In what was billed as the final career match for Akira Maeda, the wrestler who in many ways popularized the term shooting to mainstream Japanese wrestling fans, RINGS set its all-time record crowd on 7/20 by selling out the Yokohama Arena for the first time in its history with 17,800 fans.
If it turns out to be to end of the career of the 39-year-old Maeda, it would have to be considered not only anti-climactic, but outright disappointing in what by all accounts was a bad show. Maeda was heavily booed after his match after being awarded the decision in a match against protege Yoshihisa Yamamoto, a wrestler who at one point was considered to be his heir apparent as the star of the promotion after making a name for himself in a Vale Tudo match by going 21:00 before losing to Rickson Gracie during the prehistoric era where the Gracies had been beating everyone in 2:00 and from that loss getting a huge push in this promotion before being knocked out in less than 1:00 in a Vale Tudo match against huge Brazilian Ricardo Morais. Due to injuries suffered from that knockout and other beatings, Yamamoto has not wrestled in a long time and his career as a major star is generally considered over.
Maeda and Yamamoto were tied, with each having three lost points after the 20:00 time limit expired, and it was announced that Maeda won the match via judges decision, which got a strong negative crowd reaction. Maeda, who weighed 262 pounds for the match, the second heaviest of his career, looked old, tired and sluggish, particularly in such a long match, and it was apparently clear Yamamoto was carrying the match and the fans booed heavily despite what would be expected to be a sympathetic reaction to a legend in his last match. Maeda reacted to the fans booing by saying over the house mic that he himself also thought Yamamoto should have been awarded the decision.
There was no elaborate retirement ceremony at the show, although they did ring the bell ten times with Maeda in the ring after the show was over. Many of the leading pro wrestling stars of this generation were at the show, including Antonio Inoki, Nobuhiko Takada, Genichiro Tenryu, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Junji Hirata, Kazuo Yamazaki, Animal Hamaguchi along with long-time New Japan front office official and television color commentator in Maeda's days with the company, Kotetsu Yamamoto. Also at the show was former World Karate Association cruiserweight champion kickboxer Don Nakaya Neilsen, who was the man in the ring with Maeda when he came the closest in his career to achieving what was almost a pre-ordained end result as being the top wrestling star of his era in Japan in probably Maeda's most famous match on October 9, 1986 at Tokyo Sumo Hall. None of Maeda's former in-ring rivals or legendary contemporaries were brought to the ring, but all sat in the second deck at the Arena watching the show and there was no post-match ceremony after his match. Even though the crowd turn-out indicates otherwise, within wrestling the Maeda retirement was somewhat subdued because of the hopes and perhaps plans of Maeda leaving with a bigger show against a bigger name opponent, with a lot of media talk of a Maeda vs. Takada match at the end of the year, which still may take place.
Maeda never quite reached the level he was being groomed for in the traditional world of wrestling, but made himself a legend by creating his own form of the product, which at times he didn't want to even be considered as pro wrestling because he was known for knocking pro wrestling as fake while portraying the product he was involved with promoting as real. The strange paths his career took him probably made him one of the five most influential pro wrestlers of the past 20 years and the style his popularity largely spawned was years ahead of its time. If Antonio Inoki is considered as the forefather of the popularizing of the shooting movement, even though Inoki himself truly only had maybe one high-level shooting match in his life (with Muhammad Ali), than Maeda, groomed to be his heir apparent as the top star in New Japan Pro Wrestling, would be the Crown Prince. Like the King, the Prince was more a top shooter based on hype and presentation rather than actually proving it in legitimate matches against top fighters, and like Inoki, will probably still go down in his country with the reputation as being one of the great true fighters in the world of his time. But his popularity led to the second, third and fourth generation of UWF-bred shooters, and Japanese pro wrestlers like Kazushi Sakuraba, Masakatsu Funaki and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka and foreigners spawned from the same system like Ken Shamrock, Frank Shamrock and Bas Rutten, all of whom are considered and have proven themselves in legitimate competition to be right at the top of any list of the best all-around fighters in the world based largely on a submission system introduced to Japan decades earlier by Karl Gotch, popularized by Maeda's charisma in the 80s and heavily refined in recent years based on what does and doesn't work in top level competition. It was Maeda's charisma that paved the way to pro wrestling matches to become more and more realistic, and for those training in them to train in actual shooting, to the point where today it is the descendants of Maeda in a sense that are some of the dominant fighters of any style in the world.
The 6-foot-3 Maeda, who grew up in Osaka, in his youth was considered very large for a Japanese teenager and with a lot of agility from his background as a karate fighter, was recruited by Hisashi Shinma into New Japan pro wrestling in the summer of 1977 and debuted on August 25, 1978. Shinma's plan was for Maeda, with his size, speed and legitimate fighting background, to be the successor for Inoki as the charismatic top star of New Japan Pro Wrestling who would also, in worked matches, of course, face and whip the top stars from other sports proving to a new generation that pro wrestlers were the toughest fighters in the wold. And for a while it seemed this would be the case, but the end result of all that planning, as is usually the case in pro wrestling, saw the winds take over and something entirely different evolved.
After a few years of learning his craft in prelims, Maeda was sent to England, where he worked under the ring name Kwik Kik Lee, billed as the larger cousin of Sammy Lee (Satoru Sayama), who had taken the country by storm a few years earlier. Maeda quickly captured England's version of the world heavyweight title, which he brought back to Japan and never lost, returning on a major show in April 1982 where he pinned Paul Orndorff to retain the title at Tokyo Sumo Hall. In the embezzlement scandals involving New Japan, Inoki and Shinma in 1983, the end result was that Shinma was booted out of the company and in early 1984, created his own new promotion called the Universal Wrestling Federation. When the original UWF was formed, the idea of it being a shoot promotion or a more serious version with less gimmickry than All Japan and New Japan was only a vague idea, as Shinma created the New Japan boom and was wanting to re-create what he already knew and did so successfully with Maeda as his young stud.
Shinma sent Maeda on tour to the World Wrestling Federation to make him a world wide star so he could come back and be his top star. Ironically, it was Maeda's one major tour of the United States, for the World Wrestling Federation, in 1984, that may have been the catalyst for the entire movement. Shinma was at the time the figurehead WWF President and sent Maeda to work for Vince McMahon Jr. where they would create a new version of the WWF International heavyweight title (the same name for the belt that had become so prominent in New Japan due to the Riki Choshu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami feud that Shinma was attempting to get the WWF to disavow and make Maeda the new champion). Maeda was given a win in Madison Square Garden over Montreal jobber Pierre Lefebrve to win the title, but while he was on tour of the United States, relations between Shinma and McMahon worsened as McMahon was caught having to choose his business relationship between the established group, New Japan, and the company figurehead President, Shinma, and chose New Japan, although that relationship didn't last much longer either. As part of the politics, Maeda wasn't given a push in the WWF and thus Shinma's top star was made into a jobber at the few arenas he was booked on, losing to the likes of George Steele and Rene Goulet and WWF chose to recognize the New Japan version of the International title, leaving Maeda's belt that he came to Japan with as having little credibility and it was dropped soon thereafter. Maeda returned, embittered against mainstream pro wrestling and in particular its unrealistic aspects and the idea of putting over a past-his-prime gimmick like Steele, and was the key figure in changing the UWF from what it was created to be, a more serious New Japan style, to the beginnings of a style that got more and more realistic, to the point that in recent years it has spawned a revolution that has become at times very real, although from a historical standpoint the ones who deserve the credit for making a form of pro wrestling into being real would be the ones who actually took the step when Pancrase was formed in 1993.
Shinma talked Maeda into leaving New Japan along with dojo submission expert Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Maeda's "little brother," the immensely talented Nobuhiko Takada. Maeda's long-term future was to eventually be the king, but instead his stardom was jump started by doing with Shinma and not waiting and gained an immediate position as the top wrestler, but in a smaller and newer promotion. Shinma didn't last long in his new UWF creation as he didn't approve of the new style the wrestlers wanted to do based on Maeda's urging, and then when business wasn't doing well and they wanted to bring Sayama into the company, Sayama hated Shinma, and the company had to choose between their creator and their biggest box office star and Shinma within a few months was completely out of the wrestling business. And with that the wrestlers, somewhat in the spirit of Karl Gotch, who trained most of them, changed the future course of pro wrestling with the UWF ring style.
Maeda himself was the most outspoken, mincing no words about traditional pro wrestling offices having worked matches, and insinuating that the UWF was the real thing. Many fans believed it, however, at that time, outside of Tokyo, where the matches would overflow Korakuen Hall to a scary degree, the first UWF never caught on as more than a cult thing. It had many strange chapters, but eventually folded in late 1984, and in January of 1985, Maeda returned to New Japan for a strange three-year run that changed the course of modern pro wrestling.
During 1985, there was probably no single match in the world in history that could have drawn the money an Inoki vs. Maeda singles match would have done at a stadium. However, Maeda at the beginning refused to lay down for Inoki, which was the finish the office wanted, so in the history of both mens career, there ended up being only one singles match, not legendary at the time but which later become historically significant with Inoki of course winning in 1983. One time an Inoki vs. Maeda match was announced for Sumo Hall and the building sold out to the tune of $280,000 in a few hours, but it had to be changed to a ten-man tag team main event. Maeda had great matches with Japanese wrestlers, in particular a noteworthy singles match against Tatsumi Fujinami, but didn't work well with Americans and Maeda was generally outspoken about many of the American wrestlers that were brought to New Japan lacking wrestling ability. One time, Maeda was booked at Korakuen Hall, the building the old UWF was its hottest and in the New Japan days was considered as something of Maeda's home court, in a singles match against big-name American wrestler Kerry Von Erich, with a large percentage of the fans expecting to see Maeda destroy the American bodybuilder type who those fans knew even though he had a big name, really couldn't wrestle. When the finish was a double count out, the fans stormed out of the building mad at the promotion. New Japan did huge business in 1985-86 with the drama of the UWF vs. New Japan feud with incredible heat from the hardcores, but the UWF style based on kicks, suplexes and submissions without much in the way of gimmickry and histrionics wasn't over to the mainstream and television ratings dropped to the point New Japan's weekly television show was moved from prime time. It's an interesting debatable point as to long-term wrestling if it was good or not. While New Japan, and Japanese wrestling in general, had periods of incredible record breaking revenues after losing prime time television, there is no question that it hurt and to this day continues to hurt mass audience appeal when the television airs in poor time slots. Maeda had the now famous weird semi-shoot with Andre the Giant in April of 1986, and later that year on October 9, 1986 defeated Neilsen with a half crab in a worked match in what may have been the single best mixed sports match in history on the undercard of Inoki's horrible win over boxer Leon Spinks which is the match that finalized Maeda as a true national hero since it drew a 28.9 rating in prime time. With such a huge audience watching, and Inoki's match being so poor and Maeda's so exciting, the forces behind Maeda and a lot of the younger fan base felt it was time to make the big move to Maeda as the top star in the company. But it never happened. And when Riki Choshu and Masa Saito jumped back to New Japan from All Japan largely to have Choshu's popularity attempt to reverse the New Japan TV ratings decline just a few months later, Maeda became one of many wrestlers in a muddled secondary position behind Inoki.
The frustrations grew in 1987, and in an incident that from a long-term wrestling historical standpoint when it came to repercussions, made the Bret Hart/Vince McMahon Survivor Series finish look like small potatoes, there was a shoot that drew so much money some people at the time thought it had to be a work. Actually there were rumors leading up to the incident, which again took place on UWF "home court" during a six-man tag with Maeda and Choshu as respective captains. As Choshu put the scorpion deathlock on Osamu Kido, Maeda came in for the save and delivered a real kick to the eye, breaking Choshu's orbital bone and it immediately swelled up and began bleeding. The match fell apart at that point, although Masa Saito, one of Choshu's partners kept it together long enough to get a finish before tempers flared even worse. Choshu, perhaps the top draw in the promotion at the time, was knocked out of action just a few days into the tag team tournament. New Japan had no choice but to suspend Maeda for the rest of the year but somehow in all of this Maeda came out of it as the hero. New Japan was willing to bring Maeda back, but only if he accepted a punishment which included several months of having to work Lucha Libre style in Mexico, which would be considered cruel and unusual punishment for a guy whose reputation was based on realistic wrestling, and then return and put Choshu over clean in a singles grudge match. Instead, some friends of Maeda's put together new backers and the second UWF was formed with Maeda, now a much bigger celebrity in 1988 than he was in 1984, and times had changed and the public was ready to understand a more realistic and serious version of fake pro wrestling.
When the second UWF started, it was like the start of no new promotion ever in the history of pro wrestling. Its first card in May of 1988 sold out in 15 minutes, unheard of at the time for pro wrestling which in those days was largely a walk-up buy, and for the remainder of 1988, every monthly show sold out including a card at the Osaka Baseball Stadium. Due to his influence in changing the business, Maeda become the first Japanese wrestler, and to this day remains the only wrestler from a company other than NWA/WCW, All Japan or New Japan to win the Observer's Wrestler of the Year award, in 1988, and certainly the only one to ever win it primarily based on influence as opposed to quality of matches.
Like Inoki before him, Maeda made his name as a shooter beating superstars from other combat sports such as Gerard Gordeau (karate) and Chris Dolman (sambo) in worked matches. The UWF peaked for a Tokyo Dome show on November 29, 1989 for the legendary U-Cosmos show, which set what is still an all-time record for pro wrestling selling 40,000 tickets the first day they went on sale, eventually selling out 60,000 seats in three days for a show headlined by Maeda beating Willie Wilhelm, a former European champion in judo which was the first pro wrestling event to ever sellout the Tokyo Dome, drawing $2.9 million live, at the time the biggest live gate in the history of the business. But due to mismanagement, the second UWF folded a few years later and the stars broke up into several groups. Maeda, with help of the WOWOW Channel, formed RINGS. It should also be noted that K-1 was formed in a sense from RINGS, as promoter Kazuyoshi Ishii learned a lot about the pro wrestling business working with the early RINGS office and Masaake Satake, still K-1's biggest Japanese star, worked doing a kickboxer gimmick as the semifinal to Maeda on many RINGS shows in 1992 before the two branched out and created K-1 the next year. Yoshiaki Fujiwara formed Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi, and in 1993, stemming from PWFG, three of its younger stars, Masakatsu Funaki, Minoru Suzuki and Ken Shamrock (known as Wayne Shamrock in those days) formed Pancrase, which was the first true legitimate form of pro wrestling of the modern era. Nobuhiko Takada formed UWFI, which actually was the most popular of the groups for several years, but eventually went deeply into debt and its wrestlers had to sell their credibility as shooters by doing worked losses and a lot of gimmick matches on various pro wrestling groups both large and small, then spawned Kingdom, which also didn't last long.
In 1998, some 14 years after the first UWF was formed which was supposed to be real matches that of course were just a stiffer and more serious worked style, Maeda's RINGS promotion is generally running around 40% shoot matches, a percentage that is expected to grow with Maeda and some of the other older stars of the groups early years like Volk Han and dikk Vrij, fade from the main events. And it is RINGS that is back on top as the most popular of the so-called shoot style pro wrestling promotions, and has expanded with sellout events in Holland, Russia and Australia already this year. All the problems of testing top marketable stars in shoots became apparent this year when Tamura, the company's biggest draw, was soundly thrashed by unheralded Valentijn Overeem, and caused a noticeable drop in attendance at recent cards. The trend reversed itself this week, but that was due to Maeda, and doesn't bode well for the future. A lot of the popularity was of RINGS was due to Maeda's name, but Maeda's matches were usually disappointing as was his so-called final, as he didn't keep himself in top condition and was plagued by knee injuries from so many years of working such a stiff style, but the company was largely in the ring in recent years carried by younger Japanese stars who put on some classic matches. Among insiders for the past several years, and there was this sentiment dating back to the origination of RINGS, that Maeda never kept himself in good enough condition to believably headline since the group is supposed to be a shoot group, but he was able to draw particularly against a name opponent. Obviously his drawing power diminished as time went on since it was based on a big name from the past. There are a lot of thoughts that Maeda's career will have one last match, perhaps against former best friend Takada, and that perhaps even late this year after the Rickson Gracie match, that Takada and Sakuraba, with nowhere else to go and remain active full-time in the pro wrestling world, would join RINGS following former Kingdom stars Kenichi Yamamoto and Hiromitsu Kanehara.
In a surprise in the semifinal of the show, Bitzsade Tariel retained his RINGS version of the world heavyweight title with a knockout victory over Kohsaka in 7:23. Kohsaka was knocked down twice during the match and couldn't answer the bell after the third knockdown. Tamura defeated Wataru Sakata in 9:48 with an armbar and former UFC fighter Paul Varelans made his RINGS Japan debut (he had won a match on a RINGS show in February in Holland) losing via knockout to Joop Kasteel in 7:27 after Kasteel scored a number of time with hard kicks.
no way man but Kyle went anyway.
I hope he teep kicks Takahashi next
