It is hard to fathom now, but in early 1993 MMA was still an experimental concept. 
Yes, it seems incredulous, or preposterous even, that two men fighting professionally 
with only a bare minimum of rules would in any way seem experimental, avant-garde, or 
cutting-edge, but going back to early 1993, it was practically unheard of. In 1991/1992, 
we saw Japan move the needle further away from standard pro wrestling buffoonery towards 
legit combat theater, but there was still a lot of apprehension as to the validity of 
pure shooting being a viable concept.

Until recently, Satoru Sayama had been the lone voice in the wilderness preaching the 
virtues of true MMA (I.E. Shooto), but now the pendulum is starting to swing in favor of 
what he saw all along, and these upcoming RINGS events were another crucial step in that 
direction. Enter the Korakuen Experiment League, a fancy way for Akira Maeda to 
(presumably) plot out cards with more shoots but not have to fully commit to the concept 
if anything goes sideways. These shows were a precursor to their future Battle Genesis 
events, cards that were held in smaller venues than what they typically booked in Tokyo 
and were all, or mostly all, shoots.

ML: We'll have to see how much of these Korakuen Experiment League shows pan out to be 
real, but my sense of them at least is that they were genuine attempts to present 
legitimate martial arts shows without having to gamble too highly on the concept. Maeda's 
inability to shoot was one of the primary reasons RINGS wasn't going to be considering 
real fights as their main attraction any year soon, but with Maeda on the shelf anyway, 
there was never going to be a better time to determine how much interest there might be 
in the martial arts aspects of the RINGS product. These shows kept some of the natives 
busy as well as introducing new European fighters, but were largely designed to see how 
the fans would react to shoots, whether kickboxing could be an actual attraction or was 
only suited to be undercard filler, and whether the audience would take more to some 
other styles such as sambo through further educatation via exhibitions. One thing you'll 
notice is there's no guard rail, and the fans are a little closer, since this was before 
Antonio Inoki's UFO decided every supposed MMA match should spill onto the ring apron. 
Anyway, the RINGS Battle Genesis shows were something different, that was an attempt to 
bring back smaller shows through branding them, but the shows had roughly the same mix of 
works and shoots that the main RINGS shows had during those years. After the first 
handful, they were legit simply because RINGS had finally become a full MMA promotion.

Maeda's involvement in pushing true fighting in this pre-UFC era has been the greatest 
revelation of this project thus far, as we simply did not realize the extent that he was 
encouraging this kind of behavior prior to our starting this. It has made me reassess my 
general opinion of him and makes me think that he was far more open to having RINGS be a 
full-blown shoot-promotion than I was led to believe. However, unlike Sayama, who spent 
his fortune on forming the first true MMA promotion that hardly anyone at the time cared 
about, Maeda did not have such a strength of conviction but rather dabbled in MMA 
promotion as long as it did not jeopardize his bottom line. After all, RINGS was the only 
shoot-style league to have a television deal at this time, which also meant that Maeda 
was the only person outside of Antonio Inoki or Giant Baba to have a wrestling promotion 
that did not need major subsidies to stay afloat.

While Maeda’s lack of any homegrown talent was a problem in some respects, it was 
certainly advantageous when it came to shooting since he could allow portions of the 
undercard to do it without fear of hurting any long-term booking plans. In fact, it may 
be safe to say that RINGS did not have any long-term strategies beyond keeping Maeda 
healthy enough to continue to headline events. That would ultimately be one of the key 
factors to his undoing, as when he retired in 1998, he lacked enough homegrown star power 
to ward off Pride FC from sucking up all the oxygen. In the end, it may have been Sayama 
that had the last laugh since Shooto is still around to this day, whereas all the U-style 
groups have come and gone. Perhaps there is something to be said for starting small and 
staying that way, as opposed to being birthed a giant only to be forced to figure out a 
way to downsize later.

ML: A crucial difference between Sayama & Maeda is Sayama was a retired wrestler who was 
only promoting Shooto as something of an advertisement for his dojo, and a venue for his 
students to put their training to the test. Hence, it started small because it wasn't an 
already organized tournament sport such as karate, and lacked his in ring drawing power, 
or any other actual recognizable names to promote the new sport. Maeda, on the other 
hand, was largely promoting RINGS as a way to continue his pro wrestling career on his 
own terms, capitalizing on his spectacular success in New Japan and especially U.W.F., 
finally without the plethora of individuals he didn't get along with as well as he might 
have liked. Things had evolved to the point where going back to pro wrestling again by 
starting a company in 1991 that was more similar to Genichiro Tenryu's new SWS promotion 
would have seemed a step backwards, but taking the next step to real fighting would have 
required him to stay on the sidelines like Sayama, given his body was barely holding on 
even without having to do training camps and deal with people actively trying to take him 
out. To some extent, things simply unfolded in the logical fashion, as Funaki, Suzuki, & 
Shamrock were the guys at the right age to make the move, with health and now the skills 
from training legitimately while in PWFG, and less years wasted perfecting the foolish 
old tropes of pro wrestling.
 
RINGS Korakuen Experiment League Round 1 2/28/93 Tokyo Korakuen Hall

Sergei Sousserov vs. Masayuki Naruse 12:26

"Russia’s secret weapon" has returned! Since we last saw him two months ago, it 
seems that someone was kind enough to smuggle him some Flesh for Lulu and Cure LPs, as he 
appears to be going through his post-punk phase right before our eyes. Sadly, until his 
Adam Ant cover band takes off, he will have to keep giving this shoot-fighting thing a 
go, but at least he has the courage to sport his nude shade of lipstick in the meanwhile. 
The fight barely begins when Naruse opts to do his favorite Volk Han impression, taking 
the fight to the mat and attempting some bizarre rendition of a double heel-hook, but 
such theatrics are best left to the professionals. Sousserov is the embodiment of what a 
failed Street Fighter II character could have been, replete with fancy jump kicks and 
throws, but somehow never able to make that as exciting as it sounds. Like Bart Vale 
before him, Sousserov has some tools but lacks any intensity, which just highlights the 
silly movie-quality fluff of his arsenal. Naruse looked good, usually having a slick 
presence on the mat, but was largely ineffective at corralling his spastic and 
inexperienced opponent into having anything resembling a decent match. Sadly, this was 
nowhere close to being a shoot, and was about 6 minutes too long. If this is an example 
of Russia’s secrets, then it is no wonder why they did not win the cold war. * ¾

ML: This may not have been the most well worked match, but you had to admire the pace 
they kept and the effort they put into it. While realism didn't appear to be a major 
consideration, there were some aspects they did quite well, for instance the striking was 
very reliant on them being light on their feet, closing the distance to try to land, 
while the other would back out to try to avoid. Naruse accidentally bloodied Sousserov's 
mouth with his stiff palm strikes. I generally enjoyed the movement in this match, even 
when Sousserov threw a slightly silly jumping middle kick, he then took advantage of 
Naruse leaning back to avoid it, coming forward quickly and clinching into a nice koshi 
guruma. Sousserov was a whirlwind out there, just overwhelming Naruse with attempts, and 
when he was throwing him around, or constantly grabbing at appendages on the ground, he 
was at least interesting. The best spot was probably the finish where Naruse caught a 
kick, but Sousserov jumped to the canvas, hooking Naruse's leg on the other side on the 
way down, rolling him over and continuing into a heel hook. The main problem was it was 
kind of sloppy, particularly Sousserov's kicks, which really brought the whiffage. I 
don't know about the Secret Weapon nickname, but with the pace Sousserov keeps we could 
call him "The Siberian Express" if it weren't already taken by a Swedish dude 
who used to be named Hans. While too sloppy to be good, this was at least a fun match, 
with Sousserov sort of being a cross between a bad Volk Han and a bad Willie Peeters.

Mitsuya Nagai vs. Sandor Telgen 5:27

Thanks to the farce of the first match, we are about to head into free-fall at terminal 
velocity unless our scrappy rookie, Mitsuya Nagai, can shoot his way to victory. This 
will be both the first and last match of Telgen, a mysterious Hungarian fighter who joins 
the pantheon of men who only appeared in RINGS for a cup of coffee, never to be seen 
again. At the outset, Telgen is moving well, almost like a less awkward Semmy Schilt, 
which again angers me that many of the interesting newcomers don’t seem to stick around 
past one match. Telgen is wisely keeping calm and letting Nagai come to him. Telgen is 
obviously comfortable with kickboxing, but it is unclear if he has any grappling 
experience. Nagai tries to clinch only to eat some hard knees, forcing him to rethink his 
strategy. Telgen has such a size/reach advantage over Nagai that he could surely murk his 
opponent with some more aggression, but he is being overly cautious, fearing the 
takedown. Nagai finally solved the riddle when he intentionally botched a takedown just 
for an opportunity to sneak under Telgen’s legs and fish for a toehold. You could tell 
that Telgen had never been in this situation before, and had no idea how to move out of 
the submission, corroborating my theory that he was pulled out of a dingy Hungarian 
kickboxing academy. Telgen’s ignorance was his undoing, as he caught a sloppy kick from 
Nagai, but didn’t know how to follow up on it, so Nagai just fell back and got his 
toehold on the second attempt. This shoot was an interesting pre-UFC striker vs. grappler 
bout, although it was too short to give it a strong recommendation. I think that Telgen 
showed a lot of promise to be a solid MMA fighter with some cross-training, but sadly we 
will never know.

ML: Telgen has the huge advantage that this shoot starts on the feet, where he has a 
massive reach advantage, but seemingly only trained in kickboxing, it's just really 
difficult for him to ever get aggressive when he has no idea what to expect from an 
opponent who clearly doesn't have much interest in kickboxing him. Telgen's ground 
defense is hilarious, rather than using a guard, he still tries to control Nagai with a 
Thai clinch off his back. Wanting to avoid hitting the mat again at all costs, Telgen 
begins to do a better job in stand up, backing Nagai with the front kick and then when 
Nagai tries to close the distance, hitting him with a straight. Nagai gets one of his 
rare kicks caught though, and we see the same finish as in the previous match, with Nagai 
jumping and rolling Telgen into a heel hook. Too short to amount to much, and definitely 
more interesting than good.

Before we get to the main event, we are treated to a glorious display of "COMMAND 
SOMBO", where Volk Han dons paramilitary gear and tosses his partner around like a 
sock puppet. In a world where San Francisco shopkeepers are teaching their employees kung 
fu in an effort to thwart shoplifting, how much better would it be to go to your local 
MMA event instead and learn from a fantastic sambo demonstration?

3Min 5R: Naoyuki Taira vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa R5

Now for the main event that I cannot help but be excited about, the return of 
Shootboxing/Shooto ace Naoyuki Taira. Taira gave us some of 1992’s most exciting 
shoot-moments, and we must never forget how he almost took Eric Edlenbos’ shoulder home 
with him as a trophy, some eight years before Sakuraba did the same to Renzo Gracie. This 
contest will be the second shoot in a row, only this bout will be held under the same 
bizarre alternating rules that we saw back in July at the 2nd Seidokaikan Battle Sports 
Olympic event. Rounds 1, 2, and 5 will be under kickboxing rules, whereas rounds 3, and 
4, will be under RINGS (MMA) rules. However, I suspect that Taira will not be able to 
bring his can of grease this time around, which is sure to take away some of the awesome 
frivolity that we got to see the last time he fought. Atokawa is a very game karateka who 
does not have the all-around skills that Taira does, but is sure to be a threat in the 
kickboxing portions, at least.

Round 1 starts with low output from both men as they try and feel each other out, with 
several half-hearted attempts at a spinning back-fist by Naoyuki. Atokawa gets serious 
when Naoyuki misses a flying knee-turned-somersault, and begins to press the action. 
Atokawa is all business, whereas Naoyuki seems more concerned about showboating. Slight 
edge to Atokawa.

Atokawa was able to continually smother Naoyuki in round 2, never allowing him to get the 
distance he needed. It didn't help that Naoyuki only wants to throw flashy spinning 
attacks. Still, this round was fairly even as Naoyuki snuck in a few strikes while 
disengaging from the clinch.

Tracksuit Maeda cannot sit idly by anymore, and will now be the special referee for the 
RINGS rules portions of this contest. If Naoyuki were a Dungeons and Dragons character, 
his attributes would be strength in both the striking and submission columns, but woeful 
in the wrestling department. To his credit, Naoyuki continually pressed forward towards 
Atokawa, who wanted nothing to do with the ground game, but his only plan to get the 
fight horizontal was a remedial headlock takedown. If aggression and ring control count 
for anything, then I would give this round to Naoyuki, but I doubt that those factors 
will play into the scoring should this go to a decision.

Naoyuki was able to finally get his white belt-level judo to work, taking a slippery 
Atokawa down, but Atokawa was sweaty enough to slick his way over to the ropes for a 
stand-up. Naoyuki worked hard the rest of the round to try and get Atokawa to the mat and 
finish the fight, but couldn't quite get the job done.

Naoyuki couldn't match Atokawa’s solid kickboxing fundamentals in round 5, so he 
continued his path of spamming low percentage attacks, occasionally connecting. This 
round belonged to Atokawa to be sure, but it was not quite the blowout you would expect 
either. The fight goes to a draw, which I suppose is a fair decision, although I would 
have given Naoyuki the nod over aggressively pushing the fight during the RINGS rounds.

ML: The mixed rules seemed to undermine the action, as both fighters were only aggressive 
during the rounds where they had the rules advantage, and mostly just tried to stall 
during the rounds where at the rules disadvantage. Taira was by far the better athlete, 
but his kickboxing was clearly inferior, as he wasn't nearly as technical as Atokawa. 
Taira didn't seem to be taking this match too seriously for some reason, approaching it 
as more of an exhibition, but apparently his actual strategy was to keep things 
unconventional and wild by only throwing flashy strikes. This should have been more 
entertaining, but because he refused to use a jab, or some feints, or any sort of 
misdirection to set them up, especially as the fight progressed and Atokawa understood 
Taira's strategy, such as it was, it became more and more difficult for any of these 
movie kicks to actually land. When we got to the third round, Taira switched to 
aggressively looking to grab Atokawa so he could utilize his judo based Shootboxing 
throws, but he didn't have any luck with these, and doesn't seem to have traditional 
wrestling training. In these rounds, Atokawa threw the occasional jab or low kick to try 
to keep Taira honest and at bay, but was generally just bidding his time waiting for the 
fifth round. The 5th was arguably a little better because Taira didn't have anything to 
look forward to, but the fight just never came together despite sounding good on paper.

Conclusion: This may be the hardest event to rate that we've covered since one of the 
major fights on the card (a shoot between Yoshinori Nishi and Koichiro Kimura) was not 
included in our footage. Overall, from what could be seen, it would be fair to deem it an 
interesting failure. Major props to Maeda for holding an event with three shoots, 
although there was no good reason to not have a different match for the opening if you 
insisted on having a worked bout on the card. The Naoyuki match was a shocking letdown 
because it looked great on paper, but between their skills negating each other and 
Atokawa running from the very thought of grappling, it was very lackluster. Still, this 
could be recommended from a historical standpoint, as long as you go into it with those 
expectations.

ML: It's no great wisdom to point out that the problem with real fights is that you can 
have reasonable matchups, and have the fighters put a lot of effort into them, but that 
still doesn't necessarily mean they will be good or interesting. This was obviously a 
very small sample size, but from what we saw we would have to call this a failure because 
none of it was very good, and the least not good match was the thing RINGS mostly does, 
the worked match, rather than what they were trying here.

Krummel's Korner

What was our prestigious translator, John Krummel, able to discover?  Let's find out:

Fighting Network RINGS Korakuen Experimental League ’93 Round 1 (2/28/93):

[I’m not going to translate the entire conversation of the commentators that continues 
throughout the video, but I’ll give you the gist of some interesting points made:]

Commentators: points to take note in this event: the expansion of mixed martial arts as 
an experiment with new rules and in a way that extends beyond the boundaries of 
organizations and styles. Maeda plans to invite fighters from various different martial 
arts organizations to freely participate. And he also wants to provide a venue for the 
middleweight fighters who don’t always get the attention they deserve as much as 
heavyweights.

Akira Maeda’s greetings: "Thank you for coming! After trying out our heavyweight 
tournament, we’d like to present you with an experimental middleweight event. Please keep 
cheering for us."

Commentator mentions that due to surgery of his left knee, Maeda will be unable to fight 
for a while.

Sergei Sousserov (RINGS Russia) vs. Masayuki Naruse (RINGS Japan) 12:26 (30mins 1 fall)

Commentator mentions the referee is Yuji Shimada (at the time the referee for 
Fujiwaragumi [later Pride]) and mentions how this is the beginning of collaboration 
between RINGS and Fujiwaragumi.

Mitsuya Nagai (RINGS Japan) vs. Sandor Telgen (RINGS Holland) 5:27 (30mins 1 fall)

Commentator says it’s Telgen’s first time to fight in RINGS. He’s a kickboxer with a 
record of 5 matches, 5 wins, 4 KO wins in amateur kickboxing; and he’s also currently 
training in sambo and wrestling. Nagai had stated before the match he’d like to drag 
Telgen into the ground for grappling. Nagai saw Telgen training a little at the Maeda 
dojo, so he knows he should be careful about his knee and he’s worried about Telgen’s 
height and reach. When Nagai does a roll to grab Telgen’s foot, the commentator mentions 
how recently the younger RINGS Japan fighters have been using that, under the influence 
of Kopylov who’s been teaching them some combat sambo.

Combat sambo exhibition with Volk Han and Vladimir Pakojin [spelling?]: Commentator 
explains what happened: In 4 minutes they exhibited 7 techniques, each one taking 1-2 
seconds. They are techniques that are used in real life (war) combat. Combat sambo 
combines strikes, throws, and joint submission in a single continuous flow.

3Min 5R: Naoyuki Taira (Zensho MMA Club) vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa (Seidokaikan karate) (3 
knockdowns in one round = TKO; no elbows; alternate rounds in kickboxing rules with 
gloves (for rounds 1,2,5) and RINGS rules with 2 rope escapes = 1 knockdown (for rounds 
3,4) and Maeda is referee for round 3 & 4.)

Commentators mention how this is a dream match. Atokawa is the 4th Seidokaikan fighter to 
make his debut in RINGS. Taira, his teenage years, has experienced boxing, Kyokushin 
karate, and even trained in Daidojuku karate [now called Kudo], and then Shooting, 
Shootboxing, and then started fighting in RINGS. His prefight ritual, where he prays 
before entering the ring is taken from muay thai.

Decision is draw (one judge gives it to Atokawa, 2 judges makes it a draw) [my comment: 
not a good match as Atokawa didn’t want to grapple in the RINGS rounds, and Taira wasn’t 
good in his takedowns for some reason. Maybe he was afraid of getting knee’d, so he 
didn’t go for single or double leg take-downs.]

Ending shows that Taira received the technical award for that night’s event and Nagai 
received the best fighter award for it.

*In other news*

WCW champion Big Van Vader recently signed a highly lucrative contract with the UWF-I, 
which is reportedly $250,000 for eight dates. Lou Thesz and Yoji Anjo were the main 
forces responsible for the deal, as they were able to meet with Bill Watts just a few 
days before his unexpected resignation from WCW. However, this signing could lead to 
possible complications down the road, and the UWF-I’s nemesis, New Japan Pro Wrestling, 
has a talent exchange program in place with WCW (although it is unclear how that will be 
affected by Watt’s resignation), and there is no way that the UWF-I would be willing to 
let Vader work with New Japan if they are using him. If that wasn’t problematic enough, 
New Japan is claiming that they were the sole inventors of the Vader gimmick, and only 
permitted Leon White (Van Vader) to use it in WCW as a courtesy. This acquisition threw a 
wrench in New Japan’s booking plans, as they were hoping to put Vader against Hulk Hogan 
at an upcoming Dome show in Tokyo.

Minoru Suzuki and Masakatsu Funaki ran into an unexpected snag on the way to start their 
new promotion. As it turns out, the former financial backer for the PWFG, Megane Super, 
paid both Funaki and Suzuki a significant bonus to retain their services for five years. 
Now, it’s being reported that they are going to have to pay back a portion of their 
bonuses in order to be free to start a new company.

Speaking of the PWFG, it is being reported that Yoshiaki Fujiwara is not content to throw 
in the towel just yet, and is currently seeking new financial backers. If he is 
successful in gathering the needed funds, he would like to have the next PWFG show around 
May-June of this year. 

The UWF-I is starting to gain some major traction as their last event on 2-14-93 with a 
Takada vs. Tamura main event was able to sell out the Budokan Hall despite going 
head-to-head against a combined New Japan/WAR show as well as the debuts of two new indy 
companies, Network of Wrestling (NOW) and Pro Wrestling Crusaders (PWC).

Although nothing is definite, it is being reported that Akira Maeda has reached out to 
several members of the PWFG roster, offering them a home in the aftermath of their 
collapse. However, it is unclear if Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki will also want to 
bring their former PWFG colleagues to their new promotion.

Ramona Gatto is continuing to call out Kathy Long. She had the opportunity to face Long 
in May of 1991 after taking a lengthy sabbatical to bare and raise her daughter. While 
several in attendance have claimed that Long was the deserved winner of a rather boring 
decision, Gatto felt that she was robbed. Gatto has since won her last four fights, with 
Long at ringside for Gatto's 2nd round knockout of Bridget Riley. After winning the bout, 
Gatto pointed to Long, cursed her out, and demanded a rematch. No word on if Long will 
acquiesce to her demands. Furthermore, Gatto is reportedly so serious about this 
potential rematch that she is now working with famous kickboxing champion Dennis Alexio 
to improve her boxing game.