The Wrestling Shoot Incidents that Built Shootstyle AND Japanese MMA
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- Опубликовано: 24 июл 2024
- Shoot-style, a new form of pro wrestling that focused on realistic encounters, was essentially built and popularised thanks to incidents where guys went into business for themselves -- particularly the likes of Akira Maeda and Nobuhiko Takada. This style is part of their legacies, and it also contributed to the rise of MMA in Japan. This video chronicles these shoot incidents! Enjoy.
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0:00 Intro
2:41 Akira Maeda vs Satoru Sayama (Super Tiger) - UWF, September 2nd 1985
9:05 Akira Maeda vs Andre the Giant - NJPW, April 29th 1986
16:11 Akira Maeda vs Riki Choshu - NJPW, November 19th 1987
21:08 Koji Kitao vs Earthquake - SWS, March 30th 1991
27:10 Nobuhiko Takada vs Koji Kitao - UWFi, October 23rd 1992
30:55 Nobuhiko Takada vs Trevor Berbick - UWFi, December 22nd 1991
35:20 Postscript: Yoji Anjoh vs Rickson Gracie and the Debut of PRIDE
#kimjustice #wrestlingshoots #puroresu #mma 
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This video was originally released on Patreon in 2020 - that version features a couple of extra entries that aren't here, mainly concerning good old Inoki - I want to revisit his various mock shoots and real shoots some day. Hopefully you enjoy this if you've not seen it! Some audio had to be redone, so the quality may vary a little.
does that version include koji kitao's UFC fight vs mark hall?
40:40 I think Sakuraba's success is more due in part to what he learned from Billy Robinson than Takada. Also, it should always be stressed that Sakuraba didn't hunt the Gracies, they hunted HIM.
They hunted him and he took home their limbs.
Facts. Takada was a poor catch wrestler. Robinson knew his stuff.
I just wanna say RIP to the hardcore legend Terry Funk.
Kim now that Terry funk has sadly passed away, could you make a video about his career in Japan? Thanks.
i second this
Yes please!! Considering the excellent quality of Kim’s videos, a retrospective on Terry Funk’s career in Japan would be phenomenal
A Funk in Japan video would be great.
All these years people have assumed that Joe bruiser from WCW nWo World Tour was Muhammad Ali, but watching your documentary it's clear they based his taunt actions on Trevor Berbick from his match with Takada. The Taunts are him complaining about the low blows!
He also has some elements from another boxer, I can't remember his name but he did some "shoot" fights in WAR. However in the code for WCW/NWO world tour Joe Bruiser's name is Saidai - which is what Ali was known as in Japan. I suspect AKI, being made up solely of wrestling fans, added in elements of all the boxers they were most familiar with to make the "ultimate" one.
Hi Kim I’m a huge fan of your videos but I was wondering if you could make a video about the long title reign that Toshiaki Kawada had with the AJPW triple crown around the same time as Kenta Kobashi GHC title run.
Excellent suggestion.
I'd pay to watch Akira Maeda vs Jim Cornette.
Worked
This popped me 😂
Jim will guzzle the fuck out him!!
I would've loved to see Maeda vs. Haku.
Maeda via death
Maeda vs. Andre makes Goldberg/Lesnar 1 look like a 4-star match.
Imagine if Bret "Hit Man" Hart had joined UWFi in late 1993 when his WWF contract was up? Bulldog was supposed to go to UWFi in early-to-mid 1993, until Giant Baba and WCW came calling.
Maeda’s kick on Chosyu was actually a planned spot according to Maeda. He tapped him on the back just before the kick which was Chosyu’s cue to cover his face, but he didn’t.
I love your vids Kim ! Thank you . Keep em coming . Without this shoot style happening MMA may not be a thing these days .
Fascinating look at things I've only heard in passing, and hey, I learned "Going Cement". Quickly my favorite wrestling content creator, loving these videos!
You're the best. I cannot believe the quality and consistency.
Maeda may be important, influential, tough as nails etc. But kicking a guy hard in the face when he can't see it coming is a cowardly move that substantially lowers my opinion of him. Punk move. Dropping the act and going after someone not expecting it will never NOT be a punk move. Memorable, but cowardly as fuck.
Maeda says the kick was planned and Choshu didn't protect himself.
That seems likely as Choshu DIDN'T want Maeda to be fired and even petitioned for an angle.
The firing was likely Inoki's way of sticking it to Maeda and to protect Inoki without running the risk of getting shot own.
An irony about Maeda and Saiyama is that early in their careers when they wrestled for their first times in Britain and the USA, they were typically billed as being brothers - Saiyama sometimes as “Sammy Lee,” and Maeda as “Kwik kick Lee.”
"Brothers" fight the worst.
Irony?
I was expecting Kitao vs Earthquake (it was the first match I thought of when seeing this video's title) and I was NOT disappointed. Great video!!
Thank you so much. I've been waiting for you to do a video on shoot style.
Love seeing shoot style getting some love! Great video as usual!
I can't tell you how much I enjoy your videos Kim. They are unfailingly brilliant.
Always a great day when you release a video. Can you create one about Billy Robinson one day?
This type of video is PRECISELY why I subscribed to this channel. Absolutely well done on every level. Cheers, and keep up the great work. Every time one of your new videos pops up and get hype. Nice work.
I stumbled across UWFI on a wrestling forum back in the day, it was love at first sight. That's my favorite Pro Wrestling style.
In Canada, it's a tradition
In Mexico, It's a religion
In Japan, It's a sport
In America, It's a joke.
Honestly, I think most people in America view wrestling as more entertainment than a joke.
What is it in the UK?
@@KozyKool2287 Something to do with bean on toast, I dunno. Lol
@@KozyKool22872 fat blokes bumping into each other with the bad guy getting yelled at by grannies.
@@KozyKool2287 a hobby
Amazing work as always Kim!! Love all your Japanese wrestling videos. Never stop brother 🙏
Love your vids...when one comes out it makes my day. Keep on bringing the vids
I died laughing when you used the footage of Larry Holmes dropkicking Trevor Berbick off the hood of a car while you were giving his background. That's legendary boxing video.
Another excellent video. Thank you!
great videos as always. love your stuff
Always a better day when you upload 🤠
Pleeeeease do more documentary style videos, I love this stuff!!!
Rickson was not considered one of MMA's lethal fighters at any time.. in BJJ he's definitely regarded highly. Infact he's a myth of fighters with a "400-0" record lol. His only wins in legit mma organizations are Funaki, Nakai and Yamamoto. Rickson routinely priced himself out of the major fights that should have happened IE; the Shamrocks, Rutten, Marco Ruas etc... Even up to the late 2000s, Rickson would talk about how the champions had no spirit and he would beat them. The hubris was almost as big as the myth around Rickson.
I will say though that Rickson's son's death was a legit reason not to face anyone at that time.
To be fair, Rickson's time as a fighter was in the 80's in the Vale Tulo in Brazil. His reputation, even then, was that where Chuck Norris (who was at the top of Martial Arts *legit* more-so than as an actor or meme at the time) met him and got owned.
No, it isn't THAT footage people talk about, that happened later at a seminar where Chuck invited Rickson to teach and that was a demonstration. It also wasn't about hatred, it was always two guys discussing and comparing ideas.
By the time PRIDE 1 happened, it was Royce and Renzo as the major fighters on MMA with Rickson already being a legend and a special attraction in Martial Arts.
Fun fact, YEARS later, Takada now has a Purple Bet in BJJ under Rickson. Any ill will was towards Anjo and I don't believe that exists.
Excellent video!
Awesome video 💯 I would love to see you do a retrospective on the history of UWF / UWFI 💪 keep up the amazing videos 🤘
I'm a life long pro wrestling fan.
I grew up in Texas during the territory days.
This was a terrifically done video.
I rarely enjoy a wrestling video asuch as this one.
Great job.
We want KimJustice and WrestlingBios Collab!!
Awesome! Cheers man! 👍
Thank you Kim. Shoot-style is my everything.
I'd say Sakuraba was more of a Billy Robinson trainee than a Takada one.
Love your videos 👍
Love these puro deep dives! I don't like Choshu for what he did to Atsushi Onita, but I certainly respect his toughness as he didn't go down that blindside kick to the face.
What did Choshu do to Onita?
@@blitzerblazinoah6838 they wrestled in a No Rope Exploding Barbed Wire match in New Japan, and Choshu gave Onita NOTHING. He completely dominated him as if he were a rookie and I don't know if he took a single bump for Onita. Love him or hate him, Onita is a legend. But I also lost a lot of respect for Onita for allowing Choshu to walk all over him like he did.
@@Rando1975 Was that the match when Onita entered the ring smoking a cigarette in a chair?
@@duckmercy11 no, that was the 9ne with Chono. One of my favorite entrances ever!
@@Rando1975onita only pushed choshu in the barbwire twice. Happened the same in the rematch
The level I care about these things from decades ago being put into a comprehensive documentary is insane ❤️
"Expose the business in a way that would make Jim Cornette have a frickin' coronary over a decade before Russomania."
If there's ever been a line that is so hilarious while so understated... that's it's. That's the line right there.
Added aside:
Think about this: Andre was brought in to take on Maeda because he was "considered" one of if not the toughest man in wrestling.
Then you remember the quote from Bobby Heenan: "There was only 2 people Andre feared pissing off: Harley Race and Haku."
................................ makes one wonder what Maeda vs. Haku woulda looked like with both in their prime.
Mr. Sneak Attack Badass OR The Man who inhales mace and fought an ENTIRE POLICE FORCE... FROM BALTIMORE. ((Which, for any non-Americans that don't understand the severity of the statement, is a VERY VERY VERY Violent town.))
very well done
While Kitao and Tenta is the more famous incident, the more influential to shoot style was the week before in sws imo. The Minoru Suzuki and Apollo Sugawara non match played a lot into Pancrase.
The greatest thing the first UWF did was no more count out finishes and no more top guys being protected. Every finish is clean and by doing that Baba did the same and so did inoki.
Also that original UWF vs New Japan feud was brilliant.
29:23 fun fact. Kitao falling on his ass like that was later used as a KO animation in the AKI wrestling games.
That was just before Andres back surgery. He was trying to deal with the pain…. And well; yeah
I believe in that Kitao/Tenta match, Kitao was actually trying to gouge Tenta’s eyes. I could be wrong though.
Japan sports always feel the right way to represent how it should be. I always love Japan wrestling and combat sports. Shoot style was big back then. Alot of good fighters come from there
Can we get a Hashimoto video?
Poor andre the giant he was already too old to be doing such things 😔
Get to see the origins of at least a couple of AKI wrestling game animations. 29:21 is the front facing KO animation. 33:22 is the "Joe Bruiser" taunt animation.
I just recently finished one of your excellent video game lists (Top 100 PS1) and it was a brilliant watch, during it i couldn't help but wonder what your top 100 favourite wrestlers are , hope you let us know someday, that would be awesome.
Legit just yelled YES! and clicked your vid
Rickson gracie vs Takkada set up the first pride event. The rest is history
I'm the biggest Andre fan ever, but I don't think that Andre was ever really a "badass". I don't think he's got it in him. He's a big teddy bear. Don't get me wrong I'm sure a young, mad Giant would be tough to deal with. He was laying down trying to prevent more damage and from getting shoot punched or kicked in the face. If Maeda would have sucker punched him, Vince would have sent the calvary after his ass..
I love your army pot survival kit video ... I'd really like you to do an Altoid kit video
Thank For the Video 🙊🤯🥰😍😁💗💐🌟🥇🏆
holy fuck id never even heard of Yoji Anjoh and now he's like in my top 3 favourite people ever what an absolute nutter i love him
Sakuraba got his moves from Billy Robinson.
I know that Gifs you are talking about cause I remember I had it save somewhere.
You can tell from the opening of Maeda vs. Sayama that the former was doing everything to make Super Tiger look bad; at the beginning, Maeda slaps Sayama as hard as he can; there's another moment in which Sayama tries his signature spinning kick, but Maeda steps forward so Sayama trips and falls flat onto the mat; and other instances in which Maeda gets up after having Sayama struggling on the mat, when it's quite clear that Maeda could've finished the match if he wanted to.
I do rather miss John Tenta.
I'm 10 minutes in and not one mention of Catch Wrestling or Karl Gotch although you showed him in a photo @ 4:05 . Hopefully you mention them later aswell as Billy Robinson.
I wish Shootstyle would make a comeback.
2:49 wow it’s Kwik Kick Lee v Sammy Lee! Brother v Brother!
Is that music from "Evil Zone" I hear in the background?
I've never heard the term 'going cement.'
Hi, Kim! I noticed that you showed a clip of a show in Korea in the intro, from Korean pro wrestler Kim Minho's YT channel. May I ask why you put that clip in there while talking about puro? Was the match in the clip between Japanese wrestlers? Thanks!
Also, speaking of Korean wrestling, I think it'd be interesting if you could do a video on Lee Wangpyo, the ace pupil of Kintaro Ohki(Kim Il) who ended up being the Korean Hulk Hogan and killed the Korean pro wrestling scene. He wasn't the sole reason Korean wrestling died of course, but he WAS a major contributor to the downfall.
Pro wrestling is still around in South Korea, in the form of a few indie feds. Nowadays, Korean wrestling is somewhat like American wrestling where promos and character work are quite important. Hardcore matches are very rare because these feds are trying to improve the public opinion on wrestling, but they do furniture bumps sometimes
If I was Berbick or however you pronounce it , I would have taken my boxing gloves off and said " Ok ! NOW lets fight ! , throw them kicks ! " . Takada probably would have still kicked his ass at this point . But it would have been more fair .
You forgot perhaps the best of them all...Rikidozan completely obliterating Kimura for breaking Gracies arm...Also: No Inoki vs. The Great Antonio?
I'm thinking that Inoki vs. Great Antonio didn't really have any effect on shoot style wrestling.
the funniest to me will always be Maeda getting pissed off, kicking Super Tiger in the nuts, and then making the ref stop the match
How do you figure out which R's to pronounce as W's?
I thoroughly enjoyed this! Thanks for all the Puresu history!
The key thing I learned from this video essay. Takada is a dick.
This all sounds like World of Sport turned up to 100db
How have I never seen that Takada/Berbick match? Absolutely hilarious 😂. What a brilliant slimy bastard Takada was!
Cm Punk carried on Akira Maeda’s legacy 🫡
4:55 - is that Marty Jones?
Honestly probably could have just made this an Akira Maeda video 😅
The cheek of Kitao, I didn't know he was that shitty of a sumo 😂
AW YEAH
I appreciate what you said in the intro about how wrestling in perceived internationally, in particular the rose-tinted "orientalism" that westerners still keep subjecting Japan to. I think many of us in various nerdy subcultures went through a weeb phase (in varying degrees of extremity) and I recall how uncomplicatedly awe-inspiring Japan seemed back in the 90's and early 2000's as a young'un. There's obviously nothing wrong with liking and admiring a specific nation of course, there are a great many things hailing from Japan that I like.
But Japan especially subjected lot of unwarranted praise from a certain kind of westerner (often an extremely lily white westerner ;p) who refuse to look at the country in an honest clear-eyed way, disregarding how complicated things actually are and how individual Japanese people themselves are. Instead they just want to perpetuate their ridiculous little fantasy of Japan being this futuristic utopia filled with happy and honour-bound little people, that has basically solved all social ills and whose attitudes towards women/LGBT/racial diversity etc. has yet to be "corrupted" by globalism - that latter point being one of the more glaringly obvious dog whistles unapologetic Nipponophiles betray about themselves
@@BigMacSoss I assumed it's because a lot of Japanese people are overworked and don't even own passports?
I don't want to accuse you of proving my point for me, but... well... ;p
It's not a GIF, it's a GIF.
Maeda! Maeda! Maeda!
What's the difference between shoot style and strong style?
Did a quick Google on this, the first few things I saw indicated strong style is a marketing term invented by Antonio inoki which is functionally the same as shoot style. Think Vince's "sports entertainment" vs wrestling
Strong style is a stiff entertainment style. It's still supposed to look like pro wrestling but it's supposed to look harder hitting. You still get flashy elements but matches are faster, they hit very hard and they tend to build towards theatrical elements rather than them being present throughout.
King's Road is a form of strong style that takes out the flashy moves and adapts it to a much harder, much longer form, much slower form of pro wrestling. Tends to target the neck and head. Is very, very hard hitting, relies strongly on throws and suplex style moves.
Shoot style is intended to look like a fight, relies heavily on strikes and grappling on the mat. Matches are often short, and are supposed to be mimicking multi discipline real fights within a framework of (often unspoken) rules.
Hope that helps. I know you didn't ask about kings road, but it's kind of the middle piece of the shoot style puzzle.
God bless
Madea always claimed that the kick to the face was a worked spot and Riki forgot to move when Madea threw kick to the face
Andre's manager was KY Wakamatsu, not Kantaro Hoshino.
@11:00 ...Akira exposing the business would make Jim Cornette want to cook?
Kitao getting KO’d was satisfying lol
I've come to really enjoy these videos and gain even more knowledge on wrestling in Japan.
However, I have to disagree with your assumption of our little rebel here hurting Andre. I mean think about it. If he really pissed of the giant or hurt him with those leg kicks, andre would of most likely grabbed him in a bear hug or gone to the ground and just lay on him. What's he gonna do under 500+ pounds? I think you are incredibly underselling Andre here. Sure he was going downhill and fast by this point but I just don't buy into this assumption. It would of been much bigger news, even without the internet, than a mere footnote lost to most outside of the Japanese wrestling scene.
Andre "could of" also been testing him. Andre was known to do this. He wouldn't respect you if you didn't stand up for yourself. Perhaps maybe Andre was doing this but things got lost in communication and turned into a disaster. Thus Andre just laying there frustrated.
A good example of this was Andre working Jake Roberts. Andre ragdolled him one night. This pissed Jake off so he confronted him about it backstage. Andre padded him on the shoulder and said now we make money. Jake earned the giant's respect for standing up for himself. When you didn't then he would continue to ragdoll you in the ring. Like he did to Randy Savage. Randy never confronted or fought back. It's just an old school mentality.
I keep noting the voiceover has the decade consistently wrong. Saying 96 instead of 86, 98 instead of 88, etc.
Seems like its the same few people just being unprofessional.
Andre was definitely drunk in that match against Maeda, there are quite a few matches ( some of them here on RUclips ) where Andre is wrestling completely blotto in Japan. I've never seen a single match in America were Andre wrestled drunk, my theory is that Andre was getting sick of wrestling in Japan, he was in horrible shape ( much worse than 87 88 and 89 ) and he was probably sick of annoying fans and small cars.
"In the US it's the only real career opportunity." The honest quote.
>The Likes of Triple H or Hulk Hogan wouldn'tr get anywhere in Puro.
I find that hilarious In the case of Hogan because he...
You know....
DID!
Number 1😊
You waskly wabbit!!! 😅
Ok so Tenta refused to remove the tiger tattoo but in WCW he agreed to change it to an ugly 'shark' tattoo because of that Dungeon of Doom gimmick... Yeah, makes complete sense, a legit sports company can't make him remove it but Hulk Hogan can 😅
Surprised there was nothing about the Stardom incident
I guess cause joshi wrestling is considered a separate sport from the mens scene, and the Yoshiko/Act shoot didn't really have a martial arts grounding (although Yoshiko did lose an MMA fight for Road FC later on). If he included the women's side it would have made sense to talk about the Jackie Sato vs. Shinobu Kandori shoot, which was around the same time frame as the matches in this video (late 80s), plus Kandori was a legit judoka who had a similar superiority complex as Maeda.
@@duckmercy11*she
@@medes5597 lol, sure.
@@duckmercy11 literally makes no difference to you, it's just a little tiny bit of respect for someone but I guess being a terrible person almost passes as a personality when you haven't go one.
@@medes5597 I'll say this as simply and nicely as I can because I absolutely respect KJ for making these videos and don't want to deviate from the topic of wrestling. *Compelled speech is intolerable.* Shaming someone into using preferred pronouns then denouncing them as a horrible person when they won't is silly. Not everyone accepts gender fluidity as a valid concept.