Kakutogi Road: The Chronological History of MMA |
There is a great scene in Pumping Iron where one of Arnold Schwarzenegger's friends tells him, "When you're the king of the hill, there's only one direction you can go, and that's down. The wolf that's climbing the hill isn't as hungry as the wolf that's already at the top." When Arnold heard this, he gave a coy smile and replied, "That's true, he's not as hungry, but when he wants the food, it's there!"
ML: These sage words of wisdom allowed Arnold to survive the End of Days and avoid becoming Collateral Damage before finally becoming Expendable in 2010.
That, in a nutshell, is where we are at now as of 6-28-92, as Nobuhiko Takada and the UWF-I are perched on top of the mountain, looking down upon their rival wolf packs that are envious of their recent victories. Success is oftentimes a double-edged sword, as their lead in these shoot-style sweepstakes is by no means insurmountable, and the pressure is on to maintain their position. RINGS has been making enough solid moves lately where they could overtake Takada & CO. if they start to get complacent. This is the cross that Takada must bear going forward, as it's not enough to win the battle to get to the top, but the ability to stay on top is what matters most.
ML: I'm not sure when UWF-I supposedly took the lead, but I am not seeing it. Akira Maeda has clearly been the best draw by a wide margin, and doesn't bother with small shows, knowing that he will put 5,000-10,000 fans in that seats simply by putting his name on the poster, basically even regardless of having an actual roster, a useful opponent, or any other natives on the show. Also, RINGS is the only promotion that has a TV contract, with all of their shows being broadcast on they pay cable channel WOWOW. UWF-I has been the most active and entertaining promotion of the three, and clearly have the deepest and most versatile roster, but let's not forget that they have only ran two big shows so far. They both did well, and 1993 will be a much bigger year for them, but 2,000 fans at Tokyo Korakuen Hall is still where they are at most months.
When we last saw our intrepid hero, he lost the battle over the fictitious "Best in the World" championship against the gargantuan Albright-monster. Now at the opening of this event, we see a pensive Takada ruminating over his loss in a pre-event interview, which segues to a montage featuring music that would make Jan Hammer proud. After these drum machine delights are finished, we must now go forward with the sad realization that Masakazu Maeda is no longer with us. This begs the question, is a world without Maeda worth living in? For those that haven't been faithfully following our columns, Masakazu Maeda and Hiromitsu Kanehara are two rookies that just gave us what was probably the greatest feud between two rookies in pro wrestling history and really pushed the envelope in how much shoot-intensity could by squeezed into a match with a worked outcome. This fantastic series ended far too soon, however, when Maeda retired last month after only his 6th match. (See Kakutogi Road #34 for more information).
Now, with his arch-rival out of the picture, Kanehara easily takes the mantle of being the finest of the young shoot-style lions. Here he is being thrown some fresh meat in the form of Yoshihiro Takayama, who would later go on to be one of the most decorated performers in puroresu history, being one of only three men on the planet to have held the heavyweight championship for All-Japan, New Japan, and Pro Wrestling Noah. If a modern MMA fan knows him at all, it's probably from the insane beating he took in his fight against Don Frye at Pride 21 where both men grabbed each other in a hockey-style clinch and proceeded to pound each other repeatedly in the face. All those things are in the distant future, and presently he is but a former rugby player that has entered the UWF-I under the watchful eye of Takada. Here he must face someone that will undoubtedly be a far superior opponent, but hopefully, he can make a good showing of himself.
Right away these two are going at it full bore. Kanehara quickly hits a fast kick to Takayama's thigh, but it's immediately clear that Takayama holds a significant height advantage, which he utilizes by swatting away Kanehara with a plethora of hard palm strikes. The problem is that Takayama seems to have an awkward way of moving around, and lacks coordination, kind of like if you placed a young Giant Baba into a shoot fight. He managed to lose his balance while throwing a stiff kick to Kanehara's ribs and wound up falling onto the ground and giving Kanehara a much-needed opening to a realm that he will surely be the superior fighter in. Surely enough, Kanehara grabs a quick ankle lock, prompting a rope escape, as Takayama has the height to basically grab a rope, regardless of his ring positioning. The rest of this fight was a lot better than I expected it to be, very intense with the "working" kept to a minimum. Like Maeda before him, Takayama was happy to bludgeon his opponent with no remorse, but couldn't do much once the fight hit the mat. He has a weird cadence to him to be sure, sometimes moving faster than you would expect, and at other times appearing to go in slow motion (his knees always seemed to take forever to achieve liftoff) but he is tough and his size, reach, and hard palm strikes, will be a tough challenge for anyone to deal with in the future. The fight continued its intense fast pace up until Kanehara's victory around the 8min mark with an ultra-bizarre half-crab which morphed into a heel-hook. Great way to start the event, even if Takayama isn't quite on par with (better) Maeda. ***3/4
ML: Such is the sad state of affairs that Hiromitsu Kanehara has gone from the great fortune of always taking on another rookie in Masakazu Maeda that, while not quite as gifted as he is, would have won rookie of the year in virtually any other year to the misfortune of meeting the ultimate stumblebum in the form of the debuting Yoshihiro Takayama, who would quickly establish himself as the worst, and certainly least coordinated, native in the history of shoot-style pro wrestling. Takayama tried his best to be a substitute for Maeda, and while he isn't actually a skilled striker, throwing really wide awkward slaps, and hilariously slipping when Kanehara countered his middle kick, he did manage to push a high pace and maintain the intensity, which were the essence of what Maeda was bringing. This may be the hardest Takayama ever worked, and the most ferocity he ever brought, certainly it was a great effort on his part. Even though they cut the time in half, that was still way too long for Takayama, who probably could have gone this length in a normal UWF-I match with no problem, but at this pace was blown up after about 2 minutes. There were some embarrassing moments because Takayama's striking is just so lame, just too slow, wide, army/leggy, and indirect, connecting randomly if we're lucky. Things were especially pathetic when Takayama was supposedly kicking Kanehara when he was down, but Kanehara is still fantastic, and managed to work a real magic show here to sell this Hollywood remake of his great matches. As always though, just watch the real thing.
Now it's time for another tag-match, this time between the teams of Tatsuyo Nakano/Mark Fleming & Kiyoshi Tamura/Yuko Miyato. I would much rather see these guys broken up and given an additional match on the card, but the UWF-I's tag matches have been exciting lately, so I shouldn't complain too much. I would appear to owe Miyato an apology for ever doubting him, as he right away tries to inject life into this match by going on a spirited slapping spree against the portly Nakano, but this fire was quickly put out by Tatsuyo's considerable girth. He merely grabbed Miyato and gravity did the rest, so now we are finding ourselves on the mat. Thankfully, it wasn't long before this ended, and Fleming was tagged in. Fleming then proceeded to wonderfully toss Miyato like a discus and forced the first escape with a crude rear-naked choke. This prompts Miyato to tag in Tamura, and we then got a great sequence where Tamura used his considerable speed to stifle all of Fleming's entries, that was until Fleming surprised Tamura with a lightning quick fireman's carry. Tamura didn't stick around to let Fleming capitalize on the takedown, however, and after he got up, he did a brilliant fake, where he seemed like he was going to try for a standard hip-throw and faked it into a quick ankle pick that took Fleming down. Sometimes, I'm seriously surprised, and impressed, with these little nuggets of fine ne-waza that occasionally appear in these shoot-style matches. The rest of this match continued its winning ways, mostly thanks to the excellent intensity of Miyato, who was able to pull out some decent effort from Nakano, and the seemingly endless creativity of Tamura, who almost always finds a way to shine. I will still continue to gripe about there being tag-team matches in the first place, since without a tag-team division or championship title in place, there are no stakes in these kinds of matches. Still, it's hard to complain too much when the quality is present as it was here. This was intense and exciting for almost all of it's almost 18 minute running time. The bout is eventually won by team Fleming with Miyato being an unfortunate victim of Lou Thesz's STF. ****
ML: Fleming is proving to be a good addition, as while he will never be the most exciting worker on his own, he is someone that those who understand how to work with, and counteract his amateur wrestling, can get good things out of. Tamura is certainly one of those opponents, and Miyato did some nice things when Fleming as well. This match wasn't as flashy as many of Tamura's matches, but there were a lot of nice little explosions. Tamura mostly worked with Fleming, which, beyond the obvious reasons, was good because those two being the mat pairing mostly kept Nakano from his usual durdling on the canvas. Fleming tweaked his knee early on when Tamura tried to spin into a kneebar, but Fleming rolled in the wrong direction, so Tamura had to abort. I didn't really understand the point of having the score be so lopsided in the favor of Tatsuo Nakano & Mark Fleming even when I incorrectly assumed they were ultimately losing, but this was a consistently good match, with a lot of nice moments. It never felt outstanding though, most likely because Nakano and Fleming just don't have that kind of speed or athleticism. ***
Now for the return of the man with the fastest hands in the East, Masahito Kakihara! Sadly, Kakihara has been on rookie duty the last couple of months, as he was forced with the absurd task of having to carry newcomer, Mark Silver, to two thirty-minute draws in a row. Here he will be facing Yoji Anjo, who has been on fire as of late, so I expect this to be good. Needless to say, Kakihara wastes no time in launching his lightning-palmed assault, but Anjo, being well versed in the ancient G.I. Joe code of "Knowing is half the battle!" is anticipating this, and stifles much of Kakihara's output with some rangy kicks. Still, Kakihara is so voluminous with his hands of torment, that he is still able to push a good percentage of his strikes through, despite Anjo's defenses.
Anjo knows that a standing battle is futile, so he wisely opts to go to the ground with a Kimura from what could be viewed as a half-guard, using only the loosest of definitions. Anjo lacked the necessary torque to properly finish this submission, but thankfully for him, Kakihara turned incorrectly into the hold, giving Anjo the needed leverage to put pressure on the shoulder, and thereby forcing the first rope escape. The rest of the match was odd with most of the offense coming from Anjo both in the standing and ground portions. Kakihara proved he isn't just a one-trick-pony by going for several submission attempts throughout the match, including a triangle choke and a couple of spinning kneebar/toe-hold entries. The problem was that while Kakihara is serviceable on the mat, he isn't strong enough to ever put any credible pressure on Anjo. Most of Kakihara's offense came off of Anjo botching an o-goshi or similar judo attempt, which made the ending feel very sudden and contrived when Kakihara won with a basic ankle lock, seemingly out of nowhere. This was still fast-paced enough to have been decent, but could have been much better. **3/4
ML: This was a pivitol match in Kakihara's career, a surprising huge win out of nowhere over an established and highly respected veteran. Previously, he only had 3 wins, with the only native being fellow rookie Yusuke Fuke in U.W.F. on 10/25/90 (after Fuke had defeated him on the previous show). They did a shorter version of Hiromitsu Kanehara's match, or one could say this is what Kanehara vs. Yoshihiro Takayama should have been if Takayama were actually competent. Speed, intensity, all-out aggression, this was a savage and explosive sprint. Kakihara showed some great movement and defense here. Whenever Anjo was striking, Kakihara was either making the decision to come forward to immediately get inside his striking range by blitzing him with blazing palms or backing away and dodging. One of the reasons some semblance of defense is so important in pro wrestling is that it makes the strikes actually seem meaningful. The usual nonsense of two guys standing there begging each other to hit them as hard as they can essentially assumes that while the strikes may hurt, pain is no big deal since there is exactly zero chance of it going beyond that and actually ending the fight. I mean, no one would stand there and beg the opponent to shoot or stab them (unless they were taking on Tiger Jeet Singh since they know he only uses the clumsy small sword handle rather than the giant long blade), so it just feels like the threat is so minor when people don't care to even be bothered to defend themselves. The ground fighting wasn't as good as the standup obviously, but they still went back and forth with a lot of nice fast moves. Anjo was quickly winning huge, 14-3, but the story they were telling was that the Commander was increasingly looking to keep it on the ground to press his advantage, because he could. Kakihara may not be the best mat wrestler technically or positionally, but he nonetheless kept countering Anjo well. Eventually, he did some damage with a kneebar, then when Anjo got back up, Kakihara caught his jumping knee and took him down into an Achilles' tendon hold for the huge upset win. This booking made the result of the last match where I was expecting Tamura and Miyato to pull it out even though they were way down seem better, as this time I was expecting the experienced fighter to just stomp the upstart, so there was nothing out of the ordinary with him racking up an otherwise insurmountable lead. ***1/2
Now for the man that I feel is the sleeper hit of this outfit, Steve Day. No, he may not have been blessed with any charisma (or striking skills for that matter) but he may be the best pure wrestler that we've witnessed since starting this project, and I suspect that with some fine tuning he could have been a very dangerous force within the early American MMA/NHB days, had he chosen to go that route. For now, he must face Kazuo Yamazaki, who I have given up on ever seeing be elevated to his true worth, and must begrudgingly content myself to knowing that at least he is going to put forth a good match, regardless of the outcome.
The match starts with Day hitting an absolutely breathtaking Greco-Roman throw that Yamazaki tried to stave off with good balance, to no avail. Day immediately starts smothering Yamazaki, who wisely took a rope escape, not because he was locked in a submission, but just to have an opportunity to get some distance between him and Day. It's the little nuances like this that make Yamazaki such a stellar talent. Yamazaki then goes for a low single, which gets the fight to the mat, but Day is an excellent scrambler, and easily gets the superior position. However, he is not excellent at submissions, and despite being able to easily dictate where the fight takes place, he still seems kind of clueless on how to end the fight once he gets to where he wants to be. He attempts to choke Yamazaki after taking his back but is so awkward in doing so that Yamazaki easily fends it off until the ref stands them back up. The rest of this match was somewhat frustrating as Day is the best at what he's good at, but since he is only good at one thing, it's hard for him to excel in this kind of environment. The rest of this match was mostly Yamazaki finding creative ways to get the fight to the ground (I.E., a flying scissor takedown) and attacking Day's legs, only for Day to not really know how to stop this. I like Day, but the more I see him, the more I wish he had been part of the early UFC's where he really would have had a chance to make a big splash. As it stands, he is good enough that his match is always going to be solid, but unspectacular. The match ends when Yamazaki gets an armbar after punishing Day's legs for good measure. ***
ML: Yamazaki really underachieved in 1991. He was certainly good, but nonetheless, his matches sounded better on paper than they were in actuality. He has really stepped it up on the last two shows, getting much better short matches out of the opposition and then he had the right to. The Koji Kitao match was always going to be a one man show, but that makes this one all the more interesting, where Yamazaki finally really developed the sequences to his capability, and crafted a match that was more than the sum of its parts. Day was obviously impressive here as well, as this wasn't merely Yamazaki reacting to the wrestler's aggression, as he would with say Tom Burton, but rather Day answering him counter for counter. I loved the urgency Yamazaki brought to some of these segments. For instance, there was a great segment where Day countered his belly to belly suplex with one of his own, but as soon as Yamazaki's back hit the canvas, he immediately turned and took Day's back, trying to go into a Boston crab only to have Day roll into a heelhook, setting off a game of footsies. The finish was a similar sequence where Day countered Yamazaki's German suplex with a go behind into one of his own, but Yamazaki spun into a Kimura attempt as soon as they landed, chaining submission attempts until he hit the armbar for the win. ***1/2
Now, for the deepest of humiliations. Yes, we will now witness, for the first time, Takada not being in the main event spot, due to his inability to become "Best of the World." Because that legendary title is now being reserved for the Albright-monster, he must bide his time taking on Mark Silver in what is sure to be a throwaway match for both men. What followed was a quick five min match, that saw both men look light on their feet, but was ultimately an excursion for Takada to have a live opponent to use as a kicking bag. To be fair, Silver looks more confidant, but his lack of speed and lack of a ground game isn't doing him any favors. Fairly entertaining for what it was, but totally skippable. Takada must simply bide his time before the powers that be grant him another chance to redeem himself from the gargantuan gaijin. **
ML: A passable nothing match. It was more active and competent than I was expecting to be, but the same time it was totally just there. The fans got to see Takada a break a sweat, if he even did.
Albright came, he saw, and he suplexed the daylights out of Tom Burton. This was even more of a throwaway than the last match, with it only lasting a little over two minutes, but at least this made sense contextually. The giant Albright-monster is on his reign of terror, and not even another big man, such as Burton, can stop him. Can anyone? Will Takada eventually be able to redeem his people and the U-Spirit by foisting away the crown from Gary? Many are the burning questions that await us, but what is for certain is that the UWF-I continues to succeed despite its best efforts. Their booking lacks any kind of long-term vision and most of the pairings feel as interchangeable as a plotline to an episode of Law and Order. Still, they have loads of raw talent, and that is enough to keep them at the top, for now.
ML: This was an improvement in the sense that Albright's match looked much less cartoonish, as he was really explosive and stiff here, more credibly overwhelming a fellow big man, if credible can be used in a "shoot" match that is built around gigantic suplexes. Calling this a match is an overstatement though, as Burton had one offensive move in 2 1/2 minutes.
Conclusion: A solid event that isn't quite in the must-see category. Certainly not a bad way to spend 1 ½ hours, as we got a great tag match, a good opening, and a couple of solid, but not quite great mid-card matches. The last two bouts were pointless, but we all knew that going into it, and at least they were quick. Solid show but could have been a lot better with any type of competent booking at the helm.
ML: This was an excellent show if you wanted to see a series of interesting , high quality undercard matches. On the other hand, it was a bad show if you wanted to see the two big names, who gave little more than exhibitions against Crash Test Dummies, or expected the undercard matches to actually lead somewhere.
*In other news*
On 7-7-92 the Daido Juku Karate organization held another one of their "Wars" events, where they generally invite fighters from other promotions/disciplines to compete against their practitioners. In addition to this, they generally mix these intra-promotional bouts with karate fights of their own, not dissimilar to those seen within Sediokaikan. However, unlike Sediokaikan, they allow punches to the face during competition, but they make their fighters wear headgear that wouldn't have been out of place on a Joe D'Amato flick. They also permit ground fighting, including submissions, but the time they are generally permitted on the mat is far too quick to be of any practical value.
The event opened up with an exhibition between Daido Juku karateka, Shigeaki Koganemaru, and Thai Boxer, Compet Sissahahan. First off, credit must be given to this org for allowing their first bout to be a fight between two different styles, as it says a lot to the confidence in their style, especially when facing a seasoned Thai fighter. This wound up being an interesting contrast between these two styles of stand-up fighting. The Thai was able to continually spam low kicks that Koganemaru never had a decent response for, but by the same token, Shigeaki was able to seemingly throw his opponent at will, which showed some versatility in his style.
Another highlight included an appearance from Koichiro Kimura. Interestingly, Kimura is entering into this as a representative of S.A.W. (Submission Arts Wrestling) and not as a RINGS performer, despite competing within both organizations. This match is done under S.A.W. rules, so when the fighters are standing then punches, kicks, etc, are allowed, but when/if the fight goes to the ground, then it would seem that strikes are prohibited, and grappling must ensue. Kimura shows his excellent wrestling skills, yet again, as he was able to take down his opponent, Toshiyuki Ito, at will. It seems that in a S.A.W. contest, a match does not end when a fighter is able to secure a submission, but is restarted, and presumably the victim of the submission loses a point. Easy win for Kimura, and an interesting look at this burgeoning sport/discipline.
ML: Kimura and Ito put on a fun little exhibition fight where they were just diving on submissions back and forth. They would tap as soon as someone hooked something, but even then, immediately continuing on the damaged joint felt a bit awkward.
Joe Malenko is said to be starting with the PWFG in August.
It would appear that Dave Meltzer and his reporting within the Pro Wrestling Observer, can't catch a break with the UWF-I. Here is liaison for that organization, Gene Pelc, reaching out yet again, to voice his disapproval with some of Dave's comments, especially as it pertains to the recent fights that Trevor Berbick and James Warring had with the promotion. Here are his comments, quoted verbatim:
"I'm again contacting you on behalf of the UWF International. You write that Hachiro Tanaka (SWS/Megame Super) owns a percentage of the UWFI. This is untrue. He has absolutely no ownership or other financial position in the UWFI.
Your interpretation of the Warring-Berbick matches continues to misrepresent the facts. Berbick didn't want to be kicked, but he surely knew about kicks being in the rules and wanted the fight money. All he had to do was say he wouldn't fight with kicks, and we'd have happily canceled his contract. We had a back-up fighter ready and willing to go.
At the 5/8 Yokohama Arena promotion, former sumo champ Koji Kitao ko'd Kazuo Yamazaki with a series of low kicks, not a kick to the face. Gary Albright will not be out of action until August due to injuries suffered in his fight. In fact, he will be on the card in Hakata on 6/28."
Gene Pelc
UWF International
Tokyo, Japan