Kakutogi Road: The Complete History of MMA Vol.44 "Bad Times in Sapporo-Town"

[Mbetz1981]

Kakutogi Road: The Complete History of MMA Vol.44 "Bad Times in Sapporo-Town"


44--Bad Times In Sapporo Final1800×1000 451 KB


*Editor’s note: Mike Lorefice (of MMA/Puroresu mega-center quebrada.net) will have his comments be preceded by his initials.

We are about to experience some bad times in Sapporo, Japan, as Olympic caliber judoka, Allen “Bad News Brown” Coage, has been tapped by the UWF-I to thwart the incredible Albright-monster. This was an interesting acquisition, albeit one that was probably fifteen years past its expiration date due to Coage being 49 at the time. Coage was born on 10-22-43 in Harlem, New York, and was raised in the poor neighborhood of St. Albans, Queens. His life was changed on a New York subway, at the age of 15, when he saw an advertisement for Jerome Mackey’s judo dojo, but wasn’t able to fully dedicate himself to the noble art until the relatively late age of 22. Despite this, he took to it quickly and was able to start winning competitions as early as seven months into his training. He continued his winning ways all the way to the 1976 Olympic games, eventually winning a bronze medal in judo. He quickly quit the sport after his victory, citing frustrations with Olympic politics, and went on to have several odd jobs before landing in the bizarre world of professional wrestling. Thanks to already having several connections in Japan from his judo career, he was able to hook up with Antonio Inoki and was put through the New Japan Dojo system. He would then wrestle intermittently for them for the next 15 years.

In 1982, he found a long-term home in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, with Stu Hart’s Stampede Wrestling promotion. Over the next six years, he was a major player in that promotion before being promised a World Title run in the WWF by Vince McMahon. He jumped over to New York to become one of the most interesting late 80s heels, but as usual, was misused by the WWF and eventually became tired of Vince’s lies and broken promises, including never capturing a title of any sort. We are nowin its final twilight of Coage’s career. It is kind of an odd situation as he still has a lot of respect and weight in Japan due to his judo and NJPW fame, but his age would certainly be a hindrance. He could be an asset if booked properly and allowed to be built up to a main event run with Albright/Takada, but since this is the UWF-I, we are surely going to see Booker Miyato find a way to screw this up.

Before the matches begin, Lou Thesz comes out and gives a speech that lays the gauntlet down, claiming that all of the other so-called “World Champions” are champions in name only and that the real wrestlers are in the UWF-I. This had to be a great credibility bolstering moment for this promotion as Thesz was known as the “God of Wrestling” in Japan, and surely had a lot of weight behind his words.

Hiromitsu Kanehara vs Yoshihiro Takayama

To say that booker Miyato is phoning it in would be an insult to anyone that works in telecommunications for a living. His performance is more like sleeping on the job at this point. This is the 3rd match between Takayama and Kanehara, which would have been the 9th match between Kanehara/Maeda if better Maeda had not retired. Worse yet, since they have never broken the formula, we already know who is going to win this, and now it’s only a matter of nuances from one match to the other. Kanehara came out like a ball of lighting right out the gate and looked fantastic. The first two minutes had my attention, as Kanehara put so much into chopping the giant redwood down that I thought that this was going to shape up to be a decent match. It quickly went sideways due to a combination of Takayama looking worse and worse the more energy he expends and him not looking good at all whenever there was a grappling exchange. Towards the end, it just starting to get painful watching Kanehara try and make something worthwhile out of this. Taken in a vacuum, it wasn’t all bad, as the fast pace, stiffness, and aggression that Kanehara was forcing kept it far from being boring. Still, when compared to the milestones that came before it, it’s a letdown. The problem is that Takayama is not physically suited to try and follow Maeda in this high-octane, go-for-broke, physical style. He has the build of a pro-wrestling special attraction, and would probably be better served in a more traditional pro wrestling format. **

ML: Takayama would have been more suited to the willing bleeder role of say Shoji Nakamaki or Hiroshi Ono in your favorite backyard level death match. Takayama was a little more aggressive and energetic than last match, but Kanehara can effortlessly land three solid shots in the time it takes Takayama to make a concerted effort to rush one shot that has little impact, and doesn’t come close to the proper location. Takayama kept landing, if that’s what you want to call his shots that couldn’t kill a bug, kicks with the bottom of his kneepads or the top of his kick pad. Overall though, Takayama was less inept than last time, as he at least dropped the uncoordinated dropkicks & such, and just stuck to making a mockery of legitimate strikes. Kanehara did his thing well, of course, but was lacking some of his usual enthusiasm. At this point he knows full well this is not going to be another match of the year, and has given up on being creative, given the opposition can barely handle the absolute basics.

Yuko Miyato & Masahito Kakihara vs Tatsuo Nakano & Tom Burton:

Now for another sequence in the random booking generator that booker Miyato has been keen on using. At least this is an interesting pairing on paper, as having two lithe and explosive workers like Miyato/Kakihara vs two burly monsters like Nakano/Burton could lead to good results if done correctly. Right away, I’m impressed as there is palpable electricity in the air when Kakihara unloads some lighting palms into Burton. Kakihara being impressive is standard, but what is remarkable here is how urgent and intense Burton is acting. The pressure that Kakihara is putting on him forces Burton to fight as if his life depended on it, and he does a good job of immediately closing the distance and slamming Kakihara, thus mitigating the damage he has to take. Kakihara gets up quickly, however, and shifts to rangy attacks, using incredibly stiff kicks from a distance. Seriously, it looks like he is going to imprint a permanent mark on Burton’s thighs, just like Pedro Rizzo did to Randy Couture several years later. The rest of this match was excellent, and may wind up being one of the sleeper hits of 1992. Kakihara was the real star here, everything he did just looked fantastic, but I don’t want to diminish anyone, as they all stepped it up and brought their best games. Even the pro wrestling styled spots (in which there were several), felt organic and looked good, which is a considerable challenge in a shoot-style context. Excellent! **** ¼

ML: Kakihara was just on fire here, making this match with his energy and urgency. He did a great job of fending off Burton’s takedowns, and making him pay with flurries of lightning fast strikes. He did great work against Nakano as well, pitting his Jeff Speakman of the East speed against Nakano’s power striking. This was by no means a shoot, but Kakihara was able to maintain that sort of life or death pace and reaction speed, both offensively and defensively. Even Kiyoshi Tamura may not be able to get Nakano & Burton to work at such a high pace to keep up with him. Miyato was his usual reliable self, and there was some really nice scrambling between him & Burton. Though Kakihara gave his best performance so far, and really came into his own this match, perhaps the revelation here was Burton, who showed a newfound ability to work the grappling sequences with some actual speed. Burton wouldn’t push a match in this direction, but if not for Burton’s suddenly being able to follow in this vein, this wouldn’t have been one of the best UWF-I tags we’ve seen. ****

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Ray Lloyd

Now it’s time for a blast of arctic winds to engulf the Nakajima Sports Center! Yes, the man who would later become the pro wrestling embodiment of Sub-Zero from Mortal Kombat is about to face off against Kiyoshi Tamura several years before he was under the icy tendrils of Eric Bischoff. The question will be, does a glacier stand a chance against the might and agility of an angry Tamura? The match starts, and I find myself wondering if there is anything that Tamura can’t do? His low single-leg takedown is just as good if not better than the future Sakuraba’s, and after his flawless execution of said takedown, he effortlessly pulls out a slickly inventive ankle attack. This match was only about six minutes long, and mostly a one-man-show for Tamura, but what little we got to see of the human iceberg wasn’t good. He looked slow and painfully unsure of how to work within this style, but he is young and may be able to learn how to function in this format with enough time. Sadly, his knees are some of the worst we’ve seen so far. * ¾

ML: Despite Glacier arguably being the biggest much ado about nothing in the history of Monday NyQuil, Ray Lloyd was a good all around athlete, and had a lot of potential in this style. Tamura didn’t give him much opportunity to show any of his WKA United States Southeastern Super Heavyweight Championship skill though, mostly grounding him where he was more hit and miss. Overall, this was okay, Lloyd was already better than most of the random southern dudes they come up with, but that is a low standard. Obviously, he was fighting Tamura, and by Tamura’s incredibly high standards, this was terrible.

 

[Mbetz1981]

Volume 44 Continued...

Nobuhiko Takada & Mark Fleming vs. Kazuo Yamazaki & Mark Silver

It’s time for the battle of the Marks, and only Yamazaki can save us now. In what is another example of lazy Miyato’s style-of-booking by way of dice rolling, we have this random pairing. Also, one tag match per event is forgivable, but this is just absurd. Fleming/Yamazaki start this and have a pleasant run of strength vs. submission savvy. Yamazaki looked nice, but Fleming had a couple of good moments, most noticeably a pleasant Kimura throw. Unfortunately, Yamazaki left early to leave us with Fleming/Silver. They are both doing fine for the amount of skill that they have, but they both need a more experienced opponent to work with them, so what we’re left with is a battle between two guys with 0 striking ability and only crude attempts at an ankle lock for submissions. To sum it up, when you have a formula that consists of a lazy Takada, two inexperienced personnel members, and Yamazaki, you are left with a recipe for failure, as Kazuo can’t carry three people by himself. This match had a few good moments (especially when Takada/Yamazaki were paired together) and wasn’t terrible by any means, but was a major letdown when it had to follow such a dynamite showing in the aforementioned tag-match. The UWF-I have the talent to put out a dynamite event every month without breaking a sweat, but the infamous duo of Miyato/Anjo seem to be determined to kill this outfit’s potential at every turn with their inane booking. ** 3/4

ML: UWF-I chooses entertainment over realism, so while this match was just kind of there, it felt more like a failure because it was neither. Yamazaki installed a little life, as he was obviously thinking about what he was doing, and trying to set up his kicks. Takada vs. Silver was mostly just randomly grabbing one appendage and after the other though. Fleming vs. Silver was a lot of jockeying for position. Nothing was really bad, but they weren’t holding my attention, either.

Gary Albright vs. Bad News Allen

Now that the Albright-monster is “Best in the World” there are going to be plenty of potential usurpers to his throne. The next in the latest list of would-be challengers is Allen “Bad News Brown” Coage. I admit that I find the inclusion of Allen to be intriguing as before he was attempting to put Hulk Hogan in the “Ghetto Blaster” he was a man of some serious judo credentials, having won a bronze medal at the 1976 Summer Olympics. He also successfully graduated from the New Japan Dojo system, which he once noted was easy for him because his Olympic judo training was more demanding. Still, he is almost 50 years old going into this, and I’m sure he has a long list of injuries. We start with a pre-interview with Allen, who states that he came here to the UWF-I because New Japan is looking more like New York (WWF) with all of its showbusiness. He also mentions that he is confident because of his many years of judo experience. Albright was also interviewed, and once again, has an awesomely articulate and understated interview style. He says that anyone that could come from a Harlem ghetto and accomplish as much as he (Allen) has is not to be underestimated.

Albright wastes no time in bum-rushing Allen, but is quickly taken down by a wonderful inside foot sweep from Bad News. The first few mins saw Allen dominate the fight with his strong judo, before eventually falling into the usual Albright suplex spree, thus ending the match. I liked this more than I was expecting, and felt that they were a good pairing. Allen is one of the few people that can stand next to Gary and not look out of place from the standpoint of his physical stature. Also, Allen’s technique was solid, and he carried himself credibly and intensely. The big problem, of course, is that he moves like molasses, again due to his age. I suspect that if they were able to get Allen in his prime, he would be a beast in this style, but he is too far past his peak to be much more than a special attraction. Short match, but good for what it was, and I doubt the bout going any longer would have benefited anyone. ***

ML: This was very odd booking because debuting Allen is a big star both in Japan for his 1976 Olympic judo silver medal and run in New Japan after being trained by Antonio Inoki, and in America for his tenure in the WWF as Bad News Brown, where his possum that they claimed was a “Harlem Mutant Sewer Rat” trained to eat snakes and dogs protected him from Jake the Snake’s sluggish python Damien. It would have made a lot more sense to build Allen up by having him run through at least a couple midcarders en route to this meeting of former Stampede headliners. In Calgary, Allen was the bigger star, but he was also in his heyday then, whereas Albright was quite inexperienced. At almost 49 years old, Allen was far from his prime, but he was still one of the most interesting heels in the WWF just two years earlier, so they may as well have done something with him if they were going to bother using him. Albright didn’t run over him the way he normally does, but Allen didn’t get to do much, and never got any one excited about him, or provided any reason for a rematch in two weeks. It seemed especially lame that he submitted to a full nelson, rather than getting overwhelmed by one of Albright’s monster suplexes. This was inoffensive, but a short, not particularly well worked squash is certainly no better than *.

Conclusion: If it wasn’t for the excellence of the Miyato/Kakihara vs. Burton/Nakano outing, then this would have easily gone down as one of the worst UWF-I cards in its history. It may still be one of the weakest ones we’ve seen so far, but that match is good enough to be worth anyone’s time. I would also say that the Coage match is of some marginal historical interest, but this was pretty forgettable, overall.

ML: I am really disliking Gary Albright’s run on top, as now the last two matches on every show have a good chance of being hopeless.

*This entire event along with over 168 hours of other rare bonus treasures can be found over at www.patreon.com/KakutogiRoad *

*Kakutogi Rewind*

As a bonus, my esteemed colleague and I will gaze into the misty haze of 1977, when a Mega-Battle between two Olympic judokas took place. The date was 12-8-77, and we will be reporting from a New Japan TV taping in Tokyo, Japan. The combatants will be Allen “Buffalo” Coage vs. Willem “Tarzan of the Tatami” Ruska.

This rare pro wrestling showcase between two Olympic judokas will be a “Judo Jacket Match". Unlike North America, where the average citizen would be hard-pressed to name even one judoka, this was surely a big deal in Japan at the time. Of course, Antonio Inoki had put himself in mixed “Marital Arts” matches before this (including wins over Ruska in mixed style matches on 2/6/76 & 12/9/76 with Ruska defeating Haruka Eigen, Makoto Arakawa & Masanobu Kurisu in a Handicap Judo Jacket Match on 10/7/76 to set up the rematch), but this would be the first time that two martial artists with such a high degree of legit accomplishments within their discipline would meet in a pro wrestling environment.

This was only 6th appearance from Coage, who had debuted in a similar match against Seiji Sakaguchi a couple of months prior. Ruska, on the other hand, already had 2 years of experience having non-stop matches both in Japan and stateside with the NWA/WWWF. He also had a taste of international controversy while embarked on an NJPW tour of Brazil, when a match between him and Brazilian vale tudo legend, Allen Gomes, went sideways and turned into an unplanned shoot. This caused a near-riot in Brazil, as Ruska was caught underneath the ropes in a rear-naked choke that Gomes refused to let go of. As a result, the referee counted Gomes out, thus giving Ruska a controversial win.

The match starts, and Ruska immediately assumes the role of the heel, attacking Allen from behind, just as the bell rings. It is also clear that Ruska has the crowd’s attention as Allen still is new to the Japanese audience at this point. After several minutes and 600 officials later, order is restored, and we get a brief glimpse of the incredible judo of Ruska. They start playing things like an actual judo match, and it was great to see how effortlessly Ruska found his grips and tossed the huge Allen to the mat. It then proceeded to look like a BJJ match with Ruska attempting a triangle off his back, only to find himself being stacked by Allen and having his guard passed. Once they were back on their feet, the judo continued, this time with Allen executing a tremendous Kobi Nage (neck throw). Eventually, the legit grappling gave way to standard pro wrestling territory when Ruska decided to start throwing a flurry of (poorly) worked punches at Allen. This shifted the rest of the match squarely into the theatrical, with Ruska doing his best Ric Flair imitation (complete with a blade job), and Allen taking on the role of the angered babyface. Allen looked much better on this side of the equation with his worked punches looking decent, and his headbutts looking better than anything Fujiwara ever came up with. While the camera angle made it hard to tell, it seemed to be that Allen eventually succumbed to some type of lapel choke, giving Ruska the win.

Taken in isolation with a modern eye, this would no doubt look silly, almost like two BJJ blue-belts decided to interrupt their rolling sessions to have a pro wrestling match. However, this doubtlessly has a lot of historical value. While Inoki’s motivations for bringing more legit martial artists into his company were self-serving in that he wanted to craft a fantasy narrative that he was the greatest living fighter, it did wind up setting the groundwork of what RINGS would later become. Maeda followed the tradition of hiring highly skilled (in their respective style) martial artists and putting them in a pro-wrestling spotlight, and had it not been for the precedent set by Inoki in matches like this, it’s hard to imagine all the ingredients being present for the catalyst that became the early 90s kakutogi boom. Taken by itself, this match might only be **, but it is worth viewing for the historical value.

ML: With this sort of match, you either have to go into it with the premise that you trust the judo or you don’t. Unfortunately, these two couldn’t make the decision, and that’s where pro-wrestling typically fails, assuming they have to spice things up, but just making it silly in the process. I was on board for a while because Ruska jumped Allen before the match, semi landing a series of knee drops, because once the match actually started, they just did a serious judo exhibition. This was admittedly kind of dry, but one would think it would have played out a lot better at the time than it does looking back all these years later, as this was definitely a lot more interesting than the usual lengthy armbars and chinlocks that were going on in these days, although my main issue is they weren’t struggling enough to make it compelling. At some point though, they totally abandoned the plot, and had Ruska throwing an elbow and a couple of slaps against the ropes, then Allen retaliated with a series of shoulders in the corner. Ruska tried to choke Allen even though they were in the ropes, and they both went tumbling over the top to the floor, where Allen got a few headbutts in before they were broken up. Ruska did a massive blade jab, and Allen continued to throw headbutts when he returned to the ring, but was distracted by Ruska’s second, which was just so much more cheesy in this context. This led to a bizarre finish where Allen escaped the armbar, then Ruska tried it again, but the match was eventually just randomly stopped without him ever extending it or anything. They played it as some sort of gi choke, but if Ruska ever changed out of the armbar grip, I totally missed that. In any case, it was more like they did two different matches that both had potential, except that they definitely didn’t add anything to one other, and arguably detracted quite a bit.

*This amazing piece of history can be obtained by joining www.patreon.com/KakutogiRoad *

*In other news*

It’s being reported that due to a broken jaw, Tommy Morrison will be replaced by Maurice Smith at an upcoming PWFG card. Morrison has been in talks to face George Forman in the future, and doesn’t want to take any chance risking his body for that upcoming payday.

 

[Mbetz1981]

Volumes 45 & 46 are now available on www.patreon.com/KakutogiRoad

Sometimes, even the most seemingly minor pieces are critical to the operation of complex machinery. Major endeavors are no different, as there are always untold numbers of people and circumstances that had to be present for that undertaking to succeed. Unfortunately, the personalities that tend to get the most prestige and credit for innovation are usually standing on the shoulders of the unknown giants that preceded them. That is the exact scenario we now find ourselves in on 8-15-92, as Joe Malenko is set to debut within the PWFG.

In our latest chapter, we explore Joe Malenko's relationship to MMA, especially how he and his brother Dean were responsible for taking a young Ken Shamrock under their wing and pointing him down the path that would eventually lead to his becoming an MMA icon.

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