Height: 6 Feet 1 Inches
Weight: 215lbs
Time in New Japan: 2000, 2002
Discipline(s): Karate, Muay Thai, Wrestling, Taekwondo
Signature Moves: Liver Kick, Liver Punch, Spinning Head Kick
MMA Record: 28-4-1
Bas Rutten needs no introduction. He is a legend in the ring, an influence on all, and one of the best commentators in the history of combat sports. Yet, did you know he did some pro-wrestling in the early 2000s shortly after his retirement in 1999? (You probably do since you are on THIS kind of blog but thats not the point!)
Rutten's first outing in the world of fake fighting came at INOKI BOM-BA-YE 2000 New Years Eve show (the source of the famous mass slapping line!) where he teamed with fellow bald headed fighter Alexander Otsuka (they had met in PRIDE as Rutten was a commentator) to face Naoki Sano (our amazing moleman-esque friend from the UWF-I and KINGDOM) and Ricco Rodriguez, a quickly rising star in MMA at the time with powerful wins in KOTC and Pride.
Unlike later Bom-Ba-Ye shows between 2001 and 2003 that featured fully shoot bouts, the original incarnation was based on the concept of pro-wrestling dream matches featuring popular MMA fighters all from the mind of Antonio Inoki. Naoki Sano and Otsuka were competitors in BATTLARTS and PRIDE at the time while Rutten and Rodriguez both have nicknames regarding their handsomeness (El Guapo and Suave respectively) so that is pretty much the basis of this match. And let me tell you, it is fucking sikkkk as hell. Rodriguez is a natural in the ring, and has no issue playing up the part of a pro-wrestler. A must watch! (The aesthetics of this first Inoki BomBaYe show is soooooooooooooo awesome, Inoki embraced the aesthetics of the "new millennium" full force.)
After a short tour in fellow baldy Otsuka's home promotion of BATTLARTS in late 2001 (I really should watch these sometime soon, maybe I will post them on here later hmmmm things to think about), Bas Rutten finds himself returning to New Japan as part of FOREIGN ARMY, a group of real shooters here to beat up on New Japan guys. Rutten has his eyes set on the title, but he has a few roadblocks before he can challenge Yuji Nagata for his IWGP Heavyweight championship.
This fight is really about Don Frye vs Tadao Yasuda, a feud based on the fact that Yasuda showed up for training late so Frye punched him. Inoki didn't like that so encouraged Yasuda, and now we have this match. There is a beat down, Rutten (a fellow member of Frye in the FOREIGN ARMY) has a solid match against Nakanishi, before Frye ultimately finishes the very large but underrated Yasuda. This is funny but also extremely compelling!
The origin of this feud that Bas Rutten has become embroiled in:
The violence erupts here at the 30th anniversary of New Japan:
Rutten makes a return at the finals of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament to face off against the young and thick (its really quite shocking) Hiroshi Tanahashi. A brutal and short affair, but extremely compelling nonetheless. Some of the shit that Rutten does (full nelson into standing knees!) in this bout is so cool, but Tanahashi manages to hold his own and display a charisma and strength despite being knee'd to hell and back. Champion Yuji Nagata is seen at the end, building towards Rutten's ultimate goal of challenging for the IWGP Heavyweight Belt.
One last stop before challenging for the championship, Rutten clashes with the great RINGSman Masayuki Naruse (his talent really cannot be understated, a truly entertaining and skilled fighter). This is a very exciting bout that includes many horrific kicks to the dome on behalf of Bas Rutten. A strong final stamp on his ticket to the title!
It all culminates here! Bas Rutten gets his shot at the title, but he comes up short. Yuji Nagata's IWGP run is legendary; a story of triumph after earlier loses to Yasuda and Kazuyuki Fujita, Nagata's reign could not have ended here. This bout is a bit shorter than I would have liked, especially compared with the magic produced in Rutten's much longer affair after this loss, but I understand the reasoning behind the booking to make the fairly new champ Nagata look strong (especially with his loss months earlier to CroCop at INOKI BomBaYe 2001). I made sure to include Nagata's victory speech at the end of this as you see just how popular he was, and how much more popular he would grow over the next year of title defenses.
After his loss to Yuji Nagata, Rutten got involved in a feud against Fujinami's favorite MUGA dude Osamu Nishimura. What way to settle this? Oh I know, a 30 Minute, Round-based European Catch Wrestling rules match complete with old british ref (hello Tony St. Clair). Rutten is the cunning striker here, flustered by his inability to finish off Nishimura. The tension builds throughout the match, finally culminating in a draw that should leave no one upset! This bout is definitely up there in the Hall of Good Time Limit Draws, and while maybe not hitting the heights of lets say Tamura vs Kohsaka 2 (we just celebrated the anniversary of this great RINGS match, hopefully you felt its warm blessings), it is a beautiful exchange in fake combat that I highly recommend.
The end of the line! Bas Rutten is done with professional wrestling after this, but not before he challenges for the Jr Heavyweight championship against Koji Kanemoto, a fucking bad ass dude! He loses and never comes back to pro-wrestling ever again! Despite his failure to capture either of the top titles, his tenure here served a purpose in the logics of Inokiism. Real credible fighters have always been brought in to New Japan because they bring a real sense of combat, real grandeur. A common complaint about this era of New Japan covered on this blog is that it focused "too much on martial arts and MMA" but this is the exact thing that makes New Japan the KING OF SPORTS! This leveling of pro-wrestling and all other martial arts is the internal logic of INOKIISM. This is the exact reason that the New Japan of today feels so foreign to the whole history of the promotion. It has a completely different logic, one that has no room for someone like Bas Rutten. I find that to be a sad fact indeed.
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