamrock vs. Tamura because they are the two most entertaining shoot style wrestlers he's seen."
June 23, 1997:
"RINGS on 6/21 at Tokyo Ariake Coliseum has the two Vale Tudo matches with Ricardo Morais vs. Yuri Cortikin of Russia and Addilson Lima vs. Alexandre Pyodorov of Russia, both matches having Akira Maeda as referee. The rest of the show has Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Grom Zaza, Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Maurice Smith (which will be a shoot match), Mitsuya Nagai vs. Andre Mannart, Masayuki Naruse vs. Leo Hasdell and Tsuyoshi Kousaka vs. Yuri Bekchev."
June 30, 1997:
"The general feeling is that there never will be a Choshu vs. Akira Maeda match after all, as while there is tremendous money in a one-night live gate, the feeling is that by participating in the match Maeda would do long-term damage to his RINGS promotion."
and
"There were several major shows over the past week. RINGS ran 6/21 at the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo drawing 9,188 fans for its second biggest show of the year. The most important result from a U.S. standpoint was in the semi-main event where Yoshihisa Yamamoto made Maurice Smith tap out to a choke sleeper in 6:00. Smith losing to Yamamoto, who is nowhere near as powerful on the ground, although better technically when it comes to submissions, as Mark Coleman has to make the odds of the Smith upset even longer than they looked to be originally. It's possible it was a worked match in which case the result means nothing, and RINGS and UFC rules are different and even if it was a shoot those differences change the game completely in some cases. There are reports from people there live that it looked to be a work. Smith told us two weeks before the fight that this one was going to be a shoot and he's pretty straight about those things, although things also can change at the last minute as well. We probably won't see the tape for another couple of weeks but another live report is that every match on the show except the main event was a shoot. The two Vale Tudo matches were definitely shoots. In the main event, Kiyoshi Tamura surprisingly lost to Russian Nikolai Zouev in 10:30 so obviously they are pushing Zouev for some big matches. There were two Vale Tudo rules shoot matches on the show. Addilson Lima of the Gracie camp in Brazil beat Alexander Pyodorov, the 51-year-old trainer of both Yamamoto and Illoukhine Mikhail who is reputed to have been the greatest fighter in Russia in his day, in 10:10 when the corner threw in the towel. Pyodorov took the unlikely challenge as a Japanese/Russian way of trying to regain honor since Gracie fighters beat his two proteges last year on the RINGS show. The other result saw Ricardo Morais, the 6-8, 277 pound Brazilian monster who was unbeaten in Vale Tudo competition, held to a 20:00 draw with Russian Youri Cortikin. In a prelim match, Mitsuya Nagai set a RINGS new record with a 20 second victory with a heel hook over Andre Mannart of Holland. 6/21 Tokyo Ariake Coliseum (RINGS - 9,188): Wataru Sakata b Youri Bekichev, Masayuki Naruse b Lee Hasdell, Mitsuya Nagai b Andre Mannart, Ricardo Morais d Youri Cortikin 20:00, Addilson Lima b Alexandre Pyodorov, Yoshihisa Yamamoto b Maurice Smith, Nikolai Zouev b Kiyoshi Tamura"
WAIT A MINUTE WHAT IF TAMURA VS. ZOUEV IS ON DAILYMOTION OK YEAH IT IS RIGHT HERE LET'S SEE ABOUT IT and seconds-in my feeling is that this is a shoot-stylist work indeed yes. I have probably said this a bunch of times already but Zouev is sort of quietly great at this. That he is attacking with the underused ude-hishigi-ude-gatame (straightest of arm locks) and making the threat real is an achievement. If what you like about Tamura is how unbelievably quickly he moves into and out of things, you will love the sequence where he steps into and out of and indeed over-top like a million things before attacking in the mode of the rolling shime-waza (the one John Wick does to the guy whilst handcuffed) but ending it with a fine attempt at juji-gatame and you will be all over what just happened; but if you feel that literally the only imperfection one can find with Tamura is that, driven by fancy, his movements are at times too swift to carry with them either physical weight or truest art-weight then this passage will stand out to you, perhaps, as an example of that. But this is both totally and very good, let us not lose sight of the forest for the trees. Tamura reaches so emphatically for the ropes but misses (whilst entangled in a horrible leg-situation) that it looked like he tapped! The commentator is like ooooohhohoho and he is right. Tamura's juji-gatame looks great; his sankaku-jime looks great; HOLY SHIT ZOUEV WON WITH THE ASHI-SANKAKU-GARAMI OF THE HUIZINGA ROLL, GOOD FOR HIM (in a "shoot" here is what it looks like to do that). Very good match, great finish! I wonder if the Yamamoto/Smith match is on Dailymotion too?
YES IN FACT IT IS HERE and this is really working out ok for us, isn't it? Smith is in boxing gloves, Yamamoto is of course not. The early striking, tentative, ends with a clinch and a reasonably feeble "guard pull" from the increasingly disappointing Yamamoto, it pains me to say it, but this poor guy; this poor guy. The other day Cory sent me a link to his DREAM match against Katsuyori Shibata (R.I.P. Katsuyori Shibata's career but it ended doing what it loved: losing decisively whilst being sikk and getting really hurt). No wait, it was in HERO*S but either way Yamamoto just gets creamed in it. I think this Maurice Smith match is a work by the way and not just because Yamamoto wins it at 6:00 with hadaka-jime but that's certainly a factor in my thinking on this.
The other matches don't seem to be around anywhere but that was pretty good luck on the whole I would say! So let's get back to Dave:
July 7, 1997:
"Saw the tape of the 6/21 RINGS show from Tokyo Ariake Coliseum. The only matches that looked like shoots were the two Vale Tudo rules bouts. Mitsuya Nagai vs. Andre Mannart only went 20 seconds so it may have been, and there were reactions that made it look like it was, but I'm skeptical. In the shoot matches, Ricardo Morais (6-8, 272 Brazilian) went to a 20:00 draw with Youri Corchikin of Russia. Morais totally dominated the match and beat up Corchikin, whose face ended up all bloodied and bruised by the end of the fight, but never really came close to putting him away. My feeling watching Morais in this match is he'd be no match for the likes of a Mark Kerr or a Mark Coleman as he really didn't show a lot of skill and he'd be a sitting duck for their strong takedowns. Also, shoot matches in a ring are different from in an octagon as Corchikin just hung onto the ropes the entire match and did nothing on offense and survived far easier than he would have had the match been in an octagon. Adilson Lima vs. Alexandre Federov was the other shoot. The story behind this is Federov was the submission coach for both Illoukhine Mikhail and Yoshihisa Yamamoto, both of whom lost to Gracie fighters last year and it was the Russian/Japanese deal where the sensei of the stable has to go for revenge. Federov was purported to be a Russian Karl Gotch, but he's now 51. Actually for the first minute or so he looked good but couldn't hook a leglock on, but due to his age, by the 90 second mark, he was pretty well gone. Lima dominated him from the top until the towel was thrown in at 10:30. Yamamoto vs. Maurice Smith looked to be a worked match as Smith never threw a dangerous punch or tried a leg kick, so you can't read anything into the Coleman match by using this match. In the television announcing, they said that neither Yamamoto nor Smith liked the rules but that Maeda had Smith wearing 10 ounce gloves without fingers free in order to protect the reputation of both fighters. The fact the shoot matches were put in the middle of the show instead of as the main event seemed to be based on the unpredictability of shoot matches and thus they put Kiyoshi Tamura, their best worker on top, so fans would go home with a great performance. It may also symbolize that interest in real shooting has passed its peak in Japan [not yet but give it like ten years--ed]. Next RINGS show is 7/22 in Osaka with Akira Maeda vs. Hans Nyman, Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Bitzsade Tariel and Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Mitsuya Nagai as the top three matches."
July 14, 1997:
Tadasahi Tanaka is not having any of it:
"I'm not exactly happy with your writing on the 6/21 RINGS show. First, I strongly believe that Masayuki Naruse and Mitsuya Nagai's matches were both shoots. You can tell my the post match interview context. The WOWOW production team is unique in pro wrestling since they handle other sports as well such as Mike Tyson fights. Since they aren't on the RINGS payroll, they somewhat hint in commentary for the one or two percent of fans who can read between the lines what is shooting and what isn't. Post match interview reactions aren't something fighters can pretend like actors after a shoot match. We all know short matches are hard to tell whether they are shoots, however Nagai has to prove himself to the kickboxing world that he's capable in a shoot situation against Andre Mannart, a well-known kickboxer. Nagai's next fight will probably be a work, but that's understandable since you can't do a shoot every month. RINGS Japanese members with the exception of Akira Maeda seem to be rotating who participates in the shoot matches and all the young wrestlers have proven that they are real.
Naruse even challenged Gracie fighters in his post match interview. You can't fake those comments unless you've just won a real fight. Naruse is too small to be considered a world ranked shooter but he is real and I like his guts. Out of seven matches that day, four were shoots, which is more than 50 percent. You should focus more on praising RINGS as their recent efforts appear to be more shoot oriented. Probably 95 percent of your readers don't know much about RINGS so you should educate your readers to new styles I think.
You have a bad habit of describing NHB as something better than Pancrase style. Most professional fights usually have some kind of pre-match agreements beforehand. The Oleg Taktarov vs. Marco Ruas match in Brazil was like a Pancrase theme match where they were standing only. But what was the advertised rules? The agreements would violate Vale Tudo rules. Yes, the match was a shoot, just as Pancrase and K-1 can claim within their rules and pre-match agreements.
They are all walking on thin ice. The true Vale Tudo anything goes rules days are over. In fact, the 6/21 Vale Tudo rules matches on the RINGS show were shoot matches but they banned head-butts and elbows. We should accept Pancrase style shoot matches instead of splitting hairs on some questionable showboating involved. Fans pay to see the skills, not exactly who is the stronger fighter since we know results can change quickly and top stars would be ranked differently due to even slight rule changes. Many top fighters just can't participate in UFC due to its poor financial guarantees as compared to the fighters under contract to RINGS. For example, how would you rate Volk Han as a shooter? Although he's not truly tested, he is real and many insiders and fighters themselves compare him favorably to Oleg Taktarov and other top NHB fighters. Those observations are not fantasy but come from "dojo rankings."
Ricardo Morais is a Jiu Jitsu fighter who hasn't mastered Jiu Jitsu yet. It was funny to watch him wondering what to do next. But his monster looks are extremely marketable within the fighting business. Last year, Illoukhine Mikhail faced the stronger black belt Adilson Lima while Yoshihisa Yamamoto faced purple belt Morais in the main event. Insiders knew Morais had no ranking in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu but that meant nothing from a business standpoint because Lima type fighters are all the same and boring to watch to the general public. The question will be if Morais is interested in doing worked matches or not. If he isn't, RINGS should forget what happened in shoot matches the last two years. Even though unskilled in the ground game, Morais' size advantage was too much for medium sized Yamamoto. The reason I believe Maurice Smith has no chance to win against Yamamoto under either Pancrase or EFC rules is that hybrid fighters know too many of Smith's weaknesses since he's fought in Japan about 20 times over the past ten years. I was very happy to see Smith beating Conan Silviera, but it was because the Carlson Gracie camp and Kazunari Murakami types don't know the standing game or enough about Smith. For UWF style wrestlers, not only Yamamoto but many other could easily beat Smith clean I think. But that doesn't mean Yamamoto could beat Silviera in an EFC rules match. Kiyoshi Tamura's job for Nikolai Zouev was expected since the rumor is he got his salary doubled in June. In Japan, the industry rule is that the first match of any new big contract should be a job. Besides, Zouev is not just a fighter but also the promoter in Russia for RINGS so the company always keeps him with a high ranking. The most important thing in reviewing the 6/21 show is not which matches were shoot matches, but what was the best match on the show. You should have emphasized that once again it was Tamura's match. Considering the pressure he was under following all those matches that were shoots, he did very very well.
Tadashi Tanaka
New York, New York"
July 21, 1997:
"RINGS on 8/13 in Kagoshima has announced Volk Han vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto, Akira Maeda vs. Tsuyoshi Kousaka and Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Hanse Nyman. Added to the RINGS card on 7/22 in Osaka is Grom Zaza, a RINGS veteran who wrestled in the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, against Jerry Bohlander, who was the first UFC light heavyweight tournament winner (4-1 UFC record, 5-1 overall)."
AND WITH THAT WE ARE UP TO DATE AND READY FOR 7/22/97 FIGHTING-EXTENSION 1997 Vol. 5 and I thank you for your patience as we readied ourselves. The RINGS Official Ranking are intriguing in that they stand thus: 10. Ilioukhine 9. Naruse 8. Nijman 7. Nagai 6. Yamamoto 5. Tariel 4. Maeda 3. Kohsaka 2. Tamura 1. Han. Akira Maeda is really rocketing up the charts, isn't he! That top three though, that is a pretty serious top three.
***BREAKING NEWS THAT I AM JUST GOING TO PUT RIGHT HERE IN THE MIDDLE BECAUSE THAT IS WHERE I WAS WHEN I RECEIVED IT**** my friends it is my sad duty to inform you that the account to which these shows have been uploaded has received, all at once, no small number of copyright claims and takedown notices from 株式会社リングス (I invite you to put that in google translate and then tremble before the result) as represented by s.sasaki.rings@redactedemailprovider.com and as a result all uploads must immediately cease, and all existing videos are no more. Have we, as I suggested on Twitter slightly earlier, flown too close to the sun on wings of Grom Zaza? Yes I suppose we have. Is it mere coincidence these RINGS uploads were shut down just as we reached the point at which Maeda's body turned into an enormous thumb made of butter? I have my doubts. Is the way forward to either reenact each RINGS match in Fire Pro (the first one for Game Boy, specifically) and post those, or to make a serious offer to the people of WOWOW (Fire Pro name: NONON) for the RINGS masters? Yes, it is almost certainly either one of those two. I am being lighthearted bordering on merry but I do of course feel bad that those of you who have been enjoying these shows will no longer be able to do so in the same way. Despite the many hours I have spent towards the aim of sharing with you, none were in my view wasted, as they were in service of art, and those art-happenings were enjoyed thousands of times, according to the stats (58% of the watch-time was from Japan, all of it Akira Maeda lying in wait, biding his time), and so joy has been spread. The hope here of course is that RINGS is enforcing its copyright in anticipation of the launch of RINGSworld or WOWOWorld or WORLDworld. I apologize to those of you already subjected to all of these jokes a short time ago on Twitter, forgive me, I have very little by way of jokes. Several friends have helpfully suggested other ways by which these shows might be shared and I thank you all in all sincerity for those thoughtful suggestions, but certainly for the time being I am comfortable with a return to the ritual purity of RINGSblogging. The tale has grown in the telling, in a sense, and pleasantly so, but my initial thought was simply to watch all that the decade-old RINGSbox contained, and share with you here my impressions of those contents; that it grew in scope to include the whole deal of complete shows in all their many glories was, again, entirely pleasant, in that others have obviously enjoyed this project way more than they would have otherwise, and I have certainly enjoyed their enjoyment, but that this retraction to the initial plan has occurred due to forces outside of our control (who among us could hope to contain literal Akira Maeda or the agents authorized to work in his name) is something I feel no real conflict over. We are, as evidenced already in this post, entering the RINGSperiod in which virtually all of the major matches are available not as part of complete shows uploaded to YouTube but as individual matches uploaded to the comparatively lawless Dailymotion, so that is some comfort. I would add also, and with all sincerity, that should anyone wish to pursue these complete shows further, they would do well to see what might be had from my old friend IVP Videos, one of the original RINGSboxists of 2007. Allowing for the odd bum disc here and there, anything I have, he has, and he is a pleasure to deal with both personally and professionally. I have already decided to buy from him all of the U-Style shows (to be RINGSblogged, in time) and possibly the odd malfunctioned RINGSdisc from my own box once I have finished with the core 128 discs of this my chief labour (aside from my actual labours [I don't have too many labours, don't worry]). I have gone on about this for an awful long time now for which I apologize once more AND RETURN YOU INSTEAD TO . . .
FIGHTING NETWORK RINGS YAAAAAHHH IT IS TSUYOSHI KOHSAKA VS. GROM ZAZA and it will be of interest (to me) to compare this against the weirdly ungood Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Grom Zaza match we discussed only recently. Foremost among the problems in it, such as they were, was that Zaza would do these pickups that had an air of complete ease about them, and I am saddened to say that Zaza's very first move here is exactly that kind of thing again come on, Grom. It gets better, though, as the next time he takes Kohsaka down he does that with a sutemi-waza (sacrifice technique) from a gyaku-ude-garami/Kimura grip; this is the right thing to do. TK is all over Zaza's back, though, and rolls him with an Iatskevich-style juji-gatame, which you can drill like this (this is Koji Komuro; also this is harder than it looks to do quickly and smoothly to either side!):
Before you work on the actual roll like this:
And of course you can hook the near leg or grab the pants on the far side to help if things get stalled out (it's what TK does with Zaza [not that Zaza has pants]).
Zaza, down a couple of rope breaks, puts Kohsaka down with a barrage of knees, and I think this is already probably better than Zaza/Tamura even before Kohsaka countered Zaza's uncharacteristically loose double-leg with a rolling sutemi-waza that puts him on top, and then on the back, and then attacking again with juji-gatame. A rope escape stands them up, a knee to the breadbasket puts Kohsaka down. After a failed enziguri (although every enziguri is one some level a success), Kohsaka reaches for yet another juji-gatame but Zaza keeps his feet, and so Kohsaka attacks with the leg-entanglement of ashi-garami and the transition between the two is one of the better things in physical culture however it opens Kohsaka up to Zaza's ashi-kansetsu (leg-bone-locking) as well, doesn't it, and so it is Kohsaka who must rope break. DAMN IT GROM ZAZA WOULD YOU COME OFF IT WITH THE PICKUPS and this is not just me being absurd (thought that is surely part of it) about things looking too light: the crowd has not responded to a single one of these in either the Tamura or Kohsaka matches and it is not because they don't care about what happens to either Kiyoshi Tamura or Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (in fact they care deeply). Lots of nice leg-lock work in this one though!
Also Kohsaka hits a hiza-juji knee-bar that is not so much a rolling knee-bar as a flying knee-bar and it is quite spectacular! But not too spectacular. Zaza is starting to run low on points after another rope escape of juji-gatame and Kohsaka is almost out entirely as we are a little over nine minutes in so one would assume things will OK YES TK escapes the scarf-hold of kesa-gatame and wins by hadaka-jime at 9:26. A really good match! Better than one would expect after Zaza/Tamura, but probably not as good as you would expect out of Zaza/Kohsaka had you not seen that weirdly underwhelming one first, I guess? Please do not think that I have turned against Grom Zaza: I still admire him greatly and wish him all happiness, and the fault for those pickups rests as much with Tamura and Kohsaka for going up so lightly for them. Maybe the issue is everybody likes Grom Zaza so much that they want to be super cooperative with him? Or maybe they are worried that if they go heavy at all he will "shoot" pick them up and end them? I am not suggesting I have any of the answers here but I think it is important that we ask the questions because otherwise potential ***** matches will keep on being slightly less than that and it is pretty galling.
Minoru Tanaka's look is so together right now:
That of Christopher Haseman, able shootsman, is more reserved, as you can see in this still of when he thrust-kicks Tanaka in the groin:
AKIRA MAEDA whose body looks not its best obviously (and yet also not its worst as he seems to be trying at least and what are any of us doing with our bodies but that) SQUARE OFF against HANS NIJMAN (R.I.P. he is doing nothing with his body but what is the Lord doing with his immortal soul, we might ask) in a contest of large men indeed. Wait the angle is different now and Maeda is looking awful, just awful. Also he gets something in his eye right away? Oh, Akira; what has become of you; what will become of any of us, in time. This match unfolds as a wide region of sluggish fen. This does not keep the people, or at least one of their number, from yelling MAEDAAAAAAA and I encourage them to continue doing it, not that it will hold at bay the realities we are faced with. Did I ever tell you that I read that the only things Akira Maeda cared about in high school were motorbikes and karate? Imagine it. Maeda, knocked down four times (that's eights squares coloured in red, for those of you colouring-in squares at home), wins with a wildly implausible mae-hadaka-jime front choke at 9:04.
Our main event on this night, mainer still than Maeda's, sees Kiyoshi Tamura dwarfed by the deeply massive Bitsadze Tariel, his karate as immense as his very being (his being is enormous). Tamura's shirt says U-FILE CAMP which is both his gym and also a camp you go to to learn about Canada's leading software for filing your taxes online (I think it is maybe the only one but I am no accountant). The size difference here is I guess 59.5 kg but don't worry, there is no way they will be allowed to fight for real:
Tamura is kneed to the ground in the corner only seconds into the bout and after he answers the count gets hit a tonne again immediately. A little skip in my copy means I am not sure how Tamura managed to get out of that and take Tariel's back on the mats but he did I guess and he also secured a hadaka-jime strangle to compel a rope break. Also he seems to have poked Tariel in the eye, inadvertently? That could be a plausible path to victory for Tamura. Tamura down again! This will probably happen a bunch of times! Tamura has Tariel down and attacks with juji-gatame and this time my copy didn't skip but I am unsure by what mechanism we are intended to believe that happened; a third takedown is the same: Tamura slips behind Tariel, who then slumps to his knees and leans down onto the mat. It is kind of shitty? He is better at kneeing Tamura in the head and letting Tamura fly to the mat from it, so it's good that that is what they do next. Spinning heel kick! But Tamura brushes it off. Neat move though! Man, another one of these non-takedown takedowns. This match is trending towards dud. Aaaaaand that time Tariel just leaned over and tipped to the mat whilst Tamura was just sort of near him, this is terrible. OK, rolling knee-bar, that was a very credible way to take Bitsadze Tariel down, that was way better, this is good. Another knee to Tamura's beautiful head puts him in real danger of running out of points! Ashi-garami, leg-entanglement, another fine way to takedown Bitsadze Tariel, good good. they are both at eight points lost! At last it is Tariel who takes Tamura down with a rolling sutemi-waza sacrifice choke: Tamura escapes, attacks with juji-gatame, but Tariel weirdly pops out and chokes Tamura, who grabs a rope, and that's nine points gone. Tariel goes down horribly AGAIN just when I thought they had that fixed, and he grabs a rope so that's nine points gone for each of them in this baffling shitshow. The finish is Tamura choking Tariel with hadaka-jime: Tariel grabs a rope rather than tapping but he has no points left to give so it's a TKO rather than a submission at 13:32. The people seem very pleased with Tamura and broadly speaking I am too but in this particular instance I am not super pleased.
WHAT MORE DID DAVE MELTZER SAY:
July 28, 1997:
CTRL+F "RINGS" brings us news of Takada/Gracie:
"The on-again, off-again shoot match between Rickson Gracie and Nobuhiko Takada is back on-again for 10/11 at the Tokyo Dome, but not without a lot of questions still to be answered and a lot of skepticism whether this version of the show will take place.
The event, first proposed for June, then pushed back to August, then canceled due to Nippon Television pulling out of the deal which took away between $250,000 and $500,000 from the shows budget and left them without major television coverage or promotion of the event. Nippon TV was apparently concerned that a true shoot match could easily wind up lasting only one minute, or turn into a long defensive struggle which would make for boring television, so the risk of viewer dissatisfaction was relatively high. However, according to press reports late last week, Tokyo's Ch. 12 this past week agreed to broadcast the show live and pay the rights fees and the match was announced after Takada signed the contract on 7/17. Gracie arrived in Japan on 7/19 for a 7/22 Tokyo press conference to formally announce the match. However, at that press conference it was instead announced that PerfecTV, a home satellite outfit in its infancy in Japan similar to DirecTV in the United States, would be broadcasting the match. What was also strange at the press conference is that the promotional company, a new group called Kakutougi Revolution Spirits (KRS for short) didn't announce when tickets would go on sale or ticket prices, which is usually what these press conferences are held for to either kick off ticket sales or to announce a date they go on sale. The company didn't even announce where it would be setting up its office and its phone number or fax number or any contact people for further information. Later, when reporters called the Tokyo Dome, they were told that the building wasn't even booked for 10/11. The company that was originally planning this promotion, H20 promotions out of Nagoya, which had also never promoted anything at this level, had dropped out of the show due to an inability to finance such an undertaking.
It was announced at the press conference that Gracie would be receiving $935,000 for the match, a figure which is likely more than any NHB fighter has ever earned in the ring during their entire lifetime let alone for one match, while Takada would be receiving $187,000. The money figure for Takada was roughly the same as he received from New Japan for his three Tokyo Dome record setting houses against Keiji Muto twice and Shinya Hashimoto once in 1985-86.
In the original deal, Gracie was promised a $600,000 guarantee and a percentage of the house which, with a sellout, could earn him in the $900,000 range in total which is believed to be the second largest payoff ever for an event of this type.
Muhammad Ali was offered $6 million for a 1976 mixed match with Antonio Inoki, but actually received closer to $1.8 million when all was said and done. The highest payoff we are aware of for a single pro wrestling event besides for Ali would be the $750,000 that Hulk Hogan and Andre the Giant received for their 1987 WrestleMania match and a figure believed to be about $750,000 that Dennis Rodman received for Bash at the Beach on 7/13. What are believed to be the largest purses within the NHB genre are the $150,000 first prizes won by Dan Severn and Don Frye respectively in winning the Ultimate Ultimate tournaments.
The match will be fought with a maximum of 12 five minute rounds within in a boxing ring as opposed to an octagon, with a two minute rest period between rounds. If the match goes the time limit, the match will be declared a draw rather than having a judges decision. If both fighters agree to it after the 12 rounds are over, the match can continue indefinitely under sudden death rules. The match can end with a tap out or by stoppage by the referee or the doctor or with the corner throwing in the towel. There will be no rope escapes or breaks if caught in a submission hold and grabbing the ropes is illegal. There will be no kicking with shoes (so Takada would likely fight bare-footed). Both are mandated by the rules to wearing light "grappling" gloves. They have the option to wear elbow or knee pads and elbows are legal except to the spine. There will be no kicking of an opponent who is down. Head-butting is illegal. And there are no attacks to the groin, spine, hair or eyes allowed. The ring will have four ropes like boxing instead of three like pro wrestling.
There will be six other matches on the show, with no hints as to whether they will be worked or shoot matches. The only names announced thus far appearing on the show are Koji Kitao and Yoji Anjoh, two name Japanese pro wrestlers who have done shooting matches in the past although Kitao is 0-2 and Anjoh is 0-1 in Vale Tudo competition. Rumor has it that Kitao's foe would be Ricardo Morais, and that Brazilians Roberto Traven (who was a tournament in Russia recently) and Fabio Gurgel would be on the show which gives credence to the idea it would be an all shoot show. In the past Gracie had insisted on not only not doing a worked match, but not even agreeing to a time frame such as agreeing to carry his opponent for one round before going for a victory in the second round, plus had insisted he wouldn't appear on a show where any matches were worked because he didn't want anyone questioning the credibility of his match. His younger brother Royce turned down a reported $1 million deal for New Japan Pro Wrestling to do a job for Antonio Inoki in a match that would have taken place in October of 1996 at the Tokyo Dome and it resulted in the entire show having to be scrapped. Originally the belief was Gracie vs. Takada would be able to sellout the Tokyo Dome as the most hyped shoot (as opposed to work shoot) match in the history of Japanese pro wrestling, but fan anticipation has likely been soured by the previous postponement and cancellation plus the fact that the interest level in pure shooting has decreased in Japan and well as the United States. However, one would think from a financial standpoint this would be the biggest money NHB match in history which again shows the value of fake hype over reality production.
Gracie, reputed in many circles to be the greatest fighter in the world, has not had that reputation truly tested in many years. Now 38, the 185-pound son of fighting legend Helio Gracie and older brother of Royce Gracie, won two Vale Tudo tournaments in Japan but neither of those tournaments contained any big-name fighters other than Gerard Gordeau in the second tournament, who actually lost in the first round and even though he was a stand-up fighting legend, had very limited ground skill. With major NHB shows taking place in the U.S., Japan, Brazil, Europe, Russia and Australia, he chose to sit them out and never answered challenges issued by various winners of major tournaments such as Dan Severn, Ken Shamrock or Mark Coleman, and instead waited for someone to meet a nearly seven figure price tag. It was apparently a wise business strategy because his time came. Gracie is reputed to be undefeated in 400 matches and although that figure is clearly an exaggeration, he has never been beaten and in his day in Brazil was considered as the best fighter in the world and did tap out Olympic gold medal winning wrestler Mark Schultz twice. At the same time, in his last competitive situation more than two years ago in a Japanese tournament at Budokan Hall, he had a first round match against Japanese pro wrestler Yoshihisa Yamamoto, and he looked very much human as opposed to mythical in taking about 21:00 to beat Yamamoto, who has had a few shoot matches since that time in RINGS that he has lost in a much faster and more one-sided contests to fighters like Ricardo Morais with far lesser reputations and skill level.
Takada is one of the greatest pure athletes and workers of this generation in pro wrestling and had the reputation of being a strong shooter in the dojo, and has excellent demonstration kick boxing skills as opposed to battle tested kick boxing skills. But the fact is he's still a pro wrestler who has never had a legitimate contest against a top-level fighter in his life, not to mention that he's 35 years old and past his athletic prime. It has to be considered an incredible longshot that he'd be able to survive for any length of time against someone with so much experience in this form of fighting, even given the fact he'll have a 25-30 pound size advantage, is well trained in both standing and ground fighting, and is a few years younger.
Coming on the heels of this is the announcement by K-1 promoter Kazuyoshi Ishii that he would be attempting to sign Royce Gracie to his first competitive match since 1995 on his 11/9 show at the same Tokyo Dome. Gracie, who won three of the first four UFC tournaments before bowing out after being hammered by Ken Shamrock in a 36:00 draw in the first UFC superfight, has never fought previously in Japan."
and
"RINGS ran 7/22 at Osaka Furitsu Gym before 4,500 with the surprise result of Kiyoshi Tamura beating Bitzsade Tariel in the main event. It was interesting to see Tamura, and not Akira Maeda, put in the main event, particularly when Maeda was facing well known Hanse Nyman. While Tamura is a much bigger star than Tariel, this group always keeps Tariel strong and the size difference between the two is immense as Tariel is 6-6 1/2 and 310 pounds and Tamura is about 5-8 and 190 pounds. Jerry Bohlander, scheduled to make his pro wrestling debut on this show, canceled at the last minute and we don't have word as to what happened. 7/22 Osaka Furitsu Gym (RINGS - 4,500):Tsuyoshi Kousaka b Grom Zaza, Christopher Hazemann b Minoru Tanaka, Masayuki Naruse b Wataru Sakata, Yoshihisa Yamamoto b Mitsuya Nagai, Akira Maeda b Hanse Nyman, Kiyoshi Tamura b Bitzsade Tariel"
and
"There will be a World Cage Combat Championship on 9/27 in Townsville, Australia with an eight-man tournament that will include Tom Erikson, Paul Varelans and former pro wrestler Dieseul Berto plus singles matches with Australians Alex Cook (formerly Pancrase) and Chris Hazemann (RINGS)."
and
"Kiyoshi Tamura has opened up his own martial arts gym which isn't affiliated with the RINGS promotion." [omg U-File Camp?--ed]
August 4, 1997:
"Smith, 36, added the UFC title to his numerous major kick boxing championships including currently holding the ISKA heavyweight title. He's also done pro wrestling in Japan with organizations such as UWF, PWFG, Pancrase and currently RINGS and actually has lost numerous matches, some shoots, others works, via submission in Japan. His lengthy kick boxing career saw him at one point considered as the best heavyweight in his sport in the world. He survived the first several minutes on his back and largely took control over a completely exhausted Coleman at the 9:00 mark and used his stand-up skill to score points, mainly with leg kicks, while a totally spent Coleman held on for dear life. It probably ranked just behind the 1995 Oleg Taktarov vs. Tank Abbott match as the most dramatic match in UFC history." [But a brief excerpt from a very long account of the fight--ed.]
and
"Branko Sicatec, 42, who was the first-ever K-1 champion in 1993, is being negotiated with about being a future big show opponent for Ogawa. They've also started the hype for an eventual match with Ogawa against David Khakhaleishivili of Russia, who works for RINGS. Khakhaleishivili, who is now about 340 pounds, was the superheavyweight world sambo champion last year and won the Olympic gold (weighing 209 at the time [he absolutely one hundred percent completely did not weigh 209 at the time, the weight division was 95kg+ and I cannot believe we are still dealing with this--ed.) in the 1992 Olympics beating Ogawa so it's a natural match-up. If you compare the mileage New Japan is getting out of Ogawa by correctly doing the "shooter" gimmick, despite him having less than one-tenth the charisma of Ken Shamrock, as compared with the WWF with Shamrock (or if you even compare WWF's usage of Shamrock with ECW's of Taz) and it almost boggles the mind how badly WWF has pulled this off due to a total lack of being able to promote anything but singularly dimensional (ie, all promoting concepts are the same rather than different gimmicks have to be promoted in unique ways to protect the gimmick). Ogawa is going to be kept as something special here for years because of how he's being booked, rather than after his first pro match, slowly turning into just another one of the boys. I'd suspect one or the other would wind up as his opponent for the 11/2 Fukuoka Dome show."
and
"The situation with Jerry Bohlander and his RINGS match on 7/22 is that Bohlander flew to Japan and had some sort of a paperwork problem when he got there and was sent back. He's still scheduled to work for RINGS in the future and there is a decent chance Frank Shamrock will wind up with them as well."
NOW THAT THE JERRY BOHLANDER MYSTERY HAS BEEN SOLVED we can safely bid this FIGHTING-EXTENSION adieu as I thank you once again for your attention to these matters, none more pressing, none more RINGS.
So RINGS blanket copyright takedown? That's a shame. Pancrase just advertises on your video if you post their stuff. Evidently they wish for the world to see their "shoot" shoot styling (and their occasional "work" shoot styling) they just wish to get some of that sweet advertising money.
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of which would you like to see a video?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YIRCS8cwBHo&t=75s
It is a shame, isn't it. The Pancrase approach seems much more civilized! And in fact I did like to see a video, thank you.
ReplyDeletePerhaps we will be able to enjoy RINGS in a way that does not upset RINGS; in the fullness of time we shall see.