SHINSUKE NAKAMURA: THE SUPER ROOKIE GOES NO HOLDS BARRED

Known As: Shinsuke Nakamura
Height: 6 Feet 2 Inches
Weight: ~230lbs
Time in New Japan: 2002-2016
Discipline(s): Pro-Wrestling, Amateur Wrestling, Vale Tudo
Signature Moves: Triangle Choke (often from a flying position), Front Neck Lock, Knees and various striking combinations [these moves are from his early days, Nakamura's move-set lost most of it's vale tudo roots as time went on]
MMA Record: 3-1 (1 No Contest)

Shinsuke Nakamura is known by all in the pro-wrestling world of 2018. A talented high school and college wrestler, Nakamura was already a hit with fans at his debut in late 2002 against Tadao Yasuda. The "Super Rookie" would go on to be the youngest winner of the IWGP Heavyweight title, becoming a mainstay in New Japan throughout the decade and beyond. However, that is not the story I or you frankly are interested in.  We are here to explore Nakamura's time in the realm of Vale Tudo; a world that has no forgiveness or regret. People are unaware of how much this time in No Holds Barred fighting colored Nakamura's whole move set and cemented his credibility with fans that he was truly THE SUPER ROOKIE.

THE SUPER ROOKIE DEBUTS AGAINST A GRACIE:
Inoki and the others in the New Japan office saw his immense potential, quickly sending Nakamura off to the Inoki Dojo in Los Angeles to train for the upcoming Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye 2002 end of the year MMA show. Billed as Inoki vs K-1, the event was at the Saitama Super Arena drawing 35,000+ fans and a 16.5 television rating, making it the most successful of the Inoki promoted MMA events!

Nakamura may be the Super Rookie but he was set to face the "new generation" of Gracie family fighters in Daniel Gracie who was only on his second MMA fight! Shinsuke Nakamura impresses early, dodging a high kick and landing some nice strikes of his own to begin the fight. The quickness of Nakamura's shoot in for a single leg is so incredibly fast, and he is able to bring the young Gracie to the ground. The ref breaks it while Nakamura leaps into the downed Gracie to check a cut, allowing Nakamura to get some mean mugging on. We see how seriously Shinsuke took the idea of Vale Tudo as a discipline as he's looking for downed kicks and stomps whenever Gracie is on the ground. The last bit of round 1 sees Nakamura's stomps get caught in a leglock attempt which after failing allows Gracie to get into mount and lay some punches down onto the Super Rookie.

Round 2 begins with more striking before Nakamura shoots in for a smooth double leg takedown. Shinsuke is a patient fighter, grinding in the guard while looking for opportunities to either jump guard or to create some space while looking to stomp. Sadly, Daniel Gracie is able to quickly slip on an armbar ending Shinsuke Nakamura's first foray into No Holds Barred fighting with defeat. Despite the loss, Nakamura in no way looked weak and his performance here just added to the fans amazement with the skills of the Super Rookie.



IT IS TIME TO PUT THOSE CRUSHING SKILLS TO GOOD USE:
Nakamura had his next MMA bout at the mixed match spectacular called ULTIMATE CRUSH which I have detailed in postings about Josh Barnett, Enson Inoue, and Lyoto Machida previously. A massive card of pro-wrestling and Vale Tudo matches, this functioned as a demonstration of Inoki's total view of the world of combat sports. ULTIMATE CRUSH was Inoki staking the claim of KING OF SPORTS once more, and what better way to do that than have the Super Rookie Shinsuke Nakamura face the almost 7ft giant that is JAN NORTJE!

We see Nakamura in the opening video package detail his training at the INOKI DOJO in Los Angeles, a center for all things VALE TUDO with its eclectic mix of trainers, fighting heritage, and cross-training. Nortje is shown beating our old friend Tadao Yasuda at Bom-Ba-Ye 2002, the very event that Nakamura debuted as a shoot fighter. Nortje comes out decked in furs of a zebra (something I find immensely distasteful, the fucking settler!) and he hurt Yasuda so I am excited to see Nakamura engage in some ULTIMATE CRUSH on his face!

The size difference here is EXTREME and Nortje uses it early to simply hold Nakamura down, but do not fret friends because after avoiding knees to the dome skillfully and then driving Nortje into the corner to gain top position, Nakamura fucking whoops on this dude. Punches, elbows, and grounded knees: Shinsuke Nakamura uses these techniques beautifully, embodying the concept of the New Japan Vale Tudo rules that Inoki had developed for his events. By maintaining the use of elbows, this rule set was more truthful to the truly No Hold Barred origin of mixed fighting and Vale Tudo. Nakamura's skills in amateur wrestling techniques combined with his use of striking on the ground allows him to continue to dominate in round 2. After bloodying the South African giant with slicing elbows in mount, Shinsuke Nakamura lays down the forearm across Nortje's throat forcing the tap. Another kickboxer slain by the forearm choke across the throat, a true right of passage in the world of Inokiism!



DEEP IN THE JUNGLE, NAKAMURA LURKS:
Let us hop on a plane to Brazil because we are returning once more to the first JUNGLE FIGHT! Wallid Ismail, a trainer at the Inoki Dojo that Nakamura learned the ways of Vale Tudo at, founded this event with Antonio Inoki. Now a prominent MMA promotion in Brazil, this company started out with the help of Inoki and his cavalcade of fighters. LOL the English commentators call Nakamura a "legend in Japan" despite him being in the game for like barely a year at this point and Frank Trigg, notorious nonsense MMA commentator (this is confirmed at his recent stint in RIZIN) says that Nakamura has slow takedowns which is LOL as we have now seen his previous fights and know that to be patently false. Did I say I absolutely loathe this guy's horrible commentary? Nakamura is facing Shane Eitner, a man I know nothing about except that he is listed as being from the LA Boxing gym that the McCully's, fellows in Inokiism, ran back in the day (hey Sean McCully is in his corner!).

Shinsuke Nakamura unsurprisingly shoots in and gets the takedown almost immediately. He uses his wrestling ability to maintain control despite Eitner's attempts to buck him off, delighting the large section of NJPW fans that were attending this INOKI affiliated event. Nakamura loves the knees from the side position as do I and the fans in attendance (they are the best!). Goddamn Shinsuke Nakamura after just dominating the whole fight wins after a nasty looking keylock from mount! The fans are delighted once more by the Super Rookie and Trigg eats his dumbass words once again!



NAKAMURA EATS THE KNEE:
Inoki's relationship with K-1 continues as the THE IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION Shiksuke Nakamura comes to K-1 Premium DYNAMITE 2003 to challenge famed Belarusian heavyweight kickboxer Alexey Ignashov in the main event! Ignashov is a 4 time Muay Thai world champ and winner of various other kickboxing titles and tournaments while Shinsuke Nakamura is the youngest IWGP champ ever going into this fight. There is something so awesome about someone going into a shoot fight in front of thousands rocking a pro-wrestling championship. This is the kind of stuff I love to see, a brazen move that says "yes I am a pro-wrestler, the KING OF SPORTS."

I love the giant blue and white ring used here at DYNAMITE 2003, its so pleasing to the eyes especially as Nakamura drives Ignashov into the mat with repeated beautiful takedowns. He is very calm and patient, just as in his other fights, looking for that moment to slip into a stronger position or create space to do some damage with strikes. Round 2 begins with much of the same, this time with Nakamura looking to strike more from the full guard. The ref brings them back up and we see Nakamura eat his first knee of the fight, but he does not seemed phased and we hear the commentators mention his "PROWRES" strength. After some ground fighting and returning to their feet once more, Ignashov is able to stuff a takedown attempt and clips Nakamura with a soccer kick which brings this to a halt as those are not allowed here so the ref gives out a yellow card. As the doctors check Nakamura out, we hear the crowd chant his name making me (and hopefully Nakamura as well) very good.

This fight really is about a wrestler with some Vale Tudo flair up against a guy of pure stand-up ability, a super heavy kickboxer that stands 6ft 5in. Nakamura does not want a striking exchange at all and sticks to bringing it down again and again. God the fucking ref brings this up because Nakamura opened up a small cut on Ignashov's eye right as he stacked guard and started making some moves. The fight is started on the feet and NOOOOOOO Shinsuke Nakamura eats a bad knee to the face but jumps right back up AS THE REF CALLS THIS OFF FOR NO REASON. What a shit decision, truly up there with the famous "KO" call made by king of bad refs John McCarthy during the original Sakuraba fight in UFC Japan. Shinsuke Nakamura's corner was able to successfully protest this decision however and this is now rightfully listed as a NO CONTEST. It looks like we have a rematch on our hands!



THE SUPER ROOKIE WINS AGAIN FOR THE LAST TIME:
Fast forward to the month of May in 2004 and we are at K-1 ROMANEX, the first all MMA show promoted by K-1. Featuring Inoki fighters up and down the card, the much awaited rematch between the Super Rookie and Alexey Ignashov is here! Nakamura is without the IWGP belt here as he was forced to vacate it February of that year because of mounting injuries from his pro-wrestling touring and Vale Tudo training. A sad factor of this kind of cross competition, fighting for real and fake AT THE SAME TIME is incredibly hard on the body and was a strong factor is Nakamura being done with MMA after this fight. While he may have had a future in MMA, the pressure and injuries were too much so who can blame him for retiring so early from the real fight game. At least here, he can go out in a blaze of glory.

Nakamura drives Ignashov to the ropes early in the fight, carefully keeping distance from potential knees to the gut before Ignashov can manage to shake him off. The Super Rookie is back to his old bag of tricks, picking Ignashov's leg for a takedown that gets big cheers from the crowd. The NAKAMURA chants are so loud in the venue, and we can hear the sweet voice of our friend Antonio Inoki on commentary (always a treat!). From half guard Nakamura proves much more proactive than the last fight, landing some thudding strikes and going for a forearm check (YES). Shisuke Nakamura is just generally way more fired up in this fight and the crowd just eats it up. In round 2 Nakamura is again all over that single leg takedown and is back to grinding away at Ignashov. The ref screaming action as Nakamura is obviously working for a position change is so frustrating but again this is why MMA is terrible (it really is, why do I watch this! Please let this man grapple!!!). The crowd is SO excited when Nakamura gets to side control because they just FUCKIN' KNOW what is about to go down: FOREARM CHOKE! We see a quick smile from Inoki at the commentators booth, obviously proud that another kickboxer has been slain by such a gnarly, raw move. His last fight in the world of Vale Tudo, Nakamura is all smiles and so are we!



Thanks again to all my readers! If you enjoy what you have read, give a thought to supporting me on my patreon located here. BIG THANKS to everyone who has signed up so far and to everyone else who has loved this dive into the world of Inokiism!

LYOTO: INOKI AND THE DRAGON MACHIDA

Known As: Lyoto Machida, LYOTO, The Dragon
Height: 6 Feet 1 Inches
Weight: ~200-225lbs under Inoki, 185lbs now
Time Managed by Inoki: 2002-2006
Discipline(s): Shotokan/"Machida" Karate, Sumo, BJJ, Wrestling, Muay Thai
Signature Moves: Traditional Karate stuff like kicking you in the damn head
MMA Record: 6-0 under Inoki, 24-8 in the present day

Lyoto Machida was the only Inoki disciple that was only destined for MMA. While almost everyone else under his management and tutelage came from the world of pro-wrestling, Lyoto Machida was different. The son of the head of the Japanese Karate Association of Brazil, Machida excelled at not just Karate but also Sumo and BJJ. He went to NJPW and Inoki Dojo's to train in wrestling, creating a deadly mix of wrestling and BJJ, traditional karate striking, and sumo grappling that was perfect for Inoki's vision of a mixed fighter. Lyoto Machida was only billed as LYOTO (all caps are cool don't ya know) in this time under Inoki, and in many ways, he was on the path to achieving Inoki's dream of dominating the MMA world. Those hopes were dashed for many reasons (economic, political, criminal) but their time together produced some great fights and there is a history left that we should all examine.

LYOTO DEBUTS IN THE YEAR OF ULTIMATE CRUSH:
Ultimate Crush was a monuments  event, not only for its sheer length and production value, but also because we saw the debut of one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time: Lyoto Machida! Debuting to a crowd of tens of thousands to a full Japanese drum ensemble and decked in Brazilian native garb, LYOTO as he was billed in his Inokiism days is fighting Pancrase heavyweight Kengo Watanabe in an ULTIMATE CRUSH rules match (elbows, grounded knees, soccer kicks, and clotheslines are all explicitly allowed).

LYOTO very quickly uses his sumo and wrestling skills to force Watanabe into the corner at the beginning of round one. After hitting the ground, Machida vacillates between half guard and full mount while delivering ground and pound. Watanabe is able to sweep out and return to his feet but its back to the corner as LYOTO is relentless with his force. Wallid Ismail, friend of Inoki and founder of Jungle Fight, is in Machida's corner coaching. Round 2 begins as LYOTO lands a nice karate straight punch, clinches, and rushes Watanabe into the corner before the action grinds to halt because of a knee to the balls (ow). After all the refs get some back slaps of rejuvenation in, the action restarts with Machida clipping Watanabe with a head kick and using the corner to bring Watanabe back down for methodical ground and pound. It is cool seeing such a grappling focused Machida here as in later years I think most have known him for his highly technical stand up game, despite his own insistence on the fact that his style of Karate differs in that is traditional thus includes "the use of knees, elbows, takedowns, and even some submissions." Machida lands a killer spinning mid kick and finishes round two with some mounted ground and pound.

Round 3 is here and guess what? It is right back into the corner and to the ground with LYOTO in the dominant position. Watanabe is able to fight off a rear naked choke (surprising but I think Machida has that first fight nervousness here) and spins into top position. Machida is strong even from the bottom of the guard and neutralizes anything Watanabe had planned so the ref brings this back up. We see a bit of striking before LYOTO achieves a fantastic deep single leg takedown (the wrestling training from Inoki is obvious here) and is back on the hunt for a finish. He rides Watanabe as the final round ends desperately trying for a choke but in the end he wins by unanimous decision. LYOTO wins his debut at the Tokyo Dome and as expected receives a smack from Inoki, but this is a bit different that usual. Inoki attacks LYOTO with multiple slaps and openly frowns and sort of pushes him away. I assume Inoki wanted a cleaner win to this inaugural fight so he threw a bit of a fit exposing another, darker side of Inoki as someone who unfairly demands perfection out of his trainees.



BLOOD IN THE JUNGLE:
After his debut, Lyoto continued training over the summer and made the trip to the Amazon (yes literally deep in the Amazon Forest) for the inaugural (and as TOM mentioned "very peaceful") JUNGLE FIGHT. I talked fairly extensively in my last post about the origins of this event (hey check it out here!) and the lengths to which Inoki and Wallid Isamil went to make the event a reality.

LYOTO is fighting a pre-UFC Stephan Bonnar and comes to the ring rocking an incredibly sikk Inoki Dojo shirt (represent!) while Bonnar comes out to U2 (fucking LMAO). THE STRIKING POWER OF LYOTO! He literally pushes Bonnar around and has his nose pouring blood and his cheek cut after numerous landed counter punches and head kicks. Machida is able to get in and land multiple shots before Bonnar has anytime to react. Blood pours from his face as LYOTO continues to smash it before the doctor calls its after LYOTO slices Bonnars other cheek wide open. LYOTO showed his grappling power in his debut and here in the jungle showed the true power of Machida Shotokan Karate!



AN EVENT WITH UNFORESEEN CONSEQUENCES:
The INOKI Bom-Ba-Ye shows in all their exquisite fight boom excellence have a dark side. As the ratings on TV for each began to slip, marking the first signs of a general crash coming, the 4th event in 2003 would be the last. In a way, this was day of judgement for the MMA world in Japan as this was the event that sparked the entire Yakuza MMA scandal that would bring down the entire fight world. After people did not get paid the proper amounts and shenanigans of if Fedor or CroCop would appear, court cases in 2005 and 2006 related to this event exposed the Yakuza involvement in bankrolling of the entire MMA industry in Japan and the TV broadcasters themselves. While this final Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye event was a terrible loss of money and a final nail in the coffin for any future Inoki sponsored events, it was had reverberations that no one could have foreseen.

In the years after 2003, Inoki planned on hosting another event with the funding of LiveDoor boss Takafumi Horie called World Spectacle. Plans were to live stream it on the LiveDoor internet portal for fans internationally with a supposed main event of Kazuyuki Fujita, one of the crown fighters of Inoki Office, against MIKE TYSON (a pipe dream but one Inoki desperately wanted to make reality). The memory of the failures of the past Inoki produced events, the ongoing MMA funding scandals all coupled with the fact that Horie was uhhh fucking arrested for securities fraud put an end to these dreams. The future of Inoki's MMA management firm Inoki Office was hinged on this event and its failure to ever occur surely ruined any ability for his MMA dreams to continue.

[Look over here for a super interesting overview of both this proposed event and some of the aftermath of the Inoki BomBaYe 2003 scandal]

NOW ON TO THE FIGHT! We see in the pre-fight promo package LYOTO training with Inoki to prepare for his fight with UFC Legend RICH FRANKLIN (who is accompanied by some great techno in the pre-fight package I might add). LYOTO is rocking some shorts that say INOKI ISM STORE (fuck yes) and immediately starts whooping on Franklin (I assume channeling the power of very sikk Inokiism themed clothing). Franklin has LYOTO in the corner but is able to violently trip Franklin to the ground and begins to lay on the pressure (we also get some referee cam footage here which is a lost art in the world of MMA please bring that back). As Franklin stands up, LYOTO overwhelms him with numerous kicks before dropping Franklin with some strikes and punching him while in the ropes (always a great fighting aesthetic that is lacking in the cage). The second round begins with both striking and missing until LYOTO lands a devastating right front kick to the middle of Rich Franklin's skull giving him the first loss of his career. INOKIISM triumphs once again!



Check out this detailed overview of how LYOTO picked apart Rich Franklin:


CHOKE HIM OUT LIKE YASUDA DID LE BANNER:
After the end of INOKI branded MMA events, Inoki Office fighters found themselves mostly fighting in K-1 events. Inoki and NJPW had maintained some amount of a working relationship with K-1 throughout the MMA broadcasting wars in Japan, and after burning any remaining goodwill with PRIDE after the debacle of Bom-Ba-Ye 2003, it was really the only place where Inoki Office fighters would be welcomed.

Thankfully this relationship continued as we get to see LYOTO smash a world class kickboxer in Michael McDonald, a great tradition in the world of early 2000s MMA. A much quicker version of the Yasuda-Le Banner fight, LYOTO scores with a beautiful trip and works until he can lay his forearm across the throat of McDonald for a forearm choke finish! Kazuyuki Fujita accompanied LYOTO here and it is all smiles at the victory.



THE NIGHT THAT INOKI OFFICE TRIUMPHED:
K-1 ROMANEX was an important night for the Inoki Office. As mentioned in previous postings about Josh Barnett, this was the night where every Inoki Office managed or NJPW affiliated fighter won their bouts from top to bottom of the card. This night also was K-1's prototype for their upcoming MMA only promotion (more on that later).

LYOTO played a hand a part in this when he took on kickboxer and karateka Sam Greco. LYOTO is able to get a split decision win here in a somewhat interesting affair despite its numerous points of stalling and kind of stale corner work. Also LYOTO knees Greco in the dick way too many times in this fight, like he just kept doing it the whole fight lol.



THE FINAL YEAR OF INOKI AND THE RISE OF HEROS:
2005 marked the final year for the Inoki Office management company, closing its doors quietly at the beginning of 2006. Yet there was a few final grand moments for Inoki's dream of MMA, a top one being the super fight between LYOTO and UFC wonderkin BJ PENN. This fight occurred on the inagural K-1 HEROS show which was K-1's attempt to insert itself full time into the MMA market as PRIDE began to crack. The president of this new MMA only branch of K-1 was the amazing Akira Maeda, the genius behind RINGS Fighting Network and former student of Inoki before going his own way into the world of shoot style. I wrote about this match at my other blog that covers HEROS which I will quote in full here:

I know the boys in the last fight were big but hold up because its BJ PENN AT 191 POUNDS. He's actually eating a sandwich backstage before the bout I am not joking. Having slain all his foes in the UFC, Penn said fuck off and went to Japan for some nice paydays! His opponent is the super young yet BIG Lyoto Machida, an absolute favorite of mine from my youth of watching UFC and taking karate lessons. Let me tell you Lyoto is also in sandwich mode for this fight as he's clocking in at a whopping 225!
There story of this match is both guys completely shutting down the advancements of the other. Both of these guys are at their largest weights in their careers, and the fact that Penn and Machida are incredibly talented fighters (phenoms, prodigies, a lot has been said), means that this fight is violent yet calculated, heavy and plodding (but in a pleasant way). Machida throughout is able to land more clean shots and his schooling in karate (fuck yes) shines (kata but this time your face is in the way). Machida also catches Penn with a very sikk wrist throw (thank you commenter who pointed put that I overlooked this in my original posting.
Lyoto Machida is able to score the victory here, and how could he not while fighting with INOKIISM emblazoned on his vale tudo shorts! [Some backstory on that: K-1 and Inoki were still working together at this time and had major success in earlier years doing joint shows with PRIDE, but as those relationships soured over the years, Inokiists began appearing on HEROS cards. HEROS also had connections with a pro-wrestling group called BIG MOUTH LOUD, a splinter from NJPW, but that will be for another day!] Both of these guys are so gassed at the end of this but Penn looks particularly tired.

You should really take a peek at my other blog (which is currently on hiatus) where I fully covered the life of KINGDOM Pro-Wrestling and in the middle of examining HEROS in full! I know you'll enjoy it ;)

JUSTIN AND SEAN MCCULLY: TEAM PUNISHMENT HITS THE INOKI SCENE

(this is not their theme but nothing was listed anywhere so this seemed aesthetically appropriate!)

Known as: Sean McCully

Height: 5 Feet 8 Inches

Weight: 185 lbs

Time in New Japan: 1999

Discipline(s): Boxing, Kickboxing, Jiu-Jitsu, MMA

Signature Moves: (it seems to be kicking people in the head but I am unsure!)

MMA Record: 3-6

Sean McCully and his younger (but much larger) brother Justin McCully are some straight-up, old school No Holds Barred dudes. Originals from Team Punishment (Tito Ortiz baby!), Sean was also the founder of the famous LA Boxing gyms that were eventually bought out by UFC and turned into those UFC branded gyms (yuck!). Both had short stints in New Japan before returning to MMA and venturing to other Pro-Wrestling promotions like Zero1 (this will be a post for another day!). The McCully's have a minor but important place in the history of Inokiism and exploring there time in New Japan bears much weird and wacky fruit!

LET US RIDE ON INOKI'S FLYING SAUCER OF COMBAT:
As discussed in the previous post on this blog, the Universal Fighting-Arts Organization (UFO) was Inoki's early experimentation ground for the Inokiist concept. Combining his history of mixed matches with a worked MMA style very similar to that of Nobuhiko Takada's KINGDOM Pro-Wrestling promotion (Inoki and Ogawa had even met with Takada at a KINGDOM show in 1997), Inoki brought together martial artists and No Holds Barred fighters to do worked shoot fights. The ring was a giant white circle (get it! like a UFO!) with square ropes which caused there to be large overhands to continue the battle if it spilled outside.

Sean McCully here is fighting Orlando Wiet (he was in Kingdom and lost to Sakuraba!), someone who failed at MMA but excelled in Muay Thai kickboxing (he is very good trust me). We see both training for the fight in the pre-match video package which brings a very real feeling to this whole UFO thing. McCully as expected tries to bring the kickboxer down quickly; its not that McCully has poor boxing skills (he owned boxing gyms!) but he knows he has an advantage on the ground with his training in BJJ and Wrestling. This is a cool fight with McCully bringing Wiet to the ropes and using his strength to slam Wiet, but Wiet is very sly and after figuring out McCulley's pattern of attack slaps on a guillotine to counter a takedown attempt for the win!

LIKE WATER:
This is what a squash match looks like in the world of Inokiism. In the build up to Kazuyuki Fujita's (fantastic) run in MMA, Inoki was booking him incredibly strong (as one would!) and this match is an example of just that. After Sean McCully says he will "be like water, flow" (how cliche) to get around the sheer size advantage of Fujita. Guess what? It doesnt work! McCully gets slammed a ton, kicked in the face, and ends up tapping to a standing achilles lock!

Known as: Justin McCully

Height: 6 Feet 2 Inches 

Weight: 238 lbs

Time in New Japan:

Dsicipline(s): Boxing, Kickboxing, BJJ, MMA, Pro-Wrestling (trained by Tom Howard from UPW hence why the brothers went to Z1 along with Tom and others from UPW)

Sognature Moves: Flying Armbar, Senton Splash

MMA Record: 11-5-2

BULLDOGGIN' AT THE OPENER:
Justin McCully made his debut in the world of Inokiism at the first Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye show at the end of 2000. Featuring all worked bouts promoted as "dream matches" by Inoki, McCully was in the opener against the venerable Yoshiaki Fujiwara! This is an incredibly uncooperative affair as Fujiwara will not give ANYTHING to the new guy while at the same time bulldoggin' and potatoing when hes in control. This one is rocky and the non-cooperation is obvious at times with both being frustrated throughout. Fujiwara is able to pull this one out after about ten minutes of struggle by locking on a beautiful crucifix. This definitely is not the most well worked bout, but the absolute hardheadedness of Fujiwara makes it quite interesting as a sort of baptism for Justin McCully in the world of Inoki!

THE CHYNA CONNECTION:
Justin McCully essentially worked one tour for NJPW in the year 2002, but despite his short time spent in Inoki's colosseum, it was an eventful one as he teamed with CHYNA (r.i.p.) in a series of tag matches that saw the first win by a woman in New Japan. Known by Joanie Laurer in New Japan, she was part of the Foreign Army that was tearing up and down the card in 2002 that culminated in NJPW The Spiral (hey remember Rutten is also in the foreign army and had that great match against Nishimura there) later in the year. Foreign Army was mostly comprised of friends of Inoki who were involved in his newly opened Inoki Dojo in L.A. Chyna (who became close friends with the Inoki family and trained at the facility), Justin McCully, Wallid Ismail (more on him later!), and Don Frye were all in attendance at it's opening in April 2002. Check out this fantastic write up on the history of the Inoki Dojo; it is a great resource on this forgotten yet incredibly important facility for pro-wrestling and MMA training in the early 2000s.

This match is cool mishmash of all the styles at play in New Japan at the time. Chyna and Shane bring a very American pro-wrestling feel, McCully and Kakihara have an obvious shoot based pedigree, and Liger and Nagata form the sort of old guard here. McCully is able to get the win here with a very slick lift of Kakihara using his legs from the bottom guard to drop him into an armbar. McCully's signature in his short time in New Japan were these sly transitions into armbars while also having cool green flames on his kickpads and vale tudo shorts (very 2002 I love it!). Watch this one for the cool match and stick around for Chyna threatening to take Nagata's belt.



ONE FOR THE ROAD:
Before leaving the world of New Japan, McCully had one of his best bouts as he teamed with Masahito Kakihara (a great friend from UWFI and KINGDOM, a true bad ass in every way) against a fellow former RINGSman (McCully had one RINGS match) in Masayuki Naruse and Yutaka Yoshie. An incredibly tight tag match coming in under 9 minutes, this is a great example of how good the undercard could be in the Inokiist era of New Japan. Definitely not a full shootstyle bout, these guys still manage to include nice palm strikes and grappling exchanges to the delight of the crowd and me. There is a great sequence when McCully comes in to fight Naruse and lands a cool springboard legdrop and then a suplex, but Naruse is able to lock up McCully delivering a nice punch to the gut then a running kick. After an action packed fight full of knees to the face, slams, and hard palm strikes,  Justin McCully uses a double underhook suplex on Naruse into an armbar for the win (WOAHHH)!

A SHORT RETURN TO RUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE:
JUNGLE FIGHT! Now one of the largest and longest running MMA promotions in Brazil, it was founded in a joint effort between Wallid Ismail, famous vale tudo and BJJ wildman known for his deep hatred of the Gracie's and their bourgeois ways, and Antonio Inoki. The story goes that they met on a plane ride and got into a discussion about their love for the Amazon and their dismay at it's rapid destruction. So, in an effort to bring awareness to the plight of people of the Amazon, Inoki and Ismail created JUNGLE FIGHT. The story of it's inception is quite as ridiculous and awe-inspiring as one can imagine, so I'll point my readers to this great article on its creation! Here is an amazing excerpt:

This match vacillates from clinching on the ropes for long periods (snore) to some exciting (yet short) exchanges of strikes and knees. McCully here is fighting Dario Amorim, a veteran of Vale Tudo tournaments of the late 90s in Brazil, in what would be Amorim's last match. After going the full three rounds, McCully pulls off a tight decision victory as Amorim had made some good moves later in the fight. A nice send off for our gassed up American friend Justin McCully and another win for Inokiism in the MMA ring. Smiles all around!