Control21

His AJPW and NOAH stuff has aged particularly well I think.

Immediate names that jump out to me are Volk Han, Kiyoshi Tamura, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada, and Minoru Suzuki

I know I'm resurrecting an old thread but I've been watching some GCM: Contenders stuff and figured it was worth pointing out. It was a grappling promotion similar to Quintet and it had some really good matches and moments, including a TK/Suzuki vs Uno/Shibuya tag. They didn't have too many shows and were mainly active from about 1999-2002/2003, but lots of high-level stuff.

Volk Han is currently #2 on my list, just behind Bret Hart for me. I consider both of those guys two of the greatest natural performers to ever grace the ring.

I'm continually put off by this guy. He always felt like a slimy character to me. Just a clout chaser and grifter.

Albright will definitely make my Top 100. Pound for pound, one of the best and most exciting gaijin heavyweights during the 1990s along with Steve Williams and Stan Hansen.

Masayuki Naruse While never a major star or a main event player, Naruse was a very skilled wrestler who was very capable of working a solid pro-style or shoot-style match. Naruse came out of Maeda's RINGS dojo and became a key undercard player during the promotion's history, eventually finding his way to become a secondary star and fan favorite. Naruse would win RINGS' Light heavyweight title, although he didn't defend it very often, if at all. Naruse would later find himself as a common participant in Inoki-ism era NJPW during the early 2000s. Someone who could work very hard to put on a good, entertaining, and hard-hitting match. Recommended matches - vs Volk Han 10/25/96 vs Dieusel Berto 9/10/93 vs Wataru Sakata 12/23/97 vs Kiyoshi Tamura 8/28/98 vs Volk Han 5/22/99 w/El Samurai vs Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru 9/23/2002 Mitsuya Nagai A well-traveled shoot-style veteran that has been going strong since the 1990s. Nagai was a product of Maeda's RINGS dojo and became one of the key native mid-carders for RINGS up until he left the promotion in 1997 due to a disagreement with his mentor (Maeda, of course). Nagai was very raw at first, but quickly became a solid pro-wrestler and had some great matches with the likes of Volk Han, Yamamoto, and his dojo partner, Masayuki Naruse. Nagai would later try his hand at kickboxing and would later participate in BattlArts, NJPW, AJPW, NOAH, and GLEAT. He was also a key figure in the early years of post-NOAH split AJPW as an undercard worker. Not the flashiest name, but someone with a lot of longevity. Recommended matches - vs Volk Han 4/24/93 vs Volk Han 12/24/94 vs Nikolai Zouev 12/19/95 vs Yamamoto 3/18/95 vs Naruse 12/16/94 vs Kawada 3/3/2001 vs Kojima 3/24/2002 w/Kakihara vs Shinya Makabe & Yuji Nagata 6/8/2001 w/Dajiro Matsui vs Minoru Tanaka & Masakatsu Funaki 12/30/2021 Dick Vrij A kickboxer built like a bodybuilder, and one from Holland. This would becomome a common theme in Kakutogi in the decade following Dick Vrij's debut in UWF in 1989. Perhaps one of the first true monster heels in shoot-style. Dick Vrij had the look of a crazed man who couldn't work a lick, but was actually very good in the ring and only improved in time in terms of being able to construct a solid shoot-style match. He was a key part of Akira Maeda's RINGS promotion in its early years and provided Maeda with a credible main event rival to help build cards around. Dick Vrij's involvement with Chris Dolman and his dojo would eventually see guys like the Overeem brothers and Gilbert Yvel make their way over to Japan. Perhaps not a heavy contender for most top 100 lists, but certainly name that merits some consideration. Recommended matches - vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara 11/29/89 vs Akira Maeda 5/11/91 vs Akira Maeda 8/1/91 vs Volk Han 8/21/92 vs Volk Han 7/13/93 vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto 7/18/95 vs Masayuki Naruse 11/22/96

1975 - Antonio Inoki (or Jack Brisco, hard choice here), Billy Robinson, Nick Bockwinkel 1985 - Akira Maeda, Nobuhiko Takada, Yoshiaki Fujiwara 1995 - Volk Han, Kiyoshi Tamura, Kazushi Sakuraba 2005 - Kevin Randleman (of HUSTLE fame!), Tsuyoshi Kohsaka, Frank Shamrock (He wrestled in U-STYLE in 2005!) 2015 - Shinsuke Nakamura, KUSHIDA, Katsuyori Shibata 2022 - Yu Iizuka, Daisuke Nakamura, Takuya Nomura

I don't think that's fair. There's no doubt Funaki vs Rutten was a great pro-wrestling style fight (Takayama vs Frye, Sato vs Uno, and Sakuraba vs Newton are also examples of this), but Funaki had some great pro-wrestling matches during his career, including vs Nakano, Maeda, Suzuki (their UWF match was basically a preview of Pancrase), Anjo, and his AJPW matches with Suzuki and Suwama. A lot of his PWFG stuff is underrated too, which I've been meaning to take a closer look at. On Pancrase, it's an interesting topic because there are a few Pancrase matches included in some of the yearbooks here. Pancrase was 95% a shoot, with perhaps a handful of worked matches here and there but it should be considered a shootfighting promotion. With that said, Pancrase should also be considered a branch of the "Long UWF" and an integral part of the evolution of Kakutogi and pro-wrestling as both separate and interconnected entities. Without UWF, there wouldn't be Pancrase, and without Pancrase and UWF, who knows where Japanese MMA ends up by the 2000s. This doesn't even consider the importance of catch wrestling and the influence it had on Puroresu in general. This is why I don't mind when people consider Sakuraba's impact on JMMA when evaluating his career as a pro-wrestler because he always considered himself a pro-wrestler as a fighter and without his journey through the ranks of Takada's dojo, who knows if we even hear of him. If people want to consider Funaki's work in Pancrase, it shouldn't be discouraged as long as it doesn't form the primary foundation of their argument (he was a damn good pro-wrestler too, and is still going strong).

Per the Russian SAMBO federation, Nikolai Zouev passed away on May 21st from "heart issues." Of course, deaths are irrelevant to this project but I figured it was worth noting. Perhaps people will take the time to view some of his work. He will probably not make a ton of lists but he was a solid wrestler and I think some of his stuff is worth checking out anyways, especially his matches against Volk Han and Tamura. There are now a ton of RINGS shows uploaded on Youtube. Rest in peace.

I checked out his matches against Marufuji and Sugiura from 2021. I thought both were really good. Especially against Marufuji in August. He still can deliver if you ask me.

He did some stuff in early 2000s NJPW. He doesn't have the most prolific resume but I remember his match(es) against Nagata being good.

I think Sakuraba was easily one of the best guys in UWFi and Kingdom by the time he came around. I guess that's a more subjective issue but his matches with Tamura and Kanehara were just so good from a technical perspective.

He didn't have many matches but the natural talent skill and had is too much for me to overlook, and it clearly translated to the MMA world. I think that speaks volumes, and he always considered himself a "pro-wrestler" so it's hard to ignore that factor. His matches with Kanehara, Tamura, and Otani are among my favorites. He's still going strong today, and his longevity is hard to overlook now as well.

Ahh, I couldn't find it on Peacock so I suppose it's nice to have it on Youtube.

Has this video been around for a while? First time I've seen it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-1bUGi-wGaI

I would say it is definitely worth revisiting. This thread was a great guide for me when going through each year and it made me understand some of the matches a lot better.

Yeah, their roster was tailor-made for it. I think Steve Yohe commented in one of the Observers about how RINGS' was wasting its very talented roster by going for more shoots. Maybe Maeda was under pressure with the dwindling attendance numbers and the rise of PRIDE, but they definitely could have remained a "pro wrestling" promotion. The WOWOW issue was a factor as well, they were slowly cutting back more funding starting around 1999 and Maeda's ally with the company was on the verge of departing or had already left at that point (can't remember). Maeda probably made some stupid decisions way before 1999 as well, such as killing off Yamamoto's push by throwing him against Ricardo Morais right before Tamura came in.

The best of RINGS 1999, which would be their final 8 months or so before they became a full MMA promotion. With 1999 finished, I can truly say RINGS was truly one of the best promotions of all time, and while their early years may seem lean compared to the roster they had in 1996-1999, I think this thread fully illustrated how fun it was. WOWOW's production was also very innovative for the time, and it might be one of the best TV runs for a promotion no one ever talks about. Without further ado... Volk Han vs Hiromitsu Kanehara (1/23/99) Pretty good match overall. Perhaps one of Volk Han's more realistic matches and Kanehara's similar approach to shoot-style makes it all come together. Neither use rope breaks that much as they sort of try to out-grapple each other with some nice wrestling and counterwork. Kanehara appears to be sharper at first, but Volk Han's experience comes into play and he catches Kanehara with one of his trademark SAMBO takedowns for the kneebar finish. A nice taste of Volk Han in a different, more realistic setting. ****1/2 Kiyoshi Tamura vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (1/23/99) For a 9-minute match, this was really good. Kohsaka really shows his quality as a grappler in this match and has Tamura on the backfoot throughout. Tamura has his moments of course, but can't seem to figure out Kohsaka as he has superior counterwork as evidenced by the finish, where he catches Tamura with a beautiful Judo throw and quickly gets him with the juji-gatame. Some nice striking as well where Tamura is able to hurt Kohsaka the most by throwing some wicked knees and palm strikes. This match was also a great example of how to work a realistic match with intricate grappling and realistic matwork and still make it exciting. ****3/4 Valentijn Overeem vs Kiyoshi Tamura (2/21/99) Not to be confused with their 1998 shoot. This was a worked match, and Overeem and Tamura did things pretty stiff here as Tamura gets a tooth knocked out and some wild strikes are thrown. Overeem is very competent here and both have very tight grappling and counterwork with very few holes. Good stuff overall. **** Akira Maeda vs Aleksandr Karelin (2/21/99) This was quite entertaining, and it was a spectacle. Karelin looks solid here and Maeda makes sure to make Karelin look like a star. 10 minutes of great action in a once-in-a-lifetime match. We get a Karelin lift too! **** Hiromitsu Kanehara vs Kiyoshi Tamura (3/22/99) Some may find this match boring due to the highly realistic approach they took, but for a pro wrestling match, this was highly technical with a lot of state-of-art grappling techniques and counterwork that did not look out of place with the rapidly evolving world of MMA at the time. Tamura and Kanehara looked like equals here, and neither really had the advantage until about 14-15 minutes into the match when Kanehara starts to tire and Tamura forces him to use a rope escape several times. Basically, this was worked version of a high-level Pancrase match. Really nice stuff overall. ****1/2 Tsuyoshi Kohsaka vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto (5/22/99) This was an excellent shoot-style battle between two of RINGS dojo products at the peak of their respective careers. Yamamoto is a vicious striker and mature grappler, and Kohsaka is becoming a modern MMA fighter with a lot of experience across the work-shoot spectrum. Lots of hard strikes exchanged here with very little matwork, but Kohsaka seems to get the best of Yamamoto when he manages to get him on the canvas. Yamamoto's grappling isn't terrible, but seems to prefer his striking power and keeps launching on Kohsaka. Kohsaka fights back with a wicked series of knee strikes and kicks of his own, but Yamamoto manages to outlast another attempt from Kohsaka to get the submission and then knocks Kohsaka out with more hard palm strikes. I thought this would have been a real classic if it went another five minutes, but what we got is still fantastic. ****3/4 Kiyoshi Tamura vs Bitsadze Tariel (5/22/99) Better than their previous encounter. Pretty heated exchanges and Tamura gets Tariel on the canvas a few times. Tamura goes for the KO but realizes he can't knock down the big guy and settles for the submission finish at the end. **** Grom Zaza vs Volk Han (6/24/99) Pretty entertaining shoot-style match that saw both men work a more realistic and methodical style compared to their earlier matches. Very solid counterwork and grappling that wouldn't look out of place in a real fight or a Pancrase match. Zaza looked like he had more energy here, but Volk Han still put on a solid performance and even teased a soccer kick at one point. **** Kiyoshi Tamura vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto (6/24/99) This was a beautiful match. RINGS' last great masterpiece before they became a full-time MMA promotion. Kiyoshi Tamura and Yoshihisa Yamamoto are intertwined to some degree, as Yoshihisa Yamamoto's ascendency in RINGS came to a screeching halt when Kiyoshi Tamura joined the promotion in 1996 and became the hot new star immediately, surpassing Yamamoto as the company's new ace. The two met in a fateful "worked shoot" match in the 1996 RINGS Mega Battle Tournament where Tamura got the best of Yamamoto. Ever since then, the two had legitimate heat between each other. They would meet again on 9/21/1998 where the two produced another classic that was full of the same tension that defined their relationship. This match wasn't any different. Moments before the bell, Tamura slaps Yamamoto as Yamamoto attempts to shake his hand. From the opening bell, the two immediately go to war on the canvas they try to out scramble each other, with Yamamoto trying to prove that he's much better at Tamura's own game. They have a grappling battle for the first five minutes or so, with each trading favorable positions with some great counterwork and positioning. Neither wants to use a rope break, and we get an extended battle on the canvas where they both utilize the ground and pound that is now allowed in RINGS (to a certain degree, closed fists are only allowed for body shots). We get some stiff punches as a result, which seem pretty effective at weakening holds. As the minutes wear on, they both become more desperate to win the match and start launching vicious palm strikes. Yamamoto in particular appears to be more willing to expend energy trying to KO his chief rival. They both get even on points as they both manage to force each other to use one rope escape with clever submission attempts. From about 11-12 minutes on, this becomes more evident and Tamura appears to be shaken up quite a bit. From about 15 minutes on, we get the best five minutes of stand-up that you might ever see in wrestling, with the crowd fully invested and boiling hot as they exchange more palm strikes that would belong in a heavyweight fight. Yamamoto manages to knock Tamura down at about 18:30 into the match, with 1:30 left in the 20:00 time limit. Tamura appears to be finished but launches back with some beautiful Muay Thai-style strikes that catch Yamamoto off-guard. The score is evened up at around 19:00, and they both spend the last minute looking for the final KO blow. Tamura manages to get Yamamoto down to the canvas one last time and tries for the heel hold but Yamamoto defends himself and time expires for the draw. The Korakuen Hall crowd praises both men and they launch into a "RINGS! RINGS! RINGS! " chant that perhaps marks the last great moment for RINGS as a professional wrestling promotion. This is one of the great wars in wrestling you'll ever see, and one that is very much like Shibata vs Okada or Kawada vs Misawa in its own unique way. Incredible. ****** Hiromitsu Kanehara vs Wataru Sakata (8/19/99) Pretty decent Pancrase-esque shoot-style match that is really trimmed down to the basics. That isn't a bad thing, but this was a pretty methodical match and we didn't get much sense of urgency until the last few minutes. Lots of smart grappling and positioning techniques, however. **** Bonus recommendations - Tsuyoshi Kohsaka vs Gilbert Yvel (4/23/99) This was a shoot, but it was pretty damn entertaining and without gloves, it looked more like a Pancrase fight. Yvel pulls out some crazy knee strikes and Kohsaka looks outclassed at times, but Kohsaka is pretty much a modern MMA fighter at this point and holds his own until the referee is forced to stop the fight because Kohsaka gets beaten up pretty badly. Ref stoppages for blood and knee pad checks make things drag on at times. ****1/4 Kiyoshi Tamura vs Frank Shamrock (4/23/99) Maybe one of the best pure grappling fights ever? Maybe not it wasn't a grappling match strictly, but the level of work and skill involved in this fight is incredible. Like Kohsaka vs Yvel, this didn't have gloves and looked like a Pancrase match, and it was similar to the Shamrock vs Kohsaka fight from 1997 in that it looked like a pro wrestling match more than a modern MMA battle. Shamrock nearly has Tamura in the first minute, but Tamura gets the rope escape and we get a pretty even fight afterward with some very smart positioning and counterwork by both. 1999 contender for best shoot fight of the year. *****

Yeah, it's very hard to tell, but I think it was a worked match that was made to look realistic like Pancrase (Maeda was heavily influenced by Pancrase and reacted a lot to it), or at least a "worked shoot" like Tamura vs Yamamoto from 1996. We see a lot of matches that look like this match from about 1997 onwards as Maeda wanted the product to look more and more realistic.

Nikolai Zouev Certainly doesn't have the resume that Volk Han has, but he was one of the smoothest workers in RINGS and is an example of an intricate technical wrestler that has a lot of finesse to his game. He was probably one of the guys that brought a lot of flavor to RINGS' early period along with Volk Han, Kopylov, Willie Peeters, and Dick Vrij. He was a great SAMBO specialist and his matches really stood out from other shoot-style stuff at the time. I think Kopylov, Zouev, and Han are the best wrestlers to ever come out of Russia and I would rank them above Zangiev and Hashimikov if I am being honest. If we are considering the entire work-shoot spectrum, they founded Russia Top Team, which was a pioneering group for Russia's MMA development. A good example of someone who could sneak into my top 100 based on pure technical ability. Recommended matches - Nikolai Zouev vs Andrei Kopylov (10/23/93) Nikolai Zouev vs Volk Han (11/18/93) Nikolai Zouev vs Kiyoshi Tamura (6/21/97) Nikolai Zouev vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (11/20/98) Mikhail Ilyukhin Another Russian SAMBO guy who made a name for himself in RINGS. His career was limited to RINGS like the other Russian guys in RINGS, save for one match in U-Style against Kawada which was decent. Like Zouev, Han, and Kopylov though, he was very good from a pure technical standpoint. I don't think he had any bad matches either. He was a crowd favorite in RINGS by 1998/1999, and he really put together some late RINGS classics with Kiyoshi Tamura and Tsuyoshi Kohsaka. In terms of shoot-style, it's hard not to consider him one of the top 25 guys in the style. Recommended matches - Ilyukhin vs Kiyoshi Tamura (1/28/98) Ilyukhin vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (9/21/98) Ilyukhin vs Nikolai Zouev (10/21/95) Grom Zaza Might be the best wrestler to come out of Georgia? I can't think of many other examples. That's probably not a good headliner by itself, but he was a very fine shoot-style wrestler and really helped RINGS define its unique, state-of-art style through the years as he introduced a Georgian wrestling style that many hadn't seen before. Guys like Zaza really helped develop the RINGS house style I think, because flashy and highly technical matches became the expectation among the fans due to the level of work seen from some of the eastern European grapplers. He was able to have a good match with almost anybody. Maybe a top 25 shoot-style guy? I would put his matches up against anybody on that list. Recommended matches - Zaza vs Volk Han (5/16/92) Zaza vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (12/19/95) Zaza vs Kohsaka (7/22/97) Hiromitsu Kanehara A really underrated shoot-style wrestler who was one of the more promising guys in UWFi along with Kakihara, Tamura, and Sakuraba. He was also a very high-level wrestler who brought a lot of flair to his matches, and became an important figure in UWFi, RINGS, and Kingdom, which sort of speaks to his longevity. His series with Masakazu Maeda is fantastic and might be one of the most underrated feuds in Puroresu. He then had a fantastic series of matches in both UWFi and Kingdom before being a key guy in the later RINGS period, where he probably helped the promotion retain an audience by adding to the undercard. Like the other guys on this list, he didn't really have a bad match either. Recommended matches - Kanehara vs Masakazu Maeda (2/29/1992) Kanehara vs Kazushi Sakuraba (8/18/95) Kanehara vs Sakuraba (12/2/1997) Kanehara vs Volk Han (1/23/1999)

I've been finishing up my RINGS watch through and I think Tsuyoshi Kohsaka might be one of the best professional wrestlers ever from a technical standpoint. Volk Han is obviously a great example of a super rookie and someone who had a very high batting average match-for-match, but I think Tsuyoshi Kohsaka is overlooked when having that discussion. I don't think Kohsaka ever had a bad match and even his stuff in NJPW was pretty solid. In terms of ability, he's up there with Kiyoshi Tamura and Kazushi Sakuraba in terms of having natural gifts and tremendous grappling ability that could probably be considered generational. Not only that, he knew how professional wrestling worked and the match structure in his matches was usually very good. He wasn't flashy like Tamura or Han, but his matches were very believable and he gave some tremendous moments like his Judo throw on Tamura in the 1-23-99 match or having a bloody 30-minute draw with Yamamoto in 1997. He's very high on my list at the moment and I don't see that changing. Kohsaka's best matches. Italics = best of the best - Kohsaka vs Daisuke Ikeda (12/24/94) Kohsaka vs Sergei Sousserov (6/17/95) Kohsaka vs Masayuki Naruse (7/18/95) Kohsaka vs Grom Zaza (12/19/95) Kohsaka vs Hans Nijman (3/25/96) Kohsaka vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto (4/26/96) Kohsaka vs Volk Han (7/16/96) Kohsaka vs Han (8/24/96) Kohsaka vs Han (11/22/96) Kohsaka vs Mikhail Ilyukhin (1/22/97) Kohsaka vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto (4/4/97) Kohsaka vs Kiyoshi Tamura (4/22/97) Kohsaka vs Zaza (7/22/97) Kohsaka vs Ilyukhin (11/20/97) Kohsaka vs Kenichi Yamamoto (6/20/98) Kohsaka vs Tamura (6/27/98) Kohsaka vs Ilyukhin (9/21/98) Kohsaka vs Tamura (1/23/99) Kohsaka vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto (5/22/99) Kohsaka vs Yoshihiro Takayama (1/4/03) Kohsaka vs Nagata (5/14/05) Kohsaka vs Tamura (2/4/04) Bonus - Shamrock vs Kohsaka (9/26/97) and Kohsaka vs Yvel (4-23-99). Both shoot matches, but very good and they resemble Pancrase-style shoots more than MMA as you might recognize it today.

Here you go! Tsuyoshi Kohsaka vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto (RINGS 5-22-99) - video Dailymotion This is probably the second-best worked match in 1999 RINGS. Lots of great action here. A matured Yamamoto doesn't really pull any palm strikes, to say the least, and he's a lot more proficient as a grappler as well...but this is very much a heavyweight fight. Kohsaka is pretty much a modern MMA fighter at this point, and he really shows how good he is here, especially towards the end when he unleashes absolute bombs on Yamamoto. This isn't a technical masterpiece like Ilyukhin vs Tamura or Tamura vs Kohsaka from 6/27/98, but like Yamamoto vs Tamura a month later, this is a war. Great stuff overall. ****3/4

This is my current top 10. I might have Kohsaka pretty high, but looking back on his career recently, he really didn't miss that often. He's sort of like Volk Han in that regard, just a smaller sample size. Might be one of the best pure wrestlers I've ever seen. 1) Bret Hart 2) Volk Han 3) Blue Panther 4) Akira Maeda 5) Mitsuharu Misawa 6) Billy Robinson 7) Kiyoshi Tamura 8) Kenta Kobashi 9) Tsuyoshi Kohsaka 10) Yoshiaki Fujiwara The rest of my top 25 - 11) Tatsumi Fujinami 12) Negro Casas 13) Antonio Inoki 14) Nobuhiko Takada 15) Karl Gotch 16) El Hijo del Santo 17) Jumbo Tsuruta 18) Owen Hart 19) Kazushi Sakuraba 20) Eddie Guerrero 21) Toshiaki Kawada 22) Satoru Sayama 23) Nick Bockwinkel 24) Villano III 25) Minoru Suzuki

The best from the second half of 1998. Wataru Sakata vs Kiyoshi Tamura (7/20/1998) An excellent technical display from Tamura and Sakata. Unlike the Kenichi Yamamoto vs Volk Han match, this didn't have any spots that did not fit the realistic house style at the time. Sakata looks really good when he is with wrestlers like Tamura or Kanehara who can worked his preferred approach to shoot-style where there are no flashy spots, but just solid Pancrase-esque grappling and counterwork. The juji-gatame finish here is better as well as Sakata realistically taps after trying to escape by rolling his shoulder. ****1/4 Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs Akira Maeda (7/20/1998) This match didn't really start to fire up until around the 10:00 mark. Things start off a bit slow as Maeda tries to keep Yamamoto on the ground and they don't really do much there. Yamamoto becomes more emboldened as the match wears on and starts throwing stiff palm strikes at his mentor. At the 15:00 mark, the match really escalates and we get a heavyweight boxing match with palm strikes instead of haymakers. Maeda gets busted up in the process and gets a bit of blood on his face. The crowd really buys into the match at this point, and they actually jeer the result because Maeda gets the judges' decision despite being knocked down for a ten count and clearly took most of the punishment. Could have been better. **** Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs Nikolai Zouev (8/28/1998) Pretty nice showing from both as Zouev continues to show his strengths in grappling finesse. Yamamoto puts on a nice display too with some nice counterwork on the mat and some intense palm strikes mixed in. I think this match makes you appreciate Yamamoto's maturation as a grappler and overall wrestler, and Zouev's constant presence as one of the best when it comes to intricate shoot-style work. **** Masayuki Naruse vs Kiyoshi Tamura (8/28/1998) This match probably went too long, but this was a nice display of very technical shoot-style wrestling, particularly in terms of RINGS' realistic approach during this time. Naruse and Tamura kind of work first-to-second gear throughout the match, and they never really turn things up a notch. That isn't a bad thing though, as the work was really consistent throughout. **** Christopher Haseman vs Wataru Sakata (9/21/98) Pretty stiff shoot-style match. Haseman's best match in RINGS up to this point. Maybe Sakata's best match as well? Lots of stiff striking and some spirited grappling. Meltzer considered Haseman one of the most underrated workers during the late 90s and I can see why. He's a really solid wrestler in the shoot-style format and the realistic approach suits him especially. Not a flashy guy, but really good at making things look real and putting together decent matches that make sense in terms of match structure. Excellent. ****1/2 Mikhail Ilyukhin vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (9/21/1998) Another RINGS match that flies under the radar. This was a borderline classic with lots of fluid wrestling and counterwork from both men. Kohsaka pulls out some flashy moves here, including a flying omoplata of some sort. Kohsaka also has some slick reversals in his bag and gives the stronger Ilyukhin a run for his money. Ilyukhin was very good here as well, and worked his realistic SAMBO style to near perfection here, including pulling out a kani-basami. Fantastic stuff all around. ****3/4 Kiyoshi Tamura vs Yoshihisa Yamamoto (9/21/1998) I heard good things about this match and I did not think it could reach the heights that Kohsaka vs Tamura from 6/27/98 did, but I was wrong. This was incredible. A mature Yamamoto comes out swinging against Tamura and doesn't pull any palm strikes, to say the least. Tamura is in the fight for his life here. Yamamoto doesn't meet Tamura's skillset on the mat, although he is very good, but pushes Tamura to the brink with his striking game and stand-up. It appears Yamamoto controls the match from about 10 minutes on as he gives everything he has to finally defeat his nemesis, but Tamura's conditioning pays off and he gets Yamamoto back down to the mat several times to regain control. After Yamamoto makes a few desperate rope escapes, Tamura finally catches him with a reverse guillotine choke and gets the victory. This was a true war, and it gave me goosebumps. A surefire sign of a RINGS classic. ***** Nikolai Zouev vs Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (11/20/1998) This match was the final in the Team Russia B vs Team Japan B dantaisen match that reflected the format of the 1998 World Mega Battle Tournament. Probably one of the few highlights to come from this tournament, unfortunately. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka just shows out here, displaying a lot of techniques that still look modern to this day. Zouev also works a very fine match here and they just go from one to hold to another effortlessly. Kohsaka goes wild with the TK scissors and gets Zouev with them several times. The point system used in this format (two for each wrestler, and knockdowns and rope escapes each count for one point) adds to the drama of this match, which would decide the winner of this team battle. ****1/4