October 23, 1998 in Nagoya, Japan
Aichi Gym drawing 4,550
JAPAN A, RUSSIA A, GEORGIA, HOLLAND, AUSTRALIA, BULGARIA, RUSSIA B, JAPAN B: THESE SHALL BE THE TEAMS THAT CONTEST THE WORLD MEGA-BATTLE TOURNAMENT 1998 and I do not go into this convinced of the merits of the dantaisen 団体戦 or "team contest" in this context but I am eager for the folly of my presumption to be made clear to me (once more). Also it is definitely worth noting, I think, that before we get into any of that we are shown clips of Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Karelin (Александр Александрович Карелин), who you will perhaps recall from his three Greco-Roman Wrestling Olympic gold medals (one silver, gold lost on the merest technicality, but lost all the same [all due respect to Rulan Gardner despite the absolutely awful article I read about him in I think GQ like ten years ago]), nine world championships, twelve European championships, thirteen Soviet or Russian championships; or perhaps you know him best for his "[h]is PhD [...] devoted to countermeasures against suplex throws (Russian: Методика проведения контрприемов от бросков прогибом), and habilitation to preparation of top-level wrestlers (Russian: Система интегральной подготовки высококвалифицированных борцов).[21]" yeah that's right he has a PhD in countering suplexes. And it would seem that he is going to be brought in for a match against Akira Maeda in the new year (RINGStime) which is to say sometime very soon (RINGSblogtime) like maybe even next week probably (time as it is known in the primary world)! If any of us had ever doubted, even for an instant, that RINGS was literally the best (we hadn't, but work to imagine it; it's nearly possible, though obviously, in the end, not), here it is being proven yet again.
BUT FIRST YASUHITO NAMEKAWA ALL OF WHOSE MATCHES ARE GOOD AGAINST MASAYUKI NARUSE WHO ISN'T EXACTLY HURTING FOR THAT EITHER in an opening bout that does not seem to have anything to do with the WORLD MEGA-BATTLE TOURNAMENT itself but that's fine. Finally, finally I can share with you the name of the referee who isn't Yuji Shimada . . . it's Ryogaku Wada!
Confirm it yourself, if you so choose, at the excellent Skill MMA blog here. "Wada is known name because bald and macho." I can totally see it. I am pretty sure so far Namekawa has totally only been in shoots but Naruse is a semi-protected guy, I think, so this could be pretty interesting! This is real, maybe: a quick clinch, an ineffectual 大内刈 ouchi-gari (major inner reap); it's like looking in the mirror. Naruse takes Namekawa to the mat with 朽木倒 kuchiki taoshi, the strangely poetic way the Kodokan chooses to name the single-leg takedown: "pushing the rotted tree," or "dead-tree drop," you see it translated a few ways. Let's see what Google Translate does with it: "rotten wood down" if you ask it to work from Simplified Chinese (it doesn't really do anything with it if you tell it to work from Japanese; come on, Google). My favourite of these so far is still 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame rendered as "an armored cross," which has nothing at all to do with Masayuki Naruse's 4:50 win by 逆腕絡 gyaku-ude-garami, which Google Translate sensibly calls "Reverse wrist" if you're working from simplified Chinese but "Inverted cord" from Japanese. I don't know why but I like it all!
An onscreen graphic and voice-over that is moderately helpful to me and which would probably be totally clear if I had any real Japanese (learn your judo from Panamanians, Germans, the French, and then also Nova Scotians to really get a handle on the language) explains the rules of this particular dantaisen (let's see what Google does with that one: 団体戦 "Team competition" which is not amusing or interesting, it's just self-evidently correct, what a drag, I'll stop now). OH AWESOME I am pretty sure this is going to be かちぬきせん kachinukisen, which is to say "knockout" or "winner stays" format. I know that in judo (we have definitely covered this before, and I probably even posted a screen-cap from Yawara: A Fashionable Judo Girl at the time, forgive me), you've got your senposen, where the rosters are ordered by seniority, taishosen, where the teams set their own roster, and then there is also kachinukisen, where it's a knockout format in which the winner stays and a draw retires both competitors (I guess you could set your own rosters for that or go senposen). As each team is introduced, their first competitor is called zenpou, which I think just means, like, forward or first, their third is called taisho, like captain, and I didn't catch what they call the middle fighter but I will keep trying! It took me months to get on top of the Ryogaku Wada situation but I got there. ALL PREAMBLING ASIDE we have Holland's Hans Nijman (R.I.P.), Dick Vrij, & Joop Kasteel against Russia "A," consisting of Sergei Sousserov, Mikhail Ilioukhine, & Volk Han. Nijman knocks out Sousserov in a mere 2:59 (don't worry, I don't think for real), Ilioukhine catches Nijman in a kata-ashi-hishigi single-leg-crush/straight-ankle-lock in 2:54, and Vrij knocks Ilioukhine out in 2:50 after first flexing his pectoral muscles at him in arrogance (whenever someone flexes their pectoral muscles on something I am watching I have a practice of doing the same, I don't really know why, but I think of it as the Satoshi Kojima rule [obvious reasons, why belabour them]). I love this format! It's weird! It's like a judo team contest, or an elimination battle in Fire Pro (my current ファイナルファイヤープロレスリング～夢の団体運営 Final Fire Pro Wrestling: Yume no Dantai Unei!/Organization of Dreams/Dream Organization Management game is going really well, thanks, it looks like WAZA FC [Friends Club] is going to finish the five-year simulation as the top professional wrestling/martial arts promotion in the world! Nayoa Ogawa has like six belts or something! Bas Rutten defeats all Gracies! K-1 guys showed up and wrecked all my guys! Hulk Hogan seemed perfectly happy as a [deeply ineffectual] Tokyo Dome shoot-fighter but then it said the toll on his body was too much and he retired. I totally get it, no hard feelings at all). While I was telling you about the game that is on my phone (I am so sorry), Volk Han has bested Dick Vrij by yet another kata-ashi-hishigi in a mere 2:01 and now faces Joop Kasteel. This format is very unlikely to produce very good matches, I think! But I am still pretty into it. They don't have many points to lose, I am learning, and I bet I would know exactly how many points they have to lose had I understood the opening graphic and voice-over better but it's okay to embrace the mystery, too. Joop Kasteel, though still enormous, please do not mistake me, looks much less cartoonish in his muscularity than he has previously. Woah, that's a terrible finish at 2:21: Volk Han kind of falls down from a kick to the body, insists he merely slipped, but is charged with another lost point (maybe they carry over between bouts? interesting!) and indeed his final point, so that's a TKO at 2:21.
In a non-tournament bout we have Vladimir Klementiev, a Russian karateman who has had a handful of earlier RINGS appearances, against the near-ideal Kiyoshi Tamura (another key member of WAZA FC [that is the last time I'll mention it, I really am done, I promise {forgive me}]). This (shoot-style) match wasn't great, but Klementiev had a really nice shoulder-roll escape from a juji-gatame a minute or so before he was caught with another, and Tamura was like "hey look he is not tapping but this is about to break" to referee Ryogaku Wada (this is big to me and will stay that way for at least a while) who stopped the match at 7:51.
In the dantaisen main event(o) we have a pretty intriguing (to me) match between Japan A's Wataru Sakata, Yoshihisa Yamamoto, and Hiromitsu Kanehara (what a character!) and Bulgaria's Todor Todorov, Boris Jeliazkov, and the if-anything-thicker-than-before Dimitri Petkov. Todorov is maybe my favourite of the several guys who works RINGS pretty infrequently but who are nevertheless quite clearly still Guys of RINGS, and his snug græpplings here with Sakata (whose trunks say "D E F E N D S" on them, I think?) do not disappoint! Except that he loses by hadaka-jime (that nakedmost strangle) in what I was going to call "a mere 5:14" but actually 5:14 is fairly long for the way these matches seem to be going. Ah, but Sakata is unable to continue to the next match! And so it falls to Yoshihisa Yamamoto to best Boris Jeliazkov through the loss of points to strikes at 6:01 before facing Dimitri Petkov, dauntless meat-truck. OH SHIT PETKOV WINS BY SHEER GIRTH which is to say the shoulder-hold/arm-triangle of kata-gatame executed to the wrong side but it didn't matter because of the girth we discussed only moments ago, a huge win for a huge man at 3:32. And so it is down to Petkov and the ineffable Hiromitsu Kanehara!
There is kind of a size difference!
But it's no big deal because of the inherent glory of 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame:
These are all really very short matches! And it really does seem unlikely that this format will produce any great ones! But I kind of like it anyway! Because it's neat!
Also I should note that I looked through hundreds of discs/tapes in the basement and couldn't find the UFC Brazil show (aka UFC 17.5) where Tsuyoshi Kohsaka defeated Pete(y My Heart) Williams just before this, which is probably more a reflection of the poverty of my filing system (everything goes kind of in here) than of whether or not I have it (though it seems unlikely it would not number amongst the hundreds of martial arts shows and compilations I have down there, it is I suppose possible). I have failed you and I am sorry; but were I to stoop to subscribing to UFC Fight Pass I would have failed myself.
WHAT DID DAVE MELTZER SAY:
October 5, 1998:
Dave breaks it down (to the bone gristle? no but that is a very good lyric on Liquid Swords, I am sure we agree on that) in response to a reader's query regarding terminology:
"DM: Lucha Libre in English would be translated as "Free Fighting." It has become the Spanish word for pro wrestling. When I was a kid and they had WWWF wrestling or Los Angeles wrestling on the local spanish station, it was both referred to as Lucha Libre even though it was American style wrestling and now the style we'd refer to today as Lucha Libre, the Mexican rhythmic dance style wrestling. The Portuguese term Luta Livre, which also means free fight, has basically become the term in that language and in Brazil for an offshoot of UFC style fighting. And the term free fighting itself in Holland is the term for RINGS style fighting."
October 12, 1998:
RINGS is the lead story! Guess why!
"The man who many, if not most, wrestling experts believe to be the greatest wrestler that has ever lived and many in his native country believe to be the greatest athlete alive has signed to take the plunge into the pro wrestling world according to a press conference on 10/6 in Japan.
Alexander "The Experiment" Karelin, the Russian Greco-roman superheavyweight who has won an unprecedented 11 consecutive world championships, was announced by RINGS President Akira Maeda as being his opponent on a big show in mid-February, most likely at the Tokyo Dome. Karelin broke the record set by another legendary Russian, freestyle superheavyweight Alexander Medved who wrestled in the 60s and early 70s and captured ten world titles.
According to Maeda, who called Karelin the toughest fighter in the world and compared his record and his credentials favorably to Rickson Gracie, he said he'd been trying to get Karelin early in the year but talks fell apart. He said they tried to make contact for Karelin to come to the show when RINGS promoted on 4/25 in Russia but it also didn't happen. He said they had continued to pursue Karelin through their Russian RINGS contacts and that he had signed a contract for the match last week.
The announcement was held off until just five days before the KRS Tokyo Dome show with Rickson Gracie vs. Nobuhiko Takada, the timing of which certainly was no coincidence as it was an attempt for Maeda to steal the spotlight. Karelin, 31, captured Olympic gold medals in 1988, 1992 and 1996 along with every world championship since and in between, and is the favorite to make it four golds in 2000. He's been undefeated in wrestling since the 1987 world championships where he as a 19-year-old lost to the eventual winner. He's been the top rated superheavyweight in Greco-roman on the national team since the age of 17, captured his first European championship at 18 in 1986, and since that time has won all ten other European championship tournaments that he's entered.
Many different pro wrestling companies, fighting organizations and several NFL football teams over the years have attempted to sign him, particularly after his second Olympic title where he looked like the most physically dominant athlete in the world as he destroyed everyone in competition, including WWF, New Japan, UFC and RINGS. RINGS has been talking the most seriously about it on and off for the past several months, as Maeda was looking for an opponent for a major retirement match. Maeda had his retirement show on 7/20 in Yokohama, but at the time left the door open for one major match of this magnitude. In 1988, Karelin came to Japan and appeared in a New Japan ring for an exhibition during a pro wrestling card at Tokyo Sumo Hall throwing Hiroshi Hase around the ring, however, when the Soviets sent several former amateur champions into pro wrestling starting out at the first show ever at the Tokyo Dome (which from an official standpoint would have been the first Soviet athletes ever to go into Western professional sports), due to Russia's economic collapse, they kept Karelin off that team. Maeda's announcement is that rules would still be determined, he insisted the match would be a shoot (of course even if it won't be, and if it will be it will be probably the first ever for Maeda, he has to say that). He said the rules haven't been determine but the match would be two five minute rounds (which in RINGS vernacular indicates it'll be a shoot) and if there is no submission or knockout, that they would go into another five minute overtime.
While Karelin is the premier Greco-roman wrestler in the world, and most would say the greatest ever, no matter what your specialty, when taken out of your specialty, you become only human. For example, if Karelin faced a world freestyle champion under freestyle rules, the odds are that he would lose because he's playing somebody elses game. Of course Maeda, 39, while a Hall of Fame pro wrestler, is not a world class fighter in any way except for his contrived pro wrestling reputation and would be long since past his prime since he hasn't kept himself in shape even if he at one time had been. If and when this match actually takes place, Karelin would join a very small group of Olympic gold medalists in wrestling that went on to pro wrestling.
Maeda put the knock on Gracie's contrived 400-0 claimed fighting record, noting that Karelin, who has more than 300 wins without a loss over the past 12 years in going against exclusively world-class competition, is legitimately the most impressive verifiable real record of any athlete in a combat type of sport.
Kurt Angle, who signed in August with the World Wrestling Federation, who captured a gold in freestyle at 220 in the 1996 games, is attempting to make pro wrestling a full-time career. Historically, the most successful of those was Henri DeGlane, who captured a gold medal in 1924 representing France, and later migrated to Montreal where he was a headliner and captured a version of the World heavyweight title in the famed 1931 "Battle of the Bite" match beating Strangler Lewis via DQ in Montreal one of pro wrestling's most famous double-cross finishes in history. Danny Hodge would have been however he captured a very controversial silver medal in 1956 before becoming the dominant junior heavyweight in the pro wrestling world from 1960-1976 when he was forced to retire due to a broken neck from an auto accident. The list of other Olympic gold medalists that have turned to pro wrestling is short, among them being David Gobedjichvili, who captured two freestyle gold medals as a superheavyweight and did one pro wrestling match in Japan, losing via submission to Minoru Suzuki at the Tokyo Dome in 1990 for the old Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi promotion; Wilfred Dietrich of Germany, the 1960 gold medalist in Greco-roman as a superheavyweight who is legendary for being the only wrestler ever to medal in five different Olympics (1956-1972) best known in the U.S. for his giving 420-pound Chris Taylor an overhead belly-to-belly suplex in Olympic competition in 1972, who went pro briefly in Europe for the Catch Wrestling Association in the late 70s and had a famous match with Antonio Inoki; and Americans Robin Reed (134) and Russell Vis (145) in 1924 and Pete Mehringer (191.5) in 1932, all of whom briefly tried pro wrestling in the U.S. but were never major stars. Kevin Jackson in 1992 (181), Kenny Monday in 1988 (163) and Mark Schultz in 1984 (181) captured Olympic gold medals and all fought in either the UFC or Extreme Fighting in recent years."
RINGS is all over the lead Pride 4 report:
"In what was the lead story in several sports newspapers the next morning in Japan, a pro wrestler scored one of the biggest upsets in the history of mixed martial arts beating one of the myths of the sport on the Pride Four show on 10/11 at the Tokyo Dome.
But it wasn't Nobuhiko Takada beating Rickson Gracie. Little known indie wrestler Alexander Otsuka, a 195-pounder from the small Battlarts organization, seemingly put in the ring to be a quick jobber for legendary Brazilian former UFC tournament champion Marco Ruas, some 20:00 later, made himself a major name when a very bloody and completely exhausted Ruas told his corner and the referee that he couldn't continue after the end of the second ten minute round. He had been exhausted, was reportedly turning a shade of purple, and just hanging on and taking a real pounding for several minutes. After the match, Ruas, considered by Brazilians for years as the top Luta Livre style fighter around, was literally crying in his corner when the realization set in that he had quit in a match for the first time in a nearly two decade long fighting career. This was, while nowhere near as newsworthy, every bit as big an upset as when Buster Douglas beat Mike Tyson in the same building nine years earlier.
Gracie beat Takada again before an estimated crowd of 30,000 (announced attendance was 36,354 but that was an inflated figure) pro-Takada fans and a live gate estimated in the $3 million range, which with the exception of New Japan and All Japans shows in the same building would be the largest live gate of the year anywhere in the world for a house drawn by a pro wrestler since he was the draw on the show. Gracie had more trouble than the first time but still put away Takada with an armbar in 9:30. The match was one year to the day in the same building of their first meeting, which Gracie won in just 4:47 and which drew a crowd of about 36,000, although both crowds were somewhat papered. Kakutogi Revolution Spirits (KRS), the promoters, didn't announce a return date at the show which started a lot of rumors that this would either be their last show, or their last undertaking at an event of this magnitude. After the show there were a lot of hints of a return show for February using Royce Gracie's long-awaited Japanese debut and his first pro fight in nearly four years as the main event. It was said to have been overall the best KRS show to date.
Gracie vs. Takada was covered as the lead sports story on news reports with video clips of the match appearing on four of the five networks. More than 200 reporters from around the world covered the match which must be some sort of a record for MMA.
There was expected to be a lot of pressure on Gracie to put Takada over since it would make the most sense for business, both Vale Tudo and pro wrestling business, to create interest in a third meeting between the two. A win over Gracie in one night would not just salvage Takada's damaged reputation, but in one fell swoop make him the biggest pro wrestling star in Japan and a national hero. Obviously in Gracie's world, pride means more than financial pressure and you have to credit him for that pride, as selling out to the same pro wrestling that his father hated back in the 50s would not just be selling out his own reputation and art form, but the family reputation as well. Gracie claimed that despite rumors to the contrary, he has a match-by-match deal with KRS and is not under contract for any return appearances, nor did he publicly even hint at retirement after the show. Takada issued a challenge after the match for a third meeting, but Gracie turned it down saying there was nothing left to prove. He's played this game well up to this point from a business standpoint as he's the highest paid fighter in the game commanding upwards of $250,000 per appearance while maintaining his integrity up to this point in that he hasn't done any works or jobs yet. At the same time, he's also been able to maintain a mythical status while at the same time never getting into the ring with a top-class opponent at least in the last five years since the NHB movement took off in the U.S. and Japan. And yet, because of his name and reputation and despite not having beaten anyone of significance in years, he is the person that all the top fighters challenge. Takada was thought to have no chance to win in a straight shoot, but was "given" a win in a worked match on the previous KRS show to help build up this showdown. If a finish could have been manipulated for him to win, Takada likely could have parlayed the win into perhaps another huge gate for a third meeting and also for another run of stadium shows for New Japan and/or other companies against the top pro stars as he did in New Japan's record setting 1995-96 season. New Japan was hoping for a Takada win, which again explains the business incentives that could have been there for Gracie to lose, including a probable 1/4 Tokyo Dome main event slot against Shinya Hashimoto and perhaps another IWGP title reign since New Japan still "owes" Takada a win over Hashimoto from a 1996 interpromotional deal. Takada did get some offense in, so his reputation as a shooter wasn't totally destroyed by the loss as it was in the aftermath of the first match. Takada threw punches and knees at Gracie into the corner, took him down and got the mount on him and threw blows from the top. When Takada tried for a leg submission, Gracie was able to reverse and mount him and throw a series of punches to the stomach to soften him up for a quick position change into the armbar and the ref immediately stopped the match. Because Takada got some offense in, the crowd at least had something to cheer about and it was generally considered from a standpoint of the crowd of almost exclusively pro wrestling fans to be a good match and not another Takada funeral.
Exactly what this means for Takada's pro wrestling future is unclear. The best fit for him at this point would seem to be working for the UFO promotion, Antonio Inoki's new group built around former MMA competitors to become the New Japan interpromotional rivals down the road. UFO has already signed up several fighters who had worked for the Kingdom group and its rules and product are expected to be similar as well, which Takada actually never worked for but had a loose affiliation with as the successor to Takada's own defunct UWFI office. Inoki is building that company largely around the colorless former judo champion Naoya Ogawa and desperately needs some people with box office marquee value. Even though Takada is past his prime as a pro wrestler as well, he was at one time one of the best workers in the business and had a believable style and a tremendous track record of drawing when given the right opponent that would fit into what UFO and Inoki are trying to get over. Perhaps UFO can give him some wins over its stable of former MMA stars and give him a feud with Don Frye (where to revitalize his career he'd need to get the first win) that would somewhat rehabilitate his name at least to the pro wrestling crowd. There is always All Japan, but the two sides never came close on money a few years back when a move to All Japan seemed to be the best for both sides, and All Japan has always been reluctant to put "outsiders" over its top stars and therefore would squander the long-term potential of the new match-ups a new headliner from the outside would create.
Hashimoto, who was in Tokyo for the New Japan Korakuen Hall show that was taking place at the same time at the building next door, left Korakuen Hall after his match for the Tokyo Dome and watched the final two matches on the show. The plan was for Hashimoto to challenge Takada should he win the match. As things turned out, Hashimoto offered a challenge to both Gracie and Takada to reporters after the show.
And for the 27-year-old Otsuka, it's too early to tell. He may wind up just being a trivia item for the future as a pro wrestling Buster Douglas whose entire life can be summed up by his 15 minutes of fame. A three-year pro, Otsuka has worked for numerous indies and done shoot matches in RINGS where he lost to their preliminary guys so this upset is probably a lot more of an indication that Ruas, who is said to be 38 but it probably close to 40, was either highly overrated to begin with or age has caught up with him, than Otsuka being a world beater. In that sense, over the long haul, this may mean no more than when Yoshiki Takahashi became the first Japanese to beat a name Brazilian under UFC rules when he beat Wallid Ismail in 1997. It was a big deal at the time, but that was more of a measure at how MMA had evolved past the days of Brazilian being years ahead of the game and dominating and of how far the top Japanese fighters, like the Americans, have improved in a very short period of time. It was not, as time has shown, that Takahashi didn't become a world-beater or new superstar, as he lost his very next fight in Pancrase and since that time he's remained as a mid-level fighter and whatever popularity he gained from the win was short-lived. To show just how little of a chance it was thought Otsuka was going to have against Ruas, whose only prior loss in MMA was via a decision to Oleg Taktarov at the first Ultimate Ultimate (a loss he somewhat avenged in pounding Taktarov for 30:00 in a return match in Brazil that was technically a draw due to having no judges but where generally everyone conceded Ruas clearly won) unlike virtually all fighters who curtail outside activities and train specifically for their fight for the last several weeks, Otsuka was still not only working regularly as a pro wrestler but as recently as six days before the fight worked the Battlarts Korakuen Hall show in the third match of a seven match show, where he hardly took it easy despite having a real fight a few days away doing moves like topes and a lot of dangerous brawling spots. In addition, that morning before the show, Otsuka was part of the ring crew so he was doing physical work the very morning of his big fight. Otsuka wasn't even considered as one of the top stars in the Battlarts promotion as the main pushed guys have been Yuki Ishikawa, Minoru Tanaka and Daisuke Ikeda. In 1997, he was put over as the winner of the Battlarts Young Generation Battle tournament.
Otsuka, whose real name is Takashi Otsuka, will be put in a tag match teaming with Mohammad Yone against the Road Warriors when the latter team returns to Japan after a several year absence on the 11/23 Battlarts show at Sumo Hall. The original plan for Battlarts was to put Daisuke Ikeda & Jinsei Shinzaki in as the tag team to face the WWF's LOD 2000, who were super drawing cards a decade ago in Japan and will mean something as an attraction for their return as a nostalgia act, just as Bob Backlund did at Korakuen Hall on 10/5. Even though Otsuka was basically a mid-card guy with an independent-level promotion, for whatever reason, he did have some cult popularity for the past year or so with the Japanese gay community and had finished higher than you'd think in a magazine popularity poll of the Japanese wrestlers.
In the days following the event, the Battlarts promotion received tons of phone calls from fans all over the country to congratulate Otsuka for the win. In a press interview on 10/13, Otsuka, apparently recognizing his own limitations, said that he would never fight UFC style again. He said that he was a pro wrestler and felt he was representing the pro wrestling community and he just wanted to show that pro wrestlers could do it. He said he was interested in beating big name pro wrestlers like the Road Warriors as opposed to martial arts fighters and that if Ruas was interested in a rematch, it would have to be on a Battlarts show.
There appears to be a major promotional rivalry right now between KRS and RINGS. Apparently RINGS and WOWOW had booked the Tokyo Dome on 9/14 with the idea of headlining with a Rickson Gracie vs. Akira Maeda match, however Gracie instead signed with KRS for a return match with Takada leaving RINGS without a big show for this year. RINGS, in retaliation, was able to make the deal with Alexander Karelin and made the announcement of it only a few days before this show to attempt to steal some of its thunder. It now appears KRS is going to plan a major show in February, which not so coincidentally is the same time the Maeda-Karelin match is scheduled.
The show also featured a retirement ceremony for pro wrestler Koji Kitao, who did one worked match in this promotion's initial show, and who ended his career as a pro wrestler a few months back. Best known as Futuhaguro, the youngest sumo Grand Champion ever, Kitao was then booted out of the sport for disciplinary reasons, and went on to become a major flop as a pro wrestler. They had been doing an angle where Shinobu Kandori, the current WWWA and LLPW womens champion who was a world ranked judo star in the 80s, was training with Kitao, who is 6-7 and 385 pounds, for her octagon cage match the previous night at Sumo Hall against 6-3, 330-pound 1988 Olympic judo medalist Svetlana Gundarenko of Russia. Gundarenko captured the 1995 L-1 tournament, a shoot tournament similar to the original UFCs, with women, beating Kandori in the finals and this was their first rematch. On the womens octagon cage show which drew an estimated crowd of 5,000 (announced figure was 7,824), Kandori "avenged" the loss as Gundarenko, although it was not only a worked match, but a badly worked one at that. It was the only worked match on the L-1 show. Gundarenko was said to have been larger and had less mobility than three years ago. The finish of the match was to a front guillotine choke in 4:08. In regards to what appeared to be shoot or work, the feeling from those there were that Kandori-Gundarenko was the only worked match on either show.
A complete Tokyo Dome show rundown:
1. Igor Vovchanchin (23-1) defeated much larger Gary Goodridge (9-7) in 5:58 when the ref stopped the match. The match was all on its feet and somewhat slow until Vovchanchin caught Goodridge in the corner and began pounding on him.
2. Akira Shoji (3-1-3) defeated Wallid Ismail (7-2) in 11:26. Ismail was able to dominate early using wrestling techniques, but eventually tired and took a lot of hard shots before the ref stopped it. There were some who considered this a quick stoppage although Ismail was out of gas. With this win, they are trying to set Shoji up for a rematch with Renzo Gracie, as the two had a 30:00 draw last year and had their been judges, Shoji should have gotten the decision.
3. Shunsuke Matsui (0-0-2) drew with Sanae Kikuta (0-1-1) over 30:00. Matsui is a pro wrestler under Takada's banner. This match according to most reports was said to have put the crowd to sleep.
4. Kazushi Sakuraba (3-0-1) drew with Allan Goes (3-1-1) over 30:00. Sakuraba is another pro wrestler under Takada who is so highly respected as a shooter in MMA that he's ranked second in the world behind Frank Shamrock in the under-200 pound weight class by Fighting Sports News. We've heard a variety of live reports on this match. Apparently it was considered a good match among the hardcore fans because both are skilled guys, but the largely pro wrestling audience live considered it boring and there were a lot of boos for the match, particularly when Goes would simply drop to his back to avoid stand-up confrontations. We've also heard a mixed bag when it comes to who would have won the fight had their been judges. There are reports of each man dominating the fight, and of it also being too close to call. Goes apparently scored some good take downs but Sakuraba defended him well. Others considered Goes laying on his back for several minutes and refusing to get up as a sign that Sakuraba would have had to have won a decision claiming he was in control 75% of the match. Sakuraba was bleeding badly from the ear and also from the face, which Goes supporters would use as a reason to say that he won the fight. Goes was limping badly after the fight from repeated leg kicks.
5. Satoshi Honma (1-0) beat Yuhi Sano (0-2) in 9:25 when the ref stopped the fight. Sano is another pro wrestler under Takada, who is best known in pro wrestling for his series of 1990 classics when he feuded with Jushin Liger over the IWGP jr. heavyweight title. Honma, about 200-pounds, with a karate background, was a strong fighter standing up, and gave Sano a real pounding before the ref stopped the match after strikes from the mount.
6. Otsuka (Takashi Otsuka) (1-0) beat Ruas (7-2-1) when Ruas told his corner to throw in the towel after the end of the second round. This was generally considered as the best match on the show and the crowd went nuts, as you could imagine, when the match was stopped. Ruas had Otsuka in a rear naked choke just as the first round was ending and it appeared Otsuka was saved by the bell. Ruas, who had done more power training than ever before with the likes of Kerr, ran out of gas and took a lot of punishment in the second round.
7. Mark Kerr (10-0) defeated Hugo Duarte (5-2) in 22:32 when the ref stopped the match after Duarte had taken a real beating and left the ring. Kerr was just too powerful and dominated the fight, bloodying Duarte up badly. Duarte spent most of the match trying to protect his eye which had a sliver cut, and didn't do much of anything on offense. After the match Kerr challenged Gracie. Among the people in Kerr's corner for the fight were Bas Rutten and noted pro wrestling agent Barry Bloom.
8. Gracie (9-0) defeated Takada (0-2) in 9:30 with an armbar submission."
and
"Some notes on Alexander Karelin, who makes his debut as a pro wrestler in February for RINGS. While there is some debate regarding this label, Karelin is generally considered as the greatest amateur wrestler of all-time due to his winning 11 consecutive world titles, which is a record. A clarification of Karelin's only known loss, which was a 3-2 loss in 1986 when he was 19 and facing the 29-year-old world champion. There are no official records of his career, so this figure, while given to me by reliable sources, is only an estimate but the belief is his record is around 450-1. There is a Japanese amateur wrestler named Osamu Watanabe who had an international record of 186-0 and legend has it never lost a wrestling match on any level of competition who is the other name people mention as the greatest of all-time, but Watanabe retired after winning three world titles and one gold medal so his time at the top wasn't as long. RINGS ran another show in Gruziya of the former Soviet empire on 10/11 headlined by Bitsadze Tariel of Gruziya against Hans Nyman"
October 26, 1998:
Kohsaka of course figures prominently in the UFC Brazil report:
"From the brink of extinction, can the Ultimate Fighting Championships start a comeback with a home base in Brazil?
From most accounts live of the first show held on 10/16 before a sellout crowd of 8,500 (which apparently was the loudest crowd live in the history of UFC) at the Ginasio de Portuguesa in Sao Paolo, Brazil, the third largest city in the world (behind Tokyo and Mexico City), perhaps the momentum has finally switched. On the broadcast, UFC officials were talking about doing nine PPV shows next year, and privately the talk was that perhaps as many as seven of those would take place overseas, mainly in Brazil and perhaps also back to Japan. The next show was announced for 1/15 in Birmingham, AL and UFC officials at the show were saying that they expected to be approved starting the next show to return to PPV in Canada through Viewers Choice-Canada. VC-Canada had canceled airing UFC shows in 1996 after political turmoil in Quebec caused by an Extreme Fighting Championship show held on an Indian reservation against the wishes of the government which resulted in the Quebec government arresting fighters and promoters. At the time Canada was the strongest market for UFC as it had in the glory days done as many as 60,000 buys in Canada alone, which by itself with the buys from dish owners in the U.S. would be enough for survival. But that figure was at UFC's mainstream peak in 1995 and realistically they would be very fortunate in January to do one-third of that. Even with Canada added to the very limited cable penetration and the dish universe in the U.S., UFC still won't appear to have enough exposure to be profitable based on PPV alone, so it would appear to need rights fees being paid by foreign promoters, such as the reported five show deal in negotiation with Globosport TV in Brazil, to continue on without wallowing in red ink at least until a cable turnaround in the United States.
With the new rule book just about finalized, the next big move will likely be an attempt to get regulated in Nevada, the most influential state as far as Athletic Commissions go, in the U.S. Regulation in Nevada may be more political in nature than anything else. Marc Ratner, who heads the commission, is not anti-UFC, although he and Sen. John McCain of Arizona were the anti-UFC forces years ago in a televised debate against Ken Shamrock and SEG President Bob Meyrowitz on the Larry King show. Previously Ratner (who has been busy of late with the much higher profile Mike Tyson reinstatement decision) had noted that Nevada rules specify fighting events have to take place in a ring, so the octagon fighting venue would be a violation of rules. In addition, Ratner is tight politically with McCain, and the Governor of Nevada has also publicly come out against UFC. Whether Nevada regulation would cause TCI Cable to change its tune on carrying the show, at which point it would likely be a formality that Viewers Choice and many of the major companies with the exception of Time Warner (which pulled out over the New York Times created controversy and isn't likely to rescind its ban) and perhaps Cablevision (which was the first major company to stop carriage) would follow suit is another question. TCI head Leo Hindery, a staunch foe of UFC from the start, had used the lack of commission regulation as its reason for not carrying the show, although the fact is recent shows in both Louisiana and Mississippi have already been regulated by local boxing or athletic commissions and still weren't carried.
So while the real fights are being held outside the ring, UFC Brazil contained some good real fights inside it as well. Frank Shamrock became the single most decorated fighter in UFC history, capturing his fourth championship belt as he retained the middleweight title in the main event, giving the only man who had ever beaten him in the MMA world, John Lober, a sound thrashing. With a rep as a ground submission specialist, this was a different Shamrock as he demonstrated more standing fighting skill than ever before during his four-year career. Shamrock had been tied with Dan Severn, Mark Coleman and Royce Gracie, each of whom had captured three UFC belts in their careers. The show set up a natural title match with Shamrock defending against Brazilian native Vitor Belfort, who destroyed Vanderlei Silva in just 45 seconds with his patented piston-like punching prowess, which, had UFC still had full cable exposure, would probably me the single biggest UFC match as far as interest and intrigue since all the interest in 1996 for a match that wound up never happening between Mark Coleman vs. Belfort when both were unbeaten and looking to be invincible. And a native star was created in Pedro Rizzo, who knocked out UFC's most charismatic fighter, the out-of-shape version of Tank Abbott, who with his showing seemingly appeared that the evolution of UFC loaded with younger, more skilled and more versatile fighters, had passed him and most of the first generation of stars by.
It was also announced at the beginning of the show that Randy Couture had been stripped of the heavyweight title. Couture, who won the title in December in Japan from Maurice Smith, will have gone through the year 1998 without a title defense, first missing a defense due to a rib injury, and his planned title match with Bas Rutten on this show fell through due to financial belt tightening. Couture was under contract for a specified deal for title matches, and SEG told him they were unable due to all their financial problems, to live up to the deal. Couture instead signed to fight on 10/25 in Tokyo for Shooto against Enson Inoue. Shamrock was also working for less than his contracted agreement, but agreed to the lower amount for the chance to avenge his loss to Lober. Even with the limited budget, the show consisted of six matches all involving ranked quality fighters. While not exactly detailed in discussion, they talked vaguely about a "road to the heavyweight title," which apparently will consist of two singles matches on the 1/15 show, with the most talked about pairings being Tsuyoshi Kohsaka vs. Bas Rutten and Mark Coleman vs. Pedro Rizzo, with the winners meeting in a title match in March. Kohsaka vs. Rutten, if it should take place, has major political ramifications in Japan because it would be one of the top fighters from RINGS, and arguably the best or second best, against one of the top fighters from Pancrase, and arguably the single best, in basically an interpromotional type shoot match between organizations that have in the past had very legitimate bad blood and probably still do today to a lesser extent on neutral grounds. There is an even bigger problem, as if Rutten and Rizzo win, then UFC is really checkmated as the two are good friends and won't fight each other. The feeling going in was that Abbott would beat Rizzo, therefore that wasn't going to be a problem. There has also been talk of putting Tom Erikson in the Coleman spot, if only because stylistically, Rizzo has similar strengths as Pete Williams, who knocked out Coleman. Rutten was at the show and did color commentary, although he actually didn't say a whole lot, during the early matches.
There were minor transmission problems from Brazil on the PPV. The sound went out a few times and there were picture break-ups. The announcers did a good job, hitting all the important points and strategies. For whatever reason, Jeff Blatnick was never referred to as UFC commissioner or head of the Mixed Martial Arts Council as his official title reads. There were two minor rule changes on this show. No kicking was allowed with shoes on, which is a Brazilian national law. UFC rules allow kicking with a certain kind of show. Also, they were even more specific in limiting grabbing the fence.
1. Ebenezer Fontes Braga (7-3) beat Jeremy Horn (9-4-3) in 3:28. Braga is from Rio de Janiero, and has previous losses to Dan Severn and Kevin Randelman. Horn, who held Severn to a 20:00 draw and was ahead on judges cards before submitting in 16:30 to Frank Shamrock at the last UFC, never got untracked here. Most of the match was standing, and Braga is the better striker. As Horn went for a takedown, he left his neck open and Braga grabbed a front guillotine and really cranked it in an ugly manner for the tap out.
2. Kohsaka (2-0) beat Pete Williams (4-1) via a split decision after 12:00 regulation and 3:00 overtime. It was announced by ring announcer Bruce Buffer as a unanimous decision, but that was actually incorrect as the Brazilian judge voted for Williams. From a technical standpoint, this was the best match on the show. Once again this also showed that nobody watches UFC for technical brilliance as the fans booed this match, actually chanted the Portuguese word for "fake" at the two because neither would hit the other on the ground until late in overtime since the two are friends and in the past have been training partners. When they were on the ground both only worked for submissions. Williams used his reach to dominate the standing portion of the match, while Kohsaka dominated the ground portion and to me clearly should have won the decision. Williams connected with a few punches and some nice high kicks early, one of which bloodied up Kohsaka's nose. Kohsaka came back with a beautiful judo hip toss takedown. Kohsaka kept going for various types of armlocks, including straight armbars and keylocks but Williams, who has unbelievable flexibility, never appeared to be close to tapping. At the 7:00 mark, Kohsaka had his best chance and had the arm bent 15 degrees past the normal breaking point, and asked ref John McCarthy to stop the match because he didn't want to break Williams arm. McCarthy didn't, and Williams escaped. He tried it again and eventually Williams got to his feet where they traded a few punches and high kicks. Williams got behind Kohsaka and got him in a mount, but Kohsaka reversed. Fans were booing when Kohsaka wouldn't punch from the mount. In the overtime, they traded until Kohsaka took him down. Williams finally escaped and landed a strong high kick right at the buzzer and the two hugged. This would have been a great match in Japan but since Brazilians are highly nationalistic and there was no Brazilian in the match, and they were fighting a technical match, it didn't get over live.
3. Pat Miletich (23-1-2) beat Mikey Burnett (1-1) via a split decision after 15:00 and two 3:00 overtimes to become the first UFC lightweight (under-170) champion. This was a long boring match. Like in boxing, they do weigh-ins one day in advance allowing guys to deplete water to make a weight class, then eat and drink and Miletich actually made 169, but some say weighed as much as 185 when he got in the ring the next day so he was considerably larger than Burnett. While it's standard operating procedure in the fight game (in the recent Chavez vs. de la Hoya fight, even though they fought in the same weight class and their weights as weigh-in were only three pounds apart, when they went in the ring de la Hoya was 18 pounds heavier), it would be fairer to do weigh-ins two hours before match time. Problem is if a fighter then doesn't make weight, he has no time to sweat it off which is why the one day ahead became the standard in most sports although I believe in college wrestling is either has changed or there are strong movements to change it as recent studies have shown in wrestling, and I'm sure this would be the same in fighting, that 72% of the time, the heavier man when they go into battle wins the match. Most of the match saw Miletich, who did a tremendous job defensively but did little offensively, crowd Burnett and hold his trunks so Burnett couldn't get distance to throw. Burnett reacted by holding Miletich's trunks and they were giving each other wedgies and knees and it looked almost sumo style most of the way. When they were on the mat, Miletich held Burnett in a guard with neither coming close to doing anything major. Just before the end of regulation, with both holding each others' trunks, Burnett threw three knees that landed near the groin area. Miletich complained about the third one and Burnett was assessed a penalty point which turned out to be the difference. The first overtime was more of the same and at this point the fight was even. In the second overtime, Burnett, still crowded, started throwing elbows to Miletich's back and some knees and actually got a near guillotine just as the buzzer ended. Due to the penalty point, two of the three judges gave it to Miletich. I'd have given it to Burnett and he did win the second overtime and I've heard nobody say that if it wasn't for the penalty point that Miletich still would have won, but it was so close and there was the penalty point so I can't say it was a bad decision. This decision has been heavily criticized across the boards. Burnett pretty much walked away in disgust when it was announced. But it was a very disappointing match. Miletich is a very classy fighter, as he really put Burnett over in his interview talking about his amazing strength and that he deserved the belt and then issued a challenge to Shamrock. However, as proficient as he is and as great a record as he has, with his only loss via a controversial stoppage when he broke his nose in a match with Matt Hume, Miletich's fighting style isn't very exciting as his greatest skill is his ability to neutralize the strengths of his opponent. Burnett certainly should be entitled to a rematch, but with Miletich's style, it may not be any more exciting than the first.
4. Pedro Rizzo (7-0) beat Tank Abbott (David Abbott) (8-7) via knockout in 8:07. Abbott was announced at 268 pounds, and whatever his real weight was, he was out of shape, particularly compared to his last appearance. He seemingly knew it as he went out and tried to hit the home run. Rizzo, who is a skilled standing fighter, made Abbott look amateurish as he was able to avoid his lunging haymakers and was nailing him with counterpunches. Abbott was decked in the first 30 seconds and blown up within 40 seconds. He still moved forward and kept throwing, and to an extent, Rizzo actually seemed intimidated by his reputation and respected his power. Even when he tired about and was stationary and couldn't even keep his gloves up, Rizzo wouldn't press for the kill. Abbott hit him with a punch that re-opened a cut underneath Rizzo's eye. Abbott was getting picked apart, but managed a takedown and held Rizzo down, hoping for a second wind. McCarthy ordered a stand-up, largely to check on the cut under Rizzo's eye which wasn't dangerous. When the match re-started, Abbott still couldn't even hold his gloves up he was so blown and Rizzo was pounding him with leg kicks to set up a second knockdown. Abbott managed to get up, but Rizzo was easily nailing the almost stationary target with more leg kicks before nailing him with a punch to the nose that knocked Abbott out. I don't know how, but I do know that somehow Abbott and his supporters will explain that once again even though he got knocked out in a one-sided fight, he's supposedly still never gotten his ass kicked. Abbott was super over in his debut in Brazil, and the crowd heat was amazing as they all sensed Rizzo winning and were chanting his name in the closing minutes and there was a total celebration all over the building when Abbott went out. It was a really exciting match. Rizzo dedicated his win to Marco Ruas, who had suffered the crushing defeat last week in Japan.
5. Vitor Belfort (6-1) beat Vanderlei Silva (8-2) in 45 seconds. This was scary, as many people had Silva as the favorite, and even as late as the day before the show there was some question as to whether or not Belfort would back out of the match. Belfort, trimmed to 199 after fighting at 224 in his loss in 1996 to Couture, had regained his quickness, explosiveness and uncanny accuracy. Belfort threw 15 powerful punches to Silva's head, almost all of which connected, in something like ten seconds and it was over. Silva was the real deal, as he went into the fight with an 8-1 record and his only loss was in September 1997 to Artur Mariano in Brazil in what was described as possibly the most gruesome fight in MMA history that he was getting the better of before it was stopped in Mariano's favor because Silva was badly bleeding. The crowd went nuts for Belfort, who is originally from Rio de Janiero, and was considered the biggest drawing card on the show. Belfort did a really good babyface style interview challenging Shamrock for a title match and they again talked about Belfort wanting to represent Brazil in boxing at the 2000 Olympics.
6. Shamrock (5-1) beat Lober (3-2-1) in 7:40. Shamrock appeared with a totally different disposition, more of a cold, emotionless killer as opposed to his normal sportsman persona. He threw a hard leg kick that Lober just missed catching the foot and immediately a red target was placed on Lober's hamstring. Lober caught the foot the second time and had Shamrock's leg but still wasn't able to take him down. Shamrock caught him in a guillotine and actually lifted him up off his feet with the move. Lober tried to use a Northern Lights suplex to escape but Shamrock blocked the suplex, but Lober landed on top. Shamrock had him in a guard. Lober did manage two elbows under the eye before Shamrock rolled him and actually backed off, letting Lober get to his feet, which in a sense was a surprise since Shamrock is a ground specialist. Lober had noticeably tired by this point and his leg already had the bullseye on it from the earlier kicks. Shamrock kept kicking the hamstring and decked Lober with a punch. Shamrock didn't attack Lober on the ground and waited for him to get up. This apparently was in response to a pre-match interview where Lober talked of his prediction for the fight that he would knock Shamrock down, let him get up to punish him some more and then continually knock him down again. Shamrock went in for the kill standing, knocking Lober down a second time with a knee to the chin and then started throwing punches on him while he was on the ground, opening up a large cut on Lober's forehead that eventually needed six stitches. Shamrock then maneuvered Lober's head right by the cage post and used his head against Lober's chin to bend his head, locked into position by the post, into a terrible angle and Lober tapped out. This was also a very exciting match. Shamrock did a pretty good interview after the match as well, saying he was ready to accept all challenges."
November 2, 1998:
"10/23 Nagoya Aiichi Gym (RINGS - 4,550): Masayuki Naruse b Yasuhito Namekawa, Hanse Nyman b Sergei Susserov, Ilioukhine Mikhail b Nyman, Dick Vrij b Mikhail, Volk Han b Vrij, Joop Kasteel b Han, Kiyoshi Tamura b Vladimir Klmentiev, Wataru Sakata b Todor Todorov, Yoshihisa Yamamoto b Boris Jeliazkov, Dimitar Petkov b Yamamoto, Hiromitsu Kanehara b Petkov. OTHER JAPAN NOTES: RINGS opened its Battle Dimension tournament on 10/23 in Nagoya before a hugely disappointing crowd of 4,550 in the 9,000-seat arena. It's pretty clear going to the team format instead of the individual format isn't what people want. The way they do the team deal is an old New Japan gimmick from the early 80s. Each team picks a batting order of sorts, and matches continue with the winners advancing until one team has nobody left and that team is the loser. All matches have ten minute time limits (with a draw, both men are eliminated) and the first point (knockdown or rope break) loses. On the show was Netherlands beating Russia A and Japan A beating Bulgaria. In the former, Netherlands opened with Hanse Nyman knocking out Sergei Susserov, but then Ilioukhine Mikhail of Russia beat Nyman with an ankle lock. Dick Vrij then knocked out Mikhail in 2:50, but Volk Han ankle locked Vrij. This left each team with one member, and Joop Kasteel won it for Netherlands when he knocked Han out. The other match-up saw Wataru Sakata beat Todor Todorov, but it did him no good because Sakata was "injured" so badly he couldn't continue. Yoshihisa Yamamoto beat Boris Jeliazkov, but Dimitar Petkov beat Yamamoto leaving Petkov vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara and Kanehara won for Japan with an armbar in 4:55. If you notice in every case, every winning wrestler lost his next match so the story being told is that the fresh wrestler almost always beats the guy who just wrestled and thus, nobody is really hurt losing to the fresh guy. In a non-tournament match, Kiyoshi Tamura beat Vladmir Klementiev in 7:51 with an armbar
It now appears that the Akira Maeda vs. Alexander Karelin match in February will take place at Yokohama Arena as opposed to the Tokyo Dome. They are also attempting to bring Karelin in for a tune-up match on the January Budokan Hall show before facing Maeda
It was announced that Takada Dojo would be joining Pancrase for the 12/19 Pancrase PPV from Tokyo Bay NK Hall. This immediately led to lots of printed speculation about a Masakatsu Funaki vs. Nobuhiko Takada main event, which would be a huge draw. Word we get is that it'll probably be Kazushi Sakuraba and Shunsuke Matsui from Takada's group but not Takada, who earned $200,000 for the last two matches with Rickson Gracie and the price he'd demand is way out of Pancrase's ballpark. They are looking at bringing in a major MMA star to face Funaki. Pancrase sold out Korakuen Hall on 10/26 with 2,100 with Funaki losing via decision to Kiuma Kunioku in the main event and Keiichiro Yamamiya also scoring an upset winning the decision over Jason DeLucia. In a really sad story, Minoru Suzuki, one of the founders of the group and at one-time one of the top submission guys around but has taken far too much punishment and needs to get out, lost in just 45 seconds to Omar Bouiche with a choke, who last year he beat in a matter of seconds. Even though Pancrase is sport fighting as opposed to UFC which allows face punching and punching on the ground, people who have done both will say that Pancrase is a physically tougher sport partially due to the schedule and nobody in Pancrase is going to have a lengthy career at the top as we're seeing. But what is sad is that both Funaki and Suzuki, who were along with Ken Shamrock, the best of the first generation stars, not that they are now losing but that both were knocked out and took terrible punishment on the PPV show on 9/14, and both were back fighting on 10/26."
Dave
gets
tape
of the previous RINGS
and Pride 4:
"JAPANESE TELEVISION RUNDOWN
9/21 RINGS: 1. Yasuhito Namekawa beat Ryuki Ueyama by a 2-0 score after 15:00. This was a shoot, mostly standing and a good aggressive match. Ueyama was making his pro debut. Namekawa dominated, scoring points on rope breaks at 3:10 and 6:13 using front guillotine chokes to win the decision when time expired; 2. Lee Hasdell beat Kenichi Yamamoto via knockout in 10:56. This was also a shoot and a hard hitting good match. Hasdell was the better standing fighter and kept the match on its feet, being bigger by 21 pounds and more powerful. Hasdell was pummeling Yamamoto in the corner with blows. He knocked him down with a closed fist punch to the eye, which is totally illegal and it was so flagrant they called it a two-point red card foul. They did a lot of trading of open hands standing, and Hasdell started working the ribs. Yamamoto finally took him down at 6:00 but they rolled into the ropes causing a stand-up. This happened again. Finally Yamamoto connected with a hard shot to the face, but Hasdell responded with four counters to the head and Yamamoto went out; 3. Wataru Sakata beat Christopher Hazemann in 12:21 when Hazemann ran out of points. I believe this was the final show with the old rules allowing a lot of points (five allowable in this match) which means this style of real good worked matches with all the near submissions and knockdowns is going out the window. Too bad. This was a tremendous match, because it was worked but it looked so real and was very well done. Hazemann may be the most underrated worker in the business. They were trading points, usually with submissions by Sakata although Hazemann had a knockdown, with Sakata up 5-3. Hazemann was cut under the eye and his eyes were swelling from all the open handed blows to the face as there were a lot of good shots delivered. Sakata was nailing Hazemann, down to his last point, with blow after blow and even though this was a work spot, it was amazing to see Hazemann stand up because he was taking hard shots to the face. Hazemann caught a desperation knee to knock Sakata down and tie it 5-5. With each down to their last point, they were trading open hands until Hazemann was stunned, although this on the replay did look like a "sell" which is just about the only thing that didn't look like a shoot in the match, and he was out of points. ***1/2; 4. Hiromitsu Kanehara beat Willie Peeters in 6:57. While Kiyoshi Tamura is the best worker in the promotion (and probably the world for that matter) for his ability to work a great pro style match within the bounds of reality, Kanehara may be the best worker around for the ability to actually make a worked match look totally real. His match last year with Kazushi Sakuraba in Kingdom remains the all-time classic as being impossible to tell a work from a shoot. Much of the match was standing and both threw a lot of kicks and slaps and weren't holding anything back, and the mat work was quick and legit. If it wasn't for the fact Peeters wasn't getting mad as he does in real shoots, and because they did so many points in such a short period of time, it might be impossible to tell. Some of the points were a little weak, like when Peeters grabbed the ropes to avoid going down and was called for a point to put Kanehara up 4-1. The "real" Peeters would have gone crazy at that call. Actually, he never would have grabbed the ropes in the first place because based on the rules it was the right call, and if it was a shoot he'd have probably fouled Kanehara a million times and Kanehara would have choked the crap out of him. Peeters got two points with chokes to close it to 4-3 before Kanehara caught him with a choke in the middle of the ring for the tap out. **1/2; 5. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka beat Ilioukhine Mikhail in 12:00. This match was clearly a work from the start, unlike the previous two matches, but it was a great technical ground match. Kohsaka did this flying triangle right at the bell which looked spectacular. They mainly exchanged submissions on the mat with a wide variety of moves and holds. At one point Mikhail hit a Northern Lights suplex, but on being slammed, Kohsaka caught him in a triangle armbar. Match was tied 3-3 when Kohsaka put on a front guillotine and Mikhail didn't tap, but the ref stopped it. Mikhail, when let loose, sold the move huge as if he was choked so bad he was about to vomit. There's no truth to the rumor before this match he was forced to watch five episodes of Thunder without a break. ***1/4; 6. Kiyoshi Tamura beat Yoshihisa Yamamoto in 18:52. With the exception of the Tamura-Kohsaka classic, this was the best worked RINGS match of the year. Tamura was wearing his magic shoes because he was just unbelievable and this match pretty well convinced me he's even better than Chris Benoit, and every other active pro wrestler, as a worker. Yamamoto is one of his best opponents. Because they had a 30:00 time limit, they were given ten points (don't ask) so it was again the old stipulations which allowed this to be a classic, and considering just how good this entire card was (the best show of the year for RINGS and with the exception of the New Japan G-1 shows which were off the charts for this year, as good as any card I can come up with), I think changing the rules and trying to do more shoots is a mistake. These guys have gotten so good it's very difficult to tell their works from their shoots, and in Tamura's case, when you can tell, it doesn't matter because the works are so much more entertaining matches. Yamamoto dominated early, going up 5-0 in the first 11:21 with three rope break submissions and a knockdown. The difference between this and the previous good matches on the show is the standing and matwork were awesome, whereas in the Hazemann match, the standing was great and in the Kohsaka match, it was the matwork that was great. Tamura scored a knockdown and near fall to close it to 5-3, but Yamamoto got a choke to make it 6-3. Tamura nailed a high kick to the head, which he'd been teasing the entire match, and Yamamoto went down to make it 6-5, but Yamamoto came back with body blows to make it 8-5. Tamura got a kneebar in the middle but Yamamoto, in dramatic fashion, struggled all the way to the ropes for the break. Tamura scored a strong kick to the chest and grabbed a front guillotine for the tap out. ****1/4
10/11 KRS PRIDE FOUR: This was largely reported as the best KRS show to date, but it would still be a thumbs down PPV, which makes four in a row from this company. The major difference between KRS, which seems to have good match-ups on paper but bad matches in the ring, and UFC, which has generally been having great shows over the past year, is a few major problems. The oversized boxing ring seems to allow for more stalling than an octagon, although this is the smallest of the problems. Having no judges decisions leads to fighters stalling for a draw knowing as long as they survive it's not the dreaded loss, and gives no incentive for being aggressive. Having no stand-ups when the action is at a snails pace on the ground, while less artificial, also allows for sitting in the guard and waiting, making for boring spectator fights. And no rule banning a fighter from laying on his back for extended periods, as there is in UFC because a stand-up would be ordered, compounds the earlier stalling problems. One thing they do different than I see as a minor positive, in that it treats the event more like a sports contest as opposed to a television show, is that in KRS, when there is a stoppage, the time clock automatically stops. In UFC, sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't. It doesn't seem to be a uniform rule. As a PPV event, this show lasted five hours and 18 minutes. I've seen some house shows that long that were really good, but as a general rule, that is way too long. By the time it's over, you feel like you deserve a medal for watching it rather than it being a show that is entertaining. 1. Igor Vovchanchin beat Gary Goodridge in 5:51. Goodridge came out like he was in a cell and separated the bars to get out. Thought I was having 1990 WCW Return of Robocop flashbacks. Goodridge threw him down but was caught in the guard. Vovchanchin got hit and got a bad cut over his right eye. Most of the match saw Goodridge on top in the guard. Vovchanchin made it to his feet and they traded punches. Goodridge was momentarily stunned by a punch and staggered into the corner but had already regained his bearings when the ref stopped the fight. The stoppage was ridiculously early and just about nobody could believe it was over. Since pretty well nothing happened and the finish was bad, it was a real bad fight; 2. Akira Shoji beat Wallid Ismail in 1:27 of the second round. Shoji blocked Ismail's attempted takedowns early but eventually was taken down but got the guard. Shoji took a flurry of punches at 6:30 and Ismail then got a mount and threw punches, cutting Shoji under his left eye. After some more punches, Shoji reversed him and got up, but Ismail took him down again with an ankle pick and remained on top until the end of the round. Ismail had lost his stamina just about completely when the second round started as he was getting rocked with punches and didn't even attempt take downs. Shoji caught him with a series of unanswered punches and the ref stopped the fight. The stoppage may have been premature, but at best it was only one or two punches early and those punches were coming and Ismail was done. Better one punch early than one punch late. Match was fair; 3. Shunsuke Matsui and Sanae Kikuta went to a three round draw. A very even, 30:00 dull fight. All three rounds were very even with one or the other holding guard and no telling blows or near submissions. I'd say Matsui slightly won the first round. Matsui suffered a slight bloody nose in the second round which I'd give to Kikuta. Third round saw Kikuta on top but Matsui, who appeared to be in better condition, throwing more blows from the bottom. He turned him in 5:35 and from the top was punching Kikuta's ear. Fans booed the closing moments because nobody ever got anyone in trouble. I'd give the third round to Matsui and if you couldn't vote for a draw, then he was the slight winner. Both worked hard for 30:00 but it was a boring spectator fight. It was the kind of match that would put normal fans to sleep; 4. Kazushi Sakuraba drew Allan Goes over three rounds. This was a really weird fight to judge, and remember, with no judges, that does change the strategy as neither were fighting to impress to win, knowing they had a draw if they could just last. Goes had Sakuraba in trouble more often than Sakuraba had Goes in trouble, so by that standard you could say he should have gotten a decision. However, Goes was stalling laying on his back for much of the fight, so he was totally unaggressive and not trying to win, but just to survive so in that sense Sakuraba probably should have won. However, it was an effective defensive technique and as long as it's legal, even though it isn't crowd pleasing or an attempt to win, Sakuraba couldn't figure out what to do and his skills were largely neutralized. They had a hot first 2:00 before Goes just laid on his back until the 5:00 mark. Sakuraba was already bleeding from the ear by this point. When Sakuraba got another advantage and backed off to let Goes back to his feet, Goes again laid on his back. From that position, Goes tripped him up, got his back and nearly got a choke but Sakuraba reversed him again. Sakuraba by this point got a kick to the face which bloodied his nose. Goes then went to his back again. Goes took him down with an ankle pick but Sakuraba nearly got a triangle. Goes went for a choke but got reversed. First round to Goes. In the second round, Goes threw some punches to the face and Sakuraba's nose was bleeding from a second cut. Sakuraba was holding guard but Goes passed it and got his back, and went for a choke but was reversed at 4:00. Sakuraba nearly got an armbar. Sakuraba went to his feet at 6:30 and Goes just laid on his back again, stalling until the end of the round. This round goes to Sakuraba. Sakuraba was tiring and Goes got on top to start the third round. He got another near choke but Sakuraba escaped and got the top. Sakuraba got up and Goes again laid on his back for almost three minutes. Goes got up, Sakuraba took him down and Goes again laid there and wouldn't get up as the crowd booed. Third round could have gone either way, but it was clear at the end Goes was stalling for the draw and Sakuraba was wanting to fight for the win, but Goes accomplished what he set out to do. Sakuraba left giving the body and facial impression that he felt disgraced by his performance. Because Goes spent so much of the match stalling on his back, this was another boring spectator fight overall but when they were fighting both were technically real good; 5. Satoshi Honma beat Yuhi Sano in 9:24. In the film clips before this match, they showed Sano performing as a pro wrestler which looked so weird on a shoot show. Honma came out to Giant Baba's entrance music so you can see who he grew up watching. One-sided brutality as Sano was a real good pro wrestler, but he's not much of a shooter. Honma decked him with a punch in 30 seconds. Sano took him down but Honma got away and connected with some punches. Sano was first bleeding from the mouth. After Honma connected with punches and knees, Sano wound up with two different cuts above the left eye and one below it. Honma kept tagging him and Sano was soon bleeding from the nose as well. Soon Sano was cut from the right eye. Honma kept tagging him and Sano was covered in blood and with all the different cuts it was like a sick comedy. The doctor checked Sano and allowed him to continue. Lucky him. Honma was taking him apart with his kicks and knees to the head. Honma finally chopped him down with a leg kick and pounced on him throwing blow after blow from the mount. In this case the ref was a little late on the stoppage. It was a total massacre; 6. Alexander Otsuka beat Marco Ruas when Ruas decided he couldn't continue after the second round in one of the biggest upsets in combat sports history. It was so funny to see them show clips of Otsuka also doing pro wrestling, and having Tiger Mask (Michinoku version), in gimmick, as his second. Ruas had Bas Rutten as his second. In commentary they mentioned that Otsuka took the pro wrestling first name Alexander naming himself after Alexander Karelin. Otsuka got a big pop coming out. Forget rumors that Ruas was on steroids and blew up because of it. No way he was on steroids. Ruas went for a choke right away but Otsuka got on top. Otsuka wanted a stand-up but Ruas also laid on his back. Otsuka was kicking his leg while he laid on his back and Ruas was trying to trap him by the ankle for a submission but Otsuka escaped and got on top. Ruas went for an armlock but Otsuka escaped. Ruas reversed, got the mount and started punching him in the face. Otsuka turned to avoid the blows and Ruas went for a choke, but Otsuka protected his neck so it was more like a facelock, and the bell rang to end the round. Otsuka had a bloody nose and a bloody lip by this point. Ruas was noticeably tired when the second round got going, and hung by the ropes to stall for a second wind and avoid a takedown. Otsuka finally took him down at 4:40 and threw a lot of punches to the face and nose, and small chopping punches. Ruas was cut under the left eye. Otsuka threw two more punches and Ruas was bleeding bad from the right eye. Crowd was going nuts and Otsuka got aggressive and was tagging him. Ruas was totally out of gas in the waning moments of the round and he staggered to his corner and decided to end the fight. Naturally the place went nuts when Ruas quit. In a show of great sportsmanship, Otsuka got on his knees and bowed before Ruas. Best match of the show; 7. Mark Kerr beat Hugo Duarte in 2:32 of the third round. More of the same. Fight consisted of two positions. Kerr taking Duarte down and being caught in the guard. Or Kerr standing wanting Duarte to fight on his feet and Duarte, like Goes and Ruas, laying on his back. He laid on his back most of the first round. Duarte had a cut on the cheek. In the second round, Duarte suffered a big cut under the right eye. The doctor checked but allowed him to continue. Kerr was on top and accidentally head-butted him and was given a warning. Kerr stood up. Duarte laid there. Kerr jumped on him and got a few shots in before Duarte could get the guard on. Kerr got up and Duarte again laid on his back until the end of the round. When the third round started, Duarte simply fell to his back. Crowd was booing like crazy. It was just enough of that tactic for one night. Kerr walked to the other side of the ring waiting for him to stand and he wouldn't move. Ref ordered him to stand. At first he wouldn't, then he got up and immediately fell back down. At this point Kerr jumped on him and got a few shots in again before he could get guard. Duarte then pulled himself out of the ring. It looked like he was just going to quit but he came back. Kerr threw several more punches and Duarte again got out of the ring and the ref had enough and stopped the fight. It was as bad as it sounds. Poor Kerr. Every fight he's had in Japan has been a total cluster and none have been his fault; 8. Rickson Gracie beat Nobuhiko Takada in 9:30. This was a competitive good match. Takada looked so much more confident going to the ring this year as compared with last when he walked in like he was attending his own funeral. The first 6:00 were largely both on their feet struggling in a collar-and-elbow type lock-up. Takada broke free and hit a knee and a punch and Gracie countered with a punch of his own. Takada backed him to the corner where both stood and traded short knees. Takada delivered two good knees and momentarily got him down but before he could control him, Gracie was back to his feet. Gracie had a real worried look on his face as this was clearly not as easily as he expected. Takada took him down at 6:25 but Gracie got guard. Gracie from the bottom was ear punching. Takada went for a leglock and got revered. Gracie mounted him and threw punches. Takada went for a heel hook but Gracie escaped, mounted, and quickly got the armbar. Even though he lost, Takada left looking really pleased with his performance. He knew that this year, even thought the result was the same, the result really was entirely different. The Emperor of shooting style pro wrestling really was wearing nice clothes when he left the ring this year."
November 9, 1998:
"Mitsuya Nagai, formerly of RINGS, was knocked out in the first round by a Giant from South Africa."
and
Dave
gets
tape
of this very RINGS:
"10/23 RINGS: This was the first round of the Battle Dimension tournament, and as I feared, this team deal and new point system for tournament matches is a total flop. It was a really bad show, every bit as bad as the worst U.S. PPV events [no I don't think that--ed]. Fans don't care about the tournament at all and the matches weren't good. Usually in RINGS the worked matches are better than the shoots, but this was an all-work show and there wasn't one good match; 1. Masayuki Naruse beat Yasuhito Namekawa in 4:50 with a shoulderlock. It was Namekawa's first worked match since Naruse was Namekawa's teacher. Naruse in the post-match interview said that Namekawa was the brightest new hope in the entire pro wrestling industry. Okay for what it was. *; 2. Holland (Hans Nyman, Dick Vrij and Joop Kasteel) beat Russia A (Sergei Sousserov, Ilioukhine Mikhail and Volk Han) in something of an upset. The rules were you could get one knockdown or one submission but on the second one, you were out. It made for a lot of weak finishes. Nyman beat Sousserov with a knee to the solar plexus in 2:59. Bad. Mikhail beat Nyman with an ankle lock in 2:54. Mikhail did a few cool moves on the ground but it was too short to build anything. Vrij beat Mikhail in 2:50 with a knee to the chin. Real bad. Han beat Vrij with an ankle lock in 2:01. Han got nailed with a really stiff kick to the face and wasn't feeling too good. Kasteel beat Han in 2:21. Han kept going down from leg kicks that were ruled as slips and finally went down for a match ending second knockdown on a kick to the stomach that missed. Just awful. After the match, Kasteel said that it was time for Han to retire. Han is 37 and it's been noticeable all year that he's on the decline but it was never more noticeable than this match [please note Volk Han goes the distance in a shoot with young Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira two and a half years after this--ed.]; 3. Kiyoshi Tamura beat Vladimir Klementiev in 7:51. This was not one of Tamura's stellar performances. Klementiev is really bad at this, for one. He's like 6-4 1/2 and 257 so he made Tamura look like a midget at 5-9 1/2 and 193. Actually Tamura usually works good because he plays the underdog so well, in this situation, but since nobody believed for a second Klementiev had a chance, it was this giant clumsy jobber against a star who was selling to try and put him over and it wasn't working. Klementiev got two knockdowns early, while Tamura got a few submissions. Highlight was Tamura getting him in an armbar and Klementiev made a nice escape the first time, but when he was back in the move a second time, the ref stopped it. *; 4. Japan A (Wataru Sakata, Yoshihisa Yamamoto and Hiromitsu Kanehara) beat Bulgaria (Todor Todorov, Boris Jeliaskov and Dimitar Petkov). Sakata got a choke in the middle on Todorov in 5:14 in a so-so match, but Sakata's low back went out during the match and he couldn't continue either. Yamamoto beat Jeliaskov in 6:01 in a decent match with a bad looking finish. Basically Jeliaskov ran right into a palm blow, kind of a Jushin Liger looking finish but he sold it goofy and it really looked bad on the replay. Petkov, who is 6-3, 334, and looked like a monster next to Yamamoto, overpowered him, hit a belly-to-belly (real rare to see suplexes in RINGS nowadays) and got a necklock submission in 3:32. This left a "tired" giant against 206-pound Kanehara. As a story it was good since Kanehara looked like a well-conditioned mini against a Gulliver-like monster who was blown up. The drama was there in the story, but the fans weren't all that into it and Petkov wound up tapping to an armbar in the middle in 4:58."
Not a big fan of the dantaisen 団体戦 format then, is he! And yet we press on. I will see you then! Thank you once again for your time!
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