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This video is a little overview of the Shoot-Style wrestling in
Japan and its practitioners. The cross-breeding of pro-wrestling and martial arts as well as real and worked fighting has been a constant throughout
Japanese wrestling (puroresu).
Mixed martial arts was born from this phenomenon and it has never been more popular than it was in Japan. In this video, I focus on the
1980s through the
2000s and highlight those I would deem the "25 greatest practitioners of the shoot-style".
Clips are from approximately 10 shoot-style promotions - the original
UWF, the
Newborn UWF, PWFG (Fujiwaragumi),
RINGS,
UWFi (
International); Pancrase, BattlARTS,
Kingdom,
Pride FC, U-Style and U-Spirits. There are also some clips from
New Japan, All Japan,
SWS,
Michinoku Pro and
Big Japan.
The opening video features a joint event between Pride FC and
K-1 in front of the largest audience to see a production of this nature - over 70,
000 at the
Tokyo Nat'l
Stadium.
Music is the theme from Pride FC.
Rikidozan KOs
Masahiko Kimura;
Antonio Inoki takes down
Muhammad Ali; Inoki and
Willie Williams go over the top; Shota Chochishvilli throws Inoki; the initial UWF invades New Japan.
Akira Maeda (1) vs.
Don Neilson Nakaya;
Super Tiger /
Satoru Sayama (2); Maeda vs.
Tiger;
Nobuhiko Takada (3); some original UWF members -
Osamu Kido,
Rusher Kimura & Maeda;
Kazuo Yamazaki (4); Takada/
Fujiwara/Maeda;
Yoshiaki Fujiwara headbutts
Masakatsu Funaki; Fujiwara's armbar on
Joe Malenko; Fujiwara (5); "Newborn UWF" training led by Maeda;
Funaki (6); Funaki vs.
Minoru Suzuki; (
Ken) Wayne Shamrock (7);
King of Pancrase - Shamrock, Funaki,
Bas Rutten;
Opening of a RINGS tournament;
Volk Han (8); Han armbars Kohsaka;
Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (9);
Kiyoshi Tamura slaps TK; Yoshihisa (Norihisa) Yamamoto (10); Yamamoto armbars Han;
Dick Vrij (11); Vrij's spinning backfist on Han;
Mitsuya Nagai (12); Nagai Gotch-lift on Otsuka;
Andrei Kopylov takes down Han; Kiyoshi Tamura (13); Tamura vs.
Wataru Sakata;
Yoji Anjoh (14);
Gary Albright (15); Albright suplexes Toshikaki Kawada;
Kakihara high kicks Sakuraba; Masahiko Kakihara (16);
Suzuki confronts
Hans Nyman; Minoru Suzuki (17); Suzuki slams Tamura;
Dan Severn launches Takaku Fuke; Ikeda slams
Glen Jacobs (
Kane); Maeda's
Capture Suplex on
Keith Haward;
Vader powerbombs Yuhii
Sano; Yamazaki kicks
Norman Smiley; Takada KOs
Koji Kitao; Yuko Miyato solebutts Tatsuo Nakano; Katsumi
Usuda with a barbed wire mid kick to Ryuji Yamakawa;
Daisuke Ikeda (18);
Ishikawa headbutts Ikeda;
Yuki Ishikawa (19); Otsuka's Deadlift
German on Ishikawa;
Alexander Otsuka (20); Otsuka suplexes Takada; Super Tiger (Sayama) spin kicks
Marty Jones;
Bad News Allen takes down Sakuraba;
Severn suplexes Takada; Yuhii Sano (21); Sano-Funaki;
Hiromitsu Kanehara (22); Takayama vs. Kanehara; Kennichi Yamamoto (23); Yamamoto suplexes Sakuraba;
Yoshihiro Takayama (24); Takayama's
Mount Everest Geman on Yamazaki;
Kazushi Sakuraba (25); a young
Saku heads to the ring;
Koji Kanemoto throws and armbars Sakuraba;
Minoru Tanaka armbars
Satoshi Yoneyama (
Muhammad Yone); Tamura armbars Yamamoto; Sano bodyslam
James Stone (
Little Guido);
Bob Backlund Gotch-lifts Anjoh;
Stone rides
Daijiro Matsui; Sakuraba double-legs Yamamoto; Shamrock suplexes
Matt Hume;
Alexander Karelin's Greco-Roman signature on Maeda; Han counters a Nagai suplex; Anjoh crossfaces Kakihara; Suzuki rides Shamrock;
Chris Dolman crossfaces Andrei Kopylov; Funaki with knees in the corner; Kanehara's flying knee; Kakihara decks
Yuji Nagata; Bitsadze Tariel leg kicks Han; Vrij KOs
Tony Halme (
Ludvig Borga); Maeda kicks Yamazaki; final UWF bow; Maeda & Takada celebrate
**I understand I left out many people and perhaps included others too much. I am an amateur pro-wrestling historian and amateur videographer. Please view my website if you'd like to access more information about shoot-style pro-wrestling. I'd also like to credit those who upload the videos that I used in this video. I have a full playlist available through this
YouTube channel**
- published: 15 Apr 2013
- views: 31335