PRIDE.9（プライド・ナイン）2000年6月4日

PRIDE.9
イベント詳細
シリーズ PRIDE（ナンバーシリーズ）
主催 DSE
開催年月日2000年6月4日
開催地日本
愛知県名古屋市
会場 名古屋レインボーホール
試合数全9試合（1試合中止）
放送局スカイパーフェクTV!
入場者数 9,156人

HELLO YET AGAIN MY FRIENDS AS WE CONVENE ONCE MORE ON OUR REVISED SCHEDULE which sees us gather more often than a mere handful of times annually; I like it way better this way, I am finding, and hope it as at least somewhat agreeable to you also! It's pretty good, right! It is I think entirely obvious that we will never again achieve the unreal pace set March 2017 through June 2017, a four-month period which saw seventy-eight Fighting Network RINGS shows fall like tall grass before the sharpest scythe or let us say perhaps before the 同田貫 dо̄tanuki (unlike 拝 一刀 Ogami Ittō I don't really have one of those; that would be silly; I just have a regular 刀 katana in the basement; I'm not a weirdo) in what I have come to think of as the True RINGSblog Era. Nineteen shows in March! Twenty-two in April! Sixteen in May! Twenty-one in June! It is almost as though RINGSwriting became a daily practice as I sat (or knelt) napped upon by not, as you might expect, a then-thirteen-nearly-fourteen-year-old cat, but in fact a then-recently-born-but-now-a-seasoned-vet of a tiny human. It is very nearly as tough that were the case. It is also very nearly the case that when I see those numbers now, I see in them a resolve to work through every nook and cranny of the RINGSbox before the school year broke for the summer and The Shape of Days were about to be altered inescapably. Yes it is very nearly the case of those things I reflect, as I would ask you, the reader (my thanks to you now as always), to reflect on a different yet still related matter, and that is, how it was you chose to mark the fiftieth birthday of 高阪 剛 Kōsaka Tsuyoshi, which occurred March 6th (the patronal feast of this particular RINGSblog [other RINGSblogs are free to do as they wish]). I did not teach judo that day, but in our very next class I taught 寝技 newaza fundamentals for 六級 rokkyū (white belts) seeking to grade to the crucial rank of 五級 gokyū (yellow belts) which is to say, in addition to "basic attack and defense" (which I think is close to the wording that once appeared on the Judo Canada kyū-grade syllabus around time I set our club syllabus, an open-ended requirement I have come to interpret as basic competence in 乱取り randori plus at least one well-considered technique or movement from each of the fundamental positions of 寝技 newaza) anyway in addition to that, as I was saying, it calls for specific knowledge of several foundational 押さえ込み osaekomi [1. (n) holding down (esp. in judo); holding technique; pinning down; immobilizing; bringing under control] and escapes therefrom; and as you may have guessed I added as a final 返し kaeshi [1.(n) reversal; return] THE VERY TK SCISSORS under whose auspices we are here gathered. That I spoke too comfortable words of 高阪 剛 Kōsaka Tsuyoshi and his attainments, is, I think, quite obvious. And yet I repeat here that I so spoke. I MUST BE CRUEL ONLY TO BE KIND AS HAMLET SAID TO GERTRUDE HAHA is also something I said when talking about how in nearly every instance the correct approach to escaping nearly any 押さえ込み osaekomi is to turn into, rather than away from, the hold, but that some times you will need to turn out, but do not be confused in that you will turn out only to turn in. I clarified that Hamlet may or may not have been speaking the truth in that particular scene but that I assured them that I definitely was so far as I was able. These students are enormously patient with me, which, I am sure you have surmised long ago, is extremely necessary.   

PRIDE 9 THEN ABSOLUTELY YES with the 2000 GRAND PRIX well and truly behind us we move on to this event whose English-language subtitle reads "New Blood" and while I don't think that's any good, I also don't think it's actually notably bad or anything. NAMES NOTHING BUT NAMES HERE WE GO WITH THE NAMES THAT ARE BEING SAID ALL IN A ROW THEY ARE VITOR BELFORT RICCO RODRIGUEZ HEATH HERRING AKIRA SHOJI WILLIE PEETERS (!!!) TRY TELLIGMAN CARLOS BARRETTO NAOKI SANO CARLOS NEWTON GARY GOODRIDGE VERNON "TIGER" WHITE ALLAN GOES DAIJIRO MATSUI JOHN "THE SAINT" RENKIN GILBERT YVEL IGOR VOVCHANCHYN except they are being said as though in faux-synthesized speech, like it is neither a vocoder nor an old WOLF or whatever but instead just a guy with a little something something on the mic and a weird delivery, like Carlos Newton becomes "Car-loss New-tawn" as though he were that guy who said "Judas" non-idiomatically to Phillip Seymour-Hoffman (R.I.P.).

Our first bout sees WILLIE PEETERS (here styled "Peters") who could scarcely be better known to us, scholars of the RINGSbox as we have been, as we are, as we shall be until taken by the light, against HEATH HERRING, who has way more fights by the time of this his PRIDE FC début than I ever would have guessed: he's 13-5! What!?! Herring, who gets pretty great for a little while if we stick with him (and we will) is a Texas footballist who then started wrestling and training самозащита без оружия aka са́мбо aka sambo and then the rest is history (to us and like eight other people). Alexander Otsuka is at ringside on Japanese commentary (my copy is the debased English-language version) and I basically cannot believe how much I want to see the rest of his shirt:

NEVER MIND THE BATTLARTS HERE'S THE . . . but what; and why. The match itself is nothing, really, as Peeters, who is said to have accepted the fight on but five-days' notice, is taken down and strangled in a mere forty-eight seconds, which was just enough time for Herring to do some pretty gross stuff to Peeter's nose and face to get him raise his chin enough to slip the strangling hand through for 裸絞 hadaka-jime. Such uncouthnesses are offered the caution and guidance of 指導 shido should they occur in the context of the exquisite art and Olympic sport of 柔道 jūdō and are genuinely repellent to me but I do not make the rules here (you can tell from the hitting). If you're looking for something marginally more human, please consider the "S字式裸絞め S-Grip Hadaka-shime (S-Grip Naked choke)" from the Tetsuya Numata沼田 哲哉 Youtube channel as seen here. Great techniques and just a nice energy to those videos, man.

"I have a lot of fans in the United States because I have fought there a lot," Carlos Barreto tells us as thought it were no big, "Because tonight's show will be shown in the U.S. on Pay-Per-View, I want to do well for all my American fans." Well that's a nice sentiment! "I heard Canada is a beautiful country, although I have never been there. So I want to make a good showing for all the people there too -- I want everyone to remember my name. Enjoy!" What a nice fellow! I would contrast this with Tra Telligman (here styled "Try"), who in his pre-fight video is as arrogant and unlikable as any Lion's Den fighter, which, I have just checked to make sure, he was in fact one. It seems so weird for Ken Shamrock to have surrounded himself with a crew of jakk'd-up dip-shit meat-heads, right? As discussed in a previous PRIDE entry, with specific reference to Guy Mezger, maybe these guys are all great guys, how on Earth would I know, but the way they choose to posture and position themselves in these little videos is uniquely unlikable. Telligman, who Quadros reminds us lost his right pectoral muscle in a car accident as a toddler (he also lost his right lung, I have since learned through wikipedia), is a pretty huge guy, yet Carlos Baretto is huger still, which makes you think (about hugeness: about its absolute properties, and also its relational ones). This is pretty strange: I would have told you that Tra Telligman was a guy who was just always around, like for years, but he only ever had thirteen professional fights (plus four boxing matches), and in fact he would only fight three times after this one. I wonder what line of work he's in now? Let's search it up . . . oh man he has a Linked In! There is no greater imposition in our modern life than to be asked to join someone's professional network on linked in, as far as I am concerned, but let's see here let's see: 

Tra Telligman
Visionary Entrepreneur & Investor
Dallas/Fort Worth Area
180 connections
Tracon Ventures LTD 

Owner
Tracon Ventures LTD
2002 – Present (18 years)

Dallas/Fort Worth Area

Tra founded TRACON in early 2000.

He built the business on the same pursuit of excellence that launched his Mixed Martial Arts Fighting Career. Tra "Trauma" Telligman fought professionally for 14 years worldwide for organizations such as: UFC, PRIDE and FOX Sports.

TRACON is now a trusted relied on contractor operating multi-million dollar projects throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas. With 20 plus years in the masonry and stone business, Tra prides himself in being able deliver the highest quality workmanship at a below-market price.

Tra received his Bachelor of Business Degree from University of North Texas. 

Masonry and stone? You'll never want for work if that is your line and you are an able cræftsman. Good job then, Tra Telligman! He comes up short in this bout (good job then, Carlos Barreto!) but for sure "Both Teams Played Hard" in the words of Al from the VRTL PROS podcast, my personal favourite of the VRTL BOIZ (no diss to Mike whatsoever, I just feel like Al is magic). Curiously, Telligman is cornered by Mark Kerr, which honestly I can't even begin to figure. Perhaps Dave Meltzer will know? (Potentially great mailbag question in this time of nobody running shows [with good reason {I am not complaining}]: "This person asks," Bryan Alvarez begins, "At Pride 9, why did Mark Kerr corner Tra Telligman, who we all think of as a Lion's Den fighter?" oh man I can literally hear it now!). 

Allan Góes vs. Vernon "Tiger" White is among the most PRIDE 9 match-ups imaginable and I am pleased to be here for it. I just checked, and Allan Góes is now a 6th degree black belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu (he remains, I believe, a judo 初段 shodan but I could easily be mistaken; if he had graded again it is entirely possible, even likely, that no one would have told me). Vernon White is, as ever and always, a true gamer, but Góes has him down and flattened out beneath him in the niju-garami or half-guard position which is an enormously stable position: if uke is able to shrimp onto his or her side and, let's say, get an under-hook (even if they don't!), then this is all pretty different, but when you've got someone's shoulders -- and, more importantly, their hips (by hips here I mostly mean their bottom actually but this is a family RINGSblog) totally flat to the mat, being on top in half-guard can be every bit as stable as a true 押さえ込み osaekomi or pin, and sometimes stabler still. You may have noticed a lot of people who play a heavy "top" game in mixed fighting like to hang out in half-guard and just strike from there? And, aside from the obvious ethical objections to hitting, why not? It can be super hard to pass, even if you're Allan Góes, and so he contents himself with that position (ah but who am I to presume his heart) for several minutes. Oh okay now he is right up on top in 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame now but that I was able to carry on like that for as long as I was able gives you a sense of how long he was in half. AH HA but once 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame had been achieved, Vernon "Tiger" White (one of those names you have to say the whole name of, like my old friend Jon Hill, for example) starting hip-bumping to the extreme, got to his tummeroo, and then to his feet when Góes was unable to capitalize in the brief moment Vernon "Tiger" White's back was exposed. I feel vindicated for the way I have carried on in this one particular instance! 

In the second round, Góes has Vernon "Tiger" White down again pretty quickly, and this time gets to 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame in a hurry, but Quadros and Rutten talk about how much this position has changed in mixed fighting since say 1993, Bas is like, "the mount used to mean it was over, and now, you see, it's nothing." I would describe that as a somewhat radical interpretation of the text but as it falls broadly along the lines of what I had been arguing previously I do wish to note it. Oh dear, those are weirdly heavy shoulder strikes (to the face, to the head, to the very face of the head) from Góes, which is not a thing you see a lot of from that position, except for totally by mistake in 乱取り randori sometimes and it is like oh my goodness I am so sorry about  and your pal is like no it's okay don't worry about it. Did I tell you the story about how I had my foremost training partner fairly recently in the tie up known by some as the "Gracie gift-wrap," or the Fire Prothusiast as "cruel mount," and that when he at last broke the grip his elbow fired into my mouth super hard and although the cut in my lip was no big deal and the gums tightened up around the loosened tooth in just a few days, the tooth itself remained worryingly sensitive for like a week? But then got better? Can you bruise a tooth? I just looked it up and you can! The last time I Googled anything about teeth was probably 2003 and it was "do kittens lose teeth?", occasioned by how a little wee kitten tooth was found lodged in one of our grey cat Doris' little mouse friends (like stuffed ones). I feel like I probably told you that story before maybe (the first one I mean, not the Doris one), I'm sorry. Solid decision win for Mr. Góes, for whom Vernon White had few answers in 寝技 newaza in the second round.  

CARLOS NEWTON IS BACK and has this to say, softly: "Well, guys, it's been a long time since I have been seen in my own backyard, and, for you all, I'll put on a great show and represent my home country of Canada. I'm very proud to be Canadian, and I believe because I am Canadian I am not given the same amount of attention the American fighters are given, or the Japanese, or the Brazilian fighters, but I will be the one Canadian that makes a difference, and for that, I will represent us as a whole, and I'll make that dream come through for everyone." It is all said so mildly as to be barely discernible. His opponent, as you can see here, is 佐野直喜 Sano Naoki, known to as 佐野巧真 Sano Takuma:

When last we saw Sano, he was stopped by Satoshi Honma at PRIDE 4, but perhaps you will recall that it took Royler Gracie like half-an-hour to armbar him at PRIDE 2? As I was saying to my pals "in the chat" a little while ago, "pro wrestlers who did poorly in pride are some of my favourite ppl I've never met," which is probably not all-the-way true, but we were talking about Yoshiaki Yatsu (as one does "in the chat") and it was emotionally true in the moment, and of course "no one has ever lived in the past, no one will ever live in the future, the present is the form of all life" as the freaky Alpha 60 in the predominantly (though not exclusively [but for sure predominantly]) unwatchable Alphaville said in the one part of that movie that might be on Youtube, let me see . . . oui bien OK c'est quand Lemmy Caution est allé au Institut de Sémantique Générale and you'd think from this part that this movie is flawless but no it is pretty much just this part that is great but holy smokes is it ever great! You know what is in fact literally flawless though is Carlos Newton's warm-up attire:

And if you think I am about to pass up an opportunity to post the picture of Carlos Newton in a Mizuno Eurocomp judogi I have saved to meinen eigenen Heimcomputer (Name: Carlos Newton Mizuno Eurocomp; Item Type: JPG file), then prepare to be stunned into awe and maybe even love, who knows:

As the preceding two images attest (to?), early-PRIDE-era Carlos Newton was about as æsthetic as a mixed-fight/vale-tudo/no-holds-barred fighter was capable of being -- his look, his build, his waza, his aspect, everything. If he was times so earnest as to come off a little goofy, that was probably the worst thing you could say about him, and if it is a failing (I am not at all sure that it is) it is an entirely lovable one. I feel as though Carlos Newton, along with maybe a handful of others, but honestly probably chiefly him, misled us (me), somewhat, about what mixed fighting could be, what we might expect of it, and though I of course do not blame him for this (that would be super weird), it is something I am thinking about a little right now. I thought mixed fighting might be a place not just of Carlos Newton but perhaps of other Carlos Newtons, too, and in a limited sense it was, I suppose, to the extent that it became a place of Geroges St-Pierre, but I also feel like the vast unbridgeable gulf between Georges St-Pierre and his completely repulsive professional surroundings in the end serves to illustrate the extent to which mixed fighting was, in fact, paradoxically not a place of Carlos Newton, nor even of Georges St-Pierre, even when they were in it (though not of it). Paradox? Or dialectic? Anyway this is me once again apologizing for essentially war-profiteering off of The MMA Encyclopedia and wishing as Chaucer did at the end of the Canterbury Tales (a comparable text) that he regrets and retracts everything and seeks absolution (oh man, who doesn't?), but if it is any consolation I didn't war-profiteer all that much from it (but that PS3 didn't pay for itself in 2009, I will tell you that much; also one time our fridge quite like the same week a royalty check came). 

Bas Rutten mentions that Carlos Newton trained at his 道場 dо̄jо̄ (the Beverly Hills Jiu-Jitsu Club) for six or seven weeks, and says something, I am pretty sure, about Newton's boxing coach having been a sparring partner for Lennox Lewis (my favourite!) and Donovan "Razor" Ruddock (remember him?). He certainly looks the right size, this coach, much bigger than Newton's 5'8 1/2" and 176lbs. That's pretty neat! Also his jacket has the Toraki logo, and the first double-weave judogis I ever had were Toraki Gold (they last and last!). Naoki Sano is cornered by Kazushi Sakuraba and Nobuhiko Takada, of whose dojo he is. "Newton always in tip-top shape, with his mini dreadlocks," is a low-key weird thing for Stephen Quadros to say. Newton lands a little uppercut as the fighters clinch, flashes the major outer reap of 大外刈 osoto-gari, throws with the minor outer hook of 小外掛 kosoto-gake, enters into the strong pinning position of 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame, and finishes expertly with 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame; I mean, my god:

Let's all just go home (we are already home). 

Naoki Sano, we are told, was a late replacement for someone who turned out to have a brain tumor? I hope everything worked out for everybody. I would like to extend that hope into the present and future, as well, and say that I hope everything works out for everybody.

小路晃 SHOJI AKIRA is next and his opponent is John "The Saint" Renken, whose t-shirt says "EMPOWERED BY GOD" on it; he does not have a wikipedia page. But possibly a Fight Finder entry? Yes: Peoria, Illinois, 18 Wins, 28 Losses, and it's not like those losses are all back-loaded in a way that suggests he just stuck around too long, although of course he did stick around too long, in that he stuck around at all, and I say that in all sympathy and fellowship, because it looks like this guy took some beatings. Shoji puts Renken on his back with a slightly wild 小外掛 ko-soto-gake (minor outer hook) and, once passed into a solid 横四方固 yoko-shiho-gatame (that's the side one!), starts hitting him with his chin; come on, Akira Shoji; that's gross. Shoji comes right up on top into 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame but it really just leads to a scramble, and before you know it Shoji is up and standing as Renken beckons him down the ground which I have never found to be anything but a CHUMP move, if I may be candid with you regarding this matter. My deep and abiding love of 寝技 newaza is known to all who could ever possibly care to know such a thing (a small but cherished circle: "our gathering is small, to safeguard not its intimacy but its complexity," as Barthes wrote To The Seminar [it is super moving, I dare you to read it and be unmoved]) but I am very much of the view that if you would like to employ your ground techniques you should have some means of making that happen other than asking. Shoji, much like Carlos Newton just a minute ago, finishes with 腕挫十字固 ude-hishigi-juji-gatame from 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame, which is a really thorough way to out-græpple someone. 

Hey look, it's Ricco Rodriguez, another prominent player in The Smashing Machine. You will recall him, perhaps, as the young golden boy in that film? For whom the sky seemed the limit? Well he was still fighting in 2019, getting pounded out in Austria. Man that's not undark. Before that, he was bare-knuckle boxing in Cheyenne, Wyoming. Is that the promotion that Bas Rutten was involved with that (allegedly) never paid the fighters? A quick search suggests that I am probably thinking of the other bare-knuckle promotion, the one that ran not Cheyenne, but in fact Caspar, Wyoming. Forgive me for suggesting, however fleetingly, there was anything untoward about the bare-knuckle show that ran Cheyenne. Let us remember Ricco from better days, like for instance grappling Yoshiaki Yatsu here, winning by very tidy 飛十字固 tobi-juji-gatame, and let us move from that to how Yoshiaki Yatsu, who lost part of a leg to diabetes, has a special prosthetic with which he can actually do some low-key professional wrestling (as see here), rather than to the other recent association that comes to mind when we think of flying armbars, that horrible, catastrophic injury suffered by that poor young man in Russia while attempting one. If I have mentioned this before, it was to warn you never to watch it, and if I have not mentioned it before, then this is me warning you now never to watch it.       

AND IT HAS NOW BEEN MORE THAN A MONTH SINCE I WROTE THE PRECEDING PARAGRAPHS PLEASE FORGIVE ME BUT I ACTUALLY GOT SUPER BUSY WHICH IS HONESTLY WEIRD FOR ME but now that we are together again let us return to Pride . . . 9 I guess it was? 

As we were saying, then, it is young Ricco Rodriguez full of dreams and not yet of his own girth (man he got so full of that, in time) against Gary Goodridge who we are only ever sad about. Also is this perhaps the début of this ring announcer whose name I do not recall but whose whole mode of being no one could ever forget?

I am not sure! A quick googling after his name does not reveal it (I did not look all that hard but I will try again another time maybe!) but did reveal a thread in which Lenne Hardt (aka the Pride Lady) is discussed and obviously praised and one poster sprach thus:

"boloblack
6 years ago
Had the chance to meet her at a Pride after party. I asked her for a picture, she said - 'sure, but let me get a DRIIIIIIIIIINK FIRRRST'.. then she disappeared. Just added to the mystery."  

I wonder what all young (indeed yung) Ricco had been up to at the time of his first Pride outing here, let's learn about that together: 5-1, with a then-recent win over oh man Travis Fulton, whose current (final?) professional mixed martial arts record would appear to be 254-54-10, with one no-contest, and maybe the most astounding thing about that astounding record is that there is only the one no-contest in it. You would think there would be like a dozen, right? Like just based on how many contests? That a bunch more of them would have had to be no? I think he boxed, too . . . yes: 23-41-1. Well none of that seems like a very good idea! Neither is punching a dude directly in the groin whilst held within the 引込 hikikomi or guard position, because there is no mistaking that for anything but an egregious foul, and yet that is what we have all just witnessed from the fist of Ricco Rodriguez to the groin of Gary Goodridge (Gary Groinridge). Stephen Quadros assures us it must have been inadvertent (simply impossible), and Rodriguez himself feigns incredulity over the whole situation, but Goodridge is nevertheless like "ah dang my groin." Once they're restarted, Ricco takes Goodridge down and progresses to 縦四方固 tate-shiho-gatame as the first round, unremarkable except for how it gave me time to read about Travis Fulton for the first time in a while, draws to its end. In the second, Goodrige sprawls ably atop Ricco's long-distance double-leg attempt, but they are clinched as they come back to standing and from there it is the nifty little outside trip of 小外刈 kosoto-gari or forgive me it was more the hook of 小外掛 kosoto-gake, wasn't it, and then as Ricco gets set up on top Rutten and Quadros talk about whether it should be called half-guard or half-mount ("I guess that's makes me an optimist, and you a pessimist!" [they do not say that]). Ricco is the much more accomplished grappler, certainly, but Gary is a big strong guy and, crucially, also no fool, so no technique seems imminent at any time here, except for the technique of little punches and open-hand strikes from no distance that kind of go peet peet peet. I would want no part of any of it obviously but to Gary Goodridge these strikes are not significant; they just go peet. That Ricco is winning seems certain, but I am just as certain that this is not great. Gary "Big Daddy" Goodridge is a tough match-up for pretty much anybody, a true gatekeeper in this fighting life, as I can only assume he details in his 2011 memoir Gatekeeper: The Fighting Life of Gary "Big Daddy" Goodridge. A unanimous decision for Ricco Rodriguez is indeed the result. And then he does a little handstand into a round-off and scoops up a Pride Girl who is like "tee hee" about it but it doesn't look like he asked and she's just, like, a lady who is at work, bro, let's take it easy. 

"DAIJIRO MATSUI: Being aggressive is the biggest part of my game. But now I am learning better technique" is very much the sort of thing I like to see appear in the corner of my computer screen in a window of VLC media player as I tip-type-tap away (perhaps I have revealed too much of my method). I am forced to call into question this and all other Pride subtitles though as Matsui says a whole bunch of other things including the distinct phrase "samurai spirito" and the whole like twenty seconds gets translated as "I'll be tougher to beat." This is outrageous to me! It is very sad that he has to fight Igor Vovchanchyn now, because Igor, whom I do not blame for this exactly, is literally made of punching (we are who we are in this fallen world [I am not sure if Nature is fallen but do not rat me out, I do not need anybody coming after me for heresy right now]). Sakuraba and Takada are in Matsui's corner; that nice-seeming lady who translates for Igor (and who you will recall from The Smashing Machine!) is in his. Oh no Igor has sprawled out on Matsui and now has his back and he's just hitting him, like we are mere moments in and the crowd is like yiiiiiiiiiikes already but not in a way where it seems a finish is imminent, more like oh man this is how it's all gonna be, isn't it. Prove us wrong, Daijiro Matsui! He is for sure a gamer, we must say of this man being beaten quite terribly without any real hope. I am going to say fortunately for Matsui, a pretty nasty cut has opened up over his eye, and they might just stop it here. Nope! And when they restart them, it's not on their feet, but with Igor on his back again, oh no. Matsui manages to roll onto his back but not into a reasonable defensive position (he is held in 横四方固 yoko-shiho-gatame [the side one]). The blood is pretty wild right now, and against Matsui's sincere protest, the fight is stopped on a doctor stoppage. I am sure it does not feel this way to Matsui, but he has been granted a true blessing of the universe in that the universe has interceded on his behalf to stop Igor from punching him any more. A rare gift. 

Gilbert Yvel, less than two months after his RINGS Openweight Championship win over Kiyoshi Tamura (we have discussed this previously at some length) is here in PRIDE, telling us he would like to someday visit Canada for the excellent snowboarding and beautiful women (the rumours are true--these are things that we have). I should note that although I am for sure a Fighting Network RINGS partisan, as you may well have gleaned, I bear Gilbert Yvel no ill will for choosing to fight professionally for a different professional fighting show that offered to pay him more money to fight professionally, even if it kind of torched RINGS a little. This is the way of things. If you're going to get upset about people who fought for RINGS becoming prominent PRIDE heavyweights all of a sudden, then you're going to be upset a lot of days. Do you recall the extent to which, in that final RINGS match before Yvel jumped to PRIDE, referee Ryogaku Wada killed Kiyoshi Tamura with those stand-ups before Gilbert Yvel killed him with all of that hitting? It's a sad thing to think about and I probably shouldn't have brought it up. It is a weird feature of Fighting Network RINGS that for all it was built around the beauty of 寝技 newaza in its nearly-pure shoot-style era, the way the matches were structured and called in its nearly-pure martial arts era favoured the striker quite emphatically. If I have already noted this elsewhere in these many pages, forgive me for repeating myself but I am struck by it anew (if I had been previously [I feel like I must have been]). There is really not much to this match, I must say, as each round opens with a moment of two of nervous energy as Yvel and Vitor Belfort -- oops! I forgot to say he was fighting Vitor Belfort! -- each throw something scary and then Vitor takes him down and hangs out in guard. Where are referee Ryogaku Wada's stand-ups when you really need them, Gilbert Yvel must be thinking! Yuji Shimada, another face known well to us from RINGS, actually, is here to stand the fighters up in this instance, but it doesn't really take. Please note I am not asking for stand-ups to happen (they lead to more hitting), merely noting discrepancies in their apportionment. There are a couple more of them here, but to no real effect. On one of these stand-ups, all of Brazilian Top Team (remember them?) are livid, but there's no need, Vitor just does another takedown like *boop*. Vitor Belfort wins a decision in a match that is not at all unlike the Rodriguez/Goodridge one, really. Does this make Vitor the linear RINGS OPENWEIGHT CHAMPION? I guess so! I should track that whole lineage down sometime during a slow match or something next time maybe! 

Not a thrilling finish to this show but I remember being moved by the Carlos Newton match I watched a month ago so I can't complain one bit! I do find myself wondering, though, WHAT DAVE MELTZER MIGHT HAVE SAID CONCERNING IT:

June 12, 2000:

"The Dream Stage Entertainment Pride 9 PPV (Japan only) on 6/4 from Nagoya Rainbow Hall once again proved the axiom that when you ask the question as to who is the best fighter, the answer depends upon what the rules of the fight are.

Witness Gilbert Yvel. Yvel, who in his last fight defeated Kiyoshi Tamura, giving Tamura his worst beating of his career enroute to winning the RINGS world heavyweight championship (a title which started out as a pro wrestling version of the world title and now is actually defended in shoot matches) looked to be one of the most exciting fighters to watch due to his great kickboxing skill. In RINGS, if a fighter is taken down, if the action slows on the ground, the referee orders a stand-up. Yvel was taken down repeatedly in everyone of his major wins in RINGS, but his repeated stand-ups allowed him to eventually connect on strikes and put the hurting on his foes. Even before his main event against Vitor Belfort, the psychologically challenged Brazilian who at one point was thought to be the man who would put the sport on the map, Akira Maeda, the head of the RINGS promotion that he was the champion of before jumping one month earlier, said he had no chance to win because of the different rules which don't have as frequent stand-ups.

The analysis was right on. Belfort was able to use his superior grappling background to take Yvel down, negate his kickboxing skills, and use ground-and-pound to win a 20:00 decision before a crowd of approximately 6,000 paid (announced as 9,156). Either way, this was considered attendance figure considering the high ticket prices and that there was no Japanese name fighter on the show.

The biggest news on the show wasn't the fights themselves, but DSE President Naohito Morishita announcing a business tie-in with Antonio Inoki, which means more pro wrestlers on the future shows. This is both good for business and bad for purists and credibility. Unlike in the United States, the entire pro wrestling industry has changed greatly due to the many high profile shoot shows. Not only have predominately worked pro wrestling organizations (RINGS) gone from mostly works, to 50/50, to pure shoots, but for big shows for New Japan, they need a shoot aura which the January 4, 1999 Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoya Ogawa match gave them to draw big crowds and large TV ratings. The success on TV of not only Hashimoto vs. Ogawa in April, but later the 5/1 Pride show and the 5/26 Rickson Gracie vs. Masakatsu Funaki when it comes to ratings, tells the story of what interests the general public today as it pertains to the pro wrestling industry, and make no mistake about it, in Japan, these ratings and these crowds come largely from fans of pro wrestling. What many feared in 1995, when UFC was gaining popularity while pro wrestling was in a major slump, that fake wrestling couldn't compete with real fighting, which turned out not to be the case as Americans for the most part never cared about the real vs. fake issue as it pertained to pro wrestling in the first place, something promoters finally realized and led to the current boom, in Japan, it is a different story. The two phases are drawn together. The real fights need pro wrestling personalities to draw the large crowds and TV ratings because they are supported largely by wrestling fans. But the pro wrestling also needs to adapt more toward making its big matches have a shoot aura, because fans who can see the real thing, have become more interested in it than the routine well worked pro wrestling match.

Most of this show was designed more to build up 8/27, when Pride runs at the 52,000-seat Seibu Dome in Tokorozawa, a city a few hours outside of Tokyo. Through the help of Inoki, they are attempting to put together a match with Tokimitsu Ishizawa (New Japan's Kendo Ka Shin who came out without his mask) against Renzo Gracie. Ishizawa, a former national champion in wrestling who those who have trained with him say is great with submissions and his pro wrestling gimmick is being the submission master. There is also going to be an attempt as a ticket seller to get Shinya Hashimoto on the show, which if they can get him in a worked match against a name opponent it would be a huge draw. They set up a spot where Gracie went to shake Ishizawa's hand, but Ishizawa at first refused to build heat, but finally did. It appears the main event will be Ken Shamrock facing either Kazuyuki Fujita or Mark Coleman, and that the rest of the top Pride stars such as Mark Kerr, Kazushi Sakuraba, Igor Vovchanchyn and Gary Goodridge would all appear.

There was a tragedy before the first match, and the card consisted more hyping the next show above matches, that were said to be overall disappointing in the ring, with the domination of the better wrestlers in matches that went the time limit.

Before the first match began, Brazilian Johil de Oliviera was badly burned by the pyrotechnics. According to a post by Brazilian promoter Sergio Batarelli, as the two of them along with Joao Ricardo were in the entrance tunnel, a flame was lit and de Oliviera was badly burned. He ended up with second degree burns over 40 percent of his body and will be hospitalized for two or three weeks. The burns were not life threatening and it is believed he'll be able to fight again. Obviously, his match with Matt Serra, a protege of Renzo Gracie in New York, was canceled.

1. Heath Herring defeated Willie Peeters in 48 seconds with a choke. Herring, who started his career with Steve Nelson's USWF, took Peeters, a RINGS veteran, down, got his back and the choke in quick fashion. Peeters had only three days notice, taking this match as a replacement for Marcelo Tiger, who pulled out.

2. Carlos Baretto of Brazil won a 20:00 decision over Tra Telligman of Lions Den. Baretto was able to take Telligman down and dominate the positioning enroute to the decision. After the match, Baretto issued a challenge to Ken Shamrock.

3. Allan Goes won a 20:00 decision over Vernon White, the former Lions Den fighter and Pancrase veteran. Goes dominated positioning on the ground enroute to winning the decision, and then challenged Kazushi Sakuraba (the two went to a 30:00 draw previously).

4. Carlos Newton of Canada submitted much larger pro wrestler Naoki Sano in just 40 seconds with an armbar. Sano replaced stablemate Minoru Toyonaga, 21, who in a pre-fight physical two days earlier was found to have a brain tumor which is apparently going to end his career as well as a pro wrestler. Sano has the rare dual distinction of competing in both the Pride event and the Super J Cup within a two month period. Sano has never looked good in shoots and this was no exception.

5. Akira Shoji submitted John Renken in 6:42 with an armbar. Renken was brought in largely because he was the opponent that lost in Masakatsu Funaki's first Vale Tudo rules match. Shoji dominated the match.

6. Ricco Rodriguez, the training partner of Mark Kerr (who seconded both Rodriguez as well as Telligman), dominated the ground game in winning a 20:00 decision over Canadian Gary Goodridge. Rodriguez was said to have major star crowd charisma and a good look. Rodriguez was able to take Goodridge down and win the decision based on positioning. Most reports labeled the fight as boring.

7. Igor Vovchanchyn defeated former pro wrestler Daijiro Matsui of the Takada dojo in 5:03 when the match was stopped by the doctor due to blood. Vovchanchyn got his back and started punching. Matsui bled a lot. The doctor checked the cut once and allowed the match to continue, but the second time, he stopped it.

8. Belfort beat Yvel via decision after 20:00. Belfort was able to deck Yvel and then got the top position, mainly doing ground-and-pound while caught in the guard during the first 10:00 round. Belfort took Yvel down twice more in the second round. Yvel got very little offense in and bled heavily from a cut over his right eye.


Sakuraba, Fujita and Alexander Otsuka all did color commentary. Renzo Gracie during intermission also challenged Sakuraba for family revenge. Fujita did an interview where he asked the crowd if they'd like to see him against Shamrock which the crowd popped for."

and

"At the show in Kameoka, which was the day after the Pride show in Nagoya, the press asked Ka Shin about the Pride Seibu Dome show. He pretended that he wasn't Tokimitsu Ishizawa and claimed he was playing Pachinko all day the previous day with El Samurai and Nagata in Osaka and they all went out afterwards drinking beer."

and

"Pride announced that they would attempt to put together a Rickson Gracie vs. Kazushi Sakuraba match while Yuki Kondo talked about facing Gracie as well. There was a lot of mainstream press regard to both of these challenges. The reality is that while Sakuraba or Kondo may give him tougher matches and have proven themselves, they still aren't Dome level ticket selling names which is the unfortunate reality. The biggest name for box office would be Naoya Ogawa, but Antonio Inoki isn't about to put Ogawa in there if he's not in control of the situation because they are basically trying to mold him into the new Inoki as Japan's wrestling hero. Funaki's retirement was covered as the lead sports story on the Nippon TV network news on 5/27 which is the most respected newscast in the country. However, in the story, they claimed Funaki had lost to Gracie, who has a 450-0 record. One of the reasons the crowd appeared small at the Tokyo Dome was because it was a total one-match show, so the high-roller types, like at a boxing match in the U.S., who didn't care about the undercard, arrived late. There are reports the show may have legitimately drawn 30,000 paid, which is quite frankly along the lines of what the Pride Grand Prix tournament drew. The reality of martial arts is that a dream match between two mainstream names who are probably no longer top-shelf fighters outdrew the biggest card in history from a realistic name value perspective featuring the toughest tournament ever held."

June 19, 2000:

"After the tour ended at the Osaka show, Kendo Ka Shin was asked about fighting in Pride and he's still going with the storyline that he wasn't even in Nagoya that day (when he, without his mask at Tokimitsu Ishizawa, shook hands with Renzo Gracie) and was gambling on the horses in Osaka. However, on the 6/7 house show in Imabari, after Ka Shin lost and was knocked out of contention for winning the tournament by Otani, Otani shook hands with him after and told him over the p.a. to do his best representing New Japan in Pride."

June 26, 2000:

DAVE

GETS

TAPE:

"JAPANESE TELEVISION RUNDOWN

6/4 DREAM STAGE ENTERTAINMENT: This was the Pride PPV show, which airs in the U.S. on DirecTV on 7/1. Unless you're someone who needs to watch every MMA PPV show, this isn't one worth going out of the way to see. It was definitely a thumbs down show. It was better than the last UFC, but there really weren't any good matches. The best in my book was Carlos Baretto vs. Tra Telligman, but that wasn't a good spectator match, but you could see it was a hard struggle. The main event looked great on paper, but when you have a match with two great stand-up fighters and virtually the entire match takes place on the ground, it shows there are no guarantees in this sport. After the music played for the first match, which never took place because Johil de Oliveira was burned by the pyro, they had a delay and went to the planned second match. 1. Heath Herring (245.7, United States) beat Willie Peeters (214.9, Holland) in 48 seconds when Herring took him down and choked him out. Peeters was a late replacement, who didn't get the word he was fighting until three days before hand so he was basically in a jobber role. Not much to this one; 2. Carlos Baretto (237.4, Brazil) won a decision in 20:00 over Tra Telligman (225.9, United States). This wasn't a great spectator match, but it was interesting to watch. Baretto kept going for takedowns and Telligman kept sprawling and avoiding them. Telligman still couldn't do any damage standing. Baretto finally got him down in the guard about 7:00 in and threw some short punches, but Telligman probably threw just as much from the bottom. Baretto probably won the round barely just because he was more aggressive, but it was very even. In the second round, Baretto rushed at Telligman and took him down. Baretto got some punches in before Telligman got away. Both guys were tired standing and Telligman still did no damage before Baretto took him down one more time and scored a little at the end. Baretto had to win, but it was very close and one flurry at any time by Telligman would have made it a hard decision; 3. Allan Goes (207.5, Brazil) beat Vernon White (197.3, United States) via decision in 20:00. Goes won this with superior grappling. He took White down quickly and kept his position. He got a full mount and mainly worked the ribs. White escaped at 8:30 but Goes quickly took him down again. In the second round, Goes took him down and got a mount. Goes used a unique tactic and thrusting his shoulder into White's face, almost like a punch, but in doing so kept both hands to keep White in position. White escaped but was quickly taken down again and Goes threw more shoulders. Goes hit White with a flurry in the last 15 seconds to clinch the decision in a dull match; 4. Carlos Newton (179.5, Canada) beat Naoki Sano (206.6, Japan) in 40 seconds when the smaller Newton took Sano down, quickly got a mount and rolled into an armbar. Before the match, Minoru Toyonaga, Newton's original opponent, made his speech about having to retire due to a brain tumor. Sano has never looked good in a shoot with adequate training time, so even though he had the big size edge, taking the fight with only a few days notice he realistically had no chance; 5. Akira Shoji (209.9, Japan) defeated John Renken (179.5, United States) in 6:44. Realistically this was only a battle to see if Shoji could beat Renken, whose only credential in Japan is that he was the loser in Masakatsu Funaki's first Vale Tudo rules match, quicker than Funaki did. He didn't. Shoji took him down, got a side mount, then a full mount and missed with the armbar. Shoji took him down again, went through the same steps and this time got the armbar. It was a mismatch and not very exciting. The most exciting thing about it was Shoji doing a backflip after running; 6. Ricco Rodriguez (239.8, United States) beat Gary Goodridge (232.5, Canada) by decision in 20:00. This was similar to the Baretto-Telligman match. In the first round, Goodridge was able to block Rodriguez' shot, but never could get a good punch off. Rodriguez finally took him down at 3:50. Goodridge got out and was able to stave off Rodriguez' attempts to take him down. On another attempt, Goodridge nearly got a guillotine but Rodriguez powered out and took him down and got the mount to end the round, but did no real damage. In the second round, Rodriguez went for a takedown, Goodridge at first blocked it with a guillotine but Rodriguez powered him down in 50 seconds. Rodriguez was more aggressive on top, slapping his ears and getting a lot of punches to the body in. He kept the top position and kept scoring with body punches till the end. Kind of boring; 7. Igor Vovchanchin (234.5, Ukraine) beat Daijiro Matsui (196.2, Japan). This was an on paper mismatch both in terms of ability and size. Matsui went for a takedown, but Vovchanchin blocked it and got behind Matsui in an amateur wrestling down position. Vovchanchin threw his hard punches to the ear and eye, and kept pounding on him. Matsui was soon bleeding from above the right eye, and when it got bad enough and the cut was deep and Matsui's face was the proverbial crimson mask, the match was stopped; 8. Vitor Belfort (198.4, Brazil) defeated Gilbert Yvel (227.7, Holland) via decision in 20:00. It was a great open with Belfort decking Yvel with a left. Belfort was on top in the guard the rest of the round, doing the ground-and-pound. He got some distance and fired in a punch that split Yvel's right eye open at 2:40 and worked the body and head in combinations from the top until the end of the round. He got a good flurry in late where he got distance. Belfort's punches have more zing than virtually any MMA fighter because of his boxing background. Second round saw Belfort take no chances and take him down. He worked the ribs. The ref ordered a stand-up in a desperate attempt to save the show with a good main event. Belfort took Yvel right down again and worked the ribs. Quickly, the ref ordered another stand-up, which was absurd since Belfort was hardly stalling and continually working from the top. He was mad. It was a bad call from a fairness standpoint, but I can understand the bad call as the ref felt he needed to save the show. Belfort took Yvel down immediately and kept busy until the end of the fight. A big disappointment considering what was figured to come out of this fight. Belfort, if he can get his head together, is going to be very tough to beat because his boxing skill is better than almost everyone, and he's good at takedowns and blocking takedowns. His strategy here was to avoid Yvel's strength, so he didn't play his own strength because he knew Yvel had nothing on the ground. It really exposed Yvel in that he had a 30-pound weight edge and could do nothing on offense and probably puts Belfort back in contention in the under-200 division. However, in his biggest wins in RINGS over Kohsaka and Tamura, under these rules, the same thing would have happened as they were able to take him down at will, but after enough stand-ups, he was able to rock their world and eventually hammer both of them."

and

"Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Kendo Ka Shin) will be doing a training camp with Kazuyuki Fujita under Antonio Inoki for the 8/27 Pride show. To continue with the angle, Fujinami is saying that Ka Shin has a New Japan contract and will not be allowed to go to Pride. This is basically an Inoki vs. Fujinami storyline angle to keep the New Japan vs. UFO thing alive. PPV is in its infancy in Japan as there are only about one million homes with PPV capability as opposed to about 38 million in the United States and Canada. Most of the minor PPV events, such as the smaller companies like Pancrase or FMW, or WCW (which is the only American company whose PPV shows air in Japan as WWF has never had a deal and ECW had a deal but lost it relatively quickly) do less than 5,000 buys. Supposedly the record was one of the Pride shows (I'd presume either January or May) at 50,000 buys, which is actually a 5.0 buy rate. In the infancy of PPV, the first Rickson Gracie vs. Nobuhiko Takada did an 8.0 buy rate, but like in the U.S., the buy rates are much higher when PPV is a novelty than when it becomes a mature business. The negative on Choshu vs. Onita as a first PPV is that even though it's a dream match-up of celebrities and will draw mainstream curiosity buys with Choshu coming out of retirement after two-and-a-half years, the match is almost guaranteed to be a huge disappointment and that may not be the taste you'd want to leave on the first PPV show

Inoki is doing an angle where he's asked Naoya Ogawa to vacate the NWA title. Ogawa on 6/19 announced that he would vacate the title to train for a match with Rickson Gracie, which has yet to be officially announced but it is probably going to be looked at for next spring. There are many people, including those who have fought Masakatsu Funaki in the past, who watching the match feel he did the job at the end because of how little resistance he gave once they went to the ground. There was no logical reason at the time why Funaki would do the job, since why retire in that manner because that match really erased a lot of what he legitimately had accomplished in his career? If it was to build as a stepping stone to heat up a bigger match, and there is the pro wrestling tradition as witnessed by Mick Foley and Terry Funk of the noble thing to do is do a job in your last match to build up the people who have to carry on in the business, Ogawa has been promoted as Japan's national symbol tough guy pro wrestler. Since Ogawa has no legitimate losses on his record (and how could he when he's never been put in a position for it to happen) and he's got heavyweight size, he and Rickson could be a huge stadium match for Japanese national pride if and when it can be arranged. At least this would give some sort of an explanation for what isn't easily explainable. Another explanation could simply be that Funaki physically had nothing left since Funaki the fighter after 1998 was a totally different fighter for the most part anyway

Inoki has also talked about wanting to train Tadao Yasuda, who is New Japan's biggest wrestler at about 6-5 and 330 pounds, for Pride. Yasuda, a former sumo star, but long since retired from competitive sports, is 36."

and

"In Canada, WEF and the Pride shows did similar numbers. Pride actually did more buys, although WEF grossed more money due to a higher show price. Neither show in Canada did as well as UFC, since it's the name brand, and none of the shows in Canada did nearly as well as ECW or WCW. The only figure we got from DirecTV in the United States on Pride is that it did about an 0.26 buy rate, which is good for a taped show. That's a better figure than ECW and WCW do overall, but people with dishes, just by the nature of them having dishes, buy PPV events at far above the average rate than people who own cable do, so a dish only buy rate will be higher than an overall buy rate."

July 10, 2000:

"Pride President Naoto Morishita was at the 7/1 [All-Japan] show and talked about wanting to use both Williams and Barton (Bart Gunn) on his shows. It's a bad idea for them. Williams was an awesome high school and college wrestler, but it's been 17 years since he's been in a competitive wrestling match and he's 39 years old and been through the body destroying wars of All Japan seemingly forever. Barton outboxed a bunch of guys with no boxing experience in the WWF Brawl for All, and he has good size and won some Tough Man type contests when he was younger, but that's totally different level of primitive tough man to the highest level of NHB fighting against world class heavyweights. Not that there aren't guys on the scene they probably couldn't beat if they trained for this sort of thing, but not the top level guys. Williams on a Pride show would garner a lot of interest because of his years as a major pro wrestling star. Barton on an MMA show wouldn't mean much of anything. Morishita announced he wanted Inoki, Kawada, Fujinami and Misawa all at ringside for the Seibu Dome show on 8/27 and that he would attend Misawa's debut show on 8/5."

and

"They are doing a big angle where Tatsumi Fujinami doesn't want Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Kendo Ka Shin) to do the 8/27 Pride show at the Seibu Dome (presumably against Renzo Gracie since it drew huge media attention when they teased that match at the 6/4 DSE card) while Antonio Inoki does, as something of an inner power struggle."

July 17, 2000:

"The biggest show of the past week was 7/9 in Hirosaki, which is Kendo Ka Shin's home town, and he and one of his friends promoted the show and drew a sellout 4,500. They brought in Great Sasuke & Gran Hamada from Michinoku Pro to face Ka Shin & Liger and put them in the semifinal with Ka Shin using the armbar submission on Sasuke. Kazuyuki Fujita was at the show saying he'd be representing New Japan at the Pride show at the Seibu Dome and said he was looking forward to Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Ka Shin's real name) doing the same at the show. Fans chanted Ishizawa."

and

"Alexander Otsuka is out for two months with a problem with his left ear. He's out for several All Japan dates as well as the 8/27 Seibu Dome Pride event that he was booked on. The plan was for Otsuka to change his ring name, at least for one night, to Alex Warrior as The Road Warriors will be coming to Battlarts from 9/23 to 10/1 and Otsuka was going to team with them, but this may not happen due to the injury."

and

"At this point the only match we know for the 8/27 Seibu Dome Pride show is Ken Shamrock vs. Kazuyuki Fujita. Fujita is a former national champion heavyweight wrestler. Shamrock is very strong with a good ability to avoid takedowns (in all his MMA matches, he was never really taken down, although he was reversed while on top by Kimo and Dan Severn). On their feet, Shamrock should be too quick and versatile for Fujita, unless Fujita has improved one hell of a lot in a short period of time. I'd expect Fujita will have a good 30-pound weight edge."

July 24, 2000:

"Top matches for the Pride 10 show at the Seibu Dome are Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Ken Shamrock, Enson Inoue vs. Igor Vovchanchin, Gilbert Yvel vs. Gary Goodridge and Mark Kerr vs. Borisov Igor (a Russian Sambo champion with striking ability who had an impressive win on a Satoru Sayama Ultimate Boxing show in June). They are still working on opponents for Kazushi Sakuraba, Masaaki Satake, Mark Coleman (rumored to be Ricco Rodrigues, who would be a quality opponent for Coleman but it's not a money drawing match for the world champion) and Vitor Belfort. Tickets range from $950 down to $67, with most seats priced at $125. At those prices, this isn't a very attractive marquee line-up. They are trying to put together Guy Mezger vs. Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Kendo Ka Shin) and Sakuraba vs. Renzo Gracie (who is probably the best of the Gracies as far as consistently taking on quality fighters) as the money matches, with the idea of seeing two New Japan pro wrestlers (Fujita being the other) face name fighters and another Gracie gunning for Sakuraba. If that doesn't materialize, because they're in a 60,000-seat stadium, they may have to pull Takada out. Yvel-Goodridge is probably another attempt to have a great stand-up war with Yvel, who is a really exciting stand-up fighter, that didn't materialize when Belfort kept taking him down. If Goodridge is smart, he'll employ the same strategy. Vovchanchin-Inoue is a match-up of two guys with good credentials, and Vovchanchin doesn't have the wrestling ability to neutralize Inoue like Kerr did."

and

"Coliseum 2001 next May is looking at putting together Rickson Gracie against either Naoya Ogawa or Yuki Kondo, although the latter wouldn't have stadium drawing power. Pride promoter Naoto Morishita also talked about wanting to sign Gracie vs. Ogawa, which on paper looks to be the biggest money and TV ratings match possible in Japan next year in either pro wrestling or MMA."

July 31, 2000:

"Dream Stage Entertainment officially announced three more matches for its 8/27 Seibu Dome show, Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Renzo Gracie, Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Kendo Ka Shin) vs. Ryan Gracie and Vitor Belfort vs. Daijiro Matsui at a press conference on 7/24. They also announced singles matches with no opponents for Mark Coleman and Masaaki Satake. The Sakuraba match at least has a storyline since he's beaten Royler and Royce Gracie and now faces Renzo, who has never lost in Pride although lost via decision to Kiyoshi Tamura earlier this year in RINGS. A few hours before the DSE press conference, New Japan's Tatsumi Fujinami announced that Ka Shin would fight at the Seibu Dome but said it would be a one time appearance. Ryan Gracie is something of a black sheep in the family due to his recent legal entanglements and has never fought professionally. Ishizawa, who will be 32 when the fight comes up, was a former national champion wrestler and a 1992 Olympic hopeful before joining New Japan in 1993. He is well known among wrestlers for being great with submissions, and has trained in Brazil and does a submission gimmick in pro wrestling. New Japan is risking a lot here because his striking experience is likely lacking and submissions are less prevalent these days as the fighters are better schooled but one would think Ishizawa should be able to handle him as far as basic wrestling goes. Matsui is clearly a guy to give Belfort another impressive win to hopefully set him up for a money fight. The show has some interesting matches, but it seems terribly weak for a show that is in a domed stadium."

August 7, 2000:

"The biggest PPV event in the history of Japan was the 5/1 Pride show headlined by Royce Gracie vs. Kazushi Sakuraba, which legitimately did 40,000 buys, which would at the time would have been about a 2.0 rate."

and

"Former K-1 star Masaaki Satake showed up at a press conference on 7/28 with Inoki, Kazuyuki Fujita and Tokimitsu Ishizawa talking about the Pride 8/27 Seibu Dome show and Satake issued a challenge to both Tadao Yasuda and Shinya Hashimoto for DSE."

August 14, 2000:

"While smaller promotions, as well as both WCW and ECW, have run their PPV events in Japan with limited results, the merging of the Japanese version of DirecTV with Sky PerfecTV led to the total universe hitting 2.2 million. The 5/1 Pride show featuring the one night tournament and the legendary Royce Gracie vs. Kazushi Sakuraba match holds the record drawing 48,000 buys (2.2 buy rate), which is still less than the lowest American PPVs (which have a universe of 40 million homes) but is a lot more than the 3,000 to 5,000 the smaller wrestling groups had drawn even last year."

and

"Yasuda did an interview saying that he wanted a match with Masaaki Satake, which may take place either at the Pride show on 8/27 at the Seibu Dome or at the New Japan 10/9 Tokyo Dome."

August 21, 2000:

" 9/13 in Sendai will have Takaiwa vs. Ka Shin for the IWGP jr. title, which may be booked as a way for Ka Shin to get his heat back so to speak in case he doesn't fare well on the Pride show at the Seibu Dome in what is expected to be a shoot match against Ryan Gracie."

and

"Three more matches added to the 8/27 Pride show at the Seibu Dome are Vanderlei Silva vs. Guy Mezger, Ricco Rodriguez vs. Giant Ochiachi, who fought at the last Seikendo show and sounds like a bad gimmick fighter for Rodriguez to squash; and Masaaki Satake, the former K-1 star, against Kazunari Murakami, who worked as Naoya Ogawa's partner in New Japan. I don't know how to handicap that latter match except that if Murakami can't get Satake off his feet, he's in a lot of trouble. Murakami was a name from the early years of the sport in the United States. He did knock out Bart Vale in the old Extreme Fighting promotion many years ago, but was then knocked out by Maurice Smith in one of the most devastating finishes ever when challenging for the old EFC heavyweight title. DSE has invited Tatsumi Fujinami, Motoko Baba, Mitsuharu Misawa, Toshiaki Kawada, Masa Fuchi, Kazuyoshi Ishii (K-1 President) and Satoru Sayama to sit in VIP ringside seats for the show, probably in great part as a grandstand attempt to boost attendance from pro wrestling and K-1 fans. They announced that Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Renzo Gracie would be in the main event position and that Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Kendo Ka Shin) vs. Ryan Gracie would be second from the top, so Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Ken Shamrock would be third from the top. Naoya Ogawa will second Murakami in his match and Nobuhiko Takada will second Sakuraba."
August 28, 2000:

"PRO WRESTLING NOAH: Masahito Kakihara surprisingly quit the promotion after doing an angle with Yoshinari Ogawa on the debut show. There are reports that Kakihara will go into shooting, either with RINGS, Pancrase or Pride, which doesn't make much sense because he can do a lot better in pro wrestling doing a shooter gimmick than as a small guy actually having to shoot. Kakihara was originally from UWFI which included both Kiyoshi Tamura and Kazushi Sakuraba who have done very well in shoots, and he does have fast hands for a pro wrestler and submission background, but the size will work against him."

and

"New Japan's Don Frye and Brian Johnston were giving last week training to Kazuyuki Fujita, Tokimitsu Ishizawa and Sakuraba for the 8/27 Seibu Dome Pride show for their respective top three matches on the show against Ken Shamrock, Ryan Gracie and Renzo Gracie respectively

In what sounds like a pro wrestling freak show angle, Kazuyoshi Ishii, the K-1 promoter, claims to have found a German giant from prison who is 6-10 1/2 and 330 pounds who is 22 years old and will debut on the 12/10 K-1 Tokyo Dome show as a masked man. Ishii said that he wanted to bring the man to the upcoming Pride and New Japan Tokyo Dome shows for a challenge to Fujita."
   
HOLY MOLY THAT WAS AN AWFUL LOT FROM OLD OBSERVERS with perhaps a surprising amount of it focused on Kendo Kashin but with all that behind us, we are now exceedingly well-positioned to encounter PRIDE.10（プライド・テン）, a famously good one, and for sure the first Pride VHS tape I rented from the peerless Suspect Video in Mirvish Village in Toronto several full lifetimes ago. I am eager to get to it! Thank you all once again for your attention to these matters. Let's talk more soon!