Wrestle-1

[killlah]

I heard something about show called Wrestle-1. Is any chance find a video material from this?
It looks like a lot of fun there - pro wrestling matches with fighters like Jan Nortje, Ernesto Hoost (vs Bob Sapp), Kevin Rendleman, Mark Coleman, Masaaki Satake...

There was 2 shows:
January 19, 2003 Tokyo
1. Abdullah the Butcher -vs- Sata...yarn (Masaaki Satake)
2. Anthony W.Mori & Takuya Sugawara & Taiji Ishimori -vs- Milano Collection AT & Masato Yoshino & Shuji Kondo
3. Kebdo Ka Shin -vs- Sabu
4. Ultimo Dragon & Kaz Hayashi -vs- Ultimo Guerrero & Rey Bucanero
5. Satoshi Kojima & Hiroshi Hase -vs- Terry Funk & Heath Herring
6. Mark Coleman & Kevin Randleman -vs- Jan "The Ginat Convict" Nortje & Singh The Giant Convict (Giant Singh)
7. Shinya Hashimoto -vs- Joe Son
8. Keiji Muto & Bill Goldberg -vs- Kronic (Brian Adams & Brian Clarke)
9. Ernesto Hoost -vs- Bob Sapp

November 17, 2002 Yokohama
1. Abdullah the Butcher -vs- Sata...yarn (Masaaki Satake)
2. Kendo Kashin & Apeman Nigo (Kaoru Uno) -vs- La Parka & Super Parka
3. Dos Caras Jr. & Sam Grecaras (Sam Greco) -vs- Taiyo Kea & Kaz Hayashi
4. Satoshi Kojima & Hiroshi Hase -vs- Mark Coleman & Kevil Randleman
5. Shinya Hashimoto -vs- Josh Dempsey
6. Bill Goldberg -vs- Rick Steiner
7. Bob Sapp -vs- Great Muta

know somebody something about it?

[FieldingMellish]

As far as I know the only way you can get hold of the Wrestle-1 shows is through pro wrestling tape traders. If you search around a bit on Google for ‘wrestling’ ‘tape trader’ ‘Japan’, things like that you should get a few sites. Your best bet might be to find one from the UK as postage rates should be much lower, but they tend to stock less stuff than the American ones. That’s of course if you’re really interested in seeing these shows. I watch a lot of pro wrestling and to be honest if you want pro wrestling with MMA stars in these shows are probably for you. Also check out the first couple of Inoki Bom Ba Ye events as they had a similar focus. Bom Ba Ye was a pro wrestling event before it was an MMA event. You’re very unlikely to be able to download clips like you would an MMA fight as pro wrestling fans don’t really do that making highlight videos and file sharing clips very much.

The problem is that most of the matches on here were pretty bad. I’ve seen some and read about some of the others. What people don’t usually understand is just how difficult it is to do pro wrestling. It’s a matter of timing, communication, skill, co-ordination etc. and you have to make it look vaguely real too, especially in Japan.

There were only two Wrestle-1’s because they cost an insane amount of money to put together and flopped miserably. I’ve heard they were partially financed with Yakuza money too. The shows were mainly financed by All Japan’s Keiji Muto (the Great Muta) as an attempt to copy K-1’s big show entertainment spectacular style and like I said, were a total failure.

As for the events themselves:

November 17 2002:

1.) Abdullah is in his mid 60s and unbelievably fat. Sataake is clumsy ahd hopeless at pro wrestling. Draw your own conclusions.
2.) Depends partially on the Parkas. Kendo Kashin is very good (he’s done MMA under his real name of Tokimitsu Ishizawa, losing to and then beating Ryan Gracie) and Uno is a natural. This sounds like a fun match.
3.) Should have been decent. Caras Jr is OK and Greco had quite a bit of pro wrestling training for WCW in the USA before going to K-1. Kea is good and Hayashi is fantastic.
4.) This was definitely the best match on the show, easily. Seen some of it. Kojima was awesome in 2002, Hase is a modern legend and Randleman and Coleman are perfectly suited to a hard, aggressive, serious style of pro wrestling. Both are very athletic and believable, even with very little training.
5.) & 6.) Disasters, both of them. Hashimoto used to be good but Dempsey was awful. Goldberg can be OK at times but Steiner (his best friend) has been just terrible for years now.
7.) Have seen this one. It was OK. Sapp is better at pro wrestling than he is at K-1 but that isn’t saying much.

January 19 2003

1.) See the first event
2.) All 6 guys were from Toryumon. Haven’t seen this particular match but they always do fun, quick paced, high flying stuff. Hilarious gimmicks too.
3.) Ka Shin and Sabu is a major style clash, especially as Sabu got older, clumsier and more injured. Probably a mess.
4.) Excellent match-up. 4 of the best pro wrestlers around. Almost guaranteed to be good with these involved.
5.) Herring was completely lost but did vaguely OK. Fairly entertaining.
6.) Like I said before Coleman and Randleman have great potential as pro wrestlers. Their opponents are two of the clumsiest goons I’ve ever seen.
7.) Awful. Just awful.
8.) Terrible match. The went about 20 minutes and Kronik are just abysmal. And to make matters worse they were VERY well paid for this nonsense.
9.) Hoost had absolutely NO pro wrestling training. Sapp is pretty bad. It was actually so bad it was very, very funny.

[killlah]

oh, really good infos, thanks!

i'll check around my sources :)

[heckyl]

sapp vs hoost - hoost gets his revenge

http://message.axkickboxing.com/images/user_uploaded/dirk%20stal/ernesto%20show.JPG
http://message.axkickboxing.com/images/user_uploaded/Oliver%20Sperling/1%20get%20in%20the%20ring.jpg
http://message.axkickboxing.com/images/user_uploaded/Oliver%20Sperling/2%20bob%202%20ring%20hoost%20girls.jpg

[heckyl]

http://message.axkickboxing.com/images/user_uploaded/Oliver%20Sperling/3%20bob%20flying%20angle.jpg

http://message.axkickboxing.com/images/user_uploaded/Oliver%20Sperling/bob%20flying%20to%20hoost%20the%20hustler.jpg

http://message.axkickboxing.com/images/user_uploaded/Oliver%20Sperling/5%20bob%20down%20wret%20hoost.jpg

[heckyl]

http://message.axkickboxing.com/images/user_uploaded/Oliver%20Sperling/6%20slam%20bob%20out%20ring.jpg

http://message.axkickboxing.com/images/user_uploaded/Oliver%20Sperling/7%20hoost%20killing%20bob.jpg

http://message.axkickboxing.com/images/user_uploaded/Oliver%20Sperling/8%20lol%20fake.jpg

[heckyl]

http://message.axkickboxing.com/images/user_uploaded/Oliver%20Sperling/9%20chair%20slaaaam.jpg

http://message.axkickboxing.com/images/user_uploaded/Oliver%20Sperling/10%20hoost%20vinner.jpg

http://message.axkickboxing.com/images/user_uploaded/Oliver%20Sperling/11%20corner%20dance.jpg

[heckyl]

http://message.axkickboxing.com/images/user_uploaded/Oliver%20Sperling/bbb.jpg

http://message.axkickboxing.com/images/user_uploaded/Oliver%20Sperling/Hoost%20Bob%20Hands%20broken_friends.jpg

thats all i could dig up on this event. hope its new to ya.

[Dado]

Was that fake?

[( o Y o )]

Was that fake?


very much so.

[heckyl]

fake wrestling brutality at it's best.

[killlah]

great photos
thanks a lot :)

[heckyl]

great photos
thanks a lot :)

no problem. i know not alot of people have seen them so i keep em on the hard drive just in case ;) i wish i could have seen pictures of the other fights since these were quite hilarious.