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Tanigawa: K-1’s ‘large coalition’ will continue
By Zach Arnold | January 1, 2008
Today, Kazushi Sakuraba and Sadaharu Tanigawa held a press briefing in Osaka. (Picture here.)
If Fedor’s face looked like he suffered from road rash, then Sakuraba’s face is twice as bad.
However, the big story coming out of the press conference involved Tanigawa proclaiming that the ‘large coalition’ that K-1 was a part of would continue.
It is becoming very clear what the main storyline in Japanese MMA will be in 2008 and who will be leading the charge (Kazuyoshi Ishii).
K-1 working with zombie PRIDE and other organizations will obviously lead to more interpromotional matches. The question is what formula will Ishii base his new interpromotional feud on. Will he take on a WWE vs. WCW mentality? A WWE vs. ECW mentality?
Or will he take on a New Japan vs. UWF-International 1995-1996 mentality? Given that Takada was the front man for UWF-Inter in 1996 and he’s the face of the zombie PRIDE in 2008, it sounds like a pretty good formula for Ishii to play off of given that Sakuraba is his ‘ace’ for HEROs.
Lots of similarities between K-1/zombie PRIDE 2008 and NJ/UWF-Inter in 1995:
- Takada was the ace of UWF-Inter and he’s the public face of PRIDE.
- Sakuraba was a key young star for UWF-Inter in the 1995 feud, but now he will be playing the role of Kazuo Yamazaki (circa 1996) by jumping to the enemy camp. (Yamazaki went to NJ, Sakuraba now part of HEROs.)
- UWF-International suffered through financial problems (thanks to Takada’s failed political career), zombie PRIDE has financial problems and has no major TV deal (just like UWF-Inter).
- New Japan managed to pull off three major Tokyo Dome shows with the UWF-Inter feud before crushing and destroying their rival, which exactly could happen here with K-1 vs. zombie PRIDE even in a shoot environment.
Topics: HERO's, Japan, K-1, MMA, Media, PRIDE, Pro-Wrestling, Zach Arnold | 6 Comments » | Permalink | Trackback | Share This
Do you think that Crocop could play a role in the invasion angle? Was there some significance to him being in Japan on New Year’s?
Please can you stop refering to Pro wrestling when writing articals not all of us who read your site are obsessed with WWF, WCW etc
Then I guess I shouldn’t say that Sakuraba vs. Funaki was marketed as a battle of UWF legends.
I should forget that both men wore wrestling masks for their ring entrances.
I should probably forget that much of Ishii’s influence (along with Tanigawa’s and Sakakibara’s) came from professional wrestling.
I’m not asking you to support wrestling, but it makes understanding the Japanese MMA scene a lot easier.
with all due respect to the poster of this comment but you sir are a moron
what this noob doesn’t seem to understand is that puroresu is as much a part of the roots of Japanese MMA as Gotch,Fujiwara and The U-style family are.
What the author is trying to do is to draw a parable between the NJPW/UWFI fued of 95 and what may soon happen with K1 and “Zombie PRIDE”.
this has nothing to do with WCW or WWF/E
ty salvatore (feragammo)
K-1 working with zombie PRIDE and other organizations will obviously lead to more interpromotional matches. The question is what formula will Ishii base his new interpromotional feud on. Will he take on a WWE vs. WCW mentality? A WWE vs. ECW mentality?
Its not as if K-1 can just demand all the PRIDE guys job out.