December 23, 1998 in Fukuoka, Japan
International Center drawing 5,500
SAY WHAT YOU WILL OF THE SO-FAR-KIND-OF-DISASTROUS KACHINUKISEN DANTAISEN KNOCKOUT-TEAM-CONTEST FORMAT OF THIS YEAR'S WORLD MEGA-BATTLE TOURNAMENT but it brought us an excellent time-limit draw between Tsuyoshi Kohsaka and Nikolai Zouev in the final match of the previous show. Does this redeem it? No I guess probably not, but that really was a great match! This Semi-Finals show is prefaced, like the previous few have been, by the build towards 前田 日明 vs. Александр Александрович Карелин which is what happens on your screen when you cut-and-paste the names of Akira Maeda and Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Karelin in their mother tongues. Isn't that a neat image, above, that says MOSCOW on it? Another query: am I wrong to think this is the first time we have been given a RINGS Official Ranking in a few months? Here we have it now, though: 10. Kopilov 9. Zouev 8. Naruse 7. Nijman 6. Vrij 5. Kasteel 4. Han 3. Ilioukhine 2. Kohsaka 1. Tamura and our Champion remains very much Bitsadze Tariel.
It seems we are headed right into the Holland vs. Japan "A" semi-final without any of the fanfare or ceremony that we have borne witness to in the tournament's two first-round shows, as Dick Vrij and Wataru Sakata are at it at once. Also it seems like this is a five-point bout? Gone are the two-point strictures of the first round? These rules are all over the place! Five minutes into this laying-heavy bout, Sakata is ahead by a single point on an early Vrij rope-break. And there's another, as Vrij is charged with one for hooking an arm over the top rope to prevent a takedown. He loses two more as he escapes first one naked strangle of hadaka-jime and then another; this is kind of a rout. Vrij has been a great big græppling dummy, for the most part. There used to be semi-regular threads on martial arts message boards (perhaps their still are, but I do not frequent them really now) where people would either be asking about making their own græppling dummies or posting pics of the græppling dummies they had made and I clicked on every one of them I ever saw, no question, but not because I have ever had any real desire to construct or to cause to have constructed a græppling dummy; it just seems weird? And yet there is an intrigue to it, or I wouldn't have so oft clicked, would I have. Why isn't Dick Vrij doing anything but grabbing ropes, though? This strange contest ends at 12:29 when Vrij grabs them a fifth and final time as an ashi-gatame leg-lock threatens. This was odd!
Hans Nijman (R.I.P.) is the next huge foe to be met by HIROMITSU KANEHARA whom all admire. So, the previous match went longer than the ten-minute time-limit we had so far had in this tournament, and went to a maximum of five points rather than two, and the winner (Sakata) does not stick around to face the next fighter on the other team's roster, so it's all different now, I guess; forget everything you thought you knew about this particular dantaisen. Hans Nijman knocks Kanehara down a couple times in the first three minutes, and kicks him awfully hard and awfully in-the-face for what remains, despite the many other changes we have already discussed, a shoot-style tournament. Kanehara triumphs by juji-gatame at 9:04 of a pretty good match but Nijman hung out way too long in a fully-extended arm-lock before tapping, for my taste, but then again is it not incumbent upon Kanehara to raise his hips a little to finish it more quickly if he sees Nijman just hanging around down there? I think I would argue that it is. I read an interview (or maybe heard one?) with Shinsuke Nakamura once (remember that guy? he used to be good?) where he was asked about creating realism in his bouts and he said that something he found worked very well was that, for just a little while, he would physically resist and shut down everything his opponent was trying to do in order to help his opponent get into the state of mind most conducive to the best wrestling, which is to say, to make him actually fight for things a little. This is maybe not directly relevant to what we were just talking about but I think relevance is a spectrum.
Masayuki Naruse and Joop Kasteel are well underway as I try to remember the details of the Nakamura anecdote better than I am able (it wasn't even all that long ago that I read or heard it, so I really should have more). It's a pretty good match with tonnes of knockdowns but I think it ends prematurely (ah but premature . . . for whom?) when Naruse drops low for a takedown just as Kasteel fires in a heavy kick that catches Narusse really hard on the hand and he's not thrilled about it. First the referee has a look at Naruse's hand before the doctor (at least I think he's a doctor) does the same and that's it, the match is called at 8:33 due, I think, to a legitimate injury, which is probably a better shoot-style ending than whatever they had booked? That's a pretty serious question, maybe. Japan "A" then would seem to have won two out of the three contests in this tournament semi-final match, if that is even what we're still doing.
It is as new to me every time I see how Kiyoshi Tamura ties off the corner of his U-FILE CAMP shirt so that it hugs his (obviously very beautiful) form all the more snugly as though he were a lady in the summer. You can already tell that this is my position but I will say again clearly and for all to hear that I support this waza completely:
His opponent, the often excellent Kenichi Yamamoto, has totally switched up his look in that he has shaved his head as bare as referee Ryogaku Wada's (yesssss his naaaaame):
Come to think of it, I think it has been kind of a lot of Ryogaku Wada lately. Where's Yuji Shimada? Has he already left for PRIDE? I have all the early PRIDE shows in my disordered box or ran-hako 乱箱 (that is almost certainly not idiomatic Japanese) and could totally check to see if he is on them but perhaps instead we will just speculate about things. I have chosen the middle-patch, actually, of skimming a Youtube highlight of PRIDE FC 1 and I don't see any Yuji Shimada, but do you know who I think I might see? I think it might be Ryogaku Wada! So I well and truly have no idea what's going on in the world of high-level Japanese kakutogi refereeing as we approach the end of 1998 but as a certified Provincial-C judo referee myself (this is I am pretty sure the lowest level of certification, unless something has changed, and I have not refereed a match outside of my own club in probably eight years) I really should be on top of such matters. Yamamoto comes out firing hard palm-strikes but is countered with an uki-waza floating hip throw as though this were the first movement in the second set of nage-no-kata, am I right fellow judo-kata-bare-minimum-knowledge-havers? (I am working with a friend to get better at nage-no-kata right now; please support us in this.) Yamamoto is a Tamura-esque shoot-stylist to the extent that what he prizes most, it would seem, is super-fast positional transition. I am not suggesting he is as good at these as Kiyoshi Tamura, but I will definitely say he is good at them too in his own way! This one settles into a kind of low-key excellence after its early dynamism: there are rope breaks, there are knockdowns, but none of them feel all that urgent (not a criticism here; it's weird) and as we approach the ten-minute mark Yamamoto has lost three points, Tamura two, and everything feels good and right? The end comes rather anticlimactically on a half-hearted knockdown that costs Yamamoto his final points at 11:26, but on the whole this match was nothing short of "entirely pleasant."
AND NOW WE RETURN ONCE MORE TO SEMI-FINALRY as Nikolai Zouev takes to the mat first for Russia "B" to face Bitsadze Ameran of Georgia and I am quite sure from the explanatory graphic that this bout, unlike the earlier semi-final, will be contested under kachinukisen "knock-out" or "winner-stays" format, and so I am utterly adrift here. But why not embrace the mystery? Ameran, like his compatriot also named Bitsadze, is well and truly a man of kyokushin, a man of karate, and while he has little to offer on the ground, he more than makes up for this (æsthetically, at least) by the profoundly karate way he looms over a downed opponent with one fist drawn back at his waist; it's so great. It is, however, no answer for submission fighting proper, and Ameran in short order (4:01) is driven to the rope twice in search of reprieve and so that is it for him under this format. Everybody look out though because Grom Zaza is next! I had kind of forgotten about Grom Zaza for a minute there! How did I do that! Under normal RINGS circumstances a Nikolai Zouev vs. Grom Zaza encounter would be cause for great anticipation and ultimately, I think, merriment, but it is less likely to offer either given the structural limitations imposed upon it by arbitrary and capricious authority (Akira Maeda [please nobody tell him I said that]). But Zouev's ten-minute time-limit draw against Kohsaka under the very same restrictions was excellent! So who can say! Except that Zouev has tapped out to hadaka-jime in a mere 2:28 that. And so, then, the pretty great Andrei Kopilov. They are locked in a deep clinch and quite a battle for the opening takedown before Andrei Kopilov secures the kosoto-gake (minor outer hook); what a great bit of struggle that was. As fine as the groundwork (why didn't I just say ne-waza? we all know what that means now; there is even a shabby jiu-jitsu "lifestyle brand" [the ghastliest notion yet devised] that bears that name) is throughout this solid little match, the struggles for takedowns are what really distinguish it; that, and the admirably weird crucifix-armlock (a form of ashi-gatame from the jigoku or "hell" position) that compels Zaza to reach for a rope break with no points remaining, which is tantamount to yielding for ippon:
I am pretty sure the commentator just used the term "poker face" to describe Bitsadze Tariel's aspect as he enters the ring to face Andrei Kopilov, and if that is indeed what I heard I would say that is an apt description and excellent use of loan-words. Tariel, who is still, you will recall, RINGS Heavyweight Champion (let us never stop rejecting that title, but never because Bitsadze Tariel is himself unworthy of this unworthy thing), makes fairly short work of Kopilov, knocking him out (not for real, don't worry) in no more than 2:18, setting the stage for a Tariel vs. Vladimir Klementiev karate battle for all the RINGSmarbles. And a fine karate battle it is, as they pretty much pound the shit out of each other (forgive me this vulgarity but kyokushin karate is possessed of a certain earthiness of ethos, would you not agree?) before Tariel ends the bout by crude hadaka-jime (naked strangle) at 5:17.
Well this continues to be less than their best work, this RINGS World Mega-Battle Tournament 1998, but let us reflect for a moment, if we may, on the many gifts granted us by 1998 RINGS more broadly, not the least of which was arguably (I would certainly argue it! I have! at excessive length!) the finest shoot-style match ever achieved (TK/Tamura 6/27/98, for anyone joining us for the first time). And really a tonne of other great stuff too. So let us not allow this strange end to the year darken our perception of its totality any more than must be. WOWOW ends with ads for the Roman Polanski Macbeth, When We Were Kings, the X-Files (oh no, the movie), Champions League Football, and all kinds of things that position it as a truly premium cable experience in late 1998.
WHAT DID DAVE MELTZER SAY:
December 14, 1998:
"RINGS has the semifinals of its Battle Dimension tournament on 12/23 in Fukuoka with Georgia (of the former Soviet Republic as opposed to Georgia of the Willie Nelson song) vs. Russia B and Japan A vs. Holland. Not sure how the latter team will work because Yoshihisa Yamamoto suffered a hernia and is out of action, so don't know if they'll replace him on the team but believe it'll be Masayuki Naruse, who was part of the losing Japan B team. They also have a non-tournament match with Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kenichi Yamamoto which if given time, could be a classic. Akira Maeda is going to Russia from 12/10 to 12/16 to put the finishing touches on the Alexander Karelin deal and finalize the rules the match will be under."
December 21, 1998:
"RINGS contacted Frank Shamrock about doing a match against Kiyoshi Tamura, most likely for the 2/21 Yokohama Arena show as the semifinal for the Akira Maeda vs. Alexander Karelin match. Maeda returned from Russia on 12/16 after meeting with Karelin and said the two were unable to come to an agreement regarding the rules for their match. He said that Karelin would come to Japan in January, so he may do a tune-up match on the 1/23 Budokan Hall show, to further their rules negotiations."
and
"Even though PPV companies in Los Angeles won't air UFC because of brutality, Ch. 22 in Los Angeles is now airing from 9:30 to 11 p.m. every Friday night Vale Tudo or pro wrestling shows from around the world, including Vale Tudo from Russia, Brazil, United States and Japan and even RINGS from Japan and Holland."
and, in response to Steve Yohe's recent letter, a reader writes:
"TAMURA-OVEREEM
I have to disagree with Steve Yohe's comments on the Valentijn Overeem vs. Kiyoshi Tamura match from April. In front of their third largest crowd of the year, 7,000 fans were left absolutely stunned and discombobulated by what they witnessed. They didn't see a competitive shoot match in any sense of the word. What they did see was a one-sided destruction of who they perceived as one of the best fighters in the world. I personally didn't notice any kind of competition in the match. What I saw was a shocked Tamura getting caught in a choke within 20 seconds and seeing him totally shocked as he had no idea how he got caught in one awesome guillotine. You could tell Tamura was totally at a loss for what to do after being caught in the second choke about 2:50 into the match. He had this look on his face I will never forget, like a deer in the headlights. I honestly believe he had no idea what to do with him. Overeem beat him at every turn, including, and probably most surprising to all, in submissions. Tamura wasn't competitive with Overeem at any point. This was definitely the match that changed the course of the company.
Notice after this match attendance went from sellout shows to half-houses like the May show where Tamura lost the title to Bitsazade Tariel. I don't think the match with Tariel killed him, because Tariel had some credibility based on all the years he had spent with the company. Overeem came in with no fanfare, of being just another striker from Holland who wouldn't know the ground game and that's where Tamura would exploit him. But he knew the ground game and in doing so destroyed all of the momentum that RINGS had built up since the acquisition of Tamura in 1996.
It's interesting since Overeem's dominating clear-cut win that he hasn't been brought back to RINGS. I wonder who decided not to bring him back? I would have enjoyed RINGS a lot more this year had Overeem continued to fight with this group. It made perfect sense to build for he and Tamura to meet this year in a rematch at the Battle Dimension tournament finals. But RINGS decided to go with the tournament killing idea of teams, and we know how that one is turning out.
I loved reading Bas Rutten's response to those who say his Pancrase match with Masakatsu Funaki was worked. While he wrote in broken English, I still loved the way he got his point across in his own unique way. He doesn't pull any punches, and that's what was great about his letter.
Many expect Rutten to run through Tsuyoshi Kohsaka in his UFC debut in January. Rutten is my all-time favorite fighter, but I think him running through Kohsaka is the farthest thing from the truth. He would have had an easier time with Randy Couture then he will with Kohsaka. Kirk Jensen, Maurice Smith's manager, said that Frank Shamrock couldn't even get Kohsaka to tap. I don't think John Perretti or SEG realizes they've put Rutten's potential huge box office potential in jeopardy by making this his debut match. Kohsaka is as versatile on the ground as any fighter in MMA. The longer the match goes, the more it will favor TK because of his unbelievable stamina. Hopefully for SEG, Rutten will win because if PPV opens up, they need a big drawing card, especially with the prospect of Frank Shamrock not appearing. I imagine this will be a big deal in Japan as it's only the second Pancrase vs. RINGS match (Frank Shamrock vs. TK being the first).
If you haven't been watching Pancrase, you've been missing the development of the next generation of future MMA stars. Semmy Schiltt has such awesome potential that it's scary. His reach and the fact he has learned how to use it makes him a very dangerous opponent. Kengo Watanabe has the potential to be, along with Yuki Kondo, the next Funaki and Suzuki of the group. He actually dwarfed Rutten in their match, and he looked very imposing, but he needs a lot of training. He ran right at Rutten, which was dumb, because it was like running right into a freight train. That probably has to do with him being trained by Yoshiki Takahashi, who has always loved that wild style of fighting. The 9/14 PPV show, while not the best card of the year, was a very good card and it was way better than their first PPV show.
Jonathan D'Antoni
Bellerose, New York"
What, Bas RUtten wrote a letter? Let me go back and look . . . yes, here it is, November 30, 1998:
"RUTTEN
Every time people are looking to screw with Pancrase. First, the fights are works and everybody knows it. Then the fights are works and only one of the fighters knows it.
This time I heard they were saying when I fought Masakatsu Funaki that Funaki decided to throw the fight because he thought it was a good time for that.
When I fought for the King of Pancrase title, I was already one year undefeated. When I fought Funaki, I was one year and nine months undefeated. This was the best record ever already in Pancrase. Anyone who would beat me would be the man. Before my fight with Funaki, Funaki was also beaten by Frank Shamrock. There was no better time for Funaki to beat me because I was the one who had beaten Frank Shamrock.
The second thing. When did Funaki decide to throw the fight? Before or after he tried to break my knee with that heel hold in his neck. For people who want to see this, look at the 3:30 mark of the fight. This also counts for the people who say this bullshit and never looked at the tape and only repeat what other people say.
After the fight many fighters came to me and asked how it was possible that I didn't tap on the heel hold because Funaki put a lot of pressure on it. He reversed by foot.
Or did Funaki decide to throw the fight after I hit him down for the first time? Just before I hit him I'm on my knees and Funaki wants to kick me in the face. Was that a real kick or did he know that I was going to block it? Or did Funaki decide to throw the fight after I slammed his head back on the canvas and he broke his nose? I don't get it. When did he decide to throw the fight?
Please look at the tape before you start making stupid comments like this. Don't just repeat what other people say. In Holland we call these kind of people sheep, because sheep always do what other sheep do for no reason.
If I tell people that all the fights I lost in Pancrase were works, everyone will repeat this and soon people will believe it. If Funaki was acting, he played a dangerous game with me giving me a heel hook like that. Maybe he knows exactly how my body reacts. I don't know.
For me, all the fights I did were real. I will never put myself down like that and throw a fight because then I'd think of myself as a wimp and I couldn't look at myself in the mirror. Only when everybody knows, like in the WWF, would I do something like that.
I've also heard that people are saying K-1 is fake. They say it's because it isn't possible for there to be so many KO's in K-1. This was a blessing for me because now I know that people really don't know what they are talking about.
By the way, Holyfield threw the fight against Mike Tyson when Tyson bit his ear off, only Tyson didn't know this. Get it?
Bas Rutten
Beverly Hills, California"
Please Bas, don't hurt 'em.
December 28, 1998:
"Sione Latu, who claimed to be the younger brother of WCW wrestler The Barbarian, is in an alternate slot for the next UFC. Latu a few months back fought and lost via submission in about 90 seconds to Tsuyoshi Kohsaka in a shoot match on a RINGS show."
and more from the readers' pages:
"UFC
Thanks for printing my letter and your comments. The standard of competition faced by Royce Gracie, Dan Severn, Don Frye and Mark Coleman was relative for the time. Yes, the standard is higher today because the aforementioned fighters each took the sport up a level and started cross-training. By full NHB rules, I mean matches with no biting and no eye gouging. Full Vale Tudo rules. I fully understand and agree with the need for both time limits and judges decisions. I didn't suggest otherwise. Frank Shamrock's winning streak pales in comparison with Bas Rutten's in Pancrase against the best technical fighters in the world. Shamrock beat Dan Henderson in Contenders and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka in RINGS. I don't see how this has any relevance to UFC as the rules are completely different and I wouldn't consider Henderson or Kohsaka's achievements in MMA anything to write home about. They have won all their UFC matches via judges decisions. While you are critical of Brazilians sitting on their back, how does it differ from fighters in the UFC that sit on their back and rack up points occasionally going for submissions or fighters that wait for stand-ups to rack up their points, or ground and pound merchants? I can only recall one fighter in Pride who sat on his back and did nothing--Hugo Duarte.
It seems that training in Lions Den or The Alliance for a few months makes you a great fighter. That's what I mean by manufactured martial artists. The Brazilians you mentioned have manufactured reputations but are not manufactured martial artists. They have been training in their art for their entire life. I criticize UFC's rule changes because other than Viewers Choice-Canada, not one major PPV carrier has took them back on board, so what is the point? It just seems to alienate fighters and results in more fights going the distance. In Pride Four, two of eight fights went the distance. In UFC Brazil, two of six did. If you compare the past four events for both, UFC has more fights going the distance so your criticism of fighters hanging on for a draw in Pride is irrelevant. If Pride opted for judges decisions after draws, half the fighters wouldn't set foot in the ring.
R. Mehdi
Middlesbrough, England
DM: Full NHB rules limited to no biting and eye gouging doesn't exist anywhere in the world. Even in Brazil, you can't kick with any footwear. Shamrock's winning streak isn't as long as Rutten's, but the quality of competition Rutten beat, while basically all real fighters and nobody that could be called a joke, including some excellent fighters including Shamrock himself, Guy Mezger and Masakatsu Funaki still isn't at the level of the people Shamrock beat as far as their accomplishments within MMA. Based on his being unbeaten actually for almost four years going into UFC, Rutten is very much a proven commodity as a fighter and having so many fights in a row without a loss is exceedingly impressive. But if you don't consider Shamrock's win over Kohsaka relevant because the rules were different, than none of Rutten's wins are relevant because they were all fought under the same rules as the Shamrock-Kohsaka match. Henderson won a tournament with very fast submission wins in Brazil, and won the toughest middleweight tournament in recent MMA history in UFC squeaking out wins in two very tough fights against very good fighters and has never lost an MMA match. Kohsaka is exceedingly well respected by almost all insiders and to this point I only know of two shoot matches he's lost in recent years and he's done a lot of shoots, one to Shamrock, which was on points, and another to Kiyoshi Tamura by submission. There is a huge difference between sitting on your back engaging in combat looking for submissions and reversals, and laying on your back while the opponent is standing or doing so to stall for the time limit to expire. While 25% of the last Pride fights went the distance as compared to 33% in UFC Brazil, UFC had nobody stalling for a draw because doing so would mean a loss. Pride did in two fights (in Duarte's case he didn't accomplish his goal) and the matchmaking in Pride on paper was more lopsided. Realistically Takada vs. Rickson was at least from a booking standpoint a total mismatch even though it turned out more competitive and was a good fight, Sano vs. Honma was a pathetic mismatch, Otsuka vs. Ruas was booked as one but shocked everyone when it turned out Ruas ran out of gas due to an illness and couldn't fight and many thought since Duarte was destroyed by Abbott (albeit using tactics that John McCarthy said in the rules meeting were illegal although according to the rule book they were legal) in seconds, his facing Kerr, far superior to Abbott, was also a mismatch and pretty much turned into a very long mismatch. In UFC Brazil, not one fight was booked on paper as a mismatch going in even though Belfort blew by Silva, Shamrock hammered Lober and an out of condition Abbott was hammered in a match that he was actually booked to win, so of course with more evenly booked matches you'll have matches that go the distance. With the exception of Rickson Gracie, whose greatest skill as a fighter is his business acumen and believe me, that's not a knock, in Pride wouldn't have stepped in the ring if they had judges? Kerr, Duarte, Ruas, Sakuraba, Goes, Ismail and Goodridge had all done so many times either in UFC or other competition."
January 4, 1999:
"12/23 Fukuoka (RINGS - 5,500): Dick Vrij b Wataru Sakata, Hiromitsu Kanehara b Hanse Nyman, Joop Kasteel b Masayuki Naruse, Kiyoshi Tamura b Kenichi Yamamoto, Georgia vs. Russia B: Nikolai Zouev (R) b Bitszade Ameran, Grom Zaza (G) b Zouev, Andrei Kopylov (R) b Zaza, Bitszade Tariel (G) b Kopylov, Tariel (G) b Vladimir Klementiev (Georgia won 3-2 to advance to tournament finals)."
Bas Rutten/Tsuyoshi Kohsaka preview:
"Bas Rutten vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka: From a political standpoint, probably the biggest fight on a UFC show in a long time because it's the first ever Pancrase vs. RINGS fight, on a neutral stage but with different rules. SEG is attempting to market Rutten as the best fighter in the world and his record over the past four years is impressive. In Kohsaka, they may have picked one of the worst possible opponents for him to look impressive against. If they are on their feet, it will be a bad night for Kohsaka. By being able to use a closed fist and kick without pads, Rutten will be far more dangerous under these rules than in the Pancrase rules he dominated in. However, most Rutten matches in Pancrase was spent with the majority of the time on the ground, and that was against men smaller than Kohsaka. If Rutten can't knock him out early, he can be taken down even though Kohsaka isn't a take down artist, but he manages to get his fights to the ground as he did with Pete Williams. Kohsaka is better with positioning and control on the ground, but Rutten is probably better with submissions. Kohsaka also has legendary conditioning if the match goes the distance. There will be a lot of questions about both men answered in this fight, along with bragging rights of two rival promotions. This match could go a lot of different ways and each one would have a different end result. Rutten will go in as the favorite, both because of what he's being hyped as being and because his record speaks volumes, but this result is far from a lock and wouldn't be a major upset if it goes the other way. This is a match which is a much bigger deal in Japan than in the U.S., but that won't lessen the pressure on either man because the match isn't in Japan. The winner of this fight will most likely face the Rizzo-Coleman winner (unless Rizzo and Rutten win, as they won't face each other) on 3/5 to determine the vacant heavyweight championship, and whoever wins this match, will at least go into the 3/5 match from a fans standpoint as the favorite in that match."
January 11, 1998:
Observer Awards!
"BEST PROMOTION
1. NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING (297) 2,801
2. World Wrestling Federation (403) 2,463
3. All Japan Pro Wrestling (41) 1,120
4. Extreme Championship Wrestling (22) 572
5. World Championship Wrestling (12) 428
6. RINGS (35) 305
7. EMLL 107
8. GAEA (2) 88
9. Arsion (1) 69
10. Ultimate Fighting Championships 62
WRESTLER OF THE YEAR
1. STEVE AUSTIN (471) 2,746
2. Mitsuharu Misawa (67) 1,606
3. Kenta Kobashi (73) 1,193
4. Mick Foley (62) 838
5. Rocky Maivia (11) 214
6. Bill Goldberg (1) 196
7. Shinjiro Otani (27) 189
8. Toshiaki Kawada (9) 176
9. Shinya Hashimoto (3) 148
10. Jushin Liger (1) 143
Honorable Mention: Tsuyoshi Kohsaka 143, Kiyoshi Tamura 125, Koji Kanemoto 108
MOST OUTSTANDING WRESTLER
1. KOJI KANEMOTO (149) 1,184
2. Shinjiro Otani (121) 1,175
3. Mitsuharu Misawa (126) 1,109
4. Kenta Kobashi (94) 801
5. Juventud Guerrera (82) 754
6. Kiyoshi Tamura (35) 622
7. Mick Foley (55) 559
8. Jushin Liger (26) 412
9. Jun Akiyama (5) 335
10. Steve Austin (43) 307
Honorable Mention: Chris Jericho 258, Chris Benoit 184, Billy Kidman 168, Toshiaki Kawada 162, X-Pac 149, Rob Van Dam 104, Ultimo Dragon 82, Rocky Maivia 75
BEST TECHNICAL WRESTLER
1. KIYOSHI TAMURA (210) 1,294
2. Shinjiro Otani (176) 1,283
3. Dean Malenko (124) 1,130
4. Chris Benoit (88) 900
5. Koji Kanemoto (53) 635
6. Jushin Liger (51) 432
7. Mitsuharu Misawa (79) 338
8. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (17) 333
9. Jun Akiyama (14) 306
10. Ultimo Dragon (19) 281
Honorable Mention: Volk Han 268, Kendo Ka Shin 198, Bret Hart 169, Juventud Guerrera 128, Chris Jericho 104, Ken Shamrock 100, Owen Hart 87, Dr. Wagner Jr. 86, Billy Kidman 72
MATCH OF THE YEAR
1. MITSUHARU MISAWA VS. KENTA KOBASHI 10/31 TOKYO (288) 1,937
2. Undertaker vs. Mankind 6/28 Pittsburgh (190) 1,292
3. Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka 6/27 Yokohama (141) 1,088
4. Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Toshiaki Kawada 5/1 Tokyo Dome (26) 482
5. Steve Austin vs. Dude Love 5/31 Milwaukee (43) 417
6. Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama vs. Toshiaki Kawada & Akira Taue 12/5/97 Tokyo (14) 406
7. Juventud Guerrera vs. Billy Kidman 11/16 Wichita (19) 329
8. Rocky Maivia vs. Hunter Hearst Helmsley 8/30 New York (9) 306
9. Kenta Kobashi vs. Toshiaki Kawada 6/12 Tokyo (21) 218
10. Kenta Kobashi vs. Jun Akiyama 7/25 Tokyo (22) 202
Honorable Mention: Koji Kanemoto vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. 6/3 Osaka 176, Ric Flair vs. Bret Hart 1/25 Dayton 155, Steve Austin vs. Shawn Michaels 3/29 Boston 136, Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Koji Kanemoto & Dr. Wagner Jr. 8/8 Osaka 135, Shinjiro Otani & Tatsuhito Takaiwa vs. Jushin Liger & El Samurai 8/2 Tokyo 110, Genichiro Tenryu vs. Shinya Hashimoto 8/1 Tokyo 95
READERS PERSONAL FAVORITE WRESTLER
1. MICK FOLEY 133
2. Chris Jericho 119
3. Shinjiro Otani 89
4. Steve Austin 60
5. Ric Flair 58
6. Chris Benoit 36
7. Jushin Liger 31
8. Rocky Maivia 21
9. Rob Van Dam 18
10. Kenta Kobashi 16
Honorable Mention: Kiyoshi Tamura 15, Rey Misterio Jr. 12, Juventud Guerrera 10, Bret Hart 9
SHOOTER OF THE YEAR
1. FRANK SHAMROCK 495
2. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka 37
3. Alexander Otsuka 36
4. Rickson Gracie 33
5. Mark Kerr 28
6. Evan Tanner 17
7. Maurice Smith 15
Tank Abbott 15
9. Masakatsu Funaki 14
10. Bas Rutten 12
Honorable Mention: Bart Gunn 10
SHOOT MATCH OF THE YEAR
1. JERRY BOHLANDER VS. KEVIN JACKSON 3/13 NEW ORLEANS 119
2. Pete Williams vs. Mark Coleman 5/15 Mobile 115
3. Kimo vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka 3/13 New Orleans 98
4. Alexander Otsuka vs. Marco Ruas 10/11 Tokyo 75
5. Bart Gunn vs.Steve Williams 47
Frank Shamrock vs. Jeremy Horn 5/15 Mobile 47
7. Frank Shamrock vs. John Lober 10/16 Rio de Janiero 42
8. Rickson Gracie vs. Nobuhiko Takada 10/11 Tokyo 34
9. Enson Inoue vs. Randy Couture 10/24 Tokyo 21
10. Mikey Burnett vs. Eugenio Tadeu 3/13 New Orleans 20
Honorable Mention: Tank Abbott vs. Pedro Rizzo 10/16 Rio de Janiero 19, Maurice Smith vs. Randy Couture 12/17/97 Yokohama 12
and
"It's been reported on MMA web sites that Frank Shamrock hasn't signed nor does it appear he's going to face Kiyoshi Tamura on the 1/23 Budokan Hall show, which leaves RINGS with nothing at all booking such a large building."
That's a lot! The Meltz-volume has really been very high lately, hasn't it? How does he do it! We will continue to ponder this other mysteries (though few are deeper) when next we meet. Thank you once again for your time!
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