by Dave Meltzer
For the U.S., Takada’s name means nothing and UFC has no television so for it to mean anything from a business standpoint, it would have to be largely through whatever hype the WWF would give the match in hyping Shamrock, which at this point doesn’t look like all that much if any. It is also interesting that Shamrock will be doing the show along with several people he’s had a hand in training, his brother Frank, who faces Kevin Jackson in the under-200 title match, Maurice Smith, who faces Randy Couture in the heavyweight title match, and Telligman, who is an alternate in the heavyweight tournament.
Why Takada, 35, whose only true shoot match was his one-sided loss to Rickson Gracie (although he’s been victorious in double-cross situations with Koji Kitao and former heavyweight champion boxer Trevor Berbick and was a world champion pro wrestler and a tremendous drawing card with UWFI before being one of the greatest workers in the world in the late 80s with New Japan but working credentials mean nothing in the octagon), would insist on Shamrock raises several questions.
It could be that since Shamrock, a former UFC heavyweight champion and the first King of Pancrase champion, who has a NHB record of 6-2-2 (although both draws would have likely win wins had their been judges), is already a major star in Japan with a tremendous shooter reputation, that Takada could risk a loss to him without devouring whatever is left of his falling reputation. It also could be that Takada feels it would be okay from a reputation standpoint, not to mention not as punishing, to lose to a mat submission expert as opposed to slugging it out with someone who would be more likely to deliver a knockout blow. Or it could be that Takada recognizes that Shamrock, 33, is on the road with the WWF in a very brutal road schedule, and that he can’t possibly be in top fighting shape and maybe he can catch him at less than his best and a victory would totally rehabilitate his reputation after the relatively easy Gracie win.
But even with only one week of serious fighting training, Shamrock would be considered a heavy favorite in this situation and of the reasons, the first would seem to have the most validity. The risk Shamrock is taking by going into this match is probably more of a risk of injury, as he’s suffered numerous injuries in his fighting career, than a risk of losing.
Takada’s main weapon is that he can kick extremely hard, although he’s not experienced in using that in legitimate competition and certainly not against a fighter with Shamrock’s experience in mixed matches. Shamrock has fought and beaten both Maurice Smith and Bas Rutten in legitimate Pancrase matches and Don Nakaya Neilsen (a former WKA World cruiserweight kickboxing champion) in a mixed shoot match at a Tokyo Dome pro wrestling card, all of whom one would think kick as hard or in some cases quite a bit harder.
While in Pancrase, Shamrock only lost one legitimate kick/submission rules match (he lost a kickboxing match to a trained kickboxer from The Netherlands), to Masakatsu Funaki and that was largely to avoid any kind of an injury since the match was only a few days before the second Gracie match in UFC. His other loss, his Pancrase championship loss to Minoru Suzuki, was a Pancrase business decision before the first match with Dan Severn in that Pancrase didn’t want to risk having their world champion lose to a world champion in the world of pro wrestling, even though Shamrock beat Severn in that match.
Shamrock, after signing for the match, did a WWF house show in Providence, RI on 12/6 but only did about a 30 second squash match to avoid getting banged up. He followed it up working a hard 18:29 on PPV against Shawn Michaels in the main event of the PPV, before flying to Dallas and missing the television tapings to begin training with Guy Mezger, Tra Telligman and Peter Williams for only about one week before leaving for Japan. But at press time, Takada’s statements make everything questionable.
Which makes two major NHB main events that are unclear as the rival KRS promotions announced for its Pride Two show on 1/18 at the same Yokohama Arena, a main event of Royce Gracie vs. Mark Kerr. Kerr has a contract with SEG which prohibits him from appearing in any televised fights (this show will be taped for television) and from doing any NHB shows 30 days before or after an SEG show and a court date is set for 12/19 to determine whether Kerr has the legal right to do the show.
A secondary question is whether or not a court in New York has legal jurisdiction over stopping a fight in Japan even though the contract was signed in New York. Nothing was officially announced as far as the rules of the fight although that has been a sticking point. Obviously Gracie would want no time limit and no stand-ups for lack of action and eliminating head-butts, which would theoretically be one of Kerr’s most valuable lessons while on top caught in the guard. Kerr wants as close to no rules as possible (i.e. head-butting legal) and since it will be fought in a ring rather than an octagon, netting under the bottom ropes so Gracie can’t roll out of the ring.
The Japanese promoters will likely insist of some sort of a time limit (Kerr may agree to the stipulations that if Gracie lasts the time limit, than rather than having judges, that Gracie be awarded the victory just for hanging on because of the expected 75 pound weight differential) and make wearing grappling gloves mandatory, but Gracie is against wearing gloves. Gracie also wants the referee to not have the power to stop the match.
The first Pride One Event, on 10/9 at the Tokyo Dome, was the first PPV event ever in Japan and drew an 8.0 buy rate, although with the limited universe that is actually 12,000 buys out of a universe of only 150,000 homes. Even so, that was considered a phenomenal success even though the number of homes makes it likely not profitable nor was profit ever considered any kind of realistic proposition from the PPV at this stage of the game. The buy rate does show the potential in Japan for NHB (and even more so pro wrestling) when PPV technology reaches the U.S. level. Even with the Japanese debut of Royce Gracie, the second event is not going to be put on PPV.
On paper, Gracie vs. Kerr looks to be among the most intriguing NHB fights in years, and also perhaps one of the most boring. Gracie, 11-0-1, who hasn’t fought since going to a 36:00 draw with Shamrock in 1995 in a match that had their been judges, he would have likely lost via decision.
Kerr, a world class amateur wrestler who weighed 255 pounds in his most recent UFC appearance, 7-0, has been victorious in three consecutive tournaments, two in UFC and another in Brazil, without every being on the defensive. Kerr has won almost all of his matches in rapid order with the exception of a one-sided and brutal 30:00 decision against Fabio Gurgel, a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu expert with a similar style and considered to have similar level of abilities to Gracie.
Unless Kerr makes a quick mistake, the match figures to go to the ground with Gracie hanging onto the guard. Gracie figures to take the most punishment, and if he can catch Kerr unaware in a submission, he can beat him, but if he can’t, it’s largely going to be the defensive posture and trying to avoid serious blows and wait out the time for Kerr to make a mistake since points aren’t awarded for aggressiveness.
Also announced for Pride Two are Renzo Gracie (4-0-2) vs. karate expert Sanae Kikuta, Juan Mott (MARS; 1-1) vs. Akira Shoji (1-1-2; best known for his 30:00 draw with Renzo Gracie at the Tokyo Dome), Branko Cikatic (the 42-year-old former K-1 champion) vs. Ralph White, another kickboxer in a rematch of their Tokyo Dome no contest match and Marco Ruas (6-1-1) against TBA, who is rumored to be Brazilian Roberto Traven (4-0).
DECEMBER 22
The proposed Ken Shamrock vs. Nobuhiko Takada UFC match on the 12/21 PPV show from Yokohama fell apart during the week with Shamrock’s appearance on the show being canceled. In addition, over the weekend Vitor Belfort’s fighting on the show was in question although now appears to be back on, but against what almost appears to be a hand-picked opponent.
Shamrock and the World Wrestling Federation agreed to terms, which Shamrock signed on 12/4 for a payoff which would have been in the range of double UFC’s previous record single-event payoff of $150,000 for the Takada match. However, as noted last week, on 12/8, Takada when asked about the match at the Kingdom house show, said that he had no intention of fight
ing on the UFC show and was suffering from several injuries that would make it impossible for him to even begin training until early next year.
Semaphore Entertainment Group, which signed Shamrock after being given the word that Takada, whose drawing power was considered almost a must given slow ticket sales for the live event at the 17,100-seat Yokohama Arena, would only do the show if Shamrock was his opponent, must have fallen victim to a communication breakdown somewhere along the chain regarding its Japanese partners doing the house show promotion and Takada himself.
Those close to the situation claim Takada had never agreed to do the show in the first place, although SEG had spoken of his participation as a possibility ever since its press conference in Japan, and how things got to the situation they did are perplexing to say the least. Kingdom had its first televised card on 12/14 with Takada doing the color commentary, and during the show Takada was asked about when he’d return to the ring and Takada didn’t give a definitive answer, saying only that he would begin training early next year.
To make things even more muddy, Shamrock’s contract reportedly guaranteed him the money once it was signed even if the fight was canceled, which it ended up being. The WWF was also to get a sizeable booking fee as their end of the deal. However, the group on the hook, so to speak, for providing the big payoff in the contract was not SEG, but its Japanese co-promoters, who are attempting to get out of paying it claiming a contract loophole.
The contract provided, in the case of the opponent backing out, for Shamrock to have veto power if a substitute match was suggested. Since the deal to use Shamrock and pay the big money was not primarily due to whatever drawing power he’d bring to the U.S. PPV, although that was considered a helpful part of the deal, but more because it was the only way they believed to get Takada into the show, the decision was made that rather than offer Shamrock a new opponent, that his price tag was such that they decided his appearance would be scrapped to save themselves the big payoff.
Shamrock and the WWF officially got the word from SEG on 12/10, and Shamrock left what was reportedly a brutal high-intensity training camp in Dallas where he was trying to basically cram one months worth of training and conditioning into one week, and returned to the WWF for the television taping on 12/11 in Lowell, MA and worked the weekend house shows in Tennessee and Arkansas.
The WWF never mentioned Shamrock’s match on the 12/8 Raw show even though the contract was signed and they were at the time completely unaware of the problems regarding the match that had surfaced in Japan. However, they did plug the UFC PPV in a 30 second plugs, hyping in specific that it was coming from Japan and the appearance of Frank Shamrock challenging for the middleweight title on both weekend USA network shows and twice on the 12/15 Raw. Supposedly the WWF was going to give the UFC show and in particular the Ken Shamrock match with Takada a huge promotional push all weekend, and in particular on Raw.
There have been hints thrown that UFC will try and reach a compromise in that they’ll book Shamrock on the May PPV when they are tentatively scheduled to return to Japan, in which case he’ll get more advance notice and UFC and WWF will both have more time to use his name in promotion of the event and in conjunction with WWF storylines as well.
The fact that the March show will be in the U.S., and its proximity time-wise to WrestleMania make it highly unlikely WWF would even consider allowing him on the show nor that UFC would want to pay that kind of money without a Japanese partner footing the bill for what it would cost to get him on the show. But doing the second proposed May show in Japan is largely dependent upon the first show doing well, and that has many questions of its own.
38 – Fan Riots
OCTOBER 6
The first loss by a Gracie since NHB became popularized in the United States with the advent of UFC in 1993, was averted by a riot on 9/27 at Rio de Janiero’s Tijuca Tennis Club that turned into a real-life war zone and adds Rio to the places where the entire future of NHB is threatened.
Renzo Gracie (4-0-1) was facing Eugenio Tadeau, a famous Luta Livre fighter from Brazil, in the main event of a show called Pentagon Combat put on by Nelson Montiero when the Jiu Jitsu and Luta Livre practitioners at ringside began arguing and brawling and a full scale riot broke out and the match and show had to be stopped. Based on reports from Brazil, the fighting started in the stands early in the match when Gracie got the first take down and held the early advantage.
An estimated 150 to 200 Luta Livre practitioners, including many students of Tadeau, rushed the ring as their mentor was on the receiving end. One of Tadeau’s students and seconds was kicking Gracie through the fence from ringside throughout the fight, and Gracie managed to deck him as he stuck his head over the cage throwing a punch that knocked him off the fence. At this point another second started trying to climb the fence, and Renzo’s brother Ryan began fighting him.
However, even Gracie himself admitted that he blew up during the match, which he attributed to over training. He claimed to have “beaten the shit” out of Tadeau, who was bleeding from the lip, nose and underneath the eyes and had to be hospitalized after the match, but most reports felt the match was even overall. Most reports also indicated Tadeau, who needed 11 stitches to close one of the cuts, had taken control of the match when the riot got out of hand including reports of several gun shots fired in the air but luckily no one was hit by a shot.
At one point Gracie went down from a leg kick, which appeared to be out of exhaustion, and he stayed on the ground rather than standing back up, which was about 13:00 into the match which had been scheduled for three rounds of 15:00 each in duration. By this time the riot outside the ring had gotten even more out of control with the Jiu Jitsu and Luta Libre students fighting each other with chairs throwing. When chairs hit the ceiling lights and broke them as they fell into the ring, the place went dark and the match had to be stopped without a decision being rendered.
The brawl was said to have been the worst in recent memory at a Vale Tudo match in Brazil, and having seen tapes of some of the fights in the stands at those shows which go far beyond anything you’d ever see in the U.S., that is quite a statement, although reports were that nobody was seriously injured in the brawl. There was talk the next day that Vale Tudo may be banned completely from the city of Rio de Janiero because of the fan violence. Both the Mayor of the city and Governor of the state said they wanted NHB events banned because of the unruliness of the fans.
Tadeau gained fame in Brazil many years ago battling Royler Gracie to a 40:00 draw, in which according to some reports, he held the upper hand. He was scheduled to face Ralph Gracie at the final EFC PPV show, but a few weeks before the show the match was canceled under strange circumstances. The public report was that there were problems getting a visa for Tadeau, but Ralph Gracie also claimed before hand to have suffered an injury, a report others were dubious of.
The belief going in was that Renzo, who bulked up to 182 pounds for the fight, would be the larger of the two, since Eugenio fought years ago at 150-160 pounds, however he weighed in at 185 and Renzo Gracie told Vale Tudo News that he looked “juiced” and claimed he wasn’t able to finish him by submission because he had oil all over his body which allowed him to slip out of his holds.
Gracie, who has another fight scheduled on 10/11 at the Pride One Japanese PPV show at the Tokyo Dome against Akira Shoji, considered an easy opponent, challenged Tadeau to a rematch but said he wanted the match in a closed gymnasium with nobody there except for one second for each fighter and someone to videotape the fight with the winner gets the rights to sell the tape.
NOVEMBER 10
It would make a good story, considering what the lead story was in last week’s Observer, to try and tie in the stupid angle WCW did on its Halloween Havoc PPV with the fake fan getting beaten up with the subsequent two near riots that took place days later.
However, even though the timing of WCW’s angle couldn’t have been worse, as fan violence and a general lack of respect by fans
to the product has become more of a problem largely as fans imitate their so-called heroes television behavior, the near riots may have had nothing to do with imitation being in this case, the stupidest form of flattery. In the first incident, it certainly didn’t due to the location where it took place. In the second, it may or may not have, although the ECW situation on 10/30 was clearly an example of a group of fans going to matches with the specific intention of causing a disturbance and starting a fight with wrestlers.
The first such incident took place on 10/29 in Tijuana, the Mexican border city across from San Diego, where WCW PPV shows don’t even air although the show did take place just two days after the WCW Nitro taping not all that many miles away in San Diego. The second took place the next night in Plymouth Meeting, PA at an ECW house show, although that incident from all accounts was a group of five fans going to the matches with the specific intention of getting into a fight.
The Tijuana situation at a Promo Azteca show came during a post-match angle after the main event—a 16 man elimination tag match with Konnan & El Hijo del Santo & La Parka & Rey Misterio & Dandy & Lizmark Jr. & Super Calo & Hector Garza beating Psicosis & Juventud Guerrera & Los Villanos IV & V & Damian & Halloween & Silver King & Zandokan. It came down to Lizmark Jr. and Psicosis, with Lizmark Jr. scoring a clean pin to win the match before about 3,500 fans at Auditorio Municipal, which between the match itself and the post match lasted 82 minutes making it probably the longest combination match and angle on a major league wrestling show probably in years.
At that point Psicosis began complaining about the officiating when Santo, who Psicosis had eliminated next to last in the match, hit the ring and jumped Psicosis. At this point Rey Misterio Jr., who didn’t work on the show but was in attendance, hit the ring and jumped on Psicosis, but then also attacked Santo. The idea appeared to be to set up a triangle match between the three, tentatively on 11/14 in the same building, although that depends on several outside forces such as possible commission suspensions based on the riot and potential WCW intervention since the match involves Misterio Jr. and WCW doesn’t want him wrestling in Mexico anymore.