RINGS 4/16/98: FIGHTING INTEGRATION 2nd

Fighting Integration 2nd
April 16, 1998 in Osaka, Japan
Furitsu Gym drawing 7,600

"I OFTEN THINK ABOUT MAEDA KICKING RIKI CHOSHU'S EYE," wrote TOM recently on twitter, except not in capital letters like that, "and idk how maeda did not get fucked up for that. piss knifable imo." To which Dan replied, "who would u go for? Maeda or Inoki?" To which TOM said, "would def root for inoki & would expect him to beat maeda. no faith in maeda in a shoot. he is a visionary artist but a terrible dude." This is the level of discourse and clarity of thought I have the privilege to be near in my daily life; imagine it. It's all true, what TOM has written, and only a fool could doubt so much as a word of it. And yet as Maeda enters Osaka's Furitsu Gym (the parking part of it), a young wheelchair-bound fellow beset by, it would appear, a number of really very severe challenges in his young life, receives a rather lovely autograph from this visionary artist, this terrible dude, this asshole-hero. The world is complex and so too the Maedas in it? Maybe; maybe.

If I am remembering my recent (RINGSblog-recent, then-recent) Meltz correctly, this FIGHTING INTEGRATION 2nd is set to be Akira Maeda's final fight(ing integration [2nd]) in Osaka, and so we begin with clips of his earlier battles before this same lore-wise people: the 8/1/91 pummeling at the hands of Dick Vrij, the 7/16/92 win by kesa-garami (scarf-entanglement) over Willie Williams, the 12/8/93 juji-gatame to Chris Dolman, 7/14/94 ashi-gatame vengeance against Dick Vrij with post-match shenanigans, the 9/21/94 KO at the hands of Vrij that left Maeda crumpled outside the ring, the 4/22/97 hiza-hishigi loss to Volk Han; it's really all here, interspersed with footage of Maeda working light ukemi (break-falling) with first a young boy I do not yet know and then Tsuyoshi Kohsaka and Kiyoshi Tamura, known to all. That this is art of the near-highest order is self-evident.

The parade of fighters leads us to the RINGS OFFICIAL RANKING which unfolds thus: 10. Kopilov 9. Zouev 8. Tariel 7. Naruse 6. Nijman 5. Vrij 4. Kohsaka 3. Kasteel 2. Han 1. Ilioukhine CHAMPION Tamura. Preposterously absent from that list is HIROMITSU KANEHARA, who returns, just look:

He is the best. His opponent this day shall be Sander Thonhauser, who lost his RINGS début to Masayuki Naruse but really didn't seem to understand what the rules were. He may not be all that much clearer on them here, as he seems baffled as to why the referee would mind that he hooked his arm over the middle rope to prevent a takedown. He seems to hit hard and well, but again, I don't know about hitting. Kanehara has little trouble taking him down, and finds no real resistance to anything he wants to do in terms of position. It is weird, in a way, that it takes Kanehara 6:26 to finally finish with the Achilles hold of kata-ashi-hishighi but in fairness they had to be restarted from rope-tanglings like a dozen times, so that slows things down, and also Hiromitsu Kanehara is an enigma. He seems to be pals with Kohsaka and Tamura backstage which is exactly what I had hoped for him. 

Gogitidze Bakouri is tossing Wataru Sakata around recklessly in what I believe to be a shoot-style contest once Sakata kind of passes on a hiza-juji knee-bar that was right there and, instead, gets brutally ura-nage'd a short time later (no one would make a sacrifice like that for anything but art, or I guess maybe love). All of the many, many pick-ups and Bakouri ruins Sakata with in this match are heavy and real and true. Sakata has his moments, like a fine catch with the reverse-arm-entanglement of gyaku-ude-garami but in the end he is brutally slammed one last time and succumbs to HEEL HOLDO HEEL HOLDO at 8:44. This was excellent! 

Masayuki Naruse, who is still, I think, the RINGS Light-Heavyweight Champion (and still I reject this title), is set to face Andrei Kopilov, who is totally not a light heavyweight, but, on the contrary, a pretty good-sized Russian. Ah, Kopilov: the man loves his juji-gatame! And so do I. In the end, however, his near-fanatical commitment to that waza (and to knee-bars, another kind of juji-gatame [hiza-hishigi-juji-gatame]) avails him not as Naruse secures a mae-hadaka-jime front choke at 7:19 of a fine shoot-style encounter.    

TSUYOSHI KOHSAKA has a very nice shiny a d i d a s shirt:

And also he is to face Joop Kasteel, who indefensibly outranks him in the current RINGS standings. What has Joop Kasteel done, I ask you, other than get so tired in a shoot against Pete(y My Heart) Williams that he declined to stand after a rope break? Possibly other things, but I forget them. I will say this for him, though, he is super polite: he just bowed slowly, like Tamura-slowly, in every direction to polite applause from all sides, and then went over to shake Kohsaka's hand before even the proper introductions. I am warming on this Joop Kasteel! Shoot-style, I think? I will let you know if anything changes to make me think otherwise but I feel pretty good about this. The first rope escape is sought by Kohsaka, trapped beneath Kasteel's great mass, harried by the arm entanglement of ude-garami; the first knockdown is in Kasteel's favour, too, as Kohsaka eats a big kick to "the guts." Ah, but now it is TK's time to attack with ude-garami, and for Kasteel to seek reprieve! TK HAS BEEN KICKED DIRECTLY IN THE GROIN:

  

OH GOD IT'S HAPPENED AGAIN:
  

And all this after Kasteel had presented himself as a sportsman! He offers his hand in apology and conciliation but one has to wonder at this point, doesn't one. I was pretty sure Kohsaka was going to finish with a lovely backdoor juji-gatame escape from kesa-gatame (when I was probably a green belt or a blue belt or something I happened upon this move, and was half-convinced I had "invented" it until I saw a tape of Kyuzo Mifune demonstrating it decades before I was born). In the end it is the Achilles hold of kata-ashi-hishigi that brings TK glory at 7:49. This was a good match but the cost with regard to Kohsaka's groin may have been too high? I believe the highlights are being played alongside "King Nothing," a very poor Metallica song. 

TAMURAAAAA KIYOOOOOSHIIIIIIII against Valentijn Overeem, who has been kind of murdering people, like he ripped Kenichi Yamamoto up last time, blood all over. He is looking slightly more Ubereem each time out (I realize that is a thing of his brother, not of him, but this guy is making gains). Tamura's U-FILE CAMP shirt is so wonderful, and he has it tied off in a wee knot in one corner so as to better display his admirable physique (I think it would be very, very strange not to admire it [I guess different people like different things though {not that I accept it}]). Overeem doesn't acknowledge the stirring RINGS ring announcer's RINGS ring announcement even slightly; he is all business. This is a real fight, and Tamura was nearly finished with a mae-hadaka-jime front choke right away but for the ropes. Remember when Alistair went on that run in PRIDE of catching everybody with guillotines? (That's the same choke.) OK Tamura is on top now, in the double-entanglement of niju-garami or half-guard, working for a gyaku-ude-garami/Kimura and things seem to have settled down. Ah, or have they, as Overeem takes his back and sinks a solid hadaka-jime choke that demands another rope break less than three minutes in. I don't think I am reading too much into Tamura's expression here, I think he is "shoot" worried about how this is going, and how Akira Maeda might treat him for it:

Another front choke less than thirty seconds later, another rope break, this is a græppledrubbing. Overeem is definitely the better striker, so Tamura has to try to take him down lest he be sliced to ribbons, but hasn't found anything of substance in ne waza yet at all. A new approach: Tamura shoots in low, is sprawled upon lightly, and chooses to turtle up to invite an attack from that position. His idea is to roll-through for a hiza-juji knee-bar, and I totally like this idea, but it doesn't really work out, in that Overeem just comes up on top and looks for an ashi-gatame (leg-hold) of some kind OH SHIT THAT IS A KNEE-BAR AND THAT IS THE END AT 3:56 AND IT WAS A DEEP ONE LOOK:

Well that was really something! Tamura is helped to the back after his knee is examined in a preliminary way in the ring; he seems not devastated or anything but a little sad!

MA-E-DA MA-E-DA the people of Osaka chant with great vigour as he performs before them for what is promised to be the last time and I think that turns out to actually be the case (I could easily be wrong but, as is my custom, refuse to check). His foe this day is no less of one than his ancient rival, the great Volk Han. Maeda has even ancienter rivals I guess like André the Giant and Riki Choshu and Antonio Inoki and actually any number of people but it really has been years of Maeda/Han at this point. WAAAAHHHHH I thought Maeda was going to win with that juji-gatame, it came on so fast! But no it is merely the genius of their art, these two, to have so convinced me a mere two minutes in. Volk Han attempts a shoot-style figure four and makes it work he makes it work. The finish comes at 5:43 as Han first wrenches Maeda to the mat with his ever-gnar standing gyaku-ude-garami/Kimura and applies a lovely juji-gatame before hoisting him aloft in tribute and veneration and fellowship:

Now lovely children and flowers join Maeda in the ring LOOK OUT HE IS GOING TO SHOOT ON THE CHILDREN

But of course he does not, I was merely being lighthearted! The guy in the front row in that last image is indicative of the general mood of the crowd as Maeda leaves the Osaka ring for perhaps the "shoot" last time. This was great!

WHAT DID DAVE MELTZER SAY:

April 27, 1998:

"4/16 Osaka Furitsu Gym (RINGS - 7,600 sellout): Hiromitsu Kanehara b Sander Thohauser, Gakiteze Bakouri b Wataru Sakata, Masayuki Naruse b Andrei Kopilov, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka b Joop Kasteel, Valentijn Overeem b Kiyoshi Tamura, Volk Han b Akira Maeda. OTHER JAPAN NOTES: In what is probably the biggest surprise pro wrestling result, on the 4/16 RINGS show at Osaka Furitsu Gym before an overflow crowd announced at 7,600, champion Kiyoshi Tamura lost a non-title match to unheralded Valentijn Overeem in 3:56 with either a heel hook or a foot lock, depending upon the source. Due to the result and the time, and we haven't seen the match yet, most of the speculation was this was a shoot match gone awry as one would think Tamura should be the heavy favorite in such a situation so they probably saw Overeem as a "safe" opponent that Tamura would impressively handle since Overeem is much bigger and that the problem with shoots is that things happen. Tamura has always handled himself well in shoot situations including submission wins over Kohsaka [that one wasn't a shoot--ed], Yoshihisa Yamamoto [that one was!--ed] and maybe even Maurice Smith (Smith has claimed his loss to Tamura was a shoot) [I think so, yes--ed]. The main event on the show, which was Akira Maeda's final match ever in Osaka, saw Volk Han beat Maeda in 5:43 with an armbar, which made sense since Maeda beat Han in January. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka beat Joop Kasteel in 7:49 also with a foot lock. It now appears that Maeda won't be able to sign Alexander Karelin so they are going to have a 12-man tournament similar to the Inoki deal where Maeda faces the winner in his retirement match in September."

May 4, 1998:

It took a while but Dave has a tape of FIGHTING INTEGRATION 1st:

"JAPANESE TELEVISION RUNDOWN 3/28 RINGS: 1. Valentijn Overeem beat Kenichi Yamamoto in 6:36. Yamamoto formerly worked for UWFI and Pancrase and did a lot of pro wrestling work both with New Japan and various indies as part of the Golden Cups trio. This was clearly a shoot match and Overeem, who used his reach and striking skills, particularly throwing strong knees, to overpower him, had him by several inches and outweighed him 222-189. Overeem nailed Yamamoto with a knee on the ropes which cut him. He did another front guillotine and when Yamamoto slipped out, nailed him with another knee. At one point Overeem threw a kick that Yamamoto just ducked that probably would have kicked his head right off his shoulders. Yamamoto kept getting hit and was bleeding really bad and they had the doctor examine Yamamoto. Yamamoto actually took Overeem down once but Overeem, who was dominant by this point, scampered to the ropes for an escape point. Overeem ended up nailing Yamamoto with a hard knee to the chin which knocked him out for a long time and Yamamoto was carried out on a stretcher. Very brutal exciting match; 2. Bob Gilstrap beat Grom Zaza by a 1-0 score after the two went the 30:00 time limit in another shoot match. Gilstrap is a Maurice Smith student who apparently has had some training from Frank Shamrock since they kept mentioning his name in the commentary, who has done NHB in both the U.S. and Brazil and is scheduled in the 5/15 UFC. Zaza is a former Olympic wrestler who beat Ricardo Morais in a NHB match in Rings in September. The entire match consisted of Zaza, who had a 242-214 weight edge, continually taking Gilstrap down. He tried some rudimentary submissions but never came close to finishing Gilstrap. The point was from a very controversial yellow card as Zaza threw a closed fist punch to the head, but the punch didn't connect as Gilstrap moved and that was the only point of the match. Without that, Zaza would have won the easy decision but it was a pretty dull match; 3. Masayuki Naruse beat Sander Thonhauser in 10:37 of a really strange match. Thonhauser had some ground skill but was clearly more of a stand-up fighter. Every time Naruse would get him down, he'd go for the ropes to get the stand-up, giving up a lot of points that didn't appear to be necessary, but at the same time maybe he didn't have confidence in his ability to get off the bottom. The strategy worked as at one point he kicked the hell out of Naruse and stunned him, and nearly got a choke and Naruse went to the ropes and came out of the exchange with a bloody nose. As the match wore on, Thonhauser was noticeably tiring and twice held onto the ropes to avoid a take-down, which is also illegal and got yellow cards for that losing two more points. Naruse took him down and was going for a submission when Thonhauser grabbed the ropes for a break again, which was his 10th lost point which automatically ended the match. Thonhauser didn't appear to understand the rules and even though the score was 10-1, it was a pretty good match; 4. Ilioukhine Mikhail beat Hiromitsu Kanehara in 14:03. Kanehara was formerly with UWFI and Kingdom and in his first match with this group since the latter promotion folded. This was probably a worked match although both men, and Kanehara in particular, were so good that you really had to pay very close attention to see any holes. It was a very good RINGS style match with Kanehara scoring with a lot of hard sounding kicks and them trading submissions and rope breaks. The first knockdown by Kanehara looked great, but the second one was kind of weak. Right after being knocked down, Mikhail came back with a heel hook for the win; 5. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka beat Nikolai Zouev in 10:20. This was another worked match but also a very good one as they traded cool looking submissions. Zouev was made to look credible and Kohsaka got some pretty offense in including a spectacular looking flying armbar before winning with the heel hook; 6. Kiyoshi Tamura beat Dick Vrij in 7:46. Vrij looked like almost a different person than in his match with Paul Varelans. In the Varelans match, he was 255 and looked juiced to the gills and this one he was 235 and soft looking. But even though he looked a lot less menacing, at least he had some stamina. Since it was the main event, it was worked (RINGS almost always works the main event match, at least on its big shows, because shoots are unpredictable when it comes to quality and Tamura, who at 196 was the heaviest he's been since debuting in RINGS, in a work is usually a good bet for a good bout). Even though it was worked, Tamura took some hard knees to make it look good. At one point Vrij really rocked him and even though Tamura didn't sell it by going down, you could see he was knocked a little silly. They did an interesting finish playing off the Peeters-Sakata match in Holland, where Tamura got a choke and Vrij broke it by raking his eyes. Vrij got a yellow card, and he didn't do a pro wrestling eye rake because Tamura's eye started swelling and tearing immediately. Tamura then "got mad" and got a strong takedown and an immediate choke for the win. It was okay, but not on the level of Tamura's usual matches."

And that's it! We will speak again soon on these very same topics! Thank you for your time!