I have become fascinated in this promotion due to the action of Tamura, Han, Yamamota and Kohsaka. My question lies in whether there has been a set lineage of when the promotion became complete shoots? Was this gradual over time or something that happened overnight. Also, has there ever been a definitive understanding of which matches are a shoot and which are a work? Kohsaka vs. Ilioukhine from 9/98 feels like a complete work to me but others feel it may be a shoot.

 

My final question is once the transition took place, did Tamura and Yamamoa compete in any works for other promotions. What was the origin of U-Style starting up?

 

Thanks

RINGS was primarily a worked company through mid-1996. They occasionally had an undercard kickboxing match or prelim shoot prior to that, but they were rarer. Shoots started to appear more regularly, at a higher frequency by July 1996. The August 1996 card has 2-3 shoots (maybe even 4, can't remember off the top of my head at work).

 

The promotion became all shoot in October 1999, though it was 60-70% shoot by February 1999.

 

I'll add more to this tonight but here are the questionable fights which can be argued either way:

 

8/96 Tamura vs. Smith

12/96 Tamura vs. Yamamoto

4/97 Tamura vs. Kohsaka

6/99 Tamura vs. Yamamoto (I lean towards work)

 

[edit 1: U-Style started because Tamura was starting to get beat regularly in PRIDE and his financial backers felt he still had some drawing power left. The promotion only ran Korakuen Hall in 2003/2004 and every show that Tamura was on drew fairly well, but the one he wasn't on 10/6/03 drew 900. By 2003/2004, the Japanese had seen what real fighting looked like and knew what exciting, real fighting looked like with Pride, K-1, Shooto so U-Style was more of a nostalgic thing.]

I just watched the 6/99 match between Tamura and Yammamoto and I'd be surprised if that was a shoot. They showed such a flair for the dramatic and even seemed to be working the crowd so much that I can't see how it isn't. I too lean toward work. I'm curious what the argument is that it's a shoot. Tamura even slapped Yammamoto during handshakes.

RINGS introduced me to Randy Couture. I'm pretty sure the "brand" is still around in some capacity in Japan, or it was a couple of years ago albeit with an entirely new team behind it with no resemblance to the original couple of incarnations.

RINGS basically couldn't draw after Maeda retired so they tried going a different route. Unfortunately, Tamura just wasn't a draw. They brought in a lot of quality foreign fighters but PRIDE snapped them up. They lost their TV deal with WOWOW and that was it.

They brought in a lot of quality foreign fighters but PRIDE snapped them up.

 

They did have some amazing foreign talent with the the likes of Fedor, the Nogueiras, Henderson and Arona as well as what would've been classed as second tier fighters in the Overeems and Yvel but they all left for Pride.