PRIDE.19（プライド・ナインティーン）2002年2月24日

PRIDE.19
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 2002年2月24日
開催地 日本
埼玉県さいたま市
会場 さいたまスーパーアリーナ
開始時刻 午後4時
試合数 全8試合
放送局 フジテレビ（地上波）
入場者数 22,381人 

IN THE SHŌBŌGENZŌ (正法眼蔵 THE RIGHT-DHARMA-EYE TREASURY / TREASURY OF THE TRUE DHARMA EYE) DID NOT DŌGEN ZENJI (道元禅師) HIMSELF WRITE THAT "[w]hen the buddha-tathāgatas, each having received the one-to-one transmission of the splendid Dharma, experience the supreme state of bodhi, they possess a subtle method which is supreme and without intention. The reason this [method] is transmitted only from buddha to buddha, without deviation, is that the samādhi of receiving and using the self is its standard. For enjoyment of this samādhi, the practice of [Za]zen, in the erect sitting posture, has been established as the authentic gate. This Dharma is abundantly present in each human being, but if we do not practice it, it does not manifest itself, and if we do not experience it, it cannot be realized" (from the Gudo Wafu Nishijima / Chodo Cross translation, book one). Might we speak in analogue with regard to 技 / わざ / waza / technique (art, skill,  movement) and 道 / どう / dō / way (of living, proper conduct)? In the context of our martial pursuit, specifically as it relates to 道 dō as a means of broader cultural attainment (compare 書道 shodō, the way of the brush; 華道 kadō, the way of flowers), has not 技 waza been established as the authentic gate? I think maybe! Might the self-collectedness of samādhi await? You never know! Is this an instance of understanding the Way broadly, and thereafter seeing it in all things, or is it, on the contrary, a foolish and utterly naïve misapprehension? Hard to say! And yet here we gather, our texts before us; there are certain things that can be said.

SUCH AS WELCOME TO PRIDE.19（プライド・ナインティーン）LET'S SEE WHICH ONES ARE ON THIS and it seems that the particular files I have access to for this show split the event in two, with a third file devoted to voiceoverless footage of various athletes arriving to the Saitama Super Arena (さいたまスーパーアリーナ), then a number of promotional interviews, and oh I see okay finally a match that perhaps did not air on the initial English-language broadcast? Is this maybe it? This is the way things like this have gone before, certainly. Perhaps we will attend to it right in between our enjoyment of pride.fc.19.bad.blood.dvdrip.cd1.xvid-mam and pride.fc.19.bad.blood.dvdrip.cd2.xvid-mam (worthy files, both, I am sure). Or maybe right at the end if I forget. Here we go! 

We begin with highlights of the press conference that occurred two days earlier at THE BEST（ザ・ベスト）which you will perhaps recall soft hints of from when last we spoke. Before the assembled reporters, Heath Herring, Enson Inoue, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira, Igor Vovchanchyn, Carlos Newton and others behave like adults who are at work; Ken Shamrock, in contrast, sputters like a frustrated child because of the bad blood—indeed, the PRIDE 19: BAD BLOOD (event titles of this kind seem to be English-language exclusives)—he feels towards Don Frye, who remains our problematic fave, whereas I have always found Ken Shamrock to be just a great big doof. Although I speak now of the future relative to our current position within The Long UWF timeline, remember if you will (these would be Memories of The Future, Kode9 and The Spaceape [R.I.P.], 2006) that Ken Shamrock eventually manages to doof on such a level that he will seem witless in comparison to Tito Ortiz. Not long ago, a friend sent me a would-be humorous compilation of Ortiz's gaffes and such from Tito's brief tenure as a city councillor, but I honestly could find no humour in it; it was all just so broad that it made me sad (and I felt second-hand embarrassment for the profoundly put-upon city staff and the other councillors). And Ken Shamrock was unable to keep up with him. It's all just sad to me.  

Our hosts this eve are the familiar duo of Stephen Quadros and Bas Rutten, who begin by offering an ahistorical account of the samurai, but that's Romantic mediævalism for you (we've all done it). With far less preamble than ordinary, though, we are quickly into the action itself, and our first bout sees the truly enormous Tom Erikson secure a quick win by the naked strangle of 裸絞 hadaka-jime over the fairly-large-yet-dwarfed Tim Catalfo. The actual finish was the nicest thing that happened to Catalfo in this short outing, as Erikson spent a good portion of the bout choking through the face, which is so much worse than "strangulation actual."   

Next up is Alex Stiebling, who scored a nice win over Allan Goes the last time out, and who offers Quadros a brief but intriguing anecdote about Wanderlei Silva getting mad at him at an airport (Stiebling claims all he wanted was an orange juice, but things escalated). This time his foe shall be Wallid Ismail, famed for his longstanding rivalry with really any number of Gracies, and also for how he is certifiably a character. The first round passes quickly (man, what a pace we are setting so far!) with Wallid on top until just before the end, when Stiebling just kind of stands up (Bas, who knows him well, is like "this is a thing he does! he just stands up sometimes! I don't get it!") and takes Wallid's back and the crowd is into it (me too!). Round two sees some weird stuff, too, like for example this:  

"Oh my god," is Bas Rutten's correct assessment. "I've never seen this before. That is a crazy move! It looks a pro wrestling move, but it actually could work." It really does look like something, say, Rey Hechicero ("The Wizard King") might employ against Bryan Danielson as part of the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre's ongoing encounter with the Blackpool Combat Club in the context of All Elite Wrestling (Death Valley Driver Video Review message board poster Coach Tony K, proprietor). I like Hechicero, and I like this match! Wallid Ismail looks exhausted at the end of the second round; he also looks as though he has experienced the many knees walloped upon his head and into his side as a true burden. The knees sure don't stop in round three, at least not in the early going, and as I am sure I have mentioned previously, I have found the occasional accidental-yet-firm knee to the head in the context of 寝技乱取りnewaza randori to be such a drag that I totally fear and respect knees hitting you there on purpose; I really think it's probably awful! The pace (of the knees, but also of everything) understandably slows considerably in the third round, but the result could not be clearer: a unanimous decision win for Alex Stiebling, who has been super fun in both of his PRIDE matches thus far, but I see that his next will be against Anderson Silva (oh no). Oh hey, I'm pleased to see this is another of the バーチャファイター4  / Bācha Faitā Fō / Virtua Fighter 4 PRIDEs:

It's no Virtua Fighter 4: Evolution, but it is the Virtua Fighter that figures prominently in Johnnie To's Throw Down—easily the greatest judo film in the Hong Kong cinematic tradition, rightly added to the Criterion Collection in 2021—and must be respected as such.

Hey, it's Carlos Newton! I am so pleased to see him here; it is for sure always a pleasure. I am reflecting on how, given that the Canadian martial arts community is a relatively small one (compared to other pursuits one might have [and in other places]), so much so that you are never more than a couple degrees of separation from pretty much anybody in it (especially if you have been actively involved for legit [or "shoot"] decades), I have never heard anyone with anything but the nicest things to say about Carlos Newton (and motherfuckers will talk). If you were wondering what he's up to now (me too a little!) I think he's still maybe teaching at Terry Rigg's Warrior club in Newmarket? Here are some nice pictures of a seminar he did a few years back at Sophie and Nathan Skoufis' Guelph Family Martial Arts (a mother and son karate operation! [man some of these clubs have pretty nice websites]):  

You will have already noted, I am sure, the mighty 崩袈裟固 kuzure-kesa-gatame / broken scarf hold in the second image; you may have noticed, too, the sharp Mizuno 稽古着 keikogi, which may well remind you of how Carlos Newton modeled the now-exceedingly-illegal Mizuno Eurocomp (I had like five of them! then they became club gis!) on an ancient version of the Hatashita website (what an era). Here (not the here of then, nor yet the here of now, but the here of PRIDE 19), Carlos Newton explains to Stephen Quadros that well, no, in Canada we don't use the term "pre-med," but that yes, it's true that he is taking courses that align with a course of study that would position one to later pursue medicine, yes (he also likes linguistics). Like the overwhelming majority of undergraduate students who express an early interest in medicine, Newton did not end up in medical school (no shame in that, quite plainly [I say this to you both as a regular guy and also as A Guy of Universities {a regular-guy variant}]); unlike very few such students, though, he fights Chute Boxe's José "Pelé" Landi-Jons on this card. I remember this being just great!  

"A very colourful, flamboyant character" are probably the least apt words that could possibly be used to describe Carlos Newton, but they are the ones deployed here by the well-meaning Stephen Quadros, who holds Newton in high regard, and who finds himself lost, a little, in his enthusiasm for this neat guy (and more sympathetic I could not be). Quadros explains that Newton had recently (in fact only three months prior [I checked!]) lost the UFC welterweight championship "to Matt Hughes via body slam, due to controversy," and we all remember that one, I bet. (In a later interview, Newton would say that while he felt the decision to award the sankaku-jime'd-to-completion Matt Hughes the win was a mistake, it was a mistake made amidst confusion arising for concern for the thoroughly daki-age'd Newton's health, and so he can't really be upset about it; he notes, too, that Hughes beat him uncontroversially when they rematched in London [top comment on that video: "I ran into Carlos Newton of all places, a Dragonball Z movie in Scarborough, Ont. The coolest dude ever. Much respect and lifelong fan," and while that is a lovely thing to have posted and I am very happy for the poster in question, that is very much not an "of all places" in this instance haha.) Landi-Jons, fearsome whippet of a striker, carries about him an air of smug menace as he declines (fairly unostentatiously) a pre-fight handshake and chortles a little; he has about him an aspect not identical but perhaps analogous to that of baseball great Gary Sheffield, who often seemed fairly arrogant and a little disagreeable, but not in a way that you could ever even mind, because of how "show" it felt? That is the feeling that I get watching José Landi-Jons. The feeling that I get as Newton steps back to his corner and offers a generous yet vulnerable little thumbs up to his foe is that maybe every act of generosity is an act of vulnerability, and exposes us, a little? Maybe it isn't, and maybe it doesn't. But this one is, and does, I think.  

 

I mistakenly saved that last capture as "thumngs_up.jpg" AND HERE WE GO AS THIS MATCH THAT I REMEMBER AS BEING GREAT AND ONE THAT MANY YEARS AGO I WOULD SHOW TO PEOPLE WHO WERE NEW TO THE WORLD OF MIXED FIGHT TURNS OUT TO BE EVEN BETTER THAN I HAD REMEMBERED AND MIGHT BE MY FAVOURITE ONE EVER AS IT TURNS OUT and I am left thinking about how it is almost unfair how good this match is, in that it suggests that this sport could have turned out to be something other than what it did (turn out [to be])—whether that's true or not, it sure didn't!—and so perhaps its beauty is tinged with the sadness of its fleeting nature, maybe? Oh man don't tell me it's ephemeral! It is arguable that I am getting ahead of myself, and could benefit from settling down before I get all tuckered out. 

Landi-Jons comes out with his hands down, and flashes a huge high kick that Newton ducks right under (oh thank goodness). Newton jabs and hooks his way into the clinch, and as he lowers his head just a little as though to prepare either a right-handed forward throw or an 大内刈 ouchi-gari / major inner reap, Landi-Jons connects with just a super spidery knee to the head; it's really quite a beautiful thing, if one were to condone hitting. This straightens Newton, who shifts back and forth between right- and left-handed stances without changing which arm overhooks and which under; this is all totally viable ("pummeling" has its place but is not the only approach!). A right 小内刈 kouchi-gari (that inside reap is minor) attempt is followed by a a left-side 腰技 koshi-waza / hip technique that Landi-Jons resists with his good solid stance (he "sits in the chair"). Not enough 崩しkuzushi yet, Carlos, but keep trying, pal! You're doing great so far, and we are behind you! This forward throw attempt was vigorous enough that Newton spun all the way out of the clinch, but Landi-Jons pursues, and they lock up again, this time with Newton's left arm across Landi-Jons' chest and under the far-side arm as though one might enjoy a little . . . left-side 一本背負投 ippon-seoinage? As a treat? Turns out no—and to be fair, that's a lot to ask—but what we get instead is a little left 大内刈 ouchi-gari to create space for that "seoi"-arm's return to a near side underhook so that we might HIT LEFT-SIDE 内股 UCHI-MATA OH MY GOODNESS THIS RULES: 

I honestly couldn't be happier with the way that went. It is quite possible that the granularity of or our approach here crosses the line between the exquisite and the excruciating (rather than merely straddling it, as is our custom [we hope]) and I for sure appreciate your indulgence in this matter but also, I mean, this is just so rad. That final capture I have included in the above sequence comes as Newton passes the guard/enters 抑込 osae-komi (a question of perspective!), but Landi-Jons, though perhaps no great sage of 寝技 newaza, is certainly no fool of it, either, and is able to snag hold of Newton's lead arm in something akin to the triangular entanglement of 足三角絡み ashi-sankaku-garami / omoplata, not so much so that a submission hold is imminent, but in such a way as to cause a scramble due to the reasonable threat of it, and we're back on our feet. Tremendous! 

It seems I have spoken too soon, not as regards tremendousness, but as regards feet: no sooner are we back up than that Newton grabs the front / guillotine choke of 前裸絞 mae-hadaka-jime, and Landi-Jons essentially tackles his way out of it with a tidy 橫捨身技 yoko-sutemi-waza / side-sacrifice and ends up on top just long enough for Newton to attack with his own  足三角絡み ashi-sankaku-garami / omoplata, that, this time, Landi-Jons scrambles up and away from. It's such a useful technique! Like just to create movement! It is a delight to finish, obviously, but you don't need to finish with it for it to be important. Before I was exposed to ashi-sankaku, like a million years ago (we are talking yellow-belt days here), I distinctly remember securing both arms for 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame from the bottom, only for uke to pull the arm I was attacking out, leaving the secondary arm in, and thinking man there's gotta be *something* I can do from here . . . but what? Turns out this! Please see page two-hundred of Inokuma and Sato's Best Judo for more! There's no time for that now, though, as we're back on our feet. 

AND HERE'S THE LEFT-SIDE 一本背負投 IPPON-SEOI-NAGE WE WERE LOOKING FOR; IT TOTALLY HAPPENED:

Bas Rutten is LOSING IT and I am right there with him: "Oh, what a beautiful takedown! It was like a judo throw!" It sure was, buddy! "You don't see this a lot because it's kind of dangerous; your opponent can choke you if you do it wrong." Bas is right! Every seoinage player has to be okay with that possibility or you just can't play that game; you have to have confidence in your ability to defend the choke, and also obviously just a good sense of when it's time to go, when it's going to be (relatively) safe for you to commit to the attack. I think the little detail that allows Newton to just go all in on this really lovely seoi is right here: 

Left-side underhook, right? That he's going to need to slip out and bring across to throw with ippon-seoi-nage under uke's lead arm? But it's that cross-side grip, right hand on the right wrist down low, that means he's as safe as he's ever going to be to turn all the way in for the seoi. And so he does; and so it rules; and so we are enlightened. This really couldn't be going any better. "See now this," Bas notes, "is an action-packed fight." That's true! Newton punches, passes, is enscrambled, and passes again (none of it headlong, all with smooth caution), until Landi-Jons turns away from (rather than into) Newton's 横四方固 yoko-shiho-gatame / side control, which exposes an arm, and the time to strike (or rather to grapple) is upon us:  

You'd never believe it based on this photographic evidence, but Landi-Jons—again, no one's fool—manages to pull his arm out of this seemingly-totally-on 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame. What a match! Landis-Jon makes quite a display of being perfectly unfazed by any of this that, again, would seem just smug and off-putting from so many, but for "Pélé" here, it just feels "show." What makes this so? What makes this "show"? 

Newton, surprising no one, responds to this great display with a little head-nod and a thumbs-up. And now we're boxing, or at least Newton is: Landi-Jons, it turns out, is kickboxing, and he knees Newton in the head so hard, man, like just so hard, and Newton is on his back briefly before popping back up and, a clinch or two later, eating a significantly worse knee that rings with the report of a rifle, or of a true Vladdy Jr. plakata:

It is utterly shocking. I guess it shouldn't be, though, as Stephen Quadros, only seconds before, suggested that "[i]f Pélé lands one knee, the fight could be over," and what was delivered certainly looked (and especially sounded) like a fight-ending knee, perhaps more than any other knee that I have ever seen that has not in fact ended a fight; like, there are knees that have seemed to me less inherently fight-ending than this one that have, in fact, ended fights. And so, naturally, Carlos Newton responds thus:

Despite the above thumngs_up, Newton is reeling, and offers no real resistance to Landi-Jons' clinch and subsequent 谷落 tani-otoshi / valley drop. Quadros is aghast that this would be Pélé's approach: he should keep his distance, Quadros argues, and look for the finishing blow. Probably! But instead, a few fairly calm moments on the ground seem to be all Newton needs to collect himself, scramble back to turtle, snag a leg to put Pélé's back on the mat, pass, and finish with a spinning far-side juji-gatame, which honestly may be the most æsthetic kind, if I had to pick a single kind (there are some great contenders though): 

And there we have it at seven minutes and seventeen seconds of the first round, winner by 一本 ippon, カーロース・ニュートン (kaa-ro-su ni-uu-to-n), in what seems to me today to be the best match we have seen in any PRIDE so far. The other contender that comes immediately to mind would be Carlos Newton and Kazushi Sakuraba at PRIDE.3（プライド・スリー）1998年6月24日 (discussed here) and I would probably have to watch both back-to-back to really sort this out, but I am not entirely sure I could bear it? I see that I ended the section on Newton/Sakuraba this way: "So it was flawless, that match; that match was flawless. I am moved by it. Note, though, that I am moved a lot. But only because so many things are at once so lovely, and so sad." So we should probably just keep it moving.

Carlos Newton himself does, by busting out some crowd-pleasing post-fight banter in student-Japanese! He's working the crowd! Quadros and Rutten speculate that he must be saying something about (or perhaps to) the lovely 小池 栄子 Koike Eiko, the familiar actress and model and indeed アイドル (idol) who was part of the Japanese-language commentary team for really most of the PRIDE era (she famously cried when Fedor kept hitting Nogueira, you will perhaps recall [one hopes Nogueira remains in a position to recall, and I do not say that in jest about the terrible damage the noble Nogueira took throughout his fine career, but in great sympathy towards it), because her smiling response is shown on the big screen, but so far as I can tell (and I am the first to admit my poverty in rapid-fire casual conversational Japanese [even though I study every day!]) all of Newton's pleasant remarks seem directed to 皆さん minnasan: all, everybody, everyone (respectfully). He offers "私 の 医者 です" (watashi no isha desu! this is my doctor!) with an arm around his physio guy, and everyone seems very encouraging and appreciative. What seems to get Eiko smiling is a simple "皆さん久しぶりですね / minnasan, hisashiburi, desu ne? / long time, no see, isn't it?" The people love it! I am a person who feels like it is an emotional risk to speak Japanese in passing to a native Japanese speaker at our judo club (he is very nice) and so I am super impressed by Newton going for it in front of thousands upon thousands (Koike Eiko among them).  

To close his remarks, Newton switches to English and offers, "I heard tortured souls get healed in the heart of battle / so Master Splinter preach a peace that be hard to fathom" and while that is not true, and he says no such thing, as those are not his words at all and instead thoughtful martial lines excerpted from "The Origin" by Cee Gee Incorporated featuring Deuce Ellis in his Downtown Raphael persona—a stunning achievement of first-person ninja turtle backpack hip-hop (a turtle shell is a kind of backpack) that I heard as part of a mixtape played on CKDU one Sunday night right after judo—is that any less plausible than what actually happens, which is a dramatic かめはめ波 kamehamema in the established tradition of the 亀仙流 Kamesenryū / Turtle School broadly and 孫悟空 Son Gokū in particular? Is it? Or is it all very much of a piece? It's all martial arts cartoon turtlism (indeed turtlISM) from where I sit. Is it an objectively goofy thing to do? It might be, slightly, but Carlos Newton loves it, the crowd loves it, and I too, love it. Commitment is everything, and he really nails it: 

I am honestly a little surprised at just how much I have had to say on this specific aspect of the martial arts show that we are watching together (should I be though? should any of us? [I guess I mean both "surprised" and "watching the martial arts show"), but to wrap up this, the Carlos Newton Thoughts section of our time together (and, again, I thank you so much for your indulgence in this matter), I would like to add that over the weekend I listened to two quite recent Carlos Newton martial arts media appearances (one interview with a small MMA YouTube channel; one with a traditional martial arts podcast that seems to feature 居合道 Iaidō practitioners quite prominently [how neat is that]) and I can report the following, broadly: Carlos Newton is not teaching presently as he is focusing that time and energy on his very young family (in response to a biggest achievement / biggest regret question, his answer to the former revolved around fatherhood, and his answer to the latter was that for so much of his adult life he feared the responsibility of fatherhood); he sits on the board of of the MMA Fighters Association, one of the parties involved in the potentially massive class-action litigation that Dave Meltzer suggests could be financially disastrous for the UFC (TKO) should it actually go to trial (Newton understandably refers to the UFC's promotional model as "patented, structured exploitation") and so a good-sized settlement could well be forthcoming; Newton found 修斗 SHOOTO the most truly sporting of the fighting organizations for which he competed, whereas, to him, both PRIDE and UFC were (and, in the case of the UFC, in his view, remains) best understood as pure entertainment; when asked for overall strategic aims in a fight he is of the belief that you should always aim to "hit your opponent with the earth," as there is nothing (in our immediate experience) heavier than that; he feels a laddered/algorithmic approach to technique makes perfect sense as a way to structure teaching but that it must be left behind utterly in both 乱取りrandori and 試合 shiai; Newton, who has trained seemingly everything (his first style: 松涛館 Shōtōkan in the front yard with his step-father in Anguilla) finds 柔道 jūdō and  合気道 aikidō the most beautiful and satisfying martial arts (though he loves to watch boxing), and expounds (in both interviews!) an esoteric view of aikido in which all martial arts, when executed at the highest levels ("oneness" and "harmony" are words he returns to), in effect become aikido, in that they then embody "the way of the spirit"; when asked if we will ever see aikido in high-level mixed martial arts, he asserts that in the sense that matters to him, we already have. There is vastly more on these matters available both here and here and I invite you to explore it all! Carlos Newton stays seeking, for he is a seeker, and one whom I have long admired.

A tough fight to follow, certainly, but Heath Herring versus the truly-fearsome-yet-nice-seeming Ukranian legend Ігор Ярославович Вовчанчин / Igor Yaroslavovych Vovchanchyn sounds like, potentially, a good one too? The last time we saw Igor, he fell to the great Mario Sperry (no shame in that, obviously) by way of 肩固 kata-gatame / shoulder hold / head-and-arm choke / arm-triangle (hey: it happens), and honestly his results have been mixed of late, but his huge looping hook remains something to, like, super worry about. Herring, who has moved to the Netherlands to improve his kickboxing, will surely be the better wrestler (by background; by disposition), and so one sees a path to victory for him, should he manage to emerge unwalloped. The first round proves, once more, that no one should ever listen to me, or any of my ideas, as Vovchanchyn responds to Herring's takedown by rolling through for a 膝固 hiza-gatame knee-bar that he does not get but that the crowd goes nuts for all the same, because who could have seen that coming (not me!), and once the fighters return to the their feet, it is Vovchanchyn who catches hold of a kick and scores an easy takedown, and ends up right up on top in 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame. This fight is bananas! They are down and up and down again, coming close on armlocks that then lead to scrambles, and it is just a pleasure. On the whole, they fight at a pace that we do not at all associate with heavyweight mixed fighting. Great job, guys! I have no real recollection of this match, and honestly couldn't have told you that these guys ever even faced each other, but this is just fantastic stuff.   

 

Does the pace slow a little in round two? And then significantly in round three? Well sure it does; they're only human, these dudes who seem barely human. I admit that I am a little surprised that Heath Herring takes the unanimous decision, though I suppose this judgement accords with the PRIDE criteria, and the emphasis placed on how the fight was going towards the end over how it went previous to that. Herring spent a good amount of the final round in the manner I had expected he would spend the bulk of the fight: atop Igor, and punching. Perhaps the deciding factor was the (to me somewhat harsh) yellow card visited upon Vovchanchyn for fighting somewhat passively whilst blows rained down upon him. Anyway, a really good one!

Next we have heavyweight champion Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira in a non-title match (somehow it has only now struck me what a pro-wrestling thing that even is) against the always-tough-but-recently-beleaguered Enson Inoue, who has lost three in a row (Mark Kerr, Igor Vovchanchyn, Heath Herring [to be fair those are tough draws]). Nogueira, you will recall, has but one loss in his whole career to this point, having dropped a lone decision to Dan Henderson (sometimes called "Decision" Dan Henderson by "the wags") at RINGS 2/26/00: WORLD MEGA-BATTLE OPEN TOURNAMENT KING OF KINGS GRAND FINAL, which, perhaps unsurprisingly, we have addressed. So far this show has been just delightful, and I have high hopes for this match, too, as Inoue is always game, and Nogueira is one of the most æsthetically pleasing fighters in the history of this strange and perhaps mistaken sport. As though to mock me immediately, and prove me a fool once again, Nogueira follows a stuffed takedown attempt in the opening seconds by laying on his back and scooching around; you are killing me right now in terms of æsthetics, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. The fighters are restarted on their feet, and are soon thereafter clinched and lightly punching (it looks light, but I am sure I would mind it a great deal) before Nogueira takes Inoue to the mat with a fine 小外掛 kosoto-gake / minor outer hook (one recalls with fondness Nogueira's insistence that, in addition to his obvious excellence in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu, "I am a judo guy; I am a judo guy"). He passes a leg just about immediately, and attacks with first a 逆腕緘 gyaku-ude-garami / reverse arm-entanglement / double wrist-lock / figure four / Kimura (it has many names!) and then an 腕挫腕固 ude-hishigi-ude-gatame that looks like an enormous problem, but Inoue is a calm guy throughout:

Nogueira changes his approach, and rolls through to try to finish in that dynamic fashion (one of my fellow instructors at the club does it this way and it is very slick!), but Inoue slips out and begins to punch hardly. Nogueira sweeps, threatens with an arm-in front choke that costs him the position but was probably fun to try, and then, yep, here come the legs: triangle, armbar, omoplata-with-a-toe-hold, omoplata to . . . triangle? I think he could triangle from here? Ah, okay, he sure does, and Inoue goes very much unconscious pretty fast. "Hey, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira: how about omote-sankaku-jime my man!" is how I would have coached that one had I been in his corner; I am glad that 2002 Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira found that attack even in my absence. I am, as you will perhaps recall, no fan of making people choke you all the way out in order for them to win a match, and that it seems to me less a bravery than an arrogance, but I appreciate that different people feel differently on this matter.  

"Very, very seasoned" is how Stephen Quadros describes our old friend 田村潔司 Tamura Kiyoshi, and I remember well the feeling when my triennial letters of reappointment sent from the department chair to the Dean of Arts (always more generous than I deserve, and I am grateful) stopped referring to me as "promising" (how kind of you to say; thank you so much) and instead offered "seasoned" (hey now wait a minute here guys) in its place. Upon reflection, I could not but concede the point, and I wonder: is that how Tamura feels about it here, too? He is thirty-one years old as he stands before us, and it's a fairly hard thirty-one, at least in the sense that it is a thirty-one that had been preceded by a rough thirty, ground nearly to dust in that year by the relentless work/shoot/worked-shoot situation (please pronounce this in the French fashion) that cannot but befall he who sits at the very nexus of the Fighting Network we call[ed] RINGS, that precise point of intersection between legitimate grappling and the æsthetic, a position that is thus quite literally crucial. This is ground we have covered, certainly, dating back to our first post (10/30/2016—were we ever so young? what were our cares then? would they be recognizable to us now?), and in the several hundred thousands of words that have followed (I cannot thank you enough for your patience; I do not feel that I have thanked you sufficiently for your patience). That Tamura is here at all at this time—in the PRIDE of early 2002 I mean, rather than the still-yet-to-be-dismantled RINGS [edited to note, after checking: for the record, the final RINGS show {more or less: RINGS Holland and RINGS Lithuania ran a little longer} was actually held nine days prior to this]—is several things, one of which is an indictment of Akira Maeda's whole deal, probably, but I'll tell you at least one other thing that it is: exciting! 

This is one instance where our experience does suffer by having access only to the edited English-language broadcast, rather than the (frail) original, in that one of things that has been cut for time is Kiyoshi Tamura's entrance, a decision that makes sense for the English-speaking audience that will have scarcely heard tell of him, but which denies us the opportunity for "Flame of Mind," perhaps the most ファイヤープロレスリング /  Faiyā Puro Resuringu / Fire Pro Wrestling of all entrance themes ever (it is worth noting, I think, that when one goes to listen to this track at YouTube, the upload one first encounters is this one by user "yeelord," to whom many thanks, who writes "I have some of Fire Pro Archive's theme's on my phone. I'll be porting some over so you can still enjoy these great themes in CD Quality!"). We are denied, too, an opportunity to see just how stoked this sizeable crowd of 22,381人 (that's plenty! of 人!) is to see Kiyoshi Tamura fight . . . okay let's see . . . oh no it is Recursive Wanderlei Silva:

If you are wondering if perhaps 高阪 剛 Kōsaka Tsuyoshi might be in Tamura's corner for this, Tamura's PRIDE début, wonder no more, as he totally is (it is so nice to see him). We should note that this is a bout for the PRIDE Middleweight Championship, held at this time (and for some time after) by Wanderlei on account of how he clobbers everybody. Just clobbers them. And here we go! The crowd roars! And then are quiet, as Tamura's sharp kick to the body is caught in hand, and Silva dumps him to the mat and sets to work. Tamura does a pretty good job of tying up Silva's arms, and he keeps his hips busy, threatening sweeps and high-guard attacks (we have been working on such attacks at the club recently and with great success even amongst our newest friends). Tamura's defense is strong, and Silva lands only a few blows from this position, but none of them look like any fun at all. Quadros notes that Tamura has never contested a match with closed-fist strikes the head on the ground, and that is a great point, and definitely something to keep in mind as Silva breaks through Tamura's defense and really just creams him a couple times. Tamura takes advantage of Silva's openness here, and creates enough space to stand up out of half-guard in a way some people call "a technical stand-up" (it is a thing I have heard). The crowd is at least as happy (relieved?) about this as Tamura himself, and there is a fleeting moment where it seems Tamura is going to either take Silva's back or, failing that, complete his 小外掛 kosoto-gake / minor outer hook, but neither of those things happen, in the end, and Silva and Tamura are clinched chest to chest, Tamura's back against the ropes. A wild up-and-down scramble unwildens all of a sudden after a fairly solid knee to Tamura's face leads to Silva back on top, Tamura underneath, working to tie up Silva's arms and doing okay at it, but Tamura's face is a mess in a way that you only really appreciate when they scramble to their feet again. Yikes. Silva really was a beast! Hey anybody remember that one time where he was banned for like three years for wildly evading drug testing? Just a thing that happened one time! That came much later, though, when I'm sure a lot of his choices were different

The first round ends with Silva on top, getting some pretty good shots in here and there, while Tamura is really just trying to hang on. Cursed, as is often the case, by his own toughness, Tamura makes it out of the first without ever having been in any real danger of having the fight stopped, but let there be no mistake: our guy got pasted. In the corner, 村上 一成 Murakami Kazunari attends to Tamura's fairly messed up nose whilst 高阪 剛 Kōsaka Tsuyoshi (the very TK, of course, of the scissors under whose auspices we gather) keeps a weather-eye on Wanderlei, and I mean sure; you've really got to. 

Tamura, ever-cautious in the context of true shooting (this is not a criticism), comes out no more cautious than usual to open round two —despite the low-grade calamity of round one. In fact, he lands some fairly nasty kicks to the body—and a couple of sharp punches, too—before Wanderlei closes the distances and drags him to the mat with a solid 小外掛 kosoto-gake / minor outer hook. Oh hey: the match is paused briefly as referee 島田 裕二 Shimada Yūji has noticed (I hadn't!) that Wanderlei actually has a pretty nasty cut above his right eye from an earlier exchange. It's not enough to stop the fight, but the totally clean overhand-right Wanderlei lands not long after the match is restarted sure is. Brutal. Tamura showed plenty of heart in this one, to be sure, but this was absolutely peak Wanderlei Silva, and there's only so much anybody was able to do about that, like at all. 

I would assume that this was the actual main event in the building, owing to how it was a middleweight title fight involving Kiyoshi Tamura (I will check on Japanese wikipedia and . . . yes that would seem to have been the case), but the tape-delayed English-language broadcast opts instead for the match that was actually third for the top, which is Ken Shamrock and Don Frye who have, as you will recall, "bad blood." I am not compelled by this. The notion of a "grudge match" in the context of fighting does nothing for me. Oh man, these guys are so mad that maybe they'll have a fight! Just like everybody else on this show! Of fights! Because the sport is fighting! Do we think either Don Frye or Ken Shamrock will hit each other extra hard because of how they don't care for each other? Like, harder than the grudgeless Wanderlei just hit Kiyoshi Tamura, for instance? Or that they will leg-lock each other with an extra twistiness reserved only for the despised? Though I do not myself feel it, I think I can understand the appeal of situations in team sports where it seems like the players legitimately have problems with each other, because oh man, maybe things will boil over! A fight might break out! But that is what is already happening here, guys; this is already fighting; it can't really be done extra, regardless of how your feelings are about it: this is already the worst thing you could do to each other and not have it count as crimes. 

Stephen Quadros describes Don Frye as the "antithesis, emotionally, of Ken Shamrock, meaning that he's been just absolutely cold as a block of ice," whereas Shamrock has been a fool. If one were to argue that Ken Shamrock is deliberately working as a heel, and that I have in a sense fallen for it, I would suggest to you that I at least somewhat haven't, in that I don't particularly want to see his match at all (I am not interested in anyone's comeuppance!), and would just skip it had I not a duty to you, the reader (of this RINGSblog). "This is such a high-stakes affair, but both men, ironically, are fighting on a more conservative level," Quadros notes a few minutes in; he does not add that these are, at this point in their lives, cosmetically-built professional wrestlers in their late thirties, but that seems like important context. Minutes later: "I've got to tell you, this is surprising, the way the fight is unfolding, to me, because I expected them to be just going out there and just duking it out." A shameful admission, though perhaps there can be no shame in genuine honesty. The latter portions of the first round are spent with the wrestling-shoed Don Frye caught in what looks like a full-on heel hook for really quite a while, but Shamrock is unable to finish it despite a good deal of twisting. Both look drained to start the second (hey fair enough), but Shamrock in particular seems beyond exhausted. "Ken should explode and go for a takedown," is Bas Rutten's utterly unrealizable dream amidst a round of clinched short rights to the body. I can't remember ever seeing a fighter administered canned oxygen between rounds, but that's what happened in Don Frye's corner after the second.       

"This hasn't been as exciting as I'd expected it to be!" is how Quadros ushers in the third and final round. Frye does manage a flurry that puts Shamrock on his back for a bit; then Frye is on his back a bit; fine; fine. The crowd murmurs at the faintest prospect of an armlock from Frye (who they favour), but it does not come. The bout ends with dueling heel hook attempts but nobody manages to find enough of one for the finish. And then they hug! Oh man don't tell me this was all silly bullshit! The split decision goes to Don Frye, who is somewhat "aw shucks" in victory. And that's it! OR IS IT as I have only now remembered that there is a further match tucked away in another folder here and it is Takada Dojo's 松井 大二郎 Matsui Daijirō vs. Rodrigo Gracie, which could be pretty good! Aaaaaaand . . . it's okay! It is marked by fairly cautious grappling exchanges (which lead to the caution and guidance of 指導 shidō for both fighters) before Gracie wins with an arm-in 前裸絞 mae-hadake-jime/front-choke/guillotine of precisely the kind that remained controversial for weirdly long, not in the sense that the move was thought to be too dangerous or anything, but on the contrary, that many were skeptical that it was even a thing. "He's got this front choke," Bas begins, "but I don't think—he's got an arm in between, so that's not gonna be something . . ." and the reason he trails off is because Daijiro Matsui has been strangled very much unconscious. Sometimes at the club I mention that I am old enough to remember arm-in front chokes being subject to near-total doubt, and the only people who seem to fully believe me are those who are just as old (there are a few of us, but fewer with each passing year [not in the sense that we have died so much as grown injured, don't worry about us {too much}]). "With a half a guillotine? I've never seen this before. Against a specialist? That was kinda strange, but it worked . . . obviously Rodrigo made a special move, and still made it work." Just play around with it, Bas! You can figure this out for yourself with your pals! 

And that, at last, is that. Thank you—as ever, as always—for your patience and for your attention to these matters. I have a (minor) goal to watch one PRIDE a month for at least the next little while, and I hope that, should this goal prove attainable (I feel like it should be!), you will join me for them. All that remains, as is customary, is for us to explore WHAT DAVE MELTZER MAY HAVE SAID.

March 4, 2002:

"PRIDE BAD BLOOD

Thumbs up 219 (100.0%)

Thumbs down 0 (00.0%)

In the middle 0 (00.0%)

BEST MATCH POLL

Carlos Newton vs. Pele 94

Ken Shamrock vs. Don Frye 92

Heath Herring vs. Igor Vovchanchyn 21

WORST MATCH POLL

Tom Erikson vs. Tim Catalfo 35

On 2/24, two niche companies, neither figured to get more than 25,000 buys, went head-to-head on PPV. It brought back memories of Wrestlemania vs. The Clash from a previous generation, except without the hype.

And like pro wrestling's first Super Sunday in 1988, as shows go, the result was the same. A blow away show and a borderline embarrassment.

The Pride show was one of those shows where the Gods were on their side. The line-up, strong on paper, was even stronger once the bell sounded. In a sense, this was two different shows. A show for Japan, which lasted four-and-a-half hours, and an edited version with a different match order for the United States, built around Ken Shamrock vs. Don Frye. Shamrock vs. Frye was a different fight than expected, but far better than anyone could have reasonably hoped for with two fighters mocked in the MMA world because of their age. Even in Japan, where it was only third from the top, it was the most heated fight on the show. Shamrock vs. Frye was an incredible war, belying both men's age, and shutting up critics who had knocked Shamrock's heart after the Kazuyuki Fujita fight, and for being overrated, even as he lost a split decision that legitimately should have been a draw. There was no question about Frye's heart. And he needed it and more. He survived, limping for some of the second and third round after Shamrock destroyed his leg with ankle locks and heel hooks. Frye was walking okay later that evening, but the next day he was hurting pretty bad from the submission moves that he refused to tap to, although the injuries were unspecified and not believed to have been serious. He was scheduled for an MRI to check out the damage this week, but has already left Japan for a previously planned family vacation in Hawaii. After fighting a week after a partially torn quad in September, which he re-injured in his match with Gilbert Yvel, Frye still talked about upcoming matches with these injuries. He is scheduled on 5/25 for a K-1 match in Paris, France against Cyril Abidi, a match where he is likely to get destroyed. He's also challenged Mirko Cro Cop, which would be a major heated match for wrestling fans.

WWA was sad. Sad because the match quality itself was decent, but came across so poorly organized and minor league. There was no line-up announced ahead of time. On some cable systems, the only names even advertised on the show were Kevin Nash, Scott Hall and Buff Bagwell. Other systems mentioned names like Randy Savage and Road Dogg. On the pre-game show, they did hype Savage, but have a graphic stating he wouldn't be there, but didn't do the same for the hyped Road Dogg.

Savage was among the wrestlers who were holding promoter Andrew McManus up for more money at the last minute. Exactly how negotiations went were unclear, but the promotion itself was telling wrestlers that Savage wanted a $50,000 guarantee to appear plus a 30 percent ownership stake in the company. Supposedly the original deal was that Savage would work the show free but get 30 percent ownership in the business. Which side reneged on it is unclear, but the later negotiations reportedly were based around a flat cash fee. Reportedly, Savage asked for $250,000, which they turned down, and came back with $150,000, which was also turned down and negotiations broke down three days before the show. Many of the wrestlers on the show, including the underneath guys, were working for $300.

McManus opened the show and mentioned Savage wasn't appearing, through no fault of Savage's (whose fault is it when you advertise someone that doesn't appear and isn't injured? Either you had a contract and he isn't fulfilling it, which is his fault and legal action should be taken, or he didn't have a contract and was being advertised, which means it's your fault completely). Last second attempts to bring in Sting to save the show fell through.

Road Dogg didn't appear due to legal reasons. There had been reports in Pro Wrestling Torch for weeks stating due to problems previously in Nevada, he wouldn't be appearing. The word at the show was that Dogg had been arrested for a probation violation in Pensacola, where he lives, two days before the show. His name and absence was never talked about during the show. Because of that, a national PPV show was headlined by a world title match, announced early in the show by commissioner Bret Hart, of Jeff Jarrett (who there were rumors wouldn't be appearing until about a week before the show) defending against Brian Christopher.

The show itself was a huge improvement over Australia from a workrate and booking standpoint, but maybe sadder. In Australia, they at least had a crowd and production making it have the feel of a sort-of major league event, but with lousy matches and worse booking. This had the worst kind of production, an attempt to do a WWF or WCW style show without the money to do it. Instead of doing pop gun pyro, which were an embarrassment, they should have just avoided it altogether. The camera work and direction was as bad as any PPV in recent memory. The crowd was quiet throughout, making the long matches seem worse than they really were. In some of the matches, the most entertaining thing was the comedy of Mark Madden, but that was a negative as you could hear the crowd being quiet so they could hear him and laugh at his remarks (they piped in play-by-play for the live audience, and once again, showed why wrestling and most sporting events have never done it), making the wrestlers nothing more than background entertainment.

But mostly, the disorganization and lack of understanding of the show was evident. There were gimmick three-ways and six-ways that would have been strong matches had they been booked as single matches, but were instead unwieldy and impossible to focus on. They brought in two unknown midgets from Chicago for a comedy hardcore match, even though midgets that could have torn the house down were available (and Mark Madden even referenced them, talking about how much better those midgets from Mexico were). I didn't mind the inside comments as much here as on WWF, because this show really was only drawing an internet audience. Among that audience, there is the knowledge of Eddy Guerrero's WWF firing and personal issues and Juventud Guerrera's Australian escapade that they alluded to without ever explaining. But it came across so low rent to bring up WWF constantly, and in particular an interview by Larry Zbyszko, doing what appeared to be his WWF job application promo, challenging Vince McMahon to a match for unspecified evil deeds from 20 years ago. In this case, by not even saying what the problem was, even a guy like Zbyszko, who has more verbal skills than 90 percent of the current wrestlers, came off looking like a dolt. Even worse, his knocks at Chris Jericho being too short to be a world champion, even though they are works to get into WWF, as it pertained to height, were hilarious given Zbyszko's height and the height of Bruno Sammartino. It wasn't my idea of entertainment to buy a PPV from a company looking to be the alternative and see guys cutting promos looking for jobs with the supposed competition. But many in the company, seeing how disorganized the show was, have already given up on this company as a lost cause.

Both groups announced next dates on the show. WWA announced, as mentioned here, a 4/13 date in Melbourne that would air on 4/14 in the U.S. Pride's next show will be 4/28 in Yokohama, airing on about an 18 hour tape delay that same day in the U.S.

While not announced, Pride's tentative plans look to be a main event of Mark Coleman vs. Semmy Schiltt, which Coleman should win, and Dan Henderson vs. Ricardo Arona, which is one of those on-paper wars for the hardcores that have no marquee value but are often great fights. There is also a pro wrestling gimmick planned, the wedding of Gary Goodridge, in the ring, on that show. There are also plans for Japan to build around Pancrase vs. Pride interpromotional using Yuki Kondo, Ikuhisa Minowa, Sanae Kikuta and Yoshiki Takahashi representing Pancrase.

Pride's "Bad Blood" in the U.S. was built around Shamrock and Frye's grudge match among pro wrestling stars that neither the U.S. pro wrestling audience or general sports audience knew about.

For Japan, it was the monster heel, Vanderlei Silva, facing this month's great Japanese hope, former pro wrestling superstar Kiyoshi Tamura. Tamura, out of action for nearly one year after suffering a series of losses due to injuries, was never comfortable in his first match where punching on the ground was allowed, and he was beaten very bloody before being knocked out by a tremendous overhand right counter in the second round. As a live show, there has never been a major MMA show that aired on PPV with five consecutive matches the quality of the final five bouts on the show and many are calling it the best major show ever.

The show drew a near sellout of 22,381 fans to the Saitama Super Arena. While not a sellout, the number is impressive considering how many major events have been held in the building over the past 18 months, and that this show lacked the big Japanese native pro wrestling drawing card like Naoya Ogawa (won't do shoots), Kazuyuki Fujita (injured), Kazushi Sakuraba (injured), Kendo Kashin (won't do Pride anymore and never wanted to) or Nobuhiko Takada (his drawing power has to be about shot with his recent performances). Wrestling fans were also greatly divided up, with the All Japan and All Japan big shows head-to-head, and those shows were held much closer to where most of the fans live making easier access rather than being more than an hour out of Tokyo. While the MMA fans don't like any of them except Sakuraba, they are the ones who sell the tickets and make possible the great undercard matches. Tamura was a draw, but not at the level of this calibre of a national show. It appeared it was Frye who was the most popular guy on the show.

There were the usual hijinx before the show. The biggest controversy involved Enson Inoue, who was convicted on an assault charge four days before the fight which gained numerous headlines including NTV's national newscast (the highest rated national newscast in Japan). He was given a six month suspended sentence and two years probation for an assault on a reporter from Weekly Post about two years ago. It was this incident that caused Shooto, the organization he was fighting for at the time, to ban him and strip him of his heavyweight championship. There was controversy during the week regarding Pride even letting him compete, somewhat similar to D.C. allowing Mike Tyson to fight after Nevada didn't approve him. Inoue, who is Hawaiian but lives in Japan, had talked about joining the U.S. Army to fight in Afghanistan, but some were claiming he was publicly wanting to do this because of his impending legal problems.

The second was the second pro wrestling looking angle with Shamrock and Frye, this time on 2/22 at the press conference at Korakuen Hall. Shamrock said he was tired of waiting and talked about how he was going to injure Frye, which led to a pull-apart brawl. One thing that is so strange about Shamrock is he is a tremendous interview in MMA. In fact, his pre-fight interview was so dynamic it brought incredible intensity to the fight on the broadcast before it ever started. This is the same Ken Shamrock whose lack of interview ability was probably the main thing that kept him from staying at the top level in the WWF.

After opening with a silly skit right out of EMLL with Rutten, who improves with every broadcast and is pretty much the MMA equivalent to Jesse Ventura in his prime, wielding a sword on Stephen Quadros, the rushed American PPV began.

1. Tom Erikson destroyed Tim Catalfo in 2:35. Erikson took Catalfo, who is in his mid-40s but still a powerhouse down. Catalfo, Bill Goldberg's long-time fighting trainer who was once considered for a decent sized role in WCW, turned to his back. Erikson was able to maneuver a choke in. Erikson winning was expected, but winning by submission was something of a surprise.

2. Alex Steibling won a unanimous decision over Wallid Ismail in 20:00. Ismail is a crazy looking Brazilian that reminds me of 60s star Pampero Firpo, except without the wild hair. His main claim to fame is being the only man ever to beat Royce Gracie via submission in a match on the beach in Brazil in 1998 and markets himself as the Gracie destroyer. He did a promo building for a match with Ryan Gracie, which they've been pushing on their PPVs for a long time, but never happens. They only aired the third round on television. First two rounds were said to be boring with Ismail keeping Steibling down. Ismail was gassed out in the third round and Steibling was punching him. Still, Ismail was able to get it to the ground and survive, even though he looked to be sleepwalking at the end.

3. Rodrigo Gracie defeated Daijiro Matsui in 15:28 (:28 into the third round) via choke. They cut this match off the show. Said to be a boring match except the finishing sequence was said to be great.

4. Carlos Newton beat Jose "Pele" Landi in 7:16. An incredible match. Newton took some punishment standing before he got him down with a hip toss. Newton went for a guillotine, but Pele escaped and got on top. Newton got to his feet and took him down with a judo throw, then seemed to have an armbar, but Pele escaped. Pele kicked him in the face, then later gave him a short knee to Newton's face that knocked him silly. Landi should have followed up with kickboxing at this point because he seemed to have the match in hand against a very dangerous competitor. Instead, he took the wobbly Newton down to attempt to finish him with strikes on the ground. However, the elusive Newton on the ground maneuvered into an armbar for the submission. Newton did his post-match interview in Japanese and got over huge with the crowd, apparently trying to hit on a pretty celebrity sitting next to Nobuhiko Takada at ringside. Crowd went wild for him.

5. Heath Herring won a unanimous decision over Igor Vovchanchyn in 20:00. Herring went for the takedown right away, but did real damage with punches from the top. Igor's right eye was busted open. Igor timed a kick and used it to take Herring down, and even got a mount, but Herring was able to get away. Herring went for a triangle but Vovchanchyn got away. Vovchanchyn surprisingly took him down again. Good standing exchanges late in a great round. It was Herring's round because of the early damage, even though Vovchanchyn was stronger later. Second round was boring. Vovchanchyn took him down when Herring threw a kick, and threw a few punches from the top to keep busy. Third round saw Herring on top and really opened up on Vovchanchyn with body and head shots on the ground. In a bad call, they gave Vovchanchyn a yellow card for stalling. Fight was sort of close and that could have been the difference. But after that, Herring beat him down the rest of the round and earned the decision either way. Excellent match.

6. Don Frye won a split decision over Ken Shamrock in 20:00. Lots of interesting overtones here. Frye won the mental battle, as Shamrock was pacing like a crazy man, which likely burned up energy while Frye was cool. Frye was a gigantic babyface as he got the biggest pop on the show, even more than Tamura, while Shamrock was the only guy on the show who was booed. For those who remember the days when these two were top stars in UFC, well, times have changed. Frye then was about 200 pounds, and now he's huge, probably close to 240. Shamrock was then a ripped to shreds guy, who fought anywhere from 217 to 227, but looked much larger because of his small waist. And he got even bigger in WWF. Shamrock was 211 here, and looked totally clean physique-wise, clearly figuring it would work to his advantage in a long fight due to stamina. They showed Ken with girlfriend Alicia Webb (Ryan Shamrock in WWF) although she was not identified by name on the broadcast. First round saw them lock up. Frye's superior size and wrestling ability allowed him to bull Shamrock around, which Shamrock isn't used to. They ended up trading hard body blows. Frye, with his stronger punch and more weight, was definitely doing more damage. This in the late rounds would even out the stamina edge Shamrock may have had. Frye was clearly winning the punching battle. After a good exchange, Shamrock dropped down for an attempt at a heel hook or an ankle lock. Shamrock really cranked it on, but didn't have the right technique to force a tap. Frye appeared to be mentally blocking out great pain. From the way it was applied, it appeared Frye could have tore up the inside of his knee as the round ended and he was limping, with two rounds to go. Frye had his corner heavily tape up his ankle just so he could come out for the second round. Both guys were dead in the second round. Shamrock used up all his energy trying to get the tap. Frye was stronger, but his mobility was hurt. Frye was recovering faster than Shamrock. In the third round, they got into an incredible slugfest, ending when Frye dropped Shamrock with a right. Frye gave Shamrock a beating on the ground at this point, the likes of which he has never taken in an MMA fight. Frye even went for a choke, but Shamrock reversed him. Shamrock in the scramble was able to hook Frye's leg. Frye himself tried the same move. Shamrock, who looked like a for sure loser, did a number on Frye's ankle and knee in the last minute and it was as close a decision as you could get. Both guys hugged after, and Frye put Shamrock over big in a post-match interview both in the ring and backstage. Frye even said he thought the match was even and they were hyping a rematch. Shamrock's face was a mess when it was over, as was Frye's leg. This will be a future classic.

7. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira defeated Enson Inoue in 6:18. Inoue was most notable for having a ton of new tatoos. He didn't look confident coming to the ring, shaking hands with everyone and hugging his wife (very pretty Japanese former world champion amateur wrestler Miyu Yamamoto). Neither announcer knew who Yamamoto was but did assume it was his wife and did call attention to her looks. Inoue tied him up and threw pesky punches in the clinch. Nogueira took him down and went for submission after submission, including a Kimura armlock, which Inoue escaped. Inoue connected with some punches, forcing Nogueira to give up on the arm. Nogueira next went for a guillotine but Inoue slipped out. Nogueira went for another armbar, then a toe hold, then a shoulderlock, then an una plata (a really cool looking hammerlock done with the legs) before finally putting Inoue to sleep with a triangle choke. Inoue literally went to sleep, the match was stopped. Got up, and nearly collapsed. Nogueira's skill level has to be seen to be believed. It must have been pretty hard to follow the previous bout.

8. Vanderlei Silva retained his middleweight title over Kiyoshi Tamura in 12:28 (2:28 of the second round). Tamura looked very different from the old Tamura. He doesn't like fighting with striking on the ground, and at 32, having done shoot style pro wrestling and fighting for 13 years one way and with all his injuries, this wasn't exactly the right opponent to learn, although it was great for Japanese storyline. Crowd seemed to give Tamura a lot more of a chance than he gave himself, which may have been his undoing. Silva got Tamura down and gave him a pounding midway through the round. Tamura's nose in particular was bleeding badly. The pace slowed late in the round. Silva was punishing him, but Tamura got some good shots in. They started exchanging in the second round and Tamura cut Silva on the right eye. Tamura connected with very hard middle kicks to the body, which is his specialty. Silva gave Tamura some openings, but his being psyched out and hurt by this point may have kept him from taking advantage. The two were trading when Silva slipped a right by Tamura and countered with a thunderous right which knocked Tamura out and the ref stopped it. Tamura, luckily, did not suffer any serious injuries in the match. This was better than any of Silva's matches in Pride except the Dan Henderson match."

and

"2/22 Tokyo Korakuen Hall (Pride - 1,500): Eiji Matsuoka b Anthony Macias, Kim Jong Wan b Mammoth Sasaki, Daiju Takase b Johil de Oliviera, Giant Ochiai b Shoichi Nishida, Sou Kun Kou b Amir, Yosuke Imamura b Joe Son"

and

"Japan Today, which is an American newspaper covering Japanese news daily, had two pro wrestling stories on 2/24. The first was a story about Inoki overcoming diabetes. It said he first came down with it in 1982 (which is when his ring stamina and ring performance took a tumble just as the style was making drastic improvements and he couldn't hang with the younger talent). His blood sugar level at the time was 596 (healthy is 70 to 110 and 126 is diabetic). He was told to give up wrestling. This probably explains the 1983 angle where Hulk Hogan "injured" Inoki in the first IWGP title match and Inoki was out for months, getting treatment. The story said that Inoki had no idea about health, although the story got really ridiculous as Inoki claimed he ate 2,800 grams of steak daily in those days and consumed 10,000 calories per day because he thought of size as health. They said for the past 20 years, he's carefully watched his diet, which accounts for him being in better condition at 50 than he was at 40. The story said Inoki was a current member of the Diet (hasn't been since 1995). The paper also had a major story previewing the Pride show. The story called Dr. Naoto Morishita, Pride's CEO, the Don King of Japanese fighting (isn't that Ishii?). They wrote his master stroke as a promoter was hiring Inoki as producer. The said Morishita having his eyes on the U.S. market was a positive (it isn't, Japanese entertainment exports rarely fare well in the U.S., although New Japan did have a run as a huge television hit in Italy in the 80s). Morishita in an interview said that by having the matches in a ring instead of a cage, it's more palatable to the U.S. to attract the family audience and the masses. The writer of the story showed a lack of understanding of pro wrestling by saying "Why watch a prefab wrestling bout when Pride features real men in a real fight shedding real blood?," not recognizing that the lack of reality is traditional pro wrestling's main attribute, not a detriment. Even funnier it said that with the top Japanese stars Pride was built on being past their peak, with Takada about to hit 40 and Sakuraba having suffered two losses last year, they are targeting Yoshihiro Takayama and Enson Inoue as replacements. Now that was funny

There looks like there will be a battle with Atsushi Onita and Kodo Fuyuki as each is trying to start a new promotion with the remnants of FMW. Mammoth Sasaki, who fought in the 2/22 minor Pride show at Korakuen Hall against former Pancrase prelim guy Kim Jong Wan in a shoot, and was destroyed in 25 seconds and then announced his retirement, is still being advertised for a 3/30 show promoted by Onita. Fuyuki said he would run a show on 3/10 at Korakuen Hall using as many FMW wrestlers as possible since it was the date SkyperfecTV had for an FMW PPV event. Fuyuki & Kintaro Kanemura have done angles on IWA and DDT shows since FMW folded on 2/17, so he'd likely have access to guys from both groups. Besides Sasaki, Ricky Fuji and Flying Kid Ichihara, who both go way back with Onita and FMW, are expected to side with Onita."

and

"With his win in Pride, it is all but a lock that Carlos Newton will face the winner of the 3/22 Matt Hughes vs. Hayato Sakurai welterweight title match in his title rematch, which would likely take place in July or September."

and

"Pride promoter Naoto Morishita said that Antonio Nogueira has asked to fight this year in K-1, and that Nogueira first title defense would be on 6/21, which is the next show they are holding at Saitama Super Arena. They are also looking at that show for Sakuraba's return.

Pride is also looking at doing a Gracies vs. Inoki-gun (pro wrestlers) angle for this year.

Pride did their first minor show on 2/22 in Tokyo before 1,500 at Korakuen Hall. Joe Son, who did a UFC back in 1994, but got over in the early days as Kimo's manager in the famous Royce Gracie match, fought on the show losing to Yosuke Imamura of Japan in 33 seconds."

March 11, 2002:

"Kazuyoshi Ishii announced on 3/6 that he was planning what could be the biggest money live gate sports entertainment show in history with a plan late this summer to book the 101,000-seat Yokohama International Stadium, the site of many key World Cup matches this year.

Ishii talked about a show which would include K-1, Pride and pro wrestling, and talked of a double main event of the elusive Rickson Gracie vs. Naoya Ogawa match and Mirko Cro Cop vs. Kazushi Sakuraba, both under Pride rules most likely..

New Japan had talked in the past of running a show at the same stadium, but the reality that they simply have nothing to fill such a building doomed the idea.

Ishii also talked about Cro Cop, who is now the biggest star in K-1 both due to his series of wins over pro wrestlers Kazuyuki Fujita, Yuji Nagata and Ryushi Yanagisawa (the latter under K-1 rules) and his 3/3 win over K-1 World Grand Prix champion in Nagoya which pulled in a television audience of an estimated 30 million viewers. He said that they were trying to match up Cro Cop with Vanderlei Silva on the 4/28 Pride show at the Yokohama Arena.

That match makes little sense because the chase by Japanese pro wrestlers of Cro Cop, and Japanese shootfighters of Silva, may be the two biggest box office storylines in Japan this year. Whomever were to win, it could hinder the chase, and also take away a sure-fire way to create a Japanese superstar. For example, Silva has a rep as a bad-ass stand-up fighter, but the reality is, Cro Cop is much stronger as a pure stand-up fighter and has a size advantage (maybe 12 pounds). Silva has far more experience in Vale Tudo rules, so his hope would be to take Cro Cop down and use ground-and-pound, as Cro Cop has yet to show any ability on the ground. If Silva were to beat Cro Cop, it would hurt the drawing power of Sakuraba challenging him and in a stadium that large, they need to keep everyone as strong as possible building to the fights. However, if Cro Cop were to hurt Silva, it would kill his drawing power, without creating a new star. For that reason, that match at this time, even though it sounds great to fans, is shortsighted booking. Nobody from Pride had at press time confirmed any interest in such a match."

and (from an NJPW Sumo Hall report):

"2. Daijiro Matsui beat Katsuyori Shibata in 1:59. This was UWF style and really good while it lasted. Shibata used a power bomb, but Matsui used a triangle from the bottom for a good rope break. Shibata did a great looking german because Matsui didn't go up for it so it made it look real, then used a choke. Matsui reversed into a heel hook for a rope break. The finish was an offshoot of the "real" Ryan Gracie-Tokimitsu Ishizawa match in Pride, in that Matsui caught him in the corner and rocked him with 11 punches, a few of which were really stiff, until the ref called it off. It's still a New Japan guy losing in the New Japan ring to a jobber in Pride. **"

and

"Injuries from the Pride show were Daijiro Matsui getting a broken nose in the match that didn't air, and Alex Steibling breaking his right hand in the first round, but he used it enough to win the fight anyway."

and

"There was an interesting interview with Kiyoshi Tamura the day before the Vanderlei Silva match. Tamura said that he believes that Pride and K-1 are closer to pro wrestling than WWF. He said he likes WWF and they put on a great show. A lot of people didn't understand that comment, but what he meant was that the pro wrestling he grew up with was very realistic worked stuff where you were interested in which man could beat which man. While K-1 and Pride aren't worked, the emotion is the same of seeing which man could beat which man, and programs, builds and old-style storylines. WWF, winning and losing isn't an important element. He also said that he hated Pride's style and felt the fighting was too violent. He said his favorite style is old UWF pro wrestling and that he wants it to make a comeback. He said there are more elements of emotion and telling a story in UWF, whereas Pride is more pure lure of violence. He said he hates the idea of getting sharp knee strikes. He also said that he was so sick and scared of the style going into the fight that he couldn't eat because his stomach was so queasy, but ultimately being scared would make him a better fighter once the bell rang.

The plan for Antonio Nogueira and K-1 seems to be to first put Nogueira in with a Japanese fighter, and if he wins, then match him up with Mike Bernardo."

March 18, 2002:

"A made-for TV movie on the life and marriage of Nobuhiko Takada and TV star wife Aki Mukai was a gigantic ratings hit this past week, scoring a 19.6 rating. Takada, of course, a famous pro wrestler who in recent years has fought in Pride, married Mukai, currently the host of the morning show on Nippon TV (similar to a Japanese Katie Couric), who has been battling uterine cancer. It was a tear-jerker story of their struggles and inability to have a child. I believe the two are attempting to adopt in the United States. Adoption in Japan is apparently very difficult."

and

"The Pride show, when it aired on a week tape delay on Japanese network TV on a weekend afternoon time slot, did a 6.9 rating. The number isn't bad by any means, but is way down from the TV peak. Pride's ratings are driven by mainstream names, such as big name pro wrestlers like Takada and Ogawa or even Sakuraba. Frye vs. Shamrock didn't have the Japanese component and Kiyoshi Tamura and Enson Inoue aren't names strong enough to draw ratings."

and

"Another program being talked up in the Japanese media this week was a two-match series with Mirko Cro Cop vs. Antonio Nogueira. They would do one match in K-1 under kickboxing rules, and one match in Pride under its rules.

There is something of a long-term Pride booking plan where the winner of the proposed Mark Coleman vs. Semmy Schiltt match on 4/28 would face Don Frye, and that winner would get a title shot at Nogueira in the late summer, possibly at the U.S. debut show in Honolulu. What seems to also be in the planning stages for the 4/28 show from Yokohama Arena is Cro Cop vs. Vanderlei Silva (which is a dumb match to make, but has possibilities of being very exciting if it goes as figured), Gilbert Yvel vs. Sam Greco (which on paper sounds like a hell of a match), Dan Henderson vs. Ricardo Arona (a top level very competitive match) and Murilo Ninja vs. Alex Steibling."

March 25, 2002:

"Willie Peeters of Holland, a regular mid-carder for RINGS for most of the 90s with a rep for being a wild and often dirty fighter, was shot earlier this month in Amsterdam. It was a professional job as the man who shot him was wearing a mask and his gun had a silencer on it. Peeters took bullets in both the arm and legs in what was believed to have been a failed assassination attempt. Peeters wrestled with RINGS throughout most of the company's history from the early 90s through his final match in 2000. He also fought numerous real fights in Holland, including appearing on a UFC-like PPV in the U.S. (the ill-fated MARS show) in 1996 losing quickly to Tom Erikson and lost to Heath Herring on June 4, 2000 in Pride.

Kiyoshi Tamura will be starting up his own promotion called U-File Camp, using guys that he's trained at his school of the same name. They'll be doing old UWF style pro wrestling, which is where Tamura likely belongs."

and

"Lots of different match-ups have been batted around for the 4/28 Pride show. Besides the ones listed last week that have been considered, it now looks like they are moving Antonio Nogueira's first heavyweight title defense to that show in Yokohama against Semmy Schiltt. There has been talk of Don Frye vs. Mark Coleman, but that may be premature because Frye's legs have taken some major punishment between tearing his thigh in pro wrestling, hurting it again against Gilbert Yvel, and having his legs ripped up by Ken Shamrock (now talk of Coleman facing Nogueira's win brother, also named Antonio (who, to avoid confusion, will probably be called Rogerio Nogueira, by his middle name, so a Coleman win would set him up for a possible title challenge). There is some talk of Dan Henderson vs. Mario Sperry, which would move Ricardo Arona to a match with Sanae Kikuta and leaving Vanderlei Silva vs. Mirko Cro Cop in a match that has no booking upside other than it may be a very good match. Other things talked about are Rodrigo Gracie vs. Ikuhisa Minowa (booking idea would be for Minowa, who is the most charismatic of the current Pancrase crew, to get a win over a Gracie on a big stage), Daijiro Matsui vs. Quinton Jackson (rematch of the match that only went seconds at the Tokyo Dome when Jackson gave him the low blow), Murilo Ninja vs. Alex Steibling and Norihisa Yamamoto vs. former WCW developmental wrestler Bob Sapp, who is a 400 pound monstrous guy."

April 1, 2002:

"On the TV version of the Pride TV show, edited down to 90 minutes on the Fuji Network, they completely eliminated by Antonio Nogueira vs. Enson Inoue match. Since the match was exciting and one of the bigger ratings draw matches on the show, it was done because of Inoue's recent conviction for assault on a reporter. On the Japanese PPV replay shows, they did air the match, but edited out Inoue's interview.

Pride President Naoto Morishita announced that they have entered the final stages of negotiations for the Vanderlei Silva vs. Mirko Cro Cop match for 4/28 at Yokohama Arena. He did say that Pancrase wanted Cro Cop vs. Ikuhisa Minowa and Sanae Kikuta vs. Royce Gracie, but Cro Cop and Gracie's people weren't agreeable to the matches. He said they are negotiating for opponents for Kikuta. Minowa appearing is questionable since he had a tough draw on 3/25 at Korakuen Hall with a karate champion, Yoshinori Momose and after the fight it was said he wasn't in his best shape going in. Another match being talked about this week is Masaaki Satake vs. Quinton Jackson

Based on people within the MMA world that I've spoken with of late, you'd be surprised at how many expect Cro Cop to win. One thing for sure, if they stand up and Silva doesn't take Cro Cop down, the odds are greatly in favor of Cro Cop knocking him out. Kazushi Sakuraba is of the belief he can beat Cro Cop (and he is a good wrestler and great with submissions once he gets a guy down. But he'd be giving up 35 pounds in such a fight and that's a lot of weight to give up against a guy who clearly has a lot of training in avoiding a takedown, and Sakuraba would get hurt bad if he couldn't take him down)

K-1's next U.S. show will be 5/3 at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas. The show has been moved from a 4,000-seat arena to a larger 6,500-seater. The last time K-1 ran the U.S. in August, they sold out a 4,000 seat building, but it was 65% paper. They will also have an 8/17 show at the Bellagio Hotel

The Pride vs. K-1 program will continue on 4/21 in Hiroshima on a K-1 show where Semmy Schiltt of Pride will face Musashi. Schiltt is one of the few Pride fighters who could be competitive under K-1 rules just because of his reach and striking ability, but he'll be facing someone with a lot more experience. This would seem to eliminate Schiltt for fighting on the 4/28 PPV as there had been talk of him facing Antonio Nogueira. They also want to do Pride vs. K-1 as a theme on the 6/2 K-1 show in Toyama

Pride will be sponsoring an IHRA race car in the Funny Car circuit drive by Rob Atchison."

April 8, 2002:

Excerpts from a longer piece:

"But the question of who is the toughest was always a bigger deal in Japan. That's what fueled the success of the first UWF in the late 1980s, which for a brief period of time was the hottest wrestling promotion in the world, and was responsible for widespread changes away from the screw-job finishes that were a staple over there. The stars of that promotion became the new mythical tough guys, none more so than Maeda and Nobuhiko Takada. Both were originally stars in New Japan that gained even more fame after leaving and doing a more realistic looking style that many fans took as the real thing. Maeda was smart enough never to risk his reputation in real combat, but Takada's popularity as a pro wrestling world champion and believed to be top-flight shooter was used as a drawing card by Pride. As much as both wrestling fans hate Takada's myth being exposed, and MMA purists hate that a fake pro wrestler was involved with Pride at a main event level, the truth is, Pride would have never existed without him. It was the intrigue that wrestling fans had over whether Takada could take Rickson Gracie that led to the two big Tokyo Dome shows which put Pride on the map as a major league promotion. Even today, Takada's reputation as an early 90s pro wrestling superstar in a world many thought was shoot makes him one of the most popular fighters and best drawing cards in Pride, even though Takada himself has yet to win his first legitimate match.

[. . .]

Which brings us to Japan. And this is a very sticky subject. Certainly New Japan got out of control over the past year. The idea of bringing in Pride prelim guys who would never win, and have them beat New Japan top stars, only served to devalue New Japan. It is not the only reason, but it is among many reasons why New Japan's popularity has dipped greatly in some ways (TV ratings not being one of them, but it can't be denied they are far less successful in building big shows).

But in looking at pro wrestlers who have done shoots and whether by their success it's a good or bad idea as a rule, you come up with very mixed answers.

It's best to look at them by example. Yoshihisa Yamamoto was a prelim guy in RINGS who rarely won. He was then put in a tournament, where he faced Rickson Gracie in the first round. Yamamoto gave Gracie a real fight, lasting 23:00 before finally being choked out. But because of the rep of Gracie, he went from being a prelim guy to a serious headliner. He ended up not faring as well in future shoot contests, but has made a name and is still around today on the Pride scene. On paper, putting a pro wrestler against Rickson Gracie sounded suicidal. In reality, it made him a star for several years.

Bam Bam Bigelow was one of the prototypical American monster heels of the late 80s in New Japan. He was, in the time frame between Bruiser Brody and Big Van Vader, the top foreigner in the company. Over the next several years, Bigelow didn't ever live up to what many people expected out of him, but he remained a name in Japan. In 1996, he was booked to headline a shoot show against Kimo, a colorful UFC star from the early days. Kimo took Bigelow down, and gave him a tremendous pounding, before choking him out in 2:15. Bigelow's monster aura in Japan was over, although it had faded before hand and can't be attributed solely due to this loss. Bigelow received about $85,000 for the match, but in the long run, may have cost him more in pro wrestling payoffs.

Kazushi Sakuraba is of course, the greatest success story and guy who proves the ultimate exception to the rule. Sakuraba was a very good pro wrestler, but at 180 pounds, was too small to be a major star. He was a good college wrestler and picked up submissions to the level of being world class. Early in his career he had a mach with Kimo, who was probably 70 pounds heavier than him. To this day, Sakuraba himself claims to not even remember if it was a work or a shoot, but he was elusive and handled himself far better in losing than expected. Sakuraba started in UFC, entering a heavyweight tournament in late 1997, that in very controversial fashion, he ended up winning, despite not being a heavyweight, by tapping out the much larger and more heralded Conan Silveira with an armbar. He was brought into Pride for the first time in 1998, largely because he was a protege of Takada. He tapped out Vernon White, a capable Lions' Den fighter, and then did the same to Carlos Newton, an even more very well respected fighter who ended up becoming a UFC champ. He was gaining some stardom, but had a disappointing draw with Allan Goes at a huge Tokyo Dome show. When he handed Vitor Belfort a one-sided loss on April 29, 1999, it shocked many in MMA with the idea that a fake pro wrestler could beat one of the sport's highest profile stars. Although it wasn't, it freaked some out to where t this day they think it was a work. By this point he was a star, and with wins over Royler, Royce, Renzo and Ryan Gracie, became a legend. He was the consensus Wrestler of the Year in Japan and will go down in Japanese pro wrestling history as a monumental figure. But even though any true evaluation shows that Sakuraba proved more in reality combat than any pro wrestler of the past 100 years, he will still never get the due that the myths who never proved it in the past will retain, because myths are so much more romantic than reality.

Naoya Ogawa competed in Pride, and never lost, and was a huge pro wrestling star, but Ogawa's success can't be used as an example of anything more than tremendous manipulation. But the success of Sakuraba proving to be a draw on the heels of Takada and Ogawa opened up Pride, Antonio Inoki, and New Japan, to start working together.

The first project was Kazuyuki Fujita, a New Japan prelim guy, who was an Olympic hopeful in amateur wrestling years earlier. Fujita was given something of an easy opponent in his first Pride match in Holland pro wrestling veteran Hans Nyman. Then, when previously unbeaten Mark Kerr, believed to have been the toughest man in the world by many at the time, gassed out against him, Fujita had himself a very legitimate win over a very legitimate name. He wound up in a Goldberg-like role in New Japan and was pushed all the way to the IWGP world heavyweight title. While not a huge ticket seller on his own in pro wrestling, his fame as a pro wrestling world champion going into Pride made him a big ticket seller for Pride, and he continued with wins over pro wrestlers Yoshihiro Takayama and Ken Shamrock in legitimate matches. His title defense against Yuji Nagata was an example of a new style of pro wrestling, combining the reality of Pride with the showmanship of New Japan, and in Japan, it was voted Match of the Year last year. Even his loss to Mirko Cro Cop on a blood stoppage in a mixed match didn't hurt his rep. What can't be argued is Fujita became a superstar in Japan across the board from his shoot wins. The former unknown prelim pro wrestler was now among the biggest TV ratings draws whether he fought in Pride, K-1 or New Japan. But his momentum slowed in December when he tore his achilles tendon. But Fujita himself recognizes that much of this was luck and as a real fighter, he's not in the league with somebody like Antonio Nogueira. Aside from perhaps a rematch with Cro Cop because of the interest it would garner, it serves no purpose for pro wrestling for Fujita from this point forward, to continue as a shooter, even though he could be used as a ticket seller.

The obvious contrast, of course, was Nagata. Nagata was arguably New Japan's best worker, just missing that one thing that would make him a bona fide drawing card. That one thing was credibility that he was also the real deal, which, from his background, he was. He was given the golden opportunity, a New Years Eve show where he could face Cro Cop to avenge the injured Fujita on what would be his most watched match of the year. Unfortunately, a major lesson was learned here. In most kickboxer vs. wrestler confrontations, the wrestler usually wins. But Nagata, a former national champion wrestler, hadn't competed in many years. He also remained wrestling a full-time schedule because he was so valuable to the company, giving him only a few weeks of training before the most important match of his life. Cro Cop was one of the top kickboxers in the world, in perfect competition shape, and had months of training to face wrestlers with previous matches against Fujita and Takada under his belt. Cro Cop destroyed him quickly, and unlike with Fujita, it was not a fluke of a cut opening while the kickboxer was laying on his back in a bad position. Nagata was badly damaged from a reputation standpoint, and hasn't recovered since. Clearly this not only hurt him, but hurt New Japan, which needed him strong in the wake of losing several key wrestlers over the next few weeks, as well.

The current IWGP world champion is Tadao Yasuda. Yasuda was a long-time prelim wrestler with New Japan, with a weird charisma. He was put in, as cannon fodder, in a shoot match with famous kickboxer Masaaki Satake. The bout was an incredible bore, with Yasuda holding Satake against the ropes most of the way, but winning a decision. At first, wrestling fans considered this cool. When Yasuda came back to New Japan, fans would pop when he would bull a guy into the corner. Yasuda then had a second match with Rene Roze, a tall kickboxer, who he was able to take down, but couldn't do anything with once he got him there, and eventually tired out and was the victim of a brutal knockout. Yasuda was expected to be destroyed when facing Jerome LeBanner, a huge name kickboxer with far more devastating knockout power. But Yasuda trained hard, dropping a lot of weight, and as it turned out, LeBanner was hopeless on the ground and Yasuda pulled off his second upset of the century. With Nagata having been knocked out and Fujita on the shelf with an injury, the decision was made to put the title on Yasuda in a tournament. Fans didn't accept that at all. Yasuda was cool as a prelim guy who represented New Japan on a big show and even saved pro wrestling to an extent, but in the ring, he was now somewhat thin, so he didn't even have that 330 pound size that made him look impressive as a strong guy. He was old, his work had declined greatly, and even though Yasuda is a world champ and scored two very high profile wins, ultimately, did he really help himself?

Several other Japanese pro wrestlers have been involved and haven't fared well, but with little damage to their reps. Taka Michinoku tried Pancrase once, losing to the late Satoshi Hasegawa. But Taka never had the rep as a tough guy, just as an entertaining Lucha Libre style guy. He was never hurt by it, and nobody gave it a second thought. Takehiro Murahama, who has done both Deep and K-1, with mixed results, most notable being a draw with Royler Gracie, probably helped his rep as a gutsy underdog who people know can hang with tough guys. Tsuyoshi Kosaka certainly helped himself going into UFC and beating Kimo, and probably didn't hurt himself in his famous Pancrase vs. RINGS battle for the UFC heavyweight title losing to Bas Rutten. But through fighting so often, Kosaka was burned out and started losing more frequently. As RINGS went down, so did he.

Ditto Kiyoshi Tamura, who was exposed in a different way, even while proven to be a great fighter. RINGS was purported as a shoot. If it was, and it wasn't at the time, there was no more exciting fighter in the world than Tamura. He was magic on the ground, but mostly, because he was doing pro wrestling within what looked to be a shooting context. Like Sakuraba, he had a tremendous talent for being able to make a worked match look real. Quite frankly, as much as people romanticize about the greats of the old days of American pro and their ability to do such, I've never seen anyone any better than Tamura at this. And for his size, he was a real tough guy, and beat some very good shooters like Jeremy Horn, Maurice Smith, Pat Miletich and Renzo Gracie, and drew with Frank Shamrock. But his incredible submission ability in a worked sense, did not transfer over to shoot matches, just as Takada's magnificent kickboxing skill in worked matches that people thought were real suddenly vanished in real combat. Eventually Tamura fought too often, was hurt too often, and lost many fights in a row, and is now done. It's funny, because Tamura is actually for his size, far more skilled than Fujita. But while Fujita became a superstar through shoots, with a little bit of luck on his side, Tamura's rep was destroyed while doing something that originally he was very skilled at.

Naoki Sano was a star pro wrestler and Jushin Liger's biggest rival in a 1990 series that, for the time (they don't hold up so well when viewed years later), had some incredible matches. Sano's career took a detour into worked shoot, and later to shoot. Sano was not a good fighter, however, and got destroyed virtually every time out, even against much smaller guys like Carlos Newton and Renzo Gracie. But it's hard to say those very poor showings have affected his career in Pro Wrestling NOAH. Yoshihiro Takayama, who had high profile losses to Fujita and Semmy Schiltt, seemed to actually gain popularity with his loss to Fujita, because it was such an exciting fight. Because NOAH isn't built on shooting as a staple, it seems its fans regard it as something different from what they do, and losses don't seem to hurt as much as they do New Japan guys, since New Japan was always built on the idea that our wrestlers were real tough guys.

Michiyoshi Ohara, who made a poor showing, doing nothing against Renzo Gracie, hasn't even been back in New Japan rings since that match and wasn't even signed to a contract this year. Daijiro Matsui, even though a Pride job guy who has lost most of his fights, is a bigger star in pro wrestling even with his losses, just from the exposure.

Ken Shamrock left pro wrestling, voluntarily, to go back to shooting. It was a decision that people in the WWF, as well as many family members, tried to talk him out of. Since coming back, he's posted a 2-2 record, with wins over Alexander Otsuka (another pro wrestler, who got something of a fluke win over Marco Ruas and also greatly upped his standing in Japan in the pro wrestling world because of it) and Sam Adkins, but losses to Fujita and the recent match with Don Frye. If Shamrock were to come back to WWF, he'd probably need a new moniker than the world's most dangerous man. As a pro wrestler in Japan, coming back and losing did hurt him to the degree that the marketability he had in 1997 when New Japan wanted to build around him, is no longer there. Ironically, even though WWF is all the rage in Japan, for Shamrock, as several in Japan noted, his drawing power in pro wrestling ended when people saw him working like a pro wrestler in WWF, ie bouncing off the ropes and doing maneuvers in photos that people know aren't real. For Ken Shamrock to draw in Japan, being a good pro wrestler was not a positive. Kurt Angle, in another venue, amateur wrestling, has talked about going for the 2004 Olympics. His situation is very similar to Shamrock. He has little to gain, and everything to lose. Anything short of a gold medal will tarnish in a pro wrestling standpoint, what he's actually accomplished. But Angle's talk after doing that amateur skirmish with Brock Lesnar several weeks back may have made him think twice, since he admitted that he was nowhere near the same wrestler that he was. Frye, with high profile wins over Gilbert Yvel, Cyril Abidi and Shamrock, only strengthened his rep when he decides to return, at least up to this point.

And then we come to the most intriguing of all, Kendo Kashin. Kashin, an amateur wrestling star who studied some submissions and did a gimmick as a submission expert in New Japan, with his specialty flying armbar. With the success of Sakuraba, Inoki tried to manipulate the same for him. He was given Ryan Gracie, considered not to be a great fighter in Brazil, but having a great name. Unfortunately, that's why they play the game. Kashin was taken down by Gracie with a double-leg, something that should have never happened, and pummeled with a furious onslaught of punches, ending it quickly. They didn't know about his hand speed, but as a later match with Sakuraba showed, Gracie was still nothing but a name, as Sakuraba got revenge for Kashin, easily handling Gracie and drawing 26,882 fans in the process. Good for Pride and not even bad for pro wrestling, but devastating for Kashin and New Japan. He was dead. The old term couldn't get heat with a blow torch applied to him. Nobody took anything he did seriously, and the promotion had little choice but to job him out. Literally, his career was at stake in a rematch and he said he'd retire if he lost. Another loss and his career would have been dead anyway. This time he trained a lot longer, and those he trained with noted that unlike others, he was the real deal. Gracie could do nothing with him the second time, and apparently injured a rib, and bowed out of the match. This was how everyone figured the first match to go. Kashin's career went the other direction. Fans took to him again, and New Japan put the IWGP jr. title on him. Unfortunately, Inoki still wanted him to shoot, and after a lackluster performance on New Years Eve (a draw that he would have won the decision in, but lackluster nonetheless), he quit New Japan, partially because he didn't want to shoot anymore.

The old-timers had it the best. They could be real without being real, and get better with age and history. Nobody could dispute because nobody saw it any differently. If there is a lesson in all of this, it is that wrestlers who already have a reputation are asking for trouble going into shooting. There is nothing to gain if people already believe their myth. In Japan, if you aren't a star and are really tough, you can become a star with a lot of ability and little bit of luck. But having luck and no ability, the people will see through because the novelty there was years ago is gone."

and

"The last Pride PPV on 2/24 appears to have done 50 percent better than the January show. Considering they had Frye vs. Shamrock and were going on the day of the event instead of a few week delay, I don't know that I'd consider that any kind of serious success. Bottom line is that they have their core audience, but it seems almost impossible at this point to expand from that core. Whole deal is that without free television to push it, and with no mainstream media that's going to take it seriously until it not only gets on television, but also gains a following on television (and there are no guarantees that getting on television will gain it a following), there aren't going to be any big improvements no matter who is on the show. Even consistently presenting great shows doesn't guarantee anything except satisfying the core fans."

and

"The Mirko Cro Cop vs. Vanderlei Silva main event was officially announced for 4/28 Pride at the Yokohama Arena. The rules will most likely be Pride vs. K-1 rules, which means five three-minute rounds. They are working toward at least modifying the rules in that if it goes all five rounds, they can at least have a decision, to avoid someone stalling for a draw. But that isn't finalized yet. Also, if it goes out of the ring, re-starts have been standing up as opposed to being put in the position they went out of the ring with. They are hopeful of getting more Pride oriented rules, since rules haven't been completely agreed on. The Pride standpoint is that since Semmy Schiltt is fighting on 4/21 under full K-1 rules on a K-1 show, than Cro Cop can fight on a Pride show using closer to Pride rules. Renzo Gracie was under the impression that he was facing Pancrase's Ikuhisa Minowa on the show, but Minowa is banged up and it looks like he won't be debuting in Pride until June. Also announced was Gilbert Yvel vs. Sam Greco, which is, on paper, a hell of a match as both are top class heavyweight kickboxers and Bob Sapp, who is about 6-6 and 400-pounds, a former NFL player who trained at the Power Plant for WCW before it folded, on this show, against Norihisa Yamamoto. Greco did some wrestling for WCW when being trained at the Power Plant and he and Sapp were both in Wildside pretty regularly. Wildside to Pride? The rest of the show based on rumors is Renzo Gracie vs. Ikuhisa Minowa (Pancrase supposedly wants this delayed until June because Minowa is pretty banged up), Sanae Kikuta vs. Ricardo Arona (very tough fight for both), either Guy Mezger or Masaaki Satake vs. Quinton Jackson and Mario Sperry vs. Dan Henderson. A lot of great bouts, but it's a real test of how over Pride itself is, because they don't have the big Japanese drawing card or chasing a dream in any of the top matches.

Josh Barnett has been talking about doing Pride, which we figured there was a good shot at. Believe it or not, Naoya Ogawa had publicly expressed interest in Barnett. Well, I'm sure under the stipulation he gets a win over the UFC heavyweight champion, he wants it, and I don't see that happening."

April 15, 2002:

"With the futures of both heavyweight champ Josh Barnett and lightweight champ Jens Pulver up in the air, UFC is becoming more reminiscent of ECW, as a company where unknowns go to make a reputation, but once it's made, end up leaving for the higher paying alternative, in this case, various Japanese groups not limited to Pride.

It's a catch-22 situation for UFC, which hasn't been profitable in many years. The reality is that just getting the PPV shows cleared on In Demand wasn't nearly enough, even with the monster live gates the company has been doing under the new ownership. President Dana White and matchmaker Joe Silva have both publicly stated that the company ultimately needs a television show in the U.S. to be successful and it appears the battle plan now is to keep costs down and survive until such a deal is made, with the idea that becomes a fresh start for the company. But the potential loss of Barnett and Pulver would just follow a long line of stars made and lost by UFC, which many say is a prime reason they failed to maintain the interest of fans from the past. The middleweight champion, Murilo Bustamante, was also given a huge offer from Deep to appear on their 3/30 show in Nagoya to face Sanae Kikuta, but because Bustamante was tied up for a few more fights on his UFC contract, he wasn't able to take the match. You can't expect fighters with a very short window of opportunity to make money to show loyalty just because the company gave them their first major exposure.

From the beginning, UFC on PPV created stars. Some, like Royce Gracie and Ken Shamrock were major drawing cards at first. Gracie disappeared when the rules changed and fighters got better, and the world caught up to him and the second Shamrock fight was his wake-up call that he was about to get beat. Shamrock left for WWF. Don Frye left for New Japan. Tank Abbott left for WCW. Mark Coleman left for Pride. And on and on it went. While UFC titles are greatly coveted in the fight world, they are considered the goal to attain to make a name, but not necessarily something to stay around and defend.

In a sense, UFC champions have become reality versions of Shawn Michaels. Frank Shamrock, its biggest star of the down period, never returned after scoring his highest profile win over Tito Ortiz. If you look at the heavyweight title since late 1997, you have Randy Couture as champ leaving over a contract dispute and fighting in Japan. The next champ, Bas Rutten, who won a very controversial decision, never fought again for UFC and was the next to vacate the title. Kevin Randleman and the returning Couture both won and lost their titles in the cage, before Barnett captured the title on 3/22.

Since that time, Barnett has been strongly rumored to be in negotiations with Pride to do what would be a mythical unification of the title match with Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. UFC does have provisions in its contract with Barnett, but in reality, won't be able to keep Barnett from taking that fight, which would force them to have to make a new champion, largely based around Ricco Rodriguez, Pedro Rizzo, Randy Couture and possibly Frank Mir, who the public will have never seen beat the real champ.

The same is true in the lightweight division. At press time, the situation with UFC and Jens Pulver is still in limbo. Pulver has received a lucrative offer from a Japanese organization, believed to be UFO, for a $50,000 guarantee, plus a bonus for winning, for a match with Royler Gracie. It appears UFO, one of the people behind it being former New Japan General Manager Katsuji Nagashima, who was recently dumped from the company, is attempting to put together the elusive Rickson Gracie vs. Naoya Ogawa match. There have been negotiations for years for such a match, with the belief that it has more box office potential than any possible match in Japan. Pulver, who was scheduled to defend his title on 7/13 in London, England against Din Thomas as the main event on that UFC show, is now in question regarding his future in the organization after early week negotiations. The original planned main event for that show, a rematch with welterweight champ Matt Hughes vs. Carlos Newton, as mentioned last week, also appears to be off the books due to Newton not wanting to be tied down contractually by UFC. Pulver was upset at earning less money than higher weight class champs like Ortiz, the company's highest paid fighter, and Couture, as well as complaining publicly about the fact he was paid less than his last three opponents.

There is apparently truth in the latter, as Caol Uno was a bigger star when they met to create for the lightweight champion. Dennis Hallman as challenger was apparently paid more then Pulver in their title match, which is harder to explain. B.J. Penn had been signed up to a lucrative deal because of the belief he'd be the next superstar in the sport and they didn't want to lose him. If Pulver were to leave, UFC could do a tournament with the top fighters in that weight class, but Penn, the favorite, would also have the monkey on his back of having lost to the "real" champ, Pulver, and the others wouldn't have beaten Pulver either.

The philosophy in UFC seems to be that nobody is really a major star in this U.S. until television, so anyone who leaves, they aren't losing a major star. Once television starts, that's when the building process beings. UFC can't afford to bid against the Japanese for the top talent without going deeply in debt. Unfortunately, the ECW position is a losing position in a world where fans ultimately only want to support the top company and everyone else is considered a loser."

and

"Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira is off the 4/28 Pride show at Yokohama Arena because they weren't able to put a title match together for him after Semmy Schiltt took the K-1 show a week earlier. At press time (you know how this goes), the card is Cro Cop vs. Silva, Bob Sapp vs. Norihisa Yamamoto, Sam Greco vs. ? (Gilbert Yvel's hands were banged up bad in his match with Bob Schreiber in Holland so Yvel's participation is questionable), Murilo Ninja vs. Mario Sperry (one of those matches insiders love because it's the Brazilian Top Team vs. Chute Boxing and each sending one of their top guys), Dan Henderson vs. Ricardo Arona (another strong insider match-up), Sanae Kikuta vs. Alexander Otsuka (not finalized), Masaaki Satake vs. Quinton Jackson and one more match."

April 22, 2002:

"With the quality of its recent shows and the praise it gets from insiders (who like Pride's looser rules and have knowledge they use bigger name fighters), Pride should be the hit UFC isn't. But the reality is nobody even knows Pride but the hardcores. The attempt to use Ken Shamrock vs. Don Frye to broaden it, which did increase buys a little. But when they sent those guys on press conferences, they got zero mainstream pub. Two of the real names of the UFC glory period, one of whom had a few years of exposure on WWF TV as a badass, but his name means nothing to speak of in getting all but the already crossed over wrestling fans to care. We are a long way, if ever, from seeing UFC clips on SportsCenter after a big show, something that is necessary for a mainstream sport to be a hit."

and

"The show talked about last week with Rickson Gracie vs. Naoya Ogawa is something being worked on but is hardly finalized. Various promoters have been working on making that match for years, ever since Ogawa's mainstream TV ratings drawing power became apparent with the Shinya Hashimoto and Masaaki Satake matches

There has been no change in the situations with Josh Barnett and Jens Pulver. Of the two, I think Barnett is more likely to leave since Pride would no doubt love to have him. With Pulver, there isn't the kind of money being thrown at him. He is getting a bigger offer for his next fight than from UFC, but it's not a solid organization and it's a one-fight offer. Both Pulver and UFC have been quiet, indicating negotiations are still ongoing. Barnett also has not said anything publicly."

and

"Don Frye suffered a slightly torn meniscus (knee) from the torque Ken Shamrock put on him in their 2/24 match."

and

"The 4/28 Pride show will not only air same day (about an 18 hour tape delay) in the U.S., but also in Canada on Viewers Choice-Canada which will be the first time cable viewers in Canada will get to see Pride on a quick turnaround. The show is just about sold out at the Yokohama Arena. On the show, the Sam Greco vs. Gilbert Yvel match is officially off, as was expected last week, due to Yvel busting up his hands in his recent match with Bob Schreiber. As it turned out, Greco was also injured. This show is interesting in that it's totally opposite from the last show. The last show, with Frye vs. Shamrock, had a marquee match for the U.S., plus in Silva vs. Tamura, had a marquee match for Japan. This show has what insiders feel will be a lot of good fights, with Cro Cop vs. Silva (which I have a feeling will be a disappointment because the war they are expecting is a war Silva probably can't win), Henderson vs. Arona (very evenly matched good fighters), Sperry vs. Ninja (ditto, but again only an insiders match). Kikuta is the only Pancrase guy on the show. They are trying to do an angle in Japan where Kikuta says he hates pro wrestling and that wrestlers don't belong in MMA so they are putting him against Otsuka, who is a pro wrestler. Seems like the idea is for Kikuta to win, to set up Sakuraba representing pro wrestling and attempt by the Sakuraba rub to get Kikuta over more mainstream. Pancrase said for various reasons their other fighters couldn't do this show but mentioned in June that more of them would. They are still looking for an opponent for Rogerio Nogueira (twin brother of the heavyweight champ). Guy Mezger is out of the running."

April 29, 2002:

"Yusuke Imamura, who is a Takada protege (don't laugh, so is Sakuraba) will be Rogerio Nogueira's opponent finishing out the 4/28 Pride show. Imamura beat Joe Son, but lost to Alex Andrade, so he should be a pretty easy win for Nogueira. Pride is attempting to lure Hidehiko Yoshida, 32, the 1992 Olympic gold medalist in judo at 172 pounds into its stable. Yoshida is retiring from judo at the end of the month. New Japan is also interested in him. My gut says we're past the point where a judo guy at that age can adapt to Vale Tudo."

Okay, that's finally it, and what a point to end on! Thanks again for reading. Let's talk again soon.