A true fighter isn't someone who gets in the ring simply with the idea to beat people up just for the sake of it. A true fighter is someone who understands that the real fight is always against themselves. In a competitive fight, you'll get to see where you truly stand in the world of combat sports and life in general, as you're basically facing yourself with your opponent acting like a mirror. During his years as an active competitor, Kiyoshi Tamura was a true fighter with a great level of discipline and skill, and he was great at what he did.

Kiyoshi Tamura was born on 12/17/69 in Okayama, Japan. When he was young, he admired Tatsumi Fujinami and aspired to become a professional wrestler. Tamura did some sumo while he was in high school. In 1988, he took and passed the Newborn UWF entrance test. Tamura made his pro wrestling debut in Newborn UWF in 1989, and he quickly showed progression in his first few years, as he was already a great worker by 1992. One of Tamura's top opponents in the early days of UWF-I was Yoji Anjo, with whom he had a couple of great matches. In the early 1990's, Tamura received guidance from wrestling legends Lou Thesz and Billy Robinson.

Over the course of Tamura's career, he would be able to blur the lines between pro wrestling fiction and reality through his amazing ability to work realistic-looking matches (relatively speaking), yet he was also able to compete in shoot competition quite successfully. Just to be clear here for those who aren't familiar with certain pro wrestling terms that will be used in this article; a worked match is a match with a predetermined outcome, and a shoot fight is a legit contest with an unplanned outcome. 

On 5/8/92 at a UWF-I event, in what was billed as a ‘martial arts fight,' Tamura beat American boxer Matthew Saad Muhammad in 34 seconds. This was Kiyoshi Tamura's first shoot fight, but while it was a nice win, it was against an opponent who obviously was unprepared and/or didn't know what he was getting into. This was also before the start of Pancrase and UFC, so people didn't really know what MMA was (especially since the term ‘MMA' hadn't even been coined yet). 

At some point in the late ‘90s, the RINGS league, which Tamura was competing in at the time, decided to focus more on shoot fights instead of having mostly worked matches, which meant that the overall style of RINGS changed to an even more realistic-looking style than previously. This resulted in several cases where it wasn't clear for viewers whether or not Tamura's matches were complete works, partial works or complete shoots. This speaks volumes about Tamura's ability as both a worker and shooter.

Tamura had some of the best (shoot-style) pro wrestling matches of the 1990s when he battled against top-level opponents such as Yoshihisa Yamamoto, Volk Han and Tsuyoshi Kosaka, all of whom he had several memorable matches with. We'll have a closer look at specific matches a bit later on when we get to the reviews of Tamura's matches. When he wasn't competing in shoot fights and had worked matches, Tamura would always work shoot-style pro wrestling matches and never the regular (relatively more unrealistic) pro wrestling kind of matches. If a league like NJPW, for example, could be considered regular puroresu (which is generally still more realistic than the more entertainment-oriented American leagues), one could say that even within the realm of the shoot-style puroresu leagues, which were leagues that generally tried to be as realistic as possible (relatively speaking), there was a difference between the slightly more flashy and entertaining style of UWF-I, for example, and the slightly more serious and even more realistic style of RINGS. Of course, this would also depend on the people in the matches, as there was obviously quite a variety in terms of not only skill level but also styles and backgrounds.

Even though Tamura had participated in at least a few shoot matches prior (including a 55-second win over UFC 2 finalist Patrick Smith at a K-1 event on 12/9/95), and possibly some RINGS matches that may or may not have been (partial) shoots, the first fight in the true shoot era of Tamura's career, which was the part of his career in which he mainly started competing in shoots and started leaving behind his worked pro wrestling roots, was a win at the RINGS 12/22/99 event over American fighter Dave Menne, who would go on to become the first UFC Middleweight Champion in 2001. Tamura's shoot fights weren't as exciting as his worked matches, because Tamura was such an incredibly skilled worker that it was pretty much impossible to incorporate that level of excitement into actual shoots, since it wouldn't make much sense to be spectacular when the priority was now to actually beat the opponent, regardless of how entertaining the match is.

In 2003, Tamura debuted his own league, U-STYLE, which was a shoot-style pro wrestling league that largely featured Tamura's students from Tamura's martial arts gym U-File Camp. U-STYLE was a great league that managed to revive shoot-style wrestling at a time where pretty much all shoot-style wrestling had died out. After U-STYLE ended, Tamura started focusing mostly on shoots during the remaining years of his career. The closest thing that Tamura ever did that resembled regular pro wrestling was when he faced “Amazon Goliath” Montanha Silva on 9/8/07 in IGF, which was arguably the worst worked match Tamura had ever been involved in (all due to Silva being terrible). This turned out to be one of Tamura's last few worked matches.

Tamura retired as an active fighter at the age of 47 in 2017 after having lost his final three shoot fights in the Ganryujima league in 2016 and 2017. The unusual rules of Ganryujima and the fact that Tamura was entering his late 40s probably have a lot to do with him not being as successful in Ganryujima as initially hoped for. Technically, one could say that Tamura actually won his final three MMA fights in 2007 and 2008 in DREAM and K-1, since the Ganryujima league isn't considered traditional MMA and doesn't follow the Unified Rules of MMA.

Some of the more well known names Tamura was able to beat in shoots were fighters such as Renzo Gracie, Pat Miletich, Nobuhiko Takada, Masakatsu Funaki and Kazushi Sakuraba. Tamura was a really good MMA/shoot fighter, but he was a truly great shoot-style pro wrestler. His ability to carry opponents in worked matches was possible through his great understanding of how to elevate the quality of the matches without losing too much in terms of credibility and realism. As a worker, he was able to combine realism and spectacle in such an amazing way that virtually no other worker has ever truly been able to master it on that level.

Lidet Entertainment (former parent company of NOAH) founded GLEAT (pronounced as ‘glayt,' not as ‘gleet') in the summer of 2020, and this was made possible after Lidet Entertainment president Hiroyuki Suzuki had a meeting with Kiyoshi Tamura on 1/25/20 to share ideas for the creation of a new league. Tamura became an Executive Director for this league, and one of his main visions for GLEAT was that it should have shoot-style matches on a regular basis to set them apart from what other leagues are doing. GLEAT created a sub-brand called ‘Lidet UWF,' which promotes the shoot-style matches on the GLEAT cards that are contested under UWF Rules (and GLEAT also has a sub-brand called ‘G Prowrestling' which is represented by matches on the cards that are contested under regular puroresu rules and are more of the purolucha variety).

Now, let's have a closer look at over sixty of the most memorable matches from Kiyoshi Tamura's career in order to fully understand why Tamura is one of the best wrestlers ever, after which we'll look at an overall conclusion of his career and a list of his top 20 matches…

UWF 5/21/89 Tokyo Bay Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Minoru Suzuki 5:30. This was a match between two young wrestlers who would end up becoming among the best workers and biggest names in the 90s shoot scene. 19-year old Kiyoshi Tamura made his pro wrestling debut here, while Minoru Suzuki had nearly a year of pro wrestling experience at the time. This was only Suzuki's third UWF match, since he had previously been wrestling in NJPW during his rookie year. Tamura doesn't seem to be worried about taking risks, as he starts off with a heads on approach. Tamura threw some kicks, but Suzuki would grab hold of Tamura to stop his momentum. Suzuki was also able to avoid Tamura's dives towards the legs. Suzuki grabs a leg submission on Tamura, and Tamura urgently makes his way towards the ropes for a rope break. This potentially had the makings of a pretty good shoot-style match if it wasn't for the short length and Tamura's lack of experience and standing within the league. Tamura definitely showed he was a promising young newcomer that should be kept an eye on. Suzuki worked this match as Tamura's senior, showing the confidence and ability to lead the match. Five and a half minutes into the match, Tamura tapped out to a single Boston crab.  It wasn't an actual good match, but it was obviously still a significant match due to this being the start of a very interesting career for Tamura against someone who would also make a big impact. Okay match. **¼

UWF 9/30/89 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoji Anjo 8:34. This was Kiyoshi Tamura's fourth pro wrestling match. Tamura showed a good amount of speed on the mat. Yoji Anjo had a lot more experience (more than four years of experience), so it was not a surprise that the young Tamura was struggling quite a bit in this match. Tamura once again showed he was a promising young talent, but Anjo's experience was too much to overcome, which didn't make it a very competitive match. Decent match. **½   

UWF 12/1/90 Matsumoto Undo Koen Sogo Taiikukan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara 14:58. This was Kiyoshi Tamura's first match back since getting injured by Akira Maeda on 10/25/89. His opponent was Masahito Kakihara, a promising young talent who only worked three pro wrestling matches previously, as he had made his debut in August. Both workers started off with kicks. Tamura swept Kakihara off his feet with one of his strikes. Tamura seemed calmer and more sure of what he was doing. Kakihara definitely gave Tamura a run for his money though. Ever enthusiastic Kakihara fought in what would become his signature head-on manner, Tamura would be able to push through more and do more damage. A high kick by Tamura sent Kakihara down, but Kakihara got back up in time. Kakihara hit a tremendous spin kick that knocked Tamura down for a nine count. A dropkick was then immediately executed by Kakihara. Tamura fought back with a series of kicks, which sent Kakihara down. Soon after that, Kakihara got knocked down again. Tamura was now trying to finish Kakihara off on the mat, but Kakihara's swift reactions prohibited Tamura from going for a killer submission hold. Tamura executed a nice suplex, but he once again wasn't able to finish Kakihara off on the mat. Kakihara executed an armbar, but Tamura went for a rope break. The match certainly had become quite competitive. Both workers ended up having only one down left, and the time limit was about to expire. Just two seconds before the time limit expired, Kakihara went for a rope escape one time too many times, and it cost him the match. Tamura was the victor. Good match. ***¼  

UWF-I 5/10/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara 14:16. This was their second match together, and this was the first UWF-I match ever. Newborn UWF had folded, and that caused the creation of UWF-I, RINGS and PWFG. This was a really good way to start off a new league. It was a match with quite a good amount of stiffness. Kakihara showed a lot of energy and enthusiasm, but Tamura always seemed to be one step ahead. The match succeeded in trying to be kinda flashy yet somewhat realistic (especially for pro wrestling standards) at the same time. It appears that this was the philosophy of UWF-I in general. This match ended when Tamura scored the win via submission. Good match. ***¼

UWF-I 6/6/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tom Burton 9:08. Kiyoshi Tamura did a really good job of carrying this match. Tamura moved around a lot and kept showing aggression. Tom Burton wasn't nearly as refined of a fighter as Tamura was, but he gave a pretty good effort here despite only sticking to relatively basic stuff. Tamura's understanding of how to carry an opponent and his knack for working an entertaining bout really shone through here. It was also once again clear that Tamura was a talented wrestler who kept improving during these early years of his career. Very good match. ***¾ 

UWF-I 7/3/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoji Anjo 17:35. These two really worked this as a heated battle. The matwork was amazing, as it was not only urgent, but it was also very intense. The selling was great, as they only sold whenever it was necessary to sell, while focusing at all other moments on making the other struggle for position. This match was not only never dull, but it was intriguing at all times. They really put over so well here that they didn't want to give the other any opportunities to find openings that could lead to any sort of offense. They were constantly very concentrated and focused on every detail the other was doing or planning to do. This was the first time Kiyoshi Tamura was really tested to go beyond any sort of fight he'd been having thus far in his career, and this challenge seemed to really help him blossom and reach new levels of excellence not discovered previously by him. His natural talent helped him dig deep within and come up with solutions that he previously possibly wasn't aware of knowing. Tamura more than living up to his potential was the nicest surprise about this match, but we shouldn't undervalue Yoji Anjo's role in this match. Anjo wasn't as explosive and quick as Tamura, but he certainly showed that he wanted to get the job done and give as strong a performance as possible. In the end, it was Anjo's maturity as a wrestler that helped him get the win here. Great match. ****½ 

UWF-I 8/24/91 Shizuoka Sangyokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yuko Miyato 9:42. The matwork was mostly very interesting, especially when Kiyoshi Tamura's explosiveness shone through. What kept this from being great was that Yuko Miyato, while giving a very good performance, wasn't quite on the level of Tamura in basically every way. Tamura once again proved his excellence though, and he was on quite a roll when it came to providing high-quality work in memorable matches. Excellent match. **** 

UWF-I 10/6/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura & Yuko Miyato vs. Tatsuo Nakano & Tom Burton 18:48. Kiyoshi showed his tremendous mat wrestling skills, and it was whenever he was on the mat that he was most dominant, significantly more so than whenever he engaged in stand up striking, at least in this particular match. Miyato was quite fired up in this match and gave a surprisingly strong performance. Everyone really put over the struggle quite well. Yuko Miyato and Tatsuo Nakano were testing each other out during the stand up fighting early on. Tom Burton was the only gaijin in the match, but he blended in quite well, and clearly tried his best to contribute. Nakano and Tamura had quite a fascinating battle on the mat for a bit. Nakano's matwork wasn't nearly as fancy as that of Tamura, but Nakano's fearlessness made up for whatever he was lacking in finesse. Near the end of the match, Nakano caught Tamura by surprise with an ankle hold, but Tamura survived. Nakano continued to give Tamura a run for his money, and he hit Tamura with a strike that knocked Tamura down. Burton hit a nice double arm underhook suplex on Miyato, and Burton also hit a nice German suplex against Tamura, even though Tamura was trying his best to get out of this situation. Things were looking rough for Tamura, but Tamura's quickness and mat wrestling talent eventually got him a victory, as he countered Burton's next attempted move and applied an ankle hold that made Burton tap. It was quite a competitive tag team match, and this is a really good example of how to work a shoot style tag team match. Excellent match. ****

UWF-I 1/9/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yuko Miyato 8:11. This bout started excitingly with Miyato knocking Tamura down early with a spin kick. Tamura fired back with a sleeperhold. Tamura showed some amazing counters on the mat. Booker Miyato had to really step up his game to try to be competitive in this match, because Tamura was such an excitingly skilled performer. Tamura's performance was great, but despite Miyato's efforts, it never felt like he had any real chance of winning. Excellent match. ****

UWF-I 2/15/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura & Yuko Miyato vs. Tatsuo Nakano & Mark Silver 18:23. The best match on this card was Hiromitsu Kanehara vs. Masakazu Maeda, a great match that should be considered one of the five best matches of 1992. That means that, for a change, Tamura didn't have the best match on the card. This was because he was put in a somewhat random tag team match here. While he was the least skilled performer in the match, Mark Silver gave a solid showing. He clearly tried his best and hit some nice moves. Tamura showed his quickness as soon as he was in a position that required him to counter and/or escape in order to avoid getting in a worse position. Once we got to see Tamura vs. Nakano, the action in this match reached its climax. Nakano was a more challenging opponent than Silver was, due to Nakano having more skill than Silver, and Tamura had to dig deeper to be able to counter and escape from the veteran whenever possible. The action slowed down quite a bit in this match, as everyone was seemingly getting increasingly cautious. Miyato controlled Silver for a bit until Tamura was tagged in again. Tamura was definitely the one who provided the most excitement in the match. Overall, it was enjoyable, but it wasn't as memorable as Tamura's recent singles matches. Good match. ***¼ 

UWF-I 3/17/92 Nagoya Tsuyuhashi Sports Center: Kiyoshi Tamura & Yuko Miyato vs. Yoji Anjo & Mark Fleming 20:40. The opening match on this card was a great match between Hiromitsu Kanehara and Masakazu Maeda that is highly recommended viewing for anyone interested in watching a great wrestling match. Kiyoshi Tamura worked in the fourth match on the card, as he teamed with the booker to face the experienced Yoji Anjo and his tag team partner. Anjo's tag team partner in this match was a gaijin called Mark Fleming, who spent a large portion of the 1980s wrestling for the NWA, but he also toured NJPW in 1989. When Fleming was in the match, the match was good but also rather basic and slow. Fleming used his amateur wrestling skills and his size to his advantage. Fleming is definitely a good wrestler, but he's not a very interesting one to watch. When Anjo was in the ring, the match was a lot more exciting because of the countering and occasional flashy action. Yuko Miyato gave a good performance and threw several good moves, but the match was at its best when Tamura and Anjo were facing off. Not only did Tamura vs. Anjo provide us with nice counters on the mat, it also gave us some really good stand-up striking moments. Very good match. ***½ 

UWF-I 8/28/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoji Anjo 30:00. Instead of a friendly handshake, Kiyoshi Tamura showed that he wasn't here to make friends, as he was clearly here to fight and slapped Anjo in the face. Anjo didn't seem to be too bothered by it, and he was eager to give Tamura a hard time in this contest. The speedy counters and the urgent escape attempts were a joy to watch. Whenever they wrestled on the mat, it had a purpose. This wasn't one of those pro wrestling matches in which the matwork was just there for the sake of it. No, that was not at all the case here. Every moment of this match felt like either man had to be cautious yet courageous in order to survive and succeed. The execution was superb. The moves looked slick, and the selling was perfect. Tamura shows everyone why he was one of the very best technical wrestlers in the world. Because it's a 30-minute match, they slow down a little bit during the latter portions of the match, but that's just realistic and natural. However, the match honestly could have received a quarter star more if it was a 20-minute or 25-minute match instead of a 30-minute match. Still, this was a great match. ****½

UWF-I 10/23/92 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 15:34. The match already starts off intensely at the start, as Tamura catches an attempted kick by Yamazaki and pushes Yamazaki backwards, which results in Yamazaki having a look on his face that basically says something like “So this is how you want to play? Message understood.” And, indeed, Yamazaki is definitely fired up and ready to go. Tamura stays focused and doesn't allow himself to get too happy or unhappy about anything happening. The UWF-I crowd was clearly into all the counters, and that not only speaks volumes about this crowd appreciating real top-level wrestling, but it also speaks volumes about the high level of shoot style wrestling these two great shoot style workers are capable of. Yamazaki threw some really good kicks, but Tamura wasted no time in trying to make Yamazaki submit once he was able to grab Yamazaki's leg and take him down into a leg submission hold. This wasn't a slow match, but they weren't working at a frantic pace either, as they were healthily cautious about the other's next moves, since they were obviously aware of each other's ability. They were certainly smart for not throwing caution in the wind. This wasn't a match that was just crawling along though, as there were plenty of flurries of offense that came about whenever an opening was seen and taken advantage of. Just a little after the 15-minute mark, Yamazaki hit a German suplex, and he was going for another one, but Tamura was prepared this time and blocked it. Yamazaki didn't want to waste his momentum and went for a sleeper, but Tamura used his instincts and ring awareness and walked backwards until Yamazaki's back bumped into the turnbuckle corner padding. Tamura then took advantage of Yamazaki just very briefly losing focus, as Tamura threw Yamazaki down and followed up immediately with an armbar for the win. This was such a well-executed shoot style match, because what they did all felt like it made sense. Yamazaki could perhaps have shown slightly more urgency, but overall, his performance was quite excellent. Tamura gave a great performance, and it was possibly among his performances so far in his career. His eye for detail and his insight on how to make this match flow in a logical manner really stood out here. It's easy to overlook the greatness of this match because of the high-quality work we're used to seeing from these two, and their ability to work at a high level is so smooth that they almost make it seem easy. And just like on 8/28/92 against Yoji Anjo, here against Yamazaki on 10/23/92, Tamura once again worked a match that was likely a top 20 match that year. Great match. ****½ 

UWF-I 2/14/93 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Nobuhiko Takada vs. Kiyoshi Tamura 15:03. This was a very good match, but it could only be so good, as Nobuhiko Takada was the big star and it was always going to be a Takada match, no matter how superb Kiyoshi Tamura's performance was going to be. This was definitely better than what you'd usually see in a Takada UWF-I main event, but it wasn't on the level of the best matches Tamura had in UWF-I. Part of the reason is that Tamura had to kinda dumb down his own work in order to not outshine the big star too much, as Takada wasn't nearly as dynamic as workers like Yoji Anjo or Kazuo Yamazaki. It was nice to see Tamura get a chance to fight the top star in a main event match though. Very good match. ***½

UWF-I 5/6/93 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Naoki Sano 19:26. Neither worker was in any hurry here, for some reason. The work was definitely very good, but the match never lived up to its potential. The grappling was all very technical and well done, but it lacked fire. Naoki Sano's career hasn't been very consistent at all. He'd been inconsistent when it came to his performances, but also when it came to the way he's being booked (which possibly partially explains his inconsistent performances). Sano's lack of energy gave Kiyoshi Tamura the opportunity to see this match as just a relatively light workout. While everything they did was more than just pretty good, it was certainly not memorable for a Tamura match. Of course, Tamura has given us several excellent and great performances over the years that it's easy to be disappointed by a match of his that is less than excellent. Good match. ***¼

UWF-I 8/13/93 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Nobuhiko Takada & Kiyoshi Tamura vs.  Gary Albright & Dan Severn 21:39. Six months prior, we saw Kiyoshi Tamura wrestle top star Nobuhiko Takada in the main event, but this time Tamura is teaming with him in the semi main event. Their opponents in this semi main event were gaijin workers Gary Albright and Dan Severn, who have been known to drag the quality of UWF-I shows down quite a bit due to them not being that good as workers. However, this was an interesting opportunity for top worker Tamura to not only carry his overpushed partner, but also carry the opposition. That was surely some heavy luggage for Tamura to carry on this occasion. Tamura's great skills definitely elevated the quality of this match. While he was an accomplished amateur wrestler, it became clear that Severn didn't really have an idea of how to be good at worked pro wrestling matches. Tamura did an excellent job of balancing between giving Severn opportunities and taking care of business himself. Takada vs. Albright was the main story of the match, and they initially showed a lot of energy when they faced off here. Tamura vs. Albright provided some heated underdog vs. big man moments, while Takada vs. Albright provided us with some heated top dog vs. big man moments. Tamura was easily the worker of the match, but credit to Albright for being quite good in his role. Takada ended up doing a submission job to Albright. Very good match. ***½

UWF-I 10/4/93 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yuko Miyato 8:19. Kiyoshi Tamura really stood out in this league because of his tremendous speed and sense of urgency. UWF-I was quite fun to watch overall, but Tamura often stood out as the best worker on the card due to his ability to have faster, more exciting and dynamic bouts than most were capable of. His ability to transition into other moves and his ability to counter wrestle in a fluent manner really made him the main reason to keep an eye on any of his matches, regardless of his opponents, because as a fan of high-quality pro wrestling, you'd want to see what Tamura does next with a variety of opponents of different skill levels. UWF-I booker Yuko Miyato certainly was a capable worker, but he was never really top level. Still, he must have known that Tamura was going to enhance the quality of this match. Tamura got the opportunity to show his stuff, but Miyato appeared to up his workrate quite a bit here as well, seemingly because of the great Tamura being his opponent. Miyato got some good moves in. Tamura was such a clever worker, always finding openings and so good at reacting in a logical yet still somewhat realistic way. Just when the action was getting hotter, the match was over, as Tamura made Miyato tap out. It was certainly a nice victory for Tamura. This bout was potentially on its way to excellence, but it turned out to be only eight minutes long. Without worrying about what this match could have been and about whether or not this match was too short, if we focus on what we got, it's not an exceptional match, but it was definitely a lot of fun to see Tamura do his thing. Very good match. ***½ 

UWF-I 2/25/94 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara 13:46. It's nice to see this being the main event, as these two were arguably the most talented workers in the league at the time. Masahito Kakihara started off with a flurry of hand strikes that temporarily got Kiyoshi Tamura a little overwhelmed until Tamura took Kakihara to the mat. What followed was some interesting mat wrestling that featured counters and counter attempts by both. What was so good about this display of mat wrestling was that both didn't just give in easily, as they did an excellent job of bringing forth the illusion that the opponent really had to work to create an opening. In other words, this was excellent shoot style wrestling. What they also did well was change the dynamic of the fight whenever they went into stand up striking mode. On the mat, they were cautious and somewhat calculated in their approach, trying to think a few steps ahead, but when the stand up striking took place, they displayed urgency and aggression in order to not give the opponent too many chances to anticipate the next moves. That being said, the finish came somewhat abruptly from a quick counter on the mat when Kakihara successfully countered and made Tamura tap. This would have been a truly excellent match if they would have gone on for a few minutes longer, as they were on their way to build towards what potentially could have been a fascinating climax. Instead, we got a quick counter on the mat, which in a way was perfect, because it warranted the heedfulness displayed on the mat earlier. However, for sheer entertainment value, the abrupt finish was a slight disappointment, especially since it came less than 14 minutes into a main event that had potential to deliver more. While it was enjoyable to see these two wrestle each other deservingly in the main event, it's hard not to feel that this match slightly under delivered. They did an excellent job working this in a relatively realistic way though. Very good match. ***¾

UWF-I 5/6/94 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Pro Wrestling World Tournament Round 2: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Naoki Sano 13:52. The second round, which was essentially the quarter finals, featured the final eight competitors of this tournament. After Kiyoshi Tamura had put away Bad News Allen rather easily in a short but decent match, his next opponent was someone he had faced in the past, Naoki Sano. On 5/6/93, Tamura vs. Sano was a good but disappointing match. To get to the second round in this ‘94 Pro Wrestling World Tournament, Sano had to get past Tatsuo Nakano in the first round. This second-round match between Tamura and Sano started off somewhat slowly, as Tamura seemed to anticipate Sano's rather deliberate approach and wait for Sano to make a mistake. The way Tamura executed a German suplex was really cool, because he positioned himself in a manner that made it hard for Sano to block or counter the move, and then Tamura executed the move once the moment was perfect for it. This way, Tamura kinda reminded Sano that he wasn't here to play, as he emphasized that he really was approaching this with the right shoot style wrestling mindset. Even during the stand up striking, Tamura gave Sano no choice but to stay focused and come up with something good. Tamura's confidence would nearly come across as arrogance if we wouldn't be aware of his tremendous dedication and fighting spirit. In a fun moment, Sano managed to temporarily get Tamura to fall on his back when Tamura avoided a high kick, but ever the spectacular performer, Tamura simply did a kip-up and was back on his feet in no time, much to the delight of the spectators. Sano tried to remain as focused as possible, although he clearly didn't have the tremendous energy that Tamura had, not only because Tamura was roughly five years younger than Sano, but Tamura appeared to have a strong desire to become the best performer he could possibly be, while Sano's career seemed to be perennially at a crossroads of sorts. Tamura's will to win shone through in his performance here, and it was deserving and fitting that Tamura came through on the mat and transitioned into a Kimura lock for the submission victory. This match was more fun to watch than their previous match, mostly thanks to Tamura's performance in this particular match being stronger, but while Sano was good, it feels we once again didn't get to see a memorable performance from him. It was competitive enough to stay interesting for the most part, but in the end, it didn't feel like Sano was able to get into the groove here. Very good. ***½ 

UWF-I 6/10/94 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Pro Wrestling World Tournament Semifinal: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Super Vader 7:14. Super Vader was definitely a super heavyweight, as he was roughly twice as heavy as Kiyoshi Tamura. Super Vader had been making a big impact in UWF-I ever since his first appearance in the league in May 1993, after having made his name in NJPW and WCW, where he held world titles. Vader certainly wasn't the most realistic shoot style wrestler, but he was oftentimes an entertaining one. His uniqueness also made him somewhat of a novelty act. It was interesting to see how Tamura was going to approach this match. Tamura showed no fear and slapped Vader instead of offering a handshake. Tamura got some good kicks in, and he used his quickness and determination to avoid getting trapped in the clutches of Vader's strength. Vader did quite a good job selling for Tamura, which helped make this match more exciting and less squash-like. In fact, it was quite competitive, at least relatively speaking. In the end, Tamura got knocked down several times by Vader's heavy blows before the inevitable defeat. While it was obvious from the start that Tamura wasn't going to win this match, they did a very good job of making it seem as competitive as possible, given that Vader was basically squashing everyone not named Nobuhiko Takada. While this was only a seven-minute match, at least Tamura lasted longer against Vader than anyone not named Takada had in the UWF-I. Good match. ***¼  

UWF-I 1/16/95 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Gene Lydick 9:09. The fifth match on this show, Masahito Kakihara & Yoji Anjo vs. Naoki Sano & Kazushi Sakuraba, was an excellent match that is worth seeking out. Here, in the sixth match on this show, Gene Lydick, who had been one of the better gaijin workers in UWF-I, certainly gave a strong effort against the best worker in the UWF-I. Tamura did a really good job making this bout intriguing, as the way Tamura positioned himself and approached Lydick created openings for Lydick to capitalize on. Tamura would then counter when appropriate. Despite Lydick trying hard, it seems this match was only going to be so good, considering Lydick wasn't a top-tier worker. Lydick was a bit too deliberate at times, but Tamura's smoothness on offense and defense made the match feel like it flowed relatively well. It feels like Lydick is probably more likely to excel in tag team matches because of his explosive but inconsistent amateur wrestling style, although, if he faces top-quality opponents like Tamura here, it's clear that he is able to partake in a good match. All in all, this was an enjoyable match that saw Tamura carry Lydick really well. Very good match. ***½ 

UWF-I 2/18/95 Tokyo Bay NK Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara 2:06. This may or may not have been a shoot. Tamura's first actual shoot had taken place on 5/8/92, which was a fight in which he defeated American boxer Matthew Saad Muhammad in only 34 seconds. Masahito Kakihara started super urgently and attacked Tamura with a flurry of hand strikes. Tamura used his grappling skills to his advantage and took Kakihara to the mat and stayed in control. Kakihara managed to escape and counter, but Tamura applied a sleeper so tight that Kakihara went out. It was a short match, but it was fascinating, and you could tell both were very skilled wrestlers. It kinda looked like a shoot because they worked more aggressively, but there were some small moments that kinda made it seem like it may have been a well-executed work. It's hard to tell if this was a shoot or not, because in the mid 1990s, MMA wasn't what it is nowadays and these guys were so skilled at performing worked shoots in a shoot-style environment. Either way, shoot or not, the action was really good while it lasted. Good match. ***

UWF-I 5/17/95 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kazuo Yamazaki 11:16. They were cautious at the start. Kiyoshi Tamura showed his tremendous ability to work quick counters. Kazuo Yamazaki was solid, but he utilized his more cerebral approach, not wanting to take too many risks and being a bit deliberate and slow. Tamura was a lot more flashy, but he respected Yamazaki's approach, and decided to try to keep things on the mat as well. After the lengthy session of matwork, they switched to some stand-up striking. In general, in this match, Yamazaki was quite slow, which meant Tamura could do more damage by using his speed advantage. This was easily the best match on a rather average UWF-I show. While the work was very good overall, if Yamazaki would have shown more speed and urgency, the match would have been more dramatic and interesting. Ironically, the finish came when Yamazaki showed a flash of urgency at the right time. This finish showed that no matter how the match goes, a finish can come out of nowhere if someone can take advantage of an opening that has been presented. Good match. ***¼

UWF-I Fukuoka Hakata Starlanes: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masahito Kakihara 6:19. Just like their previous meeting on 2/18/95, this may or may not have been a shoot, but it probably was a work, so we'll treat it like a work in this review. This was fascinating. The two best workers of the league facing each other in what was fundamentally a worked shoot. Tamura was smartly using rope breaks, knowing that he would eventually probably be able to score a submission victory. That's exactly what happened, as Tamura used all his power to apply the jujigatame for the win. It looked like it could have been a shoot, but it was more than likely simply a worked shoot in a shoot style league, an illusion within the illusion, if you will. Speaking of shoots, later that year, Tamura would defeat Patrick Smith at a K-1 event on 12/9/95 in only 55 seconds, as Tamura basically went straight for the kill. Very good. ***½

UWF-I 3/1/96 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kazushi Sakuraba 8:42. During the faster parts early in the match, this was worked in a super urgent manner. They kept trying to out wrestle each other on the mat, and because the other was prepared for it, they had to keep increasing the speed with which they moved and countered. Then there were slower moments as well, but they were still intriguing, as those parts were only slower because they didn't want to make a mistake and were sensing the other was about to make a move that could be countered. Kiyoshi Tamura was the more viscous of the two when it came to stand-up combat. Kazushi Sakuraba was more comfortable taking the match to the mat, since he felt he could certainly give Tamura a run for his money on the mat. The matwork remained intriguing, because they didn't just go along with what the other was doing, and they were making an effort to make the other struggle as much as possible. Sakuraba found out the hard way that you can't leave Tamura with any chance on the mat, though, as Tamura got the opportunity to apply an ankle submission hold for the win. Sakuraba showed some frustration after the match, because he had done so well but lost due to Tamura just needing one opportunity to apply an ankle lock. Very good match. ***¾ 

UWF-I 5/27/96 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kazushi Sakuraba 9:01. The stand-up striking was more exciting than in their 3/1/96 match. Kiyoshi Tamura was still significantly stronger in stand up than Kazushi Sakuraba, but there was a cool moment that saw Tamura go for a jumping kick, but Sakuraba saw it coming and knocked Tamura down after kicking Tamura in mid air. While this match was good at all times, it wasn't nearly as exciting as their previous match together. One of the reasons for this is that the matwork was less urgent and didn't have as many intriguing counter moments as in the 3/1/96 match. The fact that this was the opening match didn't help matters, but Tamura would soon jump ship to the RINGS league anyway (which was understandable since UWF-I was seemingly getting less shoot style and more show style since they began working with New Japan). The match never really got too heated, and Tamura suddenly won with a flying armbar. Good match. ***

RINGS 7/16/96 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Willie Peeters 10:47. This was Kiyoshi Tamura's second match in RINGS. His first match in RINGS was a 3-minute win over Dick Vrij on 6/29/96. Here in this match against another Dutchman, Willie Peeters, Tamura gave a strong display of skill. Peeters was an amateur wrestler in his early teens. At the age of 16, he trained judo under Chris Dolman and Wilhelm Ruska. Later, he would also learn kickboxing and kyokushin. He joined RINGS when he was invited on Dolman's team. Whenever Peeters wasn't lifting up his pants, he tried to throw some strikes and tried to block Tamura's strikes. Peeters also threw a suplex or two that looked actually quite impressive. Overall, this certainly wasn't a pretty match, but it was quite an interesting one. Peeters was somewhat limited and lacked diversity as a worker, but he showed a lot of attitude and stiffness. Early on, while he was definitely moving and throwing offense, Tamura seemed to be trying to figure out what this unusual opponent was going to do. The most interesting aspect of this match was that they became increasingly more uncooperative with each other. In the final minutes, they were able to make it look like they were shooting. Maybe this was planned that way, or maybe they just became frustrated and stopped cooperating too much. With Peeters it's often difficult to know what's going through his head and when his questionable tactics are planned, and that's just the way Peeters liked it. Peeters even started taunting, but Tamura remained calm and made Peeters tap to an arm submission. One of the most interesting aspects of this match was that they never really seemed to actually sell for each other, which made this definitely way more fascinating of a match than (shoot-style) matches with cringeworthy selling. This wasn't a fancy match, but it was a very shoot-like work, and that's sometimes more important than anything. Kudos to Tamura for staying cool and getting the job done. Very good match. ***¾ 

RINGS 9/25/96 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura 10:32. Tamura excluded himself from UWF-I's embarrassments with New Japan starting in late 1995, and switched to RINGS in mid 1996, opening up the possibility of this dream match that hardcore fans had been dying to see for half a decade. Han clearly had the gameplan of trying to make Tamura submit as soon as possible, as he kept trying to put Tamura in a difficult situation on the mat. However, Tamura showed her his own technical proficiency, and it certainly provided Han with the tough challenge of perhaps having to reconsider his game plan. However, Tamura briefly managed to stun Han even more when Tamura switched to stand-up striking. Han realized he had to do something big quickly, so he took Tamura down with a sleeper. They continued to dance a poetic yet intense dance of shoot-style chess on the mat, which meant they displayed some of the most amazing technical wrestling ever seen. At some point, Han surprised Tamura with some explosive hand strikes. Tamura then decided to surprise Han with a sleeper, but Han wasn't as surprised as Tamura had hoped, and Han countered into an arm submission hold that made Tamura tap. They showed tremendous chemistry in this match. The matwork was on an extremely high level technically and it was worked in an urgent manner. They were both very focused and the match was intriguing from start to finish. If you want to watch just one Volk Han or Kiyoshi Tamura match, this would be an excellent choice, as it would be a great Han and Tamura match to start with and this will probably make you want to watch more than just one match of these all-time great workers. It was truly a beautiful display of high-end professional wrestling. Great match. ****½

RINGS 10/25/96 Nagoya Aichi-ken Taiikukan, Mega Battle Tournament Round 1: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Mikhail Ilyukhin 14:40. Just like several other Russian workers in RINGS, Mikhail Ilyukhin was a samboist prior to his pro wrestling career. While he gave a decent showing here, his performance lacked the much-needed intensity you'd like to see in a shoot style wrestling match. Kiyoshi Tamura was certainly a lot quicker and daring than the slower and more cautious Ilyukhin. In fact, Ilyukhin was so cautious that Tamura could afford to kinda wait for Ilyukhin to make a mistake and then go for a submission, which resulted in this match coming across as not very competitive, despite Tamura's efforts to pretend that Ilyukhin was providing him with challenges to overcome. Especially since Ilyukhin was so slow on the mat, Tamura could easily counter his moves very obviously. Thanks to Tamura's spurts of urgency whenever he would go for a potential lethal submission hold, this match managed to be more than a regular puroresu match, because, at times, if it wasn't stylistically so different from regular puroresu, this could easily be categorized as a regular puroresu match due to Ilyukhin's display of trepidness. This wasn't a very high-end shoot style match by any means, due to Ilyukhin's limitations as a worker, but it definitely an interesting match overall, mostly thanks to Tamura's display of technique. Good match. ***

RINGS 12/19/96 Fukuoka Kokusai Center, Mega Battle Tournament Semifinal: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto 9:49. Right from the start, both showed a good amount of urgency. Tamura took Yamamoto down whenever he noticed Yamamoto was getting lost in his focus on throwing hand strikes. Unlike Mikhail Ilyukhin in Tamura's first round match on 10/25/96, Yamamoto showed a good amount of resistance to anything Tamura was trying to apply on him in this semifinal match. Tamura knew he couldn't take Yamamoto lightly, since Yamamoto showed a strong will to win, and this caused Tamura to show increasingly more intensity. And as usual, Tamura displayed his great technical wrestling skills. Very good match. ***¾  

RINGS 1/22/97 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Mega Battle Tournament Final: Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura 12:36. This annual tournament was called the MEGA BATTLE TOURNAMENT ‘96 because it started in late 1996, but the final (this match) took place in early 1997. Before the match, they played the national anthems of Russia and Japan respectively. The match started off with extremely urgent and technically skilled matwork. The crowd was really into this match, and it really felt like a big match. This match featured a really strong performance by both workers, especially Volk Han. This was even better than their great 9/26/96 match. After a good early portion on the mat, there were some strikes. Tamura tried a spectacular spin kick of sorts, which missed, luckily for Han. But, Tamura did a nice kickup and the fans appreciated Tamura's spectacular approach here. Tamura seemed confident and perhaps overconfident when he took the mat master Han to the mat. It didn't take long for Han to show Tamura he was indeed the submission specialist, as Tamura clearly had to be on top of his game to survive. Lots of interesting matwork followed. Once they were going for standup strikes, Tamura appeared more dangerous, but Han cleverly would always take Tamura to the mat again in order to keep control of the match. Han went down after a big Tamura kick, but Han made it back up in time. Han almost won the match when he had Tamura in a leg submission. Tamura reached the ropes. Han simply grabbed another leg submission, and this time it was in the middle of the ring. Tamura had no choice but to tap out. ****½

RINGS 4/22/97 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka 13:57. Though far less famous than their 6/27/98 rematch, this is actually the better match of the two. Both men were cautious early on, but they were trying to get some good strikes in while trying to avoid getting hit with a strike themselves. And when someone got taken down, they would try to finish them off on the mat. However, the opponent would always be trying to block or prevent any significant hold being applied on them properly. Basically, everything they did made sense from the perspective of a fight, which is why you could say that this practically was wrestled like a worked MMA match. The only downside of this match was that, despite this being one of the best worked matches you'll ever see, this high level of realism made this less exciting than a more flashy Volk Han match. Great match. ****¾  

RINGS 5/23/97 Sendai Miyagi-ken Sports Center: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Grom Zaza 8:15. Zaza ‘Grom' Tkeshelashvili from the former Soviet republic of Georgia had a very good match against Volk Han on 5/16/92 in RINGS that is worth checking out for sure. Kiyoshi Tamura was clearly one of the very best workers in pro wrestling at the time, arguably THE very best. Not only his technical skills makes him stand out as a top-level worker, but especially his ability to work this into a realistic-looking match. There was plenty of flashy matwork in this match, but it was never overly flashy, which helped it maintain at least some level of realism for a worked pro wrestling match. The main downside of this match was that they gave each other a bit too much space and time to react or go for a move. This criticism only stands when you compare this match to some of Tamura's very best matches, of course, as this was obviously way more realistic than the average pro wrestling match. It was a relatively short match, but all the action, including the wicked finish, was superb. Excellent match. ****

RINGS 6/21/97 Tokyo Ariake Coliseum: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Nikolai Zouev 10:30. Russian wrestler Nikolai Zouev never was a really good pro wrestler, but he always seemed to improve over the years, and it helped that he wrestled Volk Han several times. Here in this match against Kiyoshi Tamura, Zouev certainly did several good things, and he played his role quite well overall. Tamura was the one leading and carrying the match, but that was more than expected anyway. Zouev's way of reacting was sometimes too unsure or simply too awkward looking. Tamura did a great job of working around Zouev's limitations though. Tamura only sold when Zouev actually did something that connected or hit. On many instances, Tamura did a great job of being in the right position for Zouev to apply a move that would enhance the drama of the match. Everything Tamura did seemed to make sense, and it was such a joy to enhance the quality of this match through his great performance. The only downside of the match was the final minute or so, as by that point, you're left wondering why Tamura hasn't finished Zouev off yet. To make things worse, Tamura ended up tapping to an awkwardly-applied hold by Zouev. Apart from the lame finish, this bout was yet another example of Tamura's greatness. Very good match. ***½  

RINGS 8/13/97 Kagoshima Arena: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Hans Nijman 9:14. This match featured a great display of skill by Kiyoshi Tamura against a mediocre Dutch pro wrestler. Hans Nijman's strikes were quite good, thanks to his karate and kickboxing background, but he lacked speed, and he certainly was no match for Tamura on the mat. Tamura had to really dumb down his work and take it easy on the mat in order to not embarrass Nijman too much. Still, Tamura's ability to make the most out of a match once again was evident. Because of Nijman's relative limitations, the match relied a bit more on Tamura's ability to sell in a regular pro wrestling way than most of Tamura's more realistic matches in RINGS that year. Thanks to Tamura's high-quality work, this match made Nijman look like a better wrestler than he actually was, which speaks volumes about Tamura's ability. Good match. ***

RINGS 9/26/97 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura 12:48. Highly recommended! This was a great match that's definitely one of the very best shoot-style matches I've ever watched. The matwork was amazing! Tamura seemed to have stepped up his game for this fight, compared to their previous meeting. This 9/26/97 match was even better than their 1/22/97 match. It was a dramatic and heated match. I'd say it's easily the best gaijin vs. native shoot-style puroresu match ever. There was so much struggle going on early on already. Both these workers were obviously quite familiar with each other now, and that would make this match even more interesting as they kinda know each other's capabilities. Tamura's kicks were thunderous and Han knew he had to take this match to the mat. Han went for an armlock, but Tamura quickly escaped (and briefly sold the arm attack). A bit later on in the match, Han once again tried to make Tamura tap through an arm submission, but Tamura quickly used a rope escape. There was a really cool spot where Tamura went for a leg submission and Han almost went for a rope escape, but he realized that he was able to get out of this predicament without a rope escape. However, Tamura quickly grabbed another leg submission on Han and this time Han decided it was a wiser decision to go for a rope escape (and this all matters because in RINGS, rope escapes are counted). Tamura went for a series of kicks and Han eventually went down, but got back up. Tamura once again kicked Han and Han went down again. Tamura really had the momentum and even grabbed a submission hold on Han, which caused Han to desperately reach the ropes with his legs. But, then Han decided it was enough and grabbed Tamura's arm and went for jujigatame, but Tamura quickly found the ropes for a rope escape. Han managed to grab another arm submission hold, but Tamura countered it nicely with an arm submission of his own and almost got it fully applied. The crowd was really into this great display of technical wrestling because the RINGS promotion had taught them so well what spots were important (and/or they were just really smart fans). Han hit a few big open handed strikes that took Tamura down, but Tamura got back up. Tamura took Han down to the mat and applied the jujigatame and Han was in the middle of the ring and tapped out! A big victory for Tamura. The crowd chanted his name after the match. Great match! *****

RINGS 12/23/97 Fukuoka Kokusai Center, Mega-Battle Semi-Final: Akira Maeda vs. Kiyoshi Tamura 14:44. This was more exciting than most Akira Maeda matches from the late 1990s, thanks to Kiyoshi Tamura's high workrate and high-quality ability. Tamura was arguably the best worker in the world at the time. Maeda was overall quite alright here, but he didn't do anything really special. He was mostly relying on his name value at the time, and he didn't provide anything really exceptional in terms of in-ring quality. The main thing to know about this match is that it was not only Tamura's first ever win over Maeda, but also the only match Maeda ever lost to a native in RINGS. Good match. ***

RINGS 1/21/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, MEGA-BATTLE Final, RINGS Openweight Title Decision Match: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Mikhail Ilyukhin 18:12. This was a lot more interesting than their match from 10/25/96. Mikhail Ilyukhin had shown improvement since then, but the main reason this match was this good was because of Kiyoshi Tamura. It was Tamura who really made this match feel urgent and special, thanks to his ability to constantly move and be in a position that would enhance the match. Compared to 13 months prior, Ilyukhin seemed to understand better how to contribute to a shoot style match in a useful and somewhat realistic manner. Ilyukhin was obviously still outworked by the great Tamura, but at least Ilyukhin was able to come across as somewhat of a serious threat here, as it wasn't just Tamura working hard to try to make it seem Ilyukhin was able to do anything back of significant value. Ilyukhin seeming more sure and confident than previously also helped in this match being worthy of such a high-profile title match. Both men took each other seriously, and both were able to display a healthy balance between cautiousness and courageousness. Tamura's display of technical matwork was tremendous, not just because of his ability to execute and apply holds, but also because of his ability to make the matwork appear to be competitive thanks to his understanding of how to be in the right position at all times and how to be able to leave an opportunity for his opponent to find an opening. In other words, this was yet another great performance by Tamura in which he showed why he was one of the very best wrestlers in the world at the time (and arguably THE best). Excellent match. ****

RINGS 3/28/98 Tokyo Bay NK Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Dick Vrij 7:46. This was twice as long as Kiyoshi Tamura's 6/29/96 RINGS debut against Dick Vrij. This match didn't exceed expectations by any means, though. What they did was definitely all well done, but it wasn't on the level of most of Tamura's matches from around that time. Vrij didn't seem as energetic as in some of his most memorable matches, and this only helped further emphasize that this was basically a walk in the park for Tamura. Good match. ***  

RINGS 6/27/98 Tokyo Bay NK Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka 30:00. This was almost as great as their 4/22/97 match. Both competitors focused a lot on trying to make this worked shoot as realistic as possible. The only downside of the match was the lack of urgency and overall lack of speed shown in this match (relatively speaking). While the cautiousness displayed could be seen as wise, it also was just a bit too much cautiousness. I guess the fact that this was going to go 30 minutes wasn't helpful in this respect. It definitely feels that this would have been (even) better if it was slightly shorter. In fact, it's probably because of the 4/22/97 match being about half the length of this 6/27/98 match that the 4/22/97 match felt like an even better attempt of creating a match that was realistic and featured plenty of struggle. The 4/22/97 Tamura vs. Kosaka match was less flashy and spectacular than the Tamura vs. Han matches, but this 6/27/98 Tamura vs. Kosaka match was even less flashy and spectacular than any of those matches, and it feels like Tamura and Kosaka couldn't quite get across the struggle and snugness they were able to get across in the 4/22/97 match. Luckily, there were several instances in which flashes of urgency and speed were shown. Also, a display of high-quality technique was shown all the way through. While this was a high-quality pro wrestling match, it wasn't necessarily that much more realistic than many previous matches we've seen from Kiyoshi Tamura. That being said, this match against Tsuyoshi Kosaka was quite realistic overall (far more realistic than most pro wrestling matches), and this realism helped make this match stand out as one of the top candidates for 1998 MOTY. This certainly isn't the most exciting Tamura match out there, but it's one of his many great displays of wrestling as (martial) art. Great match. ****½ 

RINGS 9/21/98 Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto 18:52. As always, Kiyoshi Tamura was great at doing the right thing at the right time. He acted and reacted appropriately in a manner that would make his opponent look like a serious threat. Yoshihisa Yamamoto did well for himself here, but he relied on Tamura's greatness to make it appear there was a good amount of flow to his work, especially during the early minutes. The best part about Yamamoto's performance was that there were several flashes of urgency in which he really put it over that he was trying his best. Especially as the match went on, it seemed like Yamamoto was finding his groove more. This enabled Tamura to show more aggression himself, as things were looking more competitive. The second half of the match was definitely better than the first half of the match, as there was a lot more combativeness shown in the second half. While the work was generally really good in this match, there just wasn't enough excitement and not enough memorable moments in the first half of the match to really make this an excellent match overall. All in all, this was roughly on the same level as their match from 12/19/96. These two would end up having a much more memorable match in 1999, but we'll get to that later. Very good match. ***¾   

RINGS 1/23/99 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka 9:42. This was a so-called ‘ranking match' between Kiyoshi Tamura and Tsuyoshi Kosaka, who were rank #1 and #2. The expectations for this match were quite high, as they had previously had great matches against each other on 4/22/97 and 6/27/98. They both were quite heedful in their approach early on, which made sense since they were both aware of the other's high-level capabilities. The match was quite realistic, but they still tried to keep things somewhat exciting in order to not let the realism get too much in the way of the viewer's enjoyment. This was a work, but it was around a time when RINGS started favoring shoots more. Thus, it was worked more in a way to make it seem like a shoot, which is something they did quite well, but it feels this bias towards more shootiness has been having an impact on the overall quality of worked matches that potentially could have been better. This was also the case with the Volk Han vs. Hiromitsu Kanehara match preceding this match, which turned out to be merely a very good match after looking more like an excellent match on paper going into the match. There was a really good moment towards the end that had Tamura show a lot of intensity as he was in the process of knocking Kosaka down. Things definitely seemed to be going well for Tamura. However, soon after, Kosaka threw Tamura to the mat and made Tamura tap. This finish really came out of nowhere. From a worked pro wrestling perspective, they probably should have either made this match more urgent from the start if they were going to work a shorter match than they usually do, or they probably should have been given more time to present something more along the lines of their previous battles. From the perspective of RINGS trying to be more shooty, what they presented here was a realistic bout that ended in a manner that seemed completely plausible. All in all, it's hard to not see this as a very unsatisfying match, though, as it didn't live up to be the potentially great match it should have been. Very good match. ***½ 

RINGS 3/22/99 Tokyo Bay NK Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs Hiromitsu Kanehara 20:14. When AJPW's legendary Giant Baba died on 1/31/99, it felt like it was symbolic of the death of the glory years of traditional old school puroresu. In the meantime, RINGS was certainly doing an excellent job providing puroresu fans with an interesting product during times when puroresu was clearly struggling to hold on to its glory from previous years and struggling with winds of change. RINGS had been pushing the limits when it came to realism in puroresu. Here in this match, two of the most memorable shoot-style workers of the ‘90s finally faced each other. This was the first and only time Kiyoshi Tamura and Hiromitsu Kanehara wrestled each other, as they were somehow never booked to wrestle each other when they were both two of the most exciting workers in UWF-I during the early-mid 90s. Kanehara was slightly more aggressive than Tamura early on, but Tamura felt more dangerous because of his ability to suddenly display threatening counters. They were constantly making the other struggle, and they were constantly trying to get in a better position. This match never had a dull moment. These two showed they were highly skilled technical wrestlers. Of course, we knew that Tamura would display his tremendous ability, but it was nice to see Kanehara finally being involved in a highly competitive match for the first time in quite a while. Kanehara had always shown tremendous potential during his first years in the business, but at some point he somehow kinda got lost in the shuffle. Here in this match, he certainly gave Tamura a run for his money. The stand-up portions were brief compared to the more lengthy mat-based portions, as these two naturally seemed to gravitate towards matwork in this match. Tamura seemed to wait for Kanehara to make a mistake, and this made Kanehara's approach slightly more apprehensive as the match went on. While that meant the action wasn't exactly fast paced, there was at least always something going on, and the way they wrestled made this match intriguing from start to finish. It took over 13 minutes for Kanehara to start losing his first point, which says a lot about how evenly matched these two were. Around the 20-minute mark, Tamura's patience got rewarded, as he finally caught Kanehara in a position that Kanehara wasn't able to get out of, as Kanehara tapped out to Tamura's armbar. It feels like we knew this would happen, but the 20-minute journey was an intriguing one and certainly one worth watching. This was the best Kanehara match since Masakazu ‘better than Akira' Maeda had retired (for those who don't know about this, check out the Kanehara vs. better Maeda matches from 1992. Tamura was the stronger performer in this match, but Kanehara certainly deserves credit for being a competitive opponent who was capable of being a tough opponent for Tamura to get by. It would have been nice if there was some more flashiness shown, but since this was the era in which RINGS pushed for more realism, we can say that this match was one that didn't suffer from the focus on more realism, as these two did a great job of making this look realistic while having an intriguing worked wrestling match. Excellent match. ****¼ 

RINGS 4/23/99 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Frank Shamrock 20:00. This was possibly an actual shoot. It's possible that it was a work to some degree, though. Perhaps it was a worked shoot? It was definitely approached differently than most wrestlers would approach a worked match, which pretty much makes it plausible this was indeed a legit shoot. There was urgency shown whenever there was danger, and every single thing they did felt like it had importance. If Kiyoshi Tamura hadn't already proven himself to be the best pro wrestler in the world by that point, his performance here (shoot or not) confirms that he was indeed the very best. Of course, we have to give tremendous credit to Frank (Juarez) Shamrock, the adopted brother of Ken Wayne Shamrock, for his contribution to the match, as he's clearly a highly skilled grappler. Frank had been involved in shoot fighting/MMA since 1994. Since I don't know when I'll be talking about Frank Shamrock again, I just want to say that his fight vs. Cung Le from Strikeforce 3/29/08 is probably the best MMA match I have ever seen in my life. Anyway, after 20 minutes of tremendous struggle from both Tamura and Frank, the match ended as a draw. It's possible that they were told to basically shoot but not finish each other off and go to a 20-minute draw. There are some portions during the second half of the match that seem like they were holding back, although it's possible they were simply exhausted from grappling competitively for 20 minutes straight. Either way, the grappling was great and this was truly a fascinating match from start to finish. Great match. ****½ 

RINGS 6/24/99 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto 20:00. This was a work (at least seemingly for the most part), but it was a great one. This started off with some tremendous flashy, fast-paced counter wrestling. In fact, this match featured a lot more flashiness than any match we've recently seen from Kiyoshi Tamura in RINGS, which had been very realistic to the point that a lot of it truly resembled shoot wrestling. It was the flashiest Tamura match since his great 9/26/97 match against Volk Han. It was also the best Tamura match since the 9/26/97 match, but not necessarily because of the flashiness. That's not to say that this match wasn't realistic, as this was obviously way more realistic than virtually any other pro wrestling in the world at that point, as the quality and sincerity of pro wrestling differed extremely with, for example, the seriousness and realisticness of RINGS on one end of the spectrum, and the absurdness and lunacy of American sports-entertainment. In a year that saw extremely ridiculous angles from a certain sports-entertainment league from the States, such as Big Boss Man feeding Al Snow his own pet dog, at least in RINGS you wouldn't have to worry about seeing garbage like that. In this extremely high-quality shoot-style puroresu match, Yoshihisa Yamamoto proved to be a super competitive opponent for Tamura. This match was certainly a lot better than the previous battles between these two (12/19/96 and 9/21/98, which were very good matches). This may have been Yamamoto's best performance ever. His enthusiasm and urgency really played a big role in this match being so exciting to watch. The technical wrestling displayed in this match was amazing. Yamamoto was the aggressor, while Tamura, as always, was extremely dangerous whenever he was able to find an opening to counter. Yamamoto was so aggressive that he received a yellow card at some point, which also marked the first lost point in this bout. Tamura remained calm and confident in his ability to turn things around when needed. The work, while flashy for 1999 RINGS standards, was intense and dramatic. The urgency shown was another key factor for this match being awesome. These two were so into what they were doing in this match, that as a viewer, you were drawn into this match to the point that you'd be sitting on the edge of your seat in anticipation of what they were going to do next. It's certainly no surprise that the crowd reaction was tremendous during this match. As the match progressed, Tamura found himself getting more opportunities to turn the tide, but Yamamoto kept showing his great determination to succeed. The match mostly took place on the mat, but they would occasionally engage in intense stand-up striking. No matter what they did, it was all done with passionate intensity. The final minutes were particularly super dramatic and fierce. This is one of the best pro wrestling matches ever. Great match! *****

RINGS 2/26/00 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, World Mega Battle Open Tournament King of Kings Quarter Final: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Renzo Gracie 2R. This was a shoot. Renzo Gracie is a MMA fighter with a Brazilian jiu-jitsu and vale tudo background, who won the ADCC Submission Fighting World Championship at 77kg in 1998 & 2000. He's the grandson of Gracie jiu-jitsu founder Carlos Gracie. This was quite an average fight, definitely nothing too special. Renzo spent most of his time lying on his back on the mat. Tamura was clearly the more versatile fighter of the two. Tamura won the fight via unanimous decision, handing Gracie the first loss of his MMA career, which so far included winning the WCC tournament and finishing future Hall of Famers Oleg Taktarov and Maurice Smith. This was one of the most important wins of Tamura's career. While all members of the Gracie family are generally overrated as fighters, the fact that Tamura beat one of them helped Tamura's position as a serious MMA fighter. Unfortunately, Tamura would end up losing to Brazilian MMA fighter Renato ‘Babalu' Sobral in the next round. Okay match.

RINGS 8/23/00 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Pat Miletich 2R. This was a shoot. Pat Miletich was an American UFC fighter of Croatian descent with an amateur wrestling background who was the first and reigning UFC Welterweight Champion. This was quite an okay match, and it was a bit more exciting than Kiyoshi Tamura's fights from February, but it was ultimately nothing really special. There were some brief moments of intense stand-up striking, but most of the match took place on the mat. Tamura certainly showed his strong defense skills in this fight. Overall, these RINGS shoots from the year 2000 are definitely less exciting than Tamura's works in RINGS from previous years. It was nice to see Tamura get the win via split decision, though. Okay match.

RINGS 4/20/01 Tokyo Kokuritsu Yoyogi Kyogijo Dainitaiikukan, World Middleweight Title Decision Tournament 1st Round: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Gustavo Ximu 2R. This was a shoot. Gustavo ‘Ximu' Machado is a Brazilian MMA fighter with a BJJ background. This fight was a bit more exciting than Kiyoshi Tamura's matches from the year 2000. The main reason is that both fighters were moving around more, and they started off with some heated stand-up striking. They eventually went to the mat for a bit, and we got to see a bit of intense grappling before they went back to stand-up striking. This process of alternating between stand-up and mat grappling continued without either fighter getting a real good advantage over the other. They slowed down a bit during the second half of the fight, and that's also when they were spending more time on the mat. Ximu won the match via split decision. Decent match.

DEEP 9/7/02 Tokyo Ariake Coliseum: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Ikuhisa Minowa 3R. This was a shoot. Kiyoshi Tamura had left RINGS at this point in his career, and here he was making an appearance in DEEP (a.k.a. DEEP2001). Ikuhisa Minowa had spent most of his career in Pancrase by this point. This was an exciting fight, as both were fighting intensely, both during stand-up and during the mat portions of the fight. In fact, this was arguably Tamura's most exciting shoot fight ever. Both men were not afraid to take chances. Minowa showed tremendous fearlessness (as he even attempted a dropkick in this shoot fight, which wasn't a smart move, but it was an admirable attempt at something spectacular). Tamura showed tremendous patience and awareness. Tamura was capable of recognizing opportunities and having confidence in his own ability. In the end, Tamura won the fight via unanimous decision in what was one of his most exciting shoot fights. By the way, luchador Dos Caras Jr. also had a fight on this show wearing his mask. Good match.

PRIDE 11/24/02 Tokyo Dome: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Nobuhiko Takada R2 1:00. This was a shoot. In this big match, Kiyoshi Tamura faces one of the most overrated wrestlers in history, Nobuhiko Takada, who is a legend in his own mind (and somehow in the minds of others as well). On Valentine's Day in 1993, Tamura carried Takada to a very good work in UWF-I, but this match at the Tokyo Dome on 11/24/02 was quite a different story. This was an easy fight for Tamura, as Takada didn't stand a chance in a real fight against Tamura. Of course, it also didn't help that Takada was a 40-year old wrestler who was way past his prime. The match itself certainly wasn't good, but the result was memorable. In what feels like a result that reflects poetic justice in many ways, Tamura beat Takada when Tamura hit a KO punch a minute into the second round. Mediocre match. 

U-STYLE 2/15/03 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Wataru Sakata 11:44. U-STYLE was formed by Kiyoshi Tamura, and it's a league in the vein of Tamura's shoot-style pro wrestling style that he performed prior to focusing on shoots in late ‘99. A large part of the roster were actually Tamura's students, including the talented Ryuki Ueyama, who was Tamura's top student. Wataru Sakata had been a RINGS undercarder most of his career. Tamura offered a handshake, but Sakata literally hit Tamura with a slap in the face. Tamura did a really good job of avoiding several attempted moves early on by reacting quickly and smoothly. A bit later on in the match, Sakata showed that he was quite capable of catching and avoiding Tamura's offense himself. This was overall a really well performed shoot-style match. It had a nice balance of being quite realistic (for worked standards) and quite entertaining at the same time. There was a good amount of intensity, especially towards the more dramatic later portions of the match. Excellent match. ****

U-STYLE 12/9/03 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs Katsuhisa Fujii 7:48. Katsuhisa Fujii was an MMA fighter with a judo and amateur wrestling background who also was a pro wrestler. Most of his pro wrestling matches that year took place in the ZERO-ONE league. Because of him being an MMA fighter, he obviously was a natural fit in U-STYLE. The match started off intensely, with some good stand-up striking by both, and a surprising takedown by Fujii. As the match went on, Fujii kept trying to go for takedowns while Kiyoshi Tamura tried to nail Fujii with some wicked kicks. It was clear that Tamura was still on top of his game here as a worker, and it was nice that his opponent was eager to impress. It was an exciting match with a great display of struggle by both participants. Fujii certainly gave Tamura a run for his money until Tamura scored the flash submission win that didn't come easy. Excellent match. ****

U-STYLE 2/4/04 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka 15:51. This was the fourth meeting between Kiyoshi Tamura and Tsuyoshi Kosaka. Their previous three meetings were all in RINGS (a great 4.75-star match on 4/22/97, a great 4.5-star match on 6/27/98, a very good 3.5-star match on 1/23/99). The match started off with some solid mat wrestling. This was quite a lengthy portion of the match, which almost caused concern about whether or not this would be a disappointing match. Luckily, things started becoming more exciting soon. Much to Kosaka's delight, Tamura was the first to lose a point when he went for a rope break. Action started picking up when more stand-up striking started happening. Tamura knocked Kosaka down, which tied the score. However, Kosaka then ended up doing the same, giving him the advantage in points again. Tamura was now eager to equalize again, and he managed to do so as he went for a submission hold that caused Kosaka to grab the ropes. Towards the end of the match, the crowd got more and more into it, especially now that Tamura had Kosaka stuck in a half Boston crab, everyone's favorite shoot-style hold. Kosaka knew it wouldn't be a good idea to go for a rope break again, since he was running low on points, but he had no choice. The match eventually ended when Tamura made Kosaka tap to an armbar. This was a fun and interesting match that showed that these two still had it in them to deliver a match highly worthy of recommendation. The work was of high quality throughout this bout. Excellent match. ****

U-STYLE 3/13/04 Osaka Umeda Sky Building Stella Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs Kyosuke Sasaki 15:22. Kyosuke Sasake, who would end up becoming known as Hitamaru Sasaski in the 2010s in Kyushu Pro, gave a pretty good showing here, but he failed to really impress as much as he probably could have done in this match against the great Kiyoshi Tamura. The work was always very good, but it seemed like Sasaki couldn't quite be much of a threat, to the point where it became clear Sasaki was simply just not ready yet to be in a main event against Tamura himself. Tamura just kept going on with whatever worked for him at the moment, but Sasaki seemed to have trouble really putting his stamp on the match. While this was a somewhat disappointing match, it probably served its purpose as somewhat of a reality check and even a bit of a wrestling lesson for Sasaki. Tamura was like a relentless teacher and deserves credit for not being interested in making too many concessions and sticking to his game plan. Good match. ***  

U-STYLE 8/18/04 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, 1st Champion Decision Tournament Semifinal: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Hiroyuki Ito 11:12. Hiroyuki Ito was kinda sloppy and not good enough to really be a threat, making this feel like an extended squash with Kiyoshi Tamura showing a lot of mercy before finishing his opponent off. Still, thanks to Tamura's great understanding of how to work a shoot-style match combined with his knowledge of elevating weaker opponents to higher levels, this match was worth watching. Good match. ***¼ 

U-STYLE 8/18/04 Tokyo Korakuen Hall, 1st Champion Decision Tournament Final: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Alexander Otsuka 6:55. This was kinda short, and Alexander Otsuka wasn't much of a threat, especially since he appeared to have a hurt arm. Kiyoshi Tamura kicking the living daylights out of Otsuka was fun to watch, though. Good match. *** 

U-STYLE 12/7/04 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura & Takaku Fuke vs. Ryuki Ueyama & Seichi Ikemoto 20:30. It was interesting to see Kiyoshi Tamura battle with his top student, Ryuki Ueyama. They grappled on the mat quite intensely in a high-quality display of true U-STYLE wrestling. Takaku Fuke isn't the most fascinating shoot-style wrestler, but his shoot-style experience came in handy here. Fuke was around even back when Newborn UWF still existed, and he went to PWFG once Newborn UWF folded. Seichi Ikemoto gave an excellent showing. Ikemoto would end up becoming one of the best shoot-style workers in GLEAT's Lidet UWF division in the early 2020s. It was interesting to see Ikemoto during these earlier years of his career. He fought quite intensely against Tamura, as the two battled in some of the most intriguing moments of the match. They provided some superb technical wrestling with a great sense of struggle, and spectacular moments whenever counter opportunities were explored. Tamura gave an excellent showing, as expected, but Ikemoto definitely gave him a run for his money here. Excellent match. ****¼   

U-STYLE 11/23/05 Tokyo Ariake Coliseum: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Josh Barnett 16:10. This bout certainly followed some of the typical aspects of the classic tale of David and Goliath, as Barnett was a much larger man with approximately fifty pounds more weight and approximately five inches more height than Tamura. However, they didn't overdo the story of David vs. Goliath here, though, which was probably a good thing, since this match otherwise would have been more like a UWF-I Super Vader match filled with unrealistic American-style pro wrestling spots (which probably would have led to a match much less good, as Barnett isn't nearly as good of a worker Vader was). Just like it was a good thing they also didn't overdo the true story of Tamura being a much better technician. Some of the little details in Kiyoshi Tamura's work show his impeccable greatness. For instance, whenever Josh Barnett would apply a catch hold that didn't particularly seem like a cause for immediate concern, Tamura would sell the hold exactly as such. Tamura didn't do this to belittle the ability of the big American MMA fighter, but he did this in order to maintain his consistency when it came to be as sincere as possible whenever he performed in a worked shoot-style contest, which is a valuable aspiration, especially now that Tamura had several years of experience as a legit MMA fighter under his belt. This was certainly not a bad match, but Barnett simply isn't a very exciting worker, which is one of the main reasons this was a rather disappointing match for a Tamura match. Of course, one could actually say that we knew this match really never was going to be better than just good due to Barnett's limitations as a performer, which means that in the end, this match actually met its relatively low expectations. Tamura's performance was great, because he did whatever he could to enhance the quality of the match to maximum levels, which was in this case, three stars. Good match. ***

PRIDE 12/31/06 Saitama Super Arena: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Ikuhisa Minowa R1 1:18. This was a shoot. These two had a good fight on 9/7/02 in the DEEP league, which was one of Kiyoshi Tamura's most exciting shoots. This time around, Tamura needed only a bit over a minute to beat Ikuhisa ‘Minowaman' Minowa. Minowa started aggressively. Tamura remained calm, and attempted strikes when they felt appropriate. At some point, Tamura seized the opportunity to strike, as he hit a hard knee to Minowa's liver. Tamura was able to shove Minowa to the mat in a forceful manner. Minowa was dazed, and Tamura kicked Minowa in the head in order to score the KO win in 78 seconds. Okay match.

IGF 6/29/07 Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan: Kiyoshi Tamura & Ryuki Ueyama vs. Hidehisa Matsuda & Yuki Kotake 15:47. This U-STYLE tag match took place at the first IGF (Inoki Genome Federation) show. IGF was a league Antonio Inoki had founded after leaving NJPW. Kiyoshi Tamura was great, as usual. His top student, Ryuki Ueyama, was particularly eager to show his abilities, and he threw many great kicks and showed great movement. The opposition, however, while they tried their best, were not capable of really giving Tamura & Ueayama a run for their money. While this was good, it felt like merely an exhibition of what U-STYLE was all about, which was still a lot more interesting than anything that would follow on this show. Good match. ***¼ 

DREAM 4/29/08 Saitama Super Arena: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Masakatsu Funaki 0:57. As with the Nobuhiko Takada shoot, it was important because Tamura was dethroning one of the early 90's native legends who was his senior, the toughest wins to come by in traditional pro wrestling, but in this shoot there was no where to hide. This was exciting while it lasted. Masakatsu Funaki started off strong, but he got overconfident. Kiyoshi Tamura stayed calm and got the job done, as he beat the living daylights out of Funaki and got the TKO win after a series of punches within a minute of the first and only round. With this win, Tamura now owned victories over Maeda, Takada, and Funaki, the top stars of the three leagues the newborn UWF split into. Okay match.

K-1 12/31/08 Saitama Super Arena: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kazushi Sakuraba 2R. This was a shoot. This wasn't a very exciting match. Kazushi Sakuraba tried to survive. Kiyoshi Tamura always seemed confident and in control. Tamura was certainly the aggressor, as he was aggressive in a controlled way. Most of the match took place on the mat, which is where Sakuraba tried to use his defensive skills to survive. When the match turned briefly into a stand-up striking fight, Tamura was clearly the superior, which makes you wonder if Sakuraba just wanted to be on his back and try to survive the fight. This was an easy fight to score for the judges. Tamura won via unanimous decision. This was one of Tamura's final official MMA fights, and it was also one of his biggest victories, since this match once again proved that Tamura certainly had true shooting skills, as his opponent, ‘Gracie Hunter' Sakuraba, was no slouch. Decent match.

Ganryujima 7/18/15 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Joey Kaptijn R1 1:02. This was a shoot. Ganryujima is a unique league that has ‘custom rules' and doesn't follow the Unified Rules of MMA, and their fights don't take place in a ring or cage, but on a platform over a moat filled with dry ice smoke, which is certainly a unique setting to say the least. Dutch kickboxer Joey Kaptijn didn't last long against Kiyoshi Tamura in this main event match. Kaptijn went for a kick, but Tamura caught the kick and took Kaptijn to the mat. Despite there apparently being only limited grappling allowed in Ganryujima, which seemingly includes limited grappling time and no chokes on a grounded opponent allowed, Tamura managed to be very effective on the mat in this bout. There was no escape for Kaptijn, as the relentless Tamura managed to grab a heel hook and did enough damage for Kaptijn to quit 62 seconds into the fight. Tamura would have three more Ganryujima matches after this one, but he would end up losing those before eventually retiring from being an active competitor in 2017. Okay match.

1989-1990: Decent/Pretty Good

1991: Excellent

1992: Great

1993: Great

1994: Great

1995: Great

1996: Great

1997: Best of the Best

1998: Best of the Best

1999: Best of the Best

2000-2002: N/A (Tamura competed in shoot competition only)

2003: Best of the Best

2004: Best of the Best

2005: Great

2006: N/A (Tamura competed in shoot competition only)

2007: Great

2008: N/A (Tamura competed in shoot competition only)

2009-2014: N/A (Tamura was active neither as a pro wrestler nor as a shoot fighter)

2015-2017: N/A (Tamura mainly competed in shoot competition)

In this overall conclusion, only Kiyoshi Tamura's worked performances were taken into consideration. Tamura truly started excelling at being a shoot-style pro wrestler during the early 1990s. He was the top worker in the UWF-I from the outset. In 1993 and 1994, in spite of UWF-I mainly focusing on Nobuhiko Takada, Super Vader and Gary Albright, which seemingly meant that Tamura subsequently was being lost in the shuffle in terms of position on the card, Tamura gave strong performances no matter who he was facing and no matter what his position on the card was, making the most of the situation he was facing. He was arguably THE best pro wrestler in the world during the late 1990s (and mid 2000s), and some of his performances during the late 1990s in RINGS were some of the very best performances in pro wrestling history. With his large resume of high-quality shoot-style matches in which he often elevated his opponents to greater heights, Tamura certainly deserves to be considered one of the greatest pro wrestlers ever. He always remained true to his style. Even when he started doing more shoots, whenever he would go back to having worked matches, he showed that he was still great at doing shoot-style works. When we look at the evidence of his fascinating career, Tamura truly has to be considered one of THE greatest pro wrestlers of all time.

1. RINGS 6/24/99 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto 20:00. *****

2. RINGS 9/26/97 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura 12:48. *****

3. RINGS 4/22/97 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka 13:57. ****¾ 

4. RINGS 4/23/99 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Frank Shamrock 20:00. ****½ 

5. UWF-I 7/3/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoji Anjo 17:35. ****½ 

6. UWF-I 8/28/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoji Anjo 30:00. ****½ 

7. RINGS 1/22/97 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, Mega Battle Tournament Final: Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura 12:36. ****½ 

8. RINGS 9/25/96 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center: Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura 10:32. ****½ 

9. UWF-I 10/23/92 Tokyo Nippon Budokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Kazuo Yamazaki. 15:34. ****½ 

10. RINGS 6/27/98 Tokyo Bay NK Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka 30:00. ****½

11. U-STYLE 12/7/04 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura & Takaku Fuke vs. Ryuki Ueyama & Seichi Ikemoto 20:30. ****¼ 

12. RINGS 3/22/99 Tokyo Bay NK Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs Hiromitsu Kanehara 20:14. ****¼

13. U-STYLE 2/4/04 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka 15:51. **** 

14. U-STYLE 2/15/03 Tokyo Differ Ariake: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Wataru Sakata 11:44. ****

15. U-STYLE 12/9/03 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs Katsuhisa Fujii 7:48. ****

16. RINGS 5/23/97 Sendai Miyagi-ken Sports Center: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Grom Zaza 8:15. **** 

17. UWF-I 1/9/92 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yuko Miyato 8:11. ****

18. UWF-I 8/24/91 Shizuoka Sangyokan: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yuko Miyato 9:42. ****

19. RINGS 1/21/98 Tokyo Nippon Budokan, MEGA-BATTLE Final, RINGS Openweight Title Decision Match: Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Mikhail Ilyukhin 18:12. ****

20. UWF-I 10/6/91 Tokyo Korakuen Hall: Kiyoshi Tamura & Yuko Miyato vs. Tatsuo Nakano & Tom Burton 18:48. ****