イベント詳細
シリーズ PRIDE（ナンバーシリーズ）
主催 DSE
開催年月日2001年3月25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5時
試合数全8試合
放送局フジテレビ（地上波）
入場者数 20,600人
"WHEN YOU HAVE DEVELOPED A RESOLUTE MIND IN THIS WAY [having cultivated the faculty of great faith] YOU CAN MAKE GREAT VOWS, vowing never to give up until you attain penetrating insight into essential nature; vowing to remain sunk forever rather than entertain a single thought of retreat; vowing to go to hell rather than be deluded by popular teachings and rather than accept visionary states and thus fall into the views of the two vehicles or outsiders; vowing to carry out the acts of bodhisattvas forever once insight into essential nature is penetrating; vowing not to give up without understanding each and every one of the verbal teachings of Buddhas and Masters; vowing not to give up without penetrating progressive transcendence; vowing not to give up without equaling the Buddhas and Masters in power and application; vowing not to develop a lowly mentality and disgrace the way of the school; vowing not to be insincere and crave human sentiment; vowing to produce one or two genuine successors to perpetuate the way of the school to thank the Buddhas and Masters, to practice the acts of bodhisattvas lifetime after lifetime, generation to generation, ultimately to liberate all living beings" is the excerpt from The Undying Lamp of Zen: The Testament of Zen Master Torei (in translation by the venerable Thomas Cleary) concerning resolution and vows I would ask you to perhaps reflect upon (if you are so inclined; it seems good) as we say さようなら sayōnara to the year 2000 and welcome in 2001 with a spirited and yet low-key mournful 明けましておめでとうございますakemashiteomedetōgozaimasu, which is always the way as the new year begins, isn't it? (If only there were a Japanese phrase to express this "sadness of things" . . . ).
Let us welcome it, too, with a selection of classic haiku on this subject of 元日 ganjitsu/gwanjitsu, New Year's Day, which I offer in my own translation (in all humility):
[1]
元日の 見るものにせむ 富士の山
宗鑑
Gwanjitsu no
Miru-mono ni sen
Fuji-no-yama
New Year's day--
let's look at
Mount Fuji
Sōkan
[14]
元日や 思へば淋し 秋の暮
芭蕉
Gwanjitsu ya
Omoeba sabishi
Aki no kure
New Year's day--
consider lonely
autumn twilight
Bashō
[173]
元日や 晴れて雀の 物がたり
嵐雪
Gwanjitsu ya
Harete suzume no
Monogatari
New Year's day--
the sky clears, sparrows
tell tales
Ransetsu
[197]
元日や 家にゆずりの 太刀帯ん
去来
Gwanjitsu ya
Ie ni yuzuri no
Tachi hakan
New Year's day --
I'll wear the sword
of my house
Kyorai
[325]
元日や 雪を踏む人 憎からす
也有
Gwanjitsu ya
Yuki wo fumu hito
Nikukarazu
on New Year's day
I don't even hate
snow-tramplers
Yayū
[354]
元日や 昨日の鬼が 禮に來る
無名氏
Gwanjitsu ya
Kinō no oni ga
Rei ni kuru
New Year's day --
yesterday's ghost
comes calling
(mumeishi/anonymous)
[850]
元日の 俳句を思う 富貴かな
月斗
Gwanjitsu no
Haiku wo omō
Fūki kana
New Year's Day
I think about haiku
and my riches
Getto
[857]
元日の 雪に明けあけたる 静かかな
青峰
Gwanjitsu no
Yuki ni ake taru
Shizuka kana
how quiet
the dawn upon
New Year's snow
Seihō
[932]
元日の 心ぞ神に 近からん
和風
Gwanjitsu no
Kokoro zo kami ni
Chikakaran
on New Year's Day
my mind, my heart,
are near the gods
Wafū
[935]
元日を 地球が廻る 元日も
和風
Gwanjitsu wo
Chikyū-ga mawaru
Gwanjitsu mo
on New Year's Day,
even on New Year's Day,
the world turns
Wafū
That these translations are from @haikuanthology twitter account will perhaps not surprise longtime readers (thank you so much), nor yet that my complete translation, such as it is, of Asatarō Miyamori's 1932 Anthology of Haiku Ancient and Modern (a true unreal tome [幻の名著]) is available at that same address (and also just here). We're having quite a time over there! No we're onto the complete Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉)! Less than a thousand to go!
Such is the tender might of poesy's viewless wings that I have actually given myself a bit of a New Year's feeling right now even if in the primary world of our experience it is more like (indeed very much more like) the middle of June (but there you go; there's poems for you) and the blossoms (花 hana) of our little cherry tree (桜 sakura) in the yard have already come and gone (talk about your 物の哀れ mono no aware!).
AND SO HERE BEGINS IN PRIDE FC THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 2001 WHICH IS ALSO THE YEAR 平成13 HEISEI 13 and also woah wait it is PRIDE.13 -- PRIDE.13 yeah -- and there are no accidents (except for nearly everything probably). A quick glance at the file-lengths here suggests a lean 2h40min or so, and so I may have to be brief as we move along here but I will endeavour not to be curt (please hold me to this). The names of our various fightsmen are again read in a heavily processed voice speaking non-idiomatically in a stylish introductory video package and I am "here for it." Extremely good ring announcer Kei Grant welcomes us in a pre-tape, and introduces both Stephen Quadros and Bas Rutten while the camera is jostled around as though that Jason Bourne movie that made me feel a little sick at the Bloor Cinema sometime in either the late-early-00s or the early-mid-00s, I'm not sure exactly. Risa Stegmayer is our new backstage reporter, and instantly proves herself a massive step up from Eddie Bravo, an actively reprehensible idiot. A single drummer stands in the ring amidst braziers atop tripods aflame as the fog creeps in on little cat feet; each strike of the drum sends a streak of blood across the massive projection screen as the drummer cries out; the crowd stirs at each stroke; I am not joshing you in any way about this; it is quite rad:
Oh man, that lone haunting 鼓 tsuzumi drummer amidst the sea of fog was so great, I should have found out who he was oh wait I did and it is Okura Shonosuke, Nou Drummer and Holder of Important Intangible Cultural Assets:
That we are off to an unusually strong start is, by now, readily apparent. Hey if you google 鼓 tsuzumi drum, the first video that comes up at the top of the page is Ōkura Shōnosuke’s Beat of Life from nippon.com (watch it here); Ōkura Shōnosuke seems like a pretty big wheel in the world of traditional Japanese music! I am for sure no expert in that field but I know what I like, and I like traditional Japanese music, particularly a record called Japanese Masterpieces for the Shakuhachi (1967), which is on Spotify if you have that, and is also available at Youtube as a playlist (here); each upload at Youtube has neat information about each piece that I am pretty sure just comes from The International Shakuhachi Society webpage entry for the album (please see it here), which describes it as "Honkyoku played by masters of Meian, Kimpu, Tozan and Kikusui Ryus at zen temples in Kyoto. Soulful and deeply moving music." With which I agree so hard (with). Entries at that page include a part with headings that read "Shakuhachi" and "Shamisen" and "Koto" and then it will say "yes" under the ones that are on that particular record, just like you would hope it might. I don't know for sure that this was the shakuhachi record they just let play right through one morning on CKDU (my wife's calls to the station went unanswered that grey morn), but I kind of suspect that it was? I was so early in my shakuhachi journey that I really was in no place to say (hey I recorded a track earlier in the spring with a synth shakuhachi patch and a little beat; that one is here). "Wow . . . what a spectacular exhibition of the tsuzumi drum!" is Stephen Quadros' legitimately moved call, and once more I find myself in agreement with things I am telling you people have said long ago. The kanji 桜 sakura (of which we spoke above!) is superimposed over a lovely image of the cherry blossom itself, and the projection screens are revealed to have been great sheets that fall away to reveal the martial artists set to compete; the crowd loves this, and why shouldn't they, as this is easily the best introduction to a mixed fight show that there has been so far, and I think probably ever (though we will see!).
This is all pretty stirring! I'm all stirred!
I feel as though it might be pretty tough for the matches themselves to live up to the extremely æsthetic æsthetics of what we have seen so far but let us remain hopeful. The parade-style fighter introductions that follow all of that lovely imagery above are really exciting, as the さいたまスーパーアリーナ Saitama Sūpā Arīna crowd is (Saitama) sūpā into those into whom they are into; everybody's starting to feel like real stars. It is a special time.
The opening bout is Vitor Belfort, who is on seemingly all of these, against Bobby Southworth. Remember him? Season one of The Ultimate Fighter? Defeated Lodune Sincaid and lost a close decision to Stephan Bonnar? Yeah, you're right, that was kind of a while ago, haha! I am learning also that he was the first and only Strikeforce light-heavyweight champion, and claimed that title with a decision win over Vernon "Tiger" White, who I don't think any of us have ever had a problem with. Belfort takes Southworth down early and just when you think Vitor is in full-on decision-machine mode, he passes to the side, takes the back as Southworth sits up, and it's a submission win by the naked strangle of 裸絞 hadaka-jime at 4:09 of the first round. Good job, Vitor!
Next we have Guy Mezger, who was warmly greeted during the opening ceremonies, against Egan (not Enson) Inoue, familiar to longtime readers (again my thanks to you) from RINGS BLOG SUPPLEMENTAL 10/13/95: LUMAX CUP: THE TOURNAMENT OF J '95 (revisit it here should you seek its ways) where he grappled well against 高阪 剛 Kōsaka Tsuyoshi but who was TK Scissored pretty relentlessly in the finals of that august event, as seen in these gifs originally posted to the Let's Play Judo tumblr (more, of course, here):
Risa Stegmayer, our backstage interviewer, is obviously new to this whole world but is pleasant, and so has earned my support. Egan Inoue, asked who his dream opponent would be, suggests, "Pee-wee Herman? Nah, I don't know." Pee-wee Herman is an all-time great in his field but not all that martial. Did you ever see Paul Reubens on 30 Rock as Prince Gerhardt? It's one of the best things they ever did on that show I think, and it seems to be right here. Not much to this match, I am afraid, as Egan Inoue, though an excellent grappler (and a two-time racquetball world champion! for real!), isn't able to match the well-rounded Guy Mezger standing, and is knocked out in only 2:25. It is always a pleasure to see the Inoue boys, though, and I hope to see more of them soon. Remember when Egan Inoue had a match against Masayuki Naruse at RINGS 8/24/96: MAELSTROM 6th? That's an honest question, and it's okay if you do not. (Revisit it here should you seek to.)
Holy moly, another quick finish! Heath Herring, who remains a crowd favourite, takes down the Russian Denis Sobolev in an flash, knees him from the side a handful of times, and then it's an 腕緘 ude-garami entangled armlock for the win in a mere twenty-two seconds.
And so we're onto a contest between WORLD MEGA-BATTLE OPEN TOURNAMENT KING OF KINGS 1999 veterans Dan Henderson and Renzo Gracie. Renzo, in his pre-fight interview, recounts a tale of choking his daughter's boyfriend unprovoked upon first meeting him as though it is a charming tale and not some sociopathic shit that in addition to the assault itself also disrespects his daughter's autonomy. Renzo continues to disgrace himself hard on twitter these days, even moreso than normal for that platform (I try to keep it low-key and light over there!). And this is another really quick one: less than two minutes in, Renzo shoots in for a takedown (which you might think a strange choice against Henderson, whose Olympic-level Greco-Roman wrestling should make him nigh-impossible to tip over, but as Henderson himself has said, he gets taken down plenty in mixed martial arts because he's not really out there wrestling, he's boxing), and is met by a short right hand, and odds are very good that anyone reading this would know all about Dan Henderson's short right hand, the very same one that knocked out Fedor that one time. Checking now I see that the Fedor match is a full ten years after this Renzo one (wow!). Gracie is knocked all the way out here, like it's pretty bad. Henderson lays in an extra shot but it seemed as though he genuinely did not know Renzo was out; sincere regret and apology follow his moment of anagnorisis (ἀναγνώρισις, "recognition"); it's not at all like the time he five-knuckle-shuffled Michael Bisping (no gif, no link; I can't condone that level of five-knuckle-shuffling in a "shoot" context).
Allen Goes, who I think of as existing in the size-realm betwixt let us say Kazushi Sakuraba and Vernon White, has been compelled (or has perhaps chosen?) to face Mark Coleman in Coleman's first match since winning the PRIDE GRANDPRIX 2000 決勝戦（プライドグランプリにせん けっしょうせん）(as detailed here). And you know what, when you actually see them in there together, Goes doesn't look all that undersized at all; this one's on me. This, too, ends quickly, though: at only one minute and nineteen seconds, Goes is knocked out even more thoroughly than Renzo had been earlier, the victim of true PRIDE-knees (now totally legal in all circumstances). Or actually these were against the turtle (or 亀 kame) position, which have been legal for a while now, but were famously not when Igor Vovchanchyn pummeled Mark Kerr with them (please consider once more The Smashing Machine). Bas Rutten kind of can't believe how dangerous this is. Goes comes-to, and, not realizing what has happened, tries to keep fighting, and there are a few moments of chaos, but it isn't really anybody's fault, and everybody settles down quickly once Goes' people are able to explain to him what happened, and there are apologies and everything. Coleman tears around the ring like a mad man, screaming from the corners, and everybody loves it! Antonio Inoki is on-hand to award a title belt with which I am not familiar but which is quite stately:
HERE ENDS FILE ONE; HERE BEGINS FILE TWO and we are just flying here, just flying.
In a pretty weird one (although not really), 佐竹 雅昭 Satake Masaaki, man of 空手 karate known well to us, will face thirty-eight-year-old 安田 忠夫, Yasuda Tadao, a former sumo of the highest division (makuuchi 幕内) under the name Takanofuji ("Takanofuji's most common winning kimarite were yori-kiri [force out], hataki-komi [slap down] and tsuki-otoshi [thrust over]") turned New Japan Pro Wrestler. For the tale of Yasuda, let us turn to wikipedia most fulsomely (there are a number of senses to that word, aren't there):
"Reverting to his real name, he joined the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion in June 1993, making his debut in February 1994. Yasuda spent the majority of the 1990s as an undercard wrestler, primarily competing in opening matches or as the fall guy in tag team matches with wrestlers such as Shinya Hashimoto and Kensuke Sasaki, achieving little success. In late 2000, Yasuda, along with Kazuyuki Fujita, became somewhat of a pet project for Antonio Inoki, and both of them were sent to the United States to train in mixed martial arts. Yasuda returned to Japan soon after, and was victorious in his first fight against veteran Masaaki Satake at Pride 13. Yasuda's win helped further legitimise him as a pro wrestler in the eyes of Inoki, and this was rewarded with Yasuda reaching the semi finals of the 2001 G1 Climax, where he lost to Keiji Mutoh.[2] After earning one win and one loss in MMA throughout 2001, Yasuda earned the biggest win of his career in December by choking out veteran Jerome Le Banner. His defeat of Jerome led to Yasuda's stock in New Japan skyrocketing almost overnight, and Yasuda soon found himself elevated from over the hill veteran to top title contender in early 2002. Yasuda earned the biggest win of his pro wrestling career on February 16, defeating Yuji Nagata in a tournament to win the vacant IWGP Heavyweight Championship.[3] Yasuda held the title for 48 days, before dropping it to Nagata in April."
That's some deeply INOKISM biz, is it not? Hey look, among Yasuda's seconds is 橋本 真也 Hashimoto Shin'ya!
I once sent a text message to a work friend asking which wrestler was best at kicking, and his considered reply was that he thought probably Kawada, but that Hashimoto was the best wrestler who largely kicked, and I valued how seriously he approached this matter. Let me tell you that it was pretty wild to find out (years ago, now) that the new guy in the office, a fellow professor of English Language and Literature (you would literally not believe how distinguished we are, too [lol j/k that's not at all the case]), was a DVDVR poster (as I once was) and specifically "a Japan guy." What's weirder, thinking back on it, is that our conversation ever turned in such a direction as to allow that dark revelation. In any event, our bout continues, full of leaning. The crowd is heavily invested in this leaning, and so it is not wearying (to me [as yet]). I have waited several minutes between sentences, and there's still nothing doing, but I wanted to let you know that Yasuda's trunks say "SOUL" on the rump of them. And that's the round! This is the first match of the evening to make it out of the first round, Bas Rutten notes, and I would add to that that this one made it out of the first round with extreme prejudice in the sense that there were really no techniques or really even attempts at anything that could have possibly ended a match in the round we have just seen (or lightly read about). It would be true, I think, to say that this is a bad fight, but it would not quite be right to say that I am in any real way minding it.
If I am not mistaken we are now well and truly into 10-5-5 as far as match structure goes (it is such a good way!) and so this second round should be a five minute one, probably. Yasuda plods after Satake, who connects with some pretty good punches, it looks like, but Yasuda is a huge guy and seemingly a tough one also, so he is able to close the distance and lean on in before too long. After an infinity of leaning, Yasuda finally manages to drag Satake to the mat, but the bell sounds for real like ten seconds later at the most, and Yasuda (who I remind you is thirty-eight at the time of this fighting) is just so exhausted between these second and third rounds. Satake, by contrast, is sprightly. ROUND THREE and so then the leaning. I'm not sure if I have yet specified that all of this leaning occurs in the corner; if it is true that I have thus far neglected to tell you that I apologize (that is where they are now, for instance). Well, that's that! Yasuda is adjudged the winner by split decision, which seems disagreeable to the crowd, who I think rightly note that whenever the fighters were separated, Satake would do some reasonable low-key punching, and that was the only real offense from either. Stephen Quadros, for the record, thinks the judges got this one right; I am not sure that's true, but both guys did so little that neither could really be said to deserve the win, exactly, so everything's fine, I think.
Risa Stegmayer is again backstage for pre-fight interviewing and some light googling reveals that she is a tarento born in Indiana in 1971 (as Alicia Stegmeier) who moved to Japan at the age of twelve (her mother is Japanese) and has since that time enjoyed a long career in first modeling and later broadcasting. For more, why not consult the リサ・ステッグマイヤー entry at Wikipedia? I know I did! (It is here.) We learn that Tra Telligman has the tall task of facing Igor Vovchanchyn (who is, paradoxically, short) on short (haha!) notice as Ken Shamrock pulled out of his scheduled fight against our stout little favourite due to a training injury. Oh my goodness, Tito Ortiz is here to present the fighters with flowers, and he is wearing some shit:
I don't know how to really talk about this look other than to say it puts one in mind of the entrance attire for a CAW (a video game "create-a-wrestler") or something. It is not, to my mind, a good look, but de gustibus non est disputandum I suppose. There is maybe something of Korn to it? Tito does appear, however fleetingly, in the "Got the Life" video, you will perhaps recall, and I am trying to figure out which party is sullied the more by this association (I am coming up with nothing concrete). I do not now find, nor have I ever found, Tito Oritz a particularly interesting or entertaining figure or spectacle, but for better or worse (guess which one!) he is more or less emblematic of American mixed martial arts, the whole shitty affair of it. Anyway, Telligman seems initially reluctant to receive Tito's flowers, but Igor is gracious. The fight itself, much to my surprise, goes the distance, and Tra Telligman more than holds his own against the mighty Igor, "giving as good as he got," as is sometimes said. In fact, he wins by unanimous decision! It seems very strange that I don't remember this happening! There have been several surprising instances in recent shows but this is right up there! I am going to have a look at Telligman's record to see if this is his best win (it must be); ok yeah, for sure it is, and in fact he would only fight twice after this bout, losses to Pedro Rizzo and Tim Sylvia (in 2003 and 2005 respectively). Also: "Personal life [ edit ] Telligman is married.[11]" (that's it, that's all that part says).
AND NOW IT IS TIME FOR OUR DREAD MAIN EVENT as 桜庭 和志 Sakuraba Kazushi, rapturously received by the 20,600人 (hito) of the さいたまスーパーアリーナ Saitama Sūpā Arīna, is about to be crushed unto ruin by peak Wanderlei Silva, whose manner before the fight is mild yet ominous:
Tito Ortiz is back again for flower delivery, this time without the jacket but still very much wearing the title belt. I recall Tim Sylvia being made the subject of sport over wearing his UFC belt in contexts deemed indecorous, but I cannot recall if the same was said of Tito, or if he ever really did much of it overall, but here, at least, it looks awfully dopey. His interaction with Wanderlei, a former opponent, is cursory, but he gives Sakuraba a little kiss to go with the lovely bouquet, which is a little presumptuous, but Sakuraba just smiles and bows. Tito seems quite pleased with himself. Quadros and Rutten opt for a little casual homophobia.
SQ: Don't worry folks, Titio's married.
BR: Yep. There's no problems there. That would very scary, eh? If he would be . . . eh?
Younger readers might wonder if comments like this made you a jerk in 2001 and as an old person I can assure you that yes, they did then, too.
OH NO IT'S HAPPENING:
Aaaaaaaaaaand it happens: Wanderlei swarms, but the retreating Sakuraba clips him with a right hand that actually puts Silva down for an instant (and the crowd cannot believe this), though Silva is right back to his feet in an instant. Sakuraba, spurred by this weird turn of events mere seconds in, swings for the fences, just huge massive looping punches, uppercuts to the sky, but whiffs on all of them. Wanderlei clinches up in Muay Thai-style and then that's it, just knees and horror, punches on the break, Sakuraba on all fours, more knees, grasping for an ankle, retreats to his back, a kick to the face, and then not even Yuji Shimada can let it go on any longer, Wanderlei Silva defeats Kazushi Sakuraba in a wild 1:38.
Although this is the first time Sakuraba has been stopped in this way, or anything resembling it, it is not wrong to say that we are very near the end of the line for Sakuraba as a top fighter (he is about to lose six of his next nine), though of course his reign as a neat guy continues uninterrupted into our own era. Sakuraba takes it all in stride, this first hideous pummeling of the many that will be visited upon him, and goes so far as to award Wanderlei his nifty little SAKU belt and exchange fondnesses with him.
Our evening ends in fellowship but I don't feel great about where any of this is headed! And yet it is our task. And as dark as that may prove, it cannot match the darkness of the ongoing and everlasting chronicle of Dave Meltzer, to which we now turn.
April 2, 2001:
"A night of upsets, including two of the biggest in the history of MMA, and pro wrestling angles that almost nobody but Antonio Inoki could understand, were the big stories of the Pride 13 PPV show held 3/25 at the Saitama Super Arena.
The big news was threefold, all based around Kazushi Sakuraba. First, Sakuraba lost to Vanderlei Silva in just 1:38 in the main event when the referee stopped the match after Silva bloodied up Sakuraba's nose and was nailing him with knees on the ground as a result of the new rule changes. Second was that Sakuraba vs. Silva drew a near sellout in the huge arena and multi million dollar gate. The official announced attendance was 20,600, but live reports indicate the building, which holds just under 27,000, was just shy of a sellout. Either way, to draw a crowd of that size for what was basically a junior heavyweight championship match against a tough opponent, but one with no name value, speaks volumes for Sakuraba as a draw . But third, and most important, since you can't 100% predict a shoot. This show was the prime example of that, and with fighters the calibre that they have become and as well rounded as they have become, there are so many different ways to lose, nobody can go unbeaten over the long haul. The position of No. 1 is based more on myth and opinion than anything else that can be proven beyond a doubt in the ring. The problem is that Sakuraba has turned into real box office, and this will be the situation for UFC or any group of this type which catches fire when a fighter gets hot. But now he not only lost , but lost quickly in an uncompetitive manner. Fighters who do that aren't going to be big drawing cards for very long and ultimately, what most fail to understand is that, work or shoot, this is primarily a business that needs to draw big crowds and few fighters have the ability in any era to be huge draws.
The next day, Nobuhiko Takada said that Sakuraba was hospitalized and would have to take three months of rest and probably wouldn't be able to fight again for the rest of the year. He suffered both a broken nose and a broken orbital bone. The story that came out in the days that followed was that Sakuraba had internal organ disease that had hospitalized him early in the year because of a long history of heavy smoking as well as too much drinking on New Years Eve after doing a pro wrestling match. Doctors warned him about the drinking after this, but he continued to drink heavily. Whether this is a cover story to explain the result after the fact is unknown, as in the old days of pro wrestling when some of the matches were real at the turn of the last century, it was commonplace after a loss for the loser to complain of an injury he was going into the ring with as the reason and there are a lot of similarities to this and turn of the century pro wrestling.
That talks about the other end of shooting's reality, besides being impossible to predict, fighters only have so many fights in them before they break down physically and become ripe for upsets of this sort. Promoters are going to want to book the hot fighter as much as possible for box office reasons, but by doing this, in the long run, they are also burning them out, something that has become very prevalent with the early practitioners of real shooting on the Japanese side in recent years as the first generation legends that started in the mid-90s are already for the most part shot.
Silva's win was not a big upset to insiders, and many experts questioned making the fight because of the way the two matched up, in that Silva was the superior striker and has the ability to avoid a takedown, and isn't a big enough marquee name to where Sakuraba would gain anything with a win but would lose a lot with a loss. A lot of people favored Silva even before word got out that Sakuraba had the flu and was unable to train hard in the all important final week of training. Silva's two major losses were to Vitor Belfort, who overwhelmed him in under one minute with strikes, and to Tito Ortiz, who because of his size is a monster in that weight division, and was able to take Silva down and neutralize his muay thai fighting ability. But the under-200 division is a prime example of clutter at the top. Silva destroyed Sakuraba quickly. Belfort destroyed Silva even quicker. Ortiz just recently beat Silva, and quickly beat Yuki Kondo and Evan Tanner, but still lost decisively to Frank Shamrock. But Shamrock hasn't fought a top-ten ranked fighter in 18 months.
The new rule change, allowing kicking and kneeing a downed opponent, plus reported contractual bonuses delivered for being on either the giving or receiving end of clean finishes, resulted in an astonishing six quick matches out of eight. Pride's last show, on 12/23, was generally disappointing with the top fighters matched up going the distance in boring fights, in particular fans booing the Mark Kerr vs. Igor Vovchanchyn fight so heavily. This led the group, for fear of too many boring decisions, from both booking fights that on paper would go the distance and eliminating the proposed world title tournaments at the Dome because in a tournament you can't control the matchmaking, and changing the rule. After the fact there were a lot of complaints because it made the game more dangerous. Some said it ended up being more brutal than the IVC shows in Brazil, which are known for their brutality. While there is a fan base for more brutal matches, when it comes to sanctioning of the sport in the United States, which has to be the end result or the thing will stagnate as an outlaw sport, and Pride is making plans for an American expansion, if these rules aren't changed, it is going to weaken their cause. Whenever you change a rule, you change the fight, and two of the matches, both the main event and Mark Coleman's win over Allan Goes, were decided by knee shots on a downed opponent. Another rule change had to do with rounds, as matches were all fought three rounds, with the first round being 10:00 in duration and the second and third each being 5:00 with no draw decisions allowed and no overtime.
The show also featured arguably the two biggest upsets in the history of MMA. Tra Telligman of Lions' Den, a late replacement for an injured Ken Shamrock, scored a unanimous decision over Vovchanchyn, the No. 2 rated heavyweight in the world, both staying with him standing, and outwrestling him as well, in what was generally considered the fight of the night. Telligman, 36, whose biggest claim to fame was losing in a short, but thrilling match in UFC to Pedro Rizzo, took the fight with two weeks notice. He did in a sense did match up, because of his kickboxing background, ability to take a punch, reach advantage and superior wrestling ability, better against Vovchanchyn from an attribute level than the vast majority of his opponents, but the end result was something nobody would have expected.
An even bigger upset was New Japan pro wrestler Tadao Yasuda, who at 6-6 and a hardly svelte more than 300 pounds, in his first pro fight at age 37, winning a split decision over experienced former K-1 star Masaaki Satake. At least Telligman was an experienced fighter who could both wrestle, kickbox, knew submissions and came from one of the most successful camps in the world. Yasuda was a pro wrestler who trained along with other pro wrestlers and shootfighters as part of Antonio Inoki's Los Angeles stable. While it was the lone boring fight on the show, the result made it huge news. Yasuda, who was something of a name sumo wrestler in the 80s, had never even competed in any true sporting event in nearly a decade. He used sumo technique to power Satake into the corner and basically keep him there, unable to get any distance, in a fight where nothing happened and warnings were called for stalling and the end decision surprised some people as well.
The other upset, although not so much the result being a big upset as the quickness of the fight, saw Dan Henderson become the first person to knock out a Gracie in competition. Renzo, the most respected member of the family to insiders, was unable to take the former Olympic wrestler and King of Kings champion down, and was knocked out in just 1:40 with a series of punches in what was called a really great short match.
In the strange part of the show, Antonio Inoki, who has a strange dual role of being heavily involved in the booking of this group as well as the booking of New Japan, did several pro wrestling angles on the show. Inoki came out after intermission for an interview, and naturally got by far the biggest reaction of anyone on the show, saying that he was going to take over New Japan doing the outsider angle trying to take over. He had Kendo Ka Shin, wearing his mask, bring out both the original IWGP heavyweight title belt, as well as the old WWF World Martial Arts title belt that Inoki held from 1978 through 1990 (doing a lose-and-win the rematch in 1989 with former Olympic judo gold medalist Shota Chochyashvili) before giving it up. Also coming out during this segment were Kazuyuki Fujita and Shinya Hashimoto, with Hashimoto getting the expected gigantic pop. That was the belt Inoki would defend during his heyday as a pro wrestler, both against pro wrestlers as well as name fighters from other sports in a worked version of what a generation later became the original format of MMA. Inoki gave Kazuyuki Fujita the first IWGP belt and talked about Fujita beating Kensuke Sasaki at the Osaka Dome, which was weird since that was the main event, but Inoki in storyline changed it to Fujita vs. current IWGP champ Scott Norton in a non-title match a few days earlier. I guess the idea behind this is that New Japan refuses to sanction Norton defending against Fujita, so Inoki gave Fujita the "real IWGP belt" and says he'll defend it against Norton as part of the angle where Inoki is feuding publicly with New Japan. Inoki then announced that the winner of the Coleman (current Pride world heavyweight champion) vs. Goes match which came up after his interview would be given his WWF World Martial Arts title belt, something that no doubt should fascinate the WWF as well as their attorneys. [It would have been nice to have seen all this stuff! Where have you gone, Japanese feeds of yore . . . --ed.]
Later in the show, they did another pro wrestling angle. Kendo Ka Shin by this point had taken off his mask and came out under his real name of Tokimitsu Ishizawa, and challenged Ryan Gracie, who thrashed him badly on 8/27 at the Seibu Dome, resulting in basically killing his pro wrestling heat. Gracie came out, apparently not fully aware of how pro wrestling operates, and said that he wanted to fight in the next Pride show, but didn't push the idea of fighting Ishizawa. Inoki basically blew off Gracie, and kept pushing the rematch, which makes little sense given the result both in the ring and afterwards to the career of Ishizawa from the last fight. Nevertheless, the match was strongly pushed for the next show on 5/27 from the Yokohama Arena.
The show will air on PPV in the U.S. starting on 4/6 and in Canada starting on 4/13. The 5/27 venue shows a scaling back, because originally the plans were to hold world title tournaments in two weight divisions this year in March and May at the Tokyo Dome. Besides the Ishizawa match, they've strongly pushed singles matches for Silva, Herring and Pro Wrestling NOAH's Yoshihiro Takayama for that show. They are talking about Gary Goodridge as a potential opponent, and if that's not a worked match, the probable end result would serve no purpose for NOAH to allow it.
1. Vitor Belfort choked out Bobby Southworth in 4:09. Southworth had a 2-0 record in King of the Cage in California, but wasn't in Belfort's league. Belfort took him down twice in this one-sided match before getting the choke.
2. Guy Mezger knocked out Egan Inoue in 2:25 with a right. This match went largely as expected, with Inoue unable to take Mezger down and Mezger dominating standing, taking Inoue out with a right hook. There was a botched impromptu angle as Mezger after the match challenged Egan's more famous brother, Enson Inoue to a match. Inoue had announced his retirement at the last show after losing to Heath Herring. Inoue said that he had retired, thus turning the challenge down, and both shook hands after the match.
3. Heath Herring defeated Dennis Sobolov from Russia in 22 seconds with an entangled armlock. Sobolov was from Satoru Sayama's Seikendo promotion, and in most cases, when the Seikendo guys venture into other groups, they get hammered. A lot of people see Herring as the best chance for an emerging superstar in the heavyweight division with his combination of wrestling and kickboxing.
4. Dan Henderson knocked out Renzo Gracie in 1:40. Gracie was unable to take the former Olympic wrestler down and was knocked out standing. While Gracie was certainly the favorite, making this the first in a string of upsets, the big shock was how quickly and decisively the match ended because it would not have been a huge upset for Henderson to win via decision.
5. Mark Coleman defeated Allan Goes in 1:19. Goes, who weighed in at 213 pounds, actually looked bigger than Coleman, who trimmed down to 223 pounds. The new rules made the difference here. No surprise that Coleman was able to quickly take Goes, a former Brazilian Jiu Jitsu world champion, down and even mount him. Coleman quickly finished him with a series of hard knees to the head which knocked Goes out. Goes looked to be out on the first knee, but took three more before the referee stopped it. Goes didn't even know, because he got right back up and continued fighting. Goes most likely suffered a concussion since he threw up when he got back to the dressing room. Inoki presented Coleman with the old WWF World Martial Arts title belt after the match.
6. Tadao Yasuda won a split decision of Masaaki Satake in 20:00. Match was described as awful across the boards. Yasuda pulled off the upset doing about the only thing he could do to win, which was to use his size to bull Satake into the corner, and keep him there, so he couldn't get any distance to throw punches. Both guys received yellow cards for stalling in the first round. Second round was more of the same, although there was an exchange of punches which Satake naturally got the better of. Reports of Yasuda's punches were that most fighters tap out harder than he punched [oh dang! --ed]. Just as the round ended, Yasuda took Satake down. Third round was more of the same. Crowd hated the fight but because Yasuda was expected to get destroyed quick by everyone, he became something of a sympathetic babyface for finding a strategy to survive. Realistically, even though one could say Yasuda imposed his will in that the fight was under his terms, therefore he should have a slight edge, the Pride rules which call for a point if there is a weight difference of more than 22 pounds (difference was close to 70 pounds) should have given the fight to Satake. Pro wrestlers Hashimoto and Brian Johnston were in Yasuda's corner and Yasuda was crying in the arms of Johnston after the decision was announced. Yasuda took the fight largely because he was in such deep financial debts due to a gambling problem which resulted in his family leaving him, and his wife and daughter reunited with him after the fight [oh DANG!--ed.].
7. The second huge upset of the show, Telligman won a unanimous decision over Vovchanchyn after 20:00. UFC champ Tito Ortiz came out to give both men flowers before the match. At first Telligman wouldn't accept them, because of the heat between Ortiz and Lions Den stemming from Ortiz' wins over Jerry Bohlander and Mezger at UFC and the t-shirt he wore rubbing it in after the Mezger fight which saw Ken Shamrock get in his face. The first six minutes of the match made it the fight of the night a the two traded hard punches standing with Telligman staying with Vovchanchyn all the way. Vovchanchyn kicked Telligman low about 6:00 in, which looked accidental, and caused a two minute break. When they re-started, Telligman was very aggressive and put Vovchanchyn on his back. Vovchanchyn held onto a guard but Telligman punched him from the top for the rest of the round. Vovchanchyn looked tired at the end of the round. Second round saw them trade punches early before Telligman took Vovchanchyn down pretty quickly and it stayed with Vovchanchyn holding him in the guard. That round didn't have much action. Third round was more of the same, with Telligman taking him down and keeping him there. A stand-up was ordered, but Vovchanchyn was tired and couldn't do much at this point.
8. Vanderlei Silva defeated Kazushi Sakuraba in 1:38. Ortiz came out again wearing his UFC belt and gave flowers to both guys and kissed Sakuraba. Clearly the promotion was expecting a Sakuraba win, as before this match, they played a videotape feature on Rickson Gracie. The Sakuraba illness was not an excuse created after the fact, as before the show even started, backstage people were starting to favor Silva because of word that Sakuraba was coming off a bad flu and that Silva was coming in with a significant weight advantage (it may have been 20 pounds). Silva overwhelmed Sakuraba with hard punches and knees, which put him on the ground. Silva kept throwing knees to the face, busting Sakuraba's nose, and leading the referee to stop the fight. While Sakuraba was not seriously injured, most reported indicated that if anything, the stoppage wa[s] on the late side as opposed to the earlier side. Sakuraba gave Silva his Saku championship belt after the loss. Sakuraba asked for a rematch on the house mic after the loss. The next day, perhaps as a cover reason to save Sakuraba's drawing power (in the old days of early 1900s pro wrestling, the common theme is the loser after the match would claim an injury or an illness in training), it was announced he had been under doctors care for internal organs problems since the early part of the year."
I would also like to note that the next item in that Observer begins, "RINGS, the first pro wrestling company to make the complete transition from working to shooting, finished this year's King of Kings tournament with spectacular results on its 2/24 show at Tokyo Sumo Hall before 10,260 fans." Remember that?
April 9, 2001:
Rulez Newz:
"A three-hour meeting was held on 4/2 in Trenton, NJ to propose what would become a uniform list of rules for MMA within New Jersey, with an attempt to take those rules to the Association of Boxing Commissioners and take them national, thereby legitimizing these rules in every state with an athletic commission. The latter is still a long time away from being a reality.
With UFC now seemingly making New Jersey it's unofficial home, as the past two PPVs were held there and the next two are also scheduled for there, this had a major bearing on the future of UFC. The three-hour meeting, headed by Larry Hazzard, the Director of the New Jersey State Athletic Control Board, included representatives from UFC, Pride and IFC as well as Nevada State Athletic Commission chairman Marc Ratner listening in via telephone.
The biggest change is when it comes to weight classes. UFC has had four weight classes, under 155, under 170, under 200 and unlimited. The new weight classes, which will also include weight classes being renamed, are as such:
Under 125.9 pounds - Flyweight
126 - 134.9 - Bantamweight
135 - 144.9 - Featherweight
145 - 154.9 - Lightweight
155 - 169.9 - Welterweight
170 - 184.9 - Middleweight
185 - 204.9 - Light heavyweight
205 - 264.9 - Heavyweight
265 + - Superheavyweight
This is probably the biggest change, and part of this was likely at the prompting of UFC itself which has talked about, as mentioned here in the past, adding a weight class at 185 and moving the 200 limit up to 205. This is probably fairer, and it also shows in a sense non-protection of the company's golden boy, Tito Ortiz. Even though Ortiz did lose to a much smaller Frank Shamrock in the 1999 fight of the year, he was much larger than most everyone he was fighting. Many of the top fighters in the world, like Shamrock, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kiyoshi Tamura, Yuki Kondo and Dan Henderson all fight in the 200 class, but their natural bodyweight ranges from 185 for Sakuraba to 193 for Kondo, and would be better off fighting at 185. The irony of Shamrock himself is that his "walk-around" weight is usually 185, and unlike most fighters who get in shape for fights and drop weight, he eats like a pig before fights, which is exactly what you aren't supposed to do, to get his weight up to the 190-195 range and his announced weight at shows is often misleading since he's weighed in fully clothed, carrying a heavy book or a jug of water. Pat Miletich, who holds the UFC title at 170, actually has a natural bodyweight more than Shamrock, as he walks around non-training at 190, when training gets down to the low 180s and restricts fluids from his days as a wrestler (as did Ortiz, a natural 225-pounder who has been fighting at 199) to weigh in at 170.
The introduction of the superheavyweight class at this point in my view is a negative. First off, all the top unlimited weight class fighters in the world right now, like Mark Coleman, Kevin Randleman (who will now cut to 205 and probably face Ortiz later this year), Mark Kerr, Kazuyuki Fujita, Igor Vovchanchyn, Valentijn Overeem, Ken Shamrock, Heath Herring, Pedro Rizzo and Antonio Nogueira range in fighting weight from 210 to 245. There hasn't been anyone over 265 yet who has been a major force. Tom Erikson fought at 285, but was knocked out by Herring recently, although he may have been the exception if he was a few years younger. Ricardo Morais was at 275, but was handled by Coleman as well as Grom Zaza. As people get larger, this may some day be necessary, but now it seems to be like boxing, where if they added a superheavyweight division over 265, the fact is, the heavyweight champion would beat the superheavyweight champ with ease and as long as that's the case, there is no need for the division as it only demeans in the public's view the heavyweight champ.
The rules for the most part remain the same that UFC has been operating under with a few minor modifications. There are no allowable uses of the knees or feet for kicking and kneeing if an opponent is on the mat. UFC rules did not make using knees when both fighters are down illegal, although that hadn't been allowed on recent shows in New Jersey. Pride recently changed its rules to allow both kicking and kneeing a downed opponent and those rules changed the entire nature of several of the fights last week.
All footwear has been banned as well as tops, shirts or gi's. No wrestling singlets or t-shirts. The elimination of the gi, which fighters haven't fought in for a long time in UFC (Royce Gracie still fought in a gi in Pride), does change the fight, although since it hasn't been used of late, it's not a major change. Certain foot and ankle locks are easier to use when the fighter is wearing shoes. In addition, shoes help the wrestlers as far as shooting off the mat. UFC allowed a certain type of shoe that one could kick with, and any type of shoe was legal if the participant would agree to not kick.
The key rule for marketability at present, the ability to punch from any position, was kept legal.
The commission approved combat in either a fenced in area, the UFC trademarked octagon cage, or inside a wrestling or boxing ring.
They are going to mandate a certain type of glove which they are having developed, which would weigh four to six ounces. They appointed a committee to design and manufacture official gloves and all participants must wear only these gloves.
Like with UFC, rounds will be five minutes in length. Unlike in Pride, there are no stand-ups allowed to be ordered by the ref in case action is slowed. These are largely rule changes UFC, under Joe Silva and Jeff Blatnick, who pretty well wrote the rule book, were in favor of. The stand-ups is a controversial point, because the lack of stand-up can slow the action when fighters are stalemated on the ground. However, the feeling was that the application of stand-ups was inconsistent from fight-to-fight and the elimination of them was to eliminate an inconsistency.
New Jersey will appoint referees and judges and referees and judges can be appointed to any show. This is actually an interesting point since one of the biggest names in the UFC is referee John McCarthy. Theoretically this means they have a pool of referees and appoint them for various shows, and I don't know if a special case would be made for McCarthy, who referees all UFC main events and most major matches. Theoretically this would mean McCarthy, who is as synonymous with the UFC as the octagon cage, could also be picked to referee at rival shows."
DAVE
GETS
TAPE:
"There are two lasting impressions after viewing a tape of the Pride 13 show held on 3/25 at the Saitama Super Arena.
First, it can't be emphasized enough the saying that every change of the rules changes the fight. Several fights would have gone entirely different under the old rules, which banned kneeing and kicking a man when standing and the opponent is down. No doubt some would have had different end results as well. Second, and perhaps more important for business, it was clear that Kazushi Sakuraba is the superstar of the promotion. The company is going to be hurt without him for the rest of the year due to his injuries suffered both in this fight and perhaps as a result of fighting too often last year when he was hot. In a sad way, perhaps we'll have a better gauge by the end of this year whether or not Sakuraba was the Most Valuable Wrestler of last year, based on how well Pride holds up in his absence as a comparison point of how well WWF held up without Steve Austin for much of last year and how well WWF will hold up with Rock working a limited schedule for the next several months of this year.
The rule debate is an important one on many levels for a sports entertainment form that is starting to get established in both North America and Japan, where one of the orders of the day in getting it established as a so-called legitimate sport are consistent rules. In its original almost anything goes form, the almost simulated street fight, I was originally against any modification of the rules. Didn't like the gloves being added, stand-ups being ordered when a fight slowed to a crawl on the ground, rounds and elimination of any potential offensive weapons aside from attacking the eyes or fish hooking because of the belief it ruined the purity of the event. At that point, the only place I differed from the purists was on the time limits and judging, because of the reality of holding a sporting event, it simply had to have some form of time limit. Every combat sport had a time limit and judges to rule when it goes the time limit. While the no time limit Royce Gracie vs. Kazushi Sakuraba match from last year was voted Match of the Year and will go down historically as an all-time classic, its premise, a rule change because one of the fighters wouldn't fight by existing rules, compromised greatly the integrity of the tournament and the event even if the end result made for a great series of stories that night. The reality is that some purists, and that's a funny word in hindsight, have to realize for survival, this has to fit into parameters that the general public isn't repulsed by and can accept. And the more rules are in effect, the game can change to where skill becomes more or less important. In hindsight, for survival, the elimination of the head-butts, for example, had to happen, but it did change the game. After seeing Brazilian fights which allowed the so-called field goal kicks of a downed opponents' head, there is no way, both from the potential danger factor and the visual of it, that a move like that being legal will result in this thing lasting in the United States. With UFC going for commission approval and New Jersey in the process of writing a rule book that perhaps will be used nationally as consistent guidelines, there is little chance of this taking place in the United States.
The rule was changed back in Japan, allowing those moves, because of the feeling there were too many time limit decisions and boring fights at the December show, even though in the U.S. on PPV it was largely well received. As this card showed, this does shorten fights, and lead to conclusive finishes. It also increases the danger in a sport where, for long-term marketability, protecting the drawing cards' health as much as possible should be a goal. It's funny, but after watching this for years, my views have changed drastically. I actually enjoy the RINGS rules [OMG ME TOO! --ed.], which ban punching the head from the mount, more than UFC rules, because the change in fight by eliminating punches from the mount creates more exciting ground work and puts more of an emphasis on skill, and those rules created the King of Kings show that we reviewed last week, which was perhaps the best of the modern MMA style shows [that's true--ed.] because of the skill level displayed and the variety of styles. At the same time, I recognize that for marketability in the United States, because the punch is so basic to the mindset of what a fight is, that eliminating punching from the mount as a legal weapon would kill the sport from a spectator standpoint. In fact, that basic rule may be the stumbling block, because virtually everything in MMA is legal in some sanctioned sport or another but there is no sport that allows punching someone while on top of him. But without it, it won't work in the United States.
Here are some more thoughts on the show, which airs first on 4/6 in the U.S. to homes with dishes with several replays, and to all addressable homes in Canada through VC-Canada starting on 4/13. I'd give the show a thumbs up, which was virtually the unanimous viewpoint of those in Japan who saw it live. It was by no means the strongest show, but for any kind of a serious fan, it's important to watch largely to examine that rule change and see for yourself what its effect on the fight truly is. For people who like decisive finishes, you got them. But since all but two of the fights were all so short, you didn't get any classic matches. The only real lasting memory were the finishes inspired by the rule, which either makes it a more complete fight than before, or an uglier and less skilled fight, depending upon your point of view.
1. Vitor Belfort over Bobby Southworth. Belfort has added low kicks to his offensive arsenal. He showed his absolutely scary hand speed but never connected on Southworth, and instead decided to wrestle him. He took him down. Southworth momentarily escaped but Belfort leg tripped him down a second time. Belfort never even tried to punch or knee while on the ground, seemingly realizing he was going to have no trouble in the fight and didn't want to hurt his overmatched opponent. Belfort maneuvered into a choke for the finish. Because it appeared Belfort was taking it easy, it wasn't a good fight.
2. Guy Mezger (210.1 pounds) knocked out Egan Inoue (203.5). Inoue didn't want to trade, and tied Mezger up and bulled into the corner. When Mezger finally broke free, he his a good left, a knee, and put him down with a right hook. There wasn't much to the fight except the combinations leading to the knockout finish. Because of the pro wrestling promotion and crowd, the biggest pop was actually Mezger's post-match interview where he challenged Inoue's more famous older brother, Enson, saying that Enson shouldn't have retired and challenging him to a match. Fans popped huge when Mezger issued the challenge. Another huge pop when Enson got into the ring. Enson spoke first in Japanese, then English, saying that he's retired, and if he were to come back, it would be on his own terms, not to respond to a challenge and that he's got other things going on in life. And then, showing how annoyed he was for being put on the spot in front of such a huge audience with the challenge, he said, "I think this is f***ed up." Nevertheless, he then went over and shook Mezger's hand. [I somehow missed all of this! -- ed.]
3. Heath Herring (238.3) beat Dennis Sobolov (207.0) in 22 seconds with the overhand wristlock submission. Herring came out with a black hat and long black trenchcoat and his seconds all dressed alike in kind of the old AWA Long Riders type of outfit for a pro wrestling introduction. Total mismatch both in size and ability and this was basically a booked squash win for Herring, who everyone recognizes has potential to be one of the top heavyweights in the world. Sobolov was cut over his left eye.
4. Dan Henderson (194.3) beat Renzo Gracie (172.7). This was an interesting game where weight played a factor. Pride rules give a man who is 10 kilograms (22 pounds) or more lighter a one point advantage in the judging if it goes the distance. Henderson clearly manipulated his weight as heavy as possible without giving up that point. Henderson's win was largely based on the new rules. Gracie wanted him down, but was too small to take down an Olympic calibre wrestler who had such a size advantage, and because of the size, Gracie couldn't trade with him standing. Under the old rules, Gracie would have shot, and Henderson would have sprawled, but they'd end up on the ground with Gracie on his back, which was where he wanted to be anyway. With these rules, when Gracie shot and Henderson sprawled, he grabbed a front headlock and held the head in place to throw knee after knee until Gracie got his head out of there, so he was unable to stay on the ground and do his game plan. After a sprawl and some knees, and hitting another knee as Gracie got his head out of position, Henderson, while both were pretty much on their knees, hit a strong right to the top of the head that stunned Gracie and a left to the jaw that put him out. While the actual finish would have been legal under the old rules, why they got there was because of the rule change.
Antonio Inoki did the first angle. When he called out Kazuyuki Fujita and Kendo Ka Shin, it is so hilariously similar in tone and crowd pop to "D-Von, get the table!" Huge pop when he called out Shinya Hashimoto. People weren't expecting that. Inoki gave Fujita the original IWGP title belt and then did the trademark slapping the hell out of him. Place went nuts.
5. Mark Coleman (222.6) beat Allan Goes (213.4). Goes went up in weight and looked bigger than ever. Coleman came down and was ripped to shreds at his lightest fighting weight ever, probably coming down to avoid having to give up the point. Goes came out and started throwing what are called "movie kicks" (you know, the kind you see in kung fu movies that nobody would ever do in a real fight against a good opponent) and missed badly with them. Coleman took him down, threw some hard body punches, then started throwing knees to the head. Goes may have been out by the first one, but was definitely out on the second one. He threw a few more before the ref stopped it a little late. Goes was knocked cold, because when he came to, he got up and started fighting, not realizing it was over. Coleman looked furious at that but then recognized it was Goes not realizing it and they hugged. Inoki gave him the old World Martial Arts title, making the second pro wrestling word title (first being the RINGS world heavyweight title which is pretty well now forgotten since Gilbert Yvel won it from Kiyoshi Tamura and then jumped to this group) to switch from the worked world to the shoot world.
6. Tadao Yasuda (286.0) won a decision over Masaaki Satake (216.7). You could see Satake coming to the ring thinking this was going to be a cakewalk. Yasuda looked to have lost every bit of 30 pounds, if not more, from his pro wrestling weight, but even then was still fat. As a former sumo star, he took his one strength, the ability to leg drive Satake where he wanted him, to drive him into the corner and basically bearhug him there forever so Satake couldn't get distance for his punches. Satake got a yellow in the first round for grabbing the ropes to avoid a takedown. Yasuda got one a few minutes later for stalling. The ref kept breaking them and re-starting them, and Yasuda kept doing the same thing. There was actually a ton of intrigue to the Japanese fans for this match to where they were very patient with it, as it was eight to nine minutes in until they started booing. This will play horribly to Americans who won't have that cult favorite and interpromotional angle understanding with Yasuda as a New Japan wrestler doing a shoot against a former K-1 star. I'd rate the first round even, as Satake got a few punches in before Yasuda would trap him, but Yasuda did fight his fight, but did no damage, just avoided taking much damage to the best of his ability. Yasuda, because he was carrying so much weight, looked exhausted at the end of the round while Satake looked fresh. Same thing in the second round. After one of the breaks, Satake connected on some punches including a solid one, which stunned Yasuda, but he still put Satake back in the corner and held on. Crowd was booing as this kept happening. Just at the end of the round, Yasuda got a takedown. Even though Yasuda got a takedown, he did nothing when he got it and Satake was in the guard, so I'd give the round to Satake because he did rock Yasuda. Evidently, the judges thought differently. Third round saw the fans boo as the match continued the same way. Really bad. Satake got away and hit two punches before being put back in the corner. Fans booed when it was over. Even if the third round was even, Satake winning the second round and a point for the weight differential gave him a two point win the way I saw it, but Yasuda instead was given a split decision. I think there was the sympathy because it was even and he was such an incredible underdog and did execute his game plan, but his game plan caused no damage. Yasuda cried at the result, actually winning. Inoki came out and boy did he look pissed, because of the crowd reaction, even though his guy won. He called out for Ishizawa (Ka Shin without the mask). Ishizawa came out wearing the same clothes he had just worn as Ka Shin, just with no mask, and they did the in ring angle with Ryan Gracie asking for a revenge match.
7. Tra Telligman (222.2) beat Igor Vovchanchyn (238.7) in the other huge upset. I didn't think this was the fight of the show, which was the consensus from the reports we received. I should mention that Bill Apter [!!!!!!!!!! -- ed.]was shown at ringside at the beginning of this fight which for some reason I found really amusing, kind of looking like a strange man in a strange world. First round saw Igor rock Telligman, tagging him early with powerful punches and hard leg kicks. Telligman was kicked low about 3:49 in which gave him time to recuperate. When they came back, both started swinging. Good slugfest but Igor seemed to get the better of it but Telligman hung in and connected with a jab to the jaw and Igor was stunned and seemed to slip and Telligman took him down. Telligman was on top in the guard. Telligman did a little punching from the top but was mainly content to keep him there. I'd give the round even, as Telligman did some offense while on top but Vovchanchyn was the stronger of the two on the stand-ups. Second round saw them trade. Telligman connected with a strong punch and a knee and took Igor down in the guard, where the fight stayed for the rest of the round. Telligman's round. Third round saw Igor come out firing, probably recognizing he was behind, but Telligman took him down and basically neutralized him the rest of the way. He didn't try to do anything other than keep him grounded. No real damage, maybe even or a slight edge to Telligman because he at least got a takedown. Telligman deserved the decision but it wasn't decisive or anything. I guess people liked it because it was such an upset, and when they were standing it was good, but it was mostly on the ground, particularly the last two rounds, and not a lot of action on the ground.
8. Vanderlei Silva (205.7) beat Sakuraba (188.1). Very exciting short fight. Both guys were trading standing with Silva going all out and Sakuraba trying to counter. Sakuraba's size disadvantage hurt, but the rules spelled the difference. As this game has progressed, they really should match fighters who are within ten pounds of each other. Silva got big enough to where he wasn't risking a point, but still had a substantial weight edge. As they traded, with both getting shots in, Sakuraba got stunned and Silva threw tons of punches, kicks and knees to Sakuraba's head while Sakuraba kept pressing for a takedown. The knees and kicks, all legal under the new rules, just overwhelmed him and while he kept shooting, he was bloodied badly and the ref had to stop it. With the old rules, Silva probably would have ended up on the ground and it would have been a totally different fight. Not saying he wouldn't have won, but no guarantee he would have either."
Weirdly, the next item is about "Ray Gedeon, who was the most famous pro wrestling referee in the world during the 1970s, and not only because of his lyrical ring name of "Johnny Red Shoes Dugan," passed away on 3/26 at the age of 89." He came up on the most recent Fumi Saito/Jim Valley podcast. I don't think I'd ever heard the name before.
From a sparsely-attended NJPW Osaka Dome show report:
"8. Kazuyuki Fujita beat Scott Norton in 6:43 to win the IWGP heavyweight title. Fujita came to the ring with Inoki's original IWGP heavyweight title belt given to him at the 3/25 Pride show. This was billed as a no rules match under Pride rules, which meant no pinfalls, only submission or knockout finish, but with no time limit or rounds. They tried to work it like a shoot, but Norton has no experience at that so it wasn't very good, but told it wasn't awful and people were thankful for that. Fujita did not get a big pop coming out, despite holding wins over Hans Nyman, Mark Kerr and Ken Shamrock in Pride. The gimmick was that Fujita, Inoki's protege was being sent to New Japan to take its world title. Where I see this as going, and this actually makes sense if you put yourself into Inoki's 70s mentality, is this. Fujita is now undisputed world heavyweight champion of New Japan pro wrestling, and he's legit, and the IWGP belt was the belt Inoki held in the 80s. Mark Coleman holds the WWF World Martial Arts title as well as the Pride World heavyweight title. The Martial arts title is the same belt Inoki held on-and-off for more than ten years. If they match-up Coleman vs. Fujita for both belts, not only will the winner merge in this fantasy world the world titles of pro wrestling with Pride, but the belts they will be fighting over are the two belts that Inoki held during his prime, which would emphasize that Inoki in his day was both the best pro wrestler as well as the best shootfighter. It also makes the IWGP belt in pro wrestling into the "real" pro wrestling world title since it's the only world title belt that is defended against "real" fighters. I know today this all sounds silly, but if you understand the thought process of the 70s and earlier in pro wrestling, that does make sense. Now, I can't explain Scott Norton as world champion. Inoki came out to do commentary. Johnston and Gary Goodridge came out in Fujita's corner while Norton had Team 2000 members in his corner. Bell rang, and they went to commercials. You can imagine how the TV audience felt by this point. In that book of how to destroy a wrestling company based on WCW the past few years, we may need to add a chapter from a Japanese perspective. Norton beat the hell out of Fujita early, which is Fujita's Pride gimmick since Kerr and Shamrock beat the hell out of him early as well until they tired out and he somehow beat them both. Norton did pro wrestling moves like a lariat and a power bomb. They also did a spot where Norton held Fujita in a front facelock and started throwing knees to the head, similar to what Coleman and Vanderlei Silva did under the "new Pride rules" to get over it's Pride rules. Team 2000 and Johnston & Goodridge started fighting outside the ring and Johnston punched Norton, leading to Chono & Tenzan attacking Johnston. Norton destroyed Fujita some more until Fujita made the comeback with a spear, got the mount and started punching. Norton escaped and got a mount and started punching, but Fujita went for an armbar from the bottom, Norton tried to power out, Fujita quickly changed position to get behind him and got a choke. Norton didn't tap, but sold it like he was out and ref Massao Hattori stopped the match. They sold it on TV like a wrestler from Pride won New Japan's world title and Fujita left with both belts and it was announced Fujita vs. Nagata for the title at the Fukuoka Dome."
and
"Not much more to say about the U.S. version of the Pride PPV. I liked the Tra Telligman vs. Igor Vovchanchyn match better with the American commentary. Actually, the stand-up matches always seem better on PPV. Last two matches were good. The rest were either too quick (although Henderson-Gracie was good for what it was) or too slow (Yasuda-Satake). The announcing of Stephen Quadros wasn't very exciting. Bas Rutten has a personality but needs a more hyped up play-by-play guy. They edited out almost all the pro wrestling angles, which was weird because the show ran so short, such as Mezger-Enson Inoue, which the crowd live popped huge for, and all the Antonio Inoki stuff, which, admittedly, would be hard to explain to an American crowd being that even the Japanese crowd didn't really understand what he was doing. Risa Stagmayer did the backstage interviews and she was really bad [I don't agree! I think she was fine and a step-up! --ed]. I don't know why so many sporting events feel the need to have a pretty woman handling the task which only makes interviews, which are so important, come off lame. It would be great if you have a pretty woman who can do the job, but this wasn't even close to the case. Once again, they did a poor job in getting over the size of the crowd or how big the show really was, except when they aired a very brief clip of the amazing business being done at the concession stand, but even then, you had a lobby shot of tons of kids wearing Sakuraba t-shirts and unless you happen to know what a Sakuraba t-shirt was, you'd have no idea it was almost a 1999 Stone Cold scene. They mentioned the rule changes but didn't emphasize how strongly they changed the fight, or let anyone know Sakuraba went into the fight at less than 100%. They also don't announce return dates for American PPV which hurts them in building show-to-show business, although they probably don't have a date yet. Did a good job of pushing Sakuraba-Silva and even Telligman-Vovchanchyn as rematches for the future
Sakuraba was finally released from the hospital on 4/8 after spending two weeks there after the Silva match. Nobuhiko Takada told the press that the doctors ruled Sakuraba had no eye or brain damage but that he was hospitalized with a bad flu that lingered from his pre-training. Because the flu was mentioned prominently by insiders before the fight, it's probably the truth, but the idea he was hospitalized for two weeks after the fight largely due to the flu as opposed to the beating he took sounds like a work
The Pride show aired on TV in Japan on 3/31 in a 2:20 to 3:40 p.m. time slot and drew an 8.0 rating, which is a great rating for a Saturday afternoon. Pride has done bigger ratings in the past, but that was with main events involving Sakuraba against the Gracies, and while Silva to insiders was a far tougher opponent than any of the Gracies, his name had no mainstream appeal, and ratings are the classic judge of mainstream appeal."
and
"Some clarifications on last week's story about the rules in New Jersey. Neither kneeing or kicking a downed opponent is illegal, only kneeing or kicking a downed opponent in the head. On the issue of gloves, there won't be mandatory gloves made, but simply gloves anywhere from four ounces through ten ounces will be legal. IFC wanted a ten ounce glove, which makes it very difficult to do much grappling and UFC wanted the lighter weight glove. The one point UFC did lose on was the elimination of shoes of any kind, which will work against the wrestlers getting traction to shoot. A few other minor changes. Punching to the back of the head is no longer legal, which is an offshoot of the illegal rabbit punch in boxing. Elbows performed in an up-and-down motion (the Dusty Rhodes bionic elbow to the head, face or back of the head or even the body) are illegal but elbows thrown horizontally are legal."
April 23, 2010:
"New Japan Pro Wrestling, currently the second largest pro wrestling company in the world, announced it was considering going public and selling shares next year on the Japanese Nasdaq exchange.
The company, owned by numerous shareholders, the largest being Kiyoshi Sagawa, of Sagawa Express (similar to Federal Express), according to a wire service report, is looking to raise more capital to hire bigger name foreign talent to combat the popularity of K-1 and Pride, which have surpassed New Japan in the Japanese sports entertainment world. The wire service story said New Japan was looking to win its fans back from "tough man contests" and other combat sports."
ADCC report!
"The closest thing to a pro wrestling champion was Pancrase's Sanae Kikuta, who defeated defending champion Saulo Ribeiro at 87 kilograms to win the tournament. It was something of a revenge type of match for Ribeiro, who came off winning at Abu Dhabi, but then went into Vale Tudo combat and lost to a high knee in less than one minute to Kikuta's Pancrase teammate Yuki Kondo. However, Ribeiro, fighting another Pancrase star, this time under his rule specialty, had his guard passed by Kikuta to win via points in a tough weight division. Kikuta defeated Evan Tanner, who has also been very successful in Pancrase and is coming off a loss to Tito Ortiz on the last UFC show in challenging for the middleweight title, by a 6-0 score in his first round match. He defeated Australian Olympic wrestler Chris Brown in the second round. Brown pulled a major upset in the first round with a decision win over former champion Renzo Gracie, spoiling a potential Gracie-Kikuta rematch of their somewhat legendary no time limit 1998 Vale Tudo rules match in Pride which Gracie won in 50:43. Kikuta's third round win was over Egan Inoue, a veteran of Japanese shoot wars with many different companies (coming off a loss at the last Pride show to Guy Mezger), who defeated Volodymyr of Russia and Liborio of Brazil to reach the semis, and ended up losing in the consolation match to Antonio Schembri via points. Gracie, who weighs about 172 in competition, faced off with a wrestler with a nearly 20-pound weight edge and lost, as opposed to dropping five pounds and going into a tournament with men largely his own size."
Hey remember when Sanae Kikuta surprised and delighted us at RINGS 4/4/97: BATTLE GENESIS Vol. 1? Perhaps revisit it here!
NJPW/PRIDE entanglements continue . . . and abound:
"They have a strong line-up as far as probably delivering exciting matches, but a weak line-up for drawing for the 5/5 Fukuoka Dome which will likely struggle to draw a legitimate 20,000 just like Osaka Dome actually drew. In a major surprise, especially coming off the heels of some people at TV-Asahi being disappointed with the Osaka Dome rating, they are putting the Fukuoka Dome show on TV in another prime time special from 7-9 p.m. There are a few matches that haven't been announced yet including the main event. Based on the 4/9 Osaka Dome show, the main event should be Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Yuji Nagata for the IWGP heavyweight title. I think Nagata can carry anyone so this should be a good match. However, Fujita is not over in a pro wrestling ring as a world champion, but I also don't think anyone buys that Nagata has a chance to win this match. This also may not take place on this show as there is talk that Fujita would instead work the Pride PPV show on 5/27 in Yokohama and that in exchange, Pride would send someone, perhaps Mark Coleman, to the New Japan show for an opponent of Nagata. Coleman pinned Nagata in a tag match on New Years Eve at the Osaka Dome and there has been talk ever since of doing a singles rematch. If Fujita isn't working this show, than doing that title change last week makes even less sense. Riki Choshu & Manabu Nakanishi face Naoya Ogawa & Kazunari Murakami. Whatever they draw, this is the only match that really has some box office, but it's watered down by being a tag match with Murakami the probable loser. Ogawa in with both Choshu and Nakanishi should be super heat and Murakami is really good at working the kind of legit looking match this is going to have to be to get over. Takashi Iizuka vs. Tadao Yasuda. We'll see if the public sees this as anything more than the same old undercard New Japan match, based on Yasuda's shocking win at the last Pride, or if anyone takes that win seriously because if you saw the match, you wouldn't. Should be decent because Yasuda is big and clumsy but has some charisma, and Iizuka is one of those underrated guys who can carry Yasuda to a good match. Keiji Muto & Hiroshi Hase vs. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan. On paper sounds okay. Muto & Hase were a super tag team many years ago, but Hase is basically a politician and Muto and Chono are crippled. Still, all four are over in their own way. Don Frye vs. Scott Norton. If this match has even a prayer, than Don Frye is a member of a higher species than he's letting on. Taiyo Kea vs. Satoshi Kojima. This match really should be the best one on the entire show. Jushin Liger & El Samurai defend the IWGP jr. tag titles against Silver King & Dr. Wagner Jr. This should be good, but junior matches never play well in big Domes so it'll be hard. Minoru Tanaka vs. Kendo Ka Shin for the IWGP jr. title. Again, on paper these two should have a great match technically, but Ka Shin is so dead that it'll have no heat. Another major match will be involving Kensuke Sasaki, as no opponent has been named for him yet, and they could do a Shinya Hashimoto rematch."
April 30, 2001:
"Fujita will miss the 5/5 Fukuoka Dome show to instead work the 5/27 Pride show at the Yokohama Arena. They seem to be building Fujita against Yoshihiro Takayama of NOAH, so in that sense they are protecting Fujita as well as Takayama while still putting them in Pride, which kind of gets wrestlers over as real shooters just by participating in it (except Kendo Ka Shin)."
and
"While not announced, two matches that have been negotiated for the 5/27 Pride show at the Yokohama Arena are Guy Mezger vs. Vitor Belfort and Dan Henderson vs. Allan Goes."
May 7, 2001:
"Exactly where Pride and traditional pro wrestling separate got more blurry with the announcement of the Kazuyuki Fujita (New Japan) vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (Pro Wrestling NOAH) match on 5/27 at the Yokohama Arena with Takayama, at the press conference announcing the match, saying he wants the IWGP heavyweight title on the line. As the storyline goes, Tatsumi Fujinami of New Japan is against the IWGP title being put on the line on a Pride show. Takayama is going to work the NOAH house show schedule in May, while Fujita won't even work the Fukuoka Dome. Fujita, however, is said to be not leaving for California where he does most of his training, because he suffered a left knee injury in his Osaka Dome match on 4/9 against Scott Norton."
May 14, 2001:
OGAWA REPORT:
"
MAY 14, 2001 WRESTLING OBSERVER NEWSLETTER: WWF INSURREXTION REVIEW, MORE
BY OBSERVER STAFF | STAFF@WRESTLINGOBSERVER.COM | @WONF4W
TWITTERFACEBOOKGOOGLE+
Wrestling Observer Newsletter
PO Box 1228, Campbell, CA 95009-1228 ISSN1083-9593 May 14, 2001
They had a one match show. And the match didn't deliver.
That was the story about the New Japan return to the Fukuoka Dome on 5/5, which on a national holiday week, drew about 25,000 fans (announced as a face-saving 35,000) in the 70,000-seat stadium. The line-up was ordinary, with the exception of the main event, promising the long-awaited first meeting of Riki Choshu and Naoya Ogawa, in a tag team situation, where the goal should have been to tease a few quick spots, let their partners do the bulk of the work, and bring it back on 7/20 at the Sapporo Dome in a singles match.
Result. Something so bad that the next day the national sports newspapers ran front page stories talking about how bad the match was and that Choshu should retire. We even received reports that this match was so bad it could be a strong candidate for Worst Match of the Year.
The card, which aired as a two-hour prime-time television special based on the match, had great TV and magazine build up for the match. Everything was built around Choshu and Ogawa, as if they were doing a singles match, with partners Manabu Nakanishi and Kazunari Murakami ignored.
Airing on a few hour tape delay in prime time that evening from 7-9 p.m. on TV-Asahi, the show drew a 12.3 rating, a number that is a success but in some ways is misleading. Most of the show actually didn't do that well except for the main event, which pulled in a remarkable 21.1 rating and 29.5 million viewers, which will likely be the largest audience for a pro wrestling match anywhere in the world this year. The main event beat out the Yomiuri Giants baseball game which aired live head-to-head, which was also considered amazing because the Giants are basically Japan's national baseball team and it's considered impossible for a competing sporting event to outdraw them on television. It would be the equivalent of a Raw match outdrawing Monday Night Football for a quarter hour, actually even bigger because baseball in Japan is bigger than football in the U.S. and the Giants, who are basically the country's national team, like the equivalent of a Dallas Cowboys in Dallas but national, are much bigger than Monday Night Football. And Raw has never come close to beating MNF, even for a quarter hour.
Ogawa is clearly the biggest mainstream star in the genre, as the three biggest TV ratings of the past 13 months for big matches on television have been the 24.0 that his match in April of 2000 against Shinya Hashimoto did, this match, and an 18.7 that a tape of his match with Masaaki Satake from Pride with the judo vs. karate world champion hype drew. The strong numbers improved the odds that TV-Asahi will put New Japan's 7/20 Sapporo Dome and 10/8 Tokyo Domes on in prime time after some disappointment from the network standpoint (there shouldn't have been if they'd be paying attention to wrestling) with the 10.7 rating of the Osaka Dome show on 4/9. There's also an important point these ratings show about the Japanese market. Whether something is a work or a shoot may be important to hardcore fans and it is super important to insiders who want to know the real story. But to the casual mass audience, it is personalities and the ability to suspend disbelief that is the big draw. Deep down, everyone knew Ogawa vs. Hashimoto was going to be a work because the poll that was taken on the air, which showed the majority thought Hashimoto would win (since it was "his turn to win" if you think like a wrestling fan who knows it's a work as opposed to someone who thought it was real) even though Ogawa cleaned his clock at every prior opportunity because that's what happens in storytelling pro wrestling. But that was a bigger match than the Satake match, which, while it was also a work, to this day, virtually nobody in the general public is aware of it and even many insiders are in denial of it. The Choshu match, even though Choshu is nearly 50, because Choshu is a pro wrestling legend a generation of fans have seen, going against the current hot star, even though it was a tag and New Japan itself is in a cold period, still drew a huge TV audience.
The match contained almost no wrestling. Mostly standing and stalling. Ogawa and Choshu would eye each other, threw some half-hearted jobs, slaps and kicks, lock up, end up in the corner, and tag out. Nakanishi and Murakami did no better. Standing, circling, teasing a big explosion, and then doing nothing.
In a great example of Booking 101 after this travesty, Ogawa, tried to "save" it by saying Choshu isn't any good and it's unnecessary to do the planned singles match. Ogawa said his next match would be on the Zero-One show on 6/14 in Osaka and he had no opponents in New Japan, while New Japan President Tatsumi Fujinami claimed that they weren't going to use Ogawa anymore in New Japan, that the proposed Ogawa vs. Choshu singles match wouldn't take place and that the company was going to go in a different direction. After all the bad newspaper press, Choshu publicly admitted the match wasn't any good. However, the marketing department of New Japan is said to be adamant that they won't be able to run successful Dome shows as far as selling tickets or drawing a competitive prime time number on 7/20 or 10/8 without Ogawa. It is said New Japan management after a meeting on 5/7 was deadlocked on the issue of allowing Ogawa back. Keep in mind that with Antonio Inoki involved with the booking, probably most of this is all his idea of a believable storyline as opposed to actual news. The story they were trying to get across, and failed, is that Choshu wanted to test Ogawa in a wrestling match, while Ogawa wanted a street fight.
Before the match started, Ogawa & Murakami came out with Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Naohiro Hoshikawa of the Zero-One promotion, along with a man in a white mask (Shinya Hashimoto).
Ogawa took Choshu down immediately and went for a choke after punches from the mount. Choshu looked trapped and a lot of fans thought the match wasn't going to last 30 seconds,but Nakanishi made the save. Choshu got a comeback later but it ended with a rope break. When Ogawa and Choshu were going at it again, Nakanishi used a chicken wing submission on Murakami in 9:07 to end the match.
Otherwise, it was said to be a decent show with no great matches, and only one other bad match, the Yuji Nagata vs. Rainy Martinez bout, where Martinez, in his pro wrestling debut, couldn't be carried in a worked shoot type of match that did nothing to build Nagata up for his IWGP heavyweight title shot at Kazuyuki Fujita which is now scheduled as the main event of New Japan's next PPV show on 6/6 from Tokyo Budokan Hall.
They aired five of the last six matches (didn't air Frye vs. Norton) on TV so we should have a report on the show in next week's issue."
look at this, though:
"1. Shinya Makabe & Katsuyori Shibata beat Hiroshi Tanahashi & Wataru Inoue in 11:08 when Makabe pinned Tanahashi after a german suplex. Aside from Makabe, these are three rookies who are all very good at fundamentals like most of the New Japan wrestlers are. Tanahashi has the major league star look for down the line. Shibata has the pedigree advantage since his father was a pro wrestler and later a referee for the company."
neat!
and
"Even though we're only a few weeks away, nothing has been officially announced for the 5/27 Pride show at Yokohama Arena except the Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Yoshihiro Takayama main event, which won't be for the IWGP heavyweight title and Ryan Gracie vs. Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Kendo Ka Shin). It is believed that Vanderlei Silva will face Daijiro Matsui, who is a stablemate of Kazushi Sakuraba from the Takada dojo. They fought before and Matsui hung in and went the distance losing via decision, and Pele vs. Frank Trigg and some possibility of Guy Mezger vs. Chuck Liddell. That's a quick turnaround for Liddell, and it's hard to believe UFC wouldn't have him under contract because VP Joe Silva was just about the only person in the world who predicted he'd beat Kevin Randleman going in
Naoto Morishita, the President of Dream Stage Entertainment (Pride) was at the UFC and came back to Japan saying the two companies would work together. He said he would promote UFC shows in Japan and the two companies would trade fighters. There have been those in negotiations to promote in the U.S. that have also suggested Super Bowl type match-ups between the two groups since working together and feuding would likely increase the popularity of both sides, although in the long run, businesses like that working together always seem to hit snags."
May 21, 2001:
"The Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Yoshihiro Takayama main event for the Pride PPV on 5/27 at the Yokohama Arena may be in jeopardy although at press time it was still on. Takayama was hospitalized on 5/14 after a fever an infection in his lower back and they talked about him needing surgery but he didn't get it yet. Takayama had low back surgery 18 years ago while in high school. He will be out of action from NOAH for the rest of the tour. Despite the fact most of the hardcore MMA fans in Japan and all of them in the U.S. hate this match-up, they had already sold out all 17,000 tickets for the show with this being the only match announced and because of that, they really want to deliver that match. The show will air in the U.S. on DirecTV on 6/16 as well as Viewers Choice Canada, the Dish Networks and Bell Vu. Officially added this past week was Gilbert Yvel vs. Igor Vovchanchyn, Gary Goodridge vs. Valentijn Overeem, Guy Mezger vs. Chuck Liddell (a good match on paper with Liddell coming off the KO win over Kevin Randleman and both being good both standing and in wrestling; UFC, which has Liddell under contract, is allowing him to do this fight which shows at least the beginnings of working together), Johil de Oliveira vs. Nino Shembri (who placed third at 191 in Abu Dhabi along with winning the Most Technical Fighter award for the entire tournament) and Vitor Belfort vs. Heath Herring (which is potentially a hell of a match and the winner would have to be in line for something big. They are grooming Herring to be the young American star and this is the key match if he makes the grade or if Belfort can regain the stardom everyone predicted he'd achieve when he made such a stunning debut in UFC in 1997). Although there has been a ton of pub on Ryan Gracie vs. Tokimitsu Ishizawa (Kendo Ka Shin), the last updated card had both taken off and I'm not sure why. Matches that haven't been announced but are tentative are Vanderlei Silva vs. Shungo Oyama, Pele vs. Daijiro Matsui and Dan Henderson vs. Akira Shoji. Oyama has a very strong judo background but only has one fight under these rules, which was in the U.S. at a King of the Cage match against Mike Bourke, a 275-pounder who is a low level fighter, who Oyama knocked out in 17 seconds with a hard right, despite having very little striking training. You never know, but potentially this could be a hell of a show. Yvel-Vovchanchyn is one of those matches which on paper looks like a stand-up war, but for some reason, those matches often end up going to the ground and being disappointing (Yvel vs. Vitor Belfort). Overeem has been really impressive in RINGS, tapping out UFC heavyweight champ Randy Couture in less than a minute in the King of Kings tournament and losing in the finals to Antonio Noguiera. It's a big coup for Pride to sign him away as he's only 24 years old, got a great look, and is well rounded in that he's dangerous both standing and on the ground."
May 28, 2001:
so dark:
"RINGS is undergoing financial problems since WOWOW, its broadcasting network which largely supports the company, cut back on rights fees. The first result of this was the firing of long-time company veterans Norihisa (Yoshihisa) Yamamoto and Masayoshi Naruse, both of whom have been with the company from its beginnings doing the worked shoot UWF style before going into the straight shoot style. The cutbacks caused Tokyo Sports to run an article wondering if the company can survive. They are planning a major anniversary show for August. Yamamoto has a pretty big name and is expected to get offers from Zero-One, Pride and Deep."
and
"Zuffa is allowing Chuck Liddell, who is under contract to them, to fight on the Pride show as it isn't wanting to stand in the way of fighters attempting to make a living. The sides do talk and are on good terms, but there are no business deals that have been closed. Former WCW and WWF promoter Zane Bresloff is now involved in promoting Pride in the U.S. and I'd expect Guy Mezger to handle a lot of the PR for the 6/16 PPV."
and
"Ken Shamrock suffered a knee injury in training for Pride coming off his neck injury and is likely through with shootfighting and has begun negotiating to return."
OKAY THAT'S IT! That was more than the normal amount of Observer Bitz than usual, I think, despite the relatively quick turnaround-time between PRIDEs.13&.14 as I have chosen just now to style them as a pair. I am surprised anew to see just how intimately Antonio Inoki was involved in Pride booking in late 2000/early 2001. Perhaps I should not be? And yet I very much am! I suspect we will be reading more on this subject in the wake of a KAZUYUKI FUJITA vs. YOSHIHIRO TAKAYAMA MAIN EVENT POSSIBLY and that is what we are in for next, so let's get to it! See you then! As always, thank you very much for reading. Stay safe and be well!
Did I tell you that I ended up talking to Chris Haseman about his time in Rings?
ReplyDeleteYou did not! I remember you saying that it looked like it was going to happen, but you have not told the whole tale. I am eager to hear it!
DeleteIt was a really fun chat but i can't publish much of it as to begin with Chris said he wasn't comfortable discussing the shoot work spectrum, we then spent a good hour discussing the shoot work spectrum. Yamamoto apparently had an enormous ego, TK was an excellent human being, the young boys trained extremely hard while Maeda was around and not at all when he wasn't, and after Haseman went to decision against tk, he was brought into the dojo as a "RINGS guy" and so then had his matchmaking change from fighting rings guys to fighting foreigners to test them as to whether or not matching them in fights (which i took to mean shoots) against rings guys would be a good idea
DeleteOH MAN. Perhaps unsurprisingly, I love all of this so much; thank you! Would it be ok if I include this information in one of the regular posts here? I would like to quote it at the start of one and just pretty much be like "oh man."
DeleteI deliberately left out the spiciest stuff so it would be publishable, you have my blessing, also if it may interest you i published the final part of my interview with Paul Lazenby who was fighting in pancrase in 1996 https://youtu.be/ZvKC2CoU8ak
DeleteListening now, thanks! I have heard him interviewed elsewhere and found him really thoughtful and interesting. Pleased to have more!
Deletep.s. I think it was kosoto-gari you were looking for
DeleteYou are right, i should relinquish my yellow belt in shame!
DeleteThere could be no more characteristically and appropriately yellow-belt waza than mixing up inside and outside reaps and so your yellow belt has been REINSTATED
DeleteI can do all the moves its just their names that escape me!
DeleteSounds like somebody is ready . . . for orange belt.
DeleteMy whole reason for bringing up haseman was the firing of Yamamoto, and my immediate thoughts being, "eh, no big loss" despite the fact that it most definitely was, like, why was he a star? Naruse leaving is a far bigger loss in my opinion, and why didn't they push TK harder, given he actually beat lots of very good people and was a really good guy? Was it the losses to Yvel? Why Maeda why?
ReplyDeleteIf I'm remembering my Observerz correctly, my understanding is that Maeda wanted to put the title on TK if he would agree to sign full-time, but TK insisted on taking UFC fights and training in the U.S. with Maurice Smith etc.
Deletewas this before or after yvel and tamura left, because if its before it makes no sense
DeleteI'm glad you asked, because I had forgotten the timeline of it all myself. Googling for it brings me to the RINGS 9/21/98: FIGHTING INTEGRATION 6th entry . . .
Deletehttp://tkscissors.blogspot.com/2017/05/rings-92198-fighting-integration-6th.html
. . . and the 9/28/98 Observer, wherein:
"9/21 Yokohama Bunka Gym (RINGS - 4,170): Yasuhito Namekawa b Ryuki Ueyama, Lee Hasdell b Kenichi Yamamoto, Wataru Sakata b Christopher Hazemann, Hiromitsu Kanehara b Willie Peeters, Tsuyoshi Kohsaka b Ilioukhine Mikhail, Kiyoshi Tamura b Yoshihisa Yamamoto. RINGS drew 4,170 on 9/21 in Yokohama with Kiyoshi Tamura beating Yoshihisa Yamamoto in the main event in 18:52 with a neck lock submission and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka over Ilioukhine Mikhail also with a neck lock in 12:00. The win means Tamura will get the next shot at the heavyweight title. I'd presume both of these were worked matches. Apparently the reason Kohsaka didn't win the title from Bitaszde Tariel on 7/20 is because he didn't sign a full-time contract with RINGS [this is amazing, I had never heard this--ed]. Kohsaka is now living in Seattle and training under Maurice Smith to improve his kickboxing because his goal is to win the UFC heavyweight title. He's working RINGS on a show-by-show basis rather then under a long-term contract, and there were even feelers in regards to him jumping to Pancrase but nothing happened as Pancrase only offered to match what he was making in RINGS so why jump? The legendary Russian wrestler Alexandre Karelin will be competing in Japan in October and RINGS is going to make a big play to bring him in, but he may be out of their price range."
I thought the only person who seriously considered TK for the RINGS title was me in literally every game of Final Fire Pro I have ever played on my phone but no; there is another.
SO HE WON"T GIVE TK THE TITLE BECASUE HE WON"T SIGN FULL TIME BUT GIVES IT TO YVEL(through opportunity) AND TAMURA WHO BOTH LEAVE WITH THE BELT WTF MAEDA?!!!
ReplyDeletelol I knooooooooooow
Delete