-2hr 55min. Q=Master
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Herman Renting
Chris Dolman vs. Tom Van Maurik
Willy Wilhelm vs. Pieter Smit
Akira Maeda vs. Dick Vrij
WATER BOUT: Mitsuya Nagai vs. Herman Renting
Bert Kops Jr. vs. Willie Peeters
UNIVERSE BOUT: Dick Vrij vs. Tom Van Maurik
EARTH BOUT: Akira Maeda vs. Willie Wilhelm
Herman Renting vs. Shtolm Koba
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Koichiro Kimura
Willie Peeters vs. Bert Kops, Jr.
Nobuaki Kakuta vs. Rob Kaman
Willy Wilhelm vs. Igor Kalmikov
Masaaki Satake vs. Gerard Gordeau
Akira Maeda vs. Dick Vrij
Adam Watt vs. Hans Nyman
Volk Han vs. Genaji Gigando
Nobuaki Kakuta vs. Rudy Ewoldt
Willy Williams vs. Pieter Smit
Masaaki Satake vs. Fred Oosterom
Akira Maeda vs. Buzariashivili Ramazi
EARTH BOUT: Koichiro Kimura vs. Ted Tenguiz
AQUA BOUT: Nobuaki Kakuta vs. Tom Van Maurik
FIRE BOUT: Willie Peeters vs. Yoshinori Nishi. Intense shoot. Mainly standup with a lot of hard kicks. Not much technique, but definitely a good hard fought bought that went OT.
AIR BOUT: Dick Vrij vs. Marcel Haarmans. This was more like AIR POLLUTION.
THUNDER BOUT: Mitsuya Nagai vs. Willy Williams
UNIVERSE BOUT: Herman Renting vs. Masaaki Satake
ASTRAL BOUT: Akira Maeda vs. Volk Han. Very good, highly dramatic match. Not as many cool spots from Volk as in later years, but Maeda was a hell of a lot better here than he was in their later meetings. Maeda's bad knee eventually did him in.
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Masayuki Naruse
Volk Han vs. Grom Zaza
Peter Aerts vs. Adam Watt
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Dick Vrij
Willy Williams vs. Bitsadze Ameran
Masaaki Satake vs. Bert Kops, Jr.
Akira Maeda vs. Hank Newman
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Masayuki Naruse
Yoshinori Nishi vs. Willie Peeters
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Nobuaki Kakuda
3Min 5Rd: Naoyuki Taira vs. Eric Edelenbos
Willy Williams vs. Tom Von Maurik
Volk Han vs. Herman Renting
Masaaki Satake vs. Willie Peeters
Akira Maeda vs. Hans Nyman
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Masayuki Naruse. Lots of cool kicks hit and attempted. Crisp execution. Yamamoto was really dominant on the mat, which was surprising to me. His size advantage helped him a lot in the takedown department. Good match with both showing a lot of potential. The mat technique was kind of basic, but the kicking was strong.
Nobuaki Kikuta vs. Yukihiro Takenami
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Willie Peeters. Very intense shoot. Defense wasn't the greatest and they took a lot of chances, as you would expect with Peeters involved, so there were a lot of big moves.
Dick Vrij vs. Hans Nyman. A bad bout with a lot of striking, of course.
Chris Dolman vs. Busariashibin Ramaji
Peter Oele vs. Masaaki Satake
Volk Han vs. Andrei Kopylov. Not surprisingly, this was a good mat match. Kind of slow because they went so long. A lot of cool looking submissions and counters though.
Akira Maeda vs. Willy Williams. Williams isn't carryable. Below average bout.
Koichiro Kimura vs. Masayuki Naruse
Nobuaki Kakuda vs. Yoshinori Nishi
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Cvetlan Paolov
Grom Zaza vs. Shutorm Kova
Chris Dolman vs. Herman Renting
Kick Rule 3Min 5Rd: Masaaki Satake vs. Rob Kaman
Volk Han vs. Dick Vrij
Akira Maeda vs. Andrei Kopylov
MEGA BATTLE 1st 1/25/92 Tokyo Bay NK Hall
Willie Peeters vs. Bert Kops, Jr.
Akira Maeda vs. Dick Vrij
MEGA BATTLE 2nd 3/5/92 Amagasaki Shi Kinen Koen Sogo Taiikukan
Nobuaki Kakuta vs. Rudy Ewoldt
Akira Maeda vs. Buzariashivili Ramazi
MEGA BATTLE 3rd 4/3/92 Hiroshima Sun Plaza
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Willy Williams
Masaaki Satake vs. Herman Renting
Akira Maeda vs. Volk Han
MEGA BATTLE 4th 5/16/92 Tokyo Ariake Coliseum
3 Minutes 5 Rounds Special Kick Rule: Peter Aerts vs. Adam Watt
3 Minutes 5 Rounds: Masaaki Satake vs. Bert Kops, Jr.
MEGA BATTLE 5th 6/25/92 Sendai Miyagi-ken Sports Center
Yoshinori Nishi vs. Peter Dijkman
3 Minutes 5 Rounds: Mitsuya Nagai vs. Nobuaki Kakuta
MEGA BATTLE 6th 7/16/92 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Volk Han vs. Andrei Kopylov
Akira Maeda vs. Willy Williams
MEGA BATTLE SPECIAL 8/21/92 Kanagawa Yokohama Arena
Volk Han vs. Dick Vrij
Akira Maeda vs. Andrei Kopylov
Dimitar Petkov vs. Vladimir Kravchuck
Georgi Kandelaki vs. Hanse Nyman
Willie Peeters vs. Herman Renting
Andrei Kopylov vs. Sotir Gotchev
Dick Vrij vs. Nobuaki Kakuta
Chris Dolman vs. Grom Zaza
Masaaki Satake vs. Mitsuya Nagai
Akira Maeda vs. Volk Han
Masayuki Naruse vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Herman Renting vs. Nobuaki Kakuta
Willy Williams vs. Yukihiro Takenami
Dick Vrij vs. Hans Nyman
Chris Dolman vs. Andrei Kopylov
Akira Maeda vs. Dimiter Petkov
Nobuaki Kakuta vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Sergei Sousserov
Georgi Kandrakki vs. Rudy Ewolt
Volk Han vs. Sotir Kochiev
MEGA-BATTLE TOURNAMENT '92 Junkessho
Dick Vrij vs. Herman Renting
Akira Maeda vs. Chris Dolman
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Masayuki Naruse
Sotir Gotchev vs. Todor Todorov
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Yoshinori Nishi
Volk Han vs. Andre Tournamidze
MEGA-BATTLE '92 3rd Place Match: Akira Maeda vs. Herman Renting
MEGA-BATTLE '92 Final, 3Min 5Rd: Chris Dolman vs. Dick Vrij
3Min 5Rd: Georgi Kandelaki vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
3Min 5Rd: Masayuki Naruse vs. Wataru Sakata
Nikolai Zouev vs. Tudor Todorov
3Min 5Rd: Hans Nyman vs. Mitsuya Nagai
3Min 5Rd. Willy Williams vs. Bitsadze Tariel
Ranking Match: Volk Han vs. Dick Vrij
Masayuki Naruse vs. Tigr Levani 30:00
3Min 5Rd: Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Mihail Simov R3 1:39
Pieter Oele vs. Willie Peeters 12:01
Nikolai Zouev vs. Grom Zaza 15:59
3Min 5Rd: Bitsadze Tariel vs. Hans Nyman R5 0:39
Special Match: Willy Williams vs. Dick Vrij 5R.
Special Match: Volk Han vs. Chris Dolman 6:20
History of Akira Maeda
BATTLE DIMENSION '93 3/5/93 Osaka Metropolitan Circuit
Masayuki Naruse vs. Nobuaki Kakuta. Good bout.
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Peiter Oele. Average.
Willie Peeters vs. Sergei Sousserov. Bad.
BATTLE DIMENSION '93 4/24 Yokohama Bunka Taiikukan Tokyo Bay Area Circuit #1
Bart Vale vs. Hans Nyman. Awful.
Volk Han vs. Mitsuya Nagai. Great performance by Han, who does all sorts of sleek and innovative submissions. Nagai was also quite good and the crowd was really pulling for him. Great.
BATTLE DIMENSION '93 RINGS 2nd Anniversary 5/29/93 Tokyo Ariake Coliseum Tokyo Bay Area Circuit #2
Dick Vrij vs. Andrei Kopylov. Hellacious Vrij high kick KO. Average.
Han vs. Willy Williams. Williams was so awful. Average due to Han.
'93 Round 1 2/28/93 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Nagai vs. Sandor Telgen. Okay
Kickboxing: Naoyuki Taira vs. Toshiyuki Atokawa. Bad.
'93 Round 3 6/9/93 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Toshiyuki Atokawa vs. Bob Schrieber. Ok
'93 Round 4 8/6/93 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Masayuki Naruse vs. Carlos Dieke. Average.
'93 Round 5 9/10/93 Tokyo Korakuen Hall
Nagai vs. Kopylov. Ok
BATTLE DIMENSION'93 7/13/93 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan Osaka Metropolitan Circuit #2
Nagai vs. Hans Nyman. Ok
Han vs. Vrij. Very good bout. Han was excellent and he was able to hide that Vrij is far from excellent.
BATTLE DIMENSION'93 8/21/93 Yokohama Arena Tokyo Bay Area Circuit #3
Vrij vs. Williams. Slow, plodding, and fake looking. Bad.
Han vs. Dolman. Ok.
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Willie Peeters
Peter Oele vs. Bitsadze Tariel
Herman Renting vs. Hanse Nyman
Volk Han vs. Masayuki Naruse
3 Min 5 Rd: Willy Williams vs. Dick Vrij
Andrei Kopylov vs. Nikolai Zouev
Akira Maeda vs. Sotir Gotchev
Naniev Olegg vs. Georgii Galdava
Georgi Kandelaki vs. Masayuki Naruse
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Vladimir Petkov
BATTLE DIMENSION TOURNAMENT 2nd Round:
Bitsadze Tariel vs. Dick Vrij
Chris Dolman vs. Willie Peeters
Volk Han vs. Nikolai Zouev
Akira Maeda vs. Herman Renting
Grom Zaza vs. Hank Newman
Masayuki Naruse vs. Tudor Todorov
Georgi Gandelaki vs. Sarsania Zolab
Dick Vrij vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Volk Han vs. Pavel Orlov
Tournament Semifinal: Bitsadze Tariel vs. Nikolai Zouev
Tournament Semifinal: Akira Maeda vs. Chris Dolman
Tsuromaki vs. Moriyasu
Koichiro Kimura vs. Honma
Bob Schreiber vs. Mori Kazuya
Masayuki Naruse vs. Eric Edlenbos
Andrei Kopylov vs. Orlav Pavel
Akira Maeda vs. Mitsuya Nagai
Fred Oosterom vs. Andre Tourmanidze
Bart Vale vs. Peter Smit
Kickboxing: Rene Rooze vs. Rob Esdonk
Volk Han vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto. Dramatic match with Yamamoto showing a lot of spunk and charisma. Great heat. Han did his typical assortment of cool submissions. A bit one-sided, but still a very good and exciting bout.
Dick Vrij vs. Mikhail Simov
Chris Dolman vs. Nikolai Zouev
Battle Dimension Final: Akira Maeda vs. Bitsadze Tariel. Very heated sprint. Passable.
This tape has highlights of each match in the tournament as well as the complete Maeda vs. Tariel final.
Naniev Oleg vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Dimitre Petkov vs. Masayuki Naruse
Todor Todorov vs. Herman Renting
Judo Exhibition
Kickboxing: Kim Lee Klin vs. Rob Esdonk
Bart Vale vs. Dick Vrij
Mixed Match: Volk Han vs. Gueorgui Keandelaki
Bitsadze Tariel vs. Vladmir Klementiv
Akira Maeda vs. Andrei Kopylov
Kickboxing: Rene Rooze vs. Gueorgui Keandelaki
Youri Bekichev vs. Masayuki Naruse. Short, but explosive match with a ton of action. Knockdowns back and forth highlighted by Bekichev putting Naruse down with an incredible rolling heel kick. Very good.
Stefanov Petrov vs. Mitsuya Nagai. Exciting bout with a lot of action. Good.
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Andrei Kopylov. Another good bout with a lot of action. Kopylov's performance was strong. Started off hot, but they never turned it up a notch so it didn't quite reach it's potential, but on the other hand you wouldn't have expect any better than good coming in.
Hans Nyman vs. Volk Han. A good bout, which is rare with Hans involved but Han is the man. Han was absolutely destroyed during the standup portion. Bout was somewhat disappointing because Han won as soon as it hit the mat.
Akira Maeda vs. Dick Vrij. Vrij went for the quick win. Stiff bout that was good while it lasted, which was for less than 3 minutes. I suppose that's more good minutes than you normally get from Vrij, but this was awful short for a main event. Ok bout.
3Min 5 Rd: Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. Nobuhiro Tsurumaki
Masayuki Naruse vs. Satoshi Honma
Willie Wilhelm vs. David Hahareshivili
Willie Peeters vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Tony Halme vs. Thomas Lurosi
Volk Han vs. Georgi Gandelaki
Akira Maeda vs. Chabadze Zaour
Masayuki Naruse vs. Todor Todorov. Decent
Pieter Dykman vs. Youri Bekichev. Ok.
Mihail Simov vs. Bitsadze Tariel. Bad match. Awful doesn't even describe how bad Tariel is.
Hans Nyman vs. Grom Zaza. VQ gets bad then unwatchable in the midst of this match, but is back to normal for the next bout.
Volk Han vs. Sotir Gotchev. Slow developing match that never got exciting. Ok, but very disappointing given Han was involved.
Pieter Oele vs. Vladmir Klementiv. Really bad bout mainly consisting of really fake strikes.
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Nikolai Zouev. Well booked match that became exciting and heated, but wasn't always that great. Pretty good.
Wataru Sakata vs. Nobuhiro Tsurumaki
Masayuki Naruse vs. Rene Van De Zander
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Dmitre Petkov
3rd Round Matches
Dick Vrij vs. Hans Nyman
Chris Dolman vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Volk Han vs. Willy Williams
Akira Maeda vs. Tony Halme
Wataru Sakata vs. Minoru Tanaka. The inexperienced Tanaka was no match for Sakata in this shoot.
Kickboxing: Jan Lomulder vs. Alben Belinski. Exciting bout with a lot of heavy kicks by both men. Defense wasn't all that great as these guys appeared to be bangers. Very good.
Willie Peeters vs. Pieter Oele. Appeared to be a shoot. A lot of striking with the out of shape Peeters taking a beating. Entertaining bout with a lot of high impact blows. Oele's low kick was very strong.
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Masayuki Naruse. Fairly even match that the fans were into. Strong technique as well as good strikes, particularly by Nagai. Very good.
Bitsadze Tariel vs. Bitsadze Ameran. Terrible. Just a bunch of fake looking strikes.
Semi-Finals
Volk Han vs. Hans Nyman. Very good short match due to an excellent performance by Han. It was Han's submissions vs. Hans' kicks, with Han allowing himself to be rocked in between catching Hans in a submission.
Akira Maeda vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto. The fans were really into this. Yamamoto showed great charisma and the fans were going nuts at one point screaming Yamamoto until he made it to the ropes to escape Maeda's hiza jujigatame. Yamamoto's selling was quite good. Maeda looked slow on his strikes, but worked really stiff. It's really a shame Yamamoto's body didn't hold up as he had the potential to be great. Very good to excellent match.
Wataru Sakata vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka
Herman Renting vs. David Khauchaleishyuli
Bob Schrieber vs. Aldinov Roussinov
Sotir Gotchev vs. Masayuki Naruse
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Mark Ashford
Dick Vrij vs. Tony Halme
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Hans Nyman. Really strong performance by Yamamoto to turn this into a good bout.
Tournament Final: Maeda vs. Han. Bombs from start to finish. Major heat. Huge pop for the finish even though the fans hero lost.
Andrei Kopylov vs. Hans Nyman
Ronnie Rivano vs. Piet Bernzen
Masayuki Naruse vs. Willie Peeters
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Ruud Ewoldt
Dick Vrij vs. Mitsuya Nagai
Akira Maeda vs. Chris Dolman
David Levecky vs. Herman Renting
John Ovverkerk vs. Joop Vid Ven
3Min 5Rd: Valentin Davidov vs. Bob Schreiber
Masayuki Naruse vs. Wataru Sakata
Bitsadze Tariel vs. Bart Vale
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Volk Han vs. Nikolai Zouev
Akira Maeda vs. Dick Vrij 5:38
Chris Dolman history
Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. Wataru Sakata. Probably a shoot. More interesting than their last match, but still not too good. Okay
Willie Peeters vs. Mitsuya Nagai. Exciting match with a lot of big strikes. Peeters wanted nothing to do with the mat, so it was almost all standup. Good.
Dick Vrij vs. Todor Todorov. Vrij dominated with his kicks. Todorov seemed to just grab Vrij once in a while without doing any kind of hold to him. Fair.
Hans Nyman vs. Goditedze Bakouri. Pretty good match that the fans were into. Some cool big moves, especially a great ipponzeoi by Bakouri.
Volk Han vs. Masayuki Naruse. Exciting match, but one of Han's least believable. At one point he had Naruse trapped in an udehishigigyakujujigatame in the center of the ring, but he basically just let his arm go since it wasn't the finish. It seemed like Han either got injured or had the wind knocked out of him in the middle of the match. Good.
Rankingsen: Akira Maeda (#2) vs. Bitsadze Tariel (#4). Had heat, but wasn't good in any regard.Maeda did a lot of standup because that's Tariel's strength, but they are both too slow and lumbering to make it look good.
Wataru Sakata vs. Sotir Gotchev
Georgi Gandelaki vs. Svilen Roussinoff
Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. Joop Van Den
Peter Oele vs. Mitsuya Nagai
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Dick Vrij
Akira Maeda vs. Volk Han
3/18 Tokyo Ariake Coliseum
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Mitsuya Nagai. Strong technical match with very smooth matwork. Very good bout with a great finish.
Maeda vs. Vrij. Alright.
4/28 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Maeda vs. Bitsadze Tariel. Ok.
5/20 Kagoshima
Maeda vs. Nikolai Zouev. Good bout.
Han vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto. Long hard fought match. Strong performances by both men. Hot, pro Yamamoto crowd. Great bout.
7/18 Osaka Furitsu Taiikukaikan
Yamamoto vs. Vrij. Vrij works super stiff. Really exciting. Great bout.
8/27 Tokyo Bay NK Hall
Maeda vs. Kopylov. Ok
Han vs. Tariel. Really heated. Han was awesome smoothly going from submission to submission. Han made Tariel's fairly weak strikes look impressive. Dramatic match with awesome selling by Han. Surprisingly excellent bout.
9/22 Sapporo Nakajima Taiiku Center
Yamamoto vs. Vrij. Good bout.
Han vs. Maeda. Good match, but not enough of Han's stuff.
Willie Peeters vs. Wataru Sakata. This had a lot of showmanship, but it was a shoot. At one point Sakata ducked a high kick and Peeters went over the top rope to the floor. Sakata then got a red card for attacking Peeters on the apron, and when Peeters got up from this he was ready to kill Sakata. Peeters soon caught Sakata with a vicious knee and kept pummeling him until he crashed to the mat like a rock. Good bout with some vicious strikes.
Dennis Raven vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka. Exciting shoot with Kosaka taking a lot of punishment
Tournament Round 2
Ilioukhine Mikhail vs. Hans Nyman. Big style clash here, which was made worse by the fact that Mikhail wasn't all that used to working RINGS at this point. Ok
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Mitsuya Nagai. Pretty good match, but not nearly as good as I expected as neither were up to their usual standard. Mainly not all that exciting matwork. Pretty good.
Volk Han vs. Andrei Kopylov. Pretty much all on the mat with finishers
Akira Maeda vs. Bitsadze Tariel. As bad as you'd expect.
Wataru Sakata vs. Emil Krastev. Shooter vs. kickboxer, with Krastev fighting with gloves on. The usual style for these kind of matches with Sakata going all out to get it on the ground, and Krastev grabbing the ropes ASAP once Sakata got him down. Interesting match, but it was really short. Sakata did a good job, but Krastev seemed out of his element.
Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. Grom Zaza. Way better than I expected. Kosaka hadn't come into his own yet, and I'd never seen a Zaza match that wasn't BORING, but this was actually very good. Kosaka was very good though, and Zaza gave his best performance. It was fast-paced, and they went though a lot of points. It actually could have been excellent if Kosaka was allowed to compete. ***1/2
Vladimir Klementiev vs. Pieter Oele. Almost all standup, but the striking wasn't particularly impressive. *
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Nikolai Zouev. Solid, well worked match. Not that exciting, but fairly "realistic." **1/4
WORLD MEGA-BATTLE TOURNAMENT Junkessho: Volk Han vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto. It was definitely a work, but the way they were able to work together to do the complicated sequences or even just keep reacting to each other and avoiding the potential submissions is really what made the match. They thought and reacted so quickly. As soon as one guy tried to apply a submission, the other was rolling or spinning into a position where he could try to go right into a submission. There was really no advantage in this sprint because as soon as you seemingly had it, the other guy took it right away from you. Right off the bat they were trying to lock submissions on, but their opponent would always turn, spin, on one occassion even "dance" his way out of trouble. The match was built in the sense that in the beginning all the attempts at submissions were quickly avoided, but as time went on they'd come closer and closer to catching their opponent and advancing to the final of the annual MEGA BATTLE TOURNAMENT. Read Review. ****1/2
WORLD MEGA-BATTLE TOURNAMENT Junkessho: Akira Maeda vs. Hanse Nyman. It was all action, but it was short and came off flat after the previous classic because these guys didn't chain anything together. *1/4
Michail Ilioukhine vs. Wataru Sakata
Willie Peeters vs. Christopher Haseman
Vladimir Klementov vs. Gogitidze Bakouri
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Tony Halme
Maurice Smith vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka
Bitsadze Tariel vs. Dennis Raven
MEGA BATTLE TOURNAMENT 1995 3rd Place Match: Volk Han vs. Hanse Nyman
MEGA BATTLE TOURNAMENT 1995 Final: Akira Maeda vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Wataru Sakata vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto
Tjerk Vermanen vs. Valentijn Overeem
John Benner vs. Jimmy Porter
Michael Tielrooy vs. Edwin Gertenbach
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Ruud Ewoldi
Thai Boxing: Rene Rooze vs. Rob Esdonk
Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. Willie Peeters
Emil Krasten vs. Bob Schrieber
Hans Nyman vs. Allen Harris
Lee Hasdell vs. Andrew Mainnart
Dick Vrij vs. Hubert Numrich
Tjerk Vermanen vs. Valentijn Overeem
John Benner vs. Jimmy Porter
Michael Tielrooy vs. Edwin Gertenbach
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Ruud Ewoldi
Thai Boxing: Rene Rooze vs. Rob Esdonk
Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. Willie Peeters
Emil Krasten vs. Bob Schrieber
Hans Nyman vs. Allen Harris
Lee Hasdell vs. Andrew Mainnart
Dick Vrij vs. Hubert Numrich
Iouri Bekichev vs. Emil Kristev
Wataru Sakata vs. Christopher Haseman
Mikhail Ilioukhine vs. Mitsuya Nagai
Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. Hanse Nyman
Volk Han vs. Dick Vrij
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Bitsadze Tariel
Michael Stann vs. Jacob Hamilton
Wataru Sakata vs. Todor Todorov
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Glenn Brown
Bitsadze Tariel vs. Willy Williams
Maurice Smith vs. Dick Vrij
Volk Han vs. Nikolai Zouev
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka
Wataru Sakata vs. Willie Peeters
Masayuki Naruse vs. Todor Todorov
Bitsadze Ameran vs. Dennis Raven
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Dick Vrij
Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. Jacob Hamilton
Volk Han vs. Mitsuya Nagai
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Maurice Smith 30:00
Wataru Sakata vs. Valentijn Overeem
Masayuki Naruse vs. Sergei Sousserov
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Willie Peeters
Dick Vrij vs. Christopher Haseman
Bitsadze Tariel vs. Joop Kasteel
Volk Han vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Hanse Nyman
Willie Peeters vs. Wataru Sakata
Masayuki Naruse vs. Egen Inoue
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Maurice Smith
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Dick Vrij
Walter Schnabelt vs. Vladimir Kuramenchev
Volk Han vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka
Mikhail Ilioukhine vs. Adilson Lima
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Ricardo Morias
Peter Dijkman vs. Wataru Sakata
Masayuki Naruse vs. Christopher Hazeman
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka
Volk Han vs. Kiyoshi Tamura. ****3/4
Hans Nyman vs. Bitsadze Tariel
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Andrei Kopylov
Tournament Ikkaisen
Todor Todorov vs. Gogitidze Bakouri. Dull match. It wasn't believable, and they didn't exactly sacrifice believability for entertainment value. *
Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. Dick Vrij. Kosaka fought Vrij much like Tamura, keeping the match in standup almost the whole time where he mainly took Vrij's strikes. Vrij wasn't nearly as stiff with Kosaka as he is with Tamura though. Kosaka did a good job of putting Vrij over, barely getting back to his feet before the 10 counts. It was good for what it was, but Yamamoto & Tamura have done much better with Vrij. *3/4
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Ilioukhine Mikhail. They mainly wrestled on the mat, displaying a high level of technical prowess. Watching these two manuever their way out of trouble was particularly beautiful. Tamura got behind on points, and Mikhail faired particularly well in the final third of the match, Mikhail just couldn't trap Tamura in a submission. ***1/2
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Willie Peeters. I was disappointed in this match. It was slow moving and dull. They didn't do anything to make it look realistic, and Peeters can't come close to displaying the intensity he shows in a shoot. *1/2
Nikolai Zouev vs. Bitsadze Tariel. They went through most of the allotted points in five minutes, but Tariel isn't even carryable by Tamura, much less Zouev. Tariel thinks he can strike, but he has no athleticism so his kicks and knees are unimpressive. Zouev didn't do much of anything, which made no sense because he was TKO'd from lost points. DUD
Volk Han vs. Masayuke Naruse. Han was really on top of his game here, carrying Naruse to the best match I've seen him in. Han is jst the master of making worked shoots exciting and dramatic, and this was no exception. He made the fans believe in Naruse, so they got into rooting for Naruse to win. Naruse actually had Han down to the final down. This was damn good. ***3/4
Special Match
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Khakhaleishvili Davit. Davit is very overweight and can't work at all. They kept it really short, but Yamamoto couldn't get anything out of this slug. DUD
Akira Maeda Fukkisen (comeback match): Akira Maeda vs. Andrei Kopylov. This was below both men's standards. They mainly just rolled around on the mat. It was pretty weak technically, and the finish was lame. Maeda didn't look good. *
Nikolai Zouev vs. Wataru Sakata. Solid, but unspectacular match. Sakata was overmatched, but he showed some spunk here by hanging in the whole way. **
Masayuki Naruse vs. Dick Vrij. I was all ready to hate this match and call it another Vrij turd. However, by some miracle, this match pretty much ruled. It was a fast paced match with both men fighting really hard and stiff. As was the case with last month's match against Han, Naruse showed a ton of heart and refused to give up even though Vrij was just wrecking him in standup. Naruse did knock Vrij down twice to show he wasn't all submissions though. The highlight of the match came when when both men were down to the final down and Vrij blasted Naruse with a vicious high kick. Naruse was in the center of the ring, but somehow he was blown back enough that he was able to grab the top rope and pull himself up to avoid the TKO. ***1/2
Tournament Nikaisen
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Mitsuya Nagai. I thought this would be an excellent match, but it wasn't even average. This was like watching a (lack of) Pride match, it just seemed like nothing of note happened in the entire match. *1/4
Volk Han vs. Tsuyoshi Kosaka. An excellent match that was pretty much only held back by the length (not that 10 minutes is short for a worked shoot). Han was the man here. He did all of his favorite moves, but the match was even more explosive than normal. Between all the big moves and counters, they really kept you on your toes. Han really put the ever improving Kosaka over, particularly in standup. ****
Feature on the 96 Sambo championships
Yoshihisa Yamamoto vs. Gogitese Bakhouri. This two didn't work well together, so the match was kind of hit and miss. The match wasn't very interesting because they lacked intensity, and they didn't chain anything together or do any nice counters. *1/4
Bitsadze Tariel vs. Hans Nyman. What an awful match! These guys are too big and slow to look impressive as strikers, but it may as well have been a kickboxing match because the only time anyone left their feet was when they were knocked off them. DUD
Special Match
Akira Maeda vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara. Traditional UWF style bout. At one time, this might have looked good, but the style had evolved to the point that this slow matwork was no longer viable. This should have had great heat because Maeda was still very much over, and these guys hadn't been in the ring with each other in a long time because they both formed their own companies when UWF split up. Unfortunately, it was a dull match with no heat. *1/4
FIGHTING NETWORK RINGS on WOWOW MEGA BATTLE TOURNAMENT 1996 Junkessho taped 12/21/96 Fukuoka Kokusai Center
Masayuki Naruse vs. Dick Vrij. *1/2
Mitsuya Nagai vs. Gogitidze Bakouri. *3/4
Tsuyoshi Kosaka vs. Hans Nyman. *1/2
Maurice Smith vs. Bitsadze Amiran. 1/2*
Feature on the '96 Sambo Championships
MEGA BATTLE 1996 Junkessho
Volk Han vs. Bitsadze Tariel. **1/4
Kiyoshi Tamura vs. Yoshihisa Yamamoto. ***1/4
Special Match
Akira Maeda vs. Vladmir Klementiev. 1/2*