Beginners Guide to Shoot Style

[elliott]

I've been watching the incredibly awesome Other Japan set and it got me thinking about the shoot style promotions. We have a "Beginners Guide" Thread for Lucha and European wrestling. I figured it would be useful to have one for shoot style. These were some of the questions I thought it would be important or interesting to talk about.

 

UWF was the first shoot style promotion.

When did it start, how long did it last?

Who was the “Ace” from the very start?

Who were the other key players from the first UWF and what were they up to before the promotion started?

Gran Hamada and Perro Aguyao worked a brawling all over the place match in UWF 1. How long did they use workers like that and how frequently did they have matches like that?

Was Hamada’s UWF related to the shoot style UWF from the same time. If yes, really? That seems really weird. And if no, really? That also seems weird. Why did they use the same name?

When did Shoot style move completely away from top rope moves?

When did they move to just submissions and knockouts (ie no pinfalls)?

What are the other notable shoot style promotions?

What are the rule and/or stylistic differences between the major promotions?

Who are the biggest draws/stars in each promotion?

Who are the best workers in each promotion?

What are the major feuds to look at in each promotion?

What are the very best matches from each promotion?

What matches would you recommend to someone new to shoot style just getting into the style (so not necessarily the best but the most universally appealing?)?

Who are some of the under the radar “guys to watch out for” in each promotion (ie not Maeda, Fujiwara, Volk Han, etc).

 

This is all I could come up with

[BillThompson]

I will definitely check in later and keep track of this. I'm by no means a shoot style expert, but it's a style I love and I've really been digging into it for the past year.

[ohtani's jacket]

Here is some info about the original UWF -- http://www.prowrestlinghistory.com/shoot/uwf/uwfabout.html

 

It was born out of the 1983 New Japan coup described here -- http://wiki.puroresu.com/Universal_Wrestling_Federation

 

Basically, it was originally envisioned to be a new version of New Japan broadcast on rival station Fuji TV and that's why it was similar to New Japan in both presentation and roster prior to Gotch's students taking over.

 

Hamada's UWF was actually covered the other day -- http://prowrestlingonly.com/index.php?/topic/31220-hamadas-uwf/

[Tim Cooke]

"When did Shoot style move completely away from top rope moves?"

UWF 2.0 had no top rope moves. They were actually gone for the most part by the end of UWF 1.0 but 2.0 is where the "UWF" style really started to be built for it's 1990's run.

"When did they move to just submissions and knockouts (ie no pinfalls)?"

UWF 2.0 had pins early. The 8/13/88 Takada vs. Yamazaki match had pinfalls and ends with a german suplex if my memory is correct. PWFG didn't have pins (at least for matches within their rules). RINGS definitely didn't. Fairly sure UWF-I didn't but I can't say that 100%.

"What are the other notable shoot style promotions?"

PWFG, at least early in it's run, has a lot of good stuff. Sano/Shamrock (5/91) and Sano/Suzuki (7/91) are two stand out matches.

RINGS - can't list all the great matches here.

UWF-I - especially in retrospect, it may not hold up as well but there are some good matches. I enjoy the Vader stuff as it is different and has a ton of heat.

U-Style - Tamura's 2003-2004 promotion. Ueyama vs. Ito (10/03), Tamura vs. Kohsaka (2/04), and Ito vs. Tamura (8/04) are all outstanding matches.

[Tim Cooke]

OJ has a list of good to great Shoot Style matches. SegundaCaida blog also ran through every PWFG and UWF 2.0 show.

 

The cream of the crop from RINGS (leaving out a lot of 'should watch but not great' matches from Han against a variety of Europeans from '92-'94):

 

7/16/92 Kopylov vs. Han

8/22/92 Han vs. Vrij

8/22/92 Maeda vs. Kopylov (maybe Maeda's best non-Han RINGS match)

6/17/95 Han vs. Yamamoto

9/25/96 Han vs. Tamura

1/22/97 Han vs. Tamura

4/22/97 Tamura vs. Kohsaka

6/13/97 Tamura vs. Zouev

7/22/97 Tamura vs. Bitsadze Tariel (one of the best carry jobs ever?)

9/26/97 Tamura vs. Han

6/27/98 Tamura vs. Kohsaka

6/24/99 Tamura vs. Yamamoto

 

Also highly enjoy the 9/26/97 Frank Shamrock vs. Tsuyoshi Kohsaka shoot from RINGS. Tamura vs. Frank Shamrock from 4/23/99 is also a fun shoot.

[Loss]

I would also add here that Hamada's UWF is not an actual company name. It's a colloquialism that possibly originated with tape collectors in the U.S. The actual name of the promotion is Universal Lucha Libre. Since I've picked up on that, I've tried to start using that name.

[pol]

The main event of the first UWF show was still very pro style:

 

 

I'm interested in the extent to which fans perceived each version of shoot style as legitimate at the time. In Snowden's book, Hisaharu Tanabe claims that fans believed the UWF/UWF 2.0 were real, but I've talked to people living in Japan who claim this wasn't the case, and it was more of a "the fights might be fixed but these guys are the real deal" sort of thing, which was why the whole Anjoh/Takada/Gracie debacle hurt the business so much. It's hard to imagine anyone seeing the UWF-i particularly as legitimate, especially when Pancrase existed at the same time.

[Loss]

I think that this is also a good place to explain some of the differences in style among the "Big 3" -- UWFi, PWFG and RINGS.

 

UWFi is the closest to pro style. If anything, it's a more mat-based New Japan heavyweight style with shoot style rules. UWFi had some great matches, but it's more traditionally pro wrestling than the other groups. For that reason, it might actually be a good starting point because it's not such a drastic departure from the norm. They have tag matches and they also have cards featuring guys like Kawada, Tenryu, Chono and Vader. One of my favorite guys from UWFi is Takayama, which surprised me because it seems like the standard line on him is that he really didn't hit his stride until going to All Japan. Yoji Anjo is a great asshole.

 

Others may see this differently, but PWFG always struck me as a group that got off to a hot start then fizzled out quickly. There isn't much PWFG I like after 1992, although there is definitely still some after that point worth checking out. But I think in 1991, which is when all three groups debuted, PWFG was easily the best of the three with the most interesting collection of talent and the best matches. Watch some Wayne (Ken) Shamrock in '91 and tell me this guy shouldn't have been the standard bearer of pro wrestling in America as the pioneer of an old yet new style that took wrestling in a really cool direction.

 

RINGS is my overall favorite. Volk Han is a great worker, but my favorite guy is actually Kiyoshi Tamura, who I would consider the best wrestler of all time if he had a deeper resume and more longevity. As it stands, he's still near the top. Han is the craftier worker, but Tamura is so unbelievably technically proficient and has a knack for building drama. He really hit his zenith in 1996 or so when he made the jump from UWFI and had what is most likely my top match of the decade against Yoshihisa Yamamoto on 06/24/99, although he has a few others at that level too. Aside from Han and Tamura, I love Kohsaka, and I also really enjoy Yamamoto as someone who is much better than you'd expect since he doesn't *look* as athletic as Tamura and Kohsaka. These guys probably have the best cardio of any workers I've ever seen. Tamura works a single, fast-paced mat exchange with Koshaka in their 06/27/98 classic that I want to say from memory lasts about ten minutes without stopping. But technique is technique. What makes Tamura so good especially is combining his technique with drama.

[pol]

I would also add here that Hamada's UWF is not an actual company name. It's a colloquialism that possibly originated with tape collectors in the U.S. The actual name of the promotion is Universal Lucha Libre. Since I've picked up on that, I've tried to start using that name.

 

Maybe OJ can help here, but with my (very) limited Japanese and the assistance of Google translate, this page seems to say that the promotion was originally called Universal Pro Wrestling, but still used the acronym UWF. They later changed to Federacion Universal Lucha Libre.

[ohtani's jacket]

I would also add here that Hamada's UWF is not an actual company name. It's a colloquialism that possibly originated with tape collectors in the U.S. The actual name of the promotion is Universal Lucha Libre. Since I've picked up on that, I've tried to start using that name.

 

It was originally called the UWF then it changed its name to Universal Pro-Wrestling Co. Ltd. The company generally referred to itself as Universal.

 

 

[ohtani's jacket]

Here is a picture of the original company name on a Japanese VHS tape:

 

[WingedEagle]

I think that this is also a good place to explain some of the differences in style among the "Big 3" -- UWFi, PWFG and RINGS.

 

UWFi is the closest to pro style. If anything, it's a more mat-based New Japan heavyweight style with shoot style rules. UWFi had some great matches, but it's more traditionally pro wrestling than the other groups. For that reason, it might actually be a good starting point because it's not such a drastic departure from the norm. They have tag matches and they also have cards featuring guys like Kawada, Tenryu, Chono and Vader. One of my favorite guys from UWFi is Takayama, which surprised me because it seems like the standard line on him is that he really didn't hit his stride until going to All Japan. Yoji Anjo is a great asshole.

 

Not that I'm someone to seek out something I expect to be bad, but where is the Takayama who was bashed for his work in mid-late 90s WON? I haven't checked out anything from the early tag days when he went to AJPW so perhaps its there but I'm fully on board that in UWFI he's passable at worst and usually been very interesting and unique, even for that setting.

[Loss]

I don't know that there's so much bashing, but I have heard more than once someone say that Takayama didn't become great until 2002, so I guess even post-AJ.

[ohtani's jacket]

Here is my list of great shoot style bouts. These are my personal picks and may not reflect matches which are actually good, though this was an attempt at reaching consensus and I included some matches that rated well from the Other Japan set.

 

UWF

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Super Tiger (9/7/84)

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Nobuhiko Takada (10/22/84)

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Super Tiger (12/5/84)

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Super Tiger (1/16/85 handheld)

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Akira Maeda (3/2/85)

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Super Tiger (7/17/85)

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Super Tiger (9/11/85)

UWF 2

Nobuhiko Takada vs Akira Maeda (11/10/88)

Nobuhiko Takada vs Bob Backlund (12/22/88)

Yoji Anjoh vs Masakatsu Funaki (6/14/89)

Masakatsu Funaki vs Tatsuo Nakano (7/24/89)

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs Kazuo Yamazaki (7/24/89)

Akira Maeda vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara (8/13/89)

Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (2/9/90)

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Kazuo Yamazaki (4/15/90)

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Masakatsu Funaki (9/13/90)

Nobuhiko Takada vs Yoshiaki Fujiwara (10/25/90)

Akira Maeda vs. Masakatsu Funaki (10/25/90)

UWF-i

Naoki Sano vs. Nobuhiko Takada (12/20/92)

Naoki Sano vs. Nobuhiko Takada (10/14/94)

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kazushi Sakuraba (5/27/96)

PWFG

Naoki Sano vs. Wayne Shamrock (5/19/91)

Naoki Sano vs. Minoru Suzuki (7/26/91)

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Masakatsu Funaki (7/26/91)

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Yusuke Fuke (2/24/92)

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Bart Vale (6/25/92)

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Wayne Shamrock (12/5/92)

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Joe Malenko (6/1/93)

Kingdom

RINGS

Volk Han vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto (6/15/95)

Volk Han vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka (8/24/96)

Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (9/25/96)

Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (1/22/97)

Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto (4/4/97)

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka (4/22/97)

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Nikolai Zouev (6/21/97)

Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (9/27/97)

Volk Han vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka (5/29/98)

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka (6/27/98)

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto (9/21/98)

Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto (6/24/99)

BattlArts/Big Mouth Loud/Fu-ten/Misc

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Carl Greco (2/20/97)

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka (2/28/97)

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda (4/15/97)

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda (5/27/98)

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda (8/29/99)

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Carl Greco (6/9/08)

Daisuke Ikeda/Takeshi Ono vs. Manabu Suruga/Takahiro Oba (4/9/09)

Takeshi Ono & Takahiro Oba vs. Manabu Suruga & Kengo Mashimo (5/30/10)

U-Style

Kiyoshi Tamura vs Dokonjonosuke Mishima (8/7/04)

Hiroyuki Ito vs. Kiyoshi Tamura (8/18/04)

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Hiroyuki Ito (10/9/04)

Other Promotions (New Japan, etc.)

Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara (NJPW 1/10/86)

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Victor Zangiev (NJPW 4/24/89)

Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Shinya Hashimoto (NJPW 6/1/94)

[ohtani's jacket]

elliott, to answer your questions simply, the original UWF was meant to be NJPW mark II but turned into NJPW-lite when guys wouldn't jump (especially Inoki) and they couldn't get a TV deal. Sayama came on board, who had been staunchly in the anti-Shinma/Inoki camp during the coup of '83 and Shinma was given the bum's rush. Then Sayama and the Gotch boys took over and introduced the idea of a promotion build around real pro-wrestling (as in the catch-as-can style that Gotch had been taught at Riley's gym in Wigan.) Fujiwara was Gotch's star pupil, if you like, and responsible for both training guys and implementing much of the stylistic changes. Sayama came from a different martial arts background and was pushing his shooto philosophies and therefore there was always an underlying tension between Sayama's MMA leanings and Gotch's hooking background. Shoot style the first time round was a work in progress and a lot of the guys still did pro-style moves like tombstone piledrivers and other crap. They struggled with cashflow and couldn't get a TV deal because they didn't run enough shows on a monthly basis, and the straight up pro-style guys like Rusher Kimura balked and quit almost straight away so they had a tiny roster outside of the touring Brits. They shut up shop after the backstage problems between Sayama and the Gotch boys boiled over to shoot incidents in the ring. This was the death knell right here:

 

Maeda was suspended and later fired, despite being the ace, and Sayama walked out and started Shooto, which as Tim Cooke and Eduardo will agree, would latter put on some of the most exciting MMA fights in Japan. The Gotch boys headed back to New Japan and feuded with Inoki and the NJPW guys. That lasted a couple of years and then there was another famous shoot incident between Maeda and Choshu where Maeda was suspended and fired (again.) That led to the formation of what we usually called UWF II, but is more commonly known as Newborn UWF in Japan (with the old UWF being the casual name for the first promotion.) Maeda was the baddest motherfucker on the planet at this point, aside from maybe Mike Tyson, and was a massive draw. The Newborn UWF was initially a tremendous success headlined by a rivalry between Maeda and Takada. Their monthly shows sold out in minutes, they were the first Japanese promotion to run the Tokyo Dome, etc., etc. and they did it all without TV. They also ushered in clean finishes and all the other talking points people used to make about UWF II. More importantly for us, the God of shoot style, Yoshiaki Fujiwara wrangled his way out of his New Japan contract, took his two prodigies Suzuki and Funaki with him, jumped to the new UWF promotion, took shoot style to the next level, ascended into heaven and was seated at the right hand of the Lord. Funaki became the big story in 1990 when he returned from injury and started beating everyone leading to a big fight against the top ace Maeda. And it would have been fascinating to have seen what came next, but egos and mismanagement and poor book keeping led to a splintering of the three main power brokers, Maeda, Takada and Fujiwara, which was somewhat amicable and perhaps inevitable but hugely political and tremendously ego-driven.

 

Loss already outlined the difference in the splinter promotions, but basically Maeda gave us RINGS which is like Mozart or Beethoven, Fujiwara gave us PWFG, which was like Thelonious Monk, and Takada gave us UWF-i, which was like Liberace. PWFG pushed the form the most through Funaki and Shamrock, but was a rinky dink indy promotion and increasingly needed to co-promote with other promotions to survive (especially in the era of interpromotional co-operation and cross promotion feuds.) Funaki and Suzuki were completely against that so split off and formed Pancrase, which was quasi-MMA promotion that was a bit liberal with its worked aspects but developed over time into a stylistic form that greatly influenced RINGS at its peak. PWFG eventually folded and out of the ashes was born the hybrid promotion BattlARTS run by Yuki Ishikawa. UWF-i was a farce, but it had two hugely important young guys named Sakuraba and Tamura, the first of which would go on to achieve fame in PRIDE and the second who flirted with jumping to Pancrase but eventually joined RINGS and together with Volk Han, Kohsaka and Yamamoto created bouts which are generally regarded as the highwater mark of shoot style. UWF-i eventually went out of business, briefly reopened as Kingdom and then morphed into PRIDE. PRIDE was a phenomenally entertaining MMA promotion that was the hottest thing in Japan in the early to mid 00s and hurt traditional Japanese pro-wrestling completely and literally killed off shoot style, but was easily the best thing about the Japanese scene in the 2000s and had fights that were better than any worked bouts during that decade. RINGS more or less resorted to MMA in order to survive, but Maeda was basically leaning in that direction anyone and would later promote a second MMA promotion Heroes. Tamura's short lived U-Style promotion was the last real attempt at promoting a shoot style fed aside from maybe shows under the Futen/BattlARTS/Big Mouth Loud banners barring whatever recent feds I'm unfamilar with. Shoot style still exists as a stylistic feature in matches, but there's no promotion committed to it as far as I'm aware, and MMA itself has had its day in Japan.

That was extremely rough and dirty, but at least it's a starting point.

[BillThompson]

Only area where I would disagree with OJ is UWF-I. They presented a style that leaned more towards pro wrestling than shoot, but I still loved what they did and really loved a lot of the matches that came out of that promotion.

[elliott]

Thanks for all of this. Great great stuff.

 

Thinking about the best shoot style feuds...

 

Working my way through the Other Japan sets Fujiwara vs Maeda feels like a feud of the decade contender. I have loved that matchup every time. Fujiwara vs Super Tiger is also really great.

 

Everyone knows Maeda vs Takada is a feud to look out for and Takada vs Yamazaki has always been praised.

 

Fujiwara vs Takada and Fujiwara vs Yamazaki are also excellent matchups. I love the Fujiwara vs Yamazaki matchup actually.

 

Han vs Tamura is another all time great shoot style feud.

 

I haven't watched Takada vs Vader or vs Albright in well over a decade so I have no idea how I'll like those now.

 

I know there's debate on whether or not BattleArts is really shoot style but if it is Ikeda vs Ishikawa is the feud to watch.

 

Any other feuds or recurring matchups that were great?

[ohtani's jacket]

A lot of people seem to like Tamura/Yamamoto. Volk/Kohsaka was a good series, as was Volk/Yamamoto. Tamura/Kohsaka and Kohsaka/Yamamoto were notable series, but only really produced one great singles match (two in the case of Tamura/Kohsaka depending on your how view the U-Style bout.)

 

You should check out the three Tamura/Sakuraba fights in UWF-i, which was a rarely case of the promotion actually doing shoot style. Also you need to watch Carl Greco against anybody and everybody.

 

Another notable series was Shamrock/Funaki, but their fights were a tad boring IMO.

[pol]

UWF 2.0 had pins early. The 8/13/88 Takada vs. Yamazaki match had pinfalls and ends with a german suplex if my memory is correct. PWFG didn't have pins (at least for matches within their rules). RINGS definitely didn't. Fairly sure UWF-I didn't but I can't say that 100%.

 

God, I now wish I'd made note of these when I saw them but I've been watching a bunch of early PWFG stuff and there were definitely a couple of pinfall attempts in there. It's so rare and so ineffective, though, that it makes you wonder why they even bothered.

 

edit: just found an example, the very end of the 09/28/91 Suzuki/Shamrock match has a pinfall attempt off a dragon suplex

[pol]

Just discovered (via this very cool page) that Fighting Network RINGS actually went by "Professional Wrestling Network RINGS" for its first two shows:

 

 

 

Can we surmise that the name change was an attempt to rid themselves of the pro wrestling association?

[El-P]

Loss already outlined the difference in the splinter promotions, but basically Maeda gave us RINGS which is like Mozart or Beethoven, Fujiwara gave us PWFG, which was like Thelonious Monk, and Takada gave us UWF-i, which was like Liberace.

 

 

Yeah, those goofy as fuck Fujiwara headbutts were "pure shootstyle".

And all those god awful matches involving shitty gaijins in RINGS didn't expose the style at all either. (I love the best RINGS, probably some of my favourite stuff ever, but the bad stuff was atrocious)

The negative bias toward Takada and UWFi (the "farce" that also was the hottest promotion in Japan for a while) is ridiculous.

[elliott]

 

Loss already outlined the difference in the splinter promotions, but basically Maeda gave us RINGS which is like Mozart or Beethoven, Fujiwara gave us PWFG, which was like Thelonious Monk, and Takada gave us UWF-i, which was like Liberace.

 

 

Yeah, those goofy as fuck Fujiwara headbutts were "pure shootstyle".

And all those god awful matches involving shitty gaijins in RINGS didn't expose the style at all either. (I love the best RINGS, probably some of my favourite stuff ever, but the bad stuff was atrocious)

The negative bias toward Takada and UWFi (the "farce" that also was the hottest promotion in Japan for a while) is ridiculous.

 

 

I was someone who would have talked about Takada as a top 15 all time guy in 2001. I had all of Tabe's Takada Comps and a bunch of UWFi shows. I haven't watched any of that stuff since and I'll reserve judgement until I get the chance to revisit it in the yearbooks.

 

Coming off the heels of the NJ and Other Japan set I would absolutely put Takada behind Fujiwara, Maeda, and Yamazaki. I liked Super Tiger in UWF way more than Takada as well. He's probably better than Osamu Kido. I won't speak to the UWFi stuff because I haven't watched it in so long. Takada definitely had some great performances and matches but watching a shit ton of matches in a row with all those guys I came away wanting to watch more Fujiwara and Maeda. I wouldn't say Takada is terrible or anything like that. I just thought the other guys were much better.

 

And Fujiwara's headbutts are awesome.

[El-P]

And Fujiwara's headbutts are awesome.

 

I like Fujiwara a lot (and think he was a great worker at his peak, which would be in the mid 80's).

 

But those headbutts are goofier and less "shoot-style" than anything Takada ever did. And I have no problem with this actually.

 

But it still makes me chuckle every time I hear that Fujiwara is that "great pure shoot-style worker" compared to the evil "all style no substance pro-style worker" Takada. But it's really a dead horse now, since Fujiwara being the God of shoot-style really is the new doxa at this point.

[ohtani's jacket]

Doxa is a cool word. Pity it's only really a doxa among about six people and certainly not among people who dropped out of the hardcore scene. I'd probably go back and forward on whom the God of shoot style is. It's either Fujiwara or Han. Since Fujiwara came first he's more of a pioneer, which I guess makes Volk the shoot style Jesus. Either way, you should be praying at the altar.

 

And btw, crappy foreigners and poor worked shoots is still more realistic than UWF-i. And UWF-i wasn't hot because of its in-ring product. Don't lend credibility to the farce!

[pol]

I enjoy some UWFi. I try to judge it on its own terms, not according to some set of criteria re: quality shoot style wrestling. If it fails at being realistic but still works as pro wrestling I don't see why that's a problem. To be honest, OJ, your criticisms strike me as a similar stance to the one you've criticised Parv for taking on lucha: not taking it on its on terms, rating it according to how much it resembles stuff you already like...

 

I do dislike the UWFi tendency to build matches around manipulation of the points system though. It strikes me as a cheap attempt to manufacture drama rather than having it emerge through the work itself. It's kind of similar to why Iron Man matches tend not to work.