PRIDE.17
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 2001年11月3日
開催地 日本
東京都文京区
会場 東京ドーム
開始時刻 午後5時
試合数 全9試合
放送局 フジテレビ（地上波）
入場者数 53,226人
"TESSHŪ CONSULTED WITH TEKISUI, ABBOT OF TENRYUJI, WHO PRESENTED THE SWORDSMAN WITH THIS KOAN TAKEN FROM TOZAN'S FIVE RANKS:
When two flashing swords meet there is no place to escape;
Move on coolly, like a lotus flower blooming in the midst of a roaring fire,
And forcefully pierce the Heavens!
(This is rank number four, mutual integration. A true practitioner moves without hesitation through the confusion and chaos of the sensual world, avoiding all duality.)"
SO IT IS WRITTEN IN THE SWORD OF NO SWORD: LIFE OF THE MASTER WARRIOR TESSHŪ (John Stevens, formerly Professor of Buddhist Studies and Aikido Instructor at Tohoku College of Social Welfare, Sendai, Japan, currently resident in Honolulu, Hawaii [seems like a good call] where he instructs at Aikido-Ohana dōjō [going good? how have your numbers been?]) AND SO TOO SHALL WE ENDEAVOUR TO MOVE ([MOSTLY] WITHOUT HESITATION) THROUGH THE CONFUSION AND CHAOS OF THE SENSUAL WORLD AS WE ENCOUNTER THE "INTEGRATION" OF 総合格闘技 which is to say そうごうかくとうぎ which is also to say sо̄gо̄-kakutо̄gi and indeed INTEGRATED FIGHT SPORT. The task is tall but we may yet prove pretty tall ourselves, not unlike our new friend 山岡 鉄舟 Yamaoka Tesshū, "a massive six-footer with tremendous strength, [. . .] the scourge of Edo training halls." Six-feet tall in the late 徳川幕府 / とくがわばくふ / Tokugawa bakufu / Tokugawa Shogunate is a really tall-sized guy!
You know who else is fairly tall? Bas Rutten (6'1"), and also, in all fairness, Stephen Quadros (5'10"), who just squeaks in as the absolute shortest that a tall guy can be (any shorter and you are unquestionably a medium guy [there is absolutely no shame in it; I myself was once a little taller but am now mostly a medium guy, and my life is fine {every day remains a gift}]). It occurs to me that Bas might actually be on the shorter side for a Dutch man, and some quick research reveals the average height okay yeah this is the average height for Dutch men to be 181.2cm / 5'11 1⁄2" based on self-reported data (2020), and 183.8cm / 6'1⁄2" as measured (1.5% of the population, 2009). Their women average 170.7cm / 5'7"! The Dutch are every bit as tall as their voetbal teams have led us to believe. Rutten and Quadros are of course the pals who will guide us through PRIDE 17, is why I mention any and indeed all of this, and here they are now, welcoming us to the 東京 / ドーム / Tōkyō Dōmu, home of the 読売ジャイアンツ / Yomiuri Jaiantsu, they remind us, in front of a souvenir stand that seems to offer posters of several Japanese baseball greats and also of Ken Griffey Jr., because it is of course impossible to have even the slightest interest in or even awareness of baseball, anywhere, in any time, and not love Ken Griffey Jr., and so here we are, every one of us, loving him. Junior. The Kid.
As the home of the Yomiuri Giants, Japan's winningest baseball team, Quadros explains, the Tokyo Dome "epitomizes that winning spirit." "Mike Tyson fought here," he adds immediately thereafter, but does not specify how that worked out. That was a little weird to say! With PRIDE's new middleweight (205 lbs) and heavyweight (heavier than that) championships to be contested for the first time, this event has been subtitled (for the English-language audience) "Championship Chaos," which engenders (engender is a social construct) the following from The Fight Professor (self-styled [though aren't we all]): "The word 'chaos' translated into Japanese means ran, which translated literally means disorder, and that's what we're gonna have tonight: total disorder, where the top stars in the sport will put their reputation and careers on the line." We would be remiss were we not to note that the 乱 ran of which Quadros speaks here is the ran of 乱取り / らんどり/ randori, literally "chaos taking," but which 嘉納 治五郎 Kanō Jigorō clarified thus(ly) in an address at the Games of the X Olympiad (Los Angeles, 1932): "Randori, meaning 'free exercise,' is practiced under conditions of actual contest. It includes throwing, choking, holding the opponent down, and bending or twisting his arms or legs. The two combatants may use whatever methods they like provided they do not hurt each other and obey the rules of Judo concerning etiquette, which are essential to its proper working." All true, all true. 乱 Ran is of course also the title of 黒澤 明 Kurosawa Akira's essentially flawless King Lear; please find below an uncommonly rad poster of it:
ALRIGHT OKAY WHO EXACTLY DO WE HAVE HERE FOR MATCHES OF FIGHTING LET US FIND OUT TOGETHER OKAY MIDDLWEIGHT TITLE FIGHT WANDERLEI SILVA / KAZUSHI SAKURABA (described by Quadros in passing as "a zen master" [if true? potentially huge]) HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE FIGHT ANTONIO RODRIGUERO NOGUEIRA / HEATH HERRING WHAT ELSE YES OKAY RENZO GRACIE MICHIYOSHI OHARA QUINTON JACKSON YUKI ISHIKAWA IGOR VOVCHANCHYN MARIO SPERRY DAN HENDERSON MURILO NINJA (né RUA) SEMMY SCHILT MASAAKI SATAKE TOM ERIKSON MATT SKELTON and notably absent from this list and presumably also from the English-language broadcast altogether NOBUHIKO TAKADA / MIRKO CROCOP (FILIPOVIC) which sounds like an enormously big deal in the Japanese context and which I seem to have available to me as a separate file ah yes with NIHONGO (日本語) COMMENTARY what a gift! I have lamented before, and will again now lament, how difficult it has become to obtain these shows in their original, endless Japanese broadcasts, at least without going through all your old discs in the basement instead of relying on the charity and goodwill of one's fellows of the internet (the path we have chosen). So this will be a treat! Although probably not for Takada! I have no specific memory of how that one goes but I have some guesses!
PRAY FOR PEACE PRAY FOR LIFE is what Lenne Hardt asks of us as several fighters slowly enter the ring draped in the flags of their homelands; the athletes then place these flags ceremoniously atop an odd bespoke structure seemingly designed to accommodate this practice and this practice alone. NOW WITH DIGNITY AND MUTUAL RESPECT PRIDE 17 IN TOKYO DOME Lenne Hardt offers with more restraint than is her custom but, as always, all of her choices are great, "no notes." The blaring PRIDE FC theme gets the people going for the parade of fighters proper (or actual), and yeah this is a very eager Tokyo Dome crowd for sure. It is hard to say with any real precision what percentage of the crowd's eagerness arises directly from the sight of 石川雄規 Ishikawa Yūki's BATBAT t-shirt but it has to be non-zero; it just has to be.
Do you remember Yuki Ishikawa, who we met all the way back at RINGS 4/30/93: KORAKUEN EXPERIMENT '93: ROUND 2? At that time we wrote, in part (slightly abridged): "I am pleased to see Koichiro Kimura (you will perhaps recall his singlet says SUBMISSION ARTS WRESTLING on it) again after what seems like months and here he is against Yuki Ishikawa yeah that's right Yuki Ishikawa founder of BATTLARTS [. . .]. All I will say about Battlarts, other than affirm its overall flawlessness, is to mention that had any of us needed any further confirmation of judoka-turned-poet-clown-genius Anthony Carelli/Santino Marella's taste-level beyond the lived truth of his art, it came when he named the gym he opened in Mississauga 'Battle Arts Academy,' and went so far (and this is truly above and beyond) as to bring in actual Yuki Ishikawa as a trainer. Here, just now, Ishikawa seems to have somehow (inadvertently?) blinded Koichiro Kimura, who is forced to quit on his stool (just slightly off it, to be honest) between rounds. Yuki Ishikawa though! I should probably mention that Yuji Shimada (Fire Pro: Shuuji Imada [come on, guys]) is the referee here in what I am pretty sure is his first RINGS appearance, and although I do not see or hear him saying NO HEADBUTT NO ELBOW NO ATTACK GROIN I think it is strongly implied by the existential fact of him." I wouldn't necessarily write all of that the same way, down to the last detail, were I writing that right now, but it is certainly a record of how I felt then, which is all we can ever really have I suppose (nothing is finished, nothing is perfect [侘寂 {wabi-sabi}]).
Oh dear, he's fighting Rampage: that is to say, Quinton Jackson, whom Bas Rutten rightly describes as "a very powerful individual on his way to the top" (he got little wrong in what he told and predicted, as it says of Bas' utterance in the Heaney translation [of him {in the original: Hé ne leág fela wyrda ne worda}]). And here now is Ishikawa! We learn that Jackson recently defeated his (Ishikawa's) pal (also our pal) Alexander Otsuka in BATTLARTS in what we are assured (by Stephen Quadros) was not a worked professional wrestling match but instead a shoot fight, and it may well have been (I do not recall it, though Dave Meltzer said of it, based on reports but no tape, that it may have been legitimate [Otsuka was a mess at the end, but I would not put it past Otsuka to take a truly horrific "worked" {real, but willing} beating to set up his pal's PRIDE match]). Rutten and Quadros speculate giddily on the possibility of the slam and after a flurry of punches, Jackson does indeed throw with the form of 掬投 sukui-nage (scooping throw) commonly called 手車 te-guruma (hand wheel) and though there is almost certainly a freestyle wrestling name for it, I am deeply ignorant of that worthy sport. Moments later, Jackson does his utter darnedest to perform a "shoot" piledriver, but mercifully this remains unrealized. The caution and guidance of 指導 shido is offered, as Jackon is landing "PRIDE knees," as all have come to know them, not to the top of Ishikawa's head (this would be fine), but instead to the back of it (this is stopped at once). Ah, I must shido myself for jumping the gun: the referee's call was not shido but merely 待て mate; no penalty was assessed. No time for any of that now, though, as Ishikawa has worked his way back up to his feet and been knocked out fairly brutally very soon after. That was less than (I suppose "fewer than") two minutes, but a lot happened.
Next up, Dan Henderson! He is known well to us, of course, through his RINGS 2/26/00: WORLD MEGA-BATTLE OPEN TOURNAMENT KING OF KINGS GRAND FINAL triumph (revisit it, should you so choose, herely). Since that time (and what a time it was), Henderson has joined the fray in PRIDE, dropping a decision to Wanderlei Silva, knocking Renzo Gracie out pretty quickly, and stopping Akira Shoji late in the third round. His opponent this day will be Murilo "Ninja" (Rua, though they are not saying that last part much), who recently bested Daijiro Matsui. This one starts out great! After some tidy leaning against each other in the corner, Henderson throws with what I would characterize as the side-seperation of 横分 yoko wakare and which I believe (please forgive me if this is in error) is known to many as a lateral drop? You would maybe think that this would lead to a great deal of Dan Henderson laying on a guy, but in this case no: they're back up before you know it, these two, and after Henderson falls to his back in an effort to secure and finish the 前裸絞 mae-hadaka-jime we call the guillotine (neither Quadros nor Rutten seem to think the arm-in guillotine is even a thing yet [we have spoken before about how this was once a controversial subject! for some reason!]), it is instead Henderson who spends pretty much the entirety of the ten-minute opening round getting laid on! By the other guy! Who is Rua! Just great work by Rua throughout. He did seem to kick Henderson in the face just after the bell, which hardly seems sporting, but Henderson doesn't seem especially upset about it, so I guess I should just let it go, too.
Round two unfolds similarly, with a good deal of Rua maintaining a strong 抑込技 osaekomi-waza (pinning technique), switching his hips (in 腰切 koshi-kiri fashion) between a 横四方固 yoko-shiho-gatame / 胸固 mune-gatame side control to 崩袈裟固 kuzure-kesa-gatame, the broken (or modified) scarf hold (the scarf in question is a Buddhist's surplice! sometimes at the club I mention that! not too often though because I want my students to have a nice time!). This seems to be way more interesting to me than it is to our commentators (hey: fair enough), but the way these two got there to begin with was just objectively interesting, I think: whilst clinched, Henderson attempted to throw a high knee, to which Rua responded with a sukui-nage / te-guruma. And okay wow, this is really something: in the final moments of the round, Henderson throws with the exact same technique in the exact same circumstance! Sukui-nage in the form of te-guruma is a strong early contender for waza of the night! Will we perhaps see another in Round Three?
Turns out no. It was pretty interesting though! Very early within its bounds—the round's bounds, I mean—Rua just absolutely cranked Hendo with knee to the groin, just every bit as bad as you're ever likely to see. Rua is offered the caution and guidance of shido about doing that. Once recovered, insofar as one might be in the time afforded here, Henderson throws first with what I would call the propping ankle block of 支釣込足 sasae-tsurikomi-ashi and, a tiny bit later, a 体落 tai-otoshi body drop, both of which Stephen Quadros characterizes as judo hip throws, and I would guess Henderson would not describe them as judo at all, and I certainly would describe neither as a hip throw (an 足技 ashi-waza and 手技 te-waza respectively; neither was 腰技 koshi-waza). They don't call him "The Fight Professor" for nothing! Henderson really is doing great, though, and although Rua is very skilled at returning to his feet, Henderson is very skilled in punching hard. Once Rua has had his fill of that, he does a pretty nifty job of 双手刈 morote-gari double-leg takedowns, which calls to mind one of the deep strangenesses of two-time Olympian Dan Henderson: throughout his mixed fight career, Henderson got taken down a lot by people who lacked anywhere near that level of wrestling pedigree. Mixed fighting is weird! And, ultimately, probably not very good. And yet these texts are before us; there are certain things that can be said. One's thoughts (realistically only mine, but we're in this together) turn to a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio (lynchpin of the subscriber-only HSMeltzer@Juno.com Podcast Network [though I really do enjoy several of the other shows as well!]), in which Dave Meltzer and his little buddy (a little buddy to us all) / second-degree Pedro Sauer Jiu Jitsu black belt Bryan Alvarez discoursed as follows (I have transcribed it):
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Bryan: . . . and Bareknuckle Fighting.
Dave: Bareknuckle Fighting. Did you see the pictures of Luke [Rockhold, all mashed up—ed.]?
Bryan: Yyyyyyyyeah, what are these . . . yyyyeah I don' t know . . .
Dave: It's kind of sad to me, the Bareknuckle Fighting thing, not so much that they're doing it, but it's sad because it's like . . .
Bryan: . . . that's what they're doing?
Dave: Well no, it's because you've got, I think the whole thing is, you have MMA fighters, okay, that have left UFC, and they can make more money doing boxing, or bareknuckle fighting. I don't know how Bareknuckle Fighting is paying these guys these big amounts of money, but these guys are getting big big paydays . . .
Bryan: Well, I mean, there have been many promotions over the years that at least for the short term are able to pay people a lot a lot of money; I mean, guys get their money and the place ends up going out of business. I mean, it's possible that they've got strong backing and can survive a while, but I mean . . .
Dave: It makes no economic sense.
Bryan: It's simple economics, there's only so long that you can pay people massive amounts of money and not take in the revenue to offset it, unless you've got someone just holding you up.
Dave: I don't know what the pay-per-view numbers were but this was the first show where there was actual . . . this had, this was legitimately, I believe, like in Google Trends yesterday, this was number six, y'know, in the country, of all terms: Bareknuckle Fighting Championship. So the Luke Rockhold / Mike Perry match, and also they had Eddie Alvarez against Chad Mendes and a couple others as well, but this one diiiiiiid . . . I don't know if it did any business on pay-per-view, but it did draw attention, more than any of the other shows have done to date, so, I guess that's something. But I just think that, like, it's like, UFC brings in so much money and then these guys, like again Luke Rockhold, he's an MMA fighter, okay? He's not a boxer. As soon as I saw him going into this, it's like . . .and y'know, he . . . Mike Perry is actually a lot smaller guy, but Luke is not a boxer. When it comes to striking his best moves are his kicks, which are not allowed in this; when it comes to fighting, his best stuff is his top position and his submissions—his jiu jitsu is his strongest point of anything; his takedowns, y'know. So, what is he doing going into Bareknuckle Fighting, other than they paid him more than, y'know, anybody else? But I think it's kinda sad that an MMA fighter, with all the money that MMA generates, is offered more money to do something that he's not good at, so to speak, that's not his speciality, then doing his specialty. So, um, yeah, he . . . I mean I guess from what I saw, Luke Rockhold won the first round, he hurt him, and then late in the round Perry got him, and then in the second round Perry took over, and y'know also Luke is older and had . . . y'know a lot of times when these guys retire, it's like they retire from MMA, and then they go into boxing, and it's like, dude, y'know, it's like, that's not even your sport. If you're retiring from you own sport, and you want to go into another sport, go into tennis! I know you can't make the money in tennis [well I mean there is definitely money to made in tennis but obviously not by these guys!—ed.]. But it's like, y'know, submission grappling, y'know what I mean? But there's no money in submission grappling in comparison, so you go into this, that's not your forte . . .
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I share all of this (too much? [too much]) with you because it was wild to me to hear Dave talk about a crude, needlessly violent sport that lures in (and, in a sense, preys upon) athletes who can no longer make a living in the less-gross combat sports in which they are truly skilled, but who need a quick paycheque, and for whom this coarsening abasement feels like the best option available to them in the moment, and he was talking about MMA like it was the non-gross portion of this scenario. And in this context, relative to bareknuckle fighting, it certainly is! But all of this came very much to mind watching two-time Greco-Roman Wrestling Olympian Dan Henderson—who, all things being equal, I'm willing to bet would have just as soon been somewhere wrestling, or coaching wrestling, if the money was anywhere near right—getting tipped over by a kickboxer who had also kneed him in the groin pretty good there a minute or so ago. Is it even interesting that, if you make an Olympic-calibre wrestler worry about strikes, all of a sudden he's not as good at wrestling? A little; like once, it is, maybe; and then it's just one of the things you know, and you don't need to see it play out again and again to know it any more fully or deeply; it becomes settled knowledge really very quickly. This calls to mind, too, a conversation I had (just the night before the airing of the WOR show that I over-excerpted above) with a long-time student of mine who has the very good fortune of training Brazilian Jiu Jitsu under a legitimately, verifiably world-class BJJ competitor and educator (in addition to training judo with, like, me and my friends [we try really hard! to do a good job! I am proud of our little club!].) Our talk had turned to Marcelo Garcia, a perhaps uniquely accomplished Brazilian Jiu Jitsu competitor and submission grappler, and how his lone foray into mixed martial arts resulted in a loss to the largely uncelebrated Kim Dae-Won (a journeyman we will meet, in time, in a PRIDE BUSHIDO). Garcia lost by TKO on a cut in the second round, but even in the first, he did not look like Marcelo Garcia: although he took Kim's back with three full minutes to work, he did not do well at all with that deeply advantageous position against this Korean man of judo, this man of Korean judo (they've really got some [of both]). Something I mentioned to my student, who is significantly younger than me, and so does not remember The Boards of Yesteryear as I am cursed to do, is that while I felt bad for Marcelo losing, because he actually seems like a totally decent person alongside his many distinctions, I did welcome it to the extent that I disliked the idea (and dislike it still [though one rarely encounters it anymore]) that if someone was really a great athlete in their non-gross combat sport, then should in some sense "prove it" by partaking in a grosser combat sport (and these grounds are always relative: see Dave, above). When, of course, no, not at all: everyone who might care to know knows well enough (indeed perfectly well) that Marcelo Garcia is amazing; let him be amazing at the thing he is amazing at, which is sufficient unto itself. Marcello Garcia should be shipbuilding.
This is all to say: Henderson takes the split decision, a decision to which I feel he was entitled even without Rua's late-breaking shido. A spirited match from start to finish. Good job, guys!
Now we have 佐竹 雅昭 SATAKE MASAAKI, beloved by all for his tremendous heart full of tremendous karate, against SEMMY SCHILT, who is so tall:
Although I do not think of myself as a worrier (we all of us have our cares, certainly), I do tend to worry about Masaaki Satake, and it usually turns out that I was wrong to be as concerned as I was, as I had been. This time, though, I came in underworried: I was like "this will probably be fine," but rather than that being true at all, it isn't. "Nobody ever faced a fighter with a reach like this," Bas Rutten says of Schilt. "André the Giant," he corrects himself slightly, "but we don't count him." "André the Giant was a little heavier and a little slower," Quadros is right to add. "Yep. And also . . ." Bas begins, but he is interrupted by the action, and we never get to know. Good talk, though, guys; thank you for it. I always like to be reminded of André the Giant, and come away a little saddened by the memory of him (I am reminded that at one time I had every intention of reading Bertrand Hébert and Pat Laprade's Le Géant Ferré: La huitième merveille du monde; perhaps I will reformulate that intention this very moment). Satake is trying some neat things, like for instance spinning heel kicks, but Schilt is cool and steady and oh no he has kicked Masaaki Satake in the groin so directly:
Sataki is a demonstrative fellow at the best of times, and these, for Sataki, are significantly worse times than that. "How many times in his life do you think Sataki has kiai'd?" Stephen Quadros wonders, and it's a totally fair question, indeed a great one, but Bas won't even venture a guess. A gamer, Sataki is right back in it for a moment or two once he has composed himself, but then he just seems to wilt and waste his way down to the mat after an exchange that looks no worse than many of those that had preceded it. Perhaps a delayed-onset body shot? Only two minutes and eighteen seconds in this one, but, like Jackson/Ishikawa, a lot of things happened.
I don't know where exactly to place this 高田 延彦 TAKADA NOBUHIKO vs. MIRKO CRO COP (Filipovic) bout, as it did not air as part of the English-language broadcast (perhaps the Observer will bring clarity), but I have it here as its own distinct file with commentary in 日本語 nihongo and tremendous audio overall: the Tokyo Dome crowd sounds just incredible for this PRIDE vs. K-1 contest, in no small measure because, despite all that has come to be—the convincing shoot losses; the unconvincingly worked wins—Nobuhiko Takada remains absolutely their guy. I admit to no memory of this match, which seems a completely horrific prospect. The best you could say about it, I suppose, is that Cro Cop, though a murderously distinguished (for murders) kickboxer, was as-yet-inexperienced in mixed fighting, having only faced 藤田 和之 Fujita Kazuyuki (of course no small task, but my understanding is that Cro Cop kicked him and that was more or less that? [oh, I see: kind of, in that Cro Cop kicked Fujita very much in the head as Fujita dove in, and the fight had to be stopped on the ghastly cut that followed even though Fujita was firmly and securely in control with, as the commentary notes by name, 横四方固 yoko-shiho gatame]). This bout is to be contested under special rules, I have gleaned, though the precise nature of those rule eludes me at present. A single Takada low-kick lands and the crowd is into it, my goodness. Fujita is shown to be in Takada's corner, and I am into it, my goodness.
To return to the matter at hand, Nobuhiko Takada has taken Cro Cop to the mat with a 朽木倒 kuchiki-taoshi / dead-tree drop / single-leg takedown to what is perhaps the loudest ovation we have yet heard in the several years of PRIDE FC we have shared to date. There is really nothing like a full Tokyo Dome crowd, is there. It's so many people! Cheering for their guys! Cro Cop regains his feet, in time, and Takada, wary of getting kicked by them (Cro Cop's feet I mean), settles into an Antonio Inoki vs. Ali seated position, known better to a more recent mixed fight audience as an ignoble Gracie family posture broadly, and to the extremely contemporary mixed fight audience (like as in the other weekend just passed [I don't watch anymore but I saw some posts]), the Kron Gracie shame-scooch (did you know he was a "flat earther"? well he is!).
These appear to be three-minute rounds, and there are several more of them, and in none of them, which unfold along broadly similar lines, do we recapture the elation and fairly horrifying sense of danger present in the first. The crowd seemed to think it was sort of neat the first time Takada dropped to his seat, but every subsequent time he does it increases the drag coefficient for all concerned. It really is an awful thing to do. Learn a throw, my man. A little trip. I believe in you. The crowd is actually fairly hostile towards the match in general but also Takada in particular as the four-round (strange number! perhaps I have miscounted?) unjudged/unscored draw is announced (I am assuming it is unjudged, because they said "draw" right away). Rarely, in any context, will you see such enormous goodwill dissipate as quickly as just happened here. Legitimately wild. To see. It.
Years before any of us had heard tell of Jair Bolsonaro or Ramzan Kadyrov, to name but two of his presumably many pals (he is an affable guy!), here is Renzo Gracie, set to face 新日本プロレスリング株式会社 / Shin Nihon Puroresuringu Kabushiki-gaisha / New Japan Pro Wrestling's 小原道由 Ohara Michiyoshi, with whose work I must admit I am entirely unfamiliar. Let's learn together: I see that he was once IWGP Tag Team Champion alongside 後藤 達俊 Gotō Tatsutoshi as "The Mad Dogs," for a time affiliated with the great 蝶野正洋 Chōno Masahiro, later with 斎藤 弘幸 Saitō Hiroyuki and indeed Enson Inoue, known well to us from his martial exploits broadly. Though I can find no source for it apart from his Wikipedia page, I see Ohara described as "[t]he former captain of the Kokushikan University judo team," which is a fine credential, but I do have my doubts about taking your first professional mixed fight at the age of, let's see . . . yes, okay, Ohara was twelve days away from his thirty-fourth birthday at this, our moment of encounter, and his first professional match is against Renzo Gracie. A tough assignment! My expectations are unhigh! Stephen Quadros notes that Renzo is cornered on this night by his cousin Royce, who I bet it is really taxing to fight, so much so that it might even make you feel like a fraud sometimes; you should search "Royce Gracie tax fraud" and see if that's true. You've got plenty of time to do so, no rush: this match is really very little other than indifferent striking (and not much of it) and fairly aimless clinching (in generous portion). Both athletes look exhausted; it is not that there was no effort here, simply not productive effort, I think we would mostly all agree (and hey it happens!). The final yellow-card count is Ohara two, Renzo one, and none could doubt that Renzo Gracie is the rightful winner (the decision is unanimous) over the débuting Ohara. Is that maybe Roger Gracie in Renzo's corner as well? I think so! I'll say this about Roger Gracie: to his credit, he's a guy you never hear anything about these days. A short clip called "Roger Gracie Talks Judo" came to my attention the other day, and it seemed nice enough.
Ігор Ярославович Вовчанчин which is to say IGOR YAROSLAVOVYCH VOVCHANCHYN, he of THE RUSSIAN HOOK in several key editions of ファイヤープロレスリング / Faiyā Puro Resuringu, is now to face MARRIO SPERRY, he of the crucial 1990s VHS tapes that instructed all that might listen to getch low and pooooosh (I have never stopped listening). This is only Sperry's second mixed fight in like four years! The handsome and able Murilo Bustamante is in his corner! Hey did you know that Mario Sperry, in addition to his many credentials and achievements in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu and submission grappling, also holds dan-rank in the exquisite art of Kodokan Judo? Well he does! A whole lot of that generation of those guys do (you could too, you know: you've just gotta start coming out, and then just keep it up; we'll get you there). Sperry surprises Igor, I think, with the speed of his morote-gari, and surprises me, certainly, with how quickly and how badly he has opened up a cut right at Igor's (not so hot) hairline (mine has suffered too, with the years; I speak of all this in fellowship and the interconnectedness of all living things). Sperry is doing just great, in a low-key way, and looks to the inherent power of 肩固 katame-gatame (the shoulder hold / arm triangle / head-and-arm choke) to help him pass Igor's stubborn 二重絡 niju-garami / two-leg entanglement / half guard HOLY MOLY HE FINISHED IT WITHOUT EVEN GETTING ALL THE WAY TO THE FAR SIDE GREAT JOB MARIO SPERRY:
This, to me, is just a tremendous thing to happen. Kata-gatame is such a versatile technique, from top or bottom! To pass, to sweep, to finish, you name it! I think we are just about due for another kata-gatame night at the club! Hey have you ever seen an animated gif of Masahiko Kimura as an older man going ouchi gari to kesa gatame to kata gatame? Here's one now, just happening on along (courtesy of our friends at let's play judo [our friends are me]):
Kata-gatame all day! I'm pretty excited!
The next bout is another PRIDE vs. K1 contest (did they maybe not include Takada vs. CroCop on the English-language broadcast simply on the grounds that it descended into farce a little?), this time setting the enormous wrestler Tom Erikson (whom you will perhaps recall from PRIDEs 8 and 11) against kickboxer Matt Skelton (whom you may recall from The Long UWF ["Skelton has competed in one shoot-style pro-wrestling bout – a loss to Kazuo Yamazaki for Akira Maeda's Universal Wrestling Federation on 10 January 1989 at Budokan Hall, Tokyo, Japan."{3}]) and it is really short and super gross: after taking Skelton down and entering with little effort into 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame, Erikson first tries to smother him with his big meaty chest, and when that fails, grabs his poor throat in the open-hand choke sometimes called the goozle, which is, to me, and for me, entirely unacceptable in any sporting context. Even Bas Rutten—who is significantly less faint of heart than I am as regards such matters—is a little taken aback: "I . . I did . . . I didn't know that was allowed?" Stephen Quadros, for his part, is like, look, there's nothing in this rule book that says a mule can't kick field goals. "After the event," if Tom Erikson's Wikipedia entry is to be trusted (I believe virtually everything I read), "Pride FC amended their rules so that the type of choke he used, which involved grabbing Skelton's throat with his hand in what was termed a 'front strangle choke' [an enormously charitable description of this heinous attack—ed.] would no longer be allowed." Well good!
OKAY AND NOW AT LAST IT IS TIME FOR CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHTS TO CROWN THE FIRST (non-tournament) PRIDE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP CHAMPIONS OF PRIDE FIGHTING CHAMPIONSHIP FIGHTING and what better way to begin than with the heavyweight one of those which sees Heath Herring (who has been really very good aside from a decision loss to Vitor Belfort at PRIDE 14) across the ring from the great Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira, each accompanied by their seconds (as is customary). I must admit that I am not wild about Heath Herring's elaborate hair and beard situation:
I worry that these æsthetic choices could hinder Herring should the fight go the distance: you'd of course like to think the judges could put this sort of thing to one side, and on a conscious level I have no doubt they would at least try, but through the æsthetic we commune with realms known imperfectly to us and whose influence upon our deeds remains obscure and honestly I just would not chance it. Mark Coleman, slouched yet hulking, has joined Stephen and Bas on commentary; let us welcome him. Our referee is of course 島田 裕二 Shimada Yūji (who else could it ever be).
The bell sounds, and Herring comes out swinging, as one might well expect; he throws a perhaps poorly timed kick just as Nogueira dives in low for 双手刈 morote-gari and he has been flopped down. In the ensuing let's say fifteen-or-so seconds before Herring settles in between Nogueira's legs, he is assailed by both Nogueira's 逆腕緘 gyaku-ude-garami and a fleeting 前裸絞 mae-hadaka-jime. A short time after Herring flies from those ills, Nogueira threatens with an 表三角絞 omote-sankaku-jime very nearly out of nowehere. Herring, rightly spooked, stands, and invites Nogueira to rejoin him. To Nogueira's credit, he does, understanding that, if he wishes a fight to be contested in 寝技 newaza (and more sympathetic I could not be), it is his duty to place his partner in that position, and, indeed, to keep him all squished down there; Nogueira does not seem especially eager to stand and strike, but he is willing to accept that in the context of mixed fighting, it is bound to come up, you know? Nogueira is short-term blessed / long-term cursed with "a good chin" which means it is relatively okay for him to hang out "in the pocket" and whack away / get whacked up on until opportunities for takedown reveal themselves. In the final moments of the long first round, Nogueira connects with a right hand that sends Herring reeling; Nogueira enters 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame, forces Herring to concede his back (through hitting), and continues his 連絡技 renraku-waza / continuous attack with a beautiful 横転十字固 ohten-juji-gatame / rolling armbar, which Herring smoothly evades. A wonderful exchange, revealing very nearly the full potential of this fundamentally awful thing. Mark Coleman is understandably moved: "Youth is a beautiful thing, isn't it Bas?" he offers poetically. "You can say that again," Bas answers for us all.
The first several minutes of the second round see Nogueira threaten in most of the 寝技 newaza positions you have ever seen or envisioned. The worst of these, to me, is probably when Nogueira secures a body triangle, no doubt thinking thoughts of the dreaded trunk strangle of 胴絞 do-jime whilst threatening periodically with 裸絞 hadaka-jime:
To his great credit, Herring works his way out of each of these awful predicaments, and even ends up on top for a brief instant. The third round unfolds along similar lines, if somewhat more wearily (fair enough!). There can be no doubt of the judges' decision as Murilo Bustamante hugs his tired pal amidst comfortable words and nice little pats. It is a credit to PRIDE FC, a briefly popular entertainment property ultimately revealed by 週刊現代 Shūkan Gendai (Modern Weekly) to have been a ヤクザ yakuza front way more than we'd even figured, that its first heavyweight champion was a martial artist as lovely as Antônio Rodrigo Nogueira. Here is Muhammad Hussain / Antonio / Kanji Inoki (猪木寛至) awarding a very nice belt to him:
It is odd that the heavyweight title fight is not the main event until you remember: oh yeah 桜庭 和志 Sakuraba Kazushi. It has been about eight months since he was clobbered upsettingly by Wanderlei Silva (R1 1:38, TKO, Upsetting Clobbering) and surely this time things will go differently, and better!
Really, they do, though: whereas the first fight was straight tumult, in which Silva was briefly wobbled en route to just smashing our boy, this time through we get a full ten-minute round that begins with a nifty little 踵返 kibisu-gaeshi ankle-pick and a better defensive guard than might come to mind when you first think of Wanderlei Silva. He's pretty strong, too, this Wanderlei Silva, who is probably ten kilos heavier than Sakuraba (they do not specify): in time, he just pushes Sakuraba off and pops back up to his feet. I really do like the intonation of the Chute Boxe "heyyyyy!" from the corner when every Silva strike lands, and it occurs to me that the "heyyyy!" I offer whenever there is a good attack in a round of 乱取り randori (that I am just off to the side timing [odd numbers]) is heavily indebted to it (I wonder if any of my friends who are old guys have noted this similarity? still with that note, the note of old guys: please consider the invaluable judo pedagogue Shintaro Higashi's recent and correct Judo for Old Guys). All kinds of up and down in this one, and great excitement, and while it is certainly Sakuraba who has done most of the taking down, Silva attacks with a very fine 足砕 ashi-kudaki of the sort Canadian judo hero Nicolas Gill demonstrates alongside Georges St. Pierre as part of a strong series organized by Jukado Mats (there used to be a whole youtube playlist! but it's gone!) that, if nothing else, makes clear the sheer enormity of Nicolas Gill compared to a standard-sized person (me, to my friend Simon, a wonderful fellow and a fine judo player invaluable to my own start in the sport [and way]: "You did randori with Nicolas Gill in Montréal? What did he get you with?" Simon, my wonderful friend, to me in reply: "Who knows, man; it was too fast; who knows."
Perhaps the most thrilling of the several legitimately thrilling exchanges in this match so far is the one wherein Sakuraba seems fairly close to finishing with a 前裸絞 mae-hadaka-jime / guillotine front-choke only to be scooped (掬投 sukui-nage, literally "scooping throw") and slammed as follows:
That's quite an escape! Silva's style is unorthodox . . . but effective (R.I.P. the great Jim Kelly [would you believe I have never watched Black Samurai {1977}?]. I begin to wonder if that is perhaps the slam that wrecks Sakurab's collarbone? I am sympathetic to such mishaps as I have a low-key collarbone issue that re-emerges sometimes and, though it is an almost imperceptibly mild ailment in the overall context of grappling into my third decade (of it), it is nevertheless a drag, if an exceedingly mild one. Although Sakuraba seems pretty together here, with only thirty seconds left in the round I've got to think that's what did it? Oh yeah okay no question; as soon as the round ends, you can see Sakuraba notice the problem (this is so much worse than the little thing that happens with my clavicle in, like, the front part of it), and yeah that's the fight; you can't keep having a martial arts match if this is what your collarbone looks like:
An unfortunate end to a great match and a strong show! Thank you for enjoying it with me!
Before we move on to our usual closing matters, I wanted to take a moment to note the passing of Dean Rasmussen, central man (in the Wallace Stevens sense) of the Death Valley Driver Video Review. (At the time of this writing, support for his family can still be directed here.) The debt that this TK Scissors blog owes to the Death Valley Driver Video Review is self-evident, but I would like to state it explicitly all the same in case you have somehow stumbled upon this writing, as-yet-unaware of its utterly essential antecedent. As Dean's old friend Phil Schneider said as part of a lovely remembrance alongside Phil Rippa on Kris Zellner's show (available here), "We were all doing some variation of Dean, right?" These Dean (or should I say DEAN~!) Variations continue, and though the many faults of the hundreds of thousands of words of this blog are entirely my own, whatever virtue they may display is an outgrowth of the spirit of Dean's writing, and of the writing he fostered. My dear friend the poet Raven Mack wrote of Dean's uncommon ability to build community, and I would encourage you to read that memorial piece here. I can claim no intimacy in my own relationship with Dean, only admiration, but every interaction I had with Dean was positive (the only email I still have from him begins, "Hey hoss"). I loved the way he wrote about his family. For all the wild excess and exuberance of his prose (which Bryan Alvarez spoke to fondly on his radio show), to me Dean was at his very best as a writer in the quiet moments of domesticity that would turn up now and again. I found them moving then, and they are the aspects of his work that are most with me now as I reflect upon his family's great loss. Perhaps the finest of the many worthy tributes that have arisen to Dean's memory in the short time since his passing is the work of VRTL PRO Mike Dikk, who has done us all the great service and kindness of assembling one-hundred-seventy Death Valley Driver Video Reviews (alongside several pre-DVDVR writings); he has made them available here. Let us return to the texts themselves. "I think it's important to remember DVDVR hated stuff too," Cory wisely said as what seems to me a necessary corrective to an emerging misrepresentation of what actually occurred in those writings. To suggest, as some have, that either Dean himself or the Death Valley Driver Video Review broadly were uniformly enthusiastic about or supportive of the totality of professional wrestling (of all the things to be universally positive about) is perfectly incorrect, and to overlook the sheer brutality and withering aspect of its not-infrequent takedowns trivializes what the DVDVR did as criticism. In Studies in Classic American Literature, a slim but weirdly compelling volume (it is how I too hope to be remembered), D.H. Lawrence levies the surprising charge of mechanization against Walt Whitman, that seemingly most organic of poets. Is it not Whitman who writes, "I am he that aches with amorous love: Does the earth gravitate, does not all matter, aching, attract all matter? So the body of me to all I meet or know." It is, certainly, and yet to this, and against it, Lawrence contends: "What can be more mechanical? The difference between life and matter is that life, living things, living creatures, have the instinct of turning right away from some matter, and of blissfully ignoring the bulk of most matter, and of turning towards only some certain bits of specially selected matter [. . .]. No, Walt, you give yourself away. Matter does gravitate, helplessly. But men are tricky-tricksy, and they shy all sorts of ways. Matter gravitates because it is helpless and mechanical. And if you gravitate the same, if the body of you gravitates to all you meet or know, why, something must have gone seriously wrong with you. You must have broken your main-spring. You must have fallen also into mechanization." R.I.P. the critic Dean Rasmussen, who never fell into mechanization, and whose work remains king-sized, number one and the best.
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And now from the pages of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter . . .
November 5, 2001:
"Kazushi Sakuraba firmly established himself as the greatest drawing junior heavyweight pro wrestler of all-time, in a venue that may not qualify as pro wrestling, and on a night where the reality of that venue was as unforgiving as reality can be.
The 32-year-old Sakuraba fell victim for the second time in a row to Vanderlei Silva in a match to determine Pride's first World middleweight champion before 53,246 fans on 11/3 at the Tokyo Dome paying an estimated $5.5 million at the "Championship Chaos" show. Both figures are believed to be all-time records as far as shoot matches involving pro wrestlers as well as MMA matches. It will be the biggest money live gate from a pro wrestling genre standpoint (since Pride markets directly to the pro wrestling audience which makes up the bulk of its ticket buyers) of the year.
Silva won when Sakuraba couldn't continue after the first round due to a shoulder injury, which turned out to be a dislocated a/c joint, in what was reported as a great match up to that point, that Sakuraba seemed to be winning. The injury appeared to come from a slam where Sakuraba landed badly on his shoulder while he tried to hold a guillotine choke. Early reports are that he will be out of training for at least three months, and the timetable is that he looks to not return to Pride until May. It was a rematch of their 3/25 match, which Silva won in 1:38 by overwhelming Sakuraba, who was sick with the flu and plagued by liver problems from years of drinking [this sentences finishes hard—ed.]. Sakuraba went in giving up 17 pounds (203 to 186), which figured to be too much at this elite level unless Sakuraba was able to force Silva to punch himself out and win late. As it turned out, Sakuraba put up a great performance and the normally frightening Silva admitted that Sakuraba hurt him both standing and on the ground and he was lucky to win, and talked about how much he respected him after the match and didn't want to face him in a rematch. Sakuraba did want a rematch and it is possible that would take place next September in the first round of the Grand Prix tournament, recognizing a lot can happen between now and then.
The largest verifiable shoot crowd drawn by a pro wrestler was on January 30, 2000 for the first round of the Pride Grand Prix tournament at the Tokyo Dome, with the main drawing match being Nobuhiko Takada vs. Royce Gracie, a boring fight which ended with Takada claiming a knee injury and not continuing although it was announced as a decision loss, which drew an announced 48,316 fans.
The Pride concept, which is a combination of using the biggest names in the shoot world mixed with using pro wrestlers in real matches (at least now, as even as late as last year there were worked matches to protect pro wrestlers as part of the Pride presentation), has been a remarkable success over the past two years. Unlike pro wrestling, which has the ability to totally protect its drawing cards if need be, with Pride, many of the wrestlers get hammered and overall it has resulted in a far weaker pro wrestling business because Japan's wrestling has always been more reality based. Wrestling fans, even many who know the bouts themselves are worked, have long respected the top pro wrestling stars with the belief that "if it were real" they were the toughest guys around. And some, as it turns out, have done awfully well. But now the wrestling fans have big shows that aren't just reality based, but real, and the first class productions major wrestling events are. But the plight of Sakuraba, like Masakatsu Funaki and Kiyoshi Tamura before him, legendary matches last year, but past his physical prime this year because of the unforgivingness of age and so many hard matches which breaks down the body, at the same time his drawing power and popularity are at their peak level, is why from a business standpoint the worked model of pro wrestling has stood the test of time and is superior. Sakuraba's first loss was the greatest thing for business, because it built up this natural rematch. But the reality was the second loss was the most likely result of the rematch as well, and age will lead to more frequent injuries, particularly since Sakuraba has been a heavy drinker and smoker for years. We are in the weirdest situation in recent history, where no company's long-term future looks bright at this point. Pride is the major company that seems to be on the upswing today more than any other. But it is faced with the inherent problems that have led most major shoot groups, if they do hit it big, to burn out faster than even the cyclical nature of traditional pro. Naoto Morishita after the show said Pride is looking to groom a new Japanese star, which some took as saying an admission Sakuraba's prime is over.
Like the last Pride show, it was largely a bad night for the pro wrestlers as they went zero-for-four, which can't help the credibility of the pro wrestling business in Japan, where such a thing is strangely still important. While Sakuraba put up a great showing, the other three, Takada, Yuki Ishikawa (Battlarts) and Michiyoshi Ohara (New Japan) did not, and all did much damage to their reputations in the process.
The Takada vs. Mirko Cro Cop match, the second biggest drawing match on the show, ended up being a total farce due to the rules. With the K-1 vs. Pride angle being so strong and the K-1 fighters not having ground experience, that side insisted on different rules. The two matches were three rounds of three minutes each (as opposed to the ten minutes, five and five as usual Pride bouts are), and with no judges decisions. In the event there was no finish, they would have two overtime rounds, and if all five rounds were fought, it would be ruled a draw, no matter how badly one side dominated. In addition, whenever the match went to the ropes, instead of a re-start on the ground in the position the fighters were in, they would be re-started standing up. The idea was the stand-up fighters could get more frequent re-starts, giving them more of a chance, and if a ground fighter takes them down and just keeps them in position, even if they physically dominate and hurt them, they have to finish them to get the win. Takada was thought to have little chance against Cro Cop to begin with, as he had never won a legitimate match in Pride, and these rules seemed to doom him more. Instead, Takada spent most of the match laying on his back, similar to the famous Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki match. Cro Cop, not wanting to fight on the ground, like Ali, stayed up. The fans, as you can imagine, hated this match. But Takada, 39, got a draw, even if his reputation as a tough guy took yet another tumble. After the match it was thought that Takada's once immense drawing power would be over after this fiasco, but his name survived several poor performances in the past. Takada was said to have suffered a broken leg and was walking with a cane after the match, but many were skeptical that this was just a way to protect what's left of his rep. Cro Cop after the match said that "I feel too disgusted to even talk. I can't believe that kind of fight occurred. I am angry because the fight in front of 55,000 for which I came from Croatia became like that. Why did Takada say he wanted to fight me in the press conference in the first place." Cro Cop said the referee should have disqualified Takada and called him a fake fighter. Takada countered claiming that Cro Cop showed he only knew one style of fighting and that Cro Cop should have jumped on him on the ground. Takada did score one early takedown in the fight before it became a non-fight in the later rounds.
After the match, both sides recognized they will have to change the K-1 vs. Pride rules to avoid another match like this. There was a behind-the-scenes explanation given, in that Takada's contract with Dream Stage expired with this match and he was under the impression that had he lost, it wouldn't have been renewed. But even so, for the Japanese market, a Takada with his great name who goes down swinging, so to speak, would retain a lot more marketability than one getting a draw with a fight that is heavily booed.
Ishikawa was knocked out quickly by Quinton Jackson in the first round, but Ishikawa was not a draw to begin with, and at least provided an entertaining fight. Ohara, on the other hand, was also booed heavily as he basically stalled for 20 minutes in losing a one-sided decision in a terrible opener against Renzo Gracie. As proven by Kendo Ka Shin, Sakuraba, Tadao Yasuda and Kazuyuki Fujita, shoot matches these days in Japanese pro wrestling are both career makers and career breakers, far more than what they actually do in their big pro matches. Ohara was a lower card New Japan journeyman, who, because of his size advantage, if he could put up a good showing against Gracie, it could have made his career. He apparently figured even a boring fight could do so, since Yasuda became a name in pro wrestling even with a similarly boring fight in Pride, but Yasuda did beat Masaaki Satake via decision to make his career. Initial reports indicate that Ohara's performance hurt him.
Pride also officially created world championships that will be defended on major shows in the heavyweight and middleweight division, with the weight limit of middleweight being 93 kilograms (204.6 pounds). Because of Sakuraba, the middleweight belt actually meant more than the heavyweight bout (another lesson pro wrestling promoters missed and the reality is it appears now it's too late, but if Sugar Ray Leonard and Oscar de la Hoya in the U.S. didn't open anyone's eyes, it's way too late here now because the crowds themselves have been taught too long to make it work). Silva claimed he would hold the title for ten years and that he didn't want to face Royce Gracie because his era is long over. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, who defeated Grand Prix champ Mark Coleman on 9/24, followed it up with a unanimous decision win over Heath Herring to officially win the title to complement his No. 1 ranking in every major poll. The plan is for the world champions to defend the titles twice next year before putting them up in the Grand Prix tournament which would have a first round in September and championship matches in November. Nogueira tore his posterior cruciate ligament during the match, but said he expects to be ready for the 12/31 Inoki show to represent Pride.
Royce Gracie was at the show and talked about fighting in Pride next year against Silva, Sakuraba or in the middleweight tournament, which would also likely include Dan Henderson.
The five-and-a-half hour live show will be edited down to less than three hours for U.S. and Canadian PPV on 11/24. A clarification regarding the 11/24 Pride PPV of 11/3 also being on In Demand for the first time. Actually, it will air on AT&T Broadband systems on an In Demand channel for those who have digital cable. From all reports, it would be beneficial to eliminate both the Ohara and Takada matches from the show, as other than that, reports were the show was great.
1. Renzo Gracie beat Ohara via unanimous decision after 20:00. Ohara trimmed down from about 245 as a pro wrestler to 211. Gracie looked bigger than usual, but was still giving up 30 pounds. Gracie hit a lot of punches in the first round and some knees. Ohara just tried to tie him up and got tired late in the round. Second round saw Gracie try to take Ohara down, and Ohara held the ropes to avoid it and got a yellow card. Gracie did take him down, but Ohara was able to get up and tie him up for the rest of the round. Fans were real upset as Ohara was trying nothing on offense and just trying to survive. In the third round, they ended up stuck in the corner. Both got yellow cards for stalling although reports said Ohara made it impossible for Gracie to do much. By the way, a yellow card results in a fine. Gracie didn't do much damage and Ohara did nothing on offense. Bad opener. Crowd booed it a lot.
2. Quinton Jackson beat Yuki Ishikawa in 1:52. A wild slugfest at start. Jackson threw a big slam and even tried a power bomb twice since that's his trademark from the Sakuraba match, but it was blocked. Jackson landed some knees and got the knockout with a punch to the head. Jackson's gimmick is over.
3. Dan Henderson won a split decision over Murilo Ninja (Murilo Rua) in a very competitive match said to be great. Back-and-forth action early until Ninja connected on some knees while having a side mount as well as elbows to the ribs. Henderson was unable to reverse him from the bottom for several minutes, which is saying something with Henderson's wrestling credentials (although Henderson has been in this position before in his fights). Ninja went for a choke and hammerlock, then an armlock. Ninja threw more knees before Henderson got to his feet and caught a kick. Second round saw Ninja throw Henderson down again, throwing knees and elbows. Henderson was able to escape and take him down late in the round. Third round saw Ninja get a yellow card for a knee tot he groin. They traded knees. Henderson made his comeback by throwing Ninja down once. When Ninja tried a takedown, Henderson sprawled and Henderson got on top and delivered lots of punches and knees and rocked his foe. Both were real tired in the closing moments but finish was apparently tremendous. Apparently those watching were split on who deserved to win.
4. Semmy Schiltt knocked out Masaaki Satake in 2:18. Schiltt's reach was too much. Satake also took two low blows very quickly. After a kick and a series of punches, Satake was knocked out and the ref stopped it.
5. In a huge upset, Mario Sperry, a Brazilian world champ in Jiu Jitsu, defeated Igor Vovchanchyn in just 2:52 with a shoulderlock. Total one-sided match as Sperry took Vovchanchyn down and dominated him on the ground. Vovchanchyn was apparently cut in training as he had a bandage on, which came off, and he was bleeding pretty badly. Sperry was punching the cut and got the submission.
After a way too lengthy intermission, Antonio Inoki came out and got the biggest pop of anyone on the show. Inoki read a poem [I very badly need to read this poem—ed.] and plugged the 12/31 show in Saitama. He said they would beat the NHK show (a traditional Dick Clark type of New Years Eve show in Japan that routinely does a 45.0 rating and is one of the biggest TV events of the year) in the ratings. He brought out Kazuyoshi Ishii, who came out with Sam Greco, who has been doing a lot of ground training since leaving WCW as something of a K-1 ringer. Greco talked about fighting the Pride guys in the name of Andy Hug.
6. The first Pride vs. K-1 match saw American superheavyweight wrestler Tom Erikson destroy Matt Skelton in 1:12. Erikson took him down, punched him a few times and choked him out. That's the reality of Pride vs. K-1, in that the matches with top fighters should be short. Either quick knockout, or quick takedown and win.
7. The second Pride vs. K-1 match saw Takada and Cro Cop (Mirko Filipovic) go to a five round (15:00) draw in a terrible match. There was some action early, but once Takada was unable to take Cro Cop down, he went to his back and stalled the fight out.
8. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira became the Pride world heavyweight champion with a unanimous decision win over Heath Herring after three rounds (20:00). Reports were this was a tremendous match combining striking, wrestling and submissions. Some called it the best heavyweight match of the year. Apparently Nogueira used a body scissors like move, reminiscent of Joe Stecher, although unless you were a wrestling historian, and very few of those exist, you wouldn't have known the connection.
9. Vanderlei Silva was awarded the Pride middleweight title beating Sakuraba when he couldn't answer the bell for the second round (10:00) and officially the doctor stopped the match due to the shoulder injury. Reports were this match was tremendous, with Sakuraba doing a great job countering Silva, until the injury."
and
"Pride has signed a five-year deal with THQ to produce various video games for Sony PlayStation 2, Microsoft Xbox and Nintendo GameCube over the next five years for the North American and European market."
and what's more
"Next Pride is 12/23 in Fukuoka. No matches announced, but Tom Erikson, Jeremy Horn, Vanderlei Silva, Pele and pro wrestler Yoshihiro Takayama are tentatively scheduled."
November 19, 2001:
DAVE GETS TAPE
"Some notes on the 11/3 Pride show from the Tokyo Dome after watching the videotape. Because of the size of the crowd and gate, we may look back some day at this show as the peak of this promotion and MMA, much like the UWF's 1989 sellout in the same building was the peak of that style pro wrestling, with this largely being the extension of that, complete with Nobuhiko Takada being a key part in both shows. On that show, Takada beat former Olympic wrestler Duane Koslowski in a worked match which stole the show. This time, Takada had a shoot match against K-1 star Mirko Cro Cop, and put a halt to the show.
For whatever reason, whether it be lack of English interviews and announcing or the magic of post-production, I never enjoy the live Japanese PPV as much as the American version that comes later. Although this show was much bigger, and the two main events delivered, overall it wasn't as good a show as the UFC that took place hours earlier or the previous Pride show with less marquee value. Overall, I'd give it a thumbs up and the American version is worth seeing if you are an MMA fan, but I wouldn't give it the recommendation of the aforementioned events.
For business, Pride has two world champions, both Brazilian, and both of whom are awesome fighters. Silva is the more charismatic, but Nogueira is probably the better all-around fighter and both are going to be hard to beat. From a business standpoint is seems to me, at least for Japan, the idea is to be able to build up Japanese contenders because the Japanese quest to beat these very legit champions can make for a good chase. From a world wide model, and Pride does wish to expand, it's very different. Problem is that unlike Japan, our mainstream sports media is, I'm not sure narrow minded is the word, but certainly less accepting of new sports and also pro wrestling has always been covered in mainstream outlets there as daily news whereas here it isn't. When it comes to entertainment for expansion, the U.S. is the place to be. American sports and entertainment can be huge almost anywhere in the world, but Japanese never crosses over past Japan. The other strike is that the media here sees MMA as this curious freak show novelty act and after eight years of existence, there is no sign that barrier will be broken.
1. Renzo Gracie (187, Brazil) defeated Michiyoshi Ohara (209, Japan) via decision after three rounds. Bad match because Ohara didn't show a thing and this should hurt him in pro wrestling. Ohara couldn't punch with Gracie, although Gracie didn't show great stand up skill either. He couldn't take him down, and even if he could, he probably didn't want to be there. He just basically clinched and held on for dear life. Fans did pop when Ohara briefly got behind Gracie, thinking he was going to do a back suplex, one of his trademark pro wrestling spots. Fans booed after the first round. Second round saw Ohara put him in the corner and hold on. Ohara got a yellow card in the second round grabbing the ropes to avoid a takedown. Gracie did take him down late in the round but Ohara got up. Ohara held him in the corner in the third round, and both men got yellow cards, although I'm not sure why Gracie did. Gracie tagged him a little before being tied up again.
2. Quinton Jackson (215, United States) defeated Yuki Ishikawa (211, Japan). Very exciting short match. They traded punches before Jackson body slammed Ishikawa to the mat. He twice tried to do a piledriver, actually sticking his head between his legs but couldn't lift him up. Seriously, doing a real piledriver would be scary as hell. He threw some knees to the head and got a knockout with a right and left combination.
3. Dan Henderson (193, U.S.) defeated Murilo Ninja (207, Brazil) via split decision. This match was not as good as last week's report indicated. Very close fight, but aside from a third round flurry by Henderson, not the explosion expected out of these two. Henderson took Ninja down and went for a guillotine, but Ninja escaped and got on top and stayed on top the entire round. Henderson defended real well from the bottom, as virtually everything Ninja threw was deflected except for some elbows to the ribs late. Second round saw Ninja do a twisting powerslam on top and again went for elbows to the ribs. They traded takedowns. Third round saw Ninja get a yellow card for a low knee. Henderson took control in the third round with a few takedowns, and also out punched him standing and bloodied his mouth. Ninja tried another powerslam like move but Henderson reversed it on the way down and landed on top. Ninja got another takedown. Very close decision. Ninja definitely had more advantage time, but the only significant damage was from Henderson.
4. Semmy Schiltt (268, Holland) beat Masaaki Satake (224, Japan) via knockout quickly. Schiltt got a yellow for a low kick. Schiltt's height and reach was just too much and put Satake down with a punch and was pounding on him when it was stopped. Quick finish, but nothing special as a match.
5. Mario Sperry (217, Brazil) beat Igor Vovchanchyn (229, Ukraine) rather quickly. Sperry took Vovchanchyn down and opened up his cut. Vovchanchyn was bleeding real bad from the right side of the forehead before Sperry made him tap to a shoulderlock. It's only the second time Vovchanchyn ever tapped in Pride.
6. Tom Erikson (297, U.S.) defeated Matt Skelton (255, U.K.) in 1:12. Erikson took Skelton down with a belly-to-belly suplex, punched him a few times from the mount and choked him out.
7. Nobuhiko Takada (215, Japan) drew Mirko Cro Cop (215, Croatia) over five 3:00 rounds. For the mainstream fans that packed the Dome, they were totally psyched for the idea Takada would gain revenge for pro wrestling. It had that awesome heat and tension before it started which makes the early feeling out process exciting instead of dull to the audience. To show what a big deal this was, in the wrestling magazines the week after the show, they all put Takada-Cro Cop as both the cover and the main story for the week ahead of Sakuraba's revenge. That says something about when you establish a big name in Japan, it lasts, and as much as everyone knocks Takada in MMA and even pro wrestling now, his money drawing big show track record ranks with the tops of all-time. Still, Takada killed it. Takada took Cro Cop down in the first round and it was one of the biggest pops you'll ever hear for a takedown. He didn't do much while on top, and Cro Cop escaped with about 30 seconds left. Takada went to his back and the crowd even popped for that, because they recognized it as the Ali-Inoki spot. Even though little happened, fans popped big at the end of the round. Second round consisted of Takada trying takedowns and Cro Cop avoiding all of them. Takada would lay on his back after failing until the ref would order him to stand up. Nothing happened again, but crowd still accepted it. Third round saw more of the same. At one point Cro Cop got on top of Takada and threw a few punches before standing up. Cro Cop wouldn't go to the ground and Takada wouldn't stand up unless ordered. Takada, when standing, would dance around far away. He seemed confident he found a strategy and Cro Cop seemed frustrated. Cro Cop was getting frustrated. End of this round saw the crowd lose patience as well and start booing. Fourth and fifth rounds were a joke. Takada just kept going to his back and the ref would order him to stand. He'd then sit back down. Crowd could have been a lot nastier. They booed at the end of the fourth and fifth round, but were still into the match. When it was over and Takada bowed to the crowd, they booed him pretty hard. Judging by the way Takada was moving late in the fight, the story that he broke his foot that came out afterwards may have been a work to try and help him save face for such a poor performance. Many feel Takada worked a knee injury after a poor performance against Royce Gracie, and he claimed a knee injury as a way to get out of an agreed upon UFC match years back with Ken Shamrock which most feel is because Shamrock wouldn't agree to work the match.
8. Antonio Nogueira (224, Brazil) defeated Heath Herring (249, U.S.) to become the first Pride world heavyweight champion. Nogueira is the man. This was the show stealer by far. Nogueira outboxed Herring, and on the ground, there is no heavyweight in his league. Herring reversed him a few times on the ground, but that's no bargain either, being on the ground with Nogueira on the bottom. Herring did a great job in avoiding submissions. Second round saw Nogueira rock him with punches, take him down and cut his forehead with punches. He did a figure four body scissors right out of the Joe Stecher 1910s playbook and made it work. Fans loved what they were seeing. I guess in a sense this show is worth seeing just to see Nogueira perform. It was an easy decision.
9. Vanderlei Silva (203, Brazil) defeated Kazushi Sakuraba (186, Japan) to become the first Pride world middleweight champion. Sakuraba came out doing the 80s Great Kabuki gimmick, wearing a headpiece like Kabuki used to wear and spitting water instead of the green spray. Sakuraba was able to take Silva down. Silva got up and tagged Sakuraba with punches and knees but Sakuraba got him down again. Silva was much stronger standing, but Sakuraba was better on the ground. The ground work was good with both trying for submissions, although Sakuraba was more careful than usual in spots. The key spot in the fight was Sakuraba getting Silva in a guillotine, and Silva actually did a move very close to a Northern lights bomb (Snow plow) [oh man I suppose it was, too—ed.] but dropped Sakuraba right on his shoulder, which dislocated it. Sakuraba fought for about another two minutes before the bell rang, and you could see his shoulder totally out of place. It looked real bad and the fight was stopped. Realistically, Sakuraba had a decent chance of winning, because it really was going to come down to who got tired first unless Silva could knock him out."
and
"Pride is attempting to put together a Semmy Schiltt vs. Yoshihiro Takayama battle of the giants for 12/23 in Fukuoka. Lots of rumors that Bas Rutten, 36, who hasn't fought competitively (has done two pro wrestling matches and that's it) since his May 7, 1999 controversial UFC heavyweight title win over Kevin Randleman, may be coming back. The Nevada State Athletic Commission turned down the protest of Carlos Newton on the finish of the 11/2 UFC welterweight title change to Matt Hughes. Marc Ratner of the commission said that it was a judgement call by referee John McCarthy that won't be overruled. Newton had claimed that Hughes was actually out from his triangle choke before dropping Newton in a power bomb, which knocked Newton out, but McCarthy saw Newton out first. Newton may be fighting with Pride as he had one match left on a previous Pride deal, but didn't do it yet because UFC doesn't allow its champions to fight on other shows. Had Don Frye not suffered his quad tear, Pride was looking to match him with Ken Shamrock on the 11/3 Dome show. There is still talk of that match happening when Frye heals up."
and
"For the 11/24 Pride PPV, they are going to eliminate the Nobuhiko Takada vs. Mirko Cro Cop match and heavily edit the Renzo Gracie vs. Michiyoshi Ohara match. The report we got were that the interviews were the best ever and it'll be a great show. We shall see. Royce Gracie is publicly saying he wants to face Vanderlei Silva. Igor Vovchanchyn fought on the 11/10 RINGS show in Lithuania beating Ricardas Rocevicius just seven days after his Pride match in Japan. For the 12/31 show, it looks like they'll put Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira against either Mirko Cro Cop or Jerome LeBanner and the other will face Kazuyuki Fujita as the headline matches. From a drawing standpoint, I think it's important to rematch Fujita vs. Cro Cop, because Nogueira will likely dust Cro Cop unless Cro Cop gets a punch in immediately, and once Cro Cop loses, Fujita's beating him will be less important and failing to beat him will hurt him. Fujita said that he wants to face the K-1 Grand Prix champion in his next IWGP heavyweight title defense."
TADASHI TANAKA WRITES:
"PRIDE
In any sports competition where both sides agree upon a rule and the result is a draw, then the 39-year-old is the real winner against a young and in-incredible shape 27-year-old. That's the universal truth.
Yes, Nobuhiko Takada vs. Mirko Cro Cop was not an exciting match, just like Ali vs. Inoki wasn't in 1976. However, for history, the truth was different. Takada's tactics were so right since he couldn't afford to lose conclusively. This was his last match under contract to Dream Stage Entertainment. Therefore, he had to survive by any means necessary. And he did. The audience wasn't satisfied since many casual wrestling fans expected him to win and avenge pro wrestling for Cro Cop's win over Kazuyuki Fujita. However, every expert predicted Cro Cop, so the gap between reality and fantasy was gigantic. Besides, except for Inoki, Takada, not Sakuraba, got the second biggest pop of the show. Pressure on him was huge.
Tadashi Tanaka"
November 26, 2001:
"Pride officially announced the Semmy Schiltt vs. Yoshihiro Takayama match for the 12/23 show, billed as "Cold Fury II" from Marine Messe in Fukuoka. The show will air on TV in the U.S. through DirecTV on 1/6. There is talk of Vanderlei Silva vs. Ricardo Arona or Daijiro Matsui on that show as well, with more talk of the latter. Silva beat Matsui via decision on November 21, 1999 in what was a one-sided and not all that exciting match, so there doesn't seem to be any purpose in a rematch. Arona, who beat Guy Mezger is a close controversial decision on 9/24, is very good with submissions, but would likely be no match for Silva standing. He's a tough enough opponent that you couldn't call it an easy match, but the match-up of styles seems to favor Silva.
Assuerio Silva, who looked very impressive on recent Pride shows with wins over Valentijn Overeem and Norihisa Yamamoto, has a knee injury and will be out until January.
Some talk of Carlos Newton appearing on the next Pride. Newton had one match left on his contract with Pride, but Pride and UFC made a deal that Newton, as UFC lightweight champ, would remain exclusive with UFC, which doesn't want its world champions losing fights elsewhere so won't let them fight elsewhere. The deal was that Newton would fulfill his final match after losing the title
Only the two title matches are official for the 1/11 UFC show. They were attempting a Ricco Rodriguez vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka match, but Kohsaka had already committed to a match for RINGS on 12/21 in Yokohama and UFC didn't want to promote a match with the guy fighting a few weeks before their show due to the potential of injury, given the famed UFC curse.
Pride is planning a Semmy Schiltt vs. Igor Vovchanchyn match for February 2002.
Pride is negotiating for the return of Bas Rutten, who hasn't fought since May 7, 1999 and hasn't lost a match since a 1995 match to Ken Shamrock. Rutten, 36, suffered a knee injury in training and never returned. Pride has confirmed that Rutten's recovery has been strong enough that he can appear, but negotiations for a deal with him aren't completed at press time. He and Vanderlei Silva is a natural match-up on paper, since both would likely do the fight standing up, but both are skilled on the ground as well."
possibly of interest:
"Nothing is still official for Antonio Inoki's New Years Eve show. The only thing definite is that Kazuyoshi Ishii this week added Ray Sefo and Cyril Abidi to the K-1 team in the best-of-even, which would likely include Jerome LeBanner, Mirco Cro Cop and Sam Greco. Sefo will be sent first to Brazil to train under Vanderlei Silva and then to Los Angeles to train under Royce Gracie. Although everyone assumes that Antonio Nogueira and Kazuyuki Fujita will lead Inoki's team, that isn't official, and Nogueira did suffer a knee injury on 11/3 against Heath Herring. Also being considered for Inoki's team are Tadao Yasuda and Mario Sperry as well as Don Frye, Masaaki Satake, Gary Goodridge, and others. The belief is the reason he couldn't complete the submissions is because his knee was already out, and people were kind of blown away with how strong he looked the entire fight on a bad knee. There is also talk of a pro wrestling match with Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Goodridge & Mark Coleman, but right now it appears Nakanishi won't be doing the show. At this point it appears Nagata and Kendo Ka Shin will be the New Japan guys appearing."
December 6, 2001:
The lead story is "poor Yuji Nagata," pretty much:
"In perhaps the most interesting booking decision and risk of a current and future superstar of this or any other year, it was announced this past week that Yuji Nagata of New Japan Pro Wrestling would be facing Mirko Cro Cop of K-1 on 12/31 in what may be the main event of a show that will be carried live on national television.
The Nagata-Cro Cop match has been reported on in many Japanese newspapers, although neither New Japan, K-1, Antonio Inoki or Pride has officially announced the match. The only public comment from Nagata is that he said he would do the Inoki show if he got a match with Cro Cop, but wasn't interested in doing the show against anyone else. If the match is legitimate, and there is no way ahead of time of knowing whether it will be or not, this would be the biggest risk a pro wrestling organization has truly made with one of its top wrestlers. While New Japan has sent several wrestlers into legitimate shoots, with mixed results, none at the time they were thrown to the wolves were of superstar level, let alone being the top full-time heavyweight worker in the company and reigning G-1 Climax tournament winner.
Of those tested, Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Kendo Ka Shin) was a junior heavyweight, whose career was destroyed and then resurrected in a loss followed by a win over Ryan Gracie. Kazuyuki Fujita was not a major star in pro wrestling, but became a superstar, and was given the IWGP heavyweight title, because he compiled a series of wins, somewhat due to luck, over huge name fighters Mark Kerr, Gilbert Yvel (actually this wasn't luck) and Ken Shamrock. The wins made his name and forced his promotion into a top wrestling star, although some would question all the way to the world title. He was then risked in matches with the likes of Yoshihiro Takayama, but that really wasn't a risk because he was unlikely to lose, and even if he did, it would set up a big money rematch, and later the Cro Cop match, which he figured to win, and due to the unpredictability of real combat, he didn't. As it turned out, the nature of the loss only served to further his legendary toughness. Tadao Yasuda was an undercard guy whose win on a Pride show in a boring match with Masaaki Satake moved him way up in the fans' eyes. Michiyoshi Ohara was another undercard guy who did himself no favors with not only a loss but a bad performance in losing on the last Pride show. Even Nobuhiko Takada, who was a far bigger star than Nagata is today when he stepped into the ring twice with Rickson Gracie in matches he was almost a sure bet to lose in shoots, wasn't risking as much because at the time his promotion has folded and at the time he was just being put in to draw a few big gates on his name before his career would end, although that ending has now been dragged out several years. Kazushi Sakuraba, who became one of the biggest names in modern Japanese wrestling history from his participation in real matches, was not a big name pro wrestler when he started establishing his name in Pride. RINGS risked its top star, Kiyoshi Tamura, in shoots, but RINGS was a shoot oriented pro wrestling group and Tamura had experience and was a top level guy at his weight before he was overworked and burned out. The big mistake was RINGS didn't understand the limitations of a 185-pounder in real competition. By this point, RINGS went to all-shoot format, which then led to its downfall.
With Nagata, you are talking about the guy being groomed for much of the year to be the top star that carries the traditionally No. 1 promotion night-in and night-out for the future. Even with Nagata's push this year at G-1 and his obvious skill as one of the top ten workers in the world, he is not the mainstream superstar that the company would want him to be. It was a telling sign at the 10/8 Tokyo Dome when the interpromotional dream match with Nagata & Jun Akiyama vs. Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase drew a lower TV rating than the Fujita vs. Kensuke Sasaki "shoot style" match the same night about what has casual fan interest is in Japan right now even as hardcore pro wrestling fans hate the change. And while Sasaki was put in a shoot earlier this year, it was a secret low-profile match in Denver, another country, against a nobody that if he hadn't done well in, would likely have been kept a secret, similar to Fujita's first secret shoot matches in the U.S. where he changed his look and used another name to hide it from the Japanese public in case he didn't do well. That change is long-term bad because it's not the style of match you can do every night because of the physical toll doing that new style takes, but it's also time-honored tradition of pro wrestling to make decisions based on short-term drawing.
In Nagata, you are also talking about someone who does have a strong amateur wrestling background, but at the age of 32, hasn't competed in it in nearly a decade since being a 1992 Olympic hopeful, but has never done a match under these rules. His background included winning the national collegiate wrestling championship in Greco-roman at 180 pounds for Nihon College both as a freshman in 1988, and as a sophomore in 1989, he redshirted 1990, came back and placed second as a junior in 1991 and won again as a senior in 1992. Except for Dick Hutton, I don't know of any pro wrestler who won three national titles (Verne Gagne, Danny Hodge and Kurt Angle all won two). He also in 1991 won the World collegiate championship and competed in the world championships. In 1992, when he placed fourth in the Asian collegiate championships, he failed to qualify for the Olympics, so he signed with New Japan. His brother Katsuhiko Nagata captured the silver medal in Greco-roman at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney and will be competing in the world championships in early December.
Being 32 and being nearly ten years removed from legit competition isn't that much different from Fujita, who was 29 and eight years removed from competition when he did his first legitimate match, and Nagata has kept himself in better condition than Fujita. Nagata adapted quicker to kick and punch training (which is a big difference from competition kickboxing) than Fujita did, but Fujita was larger, stronger and most importantly, something of a freak because of his ability to take head trauma.
So what's the method behind this madness? On paper, the match people want is Fujita vs. Cro Cop. It appeared to be little more than a perfectly timed shot, the punchers' chance in any fight, that pugilistic hole-in-one, that ended their 8/19 fight at the Saitama Super Arena. In this case a knee to the temple by Cro Cop. Cro Cop, then known by his real name of Mirko Filipovic (Cro Cop is his widely known ring name coming from his job as a police officer in his native Croatia), was nearly an unknown in 1999 when he debuted, knocking out Mike Bernardo at the Osaka Dome and then at the Tokyo Dome World Grand Prix finals, knocked out Musashi and Sam Greco (but suffering broken ribs in the process) before losing to Ernesto Hoost in the $300,000 championship match.
The knee busted Fujita up badly and stunned him momentarily. Even that shot was not enough to keep Fujita, who got the nickname "Iron Head" for his ability to take punishment, from taking Cro Cop down. He was in a position where he looked ready to unload on him, before buckets of blood streaming down Fujita's face caused the match to be stopped in 39 seconds. A TV audience of more than 30 million saw the match in its two television airings that night. For a perspective on that number, only one match in the history of American wrestling (Hogan vs. Andre in 1988 on NBC) in a far more populous country has ever been viewed by so many. It's triple the number of viewers as ever watched any segment in the history of Raw. And a rematch, with Fujita going for revenge in the same Saitama Super Arena, would be much bigger.
So why isn't it happening? Because they are rolling the dice in a big way, a way that no American major league promotion in modern times has been either gutsy enough, or perhaps foolish enough to do.
Antonio Inoki stated this past week that the goal for the 12/31 show isn't how many matches his side or K-1 wins, but the rating the show will get against the NHK traditional New Years Eve concert. Inoki also stated that next year it was important for New Japan and Pride to make big pushes. He noted that the popularity of sumo and baseball was declining in Japan and he expects soccer will decline after the World Cup, and didn't want martial arts and pro wrestling to follow suit.
There is a chance that Inoki's New Years Eve show would air as a taped delayed PPV in the U.S. but that isn't confirmed. There have been no negotiations between Pride and DirecTV at this point for the show. A lot depends on the line-up and if there will be worked matches on the show. Pride doesn't want to air worked matches on U.S. PPV. There is also the fear, since the show will be K-1 vs. Inoki, that the mismatched styles may make for bad matches like Takada-Cro Cop, with the saving grace for Japan the curiosity factor that will drive the TV rating. Theoretically, a K-1 vs. Inoki series should be quick matches and the Vale Tudo guys should win most of them, even with rules tweaked to help the K-1 guys, but that isn't always the case since K-1 won two of three on 8/19.
Either way, the bouts should be short. Either the Pride guy gets the takedown and K-1 guys can't usually fight on the ground. Or they don't, and they get blasted pretty quick because most Pride guys can't stay on their feet for any length of time with K-1 guys except in a clinch, which with his Greco-roman background, should be where Nagata wants to be standing as opposed to shooting low like Fujita and risking the perfectly timed knee to the face. The exception to the rule is Tadao Yasuda, who took the K-1 guy down, but then had no idea what to do when he got him there. This has intrigue in Japan, will probably sell tickets and draw ratings, but it's still a freak show.
It is believed this show will draw the largest rating for any pro wrestling type event in years, maybe dating back to the Inoki vs. Leon Spinks match in the 80s, which was the show that made Akira Maeda into a mainstream superstar in one night with a win in a worked match over kickboxing champion Don Nakaya Neilsen, who may as well have been Ric Flair, Mick Foley or Bret Hart with his starmaking performance that night. And history gives you the answer to this puzzle.
Nagata is a great worker, but he's not a mainstream draw, nor a national hero, nor someone who can carry the promotion on his shoulders. Maeda was able to carry promotions for more than a decade, not that it was entirely due to the match with Neilsen, because there were many other factors involved regarding luck, timing and thriving by being an unprofessional punk, but the Neilsen match was part of the equation. With Cro Cop having beaten Fujita and emerging unscathed against Takada, there is going to be great interest in what wrestler can win for the honor of pro wrestling and the wrestling fans, not to mention the expected huge audience of casual fans who will know the storyline. Just as Kazushi Sakuraba became a hero when he avenged pro wrestling against the unbeatable Gracie family, Nagata is placed in the position to make his career, and in front of a much larger audience than he'll likely ever have a chance to do it in. Of course, if he's knocked out quickly, which is a possibility, well, everyone knows what happened to Kendo Ka Shin's career until he avenged his quick knockout loss. In confrontations like this under rules where they can go to the ground, the odds favor a good wrestler over a good kickboxer. But there are no guarantees. And it is likely the rules, calling for stand-ups whenever they get to the ropes instead of re-starts in the same position, and shorter three minute rounds meaning the K-1 fighter just has to hang on for a stand-up for three minutes instead of ten in the first round of a Pride match, so favor the K-1 side. A career will be made, or it will be broken, or it will be predetermined and the risk will be eliminated. So will they roll the dice or not?
But what of Fujita? From a booking standpoint, the only one really at risk is Nagata with a loss. If Nagata wins, there is still another big show for Fujita to get his personal redemption. If Nagata loses, that only makes the Fujita match that much bigger, and the odds are very long that Cro Cop can hit the home run blow three times in a row. If he can, there will always be another pro wrestler. Pro wrestling will eventually get its revenge unless K-1 pulls out. When it does, a hero will be created, leaving only sacrificial lambs to slaughter in its storyline until that end result."
and
"Not a lot of notes about the Pride PPV that aired in the U.S. on 11/24 as we've already reviewed the show in detail. They edited off the Mirko Cro Cop vs. Nobuhiko Takada match, nor made any mention or reference to it. Even in the opening ceremony, they managed to edit both off the show. They really tried to push Quinton Jackson as a character including doing a campy skit of him working a souvenir stand at the Tokyo Dome which seemed right out of EMLL TV (these are like five stages lower than the campiest skit on Raw, well, except for Hurricane). They edited the first round of the Renzo Gracie vs. Michiyoshi Ohara match, but showed rounds two and three. The show will air on VC-Canada on 12/7. In edited form, it was still terrible. They did lots of hype for the next show, which airs on 1/5 (not 1/6 as reported last week) and teased Ken Shamrock would fight. It did air over the weekend to dish owners on Bell Vu Canada
They are working on next year getting the Pride shows airing on an 18-hour delay as opposed to a three-week delay, airing in prime time the same day of the event. The good news is that the event will be fresh but the bad news is that the great work they do in post production (which is why the event always comes across so much better in the U.S. version than the live Japan version) wouldn't be there with that kind of a feed, although it's a necessary evil because people just won't pay $24.95 to watch a three-week old show. They pushed the return of Bas Rutten, who does the color and is really entertaining and good at it, hard throughout the second half of the show. At this point it appears Rutten will return in February and not on the next show. They have a very 80s WWF approach to pushing the American characters as sort of cartoon characters in personality with Heath Herring as the cowboy, Quinton Jackson as this colorful guy who can't open his mouth without unleashing a string of bleeped expletives. Tom Erikson and Dan Henderson, who are ex-high level amateur wrestlers, were low key and they didn't try and gimmick them up, but used both to try and get over Gilbert Yvel as the top heel with some photos of Yvel sticking his tongue out floating down the screen while both brought him up as being a dirty fighter because of the match with Don Frye. Lots of internet controversy regarding the Henderson vs. Murilo Ninja decision, which went split to Henderson. Think some of that is because in the commentary after the second round, both announcers said that Henderson would have to finish him to win, and he didn't finish him, and both said they thought Ninja should have won before the decision was announced. I judged it both on UFC standards and Pride standards. By UFC scoring, it was a 28-28 draw (Ninja won first two rounds, Henderson third but picked up a penalty point for low blow). By Pride scoring, which is a lot more subjective, I had Henderson winning 11-9. Ninja was well ahead after two, but Henderson scored with punches that rocked him, several take downs and the penalty point. On a close fight, and this was close, nobody really should make a fuss about the decision, but if you sat and scored it, it was the right call by their judging criteria. Rutten said several times that he's torn his left bicep twice but now it's holding up and he talked about wanting to fight Vanderlei Silva, which on paper is a great fight. You just never know when you talk about Rutten, who is now 36 and hasn't fought in more than two-and-a-half years. They did a good job of making you want to see future matches like Semmy Schiltt vs. Tom Erikson (Erikson will easily take him down, although don't know if he can finish him), Silva vs. Rutten or even maybe Royce Gracie, Antonio Nogueira vs. Mark Coleman (Coleman really seemed focused on wanting a rematch). Problem with recent Pride PPV's is they do a great job building matches they don't end up putting on. Frank Shamrock's name was also mentioned by Royce Gracie as a possible future opponent. They also really were pushing Nogueira vs. Herring as the greatest heavyweight match of all-time and for match of the year. It was a great match, but I don't know if I'd go that far. Maybe for skill level since Nogueira's skill is so high, but for firepower and excitement, I've seen better. The first Randy Couture vs. Pedro Rizzo match wasn't as skillful, but as a match where both came close to finishing, both pounded the hell out of each other, and both battled exhaustion and held on, it was a lot more dramatic. We don't get much in the way of poll responses to Pride because the shows are taped, but the responses we get are usually quite good. For this show we had 42 thumbs up and 0 down or in the middle, with virtually every balloter listing Herring vs. Nogueira as best match (36) and Gracie vs. Ohara (38) as worst."
December 17, 2001:
R.I.P. Battlarts
"Battlarts held a press conference on 12/11 about closing up shop. They announced Alexander Otsuka going to Pride, and would be a free agent in pro wrestling but hoping to make Pride his base. Yuki Ishikawa, Carl Malenko and Katsumi Usuda are going to stay and attempt to get new financing to re-start next year. Ishikawa said he was booked to do a tag match with Kazunari Murakami as his partner on the 1/4 New Japan Tokyo Dome show."
and
"With less than two weeks to go, Pride still only has four matches announced for 12/23 in Fukuoka, the Schiltt vs. Takayama main event and Vanderlei Silva will face pro wrestler Alexander Otsuka, which figures to be a destruction, Quinton Jackson vs. Daijiro Matsui and Akira Shoji vs. Jeremy Horn. Also close to being finalized are Renzo Gracie vs. Shingo Koyasu and Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Valentijn Overeem. Almost comes across as a throwaway show."
December 24, 2001:
Inoki, New Year's Eve, NJPW 1/4—it's all here!
"The torn achilles tendon injury to IWGP heavyweight champion Kazuyuki Fujita messed up plans for both Antonio Inoki's New Years Eve special on TBS and New Japan's annual 1/4 show at the Tokyo Dome and Inoki and New Japan are scrambling now to put together competitive line-ups.
It appears the decision regarding what to do about the IWGP title changes more often than a WWF storyline. Just as an example, over this past week, on different days, there was talk of doing a one-night tournament at the Dome for the title, then on successive days, New Japan President Tatsumi Fujinami said they wouldn't be doing anything regarding the title at the Dome, only to reverse himself at a press conference the next day.
Fujita was scheduled to defend the title against Yuji Nagata in a title match which had been built up since Nagata won both the G-1 tournament and a match over Scott Norton the next month designed to set up Fujita's next opponent. There was, from the start, significant risk in booking that as the main event, since both were scheduled for matches against K-1 fighters just four nights earlier, which have significant potential for injury. Fujita ended up injured in training and underwent surgery this past week.
New Japan has, put in its place, a long built up match with NOAH's GHC heavyweight champion, Jun Akiyama, facing Nagata in a non-title match. From a political standpoint, this is a tough call. NOAH can't afford to let its world champion lose to an outsider, unless it's a home-and-home deal where Nagata wins a non-title, to set up a title shot on 2/17 when NOAH has its next big show at Budokan Hall, where Akiyama can even it up.
But Nagata's career has a major hurdle four days earlier in his main event on the 12/31 Saitama Super Arena show against Mirko Cro Cop of K-1. The K-1 vs. Inoki theme is the TBS network in Japan's idea for counter-programming against a popular NHK concert show (similar to the traditional Dick Clark NBC show in the U.S.) that draws some of Japan's biggest ratings of the year. The show is scheduled for 9 p.m. to 11:30 p.m., running live, which, given the nature of shoot shows and the idea that kickboxer vs. wrestler on paper should be short, is a hell of a risk going live with that much time to fill.
Thus far there have been five matches in the K-1 vs. Pride series. Three were on 8/19 in the same Saitama Super Arena, on a K-1 show headlined by the Fujita vs. Mirko Cro Cop match which drew a 19.9 rating that night for a prime time showing, about 28 million viewers, and a 6.9 rating for a replay showing that aired on a Sunday night at 1:30 a.m for the match itself. The other two were on Pride's 11/3 Tokyo Dome show. Japan has history of mixed matches involving pro wrestlers doing huge numbers. The legendary 1976 Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki match did a 54.6 rating, but that was Ali, and another era. But Inoki also drew a 28.9 rating in 1986 for his worked match with Leon Spinks. From a television standpoint, Pride's highest rated match in history was not a Sakuraba vs. Gracie or Silva match, but Naoya Ogawa's match against K-1's Masaaki Satake which drew an 18.7 rating, a number more amazing since it aired on a one week tape delay.
On paper, kickboxer vs. wrestler should end quickly. Either the wrestler takes the kickboxer down, and the kickboxer is helpless, and is quickly submitted, or the kickboxer stuns the wrestler with a punch or kick before the takedown, and scores a quick knockout. Rules of these matches on the last Pride show were three rounds of three minutes each, and if the kickboxer can get to the ropes while on the ground in accordance of the pro wrestling rules everything comes from anyway, they get a break and a re-start standing up (under traditional Pride match rules, they are simply moved to the center and put in the same position they were in when they went out of bounds, similar to amateur wrestling rules). Also, if there isn't a conclusive finish, they can do up to two more rounds of overtime. If there is no conclusive finish, no matter how dominant one man may be over another, the match is ruled a draw. Nobuhiko Takada used that loophole to get a draw while laying on his back for most of the last few rounds in his match with Cro Cop at the Dome. But there are numerous variables, such as kickboxers who have been studying the ground game, and wrestlers who have studied kickboxing.
Of the five matches held, three fit that pattern. Thus far, each side has two wins, but the K-1 wins are really more flukes in that one was on a quick cut and the other had a wrestler who really wasn't good at either takedowns, wrestling or submissions. Fujita vs. Cro Cop went 39 seconds, stopped on blood when Fujita's head was busted open badly from a knee as he shot for a takedown, although it did nothing to hurt Fujita because he finished the takedown and had Cro Cop in a bad position but his cut was so deep the ref had no choice to stop it. Gary Goodridge vs. Jan Nortje saw Goodridge eat a lot of leather in a really exciting short match, before he managed a takedown, and quickly maneuvered K-1's giant into an armbar. Tom Erikson, the lone non-pro wrestler in this equation, a former U.S. champion superheavyweight wrestler, managed to quickly take down K-1's Matt Skelton with a belly-to-belly and choke him out.
The other two matches were a bit uglier. Cro Cop vs. Nobuhiko Takada on 11/3 saw Takada mainly lie on his back and fans hated the fight, which was officially a draw. Tadao Yasuda vs Rene Roze was unique, because in Yasuda, you really didn't have a wrestler as much as a large older pro wrestler who did sumo in the 80s. While Yasuda was able to take Roze down, with no combat experience in groundwork or submissions, he couldn't do much when he got him there. Eventually, Yasuda tired out, and fell victim to a devastating knockout in the third round.
But Satake, a former K-1 star, has trained in the ground game extensively, but still hasn't had a ton of success. We can exclude his loss to Ogawa since that was likely bought and paid for, but Satake was beaten quickly after being taken down by Mark Coleman. He hang the distance with Guy Mezger before losing via decision and even lost a boring decision when pinned in the corner for most of the fight by an inexperienced Satake, not to mention a knockout loss from Pride's giant, Semmy Schiltt, and a decision loss in what was a hell of a slugfest against Igor Vovchanchyn. I'd rather not consider Satake's matches against pro wrestlers Kazunari Murakami and Naoya Ogawa, because the latter was a work. While the former didn't look to be (Satake won that one over Ogawa's tag team partner to build up the Ogawa match which was a huge attraction at the time), the pro wrestling storyline fitting perfectly into place makes it better to err on the side of caution.
On New Years Eve, before what may be the largest TV audience many of the pro wrestlers will have a chance to perform before, careers will be made, and broken, probably within an instant.
Six matches were announced at a press conference on 12/18 by Inoki. Two more matches are expected to be added this week, with announcement of opponents for K-1's two hardest punchers, Jerome LeBanner and Mike Bernardo. It is likely one of those two would have faced Fujita. TBS wanted Naoya Ogawa to replace Fujita, but that's a foolish risk for Ogawa. A rundown of the other six are:
Nagata vs. Cro Cop: Nagata has a great amateur background in Greco-roman, but hasn't competed since 1992. If he can avoid getting punched before his takedown, he should dominate once down there. The question is Nagata's real-life submission skills. If he has them, it's a good bet to create a superstar in one night. But it is not a safe bet. Cro Cop couldn't adjust his strategy and wouldn't fight on the ground against Takada, who doesn't have near the wrestling skill of Nagata.
Takada vs. Sam Greco: Greco has been training in the ground game in Australia under Elvis Sinosic. Unlike Cro Cop, he likely won't be afraid of going to the ground. If he can avoid a takedown, and Cro Cop was able to for most of his match with Takada, and they change the rules to avoid allowing what Takada did in the last night, it spells a bad night for Takada.
Don Frye vs. Cyril Abidi: A lot depends on how well Frye has recovered from his torn quad suffered in September and aggravated in the Gilbert Yvel match. Abidi has been training in San Jose under Frank Shamrock. Even though most of the training is probably based on him sprawling and avoiding a takedown, if Frye is in shape, he'll probably get him down. If Abidi can scramble to the ropes and get stand-ups, he may do well, because he's going to be stronger standing. Frye, who doesn't strategize and likes to stand-and-fight, may take too many shots before reacting by grounding him. Frye is one of those guys who has a knack for always having exciting matches, and on paper, these fights should mainly be short blowouts.
Gary Goodridge vs. Ray Sefo: Sefo is training in Jiu Jitsu under Royce Gracie. Goodridge is not a wrestler, per se, but was able to take down Jan Nortje, much bigger than Sefo, in his previous bout. Because both men, but Goodridge in particular, have a lot of charisma, the winner can really make a name for himself.
Tadao Yasuda vs. Rene Roze: This is a rematch of the 8/19 match where Yasuda suffered a brutal knockout. Roze must be about 6-7, as he had several inches on the 6-5 Yasuda. Yasuda is in better condition now, and was able to take Roze down a few times but do nothing to him once he got him there. The key is probably whether he's learned some submissions, and his conditioning. But their previous fight was kind of a freak show, watching an aging sumo who has a name from pro wrestling try and fight against a tall stand-up guy who was also knew nothing on the ground.
Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Kendo Ka Shin) vs. Shingo Koyasu: All I know about Koyasu is he's a Seido Kaikan karate guy. Ishizawa is an awesome wrestler who is not much standing. As IWGP jr. heavyweight champion, a win is very important for his pro wrestling career, which was nearly killed by a loss to Ryan Gracie, and then resurrected to be bigger than ever by winning the rematch.
There had been a lot of talk of putting Keiji Muto & Taiyo Kea defending their Triple Crown of tag team championships (All Japan World, All Japan International and IWGP World) against Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima on 1/4. It would have been a match-up of the All Japan tournament champion against the New Japan tournament champion. The idea was dropped when Muto, it was felt, was needed to be in a tournament to crown a heavyweight champion. But then that was dropped as well, as they decided against a tournament, and instead at press time added Muto & Hiroshi Hase vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & Osamu Nishimura.
There is some support as well for Muto's suggestion that they create a huge news story and one world champion (which would be him) by adding the IWGP heavyweight belt to his Triple Crown. There is no doubt Muto kept the Triple Crown in prominence and when it comes to knowledge of how to work a world title match and carry opponents like an old style champion, he or Nagata are the two best candidates. But Nagata's career direction can change in an instant, depending upon his performance on 12/31. There were also hints of doing an angle to build up a tag match where Masahiro Chono and Toshiaki Kawada would be on opposite sides. Overall, the show is a huge disappointment from a marquee standpoint even though the junior heavyweight matches and the main event look really strong. Since New Japan started running the Tokyo Dome as a 1/4 tradition in 1992, it has only failed to sell the building out once, in 1993, before it had become a tradition (before Wrestlemania became a tradition, it didn't always sellout either). But they are going to really test the tradition with such a weak line-up.
Chono & Giant Singh face Tenzan & Kojima in the semi-main event underneath Akiyama vs. Nagata, with Naoya Ogawa vs. Sasaki third from the top and Muto's tag match fourth from the top. The remainder of the card, top to bottom, goes like this. Kendo Ka Shin (who has a match scheduled on Inoki's 12/31 show putting this in question) vs. Daijiro Matsui (who still has a Pride match against Jackson scheduled for 12/23 and even though they may have a great match because Matsui can pro wrestle, it's still putting a guy who virtually always loses in Pride against the New Japan world champion at his same weight class) for the IWGP jr. heavyweight title. Also, Manabu Nakanishi vs. Giant Silva, Jushin Liger & Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask vs. Gedo & Jado & Dick Togo, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kenzo Suzuki vs. Kazunari Murakami & Yuki Ishikawa (Battlarts owner who recently lost to Quinton Jackson on the 11/3 Pride Tokyo Dome show), Minoru Tanaka & El Samurai vs. AKIRA & Koji Kanemoto and Wataru Inoue & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Masayuki Naruse & Masahito Kakihara.
On paper, the junior heavyweight matches look strong (Matsui hasn't done a lot of traditional pro wrestling, but he's looked great in his Battlarts matches in matwork, which is also Ka Shin's specialty so they could surprise a lot of people) and there is no reason Akiyama vs. Nagata won't be a classic. Ogawa-Sasaki will be either super heated, or a total disaster, depending upon Ogawa's frame of mind. But there are so many question marks left in the show with the injury risk and where Muto fits in.
The problems with New Japan finalizing anything is that it is now booked by a committee, which includes a few non-wrestlers in the office including ring announcer Hideki Tanaka, plus Chono (Jushin Liger largely books the junior heavyweights). After they make up their mind, they still have to get final clearance from Inoki on all major decisions such as this show, which has slowed down the process."
Tokyo Sports Match of the Year voting notes:
"Other matches that were given serious discussion for the award, but didn't end up receiving votes were two shoot matches, Sanae Kikuta vs. Ikuhisa Minowa on the 9/30 Pancrase show [this one is incredible, and can be enjoyed here—ed.] and Antonio Nogueira vs. Heath Herring on the 11/3 Pride show from the Tokyo Dome, the latter had great odds against it because it involved two foreigners."
. . . and in ludicrous Bill Goldberg news:
"Goldberg appeared at the New York Police and Firefighters Benevolent Organizations Christmas party over the weekend [ . . .]. He's talked more about going to Pride than any pro wrestling, but that doesn't seem like a good career move because there is little upside and tremendous downside in doing that."
and
"Pride has completed its 12/23 Fukuoka show (which airs on 1/5 in the U.S. on PPV). Weakest line-up in a long-time, mainly built around pro wrestlers that are going to get killed (Yoshihiro Takayama facing Semmy Schiltt in the main event, Alexander Otsuka facing Vanderlei Silva in the semi, Norihisa Yamamoto vs. K-1 Jan "The Giant" Nortje and Daijiro Matsui against Quinton Jackson). The other matches are Jeremy Horn vs. Akira Shoji, Igor Vovchanchyn vs. Valentijn Overeem, Murilo Ninja vs. Alex Andrade and Allan Goes vs. Alex Steiblling. I expect an upset win for Overeem. Yamamoto vs. Nortje will be likely a quick match. Yamamoto is a former pro wrestler and I think they've done enough of those open the card watching wrestlers get pummeled bouts) and Nortje is something like 6-10 as is the K-1 version of The Giant. Nortje fought Gary Goodridge under these rules on 8/19 and got armbarred in about a minute. Either Yamamoto will stand there and get killed in a minute, or take him down and submit him in a minute since Yamamoto is a lot better at submissions than Goodridge. Steiblling vs. Goes, which is more of a hardcore match since Steiblling just won a tournament in Brazil and has a no contest with Sanae Kikuta (who may be Japan's best fighter at 205 pounds), but this is a non-marquee match more for hardcores. Horn should beat Shoji. Andrade is a well balanced fighter (can grapple and kick box) who will be a test for Ninja, although Ninja on paper should be the heavy favorite in that one. The Renzo Gracie vs. Shingo Koyasu match talked about last week won't be on this show since Koyasu is likely fighting on the 12/31 show, maybe against Kendo Ka Shin and the final match looks to be Murilo Ninja vs. Alex Andrade."
December 31, 2001:
To open his year-end recapitulation:
"2001 will never be looked back upon as being a great year for wrestling. Wrestling always has its ups and downs, but usually there is someone doing well when someone else isn't. This past year, with the exception of the Pride promotion, nearly every company did worse than would have been expected one year ago."
Later, in the same piece:
"Nobuhiko Takada, who has never won a legitimate match in Pride, claimed he was going to represent Japan at the 2004 Olympics in Greco-roman wrestling. Takada, who would be 42 by that time, has never competed in that sport. He claimed he would retire from Pride in May and enter the Japanese senior nationals in July. He did none of the above."
A fitting conclusion! Thank you again for joining me. Let's do it again soon!
