PRIDE.12（プライド・トゥエルブ）2000年12月23日

PRIDE.12
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2000年12月23日
開催地日本
埼玉県さいたま市
会場 さいたまスーパーアリーナ
開始時刻午後4時
試合数全9試合
放送局フジテレビ（地上波）
入場者数26,882人

"SUDDENLY, IN AN INSTANT, YOU RECOGNIZE THE ROOT SOURCE: your own nature, the nature of others, the nature of living beings, the nature of afflictions, the nature of enlightenment, the nature of Buddhas, the nature of spirits, the nature of bodhisattvas, the nature of the created, the nature of the uncreated, the nature of the ultimate end, the nature of the sentient, the nature of the insentient, the nature of ghosts, the nature of titans, the nature of beasts, hells, heavens, polluted lands, and pure lands -- you see through them all at once, without exception, finishing the great task and passing through birth and death. How could it not be pleasant?" It's a fair question! It's also fair to ask, I think, if there's any way PRIDE.12 could be the equal of PRIDE.11, which turned out to be far more pleasant (since it was pleasantness we spoke of only moments ago as we fixed our gaze on The Undying Lamp of Zen, Thomas Cleary's able and artful translation of the testament of 東嶺円慈 Tōrei Enji) than even the rightly celebrated PRIDE.10, which had quite possibly been the most pleasant of all these shows so far only to have its pleasantness surpassed, its pleasantness-position superseded, almost at once. But let us approach this PRIDE.11 with open hearts and a hopeful disposition. It's the first one from the さいたまスーパーアリーナ Saitama Super Arena! It was then quite newly opened! That much is neat at least! And there are quite a few interesting names here. Also if anything drags I have a few things in mind I thought we could talk about! Hey wait this show is like four hours long; there may indeed by time. Commentary will be handled by Stephen Quadros and a returning Bas Rutten, whilst Holocaust-denier Eddie Bravo has been relegated to impossibly corny backstage reportage. As this event takes place but two nights before Christmas (Christmas Eve Eve! your Christmas Eve chowder should already be cooling on the deck!), "Santa Clause is Coming to Town" plays for the Saitaima Super Arena (super) crowd whilst "The Pride Girls" enter as elves, of a kind; the overall feel, perhaps surprisingly, is not merry but instead low-key dystopian. That feel gets kicked way up when the stage and entrance ramp are revealed to have been repurposed from a (not-unsikk) Ministry video (not really [except maybe]):

We are spared the parade of fighters (maybe we don't want to be spared?) and yet we are shown individual ring entrances this time, and what are individual ring entrances but mini-parades of fighters and their guys? If given the choice between the complete parade of fighters and complete ring entrances, it will not surprise you to learn, I am sure, that I would take complete ring entrances every time, even when, I was about to say, they are racist ones (Sakuraba as Super Mario was pretty neat except for how they made Kevin Randleman Donkey Kong [Youtube comment: crunchzor 7 years ago "Do you know if they made a good entrance for Kevin? They didn't show his on the copy of the event I saw."]), but before I could finish the sentence (and include its attendant linkages), Alexander Otsuka's second shows up as I guess a kind of witch doctor waving a bone around. 

So that's a shame. I would describe Guy Mezger's entrance, by contrast, as somewhat restrained. The crowd remains enormously into Otsuka, as well they should, given his 両膝固 ryo-hiza-gatame double arm-lock (literally "both knees lock" but let us not succumb to a coarse literalism) last time out. Oh dear, though: Otsuka has been stopped in but 1:54, which should not really surprise us, I guess, as Guy Mezger is pretty good. After the initial elation that follows his win, Mezger visits genuine tenderness upon Alexander Otsuka, for which we must salute him.

Ricardo Almeida vs. 小路晃 Shoji Akira opens with a crowd-pleasing (I am in this instance the crowd) flying knee from Shoji but soon settles into the sort of bout whose pace is conducive to digression and so let me first digress into the subject of John Wick, which we spoke of in our previous entry on the occasion of four-time (eventually!) Olympic judo gold medalist 野村 忠宏 Nomura Taduhiro's ring-sidedness last time out. We even had pictures of Nomura awarding John Wick (not Keanu Reeves!) an honourary black belt; it was really great. A matter I intended to raise with you at that time but which unfortunately slipped my mind concerns the complexities of Kevin Nash appearing in the first film in the role (indeed le rôle) of Francis the doorman (I have seen the eternal Kevin Nash hold my coat, and snicker [wait that's a footman]). To begin, the performance was masterful. But does not his presence in the film necessarily imply that within the subcreation (in Tolkien's sense, please see On Fairy Stories) of John Wick, no Kevin Nash in the "Big Daddy Cool" sense can exist? This is to say, the cinematographic fact (Truffaut's term that I am using incorrectly) of Kevin Nash as Francis the doorman precludes the possibility of anyone at all (within that world of assassins and hoteliers) putting Bret Hart through a table that one time but then pitying him and hesitating with the jackknife powerbomb only to be sneakily packaged and pinned by a possum-playing Bret Hart and then yell MVTHRFVKKR for he had been "had" in an enormously compelling moment of art and physical culture? It's a grim thought, right? You thought it was sad enough about the dog (it is). And Almeida and Shoji are doing great, actually: Shoji is a spirited man of grappling-action, and Almeida is eager as well. This is somehow Almeida's first fight, which is surprising to me. Looking him up now, it's wild that he only ever had eighteen professional matches; he seemed to be around forever and to fight not infrequently but this is perhaps an illusion created by how all of his matches were on high-profile shows and maybe also by how one of his last fights was against T. J. Grant, who is of Cole Harbour NS and so I would have paid attention to that and been, at the time, like "man Ricardo Almeida is still around!" The most pleasing individual 技 waza in this match, to me, is Shoji's major inner reap of 大内刈 ouchi-gari (it was just lovely) but Almeida is rightly awarded the win by unanimous decision on the grounds of how he grappled more ably and also busted Shoji up through hitting. Renzo Gracie, in Almeida's corner, is so happy. I have learned that Almeida has schools in New Jersey and Pennsylvania now, and I hope they are doing well (or as well as anyone's schools can do right now [if they can even continue to exist, that would be remarkable]). 

Heath Herring vs Enson Inoue seems like a great idea. Herring most recently defeated Tom Erikson in a way that was exciting; Inoue most recently lost to Vovchanchyn in a way that was upsetting. They come out swinging, like swinging, but in an instant Herring has Inoue down and comes awfully close to the entangled arm-lock of 腕緘 ude-garami from the side. Inoue either has really flexible arms for a guy of his size or is just so hepped up right now that it's not bothering him as much as it's bothering me. Herring looks up at the referee and seems to say words to the effect that if the referee does not stop the match, Herring will break the arm, but neither of these things happen, and Herring abandons the hold and soon enough they're back on their feet. Inoue attempts something between a 捨身技 sutemi-waza (sacrifice throw) and a guard pull and there he sits, getting punched up after the fleetingest thought of 腕挫腕固 ude-hishigi-ude-gatame, that straightest of all straight arm-locks, passed through his mind, you could see it just whisper its way along. Herring passes to the side without much trouble and lands just enough knees (true PRIDE knees) to Inoue's head to force the referee's hand. Inoue is surprised that the match was stopped but does not make a big fuss about it, as that is not his way, and probably also not the Way, either, so good for him. I think Enson Inoue is neat. 

Eddie Bravo, who one time began to say things so objectionable about the Me Too movement that Joe Rogan -- Joe Rogan -- had to cut him off to save him, is backstage to ask if Carlos Newton "plan[s] on dictating the fight." Newton, who is famously nice, refers this question to his coach rather than even bother with it. His opponent, other than that question, is Johil de Oliveira, a luta livre fighter and Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt I have no recollection of whatsoever (no diss, the fault is mine). I see that aside from a handful of matches in Japan, Oliveira competed almost exclusively in Brazil, and that is never a scene I was up on at all. A quick takedown by Newton leads to some crowd-pleasing grappling exchanges of position and 関節技 kansetsu-waza (BONE LOCKING) attacks; the crowd claps politely at appropriate intervals. Oliveira seems to favour leg-locks, which, if I understand this correctly from one of my students who is a Brazilian jiu-jitsu black belt, is not unusual amongst luta livre fighters, but this whole suite of attacks was once denounced by those of the Gracie lineage as "shoemaker's" techniques, with a strong emphasis on class in that pejorative (it's not just about feet, though that is present also in this meanness). If I have any of that wrong I am sure it is because I am misremembering, rather than that my student has misinformed me. Newton is able to pass to the side without too much trouble, but when he tries to come right up on top into 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame, Oliveira is able to scooch impressively out of trouble (or out of as much trouble as might otherwise trouble him). Quadros explains that knees to the head are legal if one's opponent is facing up, but not, say, if he is in the turtle position (亀 kame) or indeed the flounder (鮃 hirame). Although Quadros does not say any of these creature names I think it is important to, and hope that you agree. Surely we must be getting closer to the full-on PRIDE KNEE era? I would never have told you it took this long to get there; I remembered it coming into effect soon after the events depicted in The Smashing Machine but this is evidently not so. A curious business!

Carlos Newton got the best of the first round, but Oliveira did well, too. These are too appealing fighters who do extra bows, like bows when you don't even really need to do bows, but when it is nice to do bows. This makes me think of the great 棟田 康幸 Muneta Yasuyuki, two-time world champion (also had a silver one time!), who would bow deeply to the referee and hold it when he didn't really even need to at all, but it was quite winning; and then he'd do something like this, or indeed the second thing I will also post beneath the first one: 

His first world championship, 2003 Osaka, included a win over Tamerlan Tmenov (RUS), who I mention here because of the extent to which I still lament the complete disappearance of a great photograph of Tmenov training judo with Fedor Emelianenko (Russian: Фёдор Влади́мирович Емелья́ненко, tr. Fyodor Vladimirovich Yemelyanenko) from the internet; I couldn't even tell you how many times I have tried to find it, but given the overall vibe of these hundreds of thousands of words we have shared together, you have a sense. 

This second round is far less dynamic than the first, with Newton betwixt Oliveira's legs but doing little to pass, nor is he seemingly at any risk of getting swept or anything. A restart and a pair of yellow cards surprises no one. They pick up the pace, as instructed, but the story of the second round, were we to impose narrative upon a sequence of events that may not warrant it (but I mean, that's the game), we might well say Newton, having clearly won the first round, cruised to an easy and perhaps unduly cautious win in comfort throughout the second. Not a bad bout to watch at all but not up to the kind of otherworldly beauty (and yet the figures never appear weightless) we have come to expect of Carlos Newton matches. He is announced as being from the U.K. which is a weird thing to say about a guy from Newmarket! "Love that hair, Bas," is Stephen Quadros's final comment; "You gotta love it," Bas adds, "like Seal." 

From there, Carlos Newton pleases the crowd with his ドラゴンボール Doragon Bōru かめはめ 波 は kamehameha (they really seem to like it! they are like, look at this nice fellow from Newmarket, Ontario! he is earnest and somewhat square in ways that are endearing and admirable!), and yells both Happy New Year and Merry Christmas as he bows. SO ENDS FILE ONE OF THREE OF THIS VERY LONG SHOW.

FILE TWO IT IS, THEN, and we have Wanderlei Silva (styled here Vanderlei Silva) against Dan Henderson, though, if I may presume, this is probably not the Wanderlei Silva vs. Dan Henderson that you're thinking of (that Wanderlei Silva vs. Dan Henderson abides, but we will attend to it in the fullness of time [if we are spared {and if not, we've got bigger problems}]). This is, instead the one that, if you are at all like me, the one you had totally forgotten existed! Wanderlei Silva right now looks like an artist's conception of Wanderlei Silva that embodies the energy but not the actuality of Wanderlei Silva, except for in this instance this is the actuality of Wanderlei Silva, and it is a doozy:

What on earth, right? This is Dan Henderson's first mixed fight since his RINGS 2/26/00 WORLD MEGA-BATTLE OPEN TOURNAMENT KING OF KINGS GRAND FINAL at 日本武道館 Nippon Budōkan earlier in the year (detailed here). And it is action packed! This match I mean! Wanderlei slugs Dan Henderson to the mat! And they stay down there for a while until they stand up and Dan Henderson does likewise! Silva has quite a cut, and so he is checked on a little (that's nice). Things settle in for a moment or two but once they are standing again, Wanderlei is right back to slugging, and, after a mighty knee to "the guts" from the clinch, knees Henderson illegally to the head whilst sprawling atop him. The replay suggests, or at the very least Bas Rutten suggests (informed by that replay), that the knee didn't actually land, and that Dan Henderson is being a big faker. I think the video evidence itself is inconclusive, but that the way Henderson reacted is damning, in that it looks super fake. Some of these Team Quest guys are sneaky! You've got to watch out! Right, Cory?

Henderson spends way longer than you'd think on his back, with Wanderlei throwing these awful (in that I feel awe at them) kicks into his legs and sometimes right passed his legs and into his face (that's a long way passed). And now he's right up on top in 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame and pounding away; and now he stands right up in order to stomp Dan Henderson's face a little. The referee intervenes, but it is to tell Wanderlei not to grab the ropes, not to plead with him to recover whatever might remain of his humanity. Round two continues along similar, if less drastic lines, as Henderson is unable to take Wanderlei down without Wanderlei ending up on top and then, you know, the hitting. Henderson's wrestling was always kind of an enigma, right? Two-time Olympian in Greco-Roman, and a top-ten finish once time, but you'd see him getting taken down by Murilo Bustamante and Kazuo Misaki, both of whom are wonderful grapplers but far less distinguished in terms of distinguishments (aka distinctions). Wanderlei is just all over him here. A drubbing. As is recognized formally at the end of the round. SHOULD BE NO TROUBLE SENDING SAKURABA IN AGAINST THIS GUY, RIGHT DREAM STAGE ENTERTAINMENT PRESIDENT NAOTO MORISHITA? But does Dream Stage Entertainment President Naoto Morishita listen? No; no he rarely does.

Following a several minute review of this evening's event up to this midpoint, an exceedingly long recap of the story of PRIDE so far is delivered with just a bonkers energy, and nothing quite idiomatic about any of it. Mark Kerr (pronouned here "Carr") was just described as "the most powerful specie" [singular]; "his armour is his heavy muscles," we learn. The narration is indescribable, other than to say that it is the speech-act equivalent of this image:

  
I think we're going to be here for a while so what better time to move on to the second topic I wanted to bring up shouldst things lag, and that is hey those Dark Side of the Ring shows have been pretty good, haven't they? Well I mean they vary, don't they, but the best ones are totally good, and the worst ones are entirely appropriate to have on your precariously-balanced phone while you do the dishes (consider, if you will, a dedicated "phone-plate"). They are done by Dartmouth, NS's Jason Eisner, best known for Hobo With A Shotgun, a fake trailer (from Grindhouse! which I really liked! it was just me and my brother and like three other guys in the theatre that day though!) that became a real movie with Rutger Hauer (R.I.P.). Let's go through them and see which ones were best, surely there is a list around here somewhere . . . okay yes here we go: from the first season, I guess it was more or less fifty/fifty, wasn't it, as the Randy Savage/Elizabeth episode, the Montreal Screwjob one, and the Fabulous Moolah episode were all I guess fine (though it must be said that the Montreal one added nothing to the definitive sources [Wrestling with Shadows, that one incredibly long Observer issue, Bret Hart's incomparable Hitman book] aside from foolishness), whereas the Bruiser Brody one made you so sad for poor old Tony Atlas (to say nothing of Bruiser or the widow Brody), the Gino Hernandez was seedy and dangerous, and the Kevin Von Erich episode was among the best documentaries I've seen about wrestling at all; he comes across as just the loveliest guy. The Benoit two-parter that opened the second season covered pretty well everything you'd think and did so, well, pretty well (I would say here "what's up" to my old internet friend MRV who did a really good job on it!); the New Jack episode didn't do much for me (I don't have much interest in ECW, which is weird for someone of my exact age who cares about any of this stuff even slightly, but there you have it); the Brawl for All episode revealed a surprisingly compelling Bart Gunn at its centre; Jimmy Snuka one-hundred-percent murdered that young woman; and "The Assassination of Dino Bravo" gave you a total feel for the city and the time, the very particular nature of it all, with the mafia, the biker gangs, the cigarettes being run through First Nations, the whole deal, a complete triumph of a documentary about Dino Bravo, easily ****+. I might watch that one again! They're all just on Youtube, it's no big deal to find them at all. 

AND WE'RE BACK to find the increasingly compelling 藤田 和之 Fujita Kazuyuki stride to the ring to Inoki's theme, looking comferz/cozerz as can be in his INOKI-ISM robe which is like the Costanza-coat of ring-entrance attire, look at this glorious thing:

That last one is not of INOKI-ISM but of Antonio Inoki himself, which is related, and yet slightly different in a way? Unless not, though; unless not; though. Something I did not at all appreciate the first time I watched all of these shows years and years ago is Antonio Inoki's enormous influence over all of this, and not in an abstract sense along the lines of "the long U.W.F. arises not out of a rejection of N.J.P.W./Antonio Inoki strong-style; on the contrary it is its reification" (although that is true and, and to a certain extent self-evident) but in a perfectly direct way; like, he's literally right there. Voici un soupçon of the January 8, 2001 Observer, which I will excerpt more fully later, but for now: "It's funny, because a few years ago, Antonio Inoki seemed like one of those wrestling icons that were revered in the culture, but also, in a rapidly changing world, was hopelessly out of date when it came to booking ideas. He had the typical old-timer attitude, repeat the ideas that made him a top guy, which was paying guys from other combat sports to lay down and create a super hero, in this case Naoya Ogawa, who would get over by never doing jobs. Just over one year ago, Inoki's UFO promotion, based around this concept, couldn't sell tickets, and couldn't even give tickets away, trying to recreate this concept using karate and shootfighters working some terrible pro wrestling matches before putting his star over. And now, a few years later, Inoki's booking ideas with Dream Stage Entertainment are the hottest thing in the industry. Coming off one of the most successful year-long programs in Japanese wrestling history with Kazushi Sakuraba against the Gracies, two years after making Ogawa into a huge draw in the feud with Shinya Hashimoto, he's now brought it all back to the world which he came from, using shooters for realistic pro wrestling matches with his 'Inoki Bon Ba Ye' spectacular on New Years Eve at the Osaka Dome."

This is all tremendous, of course. For now (the now of then), here (there) is Kazuyuki Fujita, Inoki's young charge, fearlessly charging in against the ever-dangerous Gilbert Yvel, who last time out got kicked in the groin unto ruin by Wanderlei Silva. It has been several months, though. Fujita is so loved by these crowds; why didn't I remember this? His Japanese-national-champioship-at-98kg-level 双手刈 morote-gari is more than enough to put Yvel on his back, and from there he works towards the arm entanglement of 腕緘 ude-garami. Though he does not obtain it, I would not characterize it as fruitless, as it gave Yvel something to think about throughout. The round ends with Fujita the clear winner. The second begins with a high, lifting 双手刈 morote-gari that delights us all. I had neglected to mention to you that Don Frye (one time he was like, "to oversimplify, wrestling is pushing, and judo is pulling," and it is like yeah that is oversimplifying but at the same time you can totally see what he's saying; also he was really nice to my friend Miguel aka Mike aka HARPO at a show one time so I have a fairly high opinion of Don Frye for all kinds of reasons) is Fujita's second, but he announces as much himself by growling out ARMBAR, ARMBAR, CHOKE HIM at appropriate times throughout the round. After a restart standing and a yellow card, Yvel lands one truly square and one pretty solid flying knee, but Fujita is unfazed by either. It is utterly absurd that Fujita was not finished by the worst of those two, let alone the one that was right on target, but here he stands, or rather lies (atop Yvel [who has got to be like "lol well what can you say"]). Three minutes left in the round, and a clear win for Fujita if things hold. I will take this opportunity as things slow down a bit to go back and tell you something I had meant to tell you previously, and that is that the one Suspect Video clerk I mentioned to you specifically in the PRIDE.10 post who was ashamed to not have The Karate Kid on either VHS or dvd, that same excellent clerk, were one to rent a Chō Sentō Puroresu FMW tape, would be like "hey do you know about Mr. Pogo?" In time, we would (now there's a guy who was especially well-served by the Observer obituary treatment; great coverage, Dave!). I would also at this time like to say what's up to BAHU, whose devotion to FMW has never waned for as long as I have been on the internet, I don't think. Though FMW and RINGS in a sense couldn't have been any more different, is it not the great Fumi Saito himself who argues that Akira Maeda and Atsushi Onita can only be properly understood of two sides of the same 1990s Japanese independent promotion-coin? I have not said that elegantly. Fujita by decision! 

Ricco Rodriguez is up next against John Marsh, who is unknown to me. Marsh comes in off of losses to two fairly great fighters, Josh Barnett and Jeremy Horn. No shame in either of those, that's for sure. I think the first UFC show I went to see at a bar in Toronto (no idea what it was called, but I think it was at Yonge and Eglington, a neighbourhood which I was only ever in once or twice and which felt completely alien to the Toronto I lived in) was the Chuck Liddell/Jeremy Horn title fight, the show with Georges St-Pierre over Frank Trigg on the undercard; I wonder which one that was . . . okay yeah UFC 54 (8/20/05). Randy Couture defeated Mike Van Arsdale on that show (how clearly I remember that 逆肩固 gyaku-kata-gatame in the manner of the anaconda choke!), and I see that two UFCs before that, he defeated John Marsh by decision, this selfsame John Marsh who is being leaned on in a corner right now by Ricco Rodriguez. It is all of a piece, all of these things that are obviously of a piece. HERE BEGINS FILE THREE OF THREE and I really am surprised by how long this show is. As the round ends, Ricco is on top of John Marsh, delivering knees to the body from niju-garami/half-guard, which I feel like you don't see that often? I have yet to mention that Ricco's second once again is Nobuhiko Takada, which continues to be a bold move. I also had not yet mentioned that John Marsh has the appearance -- the appearance -- of one who has partaken of vast quantities of testosterone, though if that were the case I think the relevant governing bodies would have stepped in so it has to be something else. The weirdness of the current rules regarding PRIDE KNEES comes to the fore once again when Ricco has Marsh in the "north/south" position of 上四方固 kami-shiho-gatame and, because Marsh is facing up, knees to his head are fair game, whereas were his tummeroo pointed matward, these would be fouls. So weird! Marsh manages to bridge up and create a scramble during one of these kneeings, and actually gets right back up to his feet for a bit, though they're right back down very shortly thereafter. I don't know how many times now Ricco has tried the "can opener" kubi-hishigi in the last two minutes, but it's been a bunch of them! And every time, Marsh opens his legs, but Ricco doesn't move to pass. This is an easy decision win for Ricco but it really dragged. Ricco scoops up one of the "Pride Girls" and carries her around the ring and the commentary is like haha that's an occupational hazard I guess haha which is not enlightened. 

IGOR VOVCHANCHYN VS. MARK KERR FOR THE FIRST TIME SINCE THAT TIME THAT WAS DEPICTED IN THE SMASHING MACHINE which you will perhaps recall (from The Smashing Machine) was initially ruled a win for Igor Vovchanchyn due to a tumult of knees but which was in time ruled a no contest due to that very same tumult. Igor's first sprawl makes it look like Mark Kerr could be in major trouble in this one except that like a second later Kerr finishes the takedown pretty tidily, in fact, and so we enter a guy getting somewhat punched from guard. The match is stopped for a moment because of a little Igor headbutt to Kerr's eye (a headbutt from the bottom!) but all is quickly rejoined. A cellphone rings. Autumn deepens. (I guess they are a couple of days into winter; that's how deep autumn got.) Igor is really good at tying up people's arms from here, and Mark Kerr has been what you would call "a passer," so frankly ("don't call me Frankly" haha) there's not a lot here despite, you know, both teams playing hard. Referee 島田 裕二 Shimada Yūji, known to us since the days of Fighting Network RINGS, and assumed by all to be at least a little crooked (this may be unfair but I speak here of assumptions alone), restarts the fighters standing after awarding each a yellow card of 指導 shidō ((noun) leadership; guidance; coaching; disciplinary action for a minor infringement of the rules of judo). In a moment or so, they're right back where they were, and a moment or so after that, the さいたまスーパーアリーナ Saitama Super Arena crowd turns on this match as harshly as I can recall happening in any PRIDE match to date; they just hate it. Rutten is of the view that whatever this may be, it isn't a fight, exactly. Quadros feels that the only person who could get away with fighting this way and not raise the crowd's ire would be Fujita -- a fair point, to which I would add only that Grom Zaza (Zaza "Grom" Tkeshelashvili, Georgian: ზაზა ტყეშელაშვილი) extremely got away with this sort of behaviour against Ricardo Morais at RINGS 12/23/97: WORLD MEGA-BATTLE TOURNAMENT 1997: SEMI-FINALS (detailed here) but which I think we will actually revisit in its entirety right now because nothing is happening except Mark Coleman yelling KERR YOU CAN PASS YOU CAN PASS (Kerr does not pass). And away we go (begin snippet):

OK HERE WE GO RICARDO MORAIS VS. GROM ZAZA IN WHAT WILL SURELY BE A SHOOT ARE YOU READY HOW CAN ANY OF US TRULY BE I MEAN LOOK AT THESE GUYS:

I always think of this as the Fire Pro angle, forgive me

The rules are vale tudo and so as soon as Grom gets Morais down (this happens absolutely immediately) he can also throw wild Zaza blows; it is thrilling, and the people thrill to it. Soon enough, Morais establishes the "guard" favoured by his people (it will forever be hikikomi to me) and Zaza is not really in much of a (dis)position to pass it as such but instead seems ready to merely lay atop his foe. For how long, Grom Zaza? For as long as it takes, Grom Zaza answers from the mouth of his cannon. The people are with him, though: all he does is scooch slightly, and they are like hwwwaaaaaaiiiiii clapclapclapclap. He takes a notion to pass, I think, which gives Morais just enough space to scramble out, but guess who is going to win a scramble between Ricardo Morais and Georgian Freestyle Wrestling 100+kg Olympian Zaza Tkeshelashvili aka GROM ZAZA yeah that's right Grom Zaza is going to and in fact did. I would understand if others--people, say, who were neither present this night in Fukuoaka, nor me--watching this would think it dull or uneventful but to me, right now, and I believe also to the crowd on hand, there is such purity to this laying. Every little tap of a punch that Zaza lands is met with such heartwarming approval. Maybe RINGS fans really don't care for the enormous foreign fellow who brutalized and embarrassed Yoshihisa Yamamoto? And like Grom Zaza better here for that reason alongside the usual reasons for liking Grom Zaza? Morais really has nothing at all for Zaza on the mat, like nothing, as Zaza hangs out in niju-garami or "half-guard" for much of what remains of our time here on earth. And lest you think Morais is, whilst enormous, a sheer chump of some kind, he is only a few months away, here in late 1997, from taking second-place in the open-weight division at the ADCC Submission Wrestling World Championship (I am listed as a source in the very wikipedia article I am checking right now so it is circles within circles, stay woke). 

Morais is finally able to get to his side, a little, but so near the ropes is he and indeed are they that Yuji Shimada wants them to schooch in and restart from the same position, which leads to a scramble, a takedown, yet more laying, and rousing chants of ZAZA ZAZA ZAZA . . . and of course I agree. The bell rings! It is has been thirty minutes of this! Zaza takes the obvious decision! And does a front handspring and a kip-up in celebration before he is hoisted aloft by Volk Han! In fact, Georgian Olympic Wrestling is strong!

(end snippet)

WE RETURN TO THE PRESENT BY WHICH I MEAN THE PAST BUT WHICH IS ALSO THREE YEARS TO THE DAY OF THE FUTURE AFTER VOLK HAN HOISTED GROM ZAZA ALOFT and the people of Saitama continue to have no time for Mark Kerr versus Igor Vovchanchyn, and it's like, even the crowd itself can't believe how little time they have for Mark Kerr versus Igor Vovchanchyn. Things get borderline exciting for maybe thirty seconds or so, as Igor gets Mark Kerr's back and clubbers slightly and Mark Kerr tries to snag a 逆腕絡 gyaku-ude-garami in a like manner to that snagged by Kazushi Sakuraba against Renzo Gracie two PRIDES ago but if anything the crowd seems to hate it more because it got exciting briefly? At the end of the second ten-minute round, the bout is ruled a draw, which necessitates a five-minute overtime round, and the crowd cheers but the vibe is weird. Mark Coleman's instructions from the corner begin to close-in on B.J. Penn-coaching-Andy-Wang levels of unheeded pleading. Igor tags Kerr early and has his back, not in a "hooks in for grappling" way but a "leaning on him for hitting" way. Kerr is fading fast (I get it) and Igor is emboldened (I get it). Kerr gets a leg and ends up on top and the crowd is like oh come on like in a way where they can't believe they are not at home right now. Igor takes the decision. 

Renzo Gracie tells us backstage, and then in the ring, that his brother Ryan, scheduled to face Kazushi Sakuraba in the main event, recently suffered an injury to his biceps from what sounds like a freak horsing-around accident (we have all been there), but that Ryan will nevertheless appear in the match despite doctors' orders. Okey doke. I do not mean to speak ill of the dead when I say that in the absence of a long-wished-for but never-gonna-happen bout against Rickson, the Sakuraba vs. The Gracies program(me) plainly ended with Sakuraba vs. Renzo, and nobody that I am aware of was ever clamouring for Sakuraba vs. Ryan Gracie (maybe I am mistaken about this). But it's a Sakuraba match, and we are still very much in the era wherein those are uniformly cheering, rather than super dark, so let's enjoy! Here is how Sakuraba and tha boiz rolled up to the ring (we are not given the full entrance in this instance, to my disappointment):

In deference to Gracie's injury, the bout will be contested as a single ten-minute round; also in deference to his injury, he is wearing a bunch of tape around his shoulder, some of it a pleasing soft blue. His knees are pretty taped up, too, actually. Ryan is super aggressive as ever, but the big rush he comes out in lands him in the exact same position that cost Renzo dearly (in terms of arms) last time. Quadros tells us that Sakuraba has said he did not train especially hard for this match, and that Ryan Gracie is really nothing special. I don't know that these are direct quotes but "where's the lie," as the kids might have it. Not a great opening few minutes, really, as Sakuraba and Gracie will get into these semi-weird standing grappling positions, but then both stop working completely and just hold their grips, seemingly afraid to commit to anything lest they mess it up. Sakuraba, in time, half-gets the back, and attempts to "choke the face" but there's not much there (other than "squished face"). Soon thereafter, Sakuraba has Gracie tied up niftily in a form of 袈裟固 kesa-gatame (the scarf hold [the scarf in question is a Buddhist's surplice]:

Stephen Quadros offers the following: "Sakuraba told me three days ago, and I'll quote him, 'I am not ready for the fight.'" Gracie scrambles back to his feet with about three minutes to go, but Sakuraba takes him down with a 引込返 hikikomi-gaeshi (some would say 隅返 sumi-gaeshi) sacrifice technique from a 逆腕絡 gyaku-ude-garami grip, not unlike the way 木村 政彦 Kimura Masahiko might have done (and indeed did):

It's never close, and Sakuraba cruises to a one-round decision win. Near the end, he literally spanks Ryan Gracie, but in a way that seems sort of friendly rather than humiliating? We would have to ask Ryan about that. Alas we cannot, because of how things turned out for him. And on that somber note we turn somberly towards what Dave Meltzer may or may not have said:
  
January 1, 2001:

Reviewing Wrestler of the Year candidates alongside Angle, Benoit, Rock, HHH, Kawada, Misawa: 

"Kazushi Sakuraba - Probably the most intriguing candidate, particularly after he was voted by a 15-3 margin over Kawada in the balloting for Japanese MVP last week. First off with Sakuraba, you have to answer the question as to whether or not he should be eligible. Those who follow Japanese wrestling closely will answer affirmatively without question, and can't even understand why there is any controversy here with the result. The fact he won answers it resoundingly. But an Observer Live poll on the subject saw 60% think he should not have even been eligible for the Japanese MVP award because of the belief he is not a pro wrestler. In our own awards descriptions over the past few years, there is no question, as it specifically states, "The top award, Wrestler of the Year, is for overall excellence in whatever craft your company is presenting and value to that company over the past year." In another section it states, "Performance in shoot matches can be taken into consideration for Wrestler of the Year, since that award encompasses the entire pro wrestling world." In the past, when UFC was much stronger on PPV and more important to the world pro wrestling scene, UFC performers have been considered, with Ken Shamrock cracking the top ten in 1995 and both Mark Coleman and Dan Severn in 1996. But it still becomes a hard comparison point. In some ways, because Sakuraba actually had to beat his opponents to be a top guy and top draw, it makes him even more impressive, not that the other guys have things handed to them, but if a company wants to go with them, it's a hell of an advantage, and his win streak against top guys all year (and his lone loss) say something. His match with Royce Gracie may be the most historically significant match of this year. In what he does, you can't work the kind of a schedule and without PPV in Japan being at the level of the U.S., he hasn't drawn the money a WWF star can put on the boards. His TV ratings for his big matches are higher than the WWF guys, but they do it weekly and he only has a few big matches during a year. The fact he drew what he did, got the awards that he did, and was a 185-pound guy makes it all the more remarkable. Really, Naoya Ogawa has drawn the biggest ratings draw of them all, but he's not getting any consideration. It's hard to believe there will be a year where someone will be so dominant in shoot matches and score so many high profile wins and draw the gates in doing so that Sakuraba did. But it's so difficult to make a fair comparison of him with the other candidates. It comes down to the fact Pride had a banner year and wasn't anywhere near that strong a company until this year and he was the most valuable in Pride's growth. Is taking a company that was never considered a major factor to where it became in many ways the No. 2 company in the industry more valuable than being a breakthrough media star in the No. 1 company, a great in-ring performer who drew huge money all year in the No. 1 company, or being the man who saved from death and kept afloat a once-strong company?"

and

"Sakuraba continued his mastery of the Gracie family with a decision win over an injured Ryan Gracie before a sellout of 26,882 fans paying probably in the $3 million range for Pride 12 at the Saitama Super Arena in Tokorazawa on 12/23.

One of the final major shows of the technical century pretty well harkened back to one of the first big matches of the century, the second Frank Gotch vs. George Hackenschmidt match from 1911, which is still talked about to this day. In that one, Hackenschmidt suffered a knee injury in training, whether deliberate or not and who actually and how he was injured can be talked about forever, but so many tickets were sold in advance for what was one of the most anticipated sporting events ever held in the U.S. up to that point that he was convinced to do the match. The public was defrauded with the injury being kept quiet. Deals were made, including that the match would be worked and Gotch would carry Hackenschmidt before beating him and give him a fall, although that isn't what resulted as Gotch took advantage of his injured opponent and beat him in straight falls. The fact Hackenschmidt, due to the injury, wasn't even competitive and in top shape plus the fact that the gambling establishments pulling betting on the match at the last minute due to a lot of suspicions getting out, pretty well killed wrestling in Chicago and pro wrestling's rep nationwide for a few years.

The results of this won't be nearly as damaging, nor controversial, but Gracie suffered a right upper arm and shoulder injury a few days earlier and said that the doctor ordered him not to fight. Again, with the big advance, he agreed to do the fight if it was limited to a ten minute time limit, something that wasn't announced until the day of the show. Fans booed that announcement heavily while Renzo Gracie, Ryan's corner man, tried to do a pro wrestling interview saying Ryan was told specifically that he couldn't fight, but how the Gracies don't listen to doctors. There may have been either an agreement, or Sakuraba was being overly professional, because Sakuraba never went after the right arm or shoulder in the fight, and pretty well controlled things going the distance. Sakuraba has now defeated Royler, Royce, Renzo and Ryan Gracie in defense of his mythical title as pound-for-pound the best fighter in the world. The show aired live on PPV in Japan, at last word, was scheduled to air in the U.S. on PPV on 1/6.

The show was long, but ultimately had to be considered a disappointment with seven of the nine matches going the distance, a lot of them marred by slow action which resulted in a lot of yellow cards being issued for stalling.

1. Guy Mezger of Ken Shamrock's Lions Den, knocked out Alexander Otsuka (Takashi Otsuka) in 1:54. Mezger hit a high kick and a right hook to the jaw which knocked Otsuka of the Battlarts promotion down, and the fight was stopped.

2. Carlos Newton of Canada won a decision in 20:00 over Johil de Oliviera of Brazil in a battle of 170-pound division fighters. Newton controlled the first round on the ground. de Oliviera, in his first match back from being badly turned by the entrance pyro at a Pride show, bled from the face. Second round was said to be kind of boring, with both men being cautioned with a yellow card with two minutes left.

3. Ricco Rodriguez won a decision in 20:00 over John Marsh in a heavyweight battle. Marsh is Royce Gracie's training partner and specializes in boxing, while Rodriguez is a strong wrestler. Nobuhiko Takada was Rodriguez' second. They traded early with Rodriguez scoring a takedown. In the second round, Rodriguez took him down and twice went for a necklock type of submission before time expired and he got the unanimous decision.

Gary Goodridge and Mark Coleman came out for promos. Goodridge, did a pretty decent pro wrestling interview, basically apologizing for not kicking anyone's ass on this show and then asked how many people wanted to see him kick Shinya Hashimoto's (his opponent on New Years Eve) ass, and basically nobody responded. It was kind of funny, actually. I've always felt between his look, his ring entrance and his promos, that Goodridge had the best shot of this crop of shootfighters as a pro wrestler, at least until the bell rings, and then who knows? Goodridge also mentioned that Mark Kerr was next to him, instead of Coleman, but then corrected himself saying that there were a lot of Marks around. Coleman didn't do nearly as strong of a pro wrestling interview, but said he would be back next year to defend his world heavyweight title in the Grand Prix tournament.

4. Ricardo Almeida upset Akira Shoji via decision in 20:00. Shoji, who is completely out of his mind, fought while recovering from appendicitis and held off having an appendectomy until after the fight. Almeida is from New York's Renzo Gracie Gym and Renzo was in his corner. Almeida got the first takedown but was caught in the guard. After they got back to their feet about six minutes later, both were tired. Shoji went for a facelock and both exchanged punches to end the round. Shoji got hit with a low blow, which led to a yellow card and a three minute delay. Considering his physical condition, that probably was double the usual effect. Almeida bloodied Shoji's nose with a punch and the match was stopped for the doctor to check him, but he allowed it to continue. Shoji took Almeida down but his nose was bleeding badly. They exchanged punches until Almeida scored a takedown to get the decision.

5. Heath Herring defeated Enson Inoue in 4:31 via ref stoppage. Herring, a wrestler who started his career out of the USWF in Amarillo and is coming off a huge upset win over Tom Erikson at the last Pride show, has of late been studying kickboxing in Holland. After an exchange, Herring took Inoue down and went for a shoulderlock but Inoue escaped with punches. Herring took Inoue down in the guard, but Inoue took hard shots, then Herring got a side mount and hit him with hard knees before the match was stopped. Inoue was upset at first of the stoppage. The ref thought he tapped but he didn't. Inoue then surprisingly announced his retirement after the match. The audience screamed for him not to.

6. Vanderlei Silva of Brazil defeated American Dan Henderson via decision in 20:00 in apparently a hot match in a battle of fighters at around the 200-pound mark. Silva was able to take down the two-time Olympic wrestler and strike from the top. After a stand-up, Silva scored with leg kicks but Henderson retaliated with a strong punch opening up a bad cut above Silva's left eye. Henderson then took Silva down and went after the cut. The match was stopped to examine the cut, but allowed to continue. When it re-started, Silva knocked Henderson down with a punch and hit a knee to the head on the ground, which was illegal because of Henderson's positioning and Silva got a yellow card. Henderson was hurt by the illegal blow and given time to recover. When the match re-started, Silva knocked Henderson down. Henderson was on top in the guard throwing more blows. A very wild round. Second round saw Silva wind up on top again. After both stood up, Silva knocked Henderson down again. Silva was on top in the guard and both got yellow cards for stalling, meaning Silva was one foul away from losing via DQ. Silva got on top again, finally getting a mount and doing some real damage in winning a unanimous decision.

7. Kazuyuki Fujita of New Japan Pro Wrestling beat Gilbert Yvel of Holland via unanimous decision after 20:00 to up his shoot record to an improbable 6-0 this year (improbable because he's totally beatable by a top fighter who can neutralize his takedowns as he has no punch defense). Fujita had Don Frye and Yuki Kondo in his corner. Fujita took Yvel down and pretty well dominated him in a boring match. He went for submissions, including a few armbars, but didn't get them. In the second round, Fujita took Yvel down again and went for a choke. Yvel got a yellow card for stalling. Yvel went for a high knee, but Fujita caught him and took him down again. Fujita kept him grounded for the rest of the fight. Yvel can be one of the most exciting fighters around, but he doesn't have the ability to avoid a takedown or get off his back, so unless he's in a sport like RINGS with frequent stand-ups, he's only going to win when he gets off the big punch or kick immediately before being taken down, like he did with Goodridge.

8. Igor Vovchanchyn of Russia defeated Mark Kerr via unanimous decision after 25:00. Kerr started things off taking Vovchanchyn down and going for a neck crank. After a stand-up when things had stalled on the ground, Vovchanchyn hit a few punches but Kerr took him down and nothing happened. Fans were booing the match, which tells you how bad it must have been for Japanese to boo. Both got yellow cards for stalling. Both men were noticeably tired by he end of the round. Kerr took Vovchanchyn down at the start of the round. Kerr ate a knee in doing the takedown, and Vovchanchyn was more active punching from the bottom. Kerr threw some strong punches but the crowd was bored again. Vovchanchyn got his second yellow card for stalling, so he was one caution away from a DQ. Realizing his back was against the wall, Vovchanchyn started throwing punches and kicks and put Kerr down. Vovchanchyn got behind him but Kerr went for an armlock. Kerr came back with a takedown and got a mount before the round was over. Although Vovchanchyn did more damage, he also had two yellows, so it was ruled a draw and they went into overtime. Vovchanchyn dominated the overtime with punches, bloodying Kerr up, and even took him down and pounded him during the round. Kerr managed to get on top, but Vovchanchyn threw hard shots from the bottom and when overtime ended, got the decision.

9. Sakuraba beat Ryan Gracie via decision in 10:00. Sakuraba came out wearing a Santa Claus mask and a bag. Very little happened in this fight as Sakuraba was on top, missed with an armbar, and then in a dominant position, started punching the ribs. Sakuraba kept going for a submission in the last minute but time ran out."

and

"Pride announced a return date at the Saitama Super Arena for 3/25. Yusuke Imamura, who won the Japanese national championship in amateur wrestling at 286 pounds, is training at Takada's dojo to debut next year in Pride."

January 8, 2001:

INOKIISM:

"It's funny, because a few years ago, Antonio Inoki seemed like one of those wrestling icons that were revered in the culture, but also, in a rapidly changing world, was hopelessly out of date when it came to booking ideas. He had the typical old-timer attitude, repeat the ideas that made him a top guy, which was paying guys from other combat sports to lay down and create a super hero, in this case Naoya Ogawa, who would get over by never doing jobs. Just over one year ago, Inoki's UFO promotion, based around this concept, couldn't sell tickets, and couldn't even give tickets away, trying to recreate this concept using karate and shootfighters working some terrible pro wrestling matches before putting his star over.

And now, a few years later, Inoki's booking ideas with Dream Stage Entertainment are the hottest thing in the industry. Coming off one of the most successful year-long programs in Japanese wrestling history with Kazushi Sakuraba against the Gracies, two years after making Ogawa into a huge draw in the feud with Shinya Hashimoto, he's now brought it all back to the world which he came from, using shooters for realistic pro wrestling matches with his "Inoki Bon Ba Ye" spectacular on New Years Eve at the Osaka Dome.

A crowd announced as a sellout 42,753 (that number is slightly inflated but the real figure was more than 30,000) paying tickets prices ranging from $54 to $450, almost all of whom were too young to even ever see Inoki in his wrestling prime, made it a huge financial success to see Inoki's 21st century vision of pro wrestling, pro wrestlers against real fighters, theoretically bringing with them their credibility to make the pro wrestlers "real," coming off a sellout at Osaka Castle Hall for the Pride show on Halloween night. This is in the same city where the same formula on a UFO show in Osaka headlined by Ogawa drew less than 2,000 fans when Inoki tried the same philosophy, but without utilizing the star making powers that Pride's success this year have created. It seems hopelessly behind the times, paying off some guy with credentials to do a job for a pro wrestler to make people think the pro wrestler is real, or have some guy with credentials in an amateur singlet beat major company pro wrestling headliners on their own turf. But it worked, and logic ahead of time would have told one that done correctly, it would work. Inoki's old-style pro wrestling booking transferred well into the shoot world where realistic programs, simple storylines or an easy gimmick like world champion in karate vs. world champion in judo equalled huge TV ratings as simple angles mean a lot in a world not hotshotted to death, leading to an unbelievably successful year for Pride. And then with the names created in Pride, switching those names and real reputations over to traditional pro wrestling against New Japan stars, while hardly making for classic wrestling inside the ring, drew huge money as a marketing concept.

The show aired live in Japan on PPV (head-to-head with a PPV airing Rikidozan matches from the 50s and 60s) and was considered a major success, especially with the limited expectations of what so many of the Pride guys were expected to be able to do switching to a traditional pro wrestling approach.

1. Yoshiaki Fujiwara beat Justin McCulley in 10:10 with a stomach submission move called a haragatame. McCulley has both a shooting and a pro wrestling background, and was the man behind the horrible worked shoot TV pilot shot a few months back in Los Angeles where Don Frye, Brian Johnston and Frank Shamrock were brought in as announcers and then found all the matches to be worked.

2. Great Sasuke & Daijiro Matsui beat Kaoru Uno & Akira Shoji in 20:03 when Sasuke pinned Uno after a thunder fire power bomb and la magistral cradle in a Lucha Libre style match with no tagging. Matsui is a regular prelim wrestler for Pride, coming from the Takada dojo, and he had done pro wrestling with the Kingdom promotion in the past. Shoji had only been known to have worked for Pride and done shoot matches but he's since claimed to have worked an independent wrestling match under a mask. Uno is from the Shooto promotion, and is that company's top star now after holding two wins over Rumina Sato, the most recent being on 12/17 in Shooto's big show of the year. Uno then vacated his title, presumably to join Pride. Shooto was aware Uno was going to leave and as a company was hoping Sato would win, but you can't predict and guarantee results in shoots. Uno came to the ring wearing a Sasuke mask. Matsui was said to have looked good, in particular using a version of a figure four called the "eight lock." He did an Asai moonsault, although apparently it wasn't that good. Uno, a long-time pro wrestling fan, looked good for his debut, doing a dropkick a couple of times, and even a double dropkick with Shoji and a enzuigiri and fisherman suplex late in the match. Shoji used a brainbuster, a piledriver and a diving head-butt while Matsui used a torture rack. During the match they showed Tatsumi Fujinami (New Japan President), Naoto Morishita (Dream Stage President) and Masaaki Satake sitting in the front row. People enjoyed this match.

3. Bas Rutten & Alexander Otsuka beat Naoki Sano & Ricco Rodriguez in 14:43 when Rutten made Sano tap to a chicken wing into a neck lock, the execution into it apparently was pretty cool. Match had no heat and was said to have been poor in one report but not bad in another. It was surprising among the audience in attendance, mainly in their early 20s, that Rutten was a name from another era (he and Ken Shamrock were the foreign superstars for Pancrase 1995-97) and even the two-time former King of Pancrase champion when Pancrase was the "in" thing meant less to current fans that Gary Goodridge, a charismatic Pride guy who usually loses.

4. Shinya Hashimoto beat Gary Goodridge with a half crab in 9:04. Hashimoto got a huge pop. Goodridge used some punches to knock Hashimoto down and he rolled out of the ring, where he would have 20 seconds to recover, similar to a spot in the most famous Ogawa match. Hashimoto did the low kicks and a judo whip. Goodridge got the mount and was punching but the ref stopped it, saying that was illegal in pro wrestling moves. Goodridge also used head-butts, which would be legal in pro wrestling but illegal in Pride. Outside the ring because of his look and interview ability, Goodridge looked to have the most potential of all the Pride guys in pro wrestling, but the question was in the ring. For a first match, apparently it was a very successful audition. This show was considered a test for New Japan in whether it would be feasible in the ring to do an interpromotional angle with Pride.

5. Naoya Ogawa destroyed Tadao Yasuda in 1:38 with a choke. Match had great heat as Ogawa was going against New Japan's biggest (6-6 and maybe 330 pound) regular, and was billed as judo vs. sumo since Yasuda was once a pretty decent name in sumo. After the match, Kazunari Murakami hit the ring, and then Hashimoto came out after Ogawa for the expected big pop since Yasuda is something of a Hashimoto protege, which explains why this match took place. Kazuyuki Fujita held them apart. Satake also came out to challenge Ogawa to a rematch of their Halloween match which drew the huge TV ratings (18.7 peak rating). This is kind of a reverse of the same angle from the Pride Seibu Dome show where Satake beat Ogawa's "back-up," Murakami, leading to the Ogawa confrontation and the first Ogawa-Satake, only this time with Ogawa beating Hashimoto's "back-up."

6. Mark Coleman & Mark Kerr beat Takashi Iizuka & Yuji Nagata in 12:29 when Coleman used a neck lock to get a tap out over Nagata, using the same move he beat Satake with in the Pride tournament. Very gutsy booking, since it makes Coleman an immediate superstar as a pro wrestler beating Nagata just days before the Tokyo Dome tournament. The easier booking would have been to get Iizuka to do the job, but either way, this match is why this concept got over, and why it didn't work in WCW because the wrestling people are too insecure about pro wrestling to have top stars put outsiders over strong for the good of future business. Iizuka & Nagata were coming off winning the New Japan tag tournament and going to a draw in one of the hottest matches of the year against Toshiaki Kawada & Masa Fuchi on PPV, positioning themselves as the top tag team representatives of the company, and in a pro wrestling sense, doing a job for total amateurs. However, Coleman & Kerr can draw money if protected, particularly Coleman with his credentials and title belt, and this was considered a big success, setting Coleman up to headline with Nagata and other top New Japan names on future Dome shows. Coleman, who came to the ring wearing the Pride world heavyweight championship belt, looked the best in terms of pro wrestling, of any of the newcomers and the crowd was him as a bigger star than Kerr, since Kerr is coming off a loss to Igor Vovchanchyn. Kerr looked really green and didn't really know how to take bumps. There was talk of replacing him with Fujita because he was rocked by Vovchanchyn, but he wanted to do this match. After beating Nagata, Coleman held up his Pride belt as a real world title belt.

7. Kazushi Sakuraba beat Kendo Ka Shin in 19:17. This was built up with the storyline that as pro wrestlers in 1995-96, Ka Shin, then wrestling under his real name of Tokimitsu Ishizawa, held two singles wins over Sakuraba during the New Japan vs. UWFI feud. Both men came out wearing championship belts. Don't know what belt Sakuraba holds, although he did win a UFC tournament in 1997. Ka Shin came out wearing a white mask, like Tim Woods as Mr. Wrestling or Dr. Wagner Jr., although the significance is that Inoki wore a white mask in an angle with Riki Choshu that never went anywhere. Sakuraba came out wearing a Ka Shin mask, although everyone knew he was Sakuraba as it wasn't the swerve an American booker would try. Sakuraba was said to be the star of the show with his t-shirts everywhere. It was a basic New Japan jr. style match with Sakuraba using pro wrestling spots he used in the Royce Gracie match like the Mongolian chops. He did two topes, missing one. They also teased the Ryan Gracie knockout spot as Sakuraba pounded Ka Shin in the corner, as well as doing two german suplexes. Sakuraba won with an armbar while sitting on the ringpost. Ka Shin then handed Sakuraba his belt as if he'd won the title from him and Sakuraba posed with both belts. Ka Shin afterwards stole his belt back.

8. Nobuhiko Takada & Keiji Muto beat Ken Shamrock & Don Frye in 24:13. Shamrock came to the ring with Alicia Webb (Ryan Shamrock) as his second. Frye and Shamrock teased problems before the match. Muto came out with his head shaved since he's been balding for years anyway. At one point Muto hit Frye with a chair outside the ring. Frye and Shamrock used all kinds of suplexes on Takada for near falls. As the match went on, Shamrock & Frye worked as a team. Muto still did his moonsault and figure four on Frye but Shamrock saved. Frye and Takada traded submissions. Takada pinned Frye after a back suplex. After the match, Shamrock and Frye split up and went after each other to set up a future match, which everyone expected would be the end result.

9. Antonio Inoki went to a 3:00 exhibition draw with Renzo Gracie in what will be historically one of the most memorable scenes of the year 2000. It was the first time one of the Gracies did obvious worked pro wrestling with both men exchanging matwork and Renzo may go down as being Inoki's final opponent. Gracie even went up for Inoki's double-arm suplex as a tribute to Billy Robinson, who popularized the move in Japan. The finish of the match saw Inoki get the abdominal stretch, a pro wrestling finishing maneuver from another era, on, but the bell rang to signal the end. Reports were that for a man a few weeks shy of his 58th birthday, that Inoki physically looked tremendous. After the match, before the show ended with the Ichi, Ni, San, Da! chant at the turn of the century led by Inoki, he slapped 108 people, transferring his fighting spirit to them as his slap is supposed to symbolize, including Coleman, Kerr, Satake, Rutten, Hashimoto, Nagata, Morishita and saving Fujinami for last."

and

"Atsushi Onita went to the Osaka Dome before the New Years Eve show and talked with reporters about wanting a match with Inoki, but Inoki never met with him. Onita gave a letter to Pride President Naoto Morishita asking for Inoki to come out of retirement for a match with him. After doing so, Onita left Osaka and went to Tokyo for his own show in the Ariake area of Tokyo."

and

"The Pride show from 12/23 will be airing on 1/6 on DirecTV PPV, although I've seen zero promotion for it even in the martial arts world."

January 15, 2001:

"The Pride 12 show, which aired over the weekend in the U.S., was overall pretty good, but not as good as some of the other PPVs. They aired seven of the nine matches, five of which were good and two of which were boring. It was a better show in the U.S. version than in Japan because they eliminated two of the other kind of dull fights. It was the show taped on 12/23 show at the Saitama Super Arena before 26,882 fans. The announcers didn't do a very good job, nor did the camera work, of showing how large the crowd was or getting it over to the American audience, nor of getting over just how big a star Sakuraba was. They did talk about how it's considered a barbaric sport by many in the U.S. but it's a huge deal in Japan. Because of time, they edited out most of the ring entrances, which are what gives the show the major league feel, particularly when fans pop big for a star, it teaches the live audience that person is a star, but they were fighting time constraints with so many long fights on the show. They only aired highlight clips of Carlos Newton vs. Johil de Oliviera and Ricco Rodriguez vs. John Marsh. They also edited the first 10:00 out of Mark Kerr vs. Igor Vovchanchyn. The announcers, particularly interviewer Eddie Bravo, tried to be more pro wrestling like, and came across silly promising us shocking stories and then delivering rather bland interviews for the most part. Announcer Steven Quadros talked about having a newfound respect for pro wrestlers because of how well they've done in Pride. Guy Mezger vs. Alexander Otsuka was a short match with a spectacular knockout finish. Akira Shoji vs. Ricardo Almeida was very exciting. Almeida, from New York, but who has studied in Brazil, with his striking and grappling ability and long body looked really good in only his second MMA match winning the decision over an experienced star, and breaking Shoji's nose in the process. Enson Inoue vs. Heath Herring, with Herring winning, was also exciting. Vanderlei Silva vs. Dan Henderson had a tremendous first round. Silva dominated, but Henderson got in a few good punches, scored one good take down and did a lot of damage, including busting up Silva's eye really bad. It was swollen and protruding out like he had an egg attached to his eyebrow and looked sick. Second round, which Silva dominated since Henderson couldn't take him down and Henderson wasn't going to fare well standing, was kind of dull, mainly with Henderson on his back in the guard. Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Gilbert Yvel was the most boring fight, as Fujita basically took Yvel down and held him down. He tried some submissions in the first round, but in the second he just held him there with what Quadros called the "ground and pray" tactic, which means holding someone down and praying the ref doesn't call for a stand-up, as opposed to ground-and-pound where the guy on top at least is delivering damage. Yvel did get one great knee to the face in but I'm pretty well convinced that Fujita is almost impossible to hurt. Apparently they've tested him as his bones throughout his body are unusually large and his skull is too thick for a human being so that's why he can take the pounding he took from people like Ken Shamrock and survive. Yvel, like Maurice Smith, has to learn to avoid the takedown and escape from the bottom, because without that ability, which is the difference with Silva because he has it and can win at the top level, all the kickboxing ability in the world can't neutralize a wrestler. Mark Kerr vs. Igor Vovchanchyn was kind of boring except for about one minute in regulation where Vovchanchyn got a flurry that probably made the fight a draw since Kerr was on top, and not doing a lot from there, most of the way. In overtime, Vovchanchyn rocked him and got behind him and punished him with punches for a little over two minutes before Kerr escaped and reversed. He held Vovchanchyn down for the rest of the fight, but didn't do any damage so Vovchanchyn got the decision. Sakuraba vs. Ryan Gracie was very entertaining, with both guys going for submissions and Gracie being aggressive, but Sakuraba controlled him and at times seemed to even toy with him and was just having fun entertaining the crowd, including spanking him in the final minute. Sakuraba easily won the decision but it is too bad Gracie was hurt, as he's a spirited and exciting fighter to watch. The show will air on PPV on Viewers Choice-Canada on 1/19."

and

"Naoto Morishita of DSE announced plans for the company's fourth anniversary show on 10/11, to be held outdoors at the 100,000-seat Hakkei Island Sea Palace in Kanagawa (not too far from Tokyo). Morishita will attempt to put together Rickson Gracie vs. Sakuraba as the main event, although to do so he'll have to outbid New Japan, RINGS and Coliseum promotions among others for what Gracie said will be his one match this year."


and a few PRIDE-related highlights from the 2000 Observer Awards, why not:

WRESTLER OF THE YEAR
1. HHH (322) 2,014
2. Toshiaki Kawada (124) 1,736
3. Rock (72) 1,061
4. Kazushi Sakuraba (145) 1,046
5. Chris Benoit (31) 393
6. Kurt Angle (4) 235
7. Mitsuharu Misawa (2) 226
8. Kenta Kobashi 201
9. Booker T (2) 44
10. Mick Foley (4) 43

BEST BOX OFFICE DRAW [I have never understood why this is a category to be voted on --ed.]
1. ROCK (368) 2,365
2. HHH (32) 1,073
3. Naoya Ogawa (74) 754
4. Steve Austin (59) 752
5. Kazushi Sakuraba (22) 437
6. Toshiaki Kawada (16) 332
7. Shinya Hashimoto (3) 239
8. Mick Foley (2) 123
9. Perro Aguayo 49
10. Undertaker (4) 38

FEUD OF THE YEAR
1. HHH VS. MICK FOLEY (179) 1,428
2. HHH vs. Rock (90) 998
3. Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoya Ogawa (71) 755
4. All Japan vs. New Japan (39) 701
5. Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Gracies (76) 669
6. Hardys vs. Edge & Christian (55) 451
7. HHH vs. Kurt Angle (19) 344
8. Atlantis vs. Villano III (5) 276
9. Crazy Max vs. M2K (22) 256
10. Chris Benoit vs. Chris Jericho (6) 205

PROMOTION OF THE YEAR
1. WORLD WRESTLING FEDERATION (437) 2,263
2. New Japan Pro Wrestling (25) 1,428
3. Dream Stage Entertainment (8) 1,099
4. EMLL (16) 601
5. Toryumon (56) 542
6. Extreme Championship Wrestling (13) 408
7. All Japan Pro Wrestling (17) 355
8. Pro Wrestling NOAH 285
9. Osaka Pro Wrestling (37) 220
10. GAEA (21) 218

BEST MAJOR WRESTLING SHOW
1. EMLL 3-17 ARENA MEXICO (38) 799
2. WWF Fully Loaded 7-23 Dallas (106) 748
3. Pride Grand Prix finals 5-1 Tokyo Dome (76) 649
4. WWF Backlash 4-30 Washington (69) 632
5. WWF Royal Rumble 1-23 Madison Square Garden (85) 614
6. WWF SummerSlam 8-27 Raleigh (45) 472
7. WWF Judgment Day 5-21 Louisville (19) 364
8. New Japan 10-9 Tokyo Dome (20) 253
9. All Japan 2-27 Budokan Hall (30) 182
10. WWF No Way Out 2-27 Hartford (9) 176

READERS PERSONAL FAVORITE WRESTLER
1. CHRIS BENOIT 81
2. Kurt Angle 70
3. HHH 41
4. Chris Jericho 40
5. Toshiaki Kawada 36
6. Ric Flair 24
7. Kazushi Sakuraba 21
8. Cima 20
9. Kenta Kobashi 16
William Regal 16

PROMOTER OF THE YEAR
1. VINCE MCMAHON 513
2. Naoto Morishita 38
3. Riki Choshu 20
4. Mitsuharu Misawa 16
5. Paul Heyman 8
6. Antonio Pena 7
Yoshihiro Asai 7
8. Chigusa Nagayo 6
Super Delfin 6

SHOOT FIGHTER OF THE YEAR
1. KAZUSHI SAKURABA 542
2. Mark Coleman 33
3. Randy Couture 23
4. Ryan Gracie 19
5. Frank Shamrock 7
6. Ken Shamrock 6
7. Tito Ortiz 5

SHOOT MATCH OF THE YEAR
1. KAZUSHI SAKURABA VS. ROYCE GRACIE
5-1 TOKYO DOME 495
2. Randy Couture vs. Kevin Randleman
11-17 Atlantic City 56
3. Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Renzo Gracie
8-27 Seibu Dome 37
4. Bob Cook vs. Tiki Ghosen 3-10 Lake Charles 17
5. Ryan Gracie vs. Tokimitsu Ishizawa
8-27 Seibu Dome 12
6. Guy Mezger vs. Vanderlei Silva
8-27 Seibu Dome 9
7. Ken Shamrock vs. Kazuyuki Fujita
8-27 Seibu Dome 7
8. Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Antonio Nogueira 
10-9 Tokyo 4"

January 22, 2001:

Dave's comments on a few award winners:

"Feud of the Year - In hindsight, I agree with the first two choices in that order. For some reason, probably the imminent Foley retirement, there was something special about Foley vs. HHH even though Rock vs. HHH was longer and really the basis of the company for most of the year. Foley vs. HHH took HHH from a major star and positioned him as someone who could carry a company, and make no mistake about it, if Rock wasn't there, WWF still would have had a banner year with people chasing HHH. The next three were all hot feuds, and as a program, Sakuraba vs. Gracies was the best shootfighting program ever, but it's limited because of how many matches you could do. Hashimoto vs. Ogawa was huge on television with the Hashimoto retirement and the heat, but again, very limited number of matches and All Japan-New Japan started late in the year. Hardys vs. E&C was great for what it was as well, great matches and most importantly, both teams got the other ones over to a much higher level, which is what you want. HHH vs. Angle could have been the winner as it had the best build-up to the first match, but then it fell apart and was dropped, leaving it with a bad taste.

Promotion of the Year - WWF has to win for every reason. And it did so overwhelmingly. From there, it's anybody's game. New Japan was the second most successful group, and even though their booking was dull until late in the year, the work was always solid. I would have picked Dream Stage second because they came from one level and gained so much in a year when most promotions went backwards. EMLL was the same EMLL with the same cast of characters that it always it. Toryumon is tremendous for workrate so I'd have picked it third. ECW, not with all its problems. The problems has to be able to survive, and ECW's future was in question most of the year. Ditto All Japan. They lost all their talent. They were far more successful at surviving then ECW, but ultimately, their future doesn't look bright. Osaka Pro and Gaea are big favorites and fun shows to watch. Gaea had some real success, particularly for the Crush Gals reunion, while Osaka Pro, is really just a well-run indie.

Best Major wrestling show - Every one of the top ten was outstanding. My feeling is the WWF shows, because so many were good and Fully Loaded wasn't that much better than the rest of the pack (but it was better), allowed the EMLL and Pride shows to squeak past a bunch of shows negating the others. I don't think Wrestlemania or the J Cup final belong in the honorable mention list. The EMLL show may have been the best. The main event was equal to any match this year. Some of the other matches were on par as well. Pride was totally different, but it was the best shoot show ever in many people's opinion.

Promoter of the Year - An even stronger win for McMahon. Morishita took Pride, which was a bad joke until the rise of Sakuraba, and made it probably the second hottest promotion of the year. Definite second place.

Shootfighter of the Year - Of course Sakuraba was going to win. Coleman also has to be second. Sakuraba became a big-time draw, and won every match this year but one, in which he was giving up nearly 50 pounds and had already fought for 90 minutes that night, going through one big name after another. Coleman deserves second. He won the tournament. If not for the year Sakuraba had, one would think Coleman would have been an easy pick.

Shoot match of the year - For the history and the fact it went 90 minutes, Sakuraba vs. Royce Gracie was a guaranteed winner. Not sure it was any better than any of the other fights on the list, it was more that the rules guaranteed a finish and the no time limit made it legendary. Other fighters if they had no time limit also would have gone 90 minutes, some of whom would have had just as good matches probably if they were able to dictate the rules."

Dave gets tape of the Inoki New Year's Eve show:

"Some notes after watching the tape of Antonio Inoki's strange show on 12/31 at the Osaka Dome, where nearly 40,000 fans paid a ridiculous number of millions of dollars (probably 4-5 million gross, which is more than Wrestlemania will do live) to see mainly pro wrestlers and shootfighters from Pride mixing things up.

It was definitely a success as a production. It was the kind of a show you'd attend as a curiosity and when it was over, saying it was better than you'd think, but you probably wouldn't want to see this type of a card a second time. It was a thumbs up based on expectations, but if New Japan, WCW, ECW or WWF did a PPV show of this quality matches, it would be a thumbs down. There were a lot of surprises among the shootfighters. While Kazushi Sakuraba has years of experience doing worked matches for UWFI, he did a shootfight style match there, while in his match with Kendo Ka Shin, he did a more New Japan style including doing a pescado, a missed pescado, dropkick, missile dropkick and german suplex. Many of the shootfighters did tremendous, but the matches were generally too long (because the show had to last until midnight since it was New Years Eve and the prime drawing thing was Inoki's catchphrase at the turn of the century) considering the lack of experience in so many of the people.

Sakuraba vs. Ka Shin was good, particularly the brilliance of working in famous spots from shoot matches that have been replayed to death on TV, including Ka Shin sitting in the corner taking a flurry of punches to remind everyone of the Ryan Gracie match. Akira Shoji was off the charts awesome both athletically and charismatically for someone who may have done one previous pro wrestling match, aside from own messed up Asai moonsault. Everything he did looked professional. Everyone watching with me remarked he was better than most pro wrestlers they see on TV. Kaoru Uno looked good as well and they did a very solid, and in spots very good Lucha style match. Shoji was right there on all sorts of Lucha high spots, and that's considered the hardest style to master. Mark Coleman was very good for a first pro match, mainly doing suplexes and being put over strongly by Yuji Nagata & Takashi Iizuka as a powerhouse world champion from another group. Actually the Shamrock & Frye vs. Muto & Takada match was kind of dull. It wasn't bad or anything, but the crowd just didn't care about such a long match. Shamrock looked totally different, coming to the ring with Alicia Webb, who was never identified by name. Actually he looked almost like a twin of Guy Mezger (who was recently named the sexiest bachelor in Texas), one of his stable of fighters and unless you looked close you wouldn't think it was him. It was also funny to see how Frye was surprisingly larger than Shamrock, as in their UFC days and in the WWF days, Shamrock was a physical monster and Frye was only 200 pounds when he started out. Renzo Gracie also did a good job with Inoki in their 3:00 in that the crowd liked it. If you watched it closely, ultimately it was a guy who had never done pro wrestling against an old man, but the crowd is so into Inoki that it came across well.

They did interviews where all the shootfighters put over Inoki, who really did look amazing for some just shy of 58, both physically and he moved well. It's really amazing, he and Choshu, putting on performances that good at their ages. Overall, the show was very good if you consider what it probably figured to be on paper. Gary Goodridge and some of the other shootfighters looked like guys doing a fake fight as opposed to a pro wrestling match. There was heat for he and Hashimoto because of the match-up, but most Americans watching it would just consider it a bad match. Ogawa and Yasuda for their 90 seconds had a lot of heat, and the whole thing was just a set up for Hashimoto to come out and do a pull-apart. But the show probably would have been better with mostly good workers in pro wrestling matches and a few bouts with green shootfighters so they would be a novelty rather than having to carry a five hour show which needed 20 minute matches so it would last until midnight. Climax was Inoki slapping everyone in the face. Sort of exposed the business because he was whacking fans and they weren't selling, except the ones trying to be nice. There were actors taking bumps, and some of the wrestlers and shootfighters good-naturedly acted stunned.

1. Fujiwara beat Justin McCulley with the stomach submission. McCulley has both training in pro wrestling (I think he's got a WWF developmental contract) and shootfighting, but in this he was so lightly slapping that it was real bad. -*

2. Great Sasuke & Daijiro Matsui beat Shoji & Uno. This was shootfighters doing Lucha Libre, which sounds like the biggest disaster in the world, but it just the opposite and probably the best match on the show. Matsui also deserves praise. Uno & Shoji came out to the song "spinning toe hold," which tells you one of them grew up idolizing the Funks, they seemed to really have fun doing a double spinning toe hold spot. Really good early. Match did fall apart at one point, but it picked up toward the finish with Uno & Shoji doing double dropkick spots like the Rock & Roll Express. There was a big pop when Uno did a Northern lights suplex on Sasuke. ***

3. Bas Rutten & Otsuka beat Ricco Rodriguez & Naoki Sano. Rutten had charisma walking to the ring, but was wearing a goofy costume that I can't believe they had him wear. But once the match started, Rutten had zero charisma. Even though this had two experienced wrestlers, they didn't look good. Rodriguez and Rutten were doing what amount to light sparring. The problem with this match and much of the show is that unlike the old worked style of RINGS or UWFI, while it was predetermined, they laid everything in and it was stuff and brutal working that would make you think it was real if you didn't know better. This was so obviously pulled and everyone was just having fun making sure not to hurt the other guy, which when matches were long, made for some dull bouts. 1/4*

4. Hashimoto beat Goodridge. Goodridge's face punches looked pulled, which they had to be. It was booked really smart, with Goodridge punching from the mount stopped by the ref and Hashimoto's head-butts not stopped. Goodridge got an early knockdown and Hashimoto sold like he did with the Ogawa match. Goodridge did a cool kneebar as well. Goodridge has the look, but in the ring for a first match he was so-so. *1/2

5. Ogawa beat Yasuda. Since these are both pro wrestlers, they did exactly what needed to be done for a hot 90 seconds, which is all this lasted. It was really just an excuse to do a Ogawa-Hashimoto pull-apart. *

6. Coleman & Kerr beat Iizuka & Nagata. Coleman did a super job because unlike the other shooters who were joking, he addressed it like a legitimate match except he was working. Very intense, great takedowns and suplexes. Coleman didn't have the charisma walking to the ring, but once the bell sounded, he had it like few do in their first match. Didn't hurt who he was working with. The announcers, because they were similar looking powerhouses, compared the Coleman & Kerr team to the legendary team of Dick the Bruiser & Crusher Lisowski. All four guys did a lot of cool suplexes, and Kerr got thrown around a bit and Coleman sold a near knockout from a high kick from Nagata. What made Coleman look good is unlike everyone who looked like fighters pulling their punches, he did everything all out, and threw hard body spots, just avoided head punches as much as possible, but he even did worked punches from the mount that came across as authentic. This would be a good match on any show and Kerr never really looked lost and Coleman came across like a big star virtually the entire time he was in. It never dragged. ***

7. Sakuraba over Ka Shin with a straight armbar with both standing on the middle ropes. This had its entertaining spots, but the crowd was starting to get tired and it went 19:17. Match was fine, and at times brilliant, but the lack of heat made it come across as too long. **3/4

8. Muto & Takada beat Frye & Shamrock when Takada pinned Frye sort of anti-climactically with a back suplex. Same as previous bout, as this went 24:13. Crowd was dead for a lot of it. What they did was fine, since all four are pro wrestlers. Muto was the most over to the crowd, but he did the least because of his physical limitations as every step looks painful at this point, plus he looked close to 260 pounds he was so blown up. Technically good except for a miscommunication spot or two, relying on submissions that the crowd really didn't pop for. Takada was okay, and even did a missile dropkick which he probably hasn't done since around 1987, but he showed none of the fire he used to have. **1/4

9. Inoki drew Gracie in 3:00. People accepted it. It was really just Inoki doing a double-arm suplex, Gracie then reversing him and taking him down and Inoki reversing into an abdominal stretch as the bell sounded. If it was any other two people, people would have said it was totally nothing."

and

"Sasaki did a live TV interview on 1/16, saying his right arm is still hurting from throwing so many stiff lariats on the 1/4 show. He was asked about a challenge made by Gran Hamada who said that he and daughter Ayako would like to wrestle Sasaki and his wife, Akira Hokuto. Sasaki said that he respected Hamada and would enjoy doing the match and said he'd like to stay in wrestling long enough to form a tag team with his baby son but doubted he'd last that long. They asked him about defending the title against people from the Pride promotion. He said that he wasn't going to appear on a Pride show, but if they came to New Japan, he would wrestle them."

January 29, 2000:

"Dream Stage President Naoto Morishita is going to Los Angeles at the end of the month to try and finalize a deal with Rickson Gracie for the match at the 100,000-seat stadium in October, presumably against Sakuraba. If that's the case, it's important to rest Sakuraba up because he fought far too often last year."

February 12, 2001:

"Pride's first show of the year will be 3/25 at the Seibu Dome.

Yuki Kondo, who is the top star in Pancrase, may fight in Pride later this year. Kondo challenged Kazushi Sakuraba and Kiyoshi Tamura after winning his bout at the 2/4 Pancrase show at Korakuen Hell over Eiji Ishikawa via doctor stoppage in the third round. The challenge was mainly just to get a pop. There is considered a small possibility of Kondo actually doing a match with Sakuraba, since it seems likely Sakuraba won't be matched with Rickson Gracie. The Deep promotion has some interest in Tamura vs. Kondo on one of its shows. Pride officials responded to this saying that Kondo would first have to prove himself in Pride against top foreigners before getting a match with Sakuraba. Nobuhiko Takada also said the same thing. Masami Ozaki, the Pancrase President, said it would be impossible for Kondo to fight on the 3/25 Seibu Dome Pride show because he has to fight on the 3/31 Pancrase show in Osaka, but Pride is talking with Pancrase, two companies that have never worked together in the past, about putting together Kondo vs. Renzo Gracie."

February 19, 2001:

"Ken Shamrock will most likely be fighting on the 3/25 Pride show at the Seibu Dome. He has said he would be fighting one of the top five heavyweights in the world and would be putting pro wrestling on the back burner for now. It is believed Shamrock's opponent will be Igor Vovchanchyn."

February 26, 2001:

"Pride announced three matches for its first major show of the year on 3/25 show at the Saitama Super Arena. Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Vanderlei Silva, which is a match I really didn't expect to see because Silva is the one guy under 200 because of his striking ability and because he can avoid takedowns that could pose real problems for Sakuraba. Dan Henderson, an Olympic calibre wrestler, kept winding up on the bottom when going for takedowns against him. Tito Ortiz neutralized his striking by taking him down and Vitor Belfort with his punches knocked Silva out fast, but Ortiz is so much bigger than Sakuraba and Sakuraba doesn't have Belfort's striking ability even though he's a far better all-around fighter. Ken Shamrock vs. Igor Vovchanchyn is definitely the real test for Shamrock at age 37. Vovchanchyn is ranked No. 2 in the world behind Mark Coleman at heavyweight and is a great stand-up fighter who hasn't lost a match via submission in about seven years. Shamrock never looked better at stand-up than he did against Kazuyuki Fujita, but got tired four minutes in and Vovchanchyn if they swing is probably the harder puncher of the two [I would say that that is "probably" true, yes --ed.]. Reports are Shamrock is training much harder for this fight. I'd expect the winner of this fight to get a match with Mark Coleman. The other match announced is Renzo Gracie vs. Dan Henderson, which is one of those matches which on paper sounds really good. Also announced on the show are Masaaki Satake, Alexander Otsuka, Akira Shoji, Tadao Yasuda (New Japan pro wrestler, which would be his first shootfight, at age 37, which doesn't sound pretty although that depends on who his opponent is), Coleman, Heath Herring and Guy Mezger. It is believed they are going to match Yasuda vs. Satake and bill it as sumo vs. karate. Yasuda was something of a name in sumo about 15 years ago (in the same era as John Tenta) before retiring and joining New Japan. One could be suspicious and see Yasuda, as Inoki's new project, and think this is Satake's being repaid for putting over Naoya Ogawa.

Pride has also made some rule changes to liberalize the rules. You can now kick with shoes. You can also knee or kick someone to the head if they are down on all fours [PRIDE KNEES ARE UPON US --ed.]. I hate this rule because I've seen fights in Brazil where this was legal and there is something about the ability to kick a field goal with somebody face that is a little too brutal and dangerous. I know there are purists who hate adding safety rules in the sport, but you have to be realistic and the key is to give people an exciting show with a minimum of injuries. They have also changed the time limits. Instead of two ten minute rounds and in the advent of a draw in the decision, adding a five minute overtime, there is now a first round which is ten minutes, and a second and third round, each of which are five minutes [THE GREATEST OF ALL ROUND FORMATS AND I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY IT JUST IS --ed]. Judges cannot at the end of the third round rule a draw, so every match has to have a declared winner. The referee also now has the power to give yellow cards both for stalling and for ineffective offense, which would take away one point in the scoring, to encourage more chances. However, in a fight where there is more than a 10 kilogram (22 pounds) weight differential, that rule won't be in effect."

March 5, 2001:

"t was believed that shortly after press time that a press conference would be held to announce Takayama appearing on the 3/25 Pride show."

and

"Coleman is scheduled for the 3/25 Pride show but no opponent has been announced, but the belief is right now it won't be one of the main events so it won't be a dangerous opponent."
and

"In this week's strange story that makes no sense, Nobuhiko Takada is claiming he's going to train to represent Japan at the 2004 Olympics in Greco-roman wrestling at superheavyweight. That's ridiculous because Takada would be 42, has never competed in amateur wrestling at any serious level in his life, and even if he did it all his life and was great at it, he's hardly a superheavyweight as he probably should compete at 198. Anyway, he is planning on having his retirement match with Pride in May, then switch to amateur and compete in the senior nationals (above 35-years-old) in Tokyo on 7/14 and 7/15 and if he qualifies by finishing first or second, he can enter the nationals in December. There is actually a precedent of sorts for this, as Jaguar Yokota, after retiring as a pro wrestler (her first or second retirement as she came back later), tried amateur wrestling but obviously womens amateur on a national basis is far less populated and competitive, but she started in her 30s and lost in the first round of the nationals."

March 12, 2001:

"A pure shoot show? In Japan, the biggest events of the year now to wrestling fans are the Pride shows. In the last two weeks, more people than at any point since probably 1995, have seriously suggested an opinion that I think is very possible. With weekly television--which is the key and has been talked about for the first time in the history of the company and may be closer than a lot of people think--a UFC like promotion, or UFC itself since it does have the financial backing to get things done now--and a great promotion behind it as well as clearance on PPV--can become the No. 2 promotion in the sports entertainment genre behind WWF. No. 2 may also mean nothing if it isn't done correctly, or it's No. 2 based on attrition because nobody else exists on a national level. If WCW goes down, every indie in existence will claim to be No. 2, just like with ECW going down, everyone will proclaim being No. 3. It's a number that at this point means nothing. After all, today, WCW is No. 2, and from a financial standpoint, all that means is the ability to burn lots of money weekly and garner a lot of attention in doing so. With the current economic climate, combined with a younger audience that more and more has turned away from sports, as mentioned last week, that won't be easy. On the other hand, in a country as large as this one with a century long history of pro wrestling, one would think there would be enough interest in a decently run alternative product."

and:

"Mitsuharu Misawa and Yoshihiro Takayama held the press conference on 2/28 to announce Takayama was going to do a match with Pride. Takayama does have a few shoot matches in his past, most notable being brutalized and choked out by Kimo in 1:16 on August 17, 1996 at Jingu Stadium in Tokyo. Why Misawa would allow half of his top heel tag team to be put in a position to be humiliated makes little sense unless the agreement is that Takayama will be given a pushover."

from the New Japan notes:

"It is believed that Naoya Ogawa will likely face Fujita which has the shoot repercussions, since both are Inoki's shoot guys and are unbeaten in Pride. Of course, Ogawa has been protected and Fujita to an extent has been very lucky, but Fujita does have wins over Mark Kerr and Ken Shamrock. Perhaps they can book Sasaki against Mark Coleman (who had been originally asked to work a main event on this show against Nagata) because it would be the Pride world heavyweight champion against the IWGP heavyweight champion."

and:

"The 3/25 Pride show with the triple main bouts of Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Vanderlei Silva, Ken Shamrock vs. Igor Vovchanchyn and Renzo Gracie vs. Dan Henderson from the Saitama Super Arena will air in the United States on PPV on 4/6."

March 19, 2001:

"Battlarts is holding its fifth anniversary show on 3/25 in Odawara headlined by Carl Malenko & Mens Teioh vs. Mohammed Yone & Ikuto Hidaka. They also run Korakuen Hall on 4/13 with Great Sasuke, Tiger Mask and Pride's Daijiro Matsui appearing as well as being a place for Zero-One to shoot an angle."

and

"Pride announced three more matches for its 3/25 show at the Saitama Super Arena (American PPV air date 4/6) as Mark Coleman vs. Allan Goes, Masaaki Satake vs. Tadao Yasuda (we had reported that one several weeks back) and Guy Mezger vs. Eagen Inoue. Goes is a natural 200-pounder who was a champion at Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. Coleman should be too strong for him, but it's not a safe fight should Coleman slip up or not be in his best shape because most likely this one will go the distance as I don't see Coleman submitting him or even trying to, or knocking him out. I do see it as a boring fight with Coleman dominating most of the way. Satake-Yasuda should be Satake's payback after the job for Naoya Ogawa. Whether work or shoot, Satake should be too much standing for the 320-pound Yasuda, who has no prior fights nor experience at a sport where you have to block punches. Mezger should beat Inoue standing


There is apparently a very interesting aspect of some Pride contracts, in that bonuses are awarded for both the winner, and the loser of fights (more for the winner) is there is a clean finisher, to discourage time limit draws. The positive is there is an economic advantage in going for the win. The obvious negative is if a guy is losing a fight badly, it is to his advantage to find a way to lose clean in the last minute or so as opposed to last the distance."

March 26, 2001:

from the New Japan notes:

"More than any of the matches, the highlight of the show was Inoki's appearance. He brought out Tadao Yasuda, who has been training at Inoki's Los Angeles camp, to build up his 3/25 Pride match against Masaaki Satake. He then brought out Hashimoto and said he wanted Hashimoto to face anyone from New Japan. Nakanishi came out and they did some mic work and Tatsumi Fujinami basically okayed the match. Then he brought out Kazuyuki Fujita and Kensuke Sasaki, with Sasaki saying he was sorry he dropped the IWGP title and that the match with Fujita would have to be non-title. In a stunning admission at the show, Inoki said it's been terribly disappointing to him that the popularity of pro wrestling in Japan has declined so much and said that Fujinami and Choshu had a meeting with him the previous day for ideas to turn things around and I said he gave them a bitter pill to swallow about how things are being done."

and

"Ken Shamrock aggravated his neck injury which dates back to high school in training and is out of the Pride show on 3/25. Shamrock suffered a broken neck as a high school wrestler and suffered a second neck injury after being kicked by Curtis Hughes at the end of his WWF run in 1999. It is expected that another Lions Den fighter, Tra Telligman, will have the unpleasant duty of having to face Igor Vovchanchyn with only two weeks notice. Shamrock is suffering from bilateral upper extremity pain and cervical radiculopathy.

The Pride show on PPV will air on Viewers Choice Canada on 4/13. It debuts on DirecTV on 4/6 and Bell Express Vu on 4/13. All systems will have numerous replays. The complete line-up is Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Vanderlei Silva, which is one hell of an intriguing match that there is considerable debate over who will win and on paper looks exciting; Vovchanchyn vs. Telligman, Mark Coleman vs. Allan Goes (on paper this sounds like a boring fight with Coleman just holding Goes down and avoiding getting submitted), Renzo Gracie vs. Dan Henderson (which will probably be a hell of a match between two talented and gutsy fighters); Heath Herring (who has a ton of potential to be a top star) vs. Denis Sobolev (a Russian who little is known about), Guy Mezger vs. Egan Inoue (on paper Mezger should keep it upright and would like be able to outbox Inoue if it stays standing and should be able to beat him on the ground as well although Inoue is not a pushover), Vitor Belfort vs. Bobby Southworth (who has a 2-0 record, but he may be in for a very tough night, although not a very long night) and Masaaki Satake vs. Tadao Yasuda (whether work or shoot, Satake on paper figures to be far too skillful standing for a huge man with little experience in this game)

For whatever this is worth, Antonio Inoki announced in Japan that WCW is folding and that they want to bring Bill Goldberg in for Pride [I have done this sort of thing in ファイナルファイヤープロレスリング～夢の団体運営 / Final Fire Pro Wrestling: Yume no Dantai Unei! / Final Fire Pro Wrestling: Organization of Dreams / Final Fire Pro Wrestling: Dream Organization Management and let me tell you: he draws a nice house the first time out --ed.]. He also said they wanted to bring Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Kendo Ka Shin) back (like they haven't killed his career already) and predicted that Silva would beat Sakuraba."

and

"WWF was "down" to ten of the top 20 Rec Sports videos on the latest Billboard chart. The latest Super Bowl was No. 1 and Michael Jordan to the Max was No. 2, followed by the latest Royal Rumble and a new WWF Hardcore tape and the Tony Hawk. WWF has spots 6-10 with Rock at No. 6 and there was no Austin video in the top 20. New releases were last year's UK Rebellion show at No. 8 and a new Foley video at No. 9. The heavily promoted Angle video has fallen out of the top 20. Of the non-WWF tapes in the top 20, the Juggalo Vol. 2 tape from ICP debuted at No. 11, ECW Uncensored was No. 18, The Pride Grand Prix finals was No. 19 and the FMW first tape was No. 20."

What better way to close than with a glimpse of the tapes one might have found at an HMV of the era! And that is very much "a wrap" on not just another PRIDE but the end of PRIDE's 2000, a major year for them. And for us, in terms of our enjoyment of it together, I hope. I have glanced ahead (forgive me), and 2001 is going to be a lot of fun to go through, with some key people showing up for the first time. We'll talk more soon! Thank you once again for your attention to these matters. Please take care.