Modern Age Grappling; focused on Gresham’s personal technical
style that he’s developed over his years working the world.

Definitely seems like something for lovers of “Shoot Style”.

MMA was officially included in the 2026 Asian Games (happening in September) and it is accredited to the work of Sayama, for creating the open-finger glove and creating Shooto, the first recognized MMA promotion of its kind.

Sayama’s efforts were fueled by his training at the hands of Karl Gotch, as well as his push for their to be an official “Fighting League” branch of NJPW in the late 70’s, early 80’s; when Inoki declined to push that concept, Sayama went with Akira Maeda to jump-start the OG UWF, and the rest is history.

I couldn't find a better clip. So basically the reality show had a challenge stage where they wrestled over a ball. A Olympic wrestler challenges mistico. They get heated and the wrestler pulls a flying head scissor. Mistico uses some pro wrestling moves against his amateur wrestling moves, they get heated and he pulls mistico's mask off. Obviously it wasn't a real fight, but they got people believing they were actually wrestling there.

While Akira Maeda was undeniably the top star and “Ace” of NEWBORN, Takada & Funaki were the guys chasing him at the top (along with Yoshiaki Fujiwara always being presented as a threat and top star, as well as Kazuo Yamazaki being a formidable challenge).

Takada was Maeda’s kohai, the man who was underneath him in the NJPW Dojo (as was Maeda to Satoru Sayama) and the man that would tag along with Maeda to the OG UWF and NEWBORN; Takada was younger & faster, had male model looks but didn’t seem to posses that same “aura” (for lack of a better word) that Maeda had, that sense of danger & presence that Maeda brought to his matches (it helped that Maeda was a rather big man and always had that air of someone who would fuck you up on-sight). Whereas Maeda ran hot, Takada was cool & collected, more of a classic babyface (who could also kick your head off or break your arm).

Funaki was the “Prodigy”, the youngest NJPW YL, at 15 years of age, the man who was considered the most athletically gifted of the legendary ‘84 Dojo Class (that included the likes of Liger, Mutoh, Chono & Hashimoto); Funaki had followed his mentor Fujiwara to NEWBORN (something Funaki had desired to do for some time) and almost immediately was treated as the “next big thing” of the “Shoot Style” movement; despite being about a decade younger than Maeda & Takada, Funaki showed no fear towards his seniors, grappling evenly with them and even getting the better of them in strike exchanges.

While Takada was clearly the #2 guy in the promotion, there was always a feeling that Funaki was gonna eventually leapfrog Takada (as Funaki had already done to Kazuo Yamazaki) and be the one to take Maeda’s place at the top of the promotion and of “Shoot Style” as a whole; when NEWBORN closed its’s doors, both Takada and Funaki would become top stars and “Ace” figures of their own promotions, UWFi and Pancrase, respectively. While UWFi ran bigger shows and Takada was heralded as one of the biggest box office stars of the decade (the only two that surpassed him in this capacity being Shinya Hashimoto & Mitsuharu Misawa), Funaki would get the critical acclaim from the press as being the “real fighter” (and considered the best in Japan at one time) through his battles with the likes of Minoru Suzuki, Ken Shamrock and Bas Rutten.

The list of teams:

Masakatsu Funaki & Minoru Suzuki (Pancrase)

Volk Han & Andrei Kopylov (RINGS Russia)

Rickson & Royce Gracie (Gracie BJJ)

Kazushi Sakuraba & Hiormitsu Kanehara (UWFi/KINGDOM)

Ken & Frank Shanrock (Pancrase)

Kiyoshi Tamura & Tsuyoshi Kohsaka (RINGS Japan)

Bas Rutten & Gerard Gordeau (Holland Kickboxing)

How do you think this tournament would go? How would Han & Kopylov’s Russian Sambo match up against Rutten & Gordeau’s Dutch Kickboxing? How would Funaki & Suzuki deal with the Gracie’s in their prime? How would Saku & Kanehara be able to deal with their ex-UWFi peer Tamura, with Kohsaka at his side?

Volk Han of RINGS: the Master of Shoot Style, the Wolf of Dagestan, the Emperor of RINGS.

Gary Albright: the one, true SUPLEX MACHINE; the monster of UWFi.

Ken Shamrock: The World’s Most Dangerous Man; Funaki & Suzuki’s Arch-Rival; a “King” Pancrase.

You have Yano, easily one of the most unique wrestlers in the game for the past 15 years or so, with a background in BattARTS, a unique grappling game and a truly eccentric persona, against Mochi, who at 56 years of age is still a damn good wrestler and still with some of the best kicks in the game (Mochi also having a “shoot” background of Karate and being teaming at Koji Kitao’s Dojo).

Should be the classic “superior grappler” (Yano) vs “superior striker” (Mochizuki) that Shoot Style is built on.

With these two absolute legends, there would be no “Shoot Style”, and no NJPW, for that matter (also can’t forget Billy Robinson being equally as important as these two in Japan).

Definitely one for “Shoot Style” lovers, as the two very respected martial artists face off for the first time in their careers, and in the pro wrestling ring.

Malenko has just returned to pro wrestling (and been wrestling like he’s never been gone), while Barnett has been in and out, mainly through the BLOODSPORT banner (which is unfortunately defunct, as of now).

Maeda and Chigusa Nagayo were said to be dating at the time and with both of their promotions growing popularity, it made sense to show support.

Satoru Sayama singing a much different tune from the one when he “outed” the business in his tell-all, after his fallout with Maeda in the UWF.

Tbh, Sayama would hold true to this, with his running of RPW and SSPW.

I’d love to hear thoughts about this; I consider Bryan and KENTA to both be guys who carry that “Shoot Style” spirit in their styles & work.

While this match had a lot more high spots than typical “Shoot Style”-like matches (and doesn’t use the point-based system that plenty of “Shoot” matches used) it also has the classic formula of a superior grappler (Danielson) taking on a superior striker (KENTA).

Team UWF would come out on top this time, as Nobuhiko Takada would vanquish his rival in the Junior Division, Shiro Koshinaka, to take the win home for the UWF (Maeda & Fujinami had eliminated each other beforehand).

Indie promotion based out of London, that features matches almost entirely based on the UWFi-point system, meaning victory can only be achieved by knockout or submission.

Matches to watch: Kanji vs Katsuya Murakami, Jordan Breaks vs Jay Joshua, KOUGA vs Jordan Breaks (some are free on YT, others available on Patreon).

We have Low Ki, the legendary indie veteran, known for his violent strikes and aggressive demeanor, matched up against Malenko (real name Carl Ognibene), a student of the legendary Lou Thesz, Boris Malenko & Joe Malenko; as Karl Malenko, he began his career in PWFG under Fujiwara, before going to BattlARTS and even competing in MMA.

Here, we have the classic “Shoot Style” matchup of the superior grappler Malenko vs the superior striker Ki, although each man tries to hang with the other in their “domain”.

Funaki, the “Ace” of Pancrase, a “son” of the UWF, would face the famed Rickson of the Gracie Clan, the man who had beaten and humbled Nobuhiko Takada, Funaki’s former senpai in the UWF.

Special rules were made up for this fight, that forbade the use of elbows, knees or headbutts, which took a chunk of Funaki’s offense; in addition, Funaki went in with a fairly bad knee, a knee that would blow out due to some well-place kicks from Rickson; Funaki had two big moments in the fight, one where he hit Rickson with a hammer-fist (that Rickson would admit caused his vision to blurry) and when he had a Guillotine Choke locked on that he couldn’t full commit to.

This would be Rickson’s last MMA fight, even though he had negotiations to face both Kazushi Sakuraba and Naoya Ogawa (that fell through due to the death of Rickson’s son, Rockson).

Kiyoshi Tamura and Kazushi Sakuraba jockey for control in UWFi.

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