Kakutogi Road: The Chronological History of MMA |
Sometimes, even the most seemingly minor pieces are critical to the operation of complex machinery. Major endeavors are no different, as there are always untold numbers of people and circumstances that had to be present for that undertaking to succeed. Unfortunately, the personalities that tend to get the most prestige and credit for innovation are usually standing on the shoulders of the unknown giants that preceded them. That is the exact scenario we now find ourselves in on 8-15-92, as Joe Malenko is set to debut within the PWFG. Although, I'm using the word “debut” loosely as Malenko had his hand in a lot of the behind-the-scenes affairs of this promotion.
Malenko (real name Jody Simon) was born to legendary Floridan pro wrestler Boris Malenko (real name Lawrence Simon). Unlike many 2nd generation wrestlers who get started by performing for the public, Joe instead got his start by helping run his father's wrestling school. In 1980, Boris Malenko had retried from wrestling professionally and decided to parlay his knowledge into running a training school. This put himself into the orbit of legendary wrestler Karl Gotch, who in turn took Joe under his wing, and eventually helped him get a slot in the original UWF in time for a brief run during their 1985 year. Joe’s next big break was when he was recruited along with his brother, Dean, to join AJPW. It was there where he, perhaps, made his biggest contribution to MMA, when he and Dean befriended a young (and very green) Ken Shamrock.
Shamrock started training in professional wrestling in 1988 under Buzz Sawyer, Nelson Royal, and Gene Anderson. Royal instantly took to Shamrock, and despite him still being very inexperienced, decided to pull some strings and get him booked over in All Japan Pro Wrestling, starting in September of 1989. His first match saw Ken up against Joe Malenko, who could instantly tell that Ken was in way over his head and needed some guidance. Later, both Joe and Dean would take Ken under their wing and help refine his abilities and teach him how to better work with a Japanese audience in mind. Their friendship (especially between Ken and Dean) would continue to hold steady, even when Ken returned stateside, and eventually wound up working with Dean again in the American NAWA promotion. Eventually, Dean would introduce Ken to some footage of the NEWBORN UWF and encouraged him to try out for them. Thanks to the Malenko’s relationship with Karl Gotch, and his son-in-law Masami Soronaka, this gave them the opportunity to have Ken try out with Soronaka and Bart Vale to see if he had the potential for the shoot-style. The rest is history, as they say, and soon Shamrock was on a trajectory to being one of the most important figures in the formation of early American MMA history. Had Joe/Dean Malenko not taken an interest in the success of a young Shamrock, then he probably never would have made it very far within the Japanese professional circuit and certainly not have had the opportunities to be on the ground floor of the early 90s shoot-style boom, and of course, no inclusion in UFC 1. Without Shamrock providing an interesting foil to Royce Gracie in those early years, the UFC would have probably been regulated to a brief blip in the history of time as an infomercial for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu. Also, without Shamrock’s later feud with Tito Ortiz in later years, the UFC may have never even got out of the dark ages and into profitability. Either way, the presence of a 2nd generation professional wrestler, that never had any major success in North America, had an incalculable effect on MMA both existing, and thriving, in America today.
ML: Had Malenko not befriended Shamrock, I may have never realized he was that Vince Torelli guy I used to see in South Atlantic Pro-Wrestling when I was a kid, and if he went anywhere, he probably would have gotten a retarded gimmick such as his SAPW peers Chris Chavis aka Takanka, Curtis Thompson aka Firebreaker Chip, & Tom Brandi aka Johnny Gunn & Salvatore Sincere. Rather than becoming The World's Most Dangerous Man, the only real fighting Shamrock may also have been notable for is his drunken brawl with The Nasty Boys, where the stinky duo double teamed him, breaking his sternum and caving in his eye socket, with Robert Fuller and the American Pit Bulldogs luckily preventing Kobbs and Saggs from tossing an unconscious Shamrock over the third floor balcony of their motel room.
First up is Jerry Flynn vs. Yuki Ishikawa, and we must all continue to pour out our thanks to Fujiwara for giving us another month with a different opening match. This should be interesting as Flynn, even if it will fall short of the best, can always be counted on to give a very solid performance. Ishikawa, on the other hand, is still a bit of a wild card. He is about 50/50 in shoots/works, so far, and I have much preferred him shooting. To be fair, his main block of “working” was against the very green Diesuel Berto, so I am hopeful. The match starts, and instantly we can see that Ishikawa is having major issues dealing with the height/size difference between himself and Flynn. He is outclassed in the standup, and to make matters worse, his single leg is just too slow to be effective and gives Flynn all the time he needs to sprawl his way into a dominant position. Flynn is looking much more impressive on the mat than I would have expected, diving for a toehold, and when that didn’t work, he quickly shifted to an impressive arm triangle. The rest of this match saw Flynn bring his A-game, looking crisp, powerful, and imposing, whereas Ishikawa looked like Kakihara with about ¼ of the speed and coordination. Because of this one-sided display, the match fell short of its potential. Ishikawa has been entertaining when he shoots, as he has to bring an unforced intensity to the proceedings, but he needs to take a page out of Suzuki’s playbook when he works by adding a sense of urgency. This wasn’t bad, but could have been much, much, better. ** ¼
ML: I wouldn't recommend having anyone go 30 minutes with Berto, especially a rookie, but Ishikawa has been entertaining so far, and right now my PWFG match of the year would be Kazuo Takahashi vs. Yuki Ishikawa 7/27/92. That match was super intense, this on the other hand was a glorified sparring match where an extremely nonchalant Flynn didn't take the rookie the least bit seriously. Ishikawa had no chance in standup, especially giving up so much reach, but Flynn was clearly just toying with him rather than actually trying to hurt him or win. Ishikawa managed to get a few takedowns, and on the ground he posed some threat with his submission game, but it still just looked like they were practicing in the gym. I would say to add insult to injury, but that would imply that something damaging actually occurred at some point. In any case, Flynn actually beat Ishikawa at his own game, getting the submission with a belly down armbar. This wasn't exactly bad, but very uninspiring.
Now for a match that absolutely no one was asking for, we have Johnny Barrett vs. Georgii Galdava. I am unfamiliar with Galdava, but judging by his awesome singlet, I foresee some amazing Greco-Roman skills in our immediate future. The good news is that Galdava appears to be the real deal, and could be PWFG’s answer to Steve Day. The bad news is that due to Barrett this was absolutely awful. Why anyone thought that having a debuting talent go against the worst shoot-wrestler this side of JT Southern is beyond comprehension. Barrett was so slow and uncoordinated that I found myself yearning for a marathon of Takayama, by comparison. While it’s hard to get an accurate read, I felt that we would have got a nice solid match if they had put Galdava against someone like Funaki or Suzuki, as he seems to be a bit more comfortable with the striking portions compared to Day, but as it stands, this was just terrible. DUD
ML: Galdava, who later competed in RINGS, may have made a good impression if they gave him a small opponent he could have tossed around, rather than someone who outweighs King Kong Bundy. Galdava still managed a nice belly-to-belly suplex though. This was world's better than Barrett vs. Fujiwara, as it was a serious match that actually resembled real fighting. Barrett may not have been good, but he was able to manage the amateur wrestling sequences with Galdava, even if his "offense" was largely just lay and pray. This wasn't impressive by any means, but it was rarely inept, so I wouldn't say Barrett actively destroyed the match, just kept it from being at all useful.
That was one of the worst matches we’ve yet witnessed, and sadly I don’t think the next one will pull us back on course. It’s now time for Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Mack Roesch. Unsurprisingly, this was a mat-heavy affair as neither man likes to strike, with Roesch being the much stronger of the two and Fujiwara being the far more skilled submission artist. What did catch me off-guard was some nice judo from Fujiwara, at times pulling off some nice throws against Roesch. This wasn’t bad, as much as it was a little dry, in part due to the 18 min length, as well as that Roesch is lost once he gets the takedown. We are now at a juncture where the times are moving faster than what Fujiwara can offer, and his striking shortcomings, combined with his age and general lack of athleticism are now becoming a major liability. Takada may be lazy, but is both athletic and charismatic, and Maeda is still capable of putting out a good well-rounded performance if kept around the 3-4 min mark. Fujiwara, on the other hand, only has his name to bring to the table at this point. Thankfully, he is wise enough to not insist on being in the main event for every outing, but his presence does suck up a lot of oxygen out of the middle act. Not terrible, but not recommended, either. **
ML: Look out, old Macky's back, and an interminable 17 minutes of him vs. Fujiwara seemed 10 times longer than G. W. Pabst's 110 minute 1931 film version of The Threepenny Opera, which I'd certainly recommend over this PWFG show. When Fujiwara was good in the early to mid 1980's, he was intense and dangerous, but now he is just a hokey joker, making the peace sign to the camera when Roesch had his back and was attacking the neck. When I can't take a match seriously, I just want it to end, and this simply refused to cooperate, despite nothing actually happening. Bad, bad match.
Now, for what will hopefully turn the tide of this evening, Ken Shamrock vs. Kazuo Takahashi! When we last saw these two in action, it almost resulted in a decapitation, as Ken Shamrock punted the cranium of Takahashi with enough force to have sent it flying to the back rows of the Hamamatsu Gymnasium. I’m excited to see if we will have another reckless shoot on our hands, or a more behaved outing from these two. Before the fight starts, Takahashi gives Ken the same death-stare that he gave Ishikawa a month prior before it turned into an everything-but-the-finish shoot. Things start with another amazing double-leg attempt from Takahashi that in almost any other scenario would have worked, but Ken was such an amazing physical specimen in these days that he simply managed to shove Takahashi from him, thus preventing the takedown. Then, in what was a clever spot, Takahashi shoots in with a low-single, only to eat a knee and suffer a ten-count. The rest of this exciting match hit the spot with some neat moments from both men. Takahashi would continue to use a front kick to test the distance between him and Shamrock before committing to a takedown, similar to what Royce Gracie did in the first UFCs. Ken gave us the first guillotine attempt from a full guard, which would later be used by fellow Lion’s Den teammate, Guy Mezger, to finish off Tito Ortiz at UFC 13. The match was only around 9mins long and did lag in some areas, as it was clear that they were both holding back, trying to play nice with each other. Still, despite that fact I felt that this was fresh and exciting. It is also easy to see why Takhashi has no chance against someone like Ken in a shoot. Size differences aside, Kazuo simply hasn’t developed enough of a skill set, yet, to put “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” in any kind of serious trouble. Unlike some of his contemporaries, however, Takahashi continued to improve, and on 9-14-98 he put an absolutely savage beating on Minoru Suzuki, which is something that he could only dream about in 1992. ***
ML: These two showed more intensity before they even locked up then we got from the other three exhibitions combined. There were several nice spots based on Takahashi trying to get inside for the takedown. Early on, Takahashi was trying to work his way in from side stance, but Ken countered his sidekick with a head kick and pushed him down. There was another good spot where Takahashi dove for a single leg, but Shamrock sidestepped and slapped him in the face. Shamrock also countered a single leg with a knee to the face, but Takahashi plowed through and finished the takedown. The key difference between Shamrock and Flynn is that Shamrock can hold back while still throwing so aggressively than it looks like he's trying to murder the opponent, whereas Flynn may looked slick, but at the same time almost always appears to be pussyfooting around. This match kind of stalled out in the middle portion, with Shamrock having the mount, which hurt since it was somewhat short to begin with (especially given these guys are actually useful and Shamrock often has 30 minute matches), and ended apruptly. Not as good as it should have been, but well worth watching.
Now for Masakatsu Funaki vs Ryushi Yanagisawa. Last month, Funaki did the unthinkable and made us all believe in miracles when he carried Bart “America” Vale to a good match. Yanagisawa, on the other hand, is probably the best rookie of 1992 outside of the dynamic duo of Kanehara/Maeda, who are in a league unto themselves. On paper, there is no reason for this to be anything other than great, but Funaki seems to be very hit or miss, as will probably be the deciding factor here. Right away, this is the first match tonight that feels like a fight between two professionals. Great movement from both men, but Funaki is just too good and somehow manages to outshine Yanagisawa both on the feet and the mat. His being too good compared to everyone else continued into the early days of Pancrase, where he had to learn how to sometimes carry his opponent (This did occasionally backfire, most specifically against Jason Delucia where he let Jason put him in a kneebar but misjudged his distance from the ropes and wound up having to tap out and lose the match).
I hate to say it, but this wound up being quite the disappointment. The problem here was that Funaki, while not shooting on Yanagisawa, wasn’t allowing him to get away with anything, either. This succeeded in showing how much of a badass he is, but at the cost of giving us a lopsided experience. No matter what range the fight was in, Funaki almost always seemed to be about two steps ahead. Funaki was an excellent MMA fighter, but the more I think about it, I would have to say that he was a mediocre worker. He doubtlessly had some great matches, but part of the art of wrestling is being able to get the most out of our opponent, and you have to have a giving and selfless attitude to do that. We’ve only seen that from Funaki sporadically. Since this only amounted to another squash match, I can only award it **.
ML: This was one of those Pancrase quasi-shoot matches where they went more or less all out positionally, but didn't try to hurt each other with their strikes. That was a huge advantage for Funaki, as standup was the only place Yanagisawa had the advantage. On the positive side, this match had urgency at points, and some quick, explosive movements. On the negative side, the only way it was going to be competitive is if Funaki allowed it to be, which in this scenario he had absolutely no reason to. In the end, it was worth watching, but Funaki had such a big advantage it was obviously a battle between fighters of different belt classes, and thus Funaki was largely his usual relaxed self, toying with the opponent.
So far, this has been a very underwhelming event, and now we must all look to Minoru Suzuki and Joe Malenko to save us. Malenko is coming into this having spent almost four continuous years in All Japan, so it would be interesting to learn what led to his appearing here. Surely, this had to have been a chaotic time period for the Malenko Gym in addition to the PWFG, with the passing of Masami Soronaka. It’s unknown if this was intended to be a long-term move for Malenko, or if he was just trying to help out in a pinch, but from this point forward he never stuck around in any one place for too long, doing stints here, WCW, UWF-I, Australia, ECW, and eventually back to All Japan. For some reason, this will be contested under a round system.
Round 1 shows us that both men came to give us their best. Malenko clearly has good balance, but Suzuki is just too quick and too slick to be denied and forces Malenko to the mat. Even though this isn’t a shoot, Suzuki is moving and acting like it is, bringing an excellent intensity and urgency that a newcomer like Ishikawa could learn from. There are all sorts of great subtleties, like how Suzuki acts when turtling out of danger or when he works for a toehold like his life depended on it. Malenko seems a bit out of his element, which surprises me as he is a Gotch protégé, but this is perhaps understandable, as he has never had a professional shoot-style match of this caliber before. Unlike his brother Dean, Joe has seen the inside of a weight room, but while this gave him the much better physique of the two, it seems to have put a damper on his mobility. The round ends with Suzuki having clowned Malenko for its entirety.
Round 2 sees a few takedowns from Malenko, but outside of that is still all one-way traffic for Suzuki.
Round 3 starts with Malenko getting caught in a weird neck-crank that almost worked until Suzuki managed to roll out of it. The rest of the round saw Suzuki kicking away at Malenko’s thighs until Joe botched a takedown and got an armbar for his trouble. This match was in a weird zone between work and shoot. I wouldn’t call it a full shoot, as they weren’t just trying to murder each other, but at the same time, Suzuki didn’t give Malenko any openings at all and the ending felt legitimate. Whatever it was, it was edgy and entertaining, unlike the Funaki match before it. Whereas Funaki came across as a bored cat toying with its prey, Suzuki is like a man fighting for his life and seems willing to die in the center of the ring, if need be. This was entertaining and had a lot of verve, despite being so one-sided. Also, the weird quasi-shoot nature of the contest gave it an interesting and tense vibe. This is a hard match to rate as it was a borderline shoot, but I would give it *** ½. It would have been higher had Malenko been competitive.
ML: Malenko was really made for this style, as what made him great was really his slick movement. Even though this was his first match in shoot style, his pro wrestling offense didn't stray that far from what was a viable here, mainly using suplexes and submissions, though obviously of a more flashy variety. His perpetual movement made him the perfect opponent for Suzuki, who delivered a more interesting match than we've been seeing from him of late. As with the previous match, this was too far towards actual shooting to really approach its potential though. Suzuki posed a really tough matchup for Malenko, as he had a big advantage in foot speed in addition to having legitimate standup training and being 12 years younger. He could just use his movement to beat up Malenko's legs while circling away, so Malenko really had to grab him in order to get anywhere, but Suzuki also constantly thwarted his hip throws. No matter who got the takedown, their wrestling was comparable, but Suzuki had a big advantage in flexibility as well as being much quicker in the scrambles. Suzuki also had a big edge due to training regularly in legitimate submission style, whereas Malenko knew them from his work with Karl Gotch, but rarely used them in practice, instead opting for a pro-wrestling moves such as the Texas cloverleaf. We didn't see those type of submissions here, but it reminded me of being a kid play wrestling against my friend who was actually on the school wrestling team, and losing all the time because he would be doing things he practiced every day that worked, while I was busy trying to set up moves I saw on TV like the Boston crab and figure 4. This was a really intriguing contest, but it should have been longer, and they really needed to allow Malenko to do a few of his flashier things, throw in a suplex or two like Shamrock liked to do. Malenko never really seemed to get going, which they may have thought was better for Suzuki, but I feel like because Suzuki more or less always had the upper hand, it kept the match from getting the kind of crowd reaction that would help make it the important and memorable event they were looking for. I mean, it would have been nice if Malenko was brought in to add another useful name and worker (he did randomly appear in a meaningless undercard match on the Tokyo Dome show so perhaps that was the plan before the league crumbling got in the way), but even if he was basically there to be a signature outsider win for Suzuki since Funaki got the least of the 4 Kings, this lacked the big match feel in part because they chose to continue the trend of cooperating less and less, both positionally and offensively. In the end, while it was a good win for Suzuki due to Malenko being a familiar name in Japan, having toured All Japan regularly since 1988, where he was the standout worker in their junior division, and a critical performer in many of the best junior style tag matches, it didn't quite feel like a result that was going to really propel Suzuki to the next level. ***
Conclusion: I hate to say it, as I want nothing more than to see this outfit succeed and dominate the airwaves, but it just isn’t going to happen. We got one exciting main event that was too avant-garde to really be the conclusion of a worked promotion, and one decent match in Shamrock/Takahashi. The rest was mediocre to awful. It isn’t all bad news, however. Malenko looks like he would be a solid addition to the roster in a more worked environment, certainly better than a Barrett or Wilkins Jr., but isn’t ready for the prime time of having to (almost) shoot it out with Minoru Suzuki. Galdava also looks to be very promising, but I would like to see how he pairs with anyone that can actually wrestle.
ML: Ultimately, we are to the point where we need to ask the question of how shooty we want shoot wrestling to be? PWFG is definitely differentiating itself from UWF-I by featuring less and less cooperation, but do we accept that the result is largely positional battles without much in the way of offensive highlights?
***Kakutogi Rewind***
Now as a palate cleanser, let us peer back into the hourglass of time and catch a glimpse of Joe Malenko in all of his glory. The date is 9-1-90 with Tommy Rogers/Bobby Fulton vs. Joe Malenko/Tsuyoshi Kikuchi. Malenko has spent the better part of two years mainly teaming with his brother Dean, but this time he'll be pairing with a man who could arguably be described as the spiritual successor to the Dynamite Kid. Kikuchi was so hot in the early 90s that he even managed to snag the "Best Match of the Year 1992" award in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter (we can only assume that Uncle Dave wasn't paying any attention to the Kanehara/Maeda wars).
These four don't waste any time, and the energy that's coming from this crowd is insane. Kikuchi seems to be the nexus point for everything being charged into the atmosphere, and transfers that into pure kinetic energy. Malenko offers a perfect compliment to this with a fast paced mat style that keeps things just grounded enough to stay serious, without hindering the flow. This match is a textbook example of why 90s era AJPW produced some of the best wrestling in history. **** 1/2
ML: This match touched on a number of styles, but certainly contained some awesome technical, stiff, intense, fast-paced, high flying junior action. The Fantastics, who were easily the best American team of their era, a time when tag wrestling meant something & specialists were a respected commodity, were at the very top of their game here, though, as usual, Rogers greatly outshined Fulton. I was more impressed with this match that last time I watched it. It actually began somewhat slowly, and was a bit rough around the edges. Kikuchi blowing a swandive spot by slipping off the top to the floor was the most obvious miscue, with Rogers giving him a piledriver on the outside for his blunder, but the sequences didn't always flow as well as you'd expect from a match with such tremendous talent. All four of these guys are super underrated, at least when they were good (which Kikuchi wasn't for very long), and this was a pleasure to behold. The match really took off after Rogers bodyslammed Kikuchi off the apron, and there was a lot of good planned action on the floor, including dives, suplexes, and a heated strike exchange between Malenko & Rogers. Everyone was working with a sense of urgency, with even Malenko wrestling a more modern, action oriented style, though he was also able to pull off totally shifting the contest from a junior spotfest to a "real fight", exchanging middle kicks with Rogers then taking out his leg only to have Rogers try to throw up a triangle from the bottom, leading to a series of intense punches with Malenko on top. Kikuchi was certainly the spark plug, pushing the pace, taking psycho bumps, getting huge responses from the crowd. He's so reckless it's hard to tell when he's risking injury on purpose, and when it simply comes naturally, but it makes for even wilder action. It's just a spectacular spotfest, possibly a great match in it's entirety, as you could see the Fantastics had great chemistry with Malenko on the mat, but little of that portion (if it even took place) made TV, and it's also possible that the early portion was just kind of there and they saved the insanity for the 2nd half. The crowd was inarguably super into this though, really going nuts for Kikuchi, a fighter who was impossible not to love because he gave you everything he had, for better and (often for his body) for worse (hence his career sadly flaming out so early when his body betrayed him). ****