#Monday Night Nitro Invasion

[84reedsy]

Scott and the infamous denim on denim look

[wrestlinghistorywithkay]

“ You Want A War?” : Scott Hall Returns to WCW & Ignites The Monday Night War

On May 27, 1996 , Scott Hall, formerly known as Razor Ramon , in the World Wrestling Federation ( WWF ) sat in the crowd of an episode of World Championship Wrestling ( WCW). He was rumored to be there as a spy for WWF owner , Vince McMahon. However , that would not be true. Hall left the company the same year and returned after four years. What happened next leads to what is known as the invasion and the birth of the New World Order ( nWo ).

Scott Hall was in the company before leaving for the WWF in 1992. He was paired with Diamond Dallas Page as his manager and made his first appearance at the ‘ Super Brawl 1’ Pay-Per-View. The name for this gimmick Hall used was ‘ The Diamond Studd ’. This gimmick was similar to one used by Ravishing Rick Rude in the WWF. The character was a cocky one who cared about his looks and invited female fans to join him in the ring as Rude did in the WWF. Hall also started his signature toothpick fling at the cameras when they were rolling and he was making his way to the ring. Hall left the company in 1992 and made his way to Vince McMahon’s company to be repackaged as ‘ The Bad Guy ’, Razor Ramon, which would be his most popular gimmick. This one was similar to The Diamond Studd with the characteristics of being cool and cocky.

After departing the WWF in 1996 due to being unhappy with his booking and having to take a pay cut , Scott Hall made his return to WCW. In an interview in 2014 , Hall said that he went back to WCW because of the lighter schedule and better pay.

On the May 27,1996 edition of WCW Monday Nitro , a match between Steve Doll and The Mauler was going on the ring when a tall man dressed in all denim and with his hair slicked back marched his way through the crowd and into the ring . People thought it was a fan trying to get in the ring , thus, it was not. The man was no another than Hall. He still had the Razor Ramon gimmick going on with people thinking that he was there as a scout for Vince McMahon.

Hall climbed across the barricade and made his way to the timekeeper’s area asking for a microphone, leaving Steve Doll and The Mauler to leave the ring so Hall could cut a promo. During the promo, he would call out WCW staff members such as ‘ Mean’ Gene Okerlund , and the president of WCW , Ted Turner. He would also say that he was an ‘ Outsider ’ and would be joined by a partner . The partner would be revealed as Hall’s best friend and rival , Kevin Nash , formerly known as Diesel. Nash debuted on the June 10th episode of Nitro. Hall then ended the promo asking if they wanted a war and declaring that they will get one. This signaled the first shot in the Monday Night War and a new era for WCW. The promo left commentators Tony Schivone and Larry Zbyszko in a state of confusion. Fans decoded Hall’s promo as a “ WWF ” Invasion without actually having Vince McMahon and the WWF involved. This promo also helped kickoff the nWo storyline.

My Final Thoughts:

I will admit that I was confused when I first heard and watched this promo, but, I figured it out. Scott Hall is my favorite wrestler of all time and the nWo is my all time favorite faction. This promo will forever be one of the most iconic ones in pro wrestling history . I’ll probably do an invasion of The Outsiders in the future.

Love You All,

- Kay

[helenarlett-rex]

Unexpected Movie Review: Destroy All Monsters

I have finally finished the Showa era of Godzilla movies. (Just the Godzilla movies. There are still a few random non-Godzilla titles from the Showa era I need to see, like Varan, the Unbelievable, Frankenstein vs. Baragon, Matango, stuff like that...) But at the very least I’ve finished the Godzilla movies from that era. The only one I hadn’t seen was Destroy All Monsters.

For some reason it was the one movie that never came on cable TV Godzilla marathons when I was a kid and never showed up on the shelf at video rental shops or even in the DVD bargain bin at Walmart. So after finally obtaining a copy I sat down to watch it tonight and... wow... That was it...? For having one of the largest cast of kaiju in a Godzilla movie, that was probably the most embarrassing attempt by an alien race to take over the Earth I’ve ever seen... So embarrassing that I just can’t keep it to myself and I have to do a review on this movie.

This movie was made back in 1968 but it’s set in the far off future of 1999... And it’s kind of hilarious sitting here watching what people in the 60s thought the future was going to look like when that future is now the past... I mean... remember back in the 90s when the UN built a moon base and we had daily flights between the Earth and the moon? And the under water base where we were busy making new breeds of fish? Damn... I miss that... That Y2K bug really set us back decades... But I guess the biggest achievement of the 90s was when we gathered up all the kaiju on the planet and locked them up on an island contained inside a magnetic shell. Because kaiju are magnetic, right...? That’s why they can’t get out...? Maybe they’re like sharks and magnets screw with their senses... Either way we were keeping them contained on this island we conveniently named “Monster Land” and were feeding them a steady diet of dolphins. Because fuck dolphins, am I right?

But then suddenly all the monsters are out and stomping all over the place. And I do mean suddenly. Like, one moment they are sitting there watching the monsters on the monitors and then they take their eyes off of them for five minutes and suddenly Rodan is leveling Moscow, Mothra is fucking up Beijing, Gorosaurus is in Paris knocking down  the Arc de Triomphe de l'Étoile while a mildly annoyed Frenchman yells about it as if it was no worse than his cat throwing up on the living room floor and the news reporters can’t even be bothered to get the monster’s name right, calling him Baragon... And Godzilla shows up and starts attacking New York City.

And my first thought is, wait a minute... This is taking place in 1999... So from where I’m sitting here in the future, I’m aware of things the film makers weren’t back in 1968 when this movie was made. Namely the existence of Godzilla 98. Which according to Godzilla Final Wars is canon in the Godzilla universe... Which means that after New York was attacked by Zilla in 1998 it then got attacked again by the actual Godzilla only a year later? That sucks... And if you count Godzilla: The Animated Series as canon (I don’t know if you would want to, but if you did...) then Zilla Jr. would have still been hanging around. Why haven’t we had a movie about the deleted scene where Godzilla fights Zilla Jr. yet? I want to see that.

But regardless of any of that, after the monsters start wrecking shit for no apparent reason, the aliens (because of course it’s aliens) show up, but this time they aren’t even subtle about it. No offering us a cure for cancer if we send Godzilla to the moon or back in time or anything like that... They just show up and are instantly like,

Only they already have control of all of our monsters and have already started mind controlling people so it’s not so much a trade offer as it is more of a we already made the trade without asking you kind of deal... But here’s where it gets kind of embarrassing because Japan and England (who are apparently the only members of the UN not on vacation this week) are both just kind of like, “Uhh... it only took us like twenty minutes to figure out how to spot the people you’ve mind controlled and remove the mind control implants... so how about you fuck yourself instead? Oh also, we see you as so little of a threat that we aren’t even breaking out the military for this. We just grabbed a handfull of astronauts and sent them to go steal the thing you are using to control the monsters. So yeah...”

Of course the aliens are like, “Wait, no... That’s not how this is supposed to work! Haven’t you ever been invaded before?!”

“Yeah, like, every other year for the last twenty years... This is just a regular August for us.”

“Shit... uhh... King Ghidorah!”

So the aliens call King Ghidorah, who is apparently working for them this year... I imagine King Ghidorah’s resume has got to look like total shit at this point. “Yeah I worked for the Venusians back in 1964. They got defeated... Then I worked for Planet X in 1965. They got defeated... Worked for Space Hunter Nebula M in 1972... They got defeated... Basically I’ve botched a lot of invasion attempts causing all my former emploiers to go extinct so honestly I’ll work for anyone who’s offering a paycheck at this point.”

And when King Ghidorah finally shows up for this kaiju royal rumble he shows up looking like Scott Hall making his way to the ring for the main event of Monday Night Nitro. In other words... he looks like he just got finished having an all night bender with Gigan and Megalon and is still hungover as fuck. And it really shows when the fight lasts all of about five minutes and Ghidorah gets the most embarrassing ass beating he’s ever had. I mean the guy shows up and is instantly gang banged by Godzilla, Anguirus, Gorosaurus, Mothra, Kumonga, and Minilla. Rodan just spends his time working air control to keep flying saucers out of the fight and Varan, Manda, and Baragon just sit back and eat popcorn while they watch the whole thing go down because at that point it’s already embarrassing enough without them getting involved. They even hold Ghidorah down and let fucking Minilla have the final kill shot then Minilla dances on Ghidorah‘s battered, unconscious body to add insult to injury.

And during this whole debacle Anguirus finds the alien’s hidden base on accident and Godzilla just walks over and puts his foot through the thing like it’s hardly even worth his time.

Never in my life have I ever seen an alien invasion go this bad. And in a way, setting the movie in the future kind of works from a comical standpoint. I don’t think the movie was intended to be a comedy, (That was reserved for Godzilla’s Revenge) but it works as one. Everyone in the movie from the human actors to the monsters were just kind of like, Yeah yeah, we’ve already done this a hundred times already. You really picked the wrong planet to pull this shit on. The idea of a movie showing the Godzilla universe dealing with Alien Invasion Attempt #50 and just giving no shits about it at this point is kind of brilliant. I’m sure it was all unintentional, but unintentionally brilliant is still brilliant.

[zazzyzoo]

Why I’m hyped about AEW’s Double or Nothing

Separate and apart from the roster and match card, the sheer significance of this event has me over the moon. As a wrestling fan too young to have experienced the thrill of the Monday Night Wars in real time, I can only listen to older people talk about how it felt when Scott Hall showed up on Nitro. I can’t experientially appreciate how it felt to “be there” for such a seismic shift in the wrestling business. But I have been present for the meteoric rise of the Elite. I was able to witness the All In experiment from its inception. And tomorrow, I will be able to say, “Yeah, I remember the night AEW started.” I like to think of this as my generation’s nWo invasion -- my generation’s moment to witness a truly history-making moment in time for the wrestling industry. For me, that’s the best part of all this.

[ezonrasslin]

7 Chris Jericho Catchphrases Ranked Better to Best

Here's one for all you Jerichoholics!

2016 was one wild year, and nowhere showed it more than the world of pro wrestling. Despite all the turbulent change in the WWE the return of Chris Jericho at Night of Champions in 2015 pointed towards a back-pedal. Ignoring all the negativity swelling around him Jericho insisted once more that he would “save the company” going into 2016 - and that he did.

Reinventing and restoring his character to new heights, despite his power ranking having drifted he always managed to outshine his “juniors” at the discretion of the crowd. Y2J’s mic skills and general presence are so masterful he managed to turn a clipboard list into one of the most over devices on WWE television at the conclusion of 2016. Ridiculous.

In a year engulfed by meme culture, Chris Jericho paraded caricature and cliché in a way that only the GOAT ever could. He’s solidified his legacy as a staple of every era of WWE he’s performed in, his addictive words forever ingrained in wrestling lingo. Now, the new United States Champion has the WWE Universe at his feet.

To these 7 Catchphrases...

7. The Man Of 1,004 Holds

The "Man of 1,004 holds" had more than 1,004 words readily available at his disposal, so why not congregate them into a list?

This only scratches the surface of Jericho's WCW run, but it was an indicator of unique charisma and innovation unlike anything else around him. Feuding with profound technical wrestler Dean Malenko, the Cruiserweight Champion took to 1998 episode of WCW Monday Night Nitro post-match to proclaim his superiority. To out-do Malenko, hailed as the "Man of 1000 holds", he'd have to up the ante.

From the mundane and repetitive "Armbar" to the outlandish and yet-to-be-seen "Saskatchewan spinning nerve hold", the original List of Jericho promo is one of the most memorable and critically acclaimed of all time. The Lionheart exuded charm, even in early days.

6. The Gift Of Jericho

The modern manifestation of the 5 Second Pose, Jericho firmly grasps the WWE Universe in his hands when he unveils the Gift of Jericho.

Succeeding to shake off the now-stale shell of his former self, Jericho took on a whole new life post-WrestleMania 32. Originally a gift to Dean Ambrose, with this new life came a whole new catalogue of fresh catch phrases. The same premise remained - Jericho sees himself as the salvation of the WWE, a literal gift to all those he graces with his presence.

Sporting the $15,000 light up jacket or not, he's a sight to behold. Whether it's a warning to his opponent or a pander to the crowd, someone's going to get "IT". Chris Jericho, is simply a gift. Drink it in, maaaaaaaaan!

5. I Am The Best In The World At What I Do

Do you understand what I'm saying to you right now? He told us he was the best, and we trusted him. Maybe he really is the Ayatollah (of Rock 'n' Rolla).

Jericho has never been shy to declare how great he is, first proclaiming himself as the "best in the world" at what he does after winning the World Heavyweight Championship in 2008. This was an unprecedented high point in his career, as his award-winning feud with Shawn Michaels continues to be hailed as a modern classic.

Proving that he was the best encouraged his return in 2012, as he derided the WWE Champion CM Punk of being unworthy of calling himself “Best in the World.” For all his physical talent and accomplishments, his presence alone could always raise the bar.

4. Stupid Idiot

It started as a fleeting insult and would soon spread like wildfire. Yes, we are idiots.

No one was safe from the wrath of Chris Jericho throughout 2016 shortly prior to WrestleMania and forever afterwards. Whether he was slapping his opponent around in the ring and echoing "you're a stupid man", insulting Tom Phillips backstage, or calling everything in plain sight (fans included) "Stupid Idiots", it would eventually become the most over crowd chant of the year, and a welcome addition to Jericho's dialogue.

However, this one's more than two elementary insults. It's everything from the shirtless scarf-adorned arrogance, the flick of the wrist whenever someone makes the list, the best-friend banter - Chris Jericho is positively infectious.

3. Would You PLEASE, Shut, The Hell, Up!

Absolute text book Jericho, and applicable in all face/heel situations.

The Invasion angle was in full swing when Jericho went head-to-head with the Rock, and the calibre of their promos make them absolute must-sees for any wrestling fan. While the Rock is often remembered as the best smack-talker the WWE has ever seen, lest we forget the time Jericho completely obliterated the Brahma Bull with one line. It would crop up again at the most unexpected and sometimes inappropriate of times, because the crowd took it on as their own.

Jericho never stood for being put in his place. Realistically he never should have been the first WWF Undisputed Champion with the Rock and Stone Cold in contention, but he continues to prove to this day that anyone who says he didn't deserve to be, is out of their mind.

2. Raw is Jericho

It's still true today. Whenever Jericho makes a comeback, he owns the show. From the instant he first stepped foot in the WWF when the 'Countdown to Millennium' came to a close, a new era began. Jericho immediately stole the spotlight on his debut in 1999, interrupting the company's biggest star at the time, the Rock. Despite his size, he was always destined to be a larger-than-life star.

Regardless of how busy he is - touring with Fozzy, running a successful podcast, or main eventing Monday Night Raw - Jericho has without a doubt been a workhorse of the company throughout his entire career. His passion for the WWE is evident every time he steps in the ring.

His iconic arms-outstretched pose, the high ponytail or the smug goatee, whatever he may look like, his image will always come hand-in-hand with WWE's 'flagship show’.

1. - Will Never EVER Be The Same Again

In his second ever WWE appearance, Jericho interrupted The Undertaker and the Big Show to proclaim Raw would "never, EEEVER be the same again" upon his arrival.

If anyone knows how to make a lasting impact, it's Y2J. He goes beyond the dramatic returns - the cryptic vignettes featuring codes that would be revealed as "Save us Y2J" in 2007, or his momentous return at the Rumble in 2013. He brought something new every time, be in a new finisher, a fresh hair cut, a newfound nostalgia act, or even a new catchphrase.

Fast forward to today, and the theme still applies - Jericho was put on this earth to save us wrestling diehards, and there doesn't seem to be any slowing down for him, having just captured the US title for the first time. An innovator, a creator, a God amongst men, Y2J continues to change the face of pro wrestling. Again and again, and contrary to what might have been said as little as a year go, the image of Jericho has personified the turn of a new leaf, and moreover, a lasting legacy.

[flauntpage]

Orange & Black & Gold

The moment Las Vegas was granted an NHL expansion team, some fans were happy to have another excuse to gamble away their life’s savings. Most fans were just excited to travel to Las Vegas to establish home-ice advantage. That’s exactly what happened on Sunday night, when the Orange & Black staged an invasion akin to that of DX’s on WCW Monday Nitro.

It all started well. In fact, Vegas’ mascot – who inexplicably isn’t a Golden Knight – prepped the poles outside of T-Mobile Arena:

Philly Philly#VegasBorn pic.twitter.com/BxpHJW3BVD

— Chance (@ChanceNHL) February 11, 2018

The folks over at Broad Street Hockey, in conjunction with Phans of Philly, threw a pregame party, at which point you got the feeling that there would be a sizable number of Flyers fans in attendance.

Flyers pregame party at the rooftop beer park bar in Vegas… orange & black invasion pic.twitter.com/zGsujQPJWK

— Dana Libertino (@LittleMissDanaD) February 12, 2018

Is everyone sure this wasn’t a home game?

Just look at all that orange

#blessed #PHIvsVGK pic.twitter.com/ykp7yZzsm4

— Philadelphia Flyers (@NHLFlyers) February 12, 2018

“Maybe it was just that section of the arena!” – Some Golden Knights fan

Doubtful. Do I hear some spelling? I think I do!

Just an Eagles chant in Las Vegas during a Flyers regular season hockey game.

Things we never thought we'd tweet if you asked us three years ago. pic.twitter.com/25maOLZJQm

— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) February 12, 2018

Biggest loser on the night? Pierre-Édouard Bellemare who, when asked pregame about what he wanted to prove to the Flyers’ Front Office, said:

“Maybe show them that they should’ve protected me.” —Pierre-Edouard Bellemare on what he hopes to show the Flyers today.

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) February 11, 2018

Something tells me they aren’t convinced.

With the win, the Flyers are now 4-0 since the Eagles won Super Bowl LII. If you include the Sixers in that stat, Philadelphia teams are 7-0 since that Super Bowl win.

JACKPOT! Flyers win in Vegas!

Four straight wins and the Sixers and Flyers remain undefeated since the Eagles won the Super Bowl. pic.twitter.com/1KitQf1mKY

— NBC Sports Philadelphia (@NBCSPhilly) February 12, 2018

This was pointed out by Adam Lefkoe on this morning’s Crossing Broadcast.

Here’s to you, Vegas. Thanks for the hospitality. More importantly, thanks for the win.

FINAL SCORE

Them: 4 Us: 1

Mood: Rocky Balboa still lost pic.twitter.com/cBLuCPiF4o

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) February 12, 2018

Yeah, but we won the Super Bowl. How confident are you in this guy?

Orange & Black & Gold published first on https://footballhighlightseurope.tumblr.com/

[hurdygurdystories]

WCW 1999-2001

WCW 1999-2001 was a place like no others. Fueled by the bucks of Ted Turner and the egos of wrestling's greatest minds and Vince Russo. Basically there were like five different factions wanting to control the creative direction of the company, and as they were overtaken by WWF(as it was known at the time) in the ratings, they took more and more drastic steps to try and curb it's rise, meanwhile sealing their own end. The people with booking power switched almost monthly and their was absolutely no long term planning of what was going on on TV. The budget was enormous, with unneeded stunts, contract amounts that had risen greatly due to the competition between the two major promotions, and also the fact WCW flew in every single talent to work the tv taping every week despite the fact many went unused. Creative control clauses had by many of the larger talents also dissuaded many plans creative tried to come up with. The year started with a little something called The Finger Poke of Doom. In a championship match on their monday show, Nitro, between Kevin Nash and Hulk Hogan, the leaders between now two warring factions of the NWO, the NWO Wolfpac, and NWO Hollywood respectively, Hogan poked Nash in the chest, who then fell over and in kayfabe let Hogan win, thus reuniting the two factions. This brought the story of the WCW essentially to the same place they were when they were originally dominating WCW in late 1996, meaning 2+ years of storytelling felt largely moot. From here it got worse, they brought in Vince Russo from WWF for creative. The man knew nothing of wrestling, and only of raunchy cheap gimmicks that in no way helped the wrestlers. He was the master of the cheap ratings pop but the show itself would lost millions of viewers who grew sick of his intelligence insulting shit. From there the company fired him, then later rehired him. He and fellow person in management Eric Bischoff decided to address the issue of older talent holding down newer by literally rebooting the creative of the company and creating two factions of younger and older wrestlers. The New Blood and the Millionaire's Club. The Millionaire's Club were the faces. From here everything went to greater shit, and the Championship changed hands every week, and was won by the likes of David Arquette and Vince Russo himself, who couldn't resist making himself an onscreen character. I'm listening to the Safety Dance. Fuck you Ivan. WCW 2000 was an even bigger shitshow than 1999 and they just lost so much audience their parent company, AOL Time Warner, who had just bought Turner Broadcasting, had to cancel that sinking shi(t)p. The company was almost bought by Eric Bischoff, but was instead bought by Vince McMahon for much less than it's assets were even worse, thus squashing the competition and what was known as the Monday Night Wars. Then Vince used half WCW's mid-card and Booker T, who deserved better, for a shitty invasion angle that ended up being lead by Vince's Children and Stone Cold, instead of anyone from WCW. The company was a massive shitshow on and off air, and in some ways it's end was merciful but also sad that such a once great company had to end like that. It was also sad for wrestling because it meant that the biz was basically a huge monopoly now, with ECW also closing in 2001. WCW 1999-2001 was a diarrhea tornado that produced highly unwatchable but highly gifable content that we can look back and laugh at in 2017.

[kimberlykaleikahua]

‘Too Sweet’ – Paying Homage to Wrestling Legends or Being a WWE Copycat?

History has repeated itself, and many fans encountered déjà vu as members of the Bullet Club “invaded” the WWE Raw live event outside of the Citizens Business Bank Arena in Ontario, Canada (Heisel, 2017). The Bullet Club members (Cody Rhodes, Marty Scurll, the Young Bucks, Hangman Page, and Brandi Rhodes) decided to recreate the epic moment that happened in 1998 where DeGeneration X (Triple H, X-Pac, Chyna, and the New Age Outlaws) invaded WCW Monday Nitro (Heisel, 2017). The Bullet Club created a nostalgic moment, gathering fans and showing up in a stretch Hummer (Heisel, 2017). Highlights of the "invasion" were Cody Rhodes going word for word on Bill Pullman’s speech from Independence Day and their continued pleas to rescue Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, and Finn Bálor (former members of the Bullet Club) from the WWE (Heisel, 2017).

The day after the Bullet Club “invasion,” the Young Bucks were hit with an actual Cease and Desist order to stop them from using the “Too Sweet” gesture (Satin, 2017). The reason for the Cease and Desist letter could be from the fact that the Young Bucks and Bullet Club were using the gesture through different companies and producing merchandise of the product, or it could be the retaliation of the Bullet Club showing up at WWE’s live event (Satin, 2017). WWE claims that they bought the rights to the “Too Sweet” gesture back in 2001 (which there is no record of that) and if the Young Bucks continue to use the hand gesture, the WWE will be slapping them with a $150,000 fine (Satin, 2017).

So where did the “Too Sweet” gesture come from?

According to an interview held between Triple H and Kevin Nash, the “Too Sweet” gesture was created by the “The Kliq” (Kevin Nash, Sean Waltman, Scott Hall, and Shawn Michaels) to signify a symbol of unity or brotherhood (Laboon, 2016). The hand signal was first presented by the North Carolina State Wolfpack which was called the “Wolf Kiss” (Laboon, 2016). Nash brought it to the Sports Entertainment industry with “The Kliq” and called it the Turkish Wolf (Laboon, 2016). When “The Kliq” split to NWO (WCW) and DeGeneration X (WWE), Nash renamed it to “Too Sweet” (Laboon, 2016).

In 2006, two up and coming stars – Karl Anderson and Finn Bálor would use the “Too Sweet” gesture as anyone would a handshake or high-five, but it was their way to greet each other (Laboon, 2016). After Bálor won his match at a New Japan Pro Wrestling event, instead of high-five from Anderson, Bálor threw up the “Too Sweet” gesture and once again the gesture was brought to life as it continued to be connected to the Bullet Club (Laboon, 2016). The “Too Sweet” gesture represents a brotherhood of wrestlers who may no longer work under the same roof, but still holds a strong bond between them (Laboon, 2016). It remains a tribute to those wrestlers who paved the way and created personas and characters that would become a staple in the sports entertainment industry (Laboon, 2016).

The WWE doesn’t have an official trademark on the “Too Sweet” gesture although it seems they tried to put an application in with the United States Patent and Trademark Office back in March 2015 (Hausman, 2015). Since the application wasn’t tended to within the six months waiting period, the application was marked abandoned and dropped from the system (Hausman, 2015). The WWE had the opportunity to petition to reinstate by February 2016, but there is no information that it was made (Hausman, 2015). There is, however, another snag to getting the trademark as I said previously the North Carolina State University already holds a trademark to the “Wolfie” hand gesture (Beck, 2015). So, if WWE had obtained such a trademark, wouldn’t it confuse others with NCSU gesture? Would it be a waterfall effect where WWE would fine the Young Bucks $150,000 and North Carolina State University can turn around and sue the WWE? None of it makes sense, but what does is that the Young Bucks probably mean no harm in using the gesture for their well-being.

Kimmie’s Take: 

In the spirit of how pro wrestling operates behind the scenes, meaning that everything is a storyline, I feel that maybe the WWE is overreacting to everything that has been happening with the Bullet Club “invasion” and subliminal messages in social media. If they were serious about what the Bullet Club were doing, they would’ve sent all sorts of police and security to escort them off the premises. I’m sure that the WWE were aware that the “invasion” was going to happen, but maybe the Bullet Club went off-script in some way which is why the WWE felt that to let them learn their lesson. To show how mighty the WWE is, they sent a reminder (the Cease and Desist letter) that you don’t mess with the WWE.

Pro wrestling circuits and the WWE are for entertainment purposes only. I feel that this won’t be the last time that the Bullet Club will bump heads with the WWE and I can see a storyline building up from it. Just like how specific television series have cross-over episodes, it would be an excellent opportunity for the WWE to do somewhat of a cross-over with the Bullet Club. More recently, the popularity of the Bullet Club has spiked, with merchandise now being sold at Hot Topic and many fans turning to New Japan World Wrestling for more action and strong style type fighting, they could easily follow in the steps of NWO and DeGeneration X.

To answer the question, no, I don’t think the Bullet Club had any intentions of being a WWE copycat. I genuinely believe that wrestlers like the Bullet Club are paying homage to those who came before them and made way for opportunities to let their character shine and do what they do best, to entertain those who have love and passion for professional wrestling. The “Too Sweet” gesture runs a more profound meaning than a viral hand signal, it signifies the love and respect between those who have been in the business together and through thick and thin, they will always be brothers.

REFERENCES:

Beck, G. (2015). The Wolfpack/Kliq hand gesture has been trademarked… and not by the WWE. Wrestling News. Retrieved from: http://wrestlingnews.co/wwe-news/the-wolfpackkliq-hand-gesture-has-been-trademarked-and-not-by-wwe/

Greer, J. (2017). The too sweet: If WWE sues Young Bucks, can NCS sue WWE? Last Word on Pro Wrestling. Retrieved from: http://lastwordonprowrestling.com/2017/09/28/sweet-wwe-sues-young-bucks-can-ncs-sue-wwe/

Hausman, N. (2015). What is the latest WWE trademark? Update on the “Too Sweet” hand gesture trademark, list of WWE superstar appearances through mid-March. PW Insider. Retrieved from: http://www.wrestlezone.com/news/657211-what-is-the-latest-wwe-trademark-update-on-trademark-on-too-sweet-hand-gesture-updated-wwe-superstar-appearances-through-mid-march 

Heisel, S. (2017). The Bullet Club pulled a DX and invaded Monday Night Raw. UpRoxx. Retrieved from: http://uproxx.com/prowrestling/bullet-club-invades-monday-night-raw/

Laboon, J. (2016). The ‘Too Sweet’ history of WWE’s most iconic gesture. WWE. Retrieved from: http://www.wwe.com/article/wwe-too-sweet-hand-gesture-meaning

Satin, R. (2017). The Young Bucks hit with actual Cease and Desist from WWE over ‘Too Sweet’ hand gesture. Pro Wrestling Sheet. Retrieved from: http://www.prowrestlingsheet.com/young-bucks-cease-desist-wwe/#.WeM6MxOPLUp

[amtushinfosolutionspage]

PRIDE Brought Wrestling’s Pageantry to MMA

This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the first PRIDE Fighting Championship show in Tokyo, Japan. PRIDE is now defunct, and has been since 2007, but you need only look at the booking on any UFC, Bellator or Rizin card to realize that many of of us who are willing to part with cash to watch fights dearly long for it to still be that era. Fedor Emelianenko, Wanderlei Silva and Mirko ‘Cro Cop’ Filipovic can still fill arenas as main event attractions even though they just cannot go like they used to. That’s partly because of the fighting ability they demonstrated in their heyday, but just as much a product of nostalgia for the theatre and spectacle that PRIDE built around them.

The secret to creating the perfect mixed martial arts product—which so many have tried to imitate—was to infuse it with Japanese professional wrestling or puroresu. The new Japanese promotion, Rizin is hosting a card this weekend which lacks star power. But most of the fans who intend to watch that show will tell you the same thing: “it is the spiritual successor to PRIDE.” “No Holds Barred” was always a hit and miss sport, there were great fights but just as many thirty minute snoozers that resulted in draws. What PRIDE brought to the table was the pageantry, the storylines, and the drama before and after the match.

The Birth of PRIDE

PRIDE 1 was built around Nobuhiko Takada. A professional wrestling icon in Japan, Takada was a good worker from a classical catch wrestling lineage. Takada’s Union of Wrestling Forces International (UWFi) was built on shoot style matches with a focus on real holds and transitions rather than big slams and high spots. The UWFi drew attention to this, calling out other professional wrestling organizations as “fake” while insisting that theirs was “real.” (It is worth noting that the UWFi’s invasion angle with New Japan Pro Wrestling would also inspired the WCW’s N.W.O angle which many of our readers will have grown up with.)

The UWFi wrestlers were always keen to spin an angle and get some exposure, but also believed they could scrap. Yoji Anjo famously “dojo stormed” Rickson Gracie in 1994, only to be savagely beaten by the legitimate fighter. While he had no professional record, Takada saw himself as “legit” and was willing to work his way into a shoot if he felt he needed to. When Takada worked a high profile match with the controversial former yokozuna, Koji Kitao, the two agreed that the bout would result in a time limit draw, but at the beginning of the third round Takada stiffed Kitao with a head kick. This event was eerily reminiscent of the night in 1953 when “The Father of Puroresu,” Rikidozan, double crossed the great judoka Masahiko Kimura and knife hand struck him in the neck for real.

The UWFi’s inventive angles and interesting in ring work could not keep them afloat, however and after they folded Takada was approached by a new promotion for the possibility of a professional bout against Gracie.

Home Grown Talent

But Takada was not the only home grown pro wrestler entering the PRIDE ring that night. In the opening bout, Kazunari Murakami worked a suspicious looking hip throw to arm bar on the largely unimportant John Dixson. It was a great beginning to proceedings for the forty thousand Japanese fans in attendance for the Takada—Gracie showdown.

Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros provided commentary on the U.S. release. This was recorded after the event which lead to awkward moments where they had to stop an anecdote midway through because the conclusion would spoil the result of the fight that they were commentating. On other occasions, Rutten would have to pretend to run up to the ring when the camera caught him coaching in the corner of Mark Kerr. During the Dixson-Murakami match, which had very low stakes, Rutten and Quadros engaged in an interesting moment of foreshadowing. Quadros asked Rutten about the last time he had seen Dixson fight—in a tournament in Kiev—and Rutten brushed over Dixson to hint at the abilities of a young Ukranian who blasted through Dixson and had been winning one night tournaments all over Europe. Igor Vovchanchyn would make his way to PRIDE the next year.

Takada was not even the only Japanese talent taking on a Gracie that night. The great Renzo Gracie was matched against the seemingly undeserving Akira Shoji. Shoji had just three fights to his name, and a 1-1-1 record. The Gracies were still undefeated as a family in the world of mixed martial arts and the Gracie legend was still in full force. Renzo had a 5-0 professional record, with one No Contest as his last fight had started a riot! Shoji surprised everyone by slithering out of Gracie’s submission attempts, but was aided greatly by the referees. When Renzo climbed on Shoji’s back, Shoji dived between the ropes onto the ring apron, ran around the side of the ring, and the two men were restarted from a standing position. When the two clinched, Shoji headbutted Gracie. Shoji landed illegal knees to the head on the ground without reprimand, then when Shoji tried to pour it on in the later going, he unleashed a flurry on underwhelming punches to the back of Gracie’s head.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the bout was its foreshadowing of developments in the grappling game. Shoji spent much of the fight holding Gracie around the waist from inside his guard, stalling for dear life. Gracie repeatedly pulled his own foot up and tried to weave it between him and Shoji to attack the omaplata. It was a very simplistic attempt at what would develop into the knee-hugging omaplata game which has become a staple of closed guard play in no-gi and MMA environments. Gracie’s own student, Shawn Williams would go on to pioneer what is now called the Williams guard, hugging his own knee and attacking the omaplata on the trapped arm. Eddie Bravo’s rubber guard game is built on the same principle but with more chance of a meniscus tear. Gracie was unable to attack the omaplata successfully in this bout but he did demonstrate a beautiful sit-up sweep off one attempt.

While the pace was slow, the action was oddly riveting. The Gracie family had a name to maintain and Shoji had nothing to lose. Each time Gracie took the mount or attacked an armbar, his job got harder as Shoji—the better conditioned man—became slicker and slicker with sweat. Each time Shoji squirmed out and returned to his feet he screamed and the crowd went ballistic. When the end of time came, Shoji had put a draw on Renzo Gracie’s record. It wasn’t the result the Japanese fans wanted, but it was more than most expected. Akira Shoji would come to be known as “Mr. PRIDE,” competing on all but one of the first ten PRIDE cards. His record ran to an unspectacular 14-17-5 but he became a staple performer for PRIDE even after they acquired genuine world class talent.

Renzo Gracie picked up more losses than Royce, Rickson and Royler, but then he put himself in position to have that happen by fighting much stiffer opposition. He went on to be a regular contestant in the ADCC no gi championships, and now runs one of the most successful grappling camps in the United States out of New York. During his bout with Shoji, Renzo began working on an arm-in guillotine choke and Rutten and Quadros remarked that it only works if there is a large strength difference and that it is not a reliable technique—a standard attitude for the time. The arm-in guillotine became a Renzo Gracie trademark. Not only did he use it to submit Pat Militech in 2006, many of his students, such as Ricardo Almeida and Joe Capizzi, have become famous for it. Another Renzo Gracie alumni, Gordon Ryan just won his first ADCC gold medal with an arm-in guillotine choke against Keenan Cornelius.

Sumo’s Shame

Koji Kitao was a heat magnet. Through two different sporting pursuits he had turned everyone he ran into an enemy. Kitao had been elevated to sumo’s highest rank, yokozuna, at the age of just twenty two. He had been runner up in a couple of tournaments, with impressive wins over the current yokozuna , but his promotion was more to do with the glut of wrestlers ranked at ozeki. He had won no major tournaments but it was assumed that he was on the way up. Kitao proceeded to win nothing after his promotion and his bratty attitude turned his stablemates against him. After allegedly hitting the wife of his stable leader, Kitao became the first yokozuna to be expelled from sumo, also securing his place in history as the only yokozuna to never win a major tournament.

Kitao turned to professional wrestling and caused drama wherever he went. In 1990 he made his way to New Japan Pro Wrestling and was promptly fired for racism towards Korean wrestlers. Super World of Sports threw him out on his arse after he no-sold for “Earthquake” John Tenta, and grabbed a microphone to tell the audience that pro wrestling was fake and that he’d destroy Tenta in a real fight. In 1992 he went to UWFi, where Takada put a stop to his antics before they even began by kicking him upside the head.

After taking time away from wrestling to become a karate black belt, Kitao was afforded the chance to show John Tenta and wrestling fans everywhere what a legit fighter he was in 1996. Instead he lost in first round batterings against Pedro Otavio and Mark Hall. A year later, he was approached to fight in PRIDE.

Taking on Australia’s Nathan Jones, Kitao turned up in slacks and a belt, with sneakers like he was Ric Flair phoning it in on Monday Night Nitro. Perhaps he was contractually obliged to be a scumbag, because Kitao promptly spat on a ringside photographer seconds after the fight had begun. Nathan Jones circled the ring, threw a surprisingly quick wheel kick for a three hundred pounder, and was then bundled to the mat. Jones audibly grunted and panicked on the bottom before Kitao applied a very loose Americana to take the submission in just over two minutes. It was underwhelming and marked the end of both men’s MMA careers. Nathan Jones went on to team with The Undertaker in the WWE, while Kitao was given a retirement ceremony at PRIDE 4.

For those who felt let down by the lack of Kitao drama, Branko Cikatic was more than happy to oblige. Cikatic, the first K-1 champion but already an old man, took on the overmatched Ralph White in a kickboxing match wearing the gloves from the opening scene of Enter the Dragon. Cikatic was famous for his ability to starch anyone with his right hand, but he was just as prone to cheating. Cikatic, all class, opened the bout with a glove touch into back kick.

Knocking White off his feet in the opening minute, Cikatic punted him in the head on the ground and raised a ghoulish hematoma. When White’s corner protested, Cikatic acted as if he had done nothing wrong. The break in the action gave Rutten and Quadros the chance to recount other instances of Branko causing near riots in the kickboxing ring. The fight was waived off but Branko was brought back for PRIDE 2, where he was disqualified after multiple, surprisingly lenient, warnings for elbowing Mark Kerr in the brain stem while clinging to the ropes. As Cikatic and White left the ring at PRIDE 1, Quadros referenced the attempts to ban mixed martial arts that were giving the UFC so much trouble in the United States, saying “good thing John McCain didn’t see this match.”

The Extremes of MMA

No fights show the extremes of mixed martial arts more than the two billings between name fighters on the PRIDE 1 card. Gary Goodridge vs Oleg Taktarov was breathtaking. Taktarov was a UFC champion, master of sambo, and came into the fight having worked extensively on his boxing at the Wild Card gym. Gary Goodridge was an arm wrestler who hit extremely hard and was strong enough to shuck off Don Frye for a good length of time in the UFC. Taktarov’s focus on boxing during his camp didn’t seem to do much, he stood static out at range before leaping in with a left hook. The first time he caught Goodridge. The second time he caught Goodridge, he was dropped by the return. The third time he stepped in on Goodridge, Taktarov was left face down and stiff as a board. It was horrifying and spectacular in the same instant.

Dan Severn and Kimo Leopaldo, on the other hand, showed exactly how bad evenly matched MMA fights can be. Both experienced wrestlers decided to throw hands at each other—turning their heads away and closing their eyes when they swung. While both men were terrified of each other’s blows, there were no repercussions when one was hit. At several points in the fight Severn began pulling up his knee sleeves while Kimo was hitting him in the face and seemed completely unfazed. For thirty minutes the two swatted at each other like kittens and when Severn finally shot and completed a takedown, time expired. Bas Rutten, a regular on the Japanese MMA circuit, remarked that he had never heard a Japanese crowd boo before that fight.

Finally, Rickson Gracie vs. Nobuhiko Takada showed the best way to get an exciting fight—book someone who knows what they’re doing against someone who doesn’t have a clue. Within five minutes Takada was taken down and arm barred but it didn’t matter. He had drawn the people through the door with his talk and his star power. Some were even buying into this fight being a legitimate test of Rickson’s ability based on Takada’s worked matches.

The secret of PRIDE’s success was in mixing the legitimate with the ridiculous. Fighting is not a sport in the sense that other sports are. It is first a spectacle. On every PRIDE card there were plenty of fights that felt like a real fair test of both men’s skills and the later rounds of any PRIDE Grand Prix were composed of the top ranking fighters in that division. But equally on any PRIDE card there were freak matches, often containing Japanese professional wrestlers with little real fighting experience. For every legitimate title defense that Wanderlei Silva, Takanori Gomi, and Fedor Emelianenko made, they had two non-title fights designed to showcase their destructive ability. In many ways, keeping the big names active in unimportant matches was similar to how New Japan Pro Wrestling has its big names appear in various combinations in tag matches—showcasing them at more events without ruining the big angles. Of course there are no safe fights in MMA but even when Gomi, PRIDE’s lightweight champion and Japanese superstar, lost by a shocking arm triangle choke against Marcus Aurelio, it was okay because the title wasn’t on the line. They fed him another no-hoper in a non-title fight and then gave him half a year to build up to a rematch with Aurelio which he won.

Perhaps it is here worth noting that there was no bigger victim of the Japanese style of matchmaking than the aforementioned Gary Goodridge. Known for his huge power and lacking ability, Goodridge would go out on his shield and the Japanese promoters loved that. Bouncing between K-1 and PRIDE, Goodridge would take horrible beating after horrible beating. His kickboxing record from 2005 to 2010 was 2-18, with many of those losses coming by knockout, and yet K-1 kept booking him. Goodridge now suffers from pugilistic dementia and serves as a reminder of how disgusting fight promotion can be.

The Rise of PRIDE

PRIDE 1 was a roaring success and the PRIDE phenomenon was well underway in Japan. When Nobuhiko Takada and Rickson Gracie rematched at PRIDE 3 they were able to fill the Budokan in spite of the previous result and Takada’s shoddy fighting skills (though Rickson was made to look very bad through the first round of this rematch).

PRIDE quickly acquired many of the best fighters in the world and the PRIDE 2000 Open Weight Grand Prix marked a watershed moment in the sport. UFC tournaments had always contained maybe two good fighters and a heap of guys who claimed unbeaten street fight records and were promptly smashed. The last UFC one night tournament contained four men: three no hopers and Mark Kerr.

The PRIDE Open Weight Grand Prix contained legitimate, world class talent. From then on PRIDE was a force as a showcase for great fighters and not just good fights. Over the next ten years PRIDE became the biggest name in combat sports and provided many MMA fans with their fondest memories.

Where Pancrase had its roots in pro wrestling and aimed for “real pro wrestling,” a PRIDE event felt like a major WWE pay-per-view. The entrances and openings became grander as time went on. Takada, a hopeless fighter, was moved into the role of PRIDE’s public face and often partook in these show openings. There would be a taiko drum troupe, or Takada would take the stage in a tuxedo and perform the piano backing to a singer, but the fighters were always brought out on the ramp and introduced as an entire roster, undercard and main eventers, before the event. Each fighter individually introduced by “crazy PRIDE lady” Lenne Hardt while PRIDE FC’s exhilarating theme tune blared in the background.

Many underrate pageantry in what is supposed to be a sport, but PRIDE’s fanfare and glamour stood in stark contrast to the awful gladiator introduction with talking heads which opened every UFC card for a decade.

Then consider how formulaic every UFC pre-fight package has been for the last few years. Joe Rogan in a darkened room tells you that someone is a monster, Dana White refers to a fighter as “this kid,” then knockout clips play. Meanwhile PRIDE’s pre-fight packages were more in the style of the WWE and TNA: the fight was built up to be something way more than a fist fight could ever be. Just take a look at the revenge movie trailer that played before Cro Cop challenged for Fedor Emelianenko’s heavyweight crown. It’s campy, and over the top, and perhaps in poor taste, but it sticks in the mind even a decade later.

Of course the downside was that PRIDE FC hemorrhaged money. They lost their TV deal in 2006 but continued to produce lavish events with pyro and drum troupes. The reason that the UFC was able to survive and then thrive after MMA was almost outlawed in the US was due to its ability to continue to host professional events with production being exactly the same and focusing on the in-cage action. Eventually the UFC won the war, buying up PRIDE and closing its doors after briefly flirting with the idea of keeping it going but it was a grand old run while it lasted and the memories it seeded are the reason that the same fighters from a decade ago are still trotted out to headline major events today.

While Takada was a bust, the Japanese did find their real pro wrestler. His name was Kazushi Sakuraba and he was a goddamned marvel. He handed the Gracies their first “L” and beat three more of them before the amount of athletic tape needed to hold his joints together made watching his fights uncomfortable.

The decline of Sakuraba in many ways reflected the downturn in the Japanese MMA scene. MMa, rather than a booming sport for the future, was more of a momentary craze over there. The days of filling the Saitama Super Arena and being broadcast on a major network on New Year’s Eve are long gone and the UFC’s half-hearted attempts to revitalize the market have received a tepid reaction. Twenty years after the birth of PRIDE FC we are left wondering just how that lightning could be bottled once again.

Pick up Jack’s book, Notorious: The Life and Fights of Conor McGregor .

PRIDE Brought Wrestling’s Pageantry to MMA syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6

[wrestlinghistorywithkay]

Wrestling’s Bad Boys : The Story of The nWo and The Monday Night Wars

During the 1990s , Vince McMahon’s World Wrestling Federation and Ted Turner’s World Championship were in competition with each other to see which shows could get better ratings, this was called ‘ The Monday Night Wars ’. In 1993 , Ted Turner appointed a former wrestling commentator named Eric Bischoff ask executive producer of WCW. Bischoff took the failing promotion and turned it around by having creative and financial control. His vision was to turn from a Southern wrestling company to a modernized one that he knew people would tune in and watch. In order to do this, Bischoff eliminated a lot of Southern accents on commentary, increased the production value , avoided house shows with no income , and increased the number of big Pay-Per-Views for the company. He even recruited big names in the business such as Hulk Hogan and Macho Man Randy Savage.

In 1995, Bischoff wanted to compete with the WWF. He met with Ted Turner to see what he could do to compete with WWF RAW. Thus, Turner approved his idea and Monday Nitro was born. The inaugural episode of the show debuted on September 4,1995 and this kicked off the Monday Night War, and both companies battled for viewers and high ratings each week. Between 1995 and 1996, both the WWF and WCW would take turns beating each other in TV ratings. Nevertheless, WCW would be on top for 83 weeks.

The reason that WCW stayed on top of the ratings war in 1996 , was the rise of a new faction and storyline. This faction would come to be known as the New World Order ( nWo). The storyline started out with The Outsiders , Scott Hall, and Kevin Nash , leaving the WWF to come to Monday Nitro. People thought they were there on behalf of Vince McMahon to get a proxy war started. The Outsiders stated they would soon be joined by a third man. Therefore , the third man was revealed to be Hulk Hogan. Monday Nitro was always live while WWF RAW would alternate between live shows and taped shows. With this storyline , Bischoff hoped to get to WCW’s 18 to 35 year old range for their programming. Alongside the main booker for the promotion, Kevin Sullivan , Bischoff did so by using real names and edgier gimmicks. For example, Sting , one of the most popular stars of WCW went from colorful face paint to a look inspired by the movie , The Crow. They also added a new division to the show, the Cruiserweight division.

For the nWo , Eric Bischoff was influenced by NJPW when he attended their Battle Formation show in Japan in 1996.

During the nWo Invasion storyline , Eric Bischoff would be attacked by The Outsiders at Bash At The Beach in 1996. Hall and Nash kept teasing their third man during the attack as well. Nevertheless, Bischoff soon joined the group as their manager after Rowdy Roddy Piper revealed him to be the mystery new member of the group. Scott Hall called Bischoff’s gimmick , ‘ Eazy E ’. Bischoff also had a talk show similar to The Tonight Show , with Miss Elizabeth being his co host. The downfall of the promotion came in 1998 when WWF rebranded with the Attitude Era and took the top spot in the ratings. Soon, the nWo broke off into a few different groups. And the end of WCW came when Vince Russo replaced Bischoff and Vince McMahon purchasing the company.

Eric Bischoff now has a podcast called 83 weeks and a show called Wise Choices. Bischoff was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2021 and the nWo was inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame in 2020.

My Final Thoughts:

The Monday Night Wars will always be one of my favorite things to talk about when it comes to professional wrestling. I was born in 1997 during it. I also absolutely love the nWo because they were different. They made it cool to be the bad guy. I probably would’ve mainly watched WCW just so I could cheer them on. Eric Bischoff is one of the most iconic names in wrestling history. To me , he changed the game when WCW had its rebrand. He’s also a major reason I became a manager. I study him all of the time. I even bought an nWo shirt because I’m a big fan. I’ll always be nWo 4 Life!

Love You All,

- Kay

[flauntpage]

PRIDE Brought Wrestling's Pageantry to MMA

This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the first PRIDE Fighting Championship show in Tokyo, Japan. PRIDE is now defunct, and has been since 2007, but you need only look at the booking on any UFC, Bellator or Rizin card to realize that many of of us who are willing to part with cash to watch fights dearly long for it to still be that era. Fedor Emelianenko, Wanderlei Silva and Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filipovic can still fill arenas as main event attractions even though they just cannot go like they used to. That's partly because of the fighting ability they demonstrated in their heyday, but just as much a product of nostalgia for the theatre and spectacle that PRIDE built around them.

The secret to creating the perfect mixed martial arts product—which so many have tried to imitate—was to infuse it with Japanese professional wrestling or puroresu. The new Japanese promotion, Rizin is hosting a card this weekend which lacks star power. But most of the fans who intend to watch that show will tell you the same thing: "it is the spiritual successor to PRIDE." "No Holds Barred" was always a hit and miss sport, there were great fights but just as many thirty minute snoozers that resulted in draws. What PRIDE brought to the table was the pageantry, the storylines, and the drama before and after the match.

The Birth of PRIDE

PRIDE 1 was built around Nobuhiko Takada. A professional wrestling icon in Japan, Takada was a good worker from a classical catch wrestling lineage. Takada's Union of Wrestling Forces International (UWFi) was built on shoot style matches with a focus on real holds and transitions rather than big slams and high spots. The UWFi drew attention to this, calling out other professional wrestling organizations as "fake" while insisting that theirs was "real." (It is worth noting that the UWFi's invasion angle with New Japan Pro Wrestling would also inspired the WCW's N.W.O angle which many of our readers will have grown up with.)

The UWFi wrestlers were always keen to spin an angle and get some exposure, but also believed they could scrap. Yoji Anjo famously "dojo stormed" Rickson Gracie in 1994, only to be savagely beaten by the legitimate fighter. While he had no professional record, Takada saw himself as "legit" and was willing to work his way into a shoot if he felt he needed to. When Takada worked a high profile match with the controversial former yokozuna, Koji Kitao, the two agreed that the bout would result in a time limit draw, but at the beginning of the third round Takada stiffed Kitao with a head kick. This event was eerily reminiscent of the night in 1953 when "The Father of Puroresu," Rikidozan, double crossed the great judoka Masahiko Kimura and knife hand struck him in the neck for real.

The UWFi's inventive angles and interesting in ring work could not keep them afloat, however and after they folded Takada was approached by a new promotion for the possibility of a professional bout against Gracie.

Home Grown Talent

But Takada was not the only home grown pro wrestler entering the PRIDE ring that night. In the opening bout, Kazunari Murakami worked a suspicious looking hip throw to arm bar on the largely unimportant John Dixson. It was a great beginning to proceedings for the forty thousand Japanese fans in attendance for the Takada—Gracie showdown.

Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros provided commentary on the U.S. release. This was recorded after the event which lead to awkward moments where they had to stop an anecdote midway through because the conclusion would spoil the result of the fight that they were commentating. On other occasions, Rutten would have to pretend to run up to the ring when the camera caught him coaching in the corner of Mark Kerr. During the Dixson-Murakami match, which had very low stakes, Rutten and Quadros engaged in an interesting moment of foreshadowing. Quadros asked Rutten about the last time he had seen Dixson fight—in a tournament in Kiev—and Rutten brushed over Dixson to hint at the abilities of a young Ukranian who blasted through Dixson and had been winning one night tournaments all over Europe. Igor Vovchanchyn would make his way to PRIDE the next year.

Takada was not even the only Japanese talent taking on a Gracie that night. The great Renzo Gracie was matched against the seemingly undeserving Akira Shoji. Shoji had just three fights to his name, and a 1-1-1 record. The Gracies were still undefeated as a family in the world of mixed martial arts and the Gracie legend was still in full force. Renzo had a 5-0 professional record, with one No Contest as his last fight had started a riot! Shoji surprised everyone by slithering out of Gracie's submission attempts, but was aided greatly by the referees. When Renzo climbed on Shoji's back, Shoji dived between the ropes onto the ring apron, ran around the side of the ring, and the two men were restarted from a standing position. When the two clinched, Shoji headbutted Gracie. Shoji landed illegal knees to the head on the ground without reprimand, then when Shoji tried to pour it on in the later going, he unleashed a flurry on underwhelming punches to the back of Gracie's head.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the bout was its foreshadowing of developments in the grappling game. Shoji spent much of the fight holding Gracie around the waist from inside his guard, stalling for dear life. Gracie repeatedly pulled his own foot up and tried to weave it between him and Shoji to attack the omaplata. It was a very simplistic attempt at what would develop into the knee-hugging omaplata game which has become a staple of closed guard play in no-gi and MMA environments. Gracie's own student, Shawn Williams would go on to pioneer what is now called the Williams guard, hugging his own knee and attacking the omaplata on the trapped arm. Eddie Bravo's rubber guard game is built on the same principle but with more chance of a meniscus tear. Gracie was unable to attack the omaplata successfully in this bout but he did demonstrate a beautiful sit-up sweep off one attempt.

While the pace was slow, the action was oddly riveting. The Gracie family had a name to maintain and Shoji had nothing to lose. Each time Gracie took the mount or attacked an armbar, his job got harder as Shoji—the better conditioned man—became slicker and slicker with sweat. Each time Shoji squirmed out and returned to his feet he screamed and the crowd went ballistic. When the end of time came, Shoji had put a draw on Renzo Gracie's record. It wasn't the result the Japanese fans wanted, but it was more than most expected. Akira Shoji would come to be known as "Mr. PRIDE," competing on all but one of the first ten PRIDE cards. His record ran to an unspectacular 14-17-5 but he became a staple performer for PRIDE even after they acquired genuine world class talent.

Renzo Gracie picked up more losses than Royce, Rickson and Royler, but then he put himself in position to have that happen by fighting much stiffer opposition. He went on to be a regular contestant in the ADCC no gi championships, and now runs one of the most successful grappling camps in the United States out of New York. During his bout with Shoji, Renzo began working on an arm-in guillotine choke and Rutten and Quadros remarked that it only works if there is a large strength difference and that it is not a reliable technique—a standard attitude for the time. The arm-in guillotine became a Renzo Gracie trademark. Not only did he use it to submit Pat Militech in 2006, many of his students, such as Ricardo Almeida and Joe Capizzi, have become famous for it. Another Renzo Gracie alumni, Gordon Ryan just won his first ADCC gold medal with an arm-in guillotine choke against Keenan Cornelius.

Sumo's Shame

Koji Kitao was a heat magnet. Through two different sporting pursuits he had turned everyone he ran into an enemy. Kitao had been elevated to sumo's highest rank, yokozuna, at the age of just twenty two. He had been runner up in a couple of tournaments, with impressive wins over the current yokozuna , but his promotion was more to do with the glut of wrestlers ranked at ozeki. He had won no major tournaments but it was assumed that he was on the way up. Kitao proceeded to win nothing after his promotion and his bratty attitude turned his stablemates against him. After allegedly hitting the wife of his stable leader, Kitao became the first yokozuna to be expelled from sumo, also securing his place in history as the only yokozuna to never win a major tournament.

Kitao turned to professional wrestling and caused drama wherever he went. In 1990 he made his way to New Japan Pro Wrestling and was promptly fired for racism towards Korean wrestlers. Super World of Sports threw him out on his arse after he no-sold for "Earthquake" John Tenta, and grabbed a microphone to tell the audience that pro wrestling was fake and that he'd destroy Tenta in a real fight. In 1992 he went to UWFi, where Takada put a stop to his antics before they even began by kicking him upside the head.

After taking time away from wrestling to become a karate black belt, Kitao was afforded the chance to show John Tenta and wrestling fans everywhere what a legit fighter he was in 1996. Instead he lost in first round batterings against Pedro Otavio and Mark Hall. A year later, he was approached to fight in PRIDE.

Taking on Australia's Nathan Jones, Kitao turned up in slacks and a belt, with sneakers like he was Ric Flair phoning it in on Monday Night Nitro. Perhaps he was contractually obliged to be a scumbag, because Kitao promptly spat on a ringside photographer seconds after the fight had begun. Nathan Jones circled the ring, threw a surprisingly quick wheel kick for a three hundred pounder, and was then bundled to the mat. Jones audibly grunted and panicked on the bottom before Kitao applied a very loose Americana to take the submission in just over two minutes. It was underwhelming and marked the end of both men's MMA careers. Nathan Jones went on to team with The Undertaker in the WWE, while Kitao was given a retirement ceremony at PRIDE 4.

For those who felt let down by the lack of Kitao drama, Branko Cikatic was more than happy to oblige. Cikatic, the first K-1 champion but already an old man, took on the overmatched Ralph White in a kickboxing match wearing the gloves from the opening scene of Enter the Dragon. Cikatic was famous for his ability to starch anyone with his right hand, but he was just as prone to cheating. Cikatic, all class, opened the bout with a glove touch into back kick.

Knocking White off his feet in the opening minute, Cikatic punted him in the head on the ground and raised a ghoulish hematoma. When White's corner protested, Cikatic acted as if he had done nothing wrong. The break in the action gave Rutten and Quadros the chance to recount other instances of Branko causing near riots in the kickboxing ring. The fight was waived off but Branko was brought back for PRIDE 2, where he was disqualified after multiple, surprisingly lenient, warnings for elbowing Mark Kerr in the brain stem while clinging to the ropes. As Cikatic and White left the ring at PRIDE 1, Quadros referenced the attempts to ban mixed martial arts that were giving the UFC so much trouble in the United States, saying "good thing John McCain didn't see this match."

The Extremes of MMA

No fights show the extremes of mixed martial arts more than the two billings between name fighters on the PRIDE 1 card. Gary Goodridge vs Oleg Taktarov was breathtaking. Taktarov was a UFC champion, master of sambo, and came into the fight having worked extensively on his boxing at the Wild Card gym. Gary Goodridge was an arm wrestler who hit extremely hard and was strong enough to shuck off Don Frye for a good length of time in the UFC. Taktarov's focus on boxing during his camp didn't seem to do much, he stood static out at range before leaping in with a left hook. The first time he caught Goodridge. The second time he caught Goodridge, he was dropped by the return. The third time he stepped in on Goodridge, Taktarov was left face down and stiff as a board. It was horrifying and spectacular in the same instant.

Dan Severn and Kimo Leopaldo, on the other hand, showed exactly how bad evenly matched MMA fights can be. Both experienced wrestlers decided to throw hands at each other—turning their heads away and closing their eyes when they swung. While both men were terrified of each other's blows, there were no repercussions when one was hit. At several points in the fight Severn began pulling up his knee sleeves while Kimo was hitting him in the face and seemed completely unfazed. For thirty minutes the two swatted at each other like kittens and when Severn finally shot and completed a takedown, time expired. Bas Rutten, a regular on the Japanese MMA circuit, remarked that he had never heard a Japanese crowd boo before that fight.

Finally, Rickson Gracie vs. Nobuhiko Takada showed the best way to get an exciting fight—book someone who knows what they're doing against someone who doesn't have a clue. Within five minutes Takada was taken down and arm barred but it didn't matter. He had drawn the people through the door with his talk and his star power. Some were even buying into this fight being a legitimate test of Rickson's ability based on Takada's worked matches.

The secret of PRIDE's success was in mixing the legitimate with the ridiculous. Fighting is not a sport in the sense that other sports are. It is first a spectacle. On every PRIDE card there were plenty of fights that felt like a real fair test of both men's skills and the later rounds of any PRIDE Grand Prix were composed of the top ranking fighters in that division. But equally on any PRIDE card there were freak matches, often containing Japanese professional wrestlers with little real fighting experience. For every legitimate title defense that Wanderlei Silva, Takanori Gomi, and Fedor Emelianenko made, they had two non-title fights designed to showcase their destructive ability. In many ways, keeping the big names active in unimportant matches was similar to how New Japan Pro Wrestling has its big names appear in various combinations in tag matches—showcasing them at more events without ruining the big angles. Of course there are no safe fights in MMA but even when Gomi, PRIDE's lightweight champion and Japanese superstar, lost by a shocking arm triangle choke against Marcus Aurelio, it was okay because the title wasn't on the line. They fed him another no-hoper in a non-title fight and then gave him half a year to build up to a rematch with Aurelio which he won.

Perhaps it is here worth noting that there was no bigger victim of the Japanese style of matchmaking than the aforementioned Gary Goodridge. Known for his huge power and lacking ability, Goodridge would go out on his shield and the Japanese promoters loved that. Bouncing between K-1 and PRIDE, Goodridge would take horrible beating after horrible beating. His kickboxing record from 2005 to 2010 was 2-18, with many of those losses coming by knockout, and yet K-1 kept booking him. Goodridge now suffers from pugilistic dementia and serves as a reminder of how disgusting fight promotion can be.

The Rise of PRIDE

PRIDE 1 was a roaring success and the PRIDE phenomenon was well underway in Japan. When Nobuhiko Takada and Rickson Gracie rematched at PRIDE 3 they were able to fill the Budokan in spite of the previous result and Takada's shoddy fighting skills (though Rickson was made to look very bad through the first round of this rematch).

PRIDE quickly acquired many of the best fighters in the world and the PRIDE 2000 Open Weight Grand Prix marked a watershed moment in the sport. UFC tournaments had always contained maybe two good fighters and a heap of guys who claimed unbeaten street fight records and were promptly smashed. The last UFC one night tournament contained four men: three no hopers and Mark Kerr.

The PRIDE Open Weight Grand Prix contained legitimate, world class talent. From then on PRIDE was a force as a showcase for great fighters and not just good fights. Over the next ten years PRIDE became the biggest name in combat sports and provided many MMA fans with their fondest memories.

Where Pancrase had its roots in pro wrestling and aimed for "real pro wrestling," a PRIDE event felt like a major WWE pay-per-view. The entrances and openings became grander as time went on. Takada, a hopeless fighter, was moved into the role of PRIDE's public face and often partook in these show openings. There would be a taiko drum troupe, or Takada would take the stage in a tuxedo and perform the piano backing to a singer, but the fighters were always brought out on the ramp and introduced as an entire roster, undercard and main eventers, before the event. Each fighter individually introduced by "crazy PRIDE lady" Lenne Hardt while PRIDE FC's exhilarating theme tune blared in the background.

Many underrate pageantry in what is supposed to be a sport, but PRIDE's fanfare and glamour stood in stark contrast to the awful gladiator introduction with talking heads which opened every UFC card for a decade.

Then consider how formulaic every UFC pre-fight package has been for the last few years. Joe Rogan in a darkened room tells you that someone is a monster, Dana White refers to a fighter as "this kid," then knockout clips play. Meanwhile PRIDE's pre-fight packages were more in the style of the WWE and TNA: the fight was built up to be something way more than a fist fight could ever be. Just take a look at the revenge movie trailer that played before Cro Cop challenged for Fedor Emelianenko's heavyweight crown. It's campy, and over the top, and perhaps in poor taste, but it sticks in the mind even a decade later.

Of course the downside was that PRIDE FC hemorrhaged money. They lost their TV deal in 2006 but continued to produce lavish events with pyro and drum troupes. The reason that the UFC was able to survive and then thrive after MMA was almost outlawed in the US was due to its ability to continue to host professional events with production being exactly the same and focusing on the in-cage action. Eventually the UFC won the war, buying up PRIDE and closing its doors after briefly flirting with the idea of keeping it going but it was a grand old run while it lasted and the memories it seeded are the reason that the same fighters from a decade ago are still trotted out to headline major events today.

While Takada was a bust, the Japanese did find their real pro wrestler. His name was Kazushi Sakuraba and he was a goddamned marvel. He handed the Gracies their first "L" and beat three more of them before the amount of athletic tape needed to hold his joints together made watching his fights uncomfortable.

The decline of Sakuraba in many ways reflected the downturn in the Japanese MMA scene. MMa, rather than a booming sport for the future, was more of a momentary craze over there. The days of filling the Saitama Super Arena and being broadcast on a major network on New Year's Eve are long gone and the UFC's half-hearted attempts to revitalize the market have received a tepid reaction. Twenty years after the birth of PRIDE FC we are left wondering just how that lightning could be bottled once again.

Pick up Jack's book, Notorious: The Life and Fights of Conor McGregor .

PRIDE Brought Wrestling's Pageantry to MMA published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[flauntpage]

PRIDE Brought Wrestling's Pageantry to MMA

This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the first PRIDE Fighting Championship show in Tokyo, Japan. PRIDE is now defunct, and has been since 2007, but you need only look at the booking on any UFC, Bellator or Rizin card to realize that many of of us who are willing to part with cash to watch fights dearly long for it to still be that era. Fedor Emelianenko, Wanderlei Silva and Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filipovic can still fill arenas as main event attractions even though they just cannot go like they used to. That's partly because of the fighting ability they demonstrated in their heyday, but just as much a product of nostalgia for the theatre and spectacle that PRIDE built around them.

The secret to creating the perfect mixed martial arts product—which so many have tried to imitate—was to infuse it with Japanese professional wrestling or puroresu. The new Japanese promotion, Rizin is hosting a card this weekend which lacks star power. But most of the fans who intend to watch that show will tell you the same thing: "it is the spiritual successor to PRIDE." "No Holds Barred" was always a hit and miss sport, there were great fights but just as many thirty minute snoozers that resulted in draws. What PRIDE brought to the table was the pageantry, the storylines, and the drama before and after the match.

The Birth of PRIDE

PRIDE 1 was built around Nobuhiko Takada. A professional wrestling icon in Japan, Takada was a good worker from a classical catch wrestling lineage. Takada's Union of Wrestling Forces International (UWFi) was built on shoot style matches with a focus on real holds and transitions rather than big slams and high spots. The UWFi drew attention to this, calling out other professional wrestling organizations as "fake" while insisting that theirs was "real." (It is worth noting that the UWFi's invasion angle with New Japan Pro Wrestling would also inspired the WCW's N.W.O angle which many of our readers will have grown up with.)

The UWFi wrestlers were always keen to spin an angle and get some exposure, but also believed they could scrap. Yoji Anjo famously "dojo stormed" Rickson Gracie in 1994, only to be savagely beaten by the legitimate fighter. While he had no professional record, Takada saw himself as "legit" and was willing to work his way into a shoot if he felt he needed to. When Takada worked a high profile match with the controversial former yokozuna, Koji Kitao, the two agreed that the bout would result in a time limit draw, but at the beginning of the third round Takada stiffed Kitao with a head kick. This event was eerily reminiscent of the night in 1953 when "The Father of Puroresu," Rikidozan, double crossed the great judoka Masahiko Kimura and knife hand struck him in the neck for real.

The UWFi's inventive angles and interesting in ring work could not keep them afloat, however and after they folded Takada was approached by a new promotion for the possibility of a professional bout against Gracie.

Home Grown Talent

But Takada was not the only home grown pro wrestler entering the PRIDE ring that night. In the opening bout, Kazunari Murakami worked a suspicious looking hip throw to arm bar on the largely unimportant John Dixson. It was a great beginning to proceedings for the forty thousand Japanese fans in attendance for the Takada—Gracie showdown.

Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros provided commentary on the U.S. release. This was recorded after the event which lead to awkward moments where they had to stop an anecdote midway through because the conclusion would spoil the result of the fight that they were commentating. On other occasions, Rutten would have to pretend to run up to the ring when the camera caught him coaching in the corner of Mark Kerr. During the Dixson-Murakami match, which had very low stakes, Rutten and Quadros engaged in an interesting moment of foreshadowing. Quadros asked Rutten about the last time he had seen Dixson fight—in a tournament in Kiev—and Rutten brushed over Dixson to hint at the abilities of a young Ukranian who blasted through Dixson and had been winning one night tournaments all over Europe. Igor Vovchanchyn would make his way to PRIDE the next year.

Takada was not even the only Japanese talent taking on a Gracie that night. The great Renzo Gracie was matched against the seemingly undeserving Akira Shoji. Shoji had just three fights to his name, and a 1-1-1 record. The Gracies were still undefeated as a family in the world of mixed martial arts and the Gracie legend was still in full force. Renzo had a 5-0 professional record, with one No Contest as his last fight had started a riot! Shoji surprised everyone by slithering out of Gracie's submission attempts, but was aided greatly by the referees. When Renzo climbed on Shoji's back, Shoji dived between the ropes onto the ring apron, ran around the side of the ring, and the two men were restarted from a standing position. When the two clinched, Shoji headbutted Gracie. Shoji landed illegal knees to the head on the ground without reprimand, then when Shoji tried to pour it on in the later going, he unleashed a flurry on underwhelming punches to the back of Gracie's head.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the bout was its foreshadowing of developments in the grappling game. Shoji spent much of the fight holding Gracie around the waist from inside his guard, stalling for dear life. Gracie repeatedly pulled his own foot up and tried to weave it between him and Shoji to attack the omaplata. It was a very simplistic attempt at what would develop into the knee-hugging omaplata game which has become a staple of closed guard play in no-gi and MMA environments. Gracie's own student, Shawn Williams would go on to pioneer what is now called the Williams guard, hugging his own knee and attacking the omaplata on the trapped arm. Eddie Bravo's rubber guard game is built on the same principle but with more chance of a meniscus tear. Gracie was unable to attack the omaplata successfully in this bout but he did demonstrate a beautiful sit-up sweep off one attempt.

While the pace was slow, the action was oddly riveting. The Gracie family had a name to maintain and Shoji had nothing to lose. Each time Gracie took the mount or attacked an armbar, his job got harder as Shoji—the better conditioned man—became slicker and slicker with sweat. Each time Shoji squirmed out and returned to his feet he screamed and the crowd went ballistic. When the end of time came, Shoji had put a draw on Renzo Gracie's record. It wasn't the result the Japanese fans wanted, but it was more than most expected. Akira Shoji would come to be known as "Mr. PRIDE," competing on all but one of the first ten PRIDE cards. His record ran to an unspectacular 14-17-5 but he became a staple performer for PRIDE even after they acquired genuine world class talent.

Renzo Gracie picked up more losses than Royce, Rickson and Royler, but then he put himself in position to have that happen by fighting much stiffer opposition. He went on to be a regular contestant in the ADCC no gi championships, and now runs one of the most successful grappling camps in the United States out of New York. During his bout with Shoji, Renzo began working on an arm-in guillotine choke and Rutten and Quadros remarked that it only works if there is a large strength difference and that it is not a reliable technique—a standard attitude for the time. The arm-in guillotine became a Renzo Gracie trademark. Not only did he use it to submit Pat Militech in 2006, many of his students, such as Ricardo Almeida and Joe Capizzi, have become famous for it. Another Renzo Gracie alumni, Gordon Ryan just won his first ADCC gold medal with an arm-in guillotine choke against Keenan Cornelius.

Sumo's Shame

Koji Kitao was a heat magnet. Through two different sporting pursuits he had turned everyone he ran into an enemy. Kitao had been elevated to sumo's highest rank, yokozuna, at the age of just twenty two. He had been runner up in a couple of tournaments, with impressive wins over the current yokozuna , but his promotion was more to do with the glut of wrestlers ranked at ozeki. He had won no major tournaments but it was assumed that he was on the way up. Kitao proceeded to win nothing after his promotion and his bratty attitude turned his stablemates against him. After allegedly hitting the wife of his stable leader, Kitao became the first yokozuna to be expelled from sumo, also securing his place in history as the only yokozuna to never win a major tournament.

Kitao turned to professional wrestling and caused drama wherever he went. In 1990 he made his way to New Japan Pro Wrestling and was promptly fired for racism towards Korean wrestlers. Super World of Sports threw him out on his arse after he no-sold for "Earthquake" John Tenta, and grabbed a microphone to tell the audience that pro wrestling was fake and that he'd destroy Tenta in a real fight. In 1992 he went to UWFi, where Takada put a stop to his antics before they even began by kicking him upside the head.

After taking time away from wrestling to become a karate black belt, Kitao was afforded the chance to show John Tenta and wrestling fans everywhere what a legit fighter he was in 1996. Instead he lost in first round batterings against Pedro Otavio and Mark Hall. A year later, he was approached to fight in PRIDE.

Taking on Australia's Nathan Jones, Kitao turned up in slacks and a belt, with sneakers like he was Ric Flair phoning it in on Monday Night Nitro. Perhaps he was contractually obliged to be a scumbag, because Kitao promptly spat on a ringside photographer seconds after the fight had begun. Nathan Jones circled the ring, threw a surprisingly quick wheel kick for a three hundred pounder, and was then bundled to the mat. Jones audibly grunted and panicked on the bottom before Kitao applied a very loose Americana to take the submission in just over two minutes. It was underwhelming and marked the end of both men's MMA careers. Nathan Jones went on to team with The Undertaker in the WWE, while Kitao was given a retirement ceremony at PRIDE 4.

For those who felt let down by the lack of Kitao drama, Branko Cikatic was more than happy to oblige. Cikatic, the first K-1 champion but already an old man, took on the overmatched Ralph White in a kickboxing match wearing the gloves from the opening scene of Enter the Dragon. Cikatic was famous for his ability to starch anyone with his right hand, but he was just as prone to cheating. Cikatic, all class, opened the bout with a glove touch into back kick.

Knocking White off his feet in the opening minute, Cikatic punted him in the head on the ground and raised a ghoulish hematoma. When White's corner protested, Cikatic acted as if he had done nothing wrong. The break in the action gave Rutten and Quadros the chance to recount other instances of Branko causing near riots in the kickboxing ring. The fight was waived off but Branko was brought back for PRIDE 2, where he was disqualified after multiple, surprisingly lenient, warnings for elbowing Mark Kerr in the brain stem while clinging to the ropes. As Cikatic and White left the ring at PRIDE 1, Quadros referenced the attempts to ban mixed martial arts that were giving the UFC so much trouble in the United States, saying "good thing John McCain didn't see this match."

The Extremes of MMA

No fights show the extremes of mixed martial arts more than the two billings between name fighters on the PRIDE 1 card. Gary Goodridge vs Oleg Taktarov was breathtaking. Taktarov was a UFC champion, master of sambo, and came into the fight having worked extensively on his boxing at the Wild Card gym. Gary Goodridge was an arm wrestler who hit extremely hard and was strong enough to shuck off Don Frye for a good length of time in the UFC. Taktarov's focus on boxing during his camp didn't seem to do much, he stood static out at range before leaping in with a left hook. The first time he caught Goodridge. The second time he caught Goodridge, he was dropped by the return. The third time he stepped in on Goodridge, Taktarov was left face down and stiff as a board. It was horrifying and spectacular in the same instant.

Dan Severn and Kimo Leopaldo, on the other hand, showed exactly how bad evenly matched MMA fights can be. Both experienced wrestlers decided to throw hands at each other—turning their heads away and closing their eyes when they swung. While both men were terrified of each other's blows, there were no repercussions when one was hit. At several points in the fight Severn began pulling up his knee sleeves while Kimo was hitting him in the face and seemed completely unfazed. For thirty minutes the two swatted at each other like kittens and when Severn finally shot and completed a takedown, time expired. Bas Rutten, a regular on the Japanese MMA circuit, remarked that he had never heard a Japanese crowd boo before that fight.

Finally, Rickson Gracie vs. Nobuhiko Takada showed the best way to get an exciting fight—book someone who knows what they're doing against someone who doesn't have a clue. Within five minutes Takada was taken down and arm barred but it didn't matter. He had drawn the people through the door with his talk and his star power. Some were even buying into this fight being a legitimate test of Rickson's ability based on Takada's worked matches.

The secret of PRIDE's success was in mixing the legitimate with the ridiculous. Fighting is not a sport in the sense that other sports are. It is first a spectacle. On every PRIDE card there were plenty of fights that felt like a real fair test of both men's skills and the later rounds of any PRIDE Grand Prix were composed of the top ranking fighters in that division. But equally on any PRIDE card there were freak matches, often containing Japanese professional wrestlers with little real fighting experience. For every legitimate title defense that Wanderlei Silva, Takanori Gomi, and Fedor Emelianenko made, they had two non-title fights designed to showcase their destructive ability. In many ways, keeping the big names active in unimportant matches was similar to how New Japan Pro Wrestling has its big names appear in various combinations in tag matches—showcasing them at more events without ruining the big angles. Of course there are no safe fights in MMA but even when Gomi, PRIDE's lightweight champion and Japanese superstar, lost by a shocking arm triangle choke against Marcus Aurelio, it was okay because the title wasn't on the line. They fed him another no-hoper in a non-title fight and then gave him half a year to build up to a rematch with Aurelio which he won.

Perhaps it is here worth noting that there was no bigger victim of the Japanese style of matchmaking than the aforementioned Gary Goodridge. Known for his huge power and lacking ability, Goodridge would go out on his shield and the Japanese promoters loved that. Bouncing between K-1 and PRIDE, Goodridge would take horrible beating after horrible beating. His kickboxing record from 2005 to 2010 was 2-18, with many of those losses coming by knockout, and yet K-1 kept booking him. Goodridge now suffers from pugilistic dementia and serves as a reminder of how disgusting fight promotion can be.

The Rise of PRIDE

PRIDE 1 was a roaring success and the PRIDE phenomenon was well underway in Japan. When Nobuhiko Takada and Rickson Gracie rematched at PRIDE 3 they were able to fill the Budokan in spite of the previous result and Takada's shoddy fighting skills (though Rickson was made to look very bad through the first round of this rematch).

PRIDE quickly acquired many of the best fighters in the world and the PRIDE 2000 Open Weight Grand Prix marked a watershed moment in the sport. UFC tournaments had always contained maybe two good fighters and a heap of guys who claimed unbeaten street fight records and were promptly smashed. The last UFC one night tournament contained four men: three no hopers and Mark Kerr.

The PRIDE Open Weight Grand Prix contained legitimate, world class talent. From then on PRIDE was a force as a showcase for great fighters and not just good fights. Over the next ten years PRIDE became the biggest name in combat sports and provided many MMA fans with their fondest memories.

Where Pancrase had its roots in pro wrestling and aimed for "real pro wrestling," a PRIDE event felt like a major WWE pay-per-view. The entrances and openings became grander as time went on. Takada, a hopeless fighter, was moved into the role of PRIDE's public face and often partook in these show openings. There would be a taiko drum troupe, or Takada would take the stage in a tuxedo and perform the piano backing to a singer, but the fighters were always brought out on the ramp and introduced as an entire roster, undercard and main eventers, before the event. Each fighter individually introduced by "crazy PRIDE lady" Lenne Hardt while PRIDE FC's exhilarating theme tune blared in the background.

Many underrate pageantry in what is supposed to be a sport, but PRIDE's fanfare and glamour stood in stark contrast to the awful gladiator introduction with talking heads which opened every UFC card for a decade.

Then consider how formulaic every UFC pre-fight package has been for the last few years. Joe Rogan in a darkened room tells you that someone is a monster, Dana White refers to a fighter as "this kid," then knockout clips play. Meanwhile PRIDE's pre-fight packages were more in the style of the WWE and TNA: the fight was built up to be something way more than a fist fight could ever be. Just take a look at the revenge movie trailer that played before Cro Cop challenged for Fedor Emelianenko's heavyweight crown. It's campy, and over the top, and perhaps in poor taste, but it sticks in the mind even a decade later.

Of course the downside was that PRIDE FC hemorrhaged money. They lost their TV deal in 2006 but continued to produce lavish events with pyro and drum troupes. The reason that the UFC was able to survive and then thrive after MMA was almost outlawed in the US was due to its ability to continue to host professional events with production being exactly the same and focusing on the in-cage action. Eventually the UFC won the war, buying up PRIDE and closing its doors after briefly flirting with the idea of keeping it going but it was a grand old run while it lasted and the memories it seeded are the reason that the same fighters from a decade ago are still trotted out to headline major events today.

While Takada was a bust, the Japanese did find their real pro wrestler. His name was Kazushi Sakuraba and he was a goddamned marvel. He handed the Gracies their first "L" and beat three more of them before the amount of athletic tape needed to hold his joints together made watching his fights uncomfortable.

The decline of Sakuraba in many ways reflected the downturn in the Japanese MMA scene. MMa, rather than a booming sport for the future, was more of a momentary craze over there. The days of filling the Saitama Super Arena and being broadcast on a major network on New Year's Eve are long gone and the UFC's half-hearted attempts to revitalize the market have received a tepid reaction. Twenty years after the birth of PRIDE FC we are left wondering just how that lightning could be bottled once again.

Pick up Jack's book, Notorious: The Life and Fights of Conor McGregor .

PRIDE Brought Wrestling's Pageantry to MMA published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[flauntpage]

PRIDE Brought Wrestling's Pageantry to MMA

This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the first PRIDE Fighting Championship show in Tokyo, Japan. PRIDE is now defunct, and has been since 2007, but you need only look at the booking on any UFC, Bellator or Rizin card to realize that many of of us who are willing to part with cash to watch fights dearly long for it to still be that era. Fedor Emelianenko, Wanderlei Silva and Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filipovic can still fill arenas as main event attractions even though they just cannot go like they used to. That's partly because of the fighting ability they demonstrated in their heyday, but just as much a product of nostalgia for the theatre and spectacle that PRIDE built around them.

The secret to creating the perfect mixed martial arts product—which so many have tried to imitate—was to infuse it with Japanese professional wrestling or puroresu. The new Japanese promotion, Rizin is hosting a card this weekend which lacks star power. But most of the fans who intend to watch that show will tell you the same thing: "it is the spiritual successor to PRIDE." "No Holds Barred" was always a hit and miss sport, there were great fights but just as many thirty minute snoozers that resulted in draws. What PRIDE brought to the table was the pageantry, the storylines, and the drama before and after the match.

The Birth of PRIDE

PRIDE 1 was built around Nobuhiko Takada. A professional wrestling icon in Japan, Takada was a good worker from a classical catch wrestling lineage. Takada's Union of Wrestling Forces International (UWFi) was built on shoot style matches with a focus on real holds and transitions rather than big slams and high spots. The UWFi drew attention to this, calling out other professional wrestling organizations as "fake" while insisting that theirs was "real." (It is worth noting that the UWFi's invasion angle with New Japan Pro Wrestling would also inspired the WCW's N.W.O angle which many of our readers will have grown up with.)

The UWFi wrestlers were always keen to spin an angle and get some exposure, but also believed they could scrap. Yoji Anjo famously "dojo stormed" Rickson Gracie in 1994, only to be savagely beaten by the legitimate fighter. While he had no professional record, Takada saw himself as "legit" and was willing to work his way into a shoot if he felt he needed to. When Takada worked a high profile match with the controversial former yokozuna, Koji Kitao, the two agreed that the bout would result in a time limit draw, but at the beginning of the third round Takada stiffed Kitao with a head kick. This event was eerily reminiscent of the night in 1953 when "The Father of Puroresu," Rikidozan, double crossed the great judoka Masahiko Kimura and knife hand struck him in the neck for real.

The UWFi's inventive angles and interesting in ring work could not keep them afloat, however and after they folded Takada was approached by a new promotion for the possibility of a professional bout against Gracie.

Home Grown Talent

But Takada was not the only home grown pro wrestler entering the PRIDE ring that night. In the opening bout, Kazunari Murakami worked a suspicious looking hip throw to arm bar on the largely unimportant John Dixson. It was a great beginning to proceedings for the forty thousand Japanese fans in attendance for the Takada—Gracie showdown.

Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros provided commentary on the U.S. release. This was recorded after the event which lead to awkward moments where they had to stop an anecdote midway through because the conclusion would spoil the result of the fight that they were commentating. On other occasions, Rutten would have to pretend to run up to the ring when the camera caught him coaching in the corner of Mark Kerr. During the Dixson-Murakami match, which had very low stakes, Rutten and Quadros engaged in an interesting moment of foreshadowing. Quadros asked Rutten about the last time he had seen Dixson fight—in a tournament in Kiev—and Rutten brushed over Dixson to hint at the abilities of a young Ukranian who blasted through Dixson and had been winning one night tournaments all over Europe. Igor Vovchanchyn would make his way to PRIDE the next year.

Takada was not even the only Japanese talent taking on a Gracie that night. The great Renzo Gracie was matched against the seemingly undeserving Akira Shoji. Shoji had just three fights to his name, and a 1-1-1 record. The Gracies were still undefeated as a family in the world of mixed martial arts and the Gracie legend was still in full force. Renzo had a 5-0 professional record, with one No Contest as his last fight had started a riot! Shoji surprised everyone by slithering out of Gracie's submission attempts, but was aided greatly by the referees. When Renzo climbed on Shoji's back, Shoji dived between the ropes onto the ring apron, ran around the side of the ring, and the two men were restarted from a standing position. When the two clinched, Shoji headbutted Gracie. Shoji landed illegal knees to the head on the ground without reprimand, then when Shoji tried to pour it on in the later going, he unleashed a flurry on underwhelming punches to the back of Gracie's head.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the bout was its foreshadowing of developments in the grappling game. Shoji spent much of the fight holding Gracie around the waist from inside his guard, stalling for dear life. Gracie repeatedly pulled his own foot up and tried to weave it between him and Shoji to attack the omaplata. It was a very simplistic attempt at what would develop into the knee-hugging omaplata game which has become a staple of closed guard play in no-gi and MMA environments. Gracie's own student, Shawn Williams would go on to pioneer what is now called the Williams guard, hugging his own knee and attacking the omaplata on the trapped arm. Eddie Bravo's rubber guard game is built on the same principle but with more chance of a meniscus tear. Gracie was unable to attack the omaplata successfully in this bout but he did demonstrate a beautiful sit-up sweep off one attempt.

While the pace was slow, the action was oddly riveting. The Gracie family had a name to maintain and Shoji had nothing to lose. Each time Gracie took the mount or attacked an armbar, his job got harder as Shoji—the better conditioned man—became slicker and slicker with sweat. Each time Shoji squirmed out and returned to his feet he screamed and the crowd went ballistic. When the end of time came, Shoji had put a draw on Renzo Gracie's record. It wasn't the result the Japanese fans wanted, but it was more than most expected. Akira Shoji would come to be known as "Mr. PRIDE," competing on all but one of the first ten PRIDE cards. His record ran to an unspectacular 14-17-5 but he became a staple performer for PRIDE even after they acquired genuine world class talent.

Renzo Gracie picked up more losses than Royce, Rickson and Royler, but then he put himself in position to have that happen by fighting much stiffer opposition. He went on to be a regular contestant in the ADCC no gi championships, and now runs one of the most successful grappling camps in the United States out of New York. During his bout with Shoji, Renzo began working on an arm-in guillotine choke and Rutten and Quadros remarked that it only works if there is a large strength difference and that it is not a reliable technique—a standard attitude for the time. The arm-in guillotine became a Renzo Gracie trademark. Not only did he use it to submit Pat Militech in 2006, many of his students, such as Ricardo Almeida and Joe Capizzi, have become famous for it. Another Renzo Gracie alumni, Gordon Ryan just won his first ADCC gold medal with an arm-in guillotine choke against Keenan Cornelius.

Sumo's Shame

Koji Kitao was a heat magnet. Through two different sporting pursuits he had turned everyone he ran into an enemy. Kitao had been elevated to sumo's highest rank, yokozuna, at the age of just twenty two. He had been runner up in a couple of tournaments, with impressive wins over the current yokozuna , but his promotion was more to do with the glut of wrestlers ranked at ozeki. He had won no major tournaments but it was assumed that he was on the way up. Kitao proceeded to win nothing after his promotion and his bratty attitude turned his stablemates against him. After allegedly hitting the wife of his stable leader, Kitao became the first yokozuna to be expelled from sumo, also securing his place in history as the only yokozuna to never win a major tournament.

Kitao turned to professional wrestling and caused drama wherever he went. In 1990 he made his way to New Japan Pro Wrestling and was promptly fired for racism towards Korean wrestlers. Super World of Sports threw him out on his arse after he no-sold for "Earthquake" John Tenta, and grabbed a microphone to tell the audience that pro wrestling was fake and that he'd destroy Tenta in a real fight. In 1992 he went to UWFi, where Takada put a stop to his antics before they even began by kicking him upside the head.

After taking time away from wrestling to become a karate black belt, Kitao was afforded the chance to show John Tenta and wrestling fans everywhere what a legit fighter he was in 1996. Instead he lost in first round batterings against Pedro Otavio and Mark Hall. A year later, he was approached to fight in PRIDE.

Taking on Australia's Nathan Jones, Kitao turned up in slacks and a belt, with sneakers like he was Ric Flair phoning it in on Monday Night Nitro. Perhaps he was contractually obliged to be a scumbag, because Kitao promptly spat on a ringside photographer seconds after the fight had begun. Nathan Jones circled the ring, threw a surprisingly quick wheel kick for a three hundred pounder, and was then bundled to the mat. Jones audibly grunted and panicked on the bottom before Kitao applied a very loose Americana to take the submission in just over two minutes. It was underwhelming and marked the end of both men's MMA careers. Nathan Jones went on to team with The Undertaker in the WWE, while Kitao was given a retirement ceremony at PRIDE 4.

For those who felt let down by the lack of Kitao drama, Branko Cikatic was more than happy to oblige. Cikatic, the first K-1 champion but already an old man, took on the overmatched Ralph White in a kickboxing match wearing the gloves from the opening scene of Enter the Dragon. Cikatic was famous for his ability to starch anyone with his right hand, but he was just as prone to cheating. Cikatic, all class, opened the bout with a glove touch into back kick.

Knocking White off his feet in the opening minute, Cikatic punted him in the head on the ground and raised a ghoulish hematoma. When White's corner protested, Cikatic acted as if he had done nothing wrong. The break in the action gave Rutten and Quadros the chance to recount other instances of Branko causing near riots in the kickboxing ring. The fight was waived off but Branko was brought back for PRIDE 2, where he was disqualified after multiple, surprisingly lenient, warnings for elbowing Mark Kerr in the brain stem while clinging to the ropes. As Cikatic and White left the ring at PRIDE 1, Quadros referenced the attempts to ban mixed martial arts that were giving the UFC so much trouble in the United States, saying "good thing John McCain didn't see this match."

The Extremes of MMA

No fights show the extremes of mixed martial arts more than the two billings between name fighters on the PRIDE 1 card. Gary Goodridge vs Oleg Taktarov was breathtaking. Taktarov was a UFC champion, master of sambo, and came into the fight having worked extensively on his boxing at the Wild Card gym. Gary Goodridge was an arm wrestler who hit extremely hard and was strong enough to shuck off Don Frye for a good length of time in the UFC. Taktarov's focus on boxing during his camp didn't seem to do much, he stood static out at range before leaping in with a left hook. The first time he caught Goodridge. The second time he caught Goodridge, he was dropped by the return. The third time he stepped in on Goodridge, Taktarov was left face down and stiff as a board. It was horrifying and spectacular in the same instant.

Dan Severn and Kimo Leopaldo, on the other hand, showed exactly how bad evenly matched MMA fights can be. Both experienced wrestlers decided to throw hands at each other—turning their heads away and closing their eyes when they swung. While both men were terrified of each other's blows, there were no repercussions when one was hit. At several points in the fight Severn began pulling up his knee sleeves while Kimo was hitting him in the face and seemed completely unfazed. For thirty minutes the two swatted at each other like kittens and when Severn finally shot and completed a takedown, time expired. Bas Rutten, a regular on the Japanese MMA circuit, remarked that he had never heard a Japanese crowd boo before that fight.

Finally, Rickson Gracie vs. Nobuhiko Takada showed the best way to get an exciting fight—book someone who knows what they're doing against someone who doesn't have a clue. Within five minutes Takada was taken down and arm barred but it didn't matter. He had drawn the people through the door with his talk and his star power. Some were even buying into this fight being a legitimate test of Rickson's ability based on Takada's worked matches.

The secret of PRIDE's success was in mixing the legitimate with the ridiculous. Fighting is not a sport in the sense that other sports are. It is first a spectacle. On every PRIDE card there were plenty of fights that felt like a real fair test of both men's skills and the later rounds of any PRIDE Grand Prix were composed of the top ranking fighters in that division. But equally on any PRIDE card there were freak matches, often containing Japanese professional wrestlers with little real fighting experience. For every legitimate title defense that Wanderlei Silva, Takanori Gomi, and Fedor Emelianenko made, they had two non-title fights designed to showcase their destructive ability. In many ways, keeping the big names active in unimportant matches was similar to how New Japan Pro Wrestling has its big names appear in various combinations in tag matches—showcasing them at more events without ruining the big angles. Of course there are no safe fights in MMA but even when Gomi, PRIDE's lightweight champion and Japanese superstar, lost by a shocking arm triangle choke against Marcus Aurelio, it was okay because the title wasn't on the line. They fed him another no-hoper in a non-title fight and then gave him half a year to build up to a rematch with Aurelio which he won.

Perhaps it is here worth noting that there was no bigger victim of the Japanese style of matchmaking than the aforementioned Gary Goodridge. Known for his huge power and lacking ability, Goodridge would go out on his shield and the Japanese promoters loved that. Bouncing between K-1 and PRIDE, Goodridge would take horrible beating after horrible beating. His kickboxing record from 2005 to 2010 was 2-18, with many of those losses coming by knockout, and yet K-1 kept booking him. Goodridge now suffers from pugilistic dementia and serves as a reminder of how disgusting fight promotion can be.

The Rise of PRIDE

PRIDE 1 was a roaring success and the PRIDE phenomenon was well underway in Japan. When Nobuhiko Takada and Rickson Gracie rematched at PRIDE 3 they were able to fill the Budokan in spite of the previous result and Takada's shoddy fighting skills (though Rickson was made to look very bad through the first round of this rematch).

PRIDE quickly acquired many of the best fighters in the world and the PRIDE 2000 Open Weight Grand Prix marked a watershed moment in the sport. UFC tournaments had always contained maybe two good fighters and a heap of guys who claimed unbeaten street fight records and were promptly smashed. The last UFC one night tournament contained four men: three no hopers and Mark Kerr.

The PRIDE Open Weight Grand Prix contained legitimate, world class talent. From then on PRIDE was a force as a showcase for great fighters and not just good fights. Over the next ten years PRIDE became the biggest name in combat sports and provided many MMA fans with their fondest memories.

Where Pancrase had its roots in pro wrestling and aimed for "real pro wrestling," a PRIDE event felt like a major WWE pay-per-view. The entrances and openings became grander as time went on. Takada, a hopeless fighter, was moved into the role of PRIDE's public face and often partook in these show openings. There would be a taiko drum troupe, or Takada would take the stage in a tuxedo and perform the piano backing to a singer, but the fighters were always brought out on the ramp and introduced as an entire roster, undercard and main eventers, before the event. Each fighter individually introduced by "crazy PRIDE lady" Lenne Hardt while PRIDE FC's exhilarating theme tune blared in the background.

Many underrate pageantry in what is supposed to be a sport, but PRIDE's fanfare and glamour stood in stark contrast to the awful gladiator introduction with talking heads which opened every UFC card for a decade.

Then consider how formulaic every UFC pre-fight package has been for the last few years. Joe Rogan in a darkened room tells you that someone is a monster, Dana White refers to a fighter as "this kid," then knockout clips play. Meanwhile PRIDE's pre-fight packages were more in the style of the WWE and TNA: the fight was built up to be something way more than a fist fight could ever be. Just take a look at the revenge movie trailer that played before Cro Cop challenged for Fedor Emelianenko's heavyweight crown. It's campy, and over the top, and perhaps in poor taste, but it sticks in the mind even a decade later.

Of course the downside was that PRIDE FC hemorrhaged money. They lost their TV deal in 2006 but continued to produce lavish events with pyro and drum troupes. The reason that the UFC was able to survive and then thrive after MMA was almost outlawed in the US was due to its ability to continue to host professional events with production being exactly the same and focusing on the in-cage action. Eventually the UFC won the war, buying up PRIDE and closing its doors after briefly flirting with the idea of keeping it going but it was a grand old run while it lasted and the memories it seeded are the reason that the same fighters from a decade ago are still trotted out to headline major events today.

While Takada was a bust, the Japanese did find their real pro wrestler. His name was Kazushi Sakuraba and he was a goddamned marvel. He handed the Gracies their first "L" and beat three more of them before the amount of athletic tape needed to hold his joints together made watching his fights uncomfortable.

The decline of Sakuraba in many ways reflected the downturn in the Japanese MMA scene. MMa, rather than a booming sport for the future, was more of a momentary craze over there. The days of filling the Saitama Super Arena and being broadcast on a major network on New Year's Eve are long gone and the UFC's half-hearted attempts to revitalize the market have received a tepid reaction. Twenty years after the birth of PRIDE FC we are left wondering just how that lightning could be bottled once again.

Pick up Jack's book, Notorious: The Life and Fights of Conor McGregor .

PRIDE Brought Wrestling's Pageantry to MMA published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[flauntpage]

PRIDE Brought Wrestling's Pageantry to MMA

This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the first PRIDE Fighting Championship show in Tokyo, Japan. PRIDE is now defunct, and has been since 2007, but you need only look at the booking on any UFC, Bellator or Rizin card to realize that many of of us who are willing to part with cash to watch fights dearly long for it to still be that era. Fedor Emelianenko, Wanderlei Silva and Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filipovic can still fill arenas as main event attractions even though they just cannot go like they used to. That's partly because of the fighting ability they demonstrated in their heyday, but just as much a product of nostalgia for the theatre and spectacle that PRIDE built around them.

The secret to creating the perfect mixed martial arts product—which so many have tried to imitate—was to infuse it with Japanese professional wrestling or puroresu. The new Japanese promotion, Rizin is hosting a card this weekend which lacks star power. But most of the fans who intend to watch that show will tell you the same thing: "it is the spiritual successor to PRIDE." "No Holds Barred" was always a hit and miss sport, there were great fights but just as many thirty minute snoozers that resulted in draws. What PRIDE brought to the table was the pageantry, the storylines, and the drama before and after the match.

The Birth of PRIDE

PRIDE 1 was built around Nobuhiko Takada. A professional wrestling icon in Japan, Takada was a good worker from a classical catch wrestling lineage. Takada's Union of Wrestling Forces International (UWFi) was built on shoot style matches with a focus on real holds and transitions rather than big slams and high spots. The UWFi drew attention to this, calling out other professional wrestling organizations as "fake" while insisting that theirs was "real." (It is worth noting that the UWFi's invasion angle with New Japan Pro Wrestling would also inspired the WCW's N.W.O angle which many of our readers will have grown up with.)

The UWFi wrestlers were always keen to spin an angle and get some exposure, but also believed they could scrap. Yoji Anjo famously "dojo stormed" Rickson Gracie in 1994, only to be savagely beaten by the legitimate fighter. While he had no professional record, Takada saw himself as "legit" and was willing to work his way into a shoot if he felt he needed to. When Takada worked a high profile match with the controversial former yokozuna, Koji Kitao, the two agreed that the bout would result in a time limit draw, but at the beginning of the third round Takada stiffed Kitao with a head kick. This event was eerily reminiscent of the night in 1953 when "The Father of Puroresu," Rikidozan, double crossed the great judoka Masahiko Kimura and knife hand struck him in the neck for real.

The UWFi's inventive angles and interesting in ring work could not keep them afloat, however and after they folded Takada was approached by a new promotion for the possibility of a professional bout against Gracie.

Home Grown Talent

But Takada was not the only home grown pro wrestler entering the PRIDE ring that night. In the opening bout, Kazunari Murakami worked a suspicious looking hip throw to arm bar on the largely unimportant John Dixson. It was a great beginning to proceedings for the forty thousand Japanese fans in attendance for the Takada—Gracie showdown.

Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros provided commentary on the U.S. release. This was recorded after the event which lead to awkward moments where they had to stop an anecdote midway through because the conclusion would spoil the result of the fight that they were commentating. On other occasions, Rutten would have to pretend to run up to the ring when the camera caught him coaching in the corner of Mark Kerr. During the Dixson-Murakami match, which had very low stakes, Rutten and Quadros engaged in an interesting moment of foreshadowing. Quadros asked Rutten about the last time he had seen Dixson fight—in a tournament in Kiev—and Rutten brushed over Dixson to hint at the abilities of a young Ukranian who blasted through Dixson and had been winning one night tournaments all over Europe. Igor Vovchanchyn would make his way to PRIDE the next year.

Takada was not even the only Japanese talent taking on a Gracie that night. The great Renzo Gracie was matched against the seemingly undeserving Akira Shoji. Shoji had just three fights to his name, and a 1-1-1 record. The Gracies were still undefeated as a family in the world of mixed martial arts and the Gracie legend was still in full force. Renzo had a 5-0 professional record, with one No Contest as his last fight had started a riot! Shoji surprised everyone by slithering out of Gracie's submission attempts, but was aided greatly by the referees. When Renzo climbed on Shoji's back, Shoji dived between the ropes onto the ring apron, ran around the side of the ring, and the two men were restarted from a standing position. When the two clinched, Shoji headbutted Gracie. Shoji landed illegal knees to the head on the ground without reprimand, then when Shoji tried to pour it on in the later going, he unleashed a flurry on underwhelming punches to the back of Gracie's head.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the bout was its foreshadowing of developments in the grappling game. Shoji spent much of the fight holding Gracie around the waist from inside his guard, stalling for dear life. Gracie repeatedly pulled his own foot up and tried to weave it between him and Shoji to attack the omaplata. It was a very simplistic attempt at what would develop into the knee-hugging omaplata game which has become a staple of closed guard play in no-gi and MMA environments. Gracie's own student, Shawn Williams would go on to pioneer what is now called the Williams guard, hugging his own knee and attacking the omaplata on the trapped arm. Eddie Bravo's rubber guard game is built on the same principle but with more chance of a meniscus tear. Gracie was unable to attack the omaplata successfully in this bout but he did demonstrate a beautiful sit-up sweep off one attempt.

While the pace was slow, the action was oddly riveting. The Gracie family had a name to maintain and Shoji had nothing to lose. Each time Gracie took the mount or attacked an armbar, his job got harder as Shoji—the better conditioned man—became slicker and slicker with sweat. Each time Shoji squirmed out and returned to his feet he screamed and the crowd went ballistic. When the end of time came, Shoji had put a draw on Renzo Gracie's record. It wasn't the result the Japanese fans wanted, but it was more than most expected. Akira Shoji would come to be known as "Mr. PRIDE," competing on all but one of the first ten PRIDE cards. His record ran to an unspectacular 14-17-5 but he became a staple performer for PRIDE even after they acquired genuine world class talent.

Renzo Gracie picked up more losses than Royce, Rickson and Royler, but then he put himself in position to have that happen by fighting much stiffer opposition. He went on to be a regular contestant in the ADCC no gi championships, and now runs one of the most successful grappling camps in the United States out of New York. During his bout with Shoji, Renzo began working on an arm-in guillotine choke and Rutten and Quadros remarked that it only works if there is a large strength difference and that it is not a reliable technique—a standard attitude for the time. The arm-in guillotine became a Renzo Gracie trademark. Not only did he use it to submit Pat Militech in 2006, many of his students, such as Ricardo Almeida and Joe Capizzi, have become famous for it. Another Renzo Gracie alumni, Gordon Ryan just won his first ADCC gold medal with an arm-in guillotine choke against Keenan Cornelius.

Sumo's Shame

Koji Kitao was a heat magnet. Through two different sporting pursuits he had turned everyone he ran into an enemy. Kitao had been elevated to sumo's highest rank, yokozuna, at the age of just twenty two. He had been runner up in a couple of tournaments, with impressive wins over the current yokozuna , but his promotion was more to do with the glut of wrestlers ranked at ozeki. He had won no major tournaments but it was assumed that he was on the way up. Kitao proceeded to win nothing after his promotion and his bratty attitude turned his stablemates against him. After allegedly hitting the wife of his stable leader, Kitao became the first yokozuna to be expelled from sumo, also securing his place in history as the only yokozuna to never win a major tournament.

Kitao turned to professional wrestling and caused drama wherever he went. In 1990 he made his way to New Japan Pro Wrestling and was promptly fired for racism towards Korean wrestlers. Super World of Sports threw him out on his arse after he no-sold for "Earthquake" John Tenta, and grabbed a microphone to tell the audience that pro wrestling was fake and that he'd destroy Tenta in a real fight. In 1992 he went to UWFi, where Takada put a stop to his antics before they even began by kicking him upside the head.

After taking time away from wrestling to become a karate black belt, Kitao was afforded the chance to show John Tenta and wrestling fans everywhere what a legit fighter he was in 1996. Instead he lost in first round batterings against Pedro Otavio and Mark Hall. A year later, he was approached to fight in PRIDE.

Taking on Australia's Nathan Jones, Kitao turned up in slacks and a belt, with sneakers like he was Ric Flair phoning it in on Monday Night Nitro. Perhaps he was contractually obliged to be a scumbag, because Kitao promptly spat on a ringside photographer seconds after the fight had begun. Nathan Jones circled the ring, threw a surprisingly quick wheel kick for a three hundred pounder, and was then bundled to the mat. Jones audibly grunted and panicked on the bottom before Kitao applied a very loose Americana to take the submission in just over two minutes. It was underwhelming and marked the end of both men's MMA careers. Nathan Jones went on to team with The Undertaker in the WWE, while Kitao was given a retirement ceremony at PRIDE 4.

For those who felt let down by the lack of Kitao drama, Branko Cikatic was more than happy to oblige. Cikatic, the first K-1 champion but already an old man, took on the overmatched Ralph White in a kickboxing match wearing the gloves from the opening scene of Enter the Dragon. Cikatic was famous for his ability to starch anyone with his right hand, but he was just as prone to cheating. Cikatic, all class, opened the bout with a glove touch into back kick.

Knocking White off his feet in the opening minute, Cikatic punted him in the head on the ground and raised a ghoulish hematoma. When White's corner protested, Cikatic acted as if he had done nothing wrong. The break in the action gave Rutten and Quadros the chance to recount other instances of Branko causing near riots in the kickboxing ring. The fight was waived off but Branko was brought back for PRIDE 2, where he was disqualified after multiple, surprisingly lenient, warnings for elbowing Mark Kerr in the brain stem while clinging to the ropes. As Cikatic and White left the ring at PRIDE 1, Quadros referenced the attempts to ban mixed martial arts that were giving the UFC so much trouble in the United States, saying "good thing John McCain didn't see this match."

The Extremes of MMA

No fights show the extremes of mixed martial arts more than the two billings between name fighters on the PRIDE 1 card. Gary Goodridge vs Oleg Taktarov was breathtaking. Taktarov was a UFC champion, master of sambo, and came into the fight having worked extensively on his boxing at the Wild Card gym. Gary Goodridge was an arm wrestler who hit extremely hard and was strong enough to shuck off Don Frye for a good length of time in the UFC. Taktarov's focus on boxing during his camp didn't seem to do much, he stood static out at range before leaping in with a left hook. The first time he caught Goodridge. The second time he caught Goodridge, he was dropped by the return. The third time he stepped in on Goodridge, Taktarov was left face down and stiff as a board. It was horrifying and spectacular in the same instant.

Dan Severn and Kimo Leopaldo, on the other hand, showed exactly how bad evenly matched MMA fights can be. Both experienced wrestlers decided to throw hands at each other—turning their heads away and closing their eyes when they swung. While both men were terrified of each other's blows, there were no repercussions when one was hit. At several points in the fight Severn began pulling up his knee sleeves while Kimo was hitting him in the face and seemed completely unfazed. For thirty minutes the two swatted at each other like kittens and when Severn finally shot and completed a takedown, time expired. Bas Rutten, a regular on the Japanese MMA circuit, remarked that he had never heard a Japanese crowd boo before that fight.

Finally, Rickson Gracie vs. Nobuhiko Takada showed the best way to get an exciting fight—book someone who knows what they're doing against someone who doesn't have a clue. Within five minutes Takada was taken down and arm barred but it didn't matter. He had drawn the people through the door with his talk and his star power. Some were even buying into this fight being a legitimate test of Rickson's ability based on Takada's worked matches.

The secret of PRIDE's success was in mixing the legitimate with the ridiculous. Fighting is not a sport in the sense that other sports are. It is first a spectacle. On every PRIDE card there were plenty of fights that felt like a real fair test of both men's skills and the later rounds of any PRIDE Grand Prix were composed of the top ranking fighters in that division. But equally on any PRIDE card there were freak matches, often containing Japanese professional wrestlers with little real fighting experience. For every legitimate title defense that Wanderlei Silva, Takanori Gomi, and Fedor Emelianenko made, they had two non-title fights designed to showcase their destructive ability. In many ways, keeping the big names active in unimportant matches was similar to how New Japan Pro Wrestling has its big names appear in various combinations in tag matches—showcasing them at more events without ruining the big angles. Of course there are no safe fights in MMA but even when Gomi, PRIDE's lightweight champion and Japanese superstar, lost by a shocking arm triangle choke against Marcus Aurelio, it was okay because the title wasn't on the line. They fed him another no-hoper in a non-title fight and then gave him half a year to build up to a rematch with Aurelio which he won.

Perhaps it is here worth noting that there was no bigger victim of the Japanese style of matchmaking than the aforementioned Gary Goodridge. Known for his huge power and lacking ability, Goodridge would go out on his shield and the Japanese promoters loved that. Bouncing between K-1 and PRIDE, Goodridge would take horrible beating after horrible beating. His kickboxing record from 2005 to 2010 was 2-18, with many of those losses coming by knockout, and yet K-1 kept booking him. Goodridge now suffers from pugilistic dementia and serves as a reminder of how disgusting fight promotion can be.

The Rise of PRIDE

PRIDE 1 was a roaring success and the PRIDE phenomenon was well underway in Japan. When Nobuhiko Takada and Rickson Gracie rematched at PRIDE 3 they were able to fill the Budokan in spite of the previous result and Takada's shoddy fighting skills (though Rickson was made to look very bad through the first round of this rematch).

PRIDE quickly acquired many of the best fighters in the world and the PRIDE 2000 Open Weight Grand Prix marked a watershed moment in the sport. UFC tournaments had always contained maybe two good fighters and a heap of guys who claimed unbeaten street fight records and were promptly smashed. The last UFC one night tournament contained four men: three no hopers and Mark Kerr.

The PRIDE Open Weight Grand Prix contained legitimate, world class talent. From then on PRIDE was a force as a showcase for great fighters and not just good fights. Over the next ten years PRIDE became the biggest name in combat sports and provided many MMA fans with their fondest memories.

Where Pancrase had its roots in pro wrestling and aimed for "real pro wrestling," a PRIDE event felt like a major WWE pay-per-view. The entrances and openings became grander as time went on. Takada, a hopeless fighter, was moved into the role of PRIDE's public face and often partook in these show openings. There would be a taiko drum troupe, or Takada would take the stage in a tuxedo and perform the piano backing to a singer, but the fighters were always brought out on the ramp and introduced as an entire roster, undercard and main eventers, before the event. Each fighter individually introduced by "crazy PRIDE lady" Lenne Hardt while PRIDE FC's exhilarating theme tune blared in the background.

Many underrate pageantry in what is supposed to be a sport, but PRIDE's fanfare and glamour stood in stark contrast to the awful gladiator introduction with talking heads which opened every UFC card for a decade.

Then consider how formulaic every UFC pre-fight package has been for the last few years. Joe Rogan in a darkened room tells you that someone is a monster, Dana White refers to a fighter as "this kid," then knockout clips play. Meanwhile PRIDE's pre-fight packages were more in the style of the WWE and TNA: the fight was built up to be something way more than a fist fight could ever be. Just take a look at the revenge movie trailer that played before Cro Cop challenged for Fedor Emelianenko's heavyweight crown. It's campy, and over the top, and perhaps in poor taste, but it sticks in the mind even a decade later.

Of course the downside was that PRIDE FC hemorrhaged money. They lost their TV deal in 2006 but continued to produce lavish events with pyro and drum troupes. The reason that the UFC was able to survive and then thrive after MMA was almost outlawed in the US was due to its ability to continue to host professional events with production being exactly the same and focusing on the in-cage action. Eventually the UFC won the war, buying up PRIDE and closing its doors after briefly flirting with the idea of keeping it going but it was a grand old run while it lasted and the memories it seeded are the reason that the same fighters from a decade ago are still trotted out to headline major events today.

While Takada was a bust, the Japanese did find their real pro wrestler. His name was Kazushi Sakuraba and he was a goddamned marvel. He handed the Gracies their first "L" and beat three more of them before the amount of athletic tape needed to hold his joints together made watching his fights uncomfortable.

The decline of Sakuraba in many ways reflected the downturn in the Japanese MMA scene. MMa, rather than a booming sport for the future, was more of a momentary craze over there. The days of filling the Saitama Super Arena and being broadcast on a major network on New Year's Eve are long gone and the UFC's half-hearted attempts to revitalize the market have received a tepid reaction. Twenty years after the birth of PRIDE FC we are left wondering just how that lightning could be bottled once again.

Pick up Jack's book, Notorious: The Life and Fights of Conor McGregor .

PRIDE Brought Wrestling's Pageantry to MMA published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[flauntpage]

PRIDE Brought Wrestling's Pageantry to MMA

This week marks the twentieth anniversary of the first PRIDE Fighting Championship show in Tokyo, Japan. PRIDE is now defunct, and has been since 2007, but you need only look at the booking on any UFC, Bellator or Rizin card to realize that many of of us who are willing to part with cash to watch fights dearly long for it to still be that era. Fedor Emelianenko, Wanderlei Silva and Mirko 'Cro Cop' Filipovic can still fill arenas as main event attractions even though they just cannot go like they used to. That's partly because of the fighting ability they demonstrated in their heyday, but just as much a product of nostalgia for the theatre and spectacle that PRIDE built around them.

The secret to creating the perfect mixed martial arts product—which so many have tried to imitate—was to infuse it with Japanese professional wrestling or puroresu. The new Japanese promotion, Rizin is hosting a card this weekend which lacks star power. But most of the fans who intend to watch that show will tell you the same thing: "it is the spiritual successor to PRIDE." "No Holds Barred" was always a hit and miss sport, there were great fights but just as many thirty minute snoozers that resulted in draws. What PRIDE brought to the table was the pageantry, the storylines, and the drama before and after the match.

The Birth of PRIDE

PRIDE 1 was built around Nobuhiko Takada. A professional wrestling icon in Japan, Takada was a good worker from a classical catch wrestling lineage. Takada's Union of Wrestling Forces International (UWFi) was built on shoot style matches with a focus on real holds and transitions rather than big slams and high spots. The UWFi drew attention to this, calling out other professional wrestling organizations as "fake" while insisting that theirs was "real." (It is worth noting that the UWFi's invasion angle with New Japan Pro Wrestling would also inspired the WCW's N.W.O angle which many of our readers will have grown up with.)

The UWFi wrestlers were always keen to spin an angle and get some exposure, but also believed they could scrap. Yoji Anjo famously "dojo stormed" Rickson Gracie in 1994, only to be savagely beaten by the legitimate fighter. While he had no professional record, Takada saw himself as "legit" and was willing to work his way into a shoot if he felt he needed to. When Takada worked a high profile match with the controversial former yokozuna, Koji Kitao, the two agreed that the bout would result in a time limit draw, but at the beginning of the third round Takada stiffed Kitao with a head kick. This event was eerily reminiscent of the night in 1953 when "The Father of Puroresu," Rikidozan, double crossed the great judoka Masahiko Kimura and knife hand struck him in the neck for real.

The UWFi's inventive angles and interesting in ring work could not keep them afloat, however and after they folded Takada was approached by a new promotion for the possibility of a professional bout against Gracie.

Home Grown Talent

But Takada was not the only home grown pro wrestler entering the PRIDE ring that night. In the opening bout, Kazunari Murakami worked a suspicious looking hip throw to arm bar on the largely unimportant John Dixson. It was a great beginning to proceedings for the forty thousand Japanese fans in attendance for the Takada—Gracie showdown.

Bas Rutten and Stephen Quadros provided commentary on the U.S. release. This was recorded after the event which lead to awkward moments where they had to stop an anecdote midway through because the conclusion would spoil the result of the fight that they were commentating. On other occasions, Rutten would have to pretend to run up to the ring when the camera caught him coaching in the corner of Mark Kerr. During the Dixson-Murakami match, which had very low stakes, Rutten and Quadros engaged in an interesting moment of foreshadowing. Quadros asked Rutten about the last time he had seen Dixson fight—in a tournament in Kiev—and Rutten brushed over Dixson to hint at the abilities of a young Ukranian who blasted through Dixson and had been winning one night tournaments all over Europe. Igor Vovchanchyn would make his way to PRIDE the next year.

Takada was not even the only Japanese talent taking on a Gracie that night. The great Renzo Gracie was matched against the seemingly undeserving Akira Shoji. Shoji had just three fights to his name, and a 1-1-1 record. The Gracies were still undefeated as a family in the world of mixed martial arts and the Gracie legend was still in full force. Renzo had a 5-0 professional record, with one No Contest as his last fight had started a riot! Shoji surprised everyone by slithering out of Gracie's submission attempts, but was aided greatly by the referees. When Renzo climbed on Shoji's back, Shoji dived between the ropes onto the ring apron, ran around the side of the ring, and the two men were restarted from a standing position. When the two clinched, Shoji headbutted Gracie. Shoji landed illegal knees to the head on the ground without reprimand, then when Shoji tried to pour it on in the later going, he unleashed a flurry on underwhelming punches to the back of Gracie's head.

Perhaps the most intriguing part of the bout was its foreshadowing of developments in the grappling game. Shoji spent much of the fight holding Gracie around the waist from inside his guard, stalling for dear life. Gracie repeatedly pulled his own foot up and tried to weave it between him and Shoji to attack the omaplata. It was a very simplistic attempt at what would develop into the knee-hugging omaplata game which has become a staple of closed guard play in no-gi and MMA environments. Gracie's own student, Shawn Williams would go on to pioneer what is now called the Williams guard, hugging his own knee and attacking the omaplata on the trapped arm. Eddie Bravo's rubber guard game is built on the same principle but with more chance of a meniscus tear. Gracie was unable to attack the omaplata successfully in this bout but he did demonstrate a beautiful sit-up sweep off one attempt.

While the pace was slow, the action was oddly riveting. The Gracie family had a name to maintain and Shoji had nothing to lose. Each time Gracie took the mount or attacked an armbar, his job got harder as Shoji—the better conditioned man—became slicker and slicker with sweat. Each time Shoji squirmed out and returned to his feet he screamed and the crowd went ballistic. When the end of time came, Shoji had put a draw on Renzo Gracie's record. It wasn't the result the Japanese fans wanted, but it was more than most expected. Akira Shoji would come to be known as "Mr. PRIDE," competing on all but one of the first ten PRIDE cards. His record ran to an unspectacular 14-17-5 but he became a staple performer for PRIDE even after they acquired genuine world class talent.

Renzo Gracie picked up more losses than Royce, Rickson and Royler, but then he put himself in position to have that happen by fighting much stiffer opposition. He went on to be a regular contestant in the ADCC no gi championships, and now runs one of the most successful grappling camps in the United States out of New York. During his bout with Shoji, Renzo began working on an arm-in guillotine choke and Rutten and Quadros remarked that it only works if there is a large strength difference and that it is not a reliable technique—a standard attitude for the time. The arm-in guillotine became a Renzo Gracie trademark. Not only did he use it to submit Pat Militech in 2006, many of his students, such as Ricardo Almeida and Joe Capizzi, have become famous for it. Another Renzo Gracie alumni, Gordon Ryan just won his first ADCC gold medal with an arm-in guillotine choke against Keenan Cornelius.

Sumo's Shame

Koji Kitao was a heat magnet. Through two different sporting pursuits he had turned everyone he ran into an enemy. Kitao had been elevated to sumo's highest rank, yokozuna, at the age of just twenty two. He had been runner up in a couple of tournaments, with impressive wins over the current yokozuna , but his promotion was more to do with the glut of wrestlers ranked at ozeki. He had won no major tournaments but it was assumed that he was on the way up. Kitao proceeded to win nothing after his promotion and his bratty attitude turned his stablemates against him. After allegedly hitting the wife of his stable leader, Kitao became the first yokozuna to be expelled from sumo, also securing his place in history as the only yokozuna to never win a major tournament.

Kitao turned to professional wrestling and caused drama wherever he went. In 1990 he made his way to New Japan Pro Wrestling and was promptly fired for racism towards Korean wrestlers. Super World of Sports threw him out on his arse after he no-sold for "Earthquake" John Tenta, and grabbed a microphone to tell the audience that pro wrestling was fake and that he'd destroy Tenta in a real fight. In 1992 he went to UWFi, where Takada put a stop to his antics before they even began by kicking him upside the head.

After taking time away from wrestling to become a karate black belt, Kitao was afforded the chance to show John Tenta and wrestling fans everywhere what a legit fighter he was in 1996. Instead he lost in first round batterings against Pedro Otavio and Mark Hall. A year later, he was approached to fight in PRIDE.

Taking on Australia's Nathan Jones, Kitao turned up in slacks and a belt, with sneakers like he was Ric Flair phoning it in on Monday Night Nitro. Perhaps he was contractually obliged to be a scumbag, because Kitao promptly spat on a ringside photographer seconds after the fight had begun. Nathan Jones circled the ring, threw a surprisingly quick wheel kick for a three hundred pounder, and was then bundled to the mat. Jones audibly grunted and panicked on the bottom before Kitao applied a very loose Americana to take the submission in just over two minutes. It was underwhelming and marked the end of both men's MMA careers. Nathan Jones went on to team with The Undertaker in the WWE, while Kitao was given a retirement ceremony at PRIDE 4.

For those who felt let down by the lack of Kitao drama, Branko Cikatic was more than happy to oblige. Cikatic, the first K-1 champion but already an old man, took on the overmatched Ralph White in a kickboxing match wearing the gloves from the opening scene of Enter the Dragon. Cikatic was famous for his ability to starch anyone with his right hand, but he was just as prone to cheating. Cikatic, all class, opened the bout with a glove touch into back kick.

Knocking White off his feet in the opening minute, Cikatic punted him in the head on the ground and raised a ghoulish hematoma. When White's corner protested, Cikatic acted as if he had done nothing wrong. The break in the action gave Rutten and Quadros the chance to recount other instances of Branko causing near riots in the kickboxing ring. The fight was waived off but Branko was brought back for PRIDE 2, where he was disqualified after multiple, surprisingly lenient, warnings for elbowing Mark Kerr in the brain stem while clinging to the ropes. As Cikatic and White left the ring at PRIDE 1, Quadros referenced the attempts to ban mixed martial arts that were giving the UFC so much trouble in the United States, saying "good thing John McCain didn't see this match."

The Extremes of MMA

No fights show the extremes of mixed martial arts more than the two billings between name fighters on the PRIDE 1 card. Gary Goodridge vs Oleg Taktarov was breathtaking. Taktarov was a UFC champion, master of sambo, and came into the fight having worked extensively on his boxing at the Wild Card gym. Gary Goodridge was an arm wrestler who hit extremely hard and was strong enough to shuck off Don Frye for a good length of time in the UFC. Taktarov's focus on boxing during his camp didn't seem to do much, he stood static out at range before leaping in with a left hook. The first time he caught Goodridge. The second time he caught Goodridge, he was dropped by the return. The third time he stepped in on Goodridge, Taktarov was left face down and stiff as a board. It was horrifying and spectacular in the same instant.

Dan Severn and Kimo Leopaldo, on the other hand, showed exactly how bad evenly matched MMA fights can be. Both experienced wrestlers decided to throw hands at each other—turning their heads away and closing their eyes when they swung. While both men were terrified of each other's blows, there were no repercussions when one was hit. At several points in the fight Severn began pulling up his knee sleeves while Kimo was hitting him in the face and seemed completely unfazed. For thirty minutes the two swatted at each other like kittens and when Severn finally shot and completed a takedown, time expired. Bas Rutten, a regular on the Japanese MMA circuit, remarked that he had never heard a Japanese crowd boo before that fight.

Finally, Rickson Gracie vs. Nobuhiko Takada showed the best way to get an exciting fight—book someone who knows what they're doing against someone who doesn't have a clue. Within five minutes Takada was taken down and arm barred but it didn't matter. He had drawn the people through the door with his talk and his star power. Some were even buying into this fight being a legitimate test of Rickson's ability based on Takada's worked matches.

The secret of PRIDE's success was in mixing the legitimate with the ridiculous. Fighting is not a sport in the sense that other sports are. It is first a spectacle. On every PRIDE card there were plenty of fights that felt like a real fair test of both men's skills and the later rounds of any PRIDE Grand Prix were composed of the top ranking fighters in that division. But equally on any PRIDE card there were freak matches, often containing Japanese professional wrestlers with little real fighting experience. For every legitimate title defense that Wanderlei Silva, Takanori Gomi, and Fedor Emelianenko made, they had two non-title fights designed to showcase their destructive ability. In many ways, keeping the big names active in unimportant matches was similar to how New Japan Pro Wrestling has its big names appear in various combinations in tag matches—showcasing them at more events without ruining the big angles. Of course there are no safe fights in MMA but even when Gomi, PRIDE's lightweight champion and Japanese superstar, lost by a shocking arm triangle choke against Marcus Aurelio, it was okay because the title wasn't on the line. They fed him another no-hoper in a non-title fight and then gave him half a year to build up to a rematch with Aurelio which he won.

Perhaps it is here worth noting that there was no bigger victim of the Japanese style of matchmaking than the aforementioned Gary Goodridge. Known for his huge power and lacking ability, Goodridge would go out on his shield and the Japanese promoters loved that. Bouncing between K-1 and PRIDE, Goodridge would take horrible beating after horrible beating. His kickboxing record from 2005 to 2010 was 2-18, with many of those losses coming by knockout, and yet K-1 kept booking him. Goodridge now suffers from pugilistic dementia and serves as a reminder of how disgusting fight promotion can be.

The Rise of PRIDE

PRIDE 1 was a roaring success and the PRIDE phenomenon was well underway in Japan. When Nobuhiko Takada and Rickson Gracie rematched at PRIDE 3 they were able to fill the Budokan in spite of the previous result and Takada's shoddy fighting skills (though Rickson was made to look very bad through the first round of this rematch).

PRIDE quickly acquired many of the best fighters in the world and the PRIDE 2000 Open Weight Grand Prix marked a watershed moment in the sport. UFC tournaments had always contained maybe two good fighters and a heap of guys who claimed unbeaten street fight records and were promptly smashed. The last UFC one night tournament contained four men: three no hopers and Mark Kerr.

The PRIDE Open Weight Grand Prix contained legitimate, world class talent. From then on PRIDE was a force as a showcase for great fighters and not just good fights. Over the next ten years PRIDE became the biggest name in combat sports and provided many MMA fans with their fondest memories.

Where Pancrase had its roots in pro wrestling and aimed for "real pro wrestling," a PRIDE event felt like a major WWE pay-per-view. The entrances and openings became grander as time went on. Takada, a hopeless fighter, was moved into the role of PRIDE's public face and often partook in these show openings. There would be a taiko drum troupe, or Takada would take the stage in a tuxedo and perform the piano backing to a singer, but the fighters were always brought out on the ramp and introduced as an entire roster, undercard and main eventers, before the event. Each fighter individually introduced by "crazy PRIDE lady" Lenne Hardt while PRIDE FC's exhilarating theme tune blared in the background.

Many underrate pageantry in what is supposed to be a sport, but PRIDE's fanfare and glamour stood in stark contrast to the awful gladiator introduction with talking heads which opened every UFC card for a decade.

Then consider how formulaic every UFC pre-fight package has been for the last few years. Joe Rogan in a darkened room tells you that someone is a monster, Dana White refers to a fighter as "this kid," then knockout clips play. Meanwhile PRIDE's pre-fight packages were more in the style of the WWE and TNA: the fight was built up to be something way more than a fist fight could ever be. Just take a look at the revenge movie trailer that played before Cro Cop challenged for Fedor Emelianenko's heavyweight crown. It's campy, and over the top, and perhaps in poor taste, but it sticks in the mind even a decade later.

Of course the downside was that PRIDE FC hemorrhaged money. They lost their TV deal in 2006 but continued to produce lavish events with pyro and drum troupes. The reason that the UFC was able to survive and then thrive after MMA was almost outlawed in the US was due to its ability to continue to host professional events with production being exactly the same and focusing on the in-cage action. Eventually the UFC won the war, buying up PRIDE and closing its doors after briefly flirting with the idea of keeping it going but it was a grand old run while it lasted and the memories it seeded are the reason that the same fighters from a decade ago are still trotted out to headline major events today.

While Takada was a bust, the Japanese did find their real pro wrestler. His name was Kazushi Sakuraba and he was a goddamned marvel. He handed the Gracies their first "L" and beat three more of them before the amount of athletic tape needed to hold his joints together made watching his fights uncomfortable.

The decline of Sakuraba in many ways reflected the downturn in the Japanese MMA scene. MMa, rather than a booming sport for the future, was more of a momentary craze over there. The days of filling the Saitama Super Arena and being broadcast on a major network on New Year's Eve are long gone and the UFC's half-hearted attempts to revitalize the market have received a tepid reaction. Twenty years after the birth of PRIDE FC we are left wondering just how that lightning could be bottled once again.

Pick up Jack's book, Notorious: The Life and Fights of Conor McGregor .

PRIDE Brought Wrestling's Pageantry to MMA published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv