Kakutogi Road: The Chronological History of MMA |
The date is 7-27-92, and the countdown has begun. Events have been propelled into motion that cannot be undone, and in approximately 5 months, a cataclysmic event will take place which will forever pave the way for MMA to take hold of the greater public consciousness.
This, of course, is the great exodus of most of PWFG’s key players as they leave to start up the Pancrase organization. Yes, only four more PWFG events will take place after this one before Funaki, Suzuki, and others make giant waves within the Japanese press by starting up a promotion based around professional wrestling being a pure sport, one where all ranges of combat must be considered. This wasn’t a new idea by any means; Satoru Sayama had been preaching "Shooting" (I.E., MMA) to anyone that would listen since at least 1984. However, Funaki was wiser than Sayama in his presentation in that he packaged MMA as a real style of pro wrestling. This approach enabled the product to be easily digested by the public en masse. Sayama’s vision was too cerebral, too unpretentious, and required a certain degree of education to jump into. Whereas with Pancrase, it was like taking an already hot oven and turning up the temperature 25 degrees. Sayama tried to work around this by endlessly promoting his sport and going as far as to spend time at each Shooto event discussing the various concepts to what paying audience there was, but was only marginally successful in attracting anyone to the Korakuen Hall. That started to change in 1994 with the UFC and the Gracie family making waves throughout the world, which partially prompted the introduction of the Vale Tudo Japan series of events. From '94 onwards, Shooto enjoyed a larger audience, but still lagged, overall, behind the other kakutogi promotions during the PRIDE FC era.
ML: Some of the difference can be chalked up to Sayama being uncompromising in maintaining the legitimacy of the real sport he created, whereas Pancrase really followed the U.W.F. path of trying to be the most realistic form of pro wrestling, and thus had many shades of pro wrestling, most notably points of cooperation and even some worked finishes.
Still, much of these iconic moments in history are upcoming in the horizon. For now, let us enjoy the beginning of the final moments of the truest version of the PWFG.
There is a scene in Groundhog Day where Bill Murray is experiencing a new day, after being forced to live through a time loop for an unspecified amount of time (current thinking on the matter has it around 40 years) and says, “Anything different is good!” That's how I feel right now, knowing that we are going to get an opening match that's not comprised of the same two people, in what feels like an eternity. Yes, I could hug Fujiwara right now for breaking up the formula, even if for a moment, to give us Ryushi Yanagisawa vs Diesuel Berto. When we last saw Yanigisawa he was having his 2nd match with Jerry Flynn, with both matches being good, especially their first. Berto on the other hand, through no fault of his own, was forced to be in a 30min draw with Yuki Ishikawa that was totally forgettable.
This wound up being one of the more bizarre matches we've witnessed as it was either a shoot or a work-gone-wrong, but it only lasted about 1 ½ mins, so it's hard to give a fair analysis. Ryushi opens with a couple of stiff kicks before Berto catches his leg and takes him down. Once they're on the mat Berto holds his leg, while obviously considering an ankle lock, but wisely opts for a hard shot to Yanagisawa’s stomach. The ref stands them up, and moments later, Yanagisawa kicks Berto flush in the chin for the knockout. Everything here was stiff and credible, but it did seem to be missing the typical energy of a shoot. Still, a minute isn't enough time to assess something like that, and while I would speculate that it was a work-gone-wrong, given the information we have, it could be fair to call this a shoot with an asterisk next to it.
ML: PWFG doesn't normally have shoots, or really short matches of any type, as they don't have a very large roster. I thought this was a work, but the finishing high kick was legitimate, perhaps they just tried a little too hard to make it to finish look as realistic as possible and/or Yanagisawa just landed too hard/flush on the chin accidentally? It's not impossible that this was a shoot, and they were a bit tepid because they were feeling each other out, but I would go with a work because the energy, intensity, and general vibe seemed more like a work. Either way, it was more interesting than a silly Bill Murray movie.
Now it's time for another battle of the young lions, as Kazuo Takahashi and Yuki Ishikawa are set to fight it out for the rights to be future flag-bearers for this shoot-pride. Both have been mixing it up lately, being in both worked and shoot contests, although even Takahashi’s works have been rather intense in the last few months. The first thing I notice is Takahashi giving Ishikawa a nasty stare that I've never seen him do before. He's always been intense in the ring, but very respectful leading up to that point, so I'm wondering if there's some bad blood here.
Not three seconds into this, and it would seem that my suspicions are correct, they are attacking each other with malice only reserved for thine enemies. Kazuo wins the fierce slapping war, quickly getting his opponent to the ground, and pulls out a nice trick I used to do in my younger days, which is to control your opponent with a half-nelson. This didn't last long before Kazuo just decided to start slapping Yuko like he was insulting his mother. Whatever this is, it may well wind up being one of the stiffest slugfests that the PWFG ever produced.
The rest of this match was just as nasty, with Kazuo often getting the better of Yuki due to his slow takedown attempts, but it wasn't without some great moments from Ishikawa. We saw Yuki pull out several toys from his box of punishments. Soccer kicks, headbutts, elbow grinding from the mount, and a couple of slaps that were so hard I felt it through my monitor, were all to be seen from the future owner of Battlarts. The lack of BJJ these days was a double-edged sword as it caused some slow lapses in the action, but also forced some creative entries. There was one fun moment where Takahashi wanted to fall back for a straight ankle-lock, so he set it up with a diving headbutt, which could be considered an act of genius. The ending of this match was a work (where Ishikawa had to do his duty to a Boston crab that came out of nowhere) but everything leading up to it was a borderline shoot with a nice grudge match feel. ***¼
This was one of the stiffest and certainly nastiest matches of the year, and looked much more like a shoot to me than the Ryushi Yanagisawa vs. Dieusel Berto, but I still don't feel like it was actually a shoot, as it was kind of slow paced and lacked urgency in the movements and attempts to secure/improve position. It seemed like a precursor to Pancrase where they were working a match but hitting more or less for real the entire time, then doing a predetermined finish with the infamous crab, as opposed to the Yanagisawa match where it seemed like they were working a match, but the finishing shot was legitimate for whatever reason. In any case, this was super badass, and these guys really gave you the sense that they didn't like one another, with things getting chippy early and often, including numerous headbutts and hard shots to the liver and kidney on the ground. The hatred, disrespect (mostly from Takahashi) & intensity were awesome, and really made a fight without tons of activity into something notable, and even memorable. Takahashi was clearly out to bully the rookie, aided by his size advantage and far superior wrestling skill. He wasn't above taking semi cheap shots to put the young punk in his place, and generally just being a dick, grinding his elbow & fist into Ishikawa's face, and kicking Ishikawa when he was getting up. At one point, after a particularly brutal headbutt, the ref was checking Ishikawa's face to make sure everything was still in the right place! Ishikawa was very spunky, and wouldn't back down, leading to some great slap exchanges. I didn't feel like Takahashi was going all out to win, but rather trying to humiliate Ishikawa by showing him up at every turn, giving him some opportunities to try to gain the advantage so he could thwart him. Then, when he finally had enough of playing around, he "got serious" and did a quick, explosive takedown into the crab. This was really good, especially for a match that very reasonably wasn't particularly competitive. There was a nice show of respect at the end where Takahashi bowed to Ishikawa standing, then both dropped to their knees and bowed. ***1/2
So far, we have a lot of momentum going into the third match, but that's all about to come to an end, no thanks to the buffoonery of Johnny Barrett and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. While my esteemed colleague, Mike Lorefice, may vehemently disagree with me, I would much rather take another heaping of Takayama, than deal with Mr. JB, again. With Takayama, even though he will fail spectacularly, at least he will put forth a real effort which will give us a fiery crescendo of failure, as opposed to the monotonous meanderings of Mr. JB.
Barrett tries kicking Fujiwara, only to have his leg caught, and was then put in some kind of perverse version of a shoot-style airplane spin (minus the takeoff). Things somehow manage to get worse on the mat where the submissions that Mr. JB seems to know are the dreaded “rubbing the elbow on the back of your opponent's head,” and a truly atrocious toehold. Not to be undone, Fujiwara gives us the worst push kick we've seen so far, before eventually ending this farce with the same hamstring curl of doom that he defeated Funaki with a year prior. Awful, but quick and worth a chuckle.
ML: What we have here is a DUD so uneventful and pathetic it's hard to describe. I mean, saying they worked for a takedown and then worked for a submission would make it sound like there was actually something going on, and like it was just any other match. The thing is, nothing really happened, and as soon as it threatened to, it was comedic, intentionally from Fujiwara because he couldn't take his opponent seriously, and unintentionally for Barrett because he went to the WWE school of overselling. I still think this is less intolerable than putting up with 15 minutes of Takayama's ineptness. Takayamais probably less unlikely to accidentally do something passable, but when we are talking about the worst of the worst, the best things that can happen are their matches are short and they don't waste the time and effort of someone who would have had a good match against a reasonable opponent. Barrett's matches tend to meet those qualifications so to speak, so they are easier to stomach than Kanehara going from all-time classics to inept clunkers through no fault of his own.
Now for something that could potentially get us back on track, Ken Shamrock vs. Jerry Flynn. I am excited going into this, as this is a great matchup on paper. Both are bigger men with legitimate skills, which could lead to an intriguing grappler vs. striker setup. Flynn has had several great moments since he hit the scene, including some good matches with Yanagisawa and Sano, and a great outing against Takaku Fuke. On the other hand, Shamrock is probably still rightfully agitated about having to relinquish his top foreigner spot to Bart Vale. The fight starts with an interesting sequence where both men parry and feint, trying to figure out a way to successfully initiate an attack. Both men checked each other’s light kicks as they were testing the waters before Shamrock drew first blood by grabbing Flynn and contorting him down to the canvas. Shamrock then initiated some gutsy armbar attempts that didn’t work but did show some impressive athleticism for someone of his size. This wound up being a mixed bag, as the first half of this match was somewhat hampered by the lack of intensity in the standup portions (they seemed overly cautious to avoid hurting one another) but did pick up in the 2nd. It went to the ground more frequently than I would have liked, but at least Shamrock was always aggressively looking for a submission, and it never felt like it stalled out. It was a very dominant performance for Ken, which was fine but would have been much better had he given Flynn more opportunities. Things ended on a high note, however, with a nice armbar entry from Shamrock, after being reversed from the mount position. Decent **¾
ML: This started way too tepid, and while it may have wound up being the best of the rare gaijin battles we've seen so far in PWFG, it was disappointing, and certainly below the level of Shamrock typical match. Things really picked up when Flynn scored a knockdown with a flurry of strikes that included two high kicks, and Shamrock came back angry to immediately get the knockdown back. That minute was great, but otherwise this was kind of meh. Flynn obviously had the advantage in striking, while Shamrock was clearly the superior grappler, and the stronger fighter overall. Flynn did a pretty good job of defending on the ground to stay out of real trouble, but Shamrock eventually countered into an armbar for the win.
Now, after an almost 9-month layoff, we get to see the return of Duane Koslowski, as he is set to face off against Minoru Suzuki. When we last saw Duane, he was having a good match against Masakatsu Funaki right up to the point that he appeared to injure himself, and the match ended abruptly. Suzuki has been the most prone to be the one in a shoot within the PWFG, but should he go that route again this evening, will not likely find Koslowski as easy of a target to bully around due to his excellent wrestling pedigree. 5-seconds into the match and Suzuki already looks fantastic. He is so springy and light on his feet, and quickly moves in and out so that you never know when exactly he is going to attack. Instead of shooting in right away, he sneaks in a few nice thigh kicks, which has Koslowski on the defensive. I was surprised at how easily Suzuki was able to get Koslowski down with a low single-leg takedown, which was instantly followed by the best armbar attempt all night. Also, how surprisingly explosive Koslowski was in exploding out of the submission. He seems to have developed an instinct to know exactly when he is in trouble and conserved his energy for just the right moment. Sadly, without any BJJ knowledge, he didn’t really know how to capitalize on securing the side mount but instead did the only thing he could probably think of, which was grab an ankle and hope for the best. Of course, that only led him to get heel-hooked in response, thus prompting the first rope escape. The rest of this match saw Suzuki continue to shine and it’s easy to see how he became such a force in Pancrase in the first couple of years of their existence. Not to say that Koslowski was bad, as he was able to control Suzuki more frequently than I would have expected but was never really able to capitalize on his weight or strength advantages due to the lack of his submission game. Suzuki even had some tricks up his sleeve, such as some nasty knees when Duane went for his strongest asset, the clinch, or a beautiful suplex when Duane became off-balance from trying to work from that position. It eventually ends when Suzuki secures an ankle lock. Koslowski wasn’t able to put Suzuki in any real danger but put up a hell of a fight, nonetheless. ***½
ML: An interesting match that unfortunately never really got there, mostly because it was so short. Kozlowski obviously had the positional advantage with his Olympic wrestling, but Suzuki was obviously the better submission fighter, and would eventually take over on the ground even against a master of a certain discipline of ground control because he was just so much more well rounded. The match was certainly holding my interest while it was taking place, but ultimately not much happened beyond the positional battles, ending with Suzuki countering into an Achilles' tendon hold out of nowhere.
Now for the moment that we can only hope will quickly wash over us like an unassuming mist, Bart “Champion of the World” Vale must do battle with the modern-day Samurai, Masakatsu Funaki. Thankfully, Funaki has traded in his karuta (samurai armor) for the posher stylings of zebra-patterned zubaz. Yes, Funaki looks like he found some time to squeeze this match in between his 6-days-a-week, twice-a-day, “split routine” at his local Gold’s Gym. Things are underway and Funaki is looking superfluid, briskly moving in and out while sticking Vale with some crisp kicks. Funaki's intensity is forcing Vale to drop the flashy cheeseball routine and act more seriously. Vale seems genuinely flummoxed on how to engage Funaki, and this more measured approach is better for us all. A lengthy ground battle followed, with Funaki looking like a million bucks. It always felt like he could end this anytime he wanted to and was merely toying with Vale. Eventually, he gave Vale his turn, and I will admit that Vale put in some real effort here, but isn't able to mask his lack of natural athleticism. The rest of this match may have been the defining moment in Vale’s career. By constantly putting pressure on Vale, Funaki was able to force Vale to give us his best, and this was entirely compelling despite its 30min running time. Vale showed some good strategy by frequently utilizing the side stance to keep Fuanki at bay, which forced Fuanki to have to carefully time his attacks and takedowns. The match had a good blend of standup and mat-time, never stalling out too long in one realm or the other, and even on the ground Vale was intense and credible, even if he will never be confused for a submission wizard. The ending was bizarre, however, as it looked like the time ran out while Fuanki was going for some kind of weird variation of a straight armbar, but the match is listed as a submission victory for Funaki, which makes him the new “Champion of the World,” I suppose. I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but this was very solid. ****
ML: A 30 minute Vale match that is almost passable, I suppose, is a major accomplishment, but this may be your most Meltzerized match rating. I had this as the fourth best match on a mostly forgettable six match show where the other two matches were less than 4 minutes, and never even considered the possibility of it surpassing even **. Definitely one of Funaki's least realistic matches, but unfortunately, not really gaining any entertainment value in the tradeoff unless you really enjoy watching Vale's typical slow-motion forms exhibition. I normally like Funaki's standup a lot, and wish we would see more of it, but because Vale is Mr. Molasses, Funaki didn't use any of his speed or footwork, and mostly just kind of looked silly standing right in front of Bartman so he could be kicked, or actively walking into them. Logically, Funaki would have been landing low kicks and circling off, but Funaki wasn't really even attacking at all in order to support Vale's slow high/middle kick from the side stance style. Instead, he would step forward and wait for Vale to movie kick him, rather than plowing through the pocket and actually tie Vale up or take him down so he couldn't. Finally, 20 minutes into the match, Funaki ate a spinning high kick to the shoulder blade in order to respond with a double-leg takedown. After that, Funaki would sometimes put up a high block then shoot when Vale chose not to kick him. On the ground, not a lot happened as you would expect. Vale is about as active as Brock Lesnar, while Funaki remained the king of patience. Even the knockdowns were unconvincing. Vale had a knockdown early on with a high kick that Funaki clearly doubled blocked with crossed forearms. Then there was a truly hilarious spot where Funaki was on his knees, with Vale working an amateur wrestling position from the side, and Funaki somehow managed to score a knockdown with a little reverse elbow to the nose. While not the epic disaster it sounded like on paper, Vale did way more to make Funaki look bad than Funaki did to make Vale look good.
Conclusion: For the most part, I enjoyed what I saw here, and felt that this was a step in the right direction. The first match was a possible shoot, or at least had a legit knockout if nothing else. The 2nd was an edgy shoot, right up until the worked ending. Shamrock/Flynn could have been better but was decent. Suzuki/Koslowski was interesting and intense, and the main event, to the shock of anyone that follows this column, was a miracle. Shoot-style matches have almost no business being 30-min long, and it's surefire suicide to book Bart Vale in one, but somehow Funaki was able to pull a rabbit out of his hat and make this work. With all that being said, it’s almost a shame knowing that the time is coming to an end for this iteration of Fujiwara Co. It seems that many of the key players want to shoot, and are edging closer and closer to it, but for whatever reason, Fujiwara isn’t comfortable in fully committing to this idea. This leads me to think that Akira Maeda was wiser than perhaps I’ve given him credit for in the past, as he has never seemed to have an issue with shooting, or who’s doing it, as long as it doesn’t interfere in his main event plans. A match like Takahashi/Ishikawa didn’t need a contrived worked ending, as whoever won that shoot wouldn’t have affected the long-term plans of the company.
ML: The notable aspect of the show is the 1st two matches doing a nice job of blurring the line between fantasy & reality. This is what Funaki and co. will do such a good job of running with a year from now.
Also, it’s easy to understand why this format likely felt increasingly constraining to Fuanki and his brethren. Imagine that you were a young man in the prime of his life and spending everyday eating/training/living like a professional fighter, but only getting to put your skills to the test behind closed doors, in sparring sessions. Even then, sparring is only going to test you so much, and if you felt like you had something to prove or wanted to know more about what you were capable of, then it’s easy to understand why there was a longing for something more. New Japan may have started the trend of training its pro wrestlers as quasi-professional fighters within their dojo system, but this concept was elevated in the U.W.F. years, and these guys all had experience in how to work a pro wrestling style, but their lifestyles and passions lied with real fighting. Hopefully, one of the things that we will be able to accomplish with this project is to get to interview enough of these key players and find out what the behind-the-scenes atmosphere was like leading to the final moments of this countdown. Was Fujiwara pressed by Fuanki and others to go in a more shoot direction? How did Fujiwara feel about allowing the public to see real shoots? Was it more of an issue with whoever was backing them financially? A lot of questions remain before us, but we will diligently continue our quest to flesh out this history and hopefully together, get a clearer picture of how this all came to be.
ML: I think it really comes down to the Megame money backers, and the other stuff just arose from the rubble of them no longer being willing to support PWFG in the form we've seen for the first two years. I don't think Pancrase forms because Funaki & Suzuki just couldn't do this worked stuff anymore, it's more like, if PWFG as we know it is done, let's do something different rather than just rehashing the same ideas under a new monicker and/or with new fianancers.
Before we end this, I would like to take a moment to share what our translator, Hebisasori, was able to find out when he reviewed the event. Here is a summary of the comments/interviews from this event, in his words:
Ryuji Yanagisawa's speech during the entrance ceremony: As a representative of Fujiwara gumi, he thanks the audience for coming… says they'll all do their best to fight hard and give a good show.
Yanagisawa’s pre-fight interview (vs Berto): I haven't lost to Fuke or Ishikawa [in his previous bouts] so there’s no way I'm going to lose this time. I can certainly beat Fuke, but I drew with Ishikawa so this time I'm going to fight to win.
Ishikawa’s prefight interview (vs Takahashi): I’ve fought 4 times now so this time I want to show the result [of improvement, of his training] and show how much I’ve approached Takahashi’s level or even that I can beat him.
Takahashi’s prefight interview (vs Ishikawa): I’ve gained weight, so I think I’m stronger now, my speed is the same. I’m going to wear the leggers [shin pads] this time so I want to test what it is like and how it is different from fighting without them. [I believe if you don’t wear the leg-paddings (called “leggers”), you're allowed to kick; otherwise, you can't]. It’s hot today and Ishikawa has stamina while I’m not too confident about my stamina [he means cardio], I’ll have to try not to allow the match go to a draw and I want to end the fight before I start sweating.
Suzuki’s prefight interview (vs. Koslowski): Asked about what he knows of Koslowski, Suzuki says: I saw him fight 3 years ago at the Tokyo Dome and since then he’s fought several times at Fujiwaragumi. In amateur or Olympic style wrestling he’s number 1 in the US, but that’s pretty much all he has. Asked who he wants to fight next, he says: I want to fight Fujiwara since if I trace my roots in prowrestling it would go back to Fujiwara. So, I feel the need to fight him and beat him. And there’ve been several opportunities in the past, but they didn’t pan out and I drew him once. When asked if he has confidence: It doesn’t matter. Whether it’s a newbie beginner or an old veteran like Fujiwara, once I get into the ring, I'll hit the opponent hard and choke him our as hard as I can. That’s all there is to it.
Funaki’s prefight interview (vs. Vale): About his impression of Bart Vale, he says: Back in the UWF days, many young fighters, including himself and Shamrock as well, after winning once or twice, would start moving up in the ranks and start thinking they’re invincible…in that sense Vale is on a roll… and this also makes him a formidable/dangerous opponent as he’s [recently] faced Shamrock and Fujiwara. So, I need to be careful, and it’s very hot today too! When asked about his strategy: I’ll avoid getting hit by Vale’s kicks with those long legs he has; When he tries to kick me, I’ll grab the leg and then take him to the ground. Because of the sweat, I’ll try to grab areas that won’t slip like an ankle in order to hook a submission.}
*In other news*
Current KICK Women’s World Bantamweight Champion, Ramona Gatto, was recently featured in an issue of Black Belt Magazine, about how she was robbed last year in an ISKA title match against Kathy Long. She said that while she started slow, she should have had a dominant point victory, and that if Long’s camp had done some research as to who she was, they never would have let Kathy fight her, as they only allow her to fight easy fights. She also claimed that Long agreed to give her a rematch, only to squelch out on it, and is looking to get back in the ring with her to settle the score.
Kathy Long responded to this challenge in the very same issue of Black Belt Magazine. They interviewed her on a wide range of subjects (including how she is making a transition to Hollywood films, even being offered roles in TMNT 3 and Red Scorpion 2) and when the subject of Ramona came up, this is what she had to say, “She keeps telling people that I won’t fight her. I’m sorry. I have fought her. After the fight I tried to tell her that she was a great fighter. She yelled and screamed at me and called me names. Told me there was no way that I won. I was going to offer her a rematch, but after all the name-calling, and the yelling and the screaming, and the bad attitude that she had, I decided that I wasn’t going to do her any favors. If someone’s going to treat me like that, why should I do something for them?” Hopefully, we will get to see this settled in the ring at a future date!
David Gobedshivili, the Soviet superheavyweight who won a gold medal in both the 1980 and 1988 Olympic games in freestyle, will make his pro debut after the 1992 games on a PWFG event in October at the Tokyo Dome. He is set to be facing Minoru Suzuki. For the same event, it is being rumored that the PWFG are in talks with boxer Tommy Morrison (who had a leading role in Rocky V a couple of years ago) about possibly making an appearance. They are also reportedly talking again with Don “Nakaya” Neilsen, but its unclear if they want him to rematch Fujiwara or someone else.
There have also been rumors that the UWF-I and RINGS have been discussing ways to try and co-promote a supercard.
Rob Kaman is set to return to RINGS to fight Masaaki Satake, in what should be a great match.
Kazuo Yamazaki recently spoke to the Japanese press, and is calling out Koji Kitao, demanding a rematch.