He has a podcast with Dan Severn on Youtube.Maybe make a comment in the comments section.
1 Like
Kayfabe. A word that just about any pro wrestling fan of today knows, but that was a very different story in 1985.
Imagine being a superstar on the level of Hulk Hogan in your country, just to walk away from it all at the peak of your popularity/drawing powers just because something bigger weighed on your heart.
Well, that was the story of Satoru Sayama in 1985 as he walked away from pro wrestling in disgust, throwing the cash machine that was the Tiger Mask gimmick away so that he could spread the word about shooting (MMA) to the masses. MMA (shooting, or later Shooto as it would come to be known), was always on Sayamaâs heart, and his 1985 autobiography was his manifesto to the world that the realms of real mixed fighting were nobler than the illusion of scripted storytelling.
If youâre anything like me, you have wondered what secrets lurk in this famous autobiography, but couldnât find out due to an inability to speak Japanese. Well, that is no longer an issue because we at KAKUTOGI ROAD are proud to begin the first-ever known attempt to have this classic professionally translated. Yes, for over a year, we have been offering professional translations of lost classics in addition to the many painstakingly researched columns we offer on mma/puro/kickboxing history. This book serves as a flashpoint of not only the history of MMA in Japan, which would later go on to affect all combat sports for decades to come, but is a fascinating look at wrestling history before it was trendy to speak freely of it being a work.
Come join us over at www.patreon.com/KakutogiRoad as we begin this journey into the great mysteries of the recent past.
Also, when you join, thousands of hours of mma/kickboxing/puroresu/lucha/training instructionals/combat-sports footage, detailed historical reviews/analysis, interviews, and translations await you!
For only $10 you get to Follow along with MMA from the beginning (in this case March of 1991) Gain access to the Kakutogi Video Archive, which currently has several thousand hours of combat-sports footage, and more are being added constantly.
We also cover a lot of kickboxing history along the way, and of course, add footage of those events whenever possible.
We include a lot of contemporaneous media/news sources to coincide with our columns, so you can follow along with the media coverage of that era, also.
We continue to provide translations of rare MMA/wrestling materials into English. We have exclusive interviews with figures that were there, and one of the major goals of this project is to interview many of the Japanese/Dutch/Brazilian personalities that were important to the development of MMA, many of which, have been ignored by western media.
You also get a warm fuzzy feeling, knowing that you are helping MMA/wrestling history to be adequately covered by people that actually care about it.
Lol. Wow, thatâs next level bad.
I got one more stashed somewhere.
Have you experts ever been able to explain the popularity of âshoot-styleâ matches like RINGS and others?
Iâve been following this thread because of the writing, and I love the old Pancrase/Shooto stuff so Iâve been watching a lot of it on the Patreon. Finally checked out a few RINGS matches and it just seems strange that the Japanese fans would enjoy that, despite RINGS being worked fights. What gives?
Well, the entire MMA movement in Japan was a slow process. Of course, Shooto was all real right from day 1, but it wasnât marketed as a form of pro wrestling but rather a new sport, so it really didnât have much traction for its first 8-10 years or so. The shoot-style boom all started with the UWF in Japan in 1984, and when we look at it now, we can obviously see that it was worked (although they used legitimate submissions like triangles, armbars, Kimuraâs etc.) but at the time it was mind blowing to a pro wrestling audience that didnât know better.
In fact, the UWF was able to market itself as real fighting unlike their rival promotions like New Japan Pro Wrestling, and a lot of people bought into that. This appetite for the more realistic martial art styled wrestling continued up until the end of 1990 when the UWF folded for a second time, which splintered the performers into three groups, PWFG, RINGS, and the UWFI. I wonât get into too much detail with this post because weâve been covering a lot of this in our columns, but gradually more and more real fights would make their way into these events that normally would have all been worked. For example, RINGS started having legitimate fights on their cards starting in December of 1991, and almost every event that they would have from that point forward would usually have at least one real fight, and lately in the time span that weâve been writing about (early 1993), they would sometimes have 3-4 real fights on their cards. So, to answer your question, the Japanese fans were entertained by worked fights because they didnât know any better and werenât familiar enough with what real MMA looked like to be able to automatically discern between the two. Of course, as time went on even some of the works in RINGS were hard to tell apart from the shoots without a close eye.
3 Likes
Excellent answer, and excellent work on Kakutogi Road. This week Iâve been doing grad school work and playing old Lumax Cup videos in the background.
2 Likes
Is there any way I could get like, less emails from you guys?
What is your screen name on the Patreon? Patreon sends out updates whenever there is a new column posted, or my main archives post is updated. Iâm not sure but there might be a way to change updates on your end. If you need to reach out to me, just email me at mbetz1981@gmail.com, or through the Patreon message system.
Mike,
Did you graduate in 1981?
Ok. I just looked into it and you can toggle the notification settings uder âSettingsâ on the Patreon website. I think that should fix your problem. Just keep in mind that the archives are updated almost every day, so you might want to pop in from time to time.
1 Like
I was born in 1981
Damn,
Crowbar = Class of 1981.
Thank you.
TTT for the New Year 2023!
1 Like
Merry Christmas one and all. As a present I will pull from the vast sea that is our archives to give everyone some HEROâs
2 Likes
A merry shootivus to all!