PRIDE.7（プライド・セブン）1999年9月12日

PRIDE.7
イベント詳細
シリーズ PRIDE（ナンバーシリーズ）
主催 DSE
開催年月日1999年9月12日
開催地日本
神奈川県横浜市
会場横浜アリーナ
試合数全8試合
放送局スカイパーフェクTV!
入場者数10,031人

WHEN LILACS LAST IN THE DOORYARD BLOOM'D AND THE GREAT STAR EARLY DROOP'D IN THE WESTERN SKY IN THE NIGHT I MOURN'D cuz of how long it had been since we had enjoyed a Pride FC show together AND YET SHALL MOURN WITH EVER-RETURNING SPRING please forgive me my tardiness in this matter although since the time of our previous Pride FCing we have discussed not one but indeed two QUINTET(クインテット)s and also there was posted, was there not, The Lingering Death of Fighting Network RINGS, or, THE BIG DAVE REHAB: Consisting of All Remaining Observer Bitz, Annotated Lightly, regarding Fighting Network RINGS from 5/22/00 through its Untimely Demise/Glorious Ascension 2/15/02, which took actually a surprising amount of time given its limited utility (and yet art is autotelic, so there you go). Obviously I don't want to overstate this but SOLITARY THE THRUSH THE HERMIT WITHDRAWN TO HIMSELF AVOIDING THE SETTLEMENTS SINGS BY HIMSELF A SONG SONG OF THE BLEEDING THROAT DEATH'S OUTLET SONG OF LIFE FOR WELL DEAR BROTHER I KNOW IF THOU WAST NOT GRANTED TO SING THOU WOULD'ST SURELY DIE and our song is that if The Long UWF and I am pleased that we have yet another opportunity to sing it here together as we have a look at what happened!

Hey look it is Mark Kerr, the poor man, performance-enhanced to inhuman proportion, straining credulity in a golf shirt and little shorts:

It looks as though a fairly elaborate Parade of Fighters (I mistyped that as Parade of Fightings and am left wondering if that would have maybe been better) opened this 会場横浜アリーナ Yokohama Arena show but we are offered only its highlights, which is probably for the best (who has the time). Enson Inoue is here! As is Kazushi Sakuraba! And presumably also any number of people that they skipped! But that's ok (again: the time; who). Our first contest is between the well-loved 松井 大二郎 Daijiro Matsui aka THE FLAME GRAPPLER (I had never heard anyone say that about him but it has made Wikipedias in two languages so let's go with it) and the eventually-loathed (I am not sure if it has happened yet) "Dirty" Bob Schrijber, so named not for his in-ring tactics so much as how he wears his trunks like a perv:

Not true, it's actually because of how he cheats constantly, like for instance in the contest now before us he soccer-kicked Daijiro Matsui in the head whilst he (The Flame Grappler [let's really make this happen]) was down on all fours, squarely landing this not-yet-legal waza. "Schrijber appears to have a lot of predator instincts," Quadros notes, and Bas Rutten, who seems to know him quite well (like he knows which hash bar Schrijber has bounced at for the last fifteen years [it's The Bulldog!]) adds, "Lots." And there's "another cheap shot," an already weary Quadros has it, as Dirty Bob completely on purpose punches Matsui in the face before the referee had actually restarted them after a break, and then he acts super duper sorry about it (I am unconvinced!) as he is offered the guidance and caution of shido (taking here the familiar form of a yellow card). Steven Quadros has used the word "guesstimate" in a sentence wherein he speculated on street-fighting, which I believe completely fulfills the terms of his contract for the night and he can just do whatever for the rest of the evening, like he can take off or he can just hang out and enjoy the rest of the show if he wants, maybe get some fries. And there's the finish, as Schrijber has illegally ax-kicked (kakato-otoshi'd [heel-dropped]) a very-much-on-all-fours Daijiro Matsui after the bell sounded (so it is like double-illegal, or illegal-squared [maybe it's exponential; I don't know]) to end the first round, and that is totally totally totally a disqualification. Matsui is displeased with just the whole situation, man, and Schrijber is making his most innocent face (he is a big phony!) as his cornermen shield him from Matsui's post-fight encroachments. HEY LOOK it's Hans Nijman (shot dead in a 2013 Volkswagen Golf, R.I.P. may Allah be pleased with him) and Dick Vrij, both of whom are so well known to us through RINGStudy:

That is a rough, rough crowd.

Next up is Carl Malenko, a worked-Malenko here shooting against Wanderlei Silva in his (Silva's, I mean)  Pride début. Malenko, you might well recall, did really very well in his previous Pride match with racquetball-ace Egan Inoue, and will no doubt seek here to take Silva down, and then also to lay atop him (I mean no disrespect). Let's see what, exactly, Wanderlei had done to this point in the worlds of vale tudo and mixed fight: okay he had gone 4-1 in Brazil against people without wikipedia entries (I don't have one either), then soccer kicked Mike Van Arsdale (remember him?) to go to 5-1, lost in forty-four seconds to Vitor Belfort in a match wherein you would have to think the air itself would have tested positive for anabolics, and then ran off three knockout wins (including one at UFC 20) to bring him here to face Carl Malenko as a man of 8-2. Malenko approaches this just as you'd think, and tries desperately to get Silva to the ground so as not to be walloped, and in the first round he certainly does mitigate the walloping, but he has a tough time one the ground: Silva does a great job of sprawling out (and walloping) and even sweeping (and walloping) and, just as the round ends, nearly finishing a choke (but, instead, walloping). LEST WE FORGET that Wanderlei Silva holds black belts in both judo and jiu-jitsu of the Brazilian variant. Quadros refers to Silva's half-engaged little hammer-fists to the side of the head as "ear-drum strikes" which has a real Black Belt magazine feel to it that I embrace fully despite (totally because of) its absurdity. Round two is an impressively thorough (and thoroughly impressive!) positional working-over (with light walloping) as Wanderlei Silva takes the pretty obvious decision. I see big things ahead for this guy!

Enson Inoue has more shit on his dougi than anyone has ever had on anything, look:

Quadros speculates that Inoue's plan here is to lure Tully Kulihaapai, his unknown foe from the Kingdom of Tonga in this grappling match, into trying to read all of the patches, and then catch him with something sneaky whilst so entranced. That's not exactly how it falls out, but all the same it is but a minute or so before Inoue secures the 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame. Nicely done! But I don't think Tully Kulihaapai had any idea what was happening, really.

For his match against Branko Cikatić (DQ'd in Pride 2 for rope-grabbing most foul vs. Mark Kerr), our old friend Maurice Smith is cornered by his old friend 高阪剛 Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (who is also our old friend)!

When Smith attempts the minor outer hook of 小外掛 kosoto-gake it seems as though he might draw first judo but no, it is Branko Cikatić (a blue belt in that art [which I assume means nikkyu but different national federations do things differently and I respect that]) who hits a fine 払腰 harai-goshi AH HAAAAA but Smith thereafter bridges and escapes Branko Cikatić's 袈裟固 kesa-gatame in precisely the way one teaches new recruits in hopes that they will be able to soon do it as a drill all the way down the mats as a part of the warm-up sometimes. I am so pleased by these unexpected outbursts of judo in this bout contested between notable hitters ("Cikatić began his martial arts training at the age of 12 when he took up Taekwondo, and later Shotokan Karate at 16. He eventually earned a black belt in both of these disciplines, as well as a blue belt in Judo. When he was 18 years old, he took up boxing before switching to kickboxing.[1]"; "Raised in Seattle, Washington, Smith got into martial arts at the age of 13 after watching Bruce Lee's Chinese Connection, and having had to retreat from a fight. He trained in karate, taekwondo and wing chun, until he found the sport of kickboxing at age 18. Smith attended West Seattle High School, where he played football and participated in gymnastics.[3]"). TK may or may not be as excited about all this (the surprise judo, I mean) as I am, it's hard to say, but mostly he seems concerned for his friend:

You know, with TK and Maurice Smith and Dick Vrij and Hans Nijman all here so far, this is like a RINGS reunion! Even though RINGS is still totally around at the time of this particular Pride! And maybe that is no small part of what we would come to understand as the problem? Another problem is rope-grabbing, and Branko Cikatić is doing a tonne of it, sometimes yellow carded therefore, other times not. Woah ok: Branko Cikatić taps to the softest forearm choke ever, like it was one arm across the throat and nothing else. "The escape for that . . . is look to the side. Look. To the side," Bas says, baffled. "That's not even a submission that's taught anywhere," Quadros adds. That is probably the weakest finish you will ever see ever, but Branko clearly just didn't know what to do, so what can you say (other than "that's no problem, we can work on that, Branko.") Maurice Smith presents the little trophy he is awarded for his victory to 石井 和義 Kazuyoshi Ishii at ringside, whom you may recall as "a Japanese master of Seidokaikan karate and founder of the K-1 fighting circuit, a widely televised international martial arts competition combining Muay Thai, karate, sanshou, taekwondo, kenpo, boxing, and kickboxing.[1][2] His karate training began with Kyokushin karate, but he formed his own karate organization in 1980, began promoting televised karate competitions, and started staging K-1 events in 1993" after learning the business of martial arts promotion under Akira Maeda in Fighting Network RINGS. The RINGSunion (this is what we shall call the RINGS reunion) continues! 

AND TOTALLY ROLLS ON ACTUALLY as look who is cornering the much-loved 小路晃 Akira Shoji (a dan-ranked man of judo), it is RINGS' (but mostly SHOOTO's) 宇野薫 Kaoru Uno (also dan-ranked in judo):

GRAB WITHOUT FEAR, Uno's t-shirt implores Akira Shoji, and us all. Shoji's grabbing this day shall be directed towards Larry Parker, a fighter unknown to me until I find his record (on Sherdog, and it feels weird to be there in 2019) and learn that his hypergoon nom-de-guerre/sobriquet-rouge is "The Violator" but thinking on it a little more while not a tonne happens in this match (not yet, anyway) I wonder if maybe he just really like Depeche Mode (me too). They are from  Basildon, Essex! Remember when Vince Clark and Martin Gore did a techno record as VCMG? It was really good! I had a friend in grad school who confessed to me very nearly got a Depeche Mode Violator tattoo as a young youth but did not and felt that she had maybe dodged a bullet on that one (she seems to be a tenured Marxist professor of literature now but we have not been in touch in several years [I am not on facebook] but in a way that is totally totally fine, no hard feelings or even slightly weird ones, god bless). The first round ends and both guys have clearly tried very hard but little of note has emerged from their striving (the dark lot of so many among us). Stephen Quadros argues that the more well-rounded and evenly-matched fighters get, the less dynamic and interesting mixed matches are going be in the fullness of time, and in this he has proven to be prophetic, has he not; has; he not. Akira Shoji, fired way up as always, rightly takes the decision after an additional five-minute round is decreed, but Larry Parker tried hard too. He jumped guard a lot without doing anything at all with it, this arguably juiced-way-up Parker did, and I wasn't thrilled with it, honestly, but hey. Hey. 

KAZUSHI SAKURABA is here though and one would think things are therefore about to become excellent? He is matched against Anthony Macias, who is about Sakuraba's size -- a little smaller, even -- and so was whipped around awfully by the enormous Dan Severn at UFC 4, if I'm remembering that right (I am pretty sure I am). Sakuraba is attired in the same t-shirt that A Very Kind Benefactor sent me one of (for which I thank him once more; it really was a very thoughtful gift):

It has a great big KS on the back which I feel to be great! Ah yes, "who could forget" Anthony Macias' encounter with the eighty-pounds-huger Dan Severn at UFC 4, Stephen Quadros asks, and apparently not me! So that's good, that's useful information to have taking up a part of your memory in what little time we have. Beggars can't be choosers though! Sakuraba clinches and grinds Macias to the mat without too much trouble but Macias, a kickboxer by training (perhaps too by disposition [though I do not know the man]) is for sure a gamer. I have no doubt mentioned more than once my super-brief foray into the world of Muay Thai at a gym over a muffler shop or some such? Everyone there was at once super hard and very kind but it was clearly not for me. I went on the recommendation of a judo pal (and it was the kind of place where they narrowed their eyes and asked who told you about them when you first showed up) who had been going for a while and was pretty into it but I turned out not to be but again they were very kind. Sakuraba is LOVED by this crowd, I should note, even before he started in with the Mongolian Chops from guard, and you will believe me, I hope, when I tell you that that technique (or waza) did not diminish that love but in fact seemingly grew it. When Sakuraba backs out and up out of guard and takes a few steps back, the crowd (and our friends on commentary) anticipate the jumping guard pass so hard but instead he dashes in with a side-kick (yoko-geri) right up the middle. Anthony Macias, a good sport, was like "lol they FOOLED me Jerry" about it all. They shake hands at the end of the round to acknowledge each other's humanity briefly and then it is time for round two! What a wild first round from Sakuraba though; he really got his stuff in, so to speak: the sliding side-kick, the Mongolian chops, the dashing/circling guard-pass attempt I think of as the duck-duck-goose, the very clear attempt at kata-ashi-hishigi (single-leg-crush) in the mode of the single-leg Boston crab:

  


Round two begins with Macias taking Sakuraba's back standing, Sakuraba looking for the gyaku-ude-garami/Kimura-grip one so closely associates with him from that position, Macias avoiding that by jumping up onto the back only to be flipped over and nearly juji-gatame'd, but then escaping and engaging in some (relatively) light hitting before Sakuraba is back up on top and working from the side. And that took like a minute! Near-side juji-gatame coming for sure: he grips as though he's going to go far-side, which is so subtle and so sikk, before finishing the near arm as Macias attempts to stand and escape but it's all too tight. Man. Macias hosts Sakuraba over his shoulder; Sakuraba grabs Daijiro Matsui (of his corner) and I think maybe double-underhook suplexed him for lolz? A replay cuts this off (how dare they) so I can't be sure that's what happened but the crowd seems to have been very much in. Kazushi Sakuraba looked so much like Kazushi Sakuraba in this match that it hurts a little.

Mark Kerr and Igor Vovchanchyn, our main event, is just about the best heavyweight mixed fight that could have been made 1999年9月12日, right? Its outcome is known well to those among us who have seen The Smashing Machine and it seems unlikely that there are any among us who have not but in case you have not and my words here seem to you but riddle and enigma you can totally watch it here, nobody seems to file take-down (haha! take-down! like when grappling around!) notices about it anymore. There is a real air of danger to this match, like the crowd seems equal parts excited by the prospect of violence and menaced by it. The moments of true terror are brief and wild, broken by long periods of just an outrageously steroided Mark Kerr laying atop Igor, hugged in so close (as well one might expect; this is not a criticism). As the first round ends, Kerr mentions to referee Yuji Shimada (the RINGSunion continues!) that a lot of Igor's punches from the bottom are hitting him in the back of the head; Igor chooses not to mention to the referee that when Mark Kerr exhales you can actually see needles (it would change nothing, Igor knows, and so why bother).   

"You're winning, Kerr, you're winning," we hear Mark Coleman tell his pal early in round two, not long before Igor, feet on Kerr's hips, pushes off and out and escapes from underneath and knees Mark Kerr's head just horribly, like true "PRIDE Knees" against his sprawled out foeman. But knees of that kind were not in fact legal at this event! And so eventually this bout is ruled a no contest, though not before us now. In the moment, Kerr made his case firmly to (evil?) referee Yuji Shimada, but was sportsmanlike about it all, as was Igor, who gave Kerr a nice hug and a little smooch, too. 

HEY WAIT A MINUTE why isn't the Nobuhiko Takada/Alexander Otsuka match on this tape (not in fact a tape)? Is it because it was so obviously and egregiously fake that they could not in good faith (or even bad) present it to us otherwise? I don't remember it at all except that I think it had a vertical suplex or something but it's on youtube (in Japanese broadcast! [or Japanese commercial release maybe I guess]) so why don't we enjoy it together now? The intro video is pretty great, is I think something we will mostly agree upon. Yeah okay though really very good this is super fake: Otsuka ducks behind Takada in a weird way and the commentator yells COBRA TWIST! COBRA TWIST! and then they cut to a shot of Antonio Inoki. Ahahaha yesssssss Alexander Otsuka just threw Takada with a FISHERMAN SUPLEX (called as such here) or as you perhaps better know it, the perfect-plex (r.i.p Curt Hennig [r.i.p. also to all fishermen lost at sea throughout the ages]). This is on the whole a delightful little shoot-style match that the crowd is wild for throughout, even when the finish comes off a poorly applied hadaka-jime in Takada's favour. Fun stuff! One cannot help but wonder . . .

WHAT DAVE MELTZER MAY HAVE SAID (about it [and about other things also]):

August 2, 1999:

"OTHER JAPAN NOTES: Naoya Ogawa pulled out of the RINGS match with Yoshihisa Yamamoto on 8/18 at Yokohama Bunka Gym citing an injured shoulder and broken finger suffered in the fairly amazing match he had with Gary Goodridge on 7/4. The match will now take place on 12/22 in Osaka. RINGS will now headline with Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Joop Kasteel, which is a match that has virtually no drawing power whereas the other match would have been almost a sure sellout. RINGS is having even more power drawing than we figured since the retirement of Akira Maeda, after doing a $2.5 million house earlier this year for the Maeda-Aleksandre Karelin match. As great as Tamura and Kohsaka are, both as workers and for that matter how much they've established themselves against real competition as great real fighters, they aren't draws whereas Maeda, who in recent years was neither, always was. It's a sad fact of reality which explains why certain people have to be kept strong in worked matches to keep shooting sports alive in Japan that purists don't seem to understand. Ogawa missing the 9/12 Pride show also dooms it since Yokohama Arena needs a super line-up to draw in a shoot and at this point the ads only list Mark Kerr and Enson Inoue on the show. If they were to meet each other, and the promotion has been trying to put that match together all year but each has gotten hurt before it could happen, it would be an interesting match but unlike Ogawa and Takada, Inoue doesn't have the name among wrestling fans so it has limited gate appeal."

and

"It is said that Gary Goodridge got $90,000 for his Pride match with Naoya Ogawa, which is about four times more than he would be expected to get for a Pride match."

and here it is again, in some ways our central text:

"OGAWA/TAKADA

The participation of Naoya Ogawa in Pride was a positive factor as a drawing card as well as a negative element for pure martial arts. But his participation made the show profitable because of the pro wrestling aspects of the show. It was a ceremonial passing of the torch of the "shooter rep" from Nobuhiko Takada to Ogawa and they succeeded in making a star for the next century in the former world judo champion. The performance not only satisfied the public who saw Ogawa vs. Gary Goodridge treated as serious on the TV sports news, but also attained a business purpose.

We've seen suspicious fights from UFC to sumo. There are matches where the promoter as well as both fighters truly know who is going over at the end even if they aren't setting up high spots and finishes. Shoot and work have been unified since they've been presented to the public from the birth of mankind. There are stone murals in ancient times as the proof of the ancestry of worked pro wrestling since they feature drawing of too many moves and counterholds and suplexes that require both cooperation and coordination of both men. There is a Greek sculpture depicting the power bomb as we know it. The Coliseum in Rome is a tourist spot, famous for the legend of "fight until death" rules battles, but in reality, it's natural to assume their superfights in front of huge crowds also involved entertainment aspects. The truth is of course boring to learn, because the truth can't match up to fans' fantasy and imagination.

Martial arts competition before The King or the rich sponsor in ancient times can be found in building up superfights and main events. It's all the same story today, except today the King are the fans spending money on t-shirts, tickets, PPV orders and videotapes.

The original UWF movement to turn the fantasy of pro wrestling into reality was accomplished this year. The 10-plus year history of the UWF movement is meaningless to talk about which cards and matches were worked and which weren't. Akira Maeda's RINGS, which spawned K-1 along with Pride as derivatives have epoch-making meanings in the history of real fighting. We've seen the truth and it will be carried on to the next millennium.

Takada did three jobs at Pride and they were all real fights. Rickson Gracie is a legend from a different world. It was just a different world, nothing more and nothing less. Takada fought Gracie under Gracie's Vale Tudo rules and lost twice. Akira Maeda never had a real match in his fighting life. Masakatsu Funaki had many real matches, maybe too many. Takada was just the man in the middle between the two. The man in the middle position is always tough, but he headlined Tokyo Dome megashows against Rickson. They are like three brothers. The older brother couldn't do it himself. The youngest brother sacrificed his body for the cause. But the pain put on the middle brother was beyond the imagination. Takada became the first superstar pro wrestler to step into the real world.

It's all part of the theory of time lag. The general public's permeation and understand of what this is requires years of education. The UWFI fighters in the 90s were all real shooters from the top to the bottom including Kazushi Sakuraba and Kiyoshi Tamura. Sports entertainment pro wrestling, born in the United States, was transformed into Japan, the country of the original martial arts including the myths and the sophisticated art form. When Takada and Gracie signed for the "Fight of the Century," the truth is that both were already washed up by that point and that's the sad truth, but the truth is boring.

Takada was requested to pass the torch directly to Ogawa, but he refused, as he should have. Takada has no reason to lose to a pro wrestler in the Pride ring and Ogawa is a pro wrestler. Instead, he lost to Mark Kerr, the realistic top fighter in the world as opposed to a mythical legend such as Rickson. Kerr record an impressive 14 straight wins in Mixed Martial Arts. He is the current monster. Takada lost to the real champion so we should praise him for that.

Takada vs. Kerr was not a fixed fight. He was challenging a much larger white monster without compromise. I didn't see any holes and Kerr told his friends it was real afterwards. However, it was an example of a match that the promoter, booker and both fighters knew ahead of time who was going over. Kerr accepted this fight because it was Takada, and not Enson Inoue, who may have had more than a 50% chance of winning. That's the reality of the fighting business. Takada is still a pro wrestler who is a product of image making. The naked king understood his role in this one. He came into the ring with tape around his elbow. Kerr's lass submission finish was the armlock against Pedro Otavio. We realized the message at that point. It was like Seppuku ritual, an honorable death in the Samurai world.

But pro wrestling proved to be a real martial art and Takada proved it by committing suicide. He drove a wedge in the fixed label of wrestling by carrying the cross for wrestling fans' sins, the sin of believing that pro wrestling was real.

On November 29, 1989 at U-Cosmos at the Tokyo Dome show which featured Maeda and Takada, we saw a miracle on the undercard with Yoji Anjoh's shoot match and Minoru Suzuki vs. Maurice Smith. It was the moment pro wrestling stepped into the line of reality combat. It was awesome.

It was Satoru Sayama, the first Tiger Mask, who opened the world's very first total fight gym in 1984. It was irony that he claimed his new sport of Shooting as competition and not as pro wrestling. Shooto, which came from that, celebrated its 10th anniversary on 5/29 headlining Rumina Sato vs. Kaoru Uno. It was their first PPV match and they sold out the Yokohama Bunka Gym specifically on the main event theme of "Can rising Prince Uno beat his ex-teacher?" To me, it was really pro wrestling, although the fight itself was real.

For real sports journalism, the highlight of Pride is Sakuraba's winning streak. On 7/4, the Carlson Gracie Jiu Jitsu army were all defeated. The heavyweight Carlos Baretto couldn't beat the smaller Ukraine kickboxer Igor Vovchanchin. The top fighter from the Luta Livre camp, Ebenzer Fontes Braga, was tapped out by a UWF pro wrestler with an armbar. It was officially the end of the illusion of Brazilians as being the strongest fighters, that Brazilian Jiu Jitsu was not the perfect fighting system and that a pro wrestler proved to be the strongest martial artist of all.

But the sad truth about real fighting was in the undercard. On the Pride show, there were four boring matches that went for 25:00 each. A former King of Pancrase wasn't able to win a split decision while a Battlarts pro wrestler got a decision over a well-known Jiu Jitsu expert who beat Renzo Gracie earlier this year.

Tadashi Tanaka

New York, New York"

August 9, 1999:

"More details on behind-the-scenes of Gary Goodridge vs. Naoya Ogawa. Apparently it was at some point supposed to be a shoot. Certainly everyone was proclaiming that as the case publicly although I had my doubts from the beginning and still can't imagine in hindsight that at any point it was really going to be because of how much money was at stake should Goodridge win, particularly if it wasn't competitive. A little white before the match, Ogawa claimed a shoulder injury suffered in training and wanted to pull out of the show. Because the show's success was so dependent upon him, the agreement was that he'd appear but the match would be worked and that forced the promoters to go to Goodridge with the $90,000 offer. This could mean even the promoters of the show originally thought they were getting a real match (it could also not mean that) and Ogawa's people (read that Antonio Inoki) manipulated it at crunch time. And now, publicly claiming both a shoulder and finger injury suffered in the fight, Ogawa is going to be kept out of harms way until the Tokyo Dome match on 10/11. From a historical standpoint, the Japanese world of Pride seems very reminiscent of early American pro wrestling if you remember the stories before the second Gotch-Hackenschmidt match."

August 16, 1999:

"There also has been virtually no talk of the planned 9/12 DSE Pride Seven event from Yokohama Arena, but with Nobuhiko Takada out of the picture going back to pro wrestling, and Naoya Ogawa injured, they have no drawing cards for such a large arena show. There were rumors out of Brazil of a Vitor Belfort vs. Kazushi Sakuraba rematch, but that doesn't make sense on many levels, since Belfort looked so bad in the first match that there is no clamor in Japan to see him again, and he is a dangerous enough puncher that he could, if he connects, beat anyone so there is still danger for Sakuraba even though he handled him easily after the second minute and probably would again if he survived the initial onslaught."

August 30, 1999:

"NEW JAPAN: Just days before the 8/28 Tokyo Jingu Baseball Stadium show, the second match from the top, Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kensuke Sasaki, was canceled leading to tremendous bitterness from both sides. Takada's people informed New Japan on 8/19 that he wasn't going to appear on the show. Takada has verbally committed to doing the show but hadn't signed a contract. The situation was similar to that in 1997 with Ken Shamrock, when Shamrock verbally agreed to do a match with Shinya Hashimoto at the Tokyo Dome, and New Japan announced it before the contract was signed. Shamrock wound up signing with WWF and New Japan had the Dome booked, which as it turned out forced them to elevate Naoya Ogawa from his first pro match. Takada pulled out when a better money offer was made for him to headline the 9/12 Pride show at Yokohama Arena against Alexander Otsuka, the Battlarts pro wrestler who made himself a martial arts name when he beat Marco Ruas at last year's Pride show at the Tokyo Dome. I'd be virtually certain that even though most Pride matches are shoots, that Takada vs. Otsuka, matching two pro wrestlers and one being Takada, would be a work and with Takada as the bigger star, that he'd go over, but that's just speculation. My impression is that Takada was going to be asked to put Sasaki over at Jingu, although that's just speculation as well. Takada was at the Pride press conference on 8/24 and said he got both offers at the same time, but the New Japan offer presented many problems, which he didn't elaborate on, but complained about Nagashima as a booker and said that New Japan went back on its promises to him. On 8/25, Takada said he didn't cancel the match with Sasaki at the last minute, but it was his business relations with the company that fell apart because it was unbearable dealing with Nagashima. Takada indicated he wanted to meet with Fujinami and didn't want to close the door on working with New Japan. The news of his Pride match was first released by Otsuka on 8/22 at the Battlarts house show where he said he was facing Takada at the 9/12 show. After that came out, New Japan scheduled a press conference for 8/23 to announce Takada not appearing on the show. Sasaki said he would be at the show and do an interview but he wouldn't be wrestling and there would be no replacement match added. Nagashima was really angry, since he did the negotiating to bring Takada to the promotion, and admitted Takada had never signed a contract but that they had a verbal agreement. Tatsumi Fujinami, as company President, said that Takada had betrayed the company and that they would never use him in the future."

and

"Besides the Nobuhiko Takada vs. Alexander Otsuka main event, Dream Stage Entertainment held a press conference on 8/24 for Pride Seven PPV on 9/12 at Yokohama Arena announcing other Vale Tudo rules matches. Enson Inoue vs. Tuli Kulihaappai of Tonga who has a 16-1 record as a pro boxer in his first MMA fight, Bronko Sikatic (the first-ever K-1 Grand Prix champ in 1993, he's around 43 or 44 now) vs. Maurice Smith, Daijiro Matsui (Takada protege) vs. Bob Schreiber (who has fought in RINGS many times). They also announced that Kazushi Sakuraba, Mark Kerr, Akira Shoji, Gary Goodridge and Igor Vovchanchin would appear. Kerr has been rumored to face either Francisco Bueno, Vovchanchin or Goodridge. Kerr vs. Vovchanchin would be interesting because Vovchanchin has that great record of something like 27-1. His "invincibility" factor is down in Japan because he lost under K-1 rules to Ernesto Hoost. They are looking at doing Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Vanderlei Silva, which I believe is a very dangerous fight for Sakuraba because Silva is a strong striker who knows how to avoid takedowns. As usual, most of these matches will probably change over the next few weeks. The line-up doesn't sound like a strong drawing line-up because Takada's rep as a super shooter is shot, and Naoya Ogawa has become the top drawing card, but he won't do the show due to various injuries."

September 6, 1999:

"Goodridge declined a match against Mark Kerr for the 9/12 Pride show. The Pride line-up has been finalized with, added to the matches listed here last week (Nobuhiko Takada vs. Alexander Otsuka, Enson Inoue vs. Tuli Kulihaappai, Bronko Sikatic vs. Maurice Smith, Daijiro Matsui vs. Bob Schreiber) are Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Anthony Macias, Vanderlei Silva vs. Carl Malenko, Akira Shoji vs. Larry Parker and Kerr vs. Igor Vovchanchin. The Kerr match pits the two heavyweights with the most impressive win/loss records as Kerr is something like 15-0 and Vovchanchin something like 27-1. Nevertheless, this show doesn't long strong for Japan as a ticket seller as Otsuka isn't considered a main event draw and Takada's drawing power has been burnt out with him being exposed in this world. It appears from the booking, with Sakuraba and Silva put in matches they should be expected to win (and history has shown up that you can never book things in this business with certainty), they are trying to give each a win to set up a match between the two of them. Certainly Macias, who has not fared well against name competition in the past, shouldn't be expected to do any better against Sakuraba. Over the past two weeks, this promotion contacted Victor Quinones, the WWF's international rep who was in Japan, about using WWF wrestlers, Steve Williams (a big star in Japan in the past), Steve Blackman and Tiger Ali Singh (since his father was a pro wrestling legend in Japan) as potential opponents for Kerr, Sakuraba and Silva in matches that were told to the WWF would be shoots and not works. As you can imagine, the WWF turned the offer down without giving it much thought as Brawl for All has taught them every lesson they need to learn about pro wrestling doing shoots (although Malenko and Otsuka on this show are pro wrestlers in Japan although they train at shooting and Takada, no matter how they try and level him, is and has always been a pro wrestling drawing card, while Sakuraba was originally a pro wrestler), both because they can often look bad, and maybe more important, because of the high risk of injury." 

September 13, 1999:

"Dream Stage Entertainment's Pride series, which has lost money on most of its events, continues to run major events with its 9/12 show in Yokohama as the next one. There is talk of doing a major tournament in 2000 similar to the very successful K-1 Grand Prix series. The idea is a 16-man tournament, either held over four shows with one fight per show, or over two shows, with a first round, and then a final eight tournament run like the original UFCs, although with the calibre of fighters now, winning three fights in one night is a bit much to ask of anyone. In response to DSE's announcement that they are going after Royce Gracie, Gracie said to his students recently that he does plan on fighting and brought up the proposed 1/20 date. Supposedly invites for the tournament have been sent to Mark Kerr, Bas Rutten, Kazushi Sakuraba, Frank Shamrock, Enson Inoue, Tom Erikson, Carlos Barretto and Maurice Smith along with Gracie, who said he would still fight wearing a gi. Realistically, the way the game has changed, you can't expect a great 185-195 pound fighter like Sakuraba, Shamrock or Gracie or even a 210-pounder like Rutten to be able to survive against good huge heavyweights the likes of Kerr and Erikson, and certainly not three times in one night for a final. Actually I'm not sure a big heavyweight could survive three matches against top quality competition, as when Gracie was doing it, nobody really knew how to fight, and even when Dan Severn and Don Frye won Ultimate Ultimates, they had one "easy" match each thrown in there (not necessarily by design but that's how it wound up). The open weight tournament concept that Gracie made his mark in served its purpose when he knew submissions better than anyone and his opponents weren't adept at avoiding them, in no way could he excel in open weight tournaments nowadays. Even Rumina Sato, a 150 pounder who is an incredible fighter, couldn't hang in a 170 weight class which is the lightest UFC weight class simply because he physically isn't big enough

After the match with Tito Ortiz, Frank Shamrock's plans, unless things change financially, are to fight exclusively in Japan, either with Pride or UFC Japan

Pancrase is changing its rules to where there are no more rope escapes. Since submissions are so hard to come by to begin with nowadays and so many matches go the time limit, if you're in a submission, you have to get out of it or tap. I believe the rules went into effect on the 9/4 show in Sendai although I'm not certain of that."
    
and

"The Dream Stage Entertainment (Pride) promotion is still interested in doing a Tokyo Dome show next year using WWF talent."

September 20, 1999:

"Although it was not the match which drew the crowd, among insiders, the most intriguing match of the Dream Stage Entertainment Pride Seven show on 9/12 at the Yokohama Arena pitted the two heavyweight fighters with the best records in the world.

Mark Kerr, a powerhouse wrestler who has never gotten a severe test in piling up an unbeaten win streak and almost unanimous acclimation as the top heavyweight in the sport, finally met up with Igor Vovchanchin, a short stocky former Russian kickboxer whose lone loss came early in his career. Vovchanchin hasn't looked as dominant or as impressive as Kerr in compiling his record, but is clearly a gutsy character that always winds up on the winning end. Vovchanchin's most recent matches hardly made him look like a world beater, winning a very close and controversial decision over much larger Brazilian Carlos Baretto in the Pride ring under Vale Tudo rules, and then losing via knockout after being blistered with low kicks outside of NHB competition when competing out of his element with an elite kickboxer in Ernesto Hoost in K-1 rings.

The result? You try and figure it out. Officially, it was first ruled a win for Vovchanchin, but the decision was later changed to a no contest, although the fans in the building weren't notified and wouldn't have known it until reading the newspapers the next morning. But it was a blemish in some form on Kerr's previously spotless record, as he even admitted that had it not been stopped, he would have lost the decision.

Kerr apparently went into the fight ill, as he was vomiting before the match. Vovchanchin bled from above the right eye after taking a solid right hand. But much of the fight was standing, where Vovchanchin figured to have the advantage. During the second round, Kerr took Vovchanchin down and got a mount position. But as Kerr tired, Vovchanchin escaped and actually took down the wrestler and in holding him down, delivered two knees to the head, which are illegal to a fighter who is down under Pride rules, which are similar to the current UFC rules. Kerr, who was not knocked out, didn't move, and the ref felt he was unable to defend himself and stopped the match at 14:45. Kerr got up and started complaining to the referee, saying that he was waiting for the obvious foul to be assessed against Vovchanchin. Kerr protested and after a meeting with Pride officials, the referee and Vovchanchin, will all watching the tape, all parties involved agreed that the correct ruling should have been that Vovchanchin should have been assessed two penalty points for the illegal knees and the fight should have continued. Since the fight was over at this point, the only fair decision would be to rule it a no contest. Kerr will take his unbeaten record into the next Pride show on 11/21 against Enson Inoue, who was given an easy win earlier in the show against a Tongan boxer named Tuli Kulihaapai via armbar in just 1:03. Inoue was the subject of martial arts headlines earlier the week when he was suspended for life from the Shooto organization, and relinquished that group's heavyweight title, after punching a reporter. After the Kerr-Vovchanchin match was over, Antonio Inoki came to ringside and shook hands with Vovchanchin, which seemed to be the idea at that moment to build for a Vovchanchin vs. Naoya Ogawa match, although making that happen would probably require Vovchanchin agreeing to do the job.

The main event on the Pride show which drew 10,031 fans and aired in Japan on PPV (we'll have a complete report probably next week), saw Nobuhiko Takada win what is presumed to have been a worked match over fellow pro wrestler Alexander Otsuka of the Battlarts organization via ref stoppage at 11:32. To show how seriously Otsuka was taking this match, he did a pro wrestling match the night before.

Also on the show, former UFC heavyweight champ Maurice Smith beat the very first K-1 Grand Prix champion Bronko Cikatic in 7:33 with a forearm choke. Much of the match was on the ground, thus nullifying what should have been both men, as kickboxers, best skill. Smith, who trained for groundfighting under Frank Shamrock and more recently Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (who was in Smith's corner for the fight), dominated on the ground and won his first match ever via submission, using a forearm choke in a match described as poor.

Every other match on the show also included someone with a pro wrestling background. The opener saw Daijiro Matsui (Kingdom Pro Wrestling from the Takada Dojo) win via DQ over Bob Schreiber (formerly with RINGS) after an illegal kick of a downed opponent, Carl Malenko (currently with Battlarts) lost a unanimous decision after going the 25:00 time limit against highly ranked Brazilian Vanderlei Silva, Akira Shoji (who appears on the next Pancrase show) won a unanimous decision over Larry Parker (who has worked for Kingdom and USWF in the past), and Kazushi Sakuraba (UWFI/Kingdom/New Japan) defeated former UFC competitor Anthony Macias with an armbar at 12:30. Macias on paper was considered an easy opponent for Sakuraba, who wanted to show off and claimed he'd use the double arm suplex, popularized by among others, Billy Robinson, in this shot match. He dominated the match, tried a pro wrestling half boston crab (a move that is a legitimate move) and at one point did use a side suplex but couldn't get the double arm suplex. After the match, Alan Goes, who went to a draw with Sakuraba last year in Sakuraba's only blemish in Pride rings, came to the ring to tease a future rematch.

9/12 Yokohama Arena (Dream Stage Entertainment Pride Seven - 10,031): Daijiro Matsui b Bob Schreiber-DQ, Vanderlei Silva b Carl Malenko (Carl Ognibene), Enson Inoue b Tuli Kulihappai, Maurice Smith b Bronko Cikatic, Akira Shoji b Larry Parker, Kazushi Sakuraba b Anthony Macias, Mark Kerr NC Igor Vovchanchin, Nobuhiko Takada b Alexander Otsuka."

and

"Regarding the Takada deal, the heat on New Japan was that Takada cancelled on 8/19 but New Japan didn't announce it until several days later. Most objective observers of the situation are blaming the problem on New Japan announcing the match before actually signing Takada to a contract, because that's how wrestling was done for so many years in Japan (and the U.S. for that matter). They figured since Takada is a pro wrestler that they didn't need to actually have a contract. Takada never got the contract and signed instead with DSE for another match. Takada was supposed to do the job for Sasaki, but more than that, the big problem leading to the split seems to have been New Japan trying to cut back on the original money deal. They had a verbal agreement for Takada to work two Dome shows, losing on the first and winning on the second. DSE announced that any fan with an unused ticket for the 8/28 Jingu Stadium show would be able to bring it to the Yokohama Arena and get a free ticket, so there may have been some paper out on the Pride show. I doubt many people who bought tickets to Jingu didn't go since the building looked packed."

and

"Both Enson Inoue and his manager were handed down lifetime suspensions from the Shooto organization. Inoue, who was the group's heavyweight champion (the title was returned), allegedly punched a reporter with Houchi Sports, and it being not the first outburst of its type led to the suspension. Inoue will continue to appear with Pride and has sent feelers to Pancrase and RINGS as well."

September 30, 1999:

This is kind of interesting:

"MMA: Pancrase held a PPV show on 9/18 at Tokyo Bay NK Hall before 5,800 fans. The show was said to have been a success in the ring, but not a financial success. The crowd was heavily papered and they needed PPV revenue to make it (In Japan, PPV is in its infancy so Skyperfect TV, seeing the potential for the future, actually pays for events like Pancrase, UFC, Pride and Pro wrestling a flat fee which is more money than the shows now generate as a loss leader basically to introduce their station and the concept of PPV to the Japanese audience)."

and then

DAVE

GETS

TAPE

"JAPANESE TELEVISION RUNDOWN

9/12 DREAM STAGE ENTERTAINMENT PRIDE SEVEN: This was a four-hour long PPV show from Yokohama Arena. As Pride shows go, this was one of the best ones. The major problems with the format remains the lack of a stand-up rule, which allows matches to slow to a crawl on the ground for minutes on end, the ring and an apparent somewhat unfamiliarity with the rules of some competitors and a lack of sportsmanship of others, particularly the Europeans. A lot of people would include the worked main event as a problem, and as a sport, it's the biggest problem of all, but the economic reality is they need to keep the Japanese headliners with drawing power over and working some matches is inevitable. At least this worked match accomplished its desired purpose and was entertaining, even if far more transparent than some of the other recent worked matches. The matchmaking makes little sense, but since they tried to have pro wrestlers in as many matches as possible since they draw mainly from the pro wrestling audience, that explains some of it. 1. Daijiro Matsui, who started out as a pro wrestler in the Takada camp beat Bob Schreiber from The Netherlands via DQ at 10:00. This was a really exciting match, in some ways the best on the show because it was the wildest. Matsui was far more skilled, but Schreiber, whose nickname in Europe is apparently "The Pig," looked to have him by 25 pounds or so. The advantage went back-and-forth with a lot of punching, kicking and wrestling involved from both end and submission attempts that didn't work by Matsui. Schreiber did a football kick to the head at 4:30 which resulted in a first yellow card. At another point, when a time out was called since Matsui's gloves were coming off, as the ref was putting the gloves on, Schreiber gave Matsui a sucker punch. Schreiber did immediately apologize for this one. Matsui used a single leg on Schreiber, who fell through the ropes to the floor. With Schreiber on his back, Matsui was going for flying foot stomps, which has become the new Japanese technique to combat guys laying on their back (this would be illegal in UFC because you are kicking a downed opponent, but in Pride, you can kick a downed guy as long as you don't kick the head). Matsui also did some stomping on Schreiber's bare feet. Matsui was going for a heel hold but Schreiber was holding onto the ropes, which is illegal, to keep upright and punching down with the other hand. The bell rang to end the first round and after the bell, Schreiber delivered this totally vicious stomp to the back of Matsui's neck which knocked him out. This move was both vicious and dangerous enough that he shouldn't ever be brought back and resulted in a DQ. Matsui tried to go after him after the match but was held back. Needless to say, this totally blew away de la Hoya vs. Trinidad; 2. Vanderlei Silva beat Carl Malenko (Carl Ognibene), a regular pro wrestler in Japan with the Battlarts promotion, via decision after 20:00. Almost the entire match was on the ground. Malenko took him down right away but Silva reversed it. A brief stand-up saw Silva connect with several knees but none staggered Malenko, and Malenko took him down again. Silva threw more blows from the bottom than Malenko did from the top, and reversed him. They were on their feet momentarily again, with Silva throwing knees before it went back to the ground, where it stayed until the end of the first round. Silva dominated on the ground punching Malenko in the head and at one point nearly got a choke in. The second round was more of a ground stalemate. Malenko was on top but Silva was still throwing more blows. It was really boring. Silva reversed him at 6:40 and got his back again and rode him until the finish, throwing some punches. Silva won an easy decision in a match that wasn't entertaining; 3. In what was billed as a Contenders rules match (submissions legal, but not striking), Enson Inoue beat Tuli Kulihappai in about 90 seconds. Kulihappai was billed as a boxer from Tonga, so you can figure what this really was. Inoue wore a gi into the ring and tried to choke Kulihappai out with it (legal in judo [no, not in the way Dave seems to be suggesting here; also what a weird note to make! --ed.]), but wound up instead doing an armbar. Definitely a joke; 4. Maurice Smith beat Bronko Cikatic in 7:33 in a match of kickboxing legends. This wasn't a good match since you had two kickboxers, and most of the match was either on their feet in clinches or on the ground. Smith was fighting with a broken rib which he got three weeks ago in his K-1 match with Andy Hug. Cikatic, who is in his early 40s (Smith is 38), was not in good shape and didn't know what to do on the ground. Smith kept trying to take Cikatic down. Smith has trained with the Shamrocks in submissions on the ground but has done virtually no training in executing takedowns himself. Cikatic actually took Smith down with a cool hiplock takedown he probably saw watching pro wrestling, but had no idea what to do once he got him on the ground and Smith reversed it. Technically Smith won with a forearm choke, although it was probably more Cikatic wanting out of an uncomfortable situation on his back then a devastating submission; 5. Akira Shoji won a unanimous decision over Larry Parker after 20:00 regulation and a 5:00 overtime. Most of this match were the two locked up on the ground with neither getting much of an advantage. The few times they were standing, it seemed Shoji was doing better but there were no telling blows. Shoji got a good flurry in late in the second round. Shoji probably should have won the decision, but in Pride if it's considered close, they just rule it a draw first to put it into overtime. Shoji pretty well dominated the overtime with punches and takedowns and won the decision. This wasn't good; 6. Kazushi Sakuraba beat Anthony Macias in 12:30. The fans were entertained by this one. It appeared Sakuraba was somewhat carrying Macias, or maybe he just couldn't figure out how to put him away. Macias was more competitive than you'd think, getting some blows in and having some advantage time so it was a really exciting match. Plus, with Sakuraba, when he had the match in hand, doing pro wrestling spots, the crowd really loved it. Sakuraba built up in the press that he was going to use a double-arm suplex from pro wrestling in the shoot match but the opportunity never availed itself, and really, I don't know how you could pull that off very easily without cooperation. Sakuraba got a big pop doing a quick Lou Thesz Greco-roman backdrop and when they were on the ground doing Killer Khan Mongolian chops, and a form of a baseball slide kick along with a running double foot stomp when Macias was on his back. In the second round, Sakuraba didn't have the armbar all the way on, although it looked like it was about to be locked and Macias tapped; 7. Mark Kerr no contest Igor Vovchanchin in 14:45. Although there were slow spots, because they were big heavyweights, this was also a really good match. They had a good standing exchange early where Kerr hit a strong punch and threw a good knee. Vovchanchin, who is like Oleg Taktarov in that he's a Russian who bleeds easily and copiously, had a huge gross looking cut above his right eye and a smaller cut above the left. Vovchanchin came back and decked Kerr with a looping right hand. At this point, Kerr took him down and wanted to keep him there. Kerr was mainly concentrating on holding Vovchanchin down, while Vovchanchin, caught under Kerr's weight, mainly continually would punch Kerr right in the ear. This continued in the second round with Kerr scoring explosive takedowns, but Vovchanchin from the bottom punching Kerr's ear. This was very similar to the Bas Rutten vs. Kevin Randleman match except minus the first 5:00 where Randleman gave Rutten a serious beating even though from a blood standpoint it looked similar as well. The finish saw Vovchanchin escape from the bottom. He never actually took Kerr down, but Kerr shot and he sprawled and threw a knee on the shot, and when Kerr went down, threw two more knees, the second of which appeared to knock Kerr out. The two knees were illegal under Pride rules. At first the ref ruled Vovchanchin the winner via the knockout. Kerr got up and protested citing the blows were illegal. Backstage the result of the match was changed to a no contest. Kerr himself admitted that had the match gone the distance, he was going to lose the decision; 8. In a worked pro shoot style wrestling match, Nobuhiko Takada beat Alexander Otsuka of Battlarts in 11:32. The crowd enjoyed it since Otsuka was there to show that their hero Takada, really wasn't a paper myth. Otsuka opened trying a dropkick to the knee. He also tried a cobra twist, which was to buzz Antonio Inoki at ringside (when Inoki was shown to the crowd on the video screen there was a huge pop as you'd expect). Otsuka took him down and tried a half boston crab (Sakuraba also teased going for that move against Macias). This was actually from a psychology standpoint very similar to a 50s or 60s world title pro wrestling match except using different positions and moves as the high spots between the actual wrestling. In that comparison of style, I just saw a tape of a 1952 Thesz vs. Verne Gagne match and this match, with a similar psychology, was a better match than that one. Takada tried a fisherman suplex, but was blocked, not in an exaggerated pro wrestling form but in a more realistic looking form, and Otsuka hit the move to a huge pop. The two threw a lot of spectacular looking kicks but you could see they never punched or kicked the face. In the second round, Otsuka opened throwing a dropkick that Takada sidestepped. Takada came back with kicks and went for a guillotine, but Otsuka popped his head out. Finally Takada did the big finish, pounding away at Otsuka on the ground and choking him out. This can be viewed as a more modernized version of the late 80s UWF and early 90s UWFI wrestling style that had some majority popularity peaks in Japan."

Well I enjoyed that! And I am eager to get to Pride 8, for its own sake certainly (Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Royler Gracie), but also because it will bring us all the nearer the Pride GP 2000 Tokyo Dome shows, which mark the completion of Pride FC's transition from a Nobuhiko Takada vehicle (not a bad thing!) to something greater still. We are about to enter the stage where Pride becomes unmistakably Pride, even if there has been very little mistaking it for anything but Pride so far, either. Let's explore this together! Thank you as ever and always for your time and attention; please take care. Please allow me to close with a screen-cap I made a moment ago and don't have any other place for, really. Ok bye! More soon!