Quebrada #42

by Mike Lorefice (M.L.Liger@juno.com)

to view this column with its vidcaps visit http://ohmygod.simplenet.com/quebrada

7/26/98

RINGS

I've never reviewed any RINGS tapes before, and I'm far from an expert on the league, but I like what I'm seeing with these tapes, so I'm going to give this a try. In particular, there are four guys in RINGS who are awesome, at least in their own way.

Volk Han. This master of Commando Sambo is easily the best worker to ever come out of Russia. I've never seen such a mat wrestler! His appearance isn't like the typical Russians we have seen, as he's not overweight or juiced up, rather his look is more reminiscent of Dr. Spock. When it comes to wrestling though, I can't compare his style to someone you would be familiar with because his style is so unique. The style he created on the mat could best be described as his own art form. He is so smooth and graceful in his maneuvering and application of submissions. Watching him lock in a submission is awesome because he makes it so dramatic. With an arm bar for instance, he gets you in position and then all of a sudden explodes into the hold in very dramatic fashion so everyone in the arena knows his opponent is in real trouble. However, they usually escape the finisher a few times because just like with near falls, it's more exciting if each guy survives three or four of these sure finishers by getting a rope escape or even countering the hold. Another thing that makes Han great is that he is excellent at carrying his opponents. He's always capable of a great match and even when he's in with a stiff he can usually make it at least good. The downside of Han is that he doesn't do legit shoots at all these days, though he could probably beat the majority of shooters if he was put to the test. Han is one of the six best heavyweights in the world along with Misawa, Kawada, Kobashi, Akiyama, and Kiyoshi Tamura.

Kiyoshi Tamura. You have to love this guy because he was the one UWF-I guy that went on his own and made something of himself instead of letting Choshu book him into oblivion. He's arguably the best ever at working shoots. I'm not sure that he is better than Han because Han carried their match that I had a chance to see (1/22/97), especially when they were on the mat. In any case, the guy is awesome in just about every way. Like Han, his works are very dramatic. What makes Tamura great isn't his matwork, which is superb, it's the ability to work the best match he can with a given opponent, which usually turns out to be a very good to excellent match because he's top notch and can carry. What separates him from the pack though is that he really knows how to work to his opponents strengths. The bottom line for Tamura is that the match is great, so basically he does whatever it takes to make it such. The problem with Tamura is that he is undersized. Even at his heaviest he's less than 200 pounds. This wouldn't be such a big deal in Pancrase because their fighters are generally on the small side, but RINGS is a company of heavyweights, and it's tough to beat a shooter of equal ability when that shooter outweighs you by 50 or more pounds. So Tamura isn't a great shooter, which hurts even though most of his matches are works. This fact may keep him from being the top native in the post-Maeda era because there's the thought that the company will move to predominantly or completely shoot matches, though with Tamura & Han being such key players, that falls in the I'll believe it when I see it category.

Tsuyoshi Kousaka. Kousaka's major push in RINGS began after he won the heavyweight title in UFC XVI. He is a very good worker, the second best of the RINGS natives, though not close to the level of Han or Tamura. What makes Kousaka possibly the most valuable performer in the company is that he's the best shooter of the natives. Due to his combined abilities, he might wind up being the top star in post-Maeda RINGS. In any case, you have to love anyone that helps expose how overrated Kimo is.

Valentijn Overeem. "From the first day Overeem stepped foot in RINGS, I had a distinct feeling he'd be special. In my opinion, if put Overeem in an 8-man tournament with the likes of Bas Rutten, Kousaka, Vitor Belfort, Randy Couture, Maurice Smith, Guy Mezger, and Mark Coleman,

Overeem would come out on top. His combination of superb striking along with excellent submissions and groundwork is something that is very rare. With Overeem being barely able to drink, it shows that there is still room for improvement, but my prediction is he one day dominates NHB's heavyweight class," wrote Hadi Motiee. Hadi's explanation of just how good Overeem has become is even more impressive when you consider that at the beginning of 1998 this guy was an unknown 22- year-old from Holland. I mean, it's not until the 4/16/98 show that I'll get to later in this column that Overeem becomes a star and shows that he's got the potential to be the best shooter in the world. Overeem's discipline is Saikan Karate, which is the same as his much more famous countryman Andy Hug of K-1. However, Overeem isn't a one-dimensional fighter like Hug or the bad kickboxers from Holland that RINGS uses like Dick Vrij because he's well versed in submission. I don't know if he can work, but he's such an imposing and potentially awesome shooter that it would be a waste for him to concentrate on that aspect right now when he could be further developing the skills necessary to make himself a mega star shooter, which would also be a big boost to the credibility of RINGS.

FIGHTING NETWORK RINGS FIGHTING INTEGRATION 1ST on WOWOW

taped 3/28/98 Tokyo Bay NK Hall

Kenichi Yamamoto (-,RINGS debut) vs. Valetijn Overeem (RINGS Holland, 3-3). This is the match where Overeem really came into his own. Overeem had a 190-181cm and 101-86kg size advantage. Those numbers were part of what gave Overeem a big advantage in this shoot match, it's more that he has a great body that those numbers can't fully represent. Overeem is really cut, but he isn't bulked up so he maintains his speed and agility. He kind of looks like a darker skinned version of Bas Rutten, except he's even more intimidating.

Yamamoto, the former UWF-I and Kingdom wrestler who looks a bit less punkish these days since he no longer dies his hair, basically died a slow death in this match. The word death is a strong one to use, and I'm not meaning to joke about it, but the end of the match was eerie because the guy literally looked like he could be dead.

Yamamoto may have had a slight edge on the ground, but to get it to the ground he had to take vicious strikes, all of which were potential knockout blows if they hit squarely. Overeem came out of a front guillotine with a nasty knee lift that caught Yamamoto square in the nose. This looked like it could have broken his nose, but Yamamoto withstood it well. Overeem tried this again on more than one occasion, but Yamamoto wasn't going to be fooled more than once.

Overeem caught Yamamoto with a palm strike to the nose when Yamamoto tried to lock up. This opened up a cut on Yamamoto's nose and led to the first of 3 times that the doctor stopped the match to take a look at Yamamoto's cuts.

Yamamoto saved his life by ducking a high speed Overeem high kick and tried for an ankle lock, but Overeem was in the ropes from missing his big kick. On the restart, Overeem knocked Yamamoto's head up about 2 feet in the air with a hellacious knee lift that opened up a nasty cut on Yamamoto's forehead. Yamamoto was dripping blood. They may as well have stopped the bout at this point instead of just having the doctor check his cuts because Yamamoto wasn't showing any signs that he had a chance and was only going to take more punishment that might make the cuts worse. Yamamoto was still game though, and Overeem had to use a rope escape to break his ankle lock.

Blood was smeared all over Yamamoto's face by this point. He tried to lock up, but Overeem caught him with another deadly knee lift that really put Yamamoto out. Yamamoto was unconscious for a long period of time and the finally stretchered him out after he tried to sit up, but fell back down. Brutal bout. One sided, but exciting. Overeem looks poised to make a big name for himself in this sport. 6:36

Bob Gilstrap (Maurice Smith Kickboxing Center, RINGS debut) vs. Grom Zaza (RINGS Georgia, 7-10). Very boring shoot. Basically the whole match was on the mat, but neither displayed any submission skills. Gilstap was in training and used this match as a warm up for his UFC XVII match vs. Carlos Newton, which he lost pretty easily. Zaza is strong in takedowns because he's a former Olympic wrestler, and this asset allowed him to dominate the match. Gilstrap is a specialist in Jui Jitsu, but it didn't help him here. He did win the snoozefest, but only because they controversially deducted a point from Zaza for a closed fist punch that didn't come close to hitting, which wound up whiping out one of his takedowns. Gilstrap via points 1-0 after the match went to a bad 30:00 draw. Thankfully only 11:41 (too much) was shown.

Sander Thonhauser (RINGS Holland, RINGS debut) vs. Masayuke Naruse (RINGS Japan, 22-26-4, rank #7). This was a shoot that almost looked like a mixed match. Thonhauser was far superior in striking. He didn't appear to be totally clueless on the mat, but he obviously had little confidence in his matwork and preferred to have the match contested where he had the advantage. Thus, Thonhauser employed a strategy where he just took a rope break every time he was on the mat so he could try to get a KO with a strike. In RINGS, you have 10 points to work with. You lose one for every rope escape and every yellow card and two if you are knocked down. Thus, Thonhauser had to get a knockout before the 11th rope escape or get six knockdowns before Naruse could take him down 11 times. One thing that made this strategy ok for Thonhauser was that, even though he was in good shape, he didn't have great stamina so he would have been less effective if he burned energy trying to get a reversal on the mat. Of course, he should train for length because obviously you have a better chance of winning if you don't blow up like Mark Coleman. One thing that made it a bad strategy is that Naruse is a capable fighter on his feet. On 4/4/97, Naruse hit an uraken out of nowhere to knock out Overeem in a match that Overeem was in control of, though that was probably a worked match.

Thonhauser is the kind of fighter that Masakatsu Funaki would beat in less than three minutes, and he would do so without taking any punishment or even looking for a quick finish. Naruse is RINGS under 209 pound champion (though the belt hasn't been defended this year because RINGS has basically gone to one open weight class), but he's no Funaki. He was never able to time Thonhauser's strikes, so he took a lot of punishment when he shot. Naruse never had Thonhauser in any real trouble, though part of the reason for that is Thonhauser conceded the point before Naruse even had a chance to apply a submission. Thonhauser bloodied Naruse's nose and had him in the center of the ring with a facelock, but Naruse made it to the ropes for his only lost point of the match (which was lucky because the Japanese officials don't invent rules like the facelock is illegal because it puts pressure on the nose to save their country's fighters after they give up).

Although Thonhauser's strategy was the main reason he lost, his lack of experience in RINGS was also killer. He gave up three points for illegal tactics such as grabbing the ropes to avoid a takedown. I'm not going to make excuses for him though because he got yellow carded for the same infraction, grabbing the ropes, twice in the same match. Naruse at 10:37 when Thonhauser ran out of points. Ok match.

Hiromitsu Kanehara (-, RINGS Debut) vs. Ilioukhine Mikhail (RINGS Russia, 8-9, rank #1). This was clearly a work, but a very good and exciting U.W.F. style one. Kanehara is a very good worker out of the now defunct UWF-I and Kingdom promotions. He had the ability to be a star, but jokers like Yoji Anjo and Yuko Miyato couldn't even figure out how to make Tamura and Masahito Kakihara into big stars, so a guy like Kanehara, who lacks charisma, didn't have much chance. In case you were wondering, Kanehara is still sporting the U.W.F. boots two promotions later. Mikhail is a Han protégé, which means he's a whole lot better than Nikolai & Boris were. He came into this match as strong as ever since he defeated his higher ranked countryman Han in December to get to the finals of RINGS top tournament, Battle Dimension, on 1/21/98 at Tokyo Nippon Budokan where he put over Tamura in the main event.

The match started hot with really fluid transitions on the mat. Kanehara scored with a high kick and a knee lift, but he had to use the first down to escape Mikhail's Achilles heel hold and the second to stop Mikhail from straightening his arm in a jujigatame. Kanehara came back with a series of strikes, culminating with a knockdown from a jumping knee lift. They traded submissions back and forth, with Kanehara using one escape. Kanehara got a series of shoudas that basically missed, but Mikhail showed very bad judgement by going down from them anyway. The finish saw Mikhail catch Kanehara's kick and take him down with an Achilles heel hold. Kanehara struggled, but couldn't advance toward the ropes so he had to tap. 14:03.

Ranking Bout: Tsuyoshi Kousaka (RINGS Japan, 19-15, rank #4) vs. Nikolai Zouev (RINGS Russia, 11-9, rank #9). Very good worked match. The match was even enough and the work was good enough that this possibly could have been a great match if they kept it up for another 5-10 minutes. Zouev is supposed to be declining though, especially in conditioning, so perhaps this was the right length for him because he looked credible jobbing after 10 minutes of even action.

This match had several potential finishers, but they were generally avoided by the opponent countering with a submission of his own, which is certainly more exciting than rope escapes. The highlight was a jumping takedown into a jujigatame by Kousaka, though Zouev actually blocked the jujigatame and got a rope escape. At 7:45, Zouev was up 3-2 and he escaped Kousaka's cross heel hold by applying on of his own. However, Kousaka made it from the center of the ring to the ropes. At 9:30, Kousaka's leg just gave out when he was walking backwards so they stopped the match to make sure he was ok. When Kousaka got up, he took Zouev down and put him in an Achilles heel hold for the win. The finish was the weakest part of the match due to coming after the unplanned stoppage. Kousaka maintained his #4 ranking. 10:20.

Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS Japan, 15-5, World Mega Battle Champion) vs. Dick Vrij (RINGS Holland, 30-22, rank #5). This match is a great example of why Tamura is great. Vrij is a lousy worker. He is a very good striker, but he's garbage on the mat. He normally has a good look because he's got a chiseled body due to the juice, but here he was off the roids so he looked rather soft and his stamina wasn't even any better. The reason Dean Malenko is really overrated is that regardless of whether he's working with Steven Regal or Psicosis, (if they even give him enough time to do any matwork in his match) he forces his opponent into the same slow matwork. Tamura is better than that, and he's smart enough to know that Vrij is not only incapable of matching him on the mat, but he would just get lost and look bad if he tried. Tamura didn't just work to Vrij's strength. He sacrificed his own strengths to work Vrij's match.

Tamura made this very exciting by taking really stiff shots from Vrij. This was clearly a work, but based on the impact it was one of the more realistic ones you'll see. Tamura even let Vrij legitimately rake his eyes, which was the key spot in the match, playing off Willie Peeters vs. Wataru Sakata from February in Holland. This eye rake, which immediately caused Tamura's eye to tear and swell, broke Tamura's choke sleeper, which was a sure finish. Vrij was yellow carded for this, but losing one point is better than losing the match if you have no class. Vrij offered a hand shake, but Tamura waved this show of insincerity of and then gave him a look that said, "You can't beat me so you have to cheat, but no matter how low you stoop I'm still going to beat your sorry ass." Tamura was a man on a mission after this and he quickly put Vrij out with a choke sleeper. This was a good win for Tamura because Vrij has beaten Maeda on more than one occasion. Typical great drama by Tamura, with his selling of Vrij's big blows being particularly effective in putting the outcome in doubt. Kanehara had the best bout, but this bout impressed me the most because it was practically the best even though Tamura was the only one who had a very good match without a good opponent. 7:46.

FIGHTING NETWORK RINGS FIGHTING INTEGRATION 2nd on WOWOW

taped 4/16/98 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukan

Sander Thonhauser (RINGS Holland, 1-1) vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara (-, 0-1). Decent shoot. Thonhauser understood the rules a bit better this time, but was equally unimpressive. He was really aggressive and got good shots in during the standup portion, but once Kanehara got him down he did nothing but lie there so they eventually stood them up. Kanehara won with an Achilles heel hold at 6:26. Exciting when they were on their feet as Thonhauser was striking and Kanehara was shooting in and trying to take him down, but rather dull on the mat.

Gogitidze Bakouri (RINGS Georgia, 2-4) vs. Wataru Sakata (RINGS Japan, 10-16-1). This was a good bout mainly because the style clash was interesting. It was a realistic work during the first half, but then Bakouri, a Greco Roman wrestler with a 23kg weight advantage, starting using beautiful suplexes. The suplexes were the key here. From the work aspect, they were worked in well, but despite the size advantage, were too clean looking to be legitimate. From the psychology aspect, although Sakata hasn't utilized striking that much over the past year, he is an underrated striker. Striking was Sakata's advantage in this bout, but once again he wasn't able to utilize it much. In the case of Sakata's kicks, it wasn't worth it for him to try because Bakouri was successful shooting on him. Thus, the risk of getting caught in a big suplex or getting taken down was greater than the damage Sakata could do with a kick if he landed it.

This wasn't a one-sided bout by any means. In between crashing into the mat, Sakata forced Bakouri to take the only two escapes of the match. The mat work was solid, but Bakouri wasn't able to create the illusion that he was really working for a submission when he was on top of Sakata. It came down to the size advantage though as Bakouri belly-to-belly suplexed Sakata then locked on a hiza jujigatame for the win. Sakata put the finish over big by hobbling back to the locker room. 8:44

Ranking Bout: Andrei Kopilov (RINGS Russia, 9-13, rank #10) vs. Masayuke Naruse (RINGS Japan, 23-26-4, rank #7). Pretty good worked bout. The problem for me was that the bout ended just when I was starting to really get into it. Kopilov had the advantage in strength, while Naruse was more experienced. As usual, Naruse was willing to take some punishment because his strategy was to wait for his opponent's "guard to be down" and either catch him with a strike or shoot in for the takedown.

Kopilov dominated the match since he was doing the job in the end. He was especially dominant on the ground where he forced Naruse into five escapes. Naruse did get Kopilov into some compromising positions on the mat, but Kopilov was able to maneuver his way out of trouble. Finish saw Naruse catch Kopilov with a great Yuko Miyato-esque spinning savate kick for a knockdown. This had a big finish, which is typical of matches where Naruse wins. Kopilov avoided Naruse's uraken and shot in, but Naruse sat down with a front neck lock for the win. Thus, Naruse maintained his ranking. 7:19

Ranking Bout: Tsuyoshi Kousaka (RINGS Japan, 20-15, rank #4) vs. Joop Kasteel (RINGS Holland, 3-5, rank #3). As bad as Kasteel is as a worker, he's that much worse as a shooter, which is probably why this was worked. Kousaka seemed to be trying to do what Tamura did with Vrij on the last show, but he was only able to make it decent. The bout was even, but Joop got all his points in the first 3:15 so it wasn't really exciting or dramatic. As the bout progressed, too many of Joop's strikes were blocked. It was tied 3-3 when Kousaka locked in the Achilles heel hold for the win. Kousaka captured the #3 ranking. This win was one of the things that set Kousaka up for his 6/27/98 bout with Tamura that went to a 30:00 draw. 7:49

Kiyoshi Tamura (RINGS Japan, 16-5, Mega Battle Champion) vs. Valentijn Overeem (RINGS Holland, 4-3). This was clearly a shoot, and one that the RINGS front office really regrets because the mirage of their champion being great in a real situation vanished before everyone's eyes. Tamura was supposed to win this because Overeem was supposed to be a guy that he would have no problem beating in a shoot. If there was any fear that Tamura would lose they would have either worked the match or given him a different opponent because with their top star/top draw Maeda just about retired they needed Tamura to gain as much prestige and popularity as possible so he could carry the company into the 21st century. Not only did Tamura impress no one, but he was handily defeated, and the result of this match was that RINGS took the title off Tamura the next month and gave it to the completely skilless and useless Bitsadze Tariel.

This bout was really exciting on tape, but it would have been an incredible match to see live because the result, and more so the complete domination of Tamura, were a surprise to just about everyone. You could tell that Tamura himself expected nothing less than a win, but Overeem's phenomenal combination of power and speed was just too much for him, and just about anyone else, to handle.

These two went at it fast and hard. It didn't take long for Overeem to show his superiority. Overeem had Tamura in a front neck lock about 20 seconds into the match, but a desperate Tamura was able to reach one leg out to the rope before Overeem took him down in it. Tamura finally got on top, but Overeem wrapped him up so he couldn't do anything to him. Tamura eventually got Overeem in a straight arm bar, but Tamura's back was exposed and Overeem seized the opening by locking in a choke sleeper. Tamura had to use an escape and he just lied there on his back confused and disgusted trying to figure out how he could win this. If this match was a work this tactic would have added to the psychology of the match. Instead, it was kind of sad seeing a guy like Tamura who has always excelled realize he was going to have to really rise to the occassion like he always does in the script, but this time without the help of a willing opponent. Overmatched doesn't describe what Tamura was, so he thought "how can I pull this one out so I can maintain my image and credibility?"

Overeem's strikes were too fast to even block, so Tamura shot. However, Overeem is so fast that he had Tamura back in the front neck lock by the time Tamura touched his leg. Tamura had to use another escape. Tamura tried to shoot again, but Overeem took one step back, which left Tamura in a very compromising position, on his knees with his whole body exposed. Tamura covered up so Overeem couldn't choke him out. Overeem applied a hiza jujigatame, and Tamura tried to act like he wasn't in trouble, but in reality his knee was being damaged. He finally tapped out, but he sustained an injury because he waited too long. Tamura couldn't really put any weight on this leg as he was assisted to the locker room.

Volk Han (RINGS Russia, 44-16, rank #2) vs. Akira Maeda (RINGS Japan, 48-9). This was Maeda's final match in Osaka, so he was incredibly over. This had major heat and was a good bout due to Han being incredible. Still, the match quality couldn't come close to the level these to used to be able to reach because at this point Maeda can't do anything on his feet and is only passable on the mat when a guy like Han can carry him. Maeda has been out of shape for ages, but he came into this bout weighing 265, which meant bigger and more out of shape than ever. He looked bloated and totally lacked credibility as a shooter, but the nostalgic fans didn't care on this day.

What was good about this bout were Han's submissions, which are always as exciting as anything known to shoot. However, Maeda was so slow and unathletic that the true Han technique had to be shelved today. Han extended Maeda's arm in his typically deliberate and dramatic fashion and the fans yelled "MAE-DA" until Akira turned it into a headlock. Maeda finally locked in the jujigatame for a huge pop, but Han was too close to the ropes. Maeda appeared gassed by the 4- minute mark, but Volk Han had to use a rope escape to break his cross heel hold. The finish saw Han explode into a standing arm bar. Maeda rolled forward (well, he tried to) to alleviate the pressure, but Han sat down into a jujigatame for the win. After the match, Han picked Maeda up on his shoulder and walked around the ring with him and then they hugged. This was the final chapter in a great rivalry. Maeda's loss didn't hurt him at all, but did help Han some, because the fans all marked out huge for Maeda after the bout.

Special Thanks to Hadi Motiee & Michiko Kubota