Akira Maeda may have filled the arenas, but Volk Han was the real one man show in the promotion. Han participated in 8 of the 10 RINGS shows, with 7 of his matches being among the 8 very good matches the promotion produced, and the final one also making the recommended list. That is quite the accomplishment, but what makes it truly miraculous is that Han was a rookie, having fought once the previous December, and outside of his 2 matches against Maeda, all his matches were against workers with essentially equal or less experience than he had. While PWFG became stale failing to continue to invent and innovate, Han singlehandedly elevated RINGS into contention for the best shoot style promotion, showing us creative new submissions, escapes, and combinations in each of his bouts.

The big difference in 1992 was the rise of RINGS Russia, with Maeda continuing to scour the globe for new champions, and Han bringing some of his friends/students, thus allowing sambo to save the day. By far the notable addition to the promotion was Andrei Kopylov, coming off a USSR sambo championship at superheavyweight. Kopylov had been one of Han's toughest opponents in their competitive days, reportedly splitting their 4 matches, and would go on to become a lead instructor with him at Russian Top Team. Kopylov not only had one of the best RINGS matches of the year in his debut against Han, but proved to be such an excellent grappler that he was capable of carrying much lesser opposition, and wound up being the only other fighter who might more or less make the match good on his own. Though he probably never became as big a star as his initial promise might have suggested, his combination of size, technical prowess and success in standing up to both Han and Maeda quickly vaulted him to the level of reasonable main event opponent.

RINGS Japan became an actual thing in 1992, rather than simply being Maeda with Nagai as the whipping boy. The extra experience helped Nagai be the best of the lot, for now, but we started seeing useful things from rookie Yoshihisa Yamamoto toward the end of the year. Borrowing Nobuaki Kakuda & Masaaki Satake from Seido Kaikan karate gave the outfit some experience while the younger fighters figured things out, but along with SAW's Koichiro Kimura, also sent the lot more toward shooting than the other fighting networks.

While RINGS was a long way away from being the more or less full shoot promotion it would become after Maeda retired, they promoted a lot more real fights in 1992 than they get credit for (probably about as many as they did in 1995 when all their matches are suddenly erroneously credited as being legitimate), and moved pretty far ahead of their competitors in this department. Nobuaki Kakuda quit his regular full-time job and shifted to full time martial arts, going between RINGS and Seido Kaikan karate. He was mostly in shoots, and had the best ones with Yoshihisa Yamamoto & Mitsuya Nagai. Nagai was also more likely to compete in shoots than the foreigners, also having a good shoot with Koichiro Kimura. It's always struck me funny that Maeda was willing to throw these other natives that he had full time work for and were being trained to some extent as pro wrestlers into shoots, but he was still largely unwilling to throw the random foreigners who were champions at some discipline or other, usually recently, and may not be back for months, if ever, into a real situation, which would have been way more suited to the intense, high level competition they were actually used to. better in time once the talent pool was acquired. Regardless, there was now a reasonable base of the natives that were at least a threat to do something interesting.

The most disappointing aspect of 1992 RINGS was the stagnation of RINGS Holland. While Willie Peeters and Herman Renting remained useful performers, both were better in 1991, and most of the other Netherlands fighters were consistent misses. RINGS should have finished the year a lot stronger than they started due to everyone having more time to figure things out, but this was not really the case, largely because of a disasterously booked MEGA-BATTLE tournament that was totally dominated by the Dutch.

MB: So far, RINGS has been the most interesting promotion to watch, by far, out of everything we’ve been covering from 1992. Notice I did not say it was the most entertaining. Out of all the groups that fractured from the collapse of the Newborn UWF at the end of 1990, no other group has felt more of what we in the modern day would think of an MMA promotion than Maeda’s group. Of course, this would have been impossible if it weren’t for Seidokaikan coming to the rescue when they started working with Maeda/RINGS towards the end of 1991. Before December of 1991, RINGS was like the dead fish stinking up your neighbor's kiddie pool, but by the time that 1992 was closing, it had become the most important of the post-UWF leagues, by giving us the most output of real MMA outside of Shooto. 1992 RINGS also has the honor of having put out what could be considered the first professional non-Shooto Japanese MMA show with their Kakutogi Olympic event, which was co-promoted with Sediokaikan/K1.

Volk Han, on the other hand, did wonders to boost the entertainment/pro wrestling side of the equation with his limitless creativity. In some ways, his matches felt as over-the-top as a lot of other pro wrestling of its era, but one could argue that just by him simply showing up and showcasing his seemingly endless supply of various submissions that there was something to this new martial arts style. However, one man cannot carry the world on his shoulders alone, and as my esteemed colleague, Mike Lorefice, pointed out, the Dutch contingent dragged RINGS down from ever hitting the stratosphere this year. Still, a lot of that can be attributed to wonky booking. The Dutch fighters were great to have in shoots, and in most cases, that’s where they should have been utilized, but everyone was still trying to figure this all out, so some allowances have to be made for some of the questionable bookings in their early years. The main problem now, and likely going forward into 1993, will be the fact that Maeda lacks any homegrown talent outside of Mitsuya Nagai. So far, all of his fighters have been loans/imports from other sources, and with that comes the politics of having to try and appease people like Chris Dolman and Kazuyoshi Ishii. Also, because no one outside of, perhaps, Volk Han can draw, Maeda is in a precarious situation where the promotion stands to live or die on how much longer he can adequately perform, a situation becoming more questionable due to his upcoming knee surgery.

1/25/92: Mitsuya Nagai vs. Koichiro Kimura. Kimura impressed me last time with both good footwork and a solid judo repertoire, but was unfortunately hampered by an overly long match with another rookie, which negated his ability to properly shine. Here, he will be facing Nagai, who was on the receiving end of a one-way drubbing at the hands of Gerard Gordeau last month, in what was this promotion's first proper shoot. Kimura immediately takes two nasty thigh kicks before blasting Nagai down with a double-leg takedown, but when doing so, it placed Nagai too close to the ropes and thus prompted a quick restart. Kimura continued to take some more leg punishment before getting the fight to the ground again, but he quickly found himself at a loss while inside Nagai's open guard, and his only answer was to try a rudimentary ankle-lock. This elementary attack not only failed, but prompted Nagai to secure a heel hook, which led to our first rope escape. The next several minutes saw a continuing pattern of Kimura getting lit up by Nagai on the feet before securing a favorable position via takedown, but finding himself unable or unsure of what to do once he had the superior position. After a string of mat failures, Kimura eventually just opted to soccer kick Nagai after his takedowns, at least until the ref could intervene and stand Nagai back up. The last few minutes saw Nagai ratcheting up the intensity of his striking until he unleashed a never-ending torrent of palm strikes, which eventually prompted the ref to call for a knockdown. Kimura was able to get up for two more servings of this before being eliminated for good.  Despite Kimura's only weapon being his takedown skills, this was an exciting match due to the intensity on display, especially from Nagai, and it was good to see him back in form after his humiliating loss to Gordeau last month. I'm not sure if apprehensiveness to strike his grounded opponent is what held Kimura back, or his grappling skills aren't as good as I originally deemed them to be, but the only thing he really showed here today was a solid wrestling base, and I'm confident that he is capable of a lot more. Good match

ML: This was a shoot, but, for the most part, they didn't really manage to get any big shots in until the final minutes. The fight was very intense though, and the transitions, scrambles, and takedowns were very fast and urgent. It was Shootboxing vs. SAW, and while Caesar's skills are clearly more interesting than Tobin Bell's, Kimura should have owned this match once he was able to get Nagai down, which was a regular occurence. Kimura had some pretty neat takedowns where he kept twisting Nagai until he spun him down, but didn't have much of an arsenal of submission arts once he succeeded. In the days largely before striking created the opening for the submission, Kimura found himself doing too much waiting for the opening. In his defense, Nagai was a dangerous striker even off his back. The problem with this match is they just kept seeming to negate each other. Nagai couldn't really kick because Kimura would just catch it and upend him. Whether Kimura got a takedown off a body lock or off catching Nagai's kick, he really didn't have any method of opening up a submission, and the match just stalled out. Nagai had much better luck using his hands, but without gloves it was difficult for him to do a big damage. He swelled Kimura's eye, but probably could have scored a late knockout if he could have used closed fists. Kimura nonetheless seemed about ready to just quit, hunching over, and still wasn't ready to restart after the Ref gave him an eight count, but finally threw some fierce palms of his own. Still, Kimura was just out of gas, and eventually wilted to Nagai's superior cardio. While this had more than its share of downtime, Nagai's comeback finish was exciting, and I think this was a good shoot given the time period. Good match.

3/5/92: Volk Han vs. Gennady Gigant. The 2nd glorious appearance of Volk Han is oddly the 2nd match of the evening, this time facing a man whose exact spelling remains a mystery (as does everything else about him). One thing is certain, which is that Mr. Gigant lives up to his name and is quite the portly fellow. Han quickly moves around Gigant, chopping down his opponent's thighs with numerous low kicks, until Gigant sneaks in a desperation ippon seoi nage. Being a fellow of considerable girth, he was able to neutralize Han by simply smothering him, but unable to do much else, and eventually Han found a way to stand back up. A slick sequence followed where Han hit his patented standing Kimura throw, several years before Karo Parasyian was making it all the rage, but to my shock this was countered by a scoop slam from Gigant, which was countered again by Han, when he simply held on and used Gigant's momentum against him, thereby toppling over him and attempting an armbar right afterward. The fight restarts, and Han quickly hits the tobi-juji-gatame (flying armbar) that he was so studiously practicing in the early vignettes. The rest of the fight saw Han throwing all sorts of submission tricks, from wristlock throws, rolling kneebars, and his eventual finish, which I can only describe as some kind of figure-four variation of an inverted omoplata, which had to be light years ahead of its time. What was most impressive about this though, was Han taking a rather lackluster opponent in Gigant, and getting an entertaining match out of him. ***

ML: Booking wise, this was just RINGS getting Han on the board to set up the rematch with Maeda, but it was another great one man show from Han. Ironically, the aspect that sets Han apart from Tamura, Kanehara, and Suzuki may be his striking. Han's movement is just fantastic; he looks like Lyoto Machida out there. He's not only flowing on the mat, his stand up flows arguably just as well. Early on, Han hit a left front kick into a right middle kick, pushed off with his hands, and was back out of the pocket before Gigant could even think about a counter. Even the kickboxers weren't doing this kind of thing in these days. It may be unfair to say that the 302 pound Gigant was a performer of no particular grace given he's a Russian judo champion, but this was his debut, and he didn't bring a lot on his own to the sport of worked pro wrestling. His offense was all standard real sports fair, and he relied more on his size then precision or attention to detail, but Han found numerous ways to turn these into interactive wrestling sequences to keep the match interesting, and it wound up feeling more like a top notch world of sport technical match that somehow still worked within the context of a shoot because of the standup and generally credible technique. What we got here was a match that focused on the big throw, and they kept it entertaining by quickly resetting after a little bit of submission work. That being said, what grappling we got really flowed together, with chain attacks going back and forth from both, though Gigant would squelch this when left to his devices. Just great brief sequences here all around! Gigant isn't as good as Maeda in a vacuum, but Han could just continually experiment with him because he wasn't locked in to doing certain things. The quality was 99% from Han, but Gigant was clearly a skilled martial artist who was pliable enough that everything was totally coming off. This felt a lot fresher and more experimental than the matches we were seeing from the other promotions because Han is so unique and creative, and one of the things that made Han so great is he just refused to be held to or boxed in by convention. ***3/4

4/3/92: Akira Maeda vs. Volk Han. The Volkster comes back to have a repeat of his debut match, where he narrowly lost to Akira Maeda, in what was a fantastic debut from this sambist turned pro wrestler. Maeda has proven that he can still pull off a good match in small doses, so it will be interesting to see what he does here. We are treated to full entrances by both performers, and the crowd is absolutely nuts for Maeda. I'm getting the impression that the undercard doesn't even matter to the fans at this point, as Maeda seems to single-handedly be enough to carry this promotion, if the crowd reaction is any indication. The energy of this place is unreal, and the Hiroshima public is captivated by every move these two are making. Things start with a lot of feints and the two feeling each other out. First blood is drawn in the form of a headlock takedown by Han, in which he tries to convert into a choke, but Maeda easily reverses it into an armbar attempt, followed by a failed leg-lock battle by both men. They get back up, but in no time at all, they are right back to a battle to see whose ankle will succumb first. Han wins round one, with a heel-hook forcing the first rope escape. The rest of this was fast-paced and exciting, which saw Han try and contort Maeda's limbs from just about every conceivable angle. This was a very submission-heavy affair, but it was full blast the entire time, and while that didn't exactly make for the most realistic outing from a real fighting standpoint, it didn't matter as the creativity and flow were off the charts. Han eventually wins via a calf-slicer around the 17 ½ mark, and while this would normally be about ten minutes too long for a latter career Maeda showing, here it worked splendidly. In my opinion, this was better than their first outing, and it wouldn't surprise me if it winds up being the last great match that Maeda has. ****1/4

ML: I would obviously prefer a better undercard, but if we are to have a one match show quality wise, it's nice when that match is at least the one that drew the crowd. That hasn't been the case in RINGS due to Maeda headlining all the shows, but he was in surprisingly fine form here, actually moving fairly well compared to what we've seen in the past year. It's Han's movement that is outstanding, and he largely did his best to work around Maeda. He clearly has a massive speed advantage, which he relied on to either enter and exit before his larger opponent could land the counter strike, or to strike his way into the clinch/leaping takedown so he could initiate a grappling sequence. Maeda tried to stifle Han's advantage through low kicks, while Han, who is a leglock master to begin with, was more than happy to attack Akira's bad left knee when they were rolling, which added to the urgency of the contest. Right away, even though this was a work, we could see how far ahead of the shoot game Han was in terms of combining striking and grappling, using a 1-2 to accomplish his goal of securing a bodylock. Maeda did a good job of fighting for underhooks, so Han essentially did a standing arm-triangle in order to trip Maeda, though what ultimately worked on the ground was more of a headlock. Maeda drew first blood, knocking Han down with a nice hand combo where he went to the head to open up the liver shot, but Han responded with a leg-trip into an Achilles' tendon hold on the bad leg for a rope escape. This becomes something of a pattern, with the larger Maeda having the knockdown power, leading Han to respond with a takedown into a bad knee submission. This wasn't the most realistic battle, but it is a fine work that told a reliable pro wrestling story, one of the best of Maeda's RINGS career. Here, he did the right thing in putting Volk over, finally establishing a rival for himself in the promotion. He, of course, had the explicitly played out excuse of his bad knee eventually doing him in after struggling his way to several rope escapes. Ultimately, it was Maeda's willingness to risk the predictable leg submission counter that did him in, and once Han locked the hizagatame in the center, Maeda finally tapped immediately, whereas a healthy individual would have survived longer, and probably had a chance to escape even from the center (granted moreso in pro wrestling where fans allow the performers to get away with spending a minute slowly sliding themselves to the ropes). This felt like the first major match in the history of the RINGS promotion, with Han showing great diversity and endless creativity, while Maeda was a bit repetitive, albeit he at least stuck to his plan and told a good story. A definite improvement over their first match, which was RINGS MOTY for 1991, though not as awe inspiring since we now have an idea of what to expect from Han. ***3/4

5/16/92: Volk Han vs. Grom Zaza. It has been a bizarre experience witnessing Volk Han oscillate between the main event (he defeated Akira Maeda at last month's show) and jerking the curtain, as he is here against Georgian freestyle wrestling legend Zaza "Grom" Tkeshelashvili, but it should be entertaining all the same. Grom Zaza was a man of a considerable wrestling pedigree who went on to compete in the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, GA. He had a respectable run in real MMA fights as well, with notable wins over Ricardo Morias, Volk Han, and Travis Fulton. Zaza doesn't waste any time before giving us the 2nd fireman's carry of the evening, in which he tried to use it as a way to set up an entry into an ude-hishigi-juji-gatame (or back-lying perpendicular armbar for the uncultured among us). This doesn't work as Han's sambo-honed ‘spidey sense' is triggered, and wisely runs for the hills. After fleeing for his life, Han returns to show some interesting footwork, parrying strikes as a way to sneak inside and eventually attempt a back suplex, only to be countered by a kneebar-gone-toehold by Zaza. So far, this match is hardly realistic, but top-shelf entertainment nonetheless. Han draws first blood with some kind of weird variation of the STF, deducting a rope escape from Grom. Han then follows up with a step-over armbar that morphed into a triangle choke attempt, but Zaza wasn't having anything to do with it. This match continued in its winning ways until Han went back to his bag of tricks and finished Zaza with what I can only describe as an inverted STF combined with a bully choke. While this isn't exactly the first tape you would grab if you wanted to show your buddies how realistic the 90s shoot-style was, it had to seem revolutionary in the context of 1992. Han carries himself like a man that knows counters to submissions that haven't even been invented yet, and with that in mind, the entertainment value of this cannot be denied. Also, a special mention has to be made for one of the coolest moves we've seen so far when Han feinted his way to set up a beautiful spinning-back-slap. Great fun! ****

ML: Zaza really brought a lot of credibility and intensity to the affair, and this was the most realistic match Han had in 1992 due to him. Oddly, in a match with submission master Han against future Olympic freestyle wrestling competitor Zaza, there wasn't nearly as much ground fighting as you'd expect from Han. Zaza had a few throws, including hoisting Han like a rag doll to start the match and nearly going into an armbar, but between Zaza's wrestling prowess and his submission game being there, Han was actually forced to somewhat back off from his normal style of trying to dominate on the mat, and doing flashy and crazy submissions. He had to rely on countering and taking control after it hit the mat, but that was difficult due to Zaza's tremendous wrestling, or almost immediately going for a submission when he did manage to upend Zaza before Zaza improved position or took control. Even when Han had a reverse bodylock on Zaza and tried to throw him down, Zaza just picked his leg into an ankle lock. This led to my favorite sequence of the match, showing just how hard Han had to work here for anything, where Han went back to German suplex attempt as a way to bait Zaza into repeating the same leg pick counter, which Han was now ready to answer by breaking his clasp and flipping him onto his back into an armbar attempt. Unlike Han's previous opponents, Zaza has the speed, quickness, and footwork to hang with him in standup. Han couldn't simply slap Zaza then move out of range, no matter who led, it was basically a strike for a strike. Thus, as the match progressed, the best thing these two could do was throw combinations, with Zaza making this adjustment first, and soon dropping Han with a right front kick right palm combo. Han began showing his standup diversity, and came back with the next two knockdowns, including his discus chop. Unfortunately, the quality dipped somewhat in the last few minutes as Zaza was gassed. Han was now finally able to somewhat have his way with Zaza, and finally got the submission. While Han's previous match against Akira Maeda was more dramatic, this was clearly the best match Han has had so far from a technical and legitimately competitive standpoint. ****

6/25/92: Mitsuya Nagai vs. Nobuaki Kakuda. A Shootboxing vs. Sediokaikan shoot, which is an excellent choice on paper with both men’s striking backgrounds. Kakuda is the more accomplished of the two, but he is already a bit long-in-the-tooth, which makes it all the more interesting as that could possibly offset his skill/experience edge that he enjoys over Nagai. As expected, we are getting a kickboxing-styled match, but both men are much more cautious than your usual footfighting affair, as the threat of a grappling exchange is always present. Nagai is the aggressor and is landing more frequently, but Kakuda is very crafty, patiently waiting to set up a counter, and when he does, they are far more punishing blows. Round 2 starts splendidly for Kakuda, who somehow manages to be both the aggressor and the counter-striker. Not only did he charge in, but when Nagai tried to ward him away with a high-kick, he answered with a beautiful low-kick counter that almost took out Nagai for good. Kakuda is wearing elbow pads, and it seems that you are allowed to use elbows in RINGS if you are wearing them, as Kakuda hit Nagai with one, sans any complaining from the ref. It was all one-way traffic for Kakuda until Nagai wisely decided to finally draw from the grappling well and pull off a nice standing Kimura, forcing an instant rope escape. Nagai had one more moment of glory in this round, countering a low-kick with an awesome overhand palm strike. Even round. Nagai continued his aggressive ways, while Kakuda kept seeming like he was trying to set up a kill shot. Kakuda did land a beautiful inside-low kick, but otherwise, this round was all Nagai. The elbows really came into play during round 4, as Nagai was able to land several hard shots to Kakuda, even scoring a knockdown with one particularly impressive jumping elbow. Kakuda was able to get a few nice shots in, but was really off his game this round. The tension is in the air at the beginning of round 5, and right away Kakuda nails Nagai with a thunderous inside-low kick, only to be on the receiving end of an even more powerful counter, with an overhand palm-strike. Nagai then basically pulls guard while grabbing an arm, and Kakuda grabs a rope escape, not even waiting for Nagai to try to actually figure out what to do with that arm. Kakuda winning a decision seems out of the question, but that doesn’t mean he is willing to go away quietly, and ratchets up the violence before it’s all said and done. At one point, he hit a great low kick/gut-shot/knee-to-the-head combo, which knocked Nagai down, and also prompted Nagai to hilariously jump back up and try and convince the ref that no such knockdown had just occurred. The fight ends with Nagai stalling with another guard pull, which led to a wrist-lock attempt by Kakuda that was reversed into a failed armbar attempt by Nagai. Nagai wins the decision, unsurprisingly, but this was a very solid shoot nonetheless. It may also be the last time that Nagai enjoys a height/reach advantage against another opponent for the foreseeable future. Kakuda was always patient, perhaps too much so, looking to land some bombs from the role as a counter fighter, and while occasionally successful, wasn’t able to chain enough offense together to finish the job. It also didn’t help that Nagai would occasionally grapple when he felt threatened, which helped him to continually dictate the fight on his terms. Good fight.

ML: A fun shoot where Kakuda was the better kickboxer, but was also intelligent enough to know that he couldn't count on this simply being a kickboxing match, which both helped and arguably hurt him. In his normal karate style, he would spend as much time as possible coming forward with body punches, but doing so would allow Nagai to clinch him and take him down if you wanted to, so Kakuda spent the first 2 1/2 rounds trying to stay on the outside, and counter Nagai when he came in. This didn't work badly by any means, but the same time, he was never getting any major damage in, and only used his body punches once when Nagai already had him tied up. The fight got good when Kakuda began to open up in the second half of fight, finally willing to step in and rip the body, which then opened up the low kick, and got Nagai backing for the first time. Kakuda's advantage was short lived though, as Nagai came right out and backed him into the corner to start the fourth, taking him down into what would be an arm-triangle, if only he knew what an arm-triangle was. Kakuda was then so worried about getting taken down from the clinch that he left himself prone trying to fight his way out, and was dropped with an uppercut. Now Nagai was able to unload on a weakened Kakuda with jumping knees & elbows from the clinch for another knockdown. Kakuda came back with his own clinch knee knockdown, but I think Nagai actually avoided it by dropping to his back, so he may have had a point in popping up & complaining to the ref. Kakuda's left palm that preceeded the knee attempt was a good shot, but not overwhelmingly so. Kakuda surprisingly got his own takedown at the end, but it was too little too late, even before Nagai nearly countered with an armbar. Good match.

6/25/92: Naoyuki Taira vs. Eric Edelenbos. I’m excited for the next match as the highlight of the aforementioned Sediokaikan/RINGS "Battle Sports Olympic" event was the brief encounter between Naoyuki Taira and Eric Edelenbos. That fight saw the bigger and more athletic Edelenbos bum rush Taira and wail away at him, only to see Taira spectacularly end the fight by pulling off an amazing reverse-standing Kimura that we wouldn't see again until Sakuraba snagged Renzo Gracie some 8 years later at PRIDE 10. I have no doubt that Edelenbos is hungry for a rematch to prove that their last outing was just a fluke. Hopefully, this will be another shoot, which will make for the 3rd one in a row on an event from June of 1992, no less. Right away, we can see that Edelenbos learned his lesson from last time and patiently waits for Taira to come to him. Taira tests the waters with a stiff low-kick only to get countered with an incredibly explosive overhand palm strike from his foe. Edelenbos has an impressive ability to explode, and if he continues to play things wisely, he will be a very tough hombre for Taira to deal with. To Edelenbos's dismay, he wasn’t the only one to smarten up, as Taira is now approaching his opponent much more cautiously, sneaking in some palm strikes, only to again suffer another nasty counter from Eric. Just when I was becoming enraptured into the drama, wondering if Taira was surely doomed, Edlenbos shouts to the ref, "Grease," while pointing to Taira’s shoulder. Taira denies everything, with a simple response of, "No. Oil," as if that were to make it all better. Taira dries off with a towel, and soon afterward the round ends. Round 2 begins, and the shenanigans seem to have subsided, which leaves us with a real fight on our hands. Taira is a much more creative and diverse striker, but is having to deal with someone that is considerably more athletic and powerful than he is. Taira rises to this challenge, by alternating his attacks with straightforward fare mixed in with flashy low-percentage spinning kicks. This strategy seems to be working, as Edelenbos appears to be caught off guard with all the variety. The large volume of unanswered strikes starts to take a mental toll on Edelenbos, whose confidence is quickly evaporating. He manages to rag-doll Taira to the mat, but could only keep him there briefly until Taira slithered his way out and started wailing away again. Great round for Taira. Round 3 barely starts before Edelenbos gets penalized for a closed-fist punch to his opponents’ face, which Taira wondrously oversells for some ref-sympathy. After the drama, Taira is back to clowning Edelenbos until Eric is able to force him to the ground where he tries something akin to a no-gi clock choke/neck crank. It seems like this is sunk in deeply, but Taira wiggled out, making me think that he took a page from the Sultan of Slime’s playbook. No sooner do I think this than Edelenbos calls for a time out, and complains to the ref that Taira is an oil slick. Taira is sent to his corner to dry off while the crowd laughs, then he hilariously walks up to Edelenbos, asking him to check his skin to see if it meets his approval. Despite making a mockery of the rules, Taira is on fire here, as he goes right back to lighting Edelenbos up, including two head-kicks in a row, the 2nd of which scored a knockdown. Eric gets back up, only to suffer the indignity of a flying knee to his head before the round ends. Taira continued to impress me, as he started the 4th round off with a flying leg-scissor into a heel-hook attack, almost 13 years before Ryo Chonan did it to Anderson Silva. However, Silva didn’t have the benefit of rope escapes, but Edelenbos does, which allows him to continue fighting. After getting back up, Edelenbos gets Taira back to the mat and into a compromising position, but wastes his advantage by insisting on throwing a couple of headbutts to the back of Taira’s neck. Shortly after the restart, Edelenbos is disqualified for what appeared to be an eye-poke. Although the ending was anti-climactic, this was one of the best fights we’ve seen so far in 1992, and well worth seeking out. Witnessing a fighter like Taira (who I was wholly unfamiliar with before starting this project) is one of the rewarding aspects of doing a long-term project like this. His gonzo attitude reminds me a lot of Sakuraba, and he appears to have had the talent that could have made him a big name in MMA but arrived about a decade too early to have been part of its major boom in Japan. Instead, this early student of Satoru Sayama's and a graduate of his Super Tiger Gymhe spent his prime years in the obscure corners of Shootboxing, but I’m glad that we get to take this brief moment to acknowledge him. Great fight.

ML: This could have been a super fight between Jon Jones and Lawi Napataya, as Edelenbos was constantly gouging Taira with his palm-strikes, while Taira was fielding regular complaints for sliming to avoid Edelenbos' clinches and takedowns. I was literally wondering if there was ever going to be an actual fight between the complaints to and interjections by the official, as despite both combatants being explosive and aggressive, there were already more eye gouges by the middle of round two than in a good month of Three Stooges episodes, and somewhere in the background, Mark Knopfler could surely be heard singing "We are the Sultans, We are the Sultans..." Apparently, it was way worse than I initially though, as Edelenbos wasn't allowed any strikes to the face, and anytime he threw his hands, Taira complained for one reason or another. Edelenbos lost a point early in the third for a strike that was clearly an open hand to the cheek. The way the match was going, at first I thought Edelenbos hunched over and stopped due to a low blow, but then I realized he was actually buckled from a left body hook to the liver, which the Ref clearly didn't understand either, as rather than calling a knockdown, he gave Taira the opportunity to charge in with a (mostly avoided) flying knee, which then finally prompted the down call. At some point, I should mention that I was enjoying Taira's wild spinning kicks, and some of the crazy aggression in this fight, but it was difficult to concentrate on anything that was working when Taira would stop to point to his cheek, then Edelenbos would stop to say "oil." I haven't seen this much oil cleaned up since Exxon Valdez, eventually Taira walked over to Edelenbos with towel in hand, hoping allowing him to wipe Taira down would finally shut him up. Taira scored a big high kick knockdown at the end of the third, and after complaining about another open hand to the face, hit a neat jumping leg scissors into a kneebar to start the fourth. I miss the days when flying submissions were arguably a reasonable answer to the opponent clinching. Edelenbos lost another point for two headbutts on the ground, and at this point, Gerard Gordeau was rumored to be trying to get to the arena in time to join the foul brigade. He couldn't get there in time though, as Edelenbos was then disqualified for another open hand to the face. This was better than Mitsuya Nagai vs. Nobuaki Kakuda, but that was an actual flight with some flow and evolution, whereas this just had some big highlights in between a million stops and starts. This had a ton of potential, but I don't feel like a it would be reached even with a rematch, unless there were a clear set of rules that both fighters were actually willing to comply to, and perhaps Scott Ledoux as the troubleshooting referee. Good match.

6/25/92: Volk Han vs. Herman Renting. Volk has been a gift that keeps on giving, having great matches, regardless of his oft-changing card placement or who his opponent is. The match starts with Renting confusing hand feints with spazzing out, apparently being well versed in the ancient kata of the Electric Boogaloo. Eventually, Han has enough of this mockery and takes Renting down for an armbar attempt. When that doesn’t work, he quickly readjusts for an ankle, which prompts both a rope escape and a raucous ovation from the Sendai crowd. The rest of this match was essentially Han vs. a grappling dummy, as Renting offered very little in the ways of resistance or creativity. Han was able to keep this match entertaining, based on his energy and countless inventive leg attacks, but Renting doesn’t seem to mesh very well in Han’s more flashy style. Also, Han’s win kind of felt out of nowhere, with a flying leg-scissors/ankle-lock combo. **3/4

ML: One of the reasons Han's matches work so well is that he just has the pedal to the metal, jet propulsion at full throttle, leaving the Volkamaniacs screaming in delight as they try to even keep up with him. Han continued to evolve his style, doing a match that was a constant transition with the first movements being used to set up his end game (the actual submission). He was always one step ahead of Renting, as well as the audience. Right from the get go, there was a great sense of urgency to this match, as they were able to put over the danger of the opponent, the importance of picking the right moment to pounce, and mostly in Renting's case, the necessity to either gain control, get off his back, or get himself near the ropes immediately before Han could hook him to deeply. It took Han mere seconds to deliver his first new what the hell was that moment, grabbing an overhook then jumping into a sort of sweep takedown where he rolled Renting into mount. Renting had aspirations of striking, but couldn't buy a moment of peace. He's already the most cautious fighter in the league by nature, and you had to feel for him, because seemingly every time he got close to Han, Volk would find a different way to jump or roll into a takedown and/or a submission. Especially after a really good opening where both were staying back then picking their moment to explode in, it was odd to see Han not using his striking at all, instead stepping forward as soon as Renting threw, and grabbing him to initiate a grappling sequence. However, this tactic allowed him more time for his distinctive and innovative ground game that Renting was at an even bigger disadvantage in. Renting was that just not quite good enough grappler who can regularly gain an advantage, but is then quickly outmaneuvered before he can really do anything with it. There was another great spot we haven't seen before where Han was trying to transition from rear mount to a belly down armbar, attacking around Renting's head to try to get his right leg under the chin then either roll Renting left or just drop himself flat. This prompted Renting to pivot so his legs were parallel to Han's, which eliminated the angle for Volk to simply flatten him out, but Han just reversed the direction of his attack, instead of continuing to go left at Renting's head, once he got the leg under the chin, he went back right toward Renting's feet, with Han's right knee now flattening Renting as he rolled him into the traditional belly up armbar. The finish was odd because they stopped the match to allow Renting to walk across the ring and have his second retie his boot, only to have Han immediately submit him with a leg lock on the restart, despite Renting clearly grabbing the rope. I was wondering if an injury caused a premature finish? Renting came down awkwardly on his knee when Han took him down, though Renting seemed to be moving fine on the restart after hobbling to the corner. If it was just selling, why not just do the last five seconds then worry about the lacing on the way back to the dressing room?. If it was legit, why bother with Renting grabbing the ropes? I will admit I expected more from Renting than we got here in terms of finding a way to make this more competitive, but his job was basically to be a pliable Gumby doll who simply didn't screw things up for the master, which as one of the more capable and diverse workers in the league, he was more than able to do. Would the match have been better had Renting actually been given the opportunity to do his thing more? Especially at this length, it's extremely doubtful, as whatever would have been gained from Renting posing more of a threat would have been lost from the pedestrian ideas. Nobody is coming up with anything near the level of what Volk can. He just schooled Renting time and time again until he finally tapped to a cross heel hold off another leg scissors. Where the match did fall short though is that it was a little too brief to begin with, and really didn't finish strongly given they went home immediately after the timeout. ***3/4

7/16/92: Mitsuya Nagai vs. Willie Peeters. Now we get a very entertaining & stiff-work between Mitsuya Nagai and Willie Peeters. Both of these men are coming off tough shoots last month, with Nagai having fought an excellent fight against Kakuda, and Peeters getting a draw against Masaaki Satake through his many spectacular temper tantrums. We know that, if nothing else, Peeters will find a way to entertain us, so we are always happy to see him. The fight starts rather slowly with Peeters once again going for a bodylock, only this time he seems to confuse kneeing his opponent with doing the running man. Nagai then goes for his own bodylock, followed by a kneebar entry, but Peeters is simply too big, and easily powers out of it. After some sparring, we get our first notable moment when Peeters hits an excellent belly-to-back suplex, but one that availed him nothing, as it put Nagai in a position to lock in an inventive ankle attack, prompting the first escape. Round 2 starts with Peeters hitting his patented koshi-guruma (headlock throw), but unlike last month, he isn't taking 5 mins to congratulate himself. Sadly, Peeters has been on the cusp of proper etiquette this entire time, which isn't the Willie that we've all come to know and love. He's definitely not showing the intensity he would in a shoot. Peeters got a crude choke off a scarf hold, but after the break, Nagai landed a glancing high kick to Peeters's head, which scored him a knockdown. Another interesting moment was when Peeters sunk in a deep guillotine choke, where Nagai's answer was to collapse into a ring post, forcing a break. Peeters wastes no time falling on top of Nagai in round 3, and slapped on a strange neck crank that looked like it was going to cause Nagai's cranium to explode like a grape. To my utter amazement, Nagai hung on until the ref called for a break as the action was getting too close to the ropes. Another headlock takedown ensues, but Nagai is very clever (and flexible!), and is able to use this angle as a way to initiate an armbar, which forces Peeters to quickly let go of his head and reposition himself. Good round. Round 4 starts with Peeters shocking me by connecting with a reverse roundhouse kick. Not to be undone, a stunned Nagai responds with an incredible rolling kick of his own that floors Peeters. Major points have to be awarded to Nagai for his completely gonzo attitude here. Nagai tried it again for the 2nd time, which missed completely, but did succeed in bringing out the jerk in Peeters, who in a fit of embarrassment, tried to head stomp Nagai while he was down on the canvas. Nagai decides to go-for-broke in the final round and comes charging in towards Peeters, but unlike Nishi and Satake before him, Nagai has no defense for the headlock takedown. Peeters is able to stifle Nagai's momentum, but does eat some hard kicks in the process. Nagai's main problem at this point is that he seems too gassed to maintain a long enough offense to put Peeters away. Eventually, the bell rings, and Nagai auto-loses due to having taken more escapes. An incredibly fun fight, and an amazing show of heart from Nagai. Peeters was oftentimes manhandling him, but his creativity and willingness to take risks put a lot of pressure on Peeters. During the post-fight interview, Nagai said that he hasn't been training much lately, and this cost him his stamina. He then vowed to train harder in the future to prevent this from happening again. ***3/4

ML: Peeters actually managed to behave himself in his very flashy work filled with suplexes, throws, and spinning kicks. They earned high marks for style points, but it was a bit lacking both in substance and in urgency in between the highlight reel maneuvers. As no Peeters match could be without some level of chaos, he accidentally walked to the wrong corner after the second round. It's funny how people's ideas of what works and doesn't work change over the years. For instance, Peeters hit an overhead suplex out of a standing arm triangle, but immediately transitioned to a headlock, as if that was the real submission of the two. Some goofiness aside, this match is a lot of fun, with constant action both in standup and on the mat. Things were competitive in standup, where the low impact even on the knockdowns was somewhat surprising, especially for Peeters, who fought like he'd finally been warned about hitting too hard. However, Peeters really dominated the throw game, and generally had the positional advantage on the ground, though he fed Nagai his leg for a kneebar that forced a rope escape. Peeters clearly won the match, and RINGS actually awarded him the decision rather than their usual full time draw. ***

7/16/92: Volk Han vs. Andrei Kopylov. This time, our hero faces his fellow teammate and brother in sambo, Andrei Kopylov. Thanks to the power of subtitles, we were able to learn some interesting info about these two. Kopylov talks about how he is a sambo teacher, and has faced Han in the past on four different occasions (within sambo tournaments), with a record of 2-2 against Han. He mentioned that he is wanting to break this stalemate between them with a new technique that he has been working on. In Han’s portion, he says that he considers Kopylov the greatest sambist of the former Soviet Union, and that he has beaten many strong opponents over many tournaments. He also said, that Kopylov is strong in hand/arm techniques and leg techniques. Interestingly, he also mentioned wanting to break their stalemate with a new technique that he has been working on. The battle starts with both men throwing plenty of kicks, trying to figure out how to set up a takedown. Han is the first to solve the riddle with a flashy single-leg pickup, followed by a slam and a calf-slicer entry. The crowd is eating this up, perhaps, because this was how Han ended Maeda at the end of their last encounter. An insane sequence followed where Kopylov gave some Curt Henning level selling before turning the hold into a way to attack Han with a knee-crush of his own. Then Han managed to turn this into some kind of demented variation of a figure-four leg-lock, which Kopylov somehow managed to escape by turning onto his stomach and applying a toehold, earning him a rope escape point against Han. So far, this hasn’t been at all realistic, but is loads of fun all the same.  Not to be upstaged, Kopylov hits a tomoe-nage (or monkey-flip if you prefer) as a way to set up a series of attacks against Han’s lateral joints, but winds up having to ward off another insane leg submission entry from Han by turning it to either a leg-split or a very nasty game of twister. This exchange culminated with a crazy battle of the double-heel-hook, where Kopylov was the first to attempt it, but Han was the one that succeeded in its execution, thus getting the rope escape point, and evening the score. Eventually, Kopylov pulled off a huge upset win over Han around the 17min mark with a toehold, which was some smart booking as it now establishes another Russian star in the mix. The rest of this match followed the flashy innovation that only a madman like Han could come up with, and only with someone like Kopylov, who is familiar with the musical language of Sambo. If we wish to be pedantic, we could say that this wasn't a perfect match in the sense that its flashiness sometimes went against the core spirit of what the U-Style is trying to impart, but from an entertainment/professional-wrestling standpoint, it was right on the money.  I would go even further by saying that this wound up being the first true Volk Han match in the sense that it showcased just how boundless creativity combined with a Sambo/MMA mindset can elevate what pro wrestling is capable of as an art form. We had seen flashes of it before this, but the longer match-time given to Han for this bout, and the chemistry that he shared with his fellow sambist, allowed him the ability to shine above his prior outings. Yes, this was still pro-wrestling, and no, it wasn’t a good case study in how close to a real fight this style could get to emulating, but it did offer a heretofore unprecedented number of new ideas and tools that could be added to its tapestry. Some of these techniques could be seen in isolation in times past, but never chained together in such an eloquent way. For that, Han should easily be considered on anyone’s shortlist of the greatest professional wrestlers of all time, but he's sadly unknown (at least in America) outside of a small circle of shoot-style enthusiasts. While this didn’t have the layers of nuance or complexity that some of his later matches had, it was still lots of fun and historically significant. ****

ML: Sambo master Kopylov made his debut here, having won the USSR championship in the superheavyweight division the previous year. Finally, we got to see Han against an opponent who understands his own game, and the results were outstanding, as both were able to counter the counter to the counter. Kopylov and Zaza were the only opponents Han faced this year that you believe might be able to beat him in a shoot. Kopylov is a weight class above him, with equal training and similar skill, though obviously not a one of a kind genius like Han. The match was super competitive, really kind of a stalemate, as they went back and forth with leg locks on the mat. Right off the bat, we saw some impressive mat action, with Kopylov doing a great job of making it appear that Han was going to get the submission before the match really even got going. Kopylov is very nimble and coordinated for a 250+ pounder. He immediately won me over using a clinch knee to set up an actual reasonable monkey flip, then tried to spin into an armbar, but Han blocked. It just felt wrong that they didn't have a Twister mat out there for this veritable leg lock clinic. You might think that the highlight of a meeting between such skilled submission artists would be them rolling, but this was one of those cases where the grappling was so even that the stand up, and the takedowns into submissions out of it, is really what made the difference. The creativity and surprise to score on their feet, and find a way into an immediate submission when they hit the ground really made the match, though partly because big moves are much easier to appreciate then subtle manipulations and adjustments. Kopylov added a lot, and this was more believable than Han's other matches due to him, but whether or not either of those things were plusses was another story, as they made the match more exciting in the competitive sense, but at the same time less excited the splashy sense. At some point, it was getting a bit repetitive, not because of the length in a general sense, but because so much time was devoted to just going back and forth twerking on the knee. ***1/2

8/21/92: Koichiro Kimura vs. Masayuki Naruse. Naruse is breaking away from his seemingly never-ending series with Yoshihisa Yamamoto to face the always interesting Kimura. Back in January, Kimura gave us a fascinating early shoot against Mitsuya Nagai, and I’m hoping those same shoot energies will be present for this opener. Things start with Kimura cautiously testing the waters to try and set up a takedown, but Naruse doesn’t seem to share his patience, and pelts him with some swift low-kicks for his trouble. Another minute into this, and I feel confident that we have a shoot on our hands, which again amazes me that MMA was this prevalent in 1992. Kimura has a nice arsenal of super-slick takedowns, but Naruse’s small size is working for him, as he is able to ball up and quickly deflect submission attempts from the slower Kimura. Most of this match proved to be a stalemate, as Kimura had trouble dealing with the speed of Naruse’s kicks, but easily negated Naruse anytime the fight entered into the clinch range. About halfway through, it was clear that Kimura was getting frustrated and allowed that to prompt him to just start throwing caution to the wind and start aggressively barging into the phone booth and ragdoll Naruse to the mat. Sadly, while Kimura may have savant-like skills with the sheer variety of his takedowns, his submission game is too amateur-hour to put Naruse in serious trouble. The end came when Kimura attempted to power his way into a very awkward ankle-lock attempt, which only served to give the much more submission-savvy Naruse his own opening to torque a nice toehold of his own. Interesting shoot and a nice way to open the event.

ML: I enjoy the all out of aggression of Kimura. He fights the old school Japanese submission shoot style where control is not really part of the equation, almost to the point he is really just doing everything in one big burst of energy. His takedowns are good, and he can even get you with a suplex, as he did to Naruse here, then it's right to the arm or the neck. The problem with this style, obviously, is when your opponent knows you are immediately going for a submission, it becomes exponentially easier to defend because options are extremely limited when nothing has really been set up beyond maybe by the takedown. I thought Kimura did a good job of putting Naruse in danger given the limitations of his submission style, especially with the rear-naked choke, and this was an intense shoot where Naruse was fighting for his life as soon as he got taken down, and almost any time they were on the ground, unless he was able to escape the initial submission and take control, as his ground style was more open to amateur wrestling, and generally slowing things down for a second. Naruse was clearly the better standup fighter, but Kimura applied so much pressure with his takedown/throw game that these portions were generally pretty brief. Kimura did his best to mix his submissions upe, switching to trying for the kneebar when the armbar and rear-naked choke had been exhausted, but this is a lesser option because it is so much easier to counter, and Naruse immediately began shredding Kimura's ankle. Kimura realized he was losing the footsie battle, and tried to kick Naruse and roll for the ropes, but Naruse wasn't distracted, and was able to adjust his pressure in a manner that forced Kimura to roll back towards the center, leaving him with no option but to tap to the ashikubigatame. Good match.

8/21/92: Volk Han vs. Dick Vrij. It recently came to my attention that there was a third film in the original Fly series, 1965’s Curse of the Fly, which is sort of where RINGS is right now with Dick Vrij. Yes, the flying Dutchman is back in time to do battle with the master of sambo, Volk Han. Instantly, Han flies towards Fly with his flying Kani-Basmi (scissors attack), which may be banned in judo competitions, but is legal here in Fighting Network RINGS. Han then frantically attacks any appendage he can get his hands on while Vrij is scurrying away as if his life depended on it. So far, this isn’t the least bit real, but it is really awesome. Han then misses a couple of spinning-back-slaps, which gives Vrij time to stalk him down and attack his legs. Between the crowd going bonkers, Han’s non-stop inventive arsenal, and the comic book villain persona of Vrij, this all added up to tons of silly fun. Han even gave us a proto-Imanari style butt-scoot into killer leg attacks. Eventually, Han saves the day for all the Volkamaniacs with a knee slicer. The entertainment value was simply too strong with this one, and I am thus forced to award it *** ½

ML: Han had the crowd going nuts from the outset, the sheer energy and aggressiveness of his attacks propelling the match forward with such verve that you were too mesmerized by his unique brilliance to think about it not being the most realistic match you've ever seen. The method to Han's madness, or in other words the story of the match quickly became evident, as Han's desperate and crazy attacks were due to him wanting absolutely no part of kickboxer Vrij in standup, particularly at distance. Han would leap, dive, spin, roll, buttscoot, anything he could think of to get a hold of Vrij and look to get it to the canvas. This was a big time spotfest, with Han working extra hard to make up for Vrij being The Dutch Lumbering, really just being too slow on the inside and in transition, and not having much attention to detail. Vrij answered Han's initial barrage with a leg kick knockdown that Han argued was a slip, while Vrij urged the crowd to cheer for him, playing as subtle a heel as a cartoonish video game character can play. This certainly wasn't the best RINGS match we have seen so far from a technical standpoint, but it was arguably the most exciting because Han knew that Vrij was only good for landing bombs, so he had to keep it keep it big and splashy to cover up for the rest. Both fighters were so dominant in their discipline, and it was a great back and forth war where one would come close to finishing, only to have the other come right back.Vrij was fighting for is a life on the ground, burning through his rope escapes to get back to his feet. There wasn't a lot of deception from Han in so much as you knew he was coming immediately, but he did his best to keep from getting nailed coming in, using his hands to protect his head from the clinch knee while looking for the double-leg, which saw Vrij instead focus on going wide rather than up the middle, throwing kicks even if it meant releasing the clinch. They milked all the drama they could possibly squeeze in, with Vrij having Han down to his final down. Han was teetering on the edge of falling for the TKO, but managed to catch a high kick and counter into an ST for the win. Han gave a virtuoso performance, and while Vrij wasn't great, even looking lost on the mat at times, he certainly managed to do his part without destroying the match. ***1/2

8/21/92: Akira Maeda vs. Andrei Kopylov. Last month Kopylov beat the sub-boss in Volk Han, which now allows him to face the final master in Akira Maeda. So far, this crowd in the Yokohama Arena has probably been the most on-fire of any event that we have yet witnessed, and the last match (Volk Han vs. Dick Vrij) probably had the loudest/most sustained ruckus of any match to date. That may very well be until this bout, as Yokohama is about to go ape for their hero, Maeda. The match starts and Kopylov is treating this as a more serious version of his match with Han, using lots of nice sambo, but in a more restrained fashion compared to his last outing. The action was very mat-based, but done at a brisk pace, and Maeda kept up nicely, providing logical counters to Kopylov’s offense. This contest eventually wound up blowing me away, as I think I can honestly say that this is the highest quality Maeda/RINGS match to date. Throughout 18 mins, this never wavered in its intensity or commitment to being serious, and because Kopylov maintained pressure on Maeda the entire time, it served to squeeze the very best out of Akira. This main event wasn’t anywhere near as important historically as Maeda’s matches with Volk Han, but I dare say that the quality was a notch higher as it fit the true ethos of the shoot-style better. This outing wasn’t perfect, as it could have had a few mins shaved off (Maeda’s leg seemed to start bothering him about halfway through and affected his stand-up), but overall, it was great and might be the last time we see a match of this caliber from Maeda again. ****

ML: Kopylov really brought out some good and realistic things from Maeda on the mat. He gave a really strong performance, showing the Han match was not only no fluke, but also wasn't the usual very good match simply because Han is great. Normally Maeda durdles endlessly on the canvas, moving as little as possible, but we saw some actual grappling transitions from him tonight. This match was far more realistic than perhaps anything we have seen from Maeda so far, and while it was lucky to be 1/10th as exciting as Han's match, it bore a lot more resemblance to actual MMA than the mat oriented matches what we normally see outside of PWFG. Though Maeda is Superman, the crowd was great tonight, and bought into the possibility of Kopylov winning. Kopylov was clearly the superior ground fighter, putting Maeda in some real peril, despite Maeda ultimately managing to play almost even with him before the predictable result of Maeda not only beating Kopylov, but doing so by submission. Maeda had one really good kick flurry, and definitely won the standup when he finally had enough to being threatened on the mat and decided to shift to the finishing portion, but this was more like an updated with some realism version of his earlier UWF matches than what we've been seeing from him in RINGS against standup specialists. Overall, this was a lot better than expected, but not the sort of match I'd be in a hurry to watch again. ***1/4

10/29/92: Willie Peeters vs. Herman Renting. Everyone’s favorite cartoon character, Willie Peeters, is back! Which is excellent news since he is being paired with the rather droll Herman Renting, and his zany antics will surely bring some much-needed levity to the proceedings. We haven’t seen Peeters since July, where he was giving us an epically stiff and entertaining performance against Mitsuya Nagai. The bad news is that Peeters seems to be on his best behavior, which means we might not see any of his cheatyface shenanigans, but the good news is that the first few mins set a great tone with an intense and excellent blend of shoot-style grappling and striking. The action continued to be excellent throughout, as Peeters would continually try and box Renting into a corner with his kickboxing, forcing his opponent to eat a lot of damage before he could take the fight to the ground. The rest of this 12-min match was just as action-packed, with Renting eventually causing Peeters to tap out faster than Nunes did to Pena via hadaka-jime (rear-naked choke). Recommended! **** ¼

ML: Peeters worked a high pace, starting his combos with two body punches then finishing with either a low or spinning kick. Renting spent most of the match with his back against the ropes, trying to find a way to get a suplex or takedown. This match was really one-sided, but interesting in a repetitive sort of way. I mean, the action was pretty good, but the match never really developed beyond Peeters just a landing the same old combination. Peeters made the mistake of changing things up with a koshi guruma, and Renting aptly slipped right out the back and applied the rear naked choke for the win. ***

10/29/92: Andrei Kopylov vs. Sotir Gotchev. Kopylov (who got a surprisingly entertaining match out of Akira Maeda a couple of months ago) is back to face another rookie in Sotir Gotchev. Gotchev is another Bulgarian who is excellent at wrestling, as his winning the Bulgarian wrestling championships from 1986-1988 will attest to. Kopylov continues to prove he’s another fine sambist with great grappling sensibilities, even if he isn’t quite the creative auteur that Volk Han is. Gotchev didn’t seem to be particularly noteworthy, or terrible, at any one thing, which made for a serviceable uke to the experienced sambist. While not memorable due to the lack of any discernable personality from Gotchev, this was a fine showing from Kopylov that again illustrates just how nicely sambo fits in within professional wrestling. ** ½

ML: Another strong performance from Kopylov, who may be the second best worker in the league right now. He kept the pressure on Gotchev with some excellent grappling sequences, doing a nice job of working the leg locks. Gotchev may not be experienced in works, but he did a nice job of fending off and countering Kopylov's submissions, allowing for some really nice back and forth on the canvas. I liked his intensity, and he did a really good job of standing up to Kopylov. He never seemed along for the ride or consigned to defeat. Though more toward the showy end, this struck a good balance, as they were very active developing the matwork without getting too outlandish. ***1/4

10/29/92: Akira Maeda vs. Volk Han. The rubber match has finally arrived! Maeda vs. Han III is here, and for this, we (and by we, the entire Kakutogi Road and all the Volksters in the Nagoya Rainbow Hall) are ecstatic! Very few are now capable of getting a good, let alone passable, match out of Maeda, and Volk Han is one of the few. This match starts very bizarrely as Han seems to attack Maeda before the bell, which prompts a quick knockdown. The ref is allowing it, which causes the crowd to boo uncontrollably. Maeda quickly makes up for this, however, by promptly returning the favor with a takedown followed by a keylock. The inevitable footsie battle soon followed, where we saw the demented Russian submission ace try some kind of variation of a figure-four leglock, only to see its counter from Maeda, the toehold. This was a worthy addition to their trilogy, as it had plenty of entertainment value but less of the over-the-top elements from past outings, which was a welcome move. Even when the flying armbar did make an appearance, it felt like a natural move of desperation as opposed to just an opportunity to show off. Maeda gave the best performance he possibly could, given that he is still awaiting knee surgery, and it’s great to see him push himself presumably so that he isn’t upstaged by the mighty Han. Neither man has a great gas tank, and both were looking quite rundown by the 20min mark, but this epic-length served to add to the narrative that these two were willing to engage in an all-out war to move forward in this tournament. This match was critical to the success of this event, as its strength would determine if this event was to be included in the worthy cannon or the scrap heap, and thankfully, it was fantastic. I’ll go as far as to say this is the best match of their three thus far, for two reasons. Firstly, they successfully blended a lot more striking into the mix here, which gave it a very smooth flow, and secondly, the stakes never felt higher. With Maeda’s bad knee and this being the first Mega-Battle Tournament, there was a palpable energy that added so much to the match. Maeda gets the shocking win and advances in the tournament. This miracle may very well be the last great match that Maeda has left in him, but only time will tell. **** ½

ML: The two top stars surprisingly battling it out in the first round of the inaugural Mega-Battle tournament almost guaranteed the expected trilogy victory for Maeda, as most of the wind would have been taken out of the sails of his new invention had he lost on the first show. This was the longest, and the most realistic of the Maeda vs. Han matches, but unfortunately those are two qualities you don't really value from these particular performers. Neither have great stamina, it's Han's one weakness, and the main thing you want from him is to be explosive, which he largely wasn't here, arguably due to the length. In this match, he did very little cool stuff by his standards, there wasn't a lot of surprise or creativeness beyond the spinning chop before the bell, jumping bodyscissors takedown into a kneebar, and reverse STF. Maeda was fine to good, but it often felt like Han was actively trying not to show him up. Even the standup had a lot less movement from Han, rather than entering and exiting as usual, he was just standing there with his hands on his knees like Mark Coleman to tell the story of his fatigue, and thus Maeda's kicking that he'd normally mostly just be out of range for because Akira is too slow and immobile was suddenly owning the day the way it would in bad pro wrestling where defense is ignored. The work was certainly good, but lacked both urgency and Han's usual pizazz. There were moments when it felt like the match was finally about to take off, for instance Han's furious flurry of slaps after Maeda drops him with a knee, but that's the match we would have got at 15 minutes. Any match with this much Han can't be anything less then enthralling, and to be clear this was still better than any RINGS match we've seen that didn't involve Han, but this was one of Han's least interesting matches in my book, and the worst of their 3 so far. The finish saw Maeda seem to accept Han's offer to lock up, only to then disengage and end it with a surprise high kick. Han got back up "expecting the match to continue", but the match was stopped because it was his final down. ***1/2

12/19/92: Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto. Kakuda was in a shoot two months ago, a brutal affair that saw him gallantly die upon his shield as Dick Vrij wailed upon him with the cruelest of mercies. Hopefully, he'll be fighting for real once more, which is what will be needed to awaken Yamamoto from autopilot mode. Round 1 sees Yamamoto continually keep Kakuda on the mat, and while we are unfortunately in worked territory, Kakuda brings a great intensity that keeps you engaged. However, you can still tell that he graduated from the prestigious Ric Flair School of Exaggerated Facial Expressions whenever he's in a submission. The following rounds saw Kakuda get a lot stiffer in those brief moments that he could stay erect, whereas Yamamoto, on the other hand, kept trying to put silly submissions like the STF or half crab on a mostly resistant Kakuda. This journey into the unknown made for interesting viewing as we have probably all wondered at one point how possible it would be to try and slap a figure-four on a non-compliant foe, and the answer is not likely. The real magic happened at the end of round 5 when there was a dispute over whether Kakuda scored a crucial last-second knockdown or it was a low blow! Round 6 starts, and 14 seconds is all it takes for Kakuda to kick Yamamoto into oblivion. This was a very cleverly worked bout that was very entertaining. Yamamoto is cleverer than I gave him credit for as he didn’t have to rely on cooperation to work a match with Kakuda as much as simply rely on low percentage submission attempts. If he wasn’t doing that, then he was taking a page out of 1984 Fujiwara and simply, which is to simply wait until your opponent is close to the ropes before applying pressure with your submission. Lots of great energy makes this a nice opener and easily *** ¼

ML: This was just the fifth match of rookie Yoshihisa Yamamoto's career, the other four being against fellow rookie Masayuki Naruse. Here he found himself in a heated shoot against 31-year-old karate champion Kakuda. This seemed kind of unfair given their experience level, but Yamamoto does have a huge reach advantage, and actually has some understanding of mat wrestling, rather than just being a pure striker like Kakuda, who is struggling to learn a new sport. It was ultimately pretty even, and quite good, probably the most interesting long shoot we have seen so far. Though this started off with a belly to belly suplex by Yamamoto, and had a lot of odd leg twisting by him early on, with him trying everything short of the STF, there was too much impact on the strikes for this to have not been legitimate. I mean, Kakuda was hitting much harder than in anything we've seen from him outside of Seido Kaikan, and these guys were really going at it hard, beating each other's legs and bodies up big time. I would explain some odd mat techniques by Yamamoto by saying that Yamamoto, and mostly everyone else, didn't exactly have a great grasp of real submissions yet, nor did Kakuda have more than the most rudimentary knowledge of defense. While Yamamoto certainly dominated on the mat, he probably could have won if he would have stuck to more conventional leg locks or worked for a rear naked choke when he had the back instead of doing weird things he saw in the UWF or something lamer, but these were the days when I was trying to finish off my friends in play wrestling with the sharpshooter or Hercules Hernandez torture rack. Kakuda landed several very effective inside leg kicks when he was actually on his feet, but Yamamoto simply had too much leverage for him, and wound up getting him down virtually every time they locked up. Yamamoto had an ankle lock at the end of the second round that Kakuda should have tapped on, but he screwed up his knee gutting it out to secure the rope escape, and was hobbling around for the next three plus rounds. Kakuda wasn't willing to just survive, he somehow found a way to start strong in each subsequent round. He immediately scored an inside leg kick knockdown to start the third round. Yamamoto was still able to get the fight to the ground by overhooking Kakuda when he came forward and tried to strike inside, which is his specialty in karate. Yamamoto forced a rope escape with an armbar, and had a rear naked choke, so he likely would have won his third round in a row, if they were scoring that way. The match became much more interesting with Kakuda closing the distance with more aggression and ferocity in the 4th, hurting Yamamoto early with body punches. This was a much better round for Kakuda, who also finished by nearly ending the fight with an inside leg kick knockdown because Yamamoto's leg was starting to betray him. Yamamoto decided to start the fifth round with an inside leg kick of his own, but while this certainly did damage, it mostly just seemed too piss Kakuda off, and he went into boss mode, hurting Yamamoto with yet another inside leg kick, then finally unleashing his ferocious body punches now that Yamamoto wasn't moving or overhooking as he was earlier in the fight because he was tired and beat up. Yamamoto had to will himself to circle, but this was still a bad round for him, and he was knocked down again from another inside leg kick. Kakuda used a rope escape near the end of the round to get off his back, and then hobbled his way in and dropped Yamamoto with a clinch knee, but after much deliberation, it was eventually properly ruled a low blow. This sent them to the extra rounds, where Kakuda came out on fire again, this time finishing off Yamamoto with a storm of 5 or 6 kicks to the bad leg in between a few body punches. A great comeback for Kakuda, and an excellent start to the night. Very good match.

12/19/92: Volk Han vs. Sotir Gotchev. Bulgaria, yet again, gets another chance at redemption with the 2nd outing of Sotir Gotchev, despite their 0% success rate in giving us a worthy fighter up to this point. The great thing about having Volk Han involved is you already know that the match is going to be composed of copious amounts of win. The question will now be, how much win are we going to get. The bell doesn’t even ring before Gotchev attempts to get a Ric Flair-style cheap shot while shaking Volk’s hand. However, the referee hilariously does not permit this shenanigan, and restarts the two properly. It seems that Gotchev went to the Scott Steiner dojo of hoist and toss, ugly but effective. Han eschews any pretense of realism with an insanely entertaining hybrid of an inverted omoplata/toehold combination that didn’t work, but is in the stratosphere for creative holds. Gotchev simply has no answers for Han, as his next offensive attempt was none other than a shoot-style version of the airplane spin. The rest of this was all the Volk Han show, with Gotchev not having anything constructive to offer. This lack of skill was offset, to some extent, by Han’s boundless ingenuity, but fell short of a typical Han bout. Han eventually wins with one of the most ridiculous submissions that I’ve ever seen, which was a cross between a Vulcan neck pinch and a Fujiwara/straight armbar. This incredulous act should have either awarded him a standing ovation or a reprimand. I wanted to rate this higher, but Gotchev drug this down to a ** ½.

ML: I had high hopes for Volk Han vs. Balkan, especially after Gotchev's good debut against #2 sambo specialist, Andrei Kopylov, in the first round of the tournament on 10/29/92. While it's nearly impossible for anything from Han to fail, this was a good match that never seemed to be firing on all cylinders. While not a total one man show from Han, it felt more like Gotchev could do some slammy things, and Han, as always, figured out how to work around what Gotchev could do, rather than Gotchev really being able to work with Han. Gotchev wasn't bad by any means, but at this point he had offense rather than understanding how to work, and that hampered the match. Gotchev did a really nice job of scooping Han up and throwing him around like a rag doll, if you don't mind a bit of Mike Rotunda in your worked shoots, so Han had to focus on using his wrist manipulations when they locked up to prevent that, or just take control with his pretzeling submission attacks once they hit the canvas. At one point, Gotchev had a reverse body lock, but Han turned into it and bent down, lifting Gotchev by his knees and dropping him on his head, then going into a rear naked choke. Han used a handful of new moves here including the standing armlock that he won with, but overall this was somewhat disappointing in that the Gotchev/Kopylov match seemed better as a whole even though Han was super impressive here, as always. ***

1. Volk Han [91: #1]. Clearly the most unique, creative, innovative, unconventional, and experimental fighter in the worked shoot stratosphere. Han may not have received much help from his equally inexperienced opposition, but his matches always felt fresh, and to some extent you tuned in to see what crazy new sequences and holds he came up with this month. While none of his matches were the sort of amazing bouts he'd deliver in later years when he had top level opponents, each of his matches felt original and exciting, and most of them overachieved considerably, if anything involving such a tremendous individual talent can be said to be better than it should be. Though we think of him as a submission specialist, Han was much more well rounded than he gets credit for. His striking has been vastly underrated, and he actually incorporated footwork, movement, and feints into his matches better than almost any kickboxer we've seen enter the worked world. Han's matches were always urgent, and even when his opponents weren't great, he respected the threat coming from them and catered what he was doing to counteract their strengths when they were good enough for that, so we got a very good match against future Olympic wrestler Zaza where he tried to win with his standup, then a few months later, a match against imposing kickboxer Vrij where he did anything he could think of to avoid standup altogether. On the other hand, when his opponent wasn't good enough for that, such as the Gigant match, Han was able to more than match the Russian champion in a judo oriented match to keep the debuting Gigant within the limited realm of what he knew how to do.

2. Andrei Kopylov [debut: 7/16/92]. Kopylov was a great counterpoint to Han, focusing on displaying the most realistic version of sambo we've seen so far. He was able to keep his ground oriented matches intense through developing active, back and forth matwork that had a more noticable attention to detail and normally didn't get too outlandish. What Kopylov gave up in experience, he made up for by being quicker and better conditioned than in later years, being fresh off his days as a legitimate sambo standout. Kopylov may not have been a sprinter, but he had very quick reflexes on the mat for a man of his size, and was the second most creative roller in the promotion after Han. He displayed an excellent array of legs locks, which he was able to keep viable for lengthy periods through his ability to keep making small adjustments, and had an innate ability to create pro wrestling sequences by chaining counters without straying too far from reality.

3. Mitsuya Nagai [91: #5]. Nagai was rounding into a solid hand, reliably being able to put on an interesting shoot, and fairing pretty well in works, as well. He was well rounded enough that he could win a shoot by exploiting his opponent's weakness, and while he wasn't going to carry a work to something good on his own the way Han could, he had enough skill and knowledge to at least be able to play to or off the opponent's strengths. He was normally fun to watch, displaying an energetic and exhuberant attitude, and a willingness to take risks. Though he may not have been a high percentage fighter, his creativity helped make up for being the smaller man in almost every fight, and his wild misses added entertainment value.

4. Nobuaki Kakuda [91: NR]. This is where things get a little odd because I am mainly rating Kakuda for his shooting, though his fights were also the most difficult to pin down as to what was really going on. Regardless, he was a really strong striker who actually utilized footwork and had tough, hardnosed fights. His stamina wasn't exceptional, but he started rounds strongly, and made the best use of both the inside leg kick and the body punch, which he could push forward with and throw in combination. This is a guy that lacked the physical gifts, but made up for it with willpower and desire. He certainly suffered from being a novice on the mat, and that made it that much more difficult for him to succeed through standup alone given he was already giving up height and reach to everyone, but I feel his hard work & determination mostly made up for his limitations, and I looked forward to seeing his name on the card.

5. Grom Zaza [91: NR]. The final spot is really difficult because with only 10 shows, you quickly get to the point where no one had enough good matches or even performances to rise above the pack. Though last year's #2 Willie Peeters didn't have as good a year as he did in 1991, and never developed into a full time player or star despite always being able to get a rise from the crowd, I feel like he's a solid candidate, both in terms of actual good fighting and memorable moments of chaos, and was always a reasonable performer, even if he was the most apt to do something unreasonable. Peeters was certainly a passionate character who arguably cared about entertaining the audience more than any other shoot fighter, but did so through wild aggression (and various, sometimes dubious shenanigans), maintaining a high level of intensity and an obvious (sometimes too great) desire for victory. He was always interesting, and was capable of elevating a work or competing in a shoot, but as with Herman Renting, didn't really build on the potential he displayed last year. Renting was a minor contributor in one really good match against Han, and was mostly interesting the rest of the time, with a well rounded skill set even if inconsistent, getting a little more out of the lesser opposition than most, but usually still not quite enough due to passivity. You also have Maeda, who had 3 of the best matches of the year, but only because of the opponents, and was otherwise a good candidate for a stinker main event. Finally, there's Kimura, an aggressive fighter who did well in two good shoots due to his experience, variety of takedowns, and strong mat background, but didn't appear much, failing to impress in his one work (though mostly due to a weak opponent). Ultimately, I went with Grom Zaza because he had the MOTY. He was very well rounded, and was the one guy who didn't seem to look great just because of Han. While one of his other 2 matches was bad, and the other wasn't what one could call good, his opponents were both terrible. He actually did a great job against Dolman of making the match on his own, and those five minutes were probably as entertaining a match as against anyone other than Volk Han is capable of having against Dolman. Zaza brought a more credible style, and was one of the very few fighters that had diversity to excel in striking, wrestling, and submission. The Han match really showed his tremendous potential, as he was the only fighter actually able to give Han fits, and really make Han change his style and work super hard for everything he did. Zaza was very explosive, but didn't have great stamina. He took his matches seriously, and rather than mail it in against Dolman, which would have been reasonable, he applyied a ton of pressure and did all the moving to make it into something.

MB:

1. Volk Han: No amount of thinking, debate or pondering is needed, as this is the most obvious choice for RINGS’ 1992 rookie of the year, and only Hiromitsu Kanehara might have a chance of competing with him for the overall honors. Han was simply on a different sphere than the rest of humanity in how to incorporate not only sambo but real fighting movements into a pro wrestling context. Now, Han’s tendencies, much like Kiyoshi Tamura’s, will sometimes pull him into moments of flashy ridiculousness, but that is a small price to pay for the sheer amount of passion and innovation he brings to the table. Han was a pioneer in the league of a Satoru Sayama, in how he completely redefined what was possible in the world of pro wrestling. Sadly, unlike Sayama, whose influence can still be felt today, Han’s contributions feel like they are more and more being lost to the sands of time, as pro wrestling doesn’t seem to have any more room for that submission-heavy leg-lock style.

2. Andrei Kopylov: Before starting this project, I had already seen most of Kopylov’s matches, but for whatever reason he just kind of blended in for me. I had no idea just how incredible of a performer he was and how he helped elevate RINGS by adding a very solid hand to their roster. After all, very few at this point are capable of pulling a good-to-great match out of Akira Maeda, and Kopylov did just that. I would even dare say that he was the more serious and restrained version of Volk Han, which may not have led to some of the breathtaking achievements in entertainment, but that realism was arguably more apropos to what shoot-style was trying to be. Either way, he was an excellent addition and further proof that sambo was the de facto martial art for shoot-style glory.

3. Nobuaki Kakuda: Kakuda is one of my favorites from this era because he was the kind of fighter that would rather die inside of a ring than lose in one. He always seemed to bring the same amount of intensity, regardless if the match was going to be a shoot or a work. The only thing that knocks him down a few points compared to his competition was his lack of grappling experience. Surprisingly, he had good takedown abilities, but his submission skills, both offensively and defensively, were lacking, but the man was a warrior through and through.

4. Mitsuya Nagai: Nagai was the kind of fighter that any company would be happy to have, as his versatility was unquestioned. He wasn’t amazing in any one thing, but solid striking, decent submissions, and most importantly, his willingness to shoot at a moment’s notice made him the type of Swiss Army Knife that Maeda wouldn’t enjoy again until Tsuyoshi Kosaka hit the scene. He was creative, and unafraid to take risks, which also helped him considerably. Towards the end of 1992, they kept throwing unskilled/inexperienced opponents at him, negating some of his chances to add to the highlight reels, but that was no fault of his own.

5. Akira Maeda: It may seem odd that I’m including Maeda here, especially since we both spend a considerable amount of time ragging on him in these columns, but the fact remains that he had three 4-star matches, and despite his opponent being a big part of those successes, no man can wrestle himself. The thing with Maeda is that he was always capable of putting out a great match if he was motivated, but without a strong opponent, he was inclined to let his laziness take over. Perhaps, he should be higher on this list, but when he wasn’t having great matches with the likes of Volk Han, or Andrei Kopylov, he was stinking up the arena against Dick Vrij, or the random Bulgarian-of-the-week, therefore he isn’t getting past the 5th place spot this year. 

Note: I'm considering a rookie to be someone who debuted after 12/1/91 or only had 1 pro match before 1992

1. Volk Han

2. Andrei Kopylov

3. Nobuaki Kakuda

4. Grom Zaza

5. Yoshihisa Yamamoto & Masayuki Naruse. These two practically only fought each other, and while this didn't bring out the best in either of them, their matches did progressively improve, though both are really only here for their quality shoot against another opponent. Yamamoto may not have been more skilled than Naruse, but he had a lot more to work with. He did a good job of using his size, both by exploiting his reach in standup and by deciding whether to keep the fight in that position or to take control on the ground, stuffing takedown attempts by overhooking and either clinching, dropping down, or disengaging. Naruse was a scrappy and determined fighter who was somewhat able to make up for being very undersized through a fairly well rounded skill set featuring speedy kicks and some surprising submissions. His highlight was scoring a surprising upset submission win in his shoot with the largely dominant, much more experienced Koichiro Kimura.

MB: Strangely, I must completely concur with my esteemed colleague, Mike Lorefice. Of course, it helps that there weren't many rookies to choose from, and there really isn't any arguing with Mike's choices, so I will simply say, "Ditto."

1. Volk Han

2. Andrei Kopylov

3. Nobuaki Kakuda

4. Grom Zaza

5. Yoshihisa Yamamoto & Masayuki Naruse

1. 5/16/92: Volk Han vs. Grom Zaza

2. 4/3/92: Volk Han vs. Akira Maeda

3. 6/25/92: Volk Han vs. Herman Renting

4. 3/5/92: Volk Han vs. Gennady Gigant

5. 7/16/92: Volk Han vs. Andrei Kopylov

MB:

1. 6/25/92: Naoyuki Taira vs. Eric Edelenbos: This may seem like a strange choice to put at the top of the list, but I can't think of another bout that we witnessed that better encapsulates the pure wild-west spirit that was pre-UFC MMA than this shoot. Not only was it a great contrast in styles, but had plenty of crazy gonzo techniques and tons of entertainment value. You won't find a better snapshot of early 90s MMA essence than this fight.

2. 10/29/92: Akira Maeda vs. Volk Han: While my esteemed colleague would disagree with me, I felt that this rubber match between these two was their best outing due to the increased realism compared to the prior two. The first two were plenty entertaining but had moments that were too over-the-top for its own good, whereas this added a nice touch of realism without sacrificing the fun.

3. 1/25/92: Mitsuya Nagai vs. Koichiro Kimura: While this shoot wasn't in the same realm of entertainment as several of the works that followed after it, I felt that it was an excellent glimpse into how MMA was conducted by serious professionals, minus any BJJ influence. This was also done before Maeda cracked down on striking while on the ground, so we even got some pre-Pride soccer kicks here. This was the pure distillation of a catch-wrestling influenced style (in S.A.W.) vs. Shootboxing (which also had some submission knowledge in its arsenal). If we don't accomplish anything else with this series of ongoing columns, I hope that this shines some light on just how advanced proto-MMA was in many ways, at least when you got outside of America.

4. 10/29/92: Willie Peeters vs. Herman Renting: There are a few choices here that could be interchangeable, but this was just too entertaining for me not to include in this spot. Willie Peeters is a cartoon character come to life, and we are all the better for it.

5. 4/3/92: Akira Maeda vs. Volk Han: This was just an improved variation of their first match, and one of the last of Maeda's great matches.