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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling)
- 227 statements
- 42 feature instances
- 13 referencing feature instances
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Alternate logoquoteright:300:Alternate logoquoteright:300:Universal Wrestling Federation (later called UWF Newborn) was a Japanese Professional Wrestling company founded in 1984. Established by former members of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, UWF was the first promotion in featuring the realistic "shoot-style" (originally called "shooting" until Satoru Sayama temporarily used it as the name of his MMA promotion, though the Japanese also refer to it as UWF-style), and though it featured mainly worked matches, it influence arguably gave birth to the modern Mixed Martial Arts in Japan and abroad.The first incarnation was created by NJPW executive Hisashi Shinma after a monetary incident involving Antonio Inoki and him, expecting it to become the next promotion to relaunch Inoki's career after a possible ousting from his company. As this never had place, UWF started to operate by itself, and after disposing of Shinma, it gathered all the New Japan wrestlers who were discontent with the old company. The main ones were Yoshiaki Fujiwara and his young apprentices, who desired to take a new and exciting style based in the old real fighting doctrines inherited from Catch Wrestling master Karl Gotch. Under this premise, Akira Maeda and Satoru Sayama become the stars of UWF, until a falling out between them caused the promotion to collapse. Sayama retired from pro wrestling to focus on his gym and develop a new combat sport.Maeda and the rest of UWF members returned to New Japan, where they formed an invasion stable against the native wrestlers, but their return met with backstage heat. Although Maeda was set to become the next big star, Inoki was not willing to give him his place and, after he shot on Riki Choshu, the UWF staff ended leaving again to continue his shoot-style adventures. The next incarnation, UWF Newborn, got insane amounts of success thanks to its refined real wrestling style and young wrestlers, and it even started to feature shoot fights with some regularity. However, Newborn lasted only two years and broke in various factions with its own ideas about how shoot-style should be done, a circuit nicknamed U-system (U-kei). Among those were Pro Wrestling Fujiwara-Gumi, Fighting Network RINGS and UWF International, the latter getting considered the "official" or most successful one and being the detonating behind PRIDE Fighting Championships and the MMA boom in Japan and United States. Outside of those three, other promotions formed and declared themselves "shoot-style", whether it was to a) prove that their wrestlers were tough, b) replicate the financial success the U-system circuit seemed to enjoy, c) add shoot style moves to their wrestling style to make it seem different, or d) express their thought that shoot style was the coolest style around, to varying degrees of success. | |
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My Friends... and Zoidberg | |
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My Friends... and Zoidberg: Shootboxing founder and UWF alumni Caesar Takeshi gets rarely mentioned in articles about the company, because he was not a pro wrestler and never oficially competed in UWF events beyond some shootboxing offer fights. He did train with them and worked in the UWF dojo for a time, however. Hidetaka Aso is a worse example. A wrestling and sambo champion, also Gotch trainee and founder of Submission Arts Wrestling, he was brought to teach in the UWF-i Snakepit, but nowadays is never mentioned as a part of UWF. The kickboxers of UWF-i. | |
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Kayfabe | |
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Kayfabe: Despite Japan being a place where people used to believe that pro wrestling was real to a point, its strong martial culture would cause that they probably knew how a real fight looked, so few people would think UWF was totally real fighting (albeit the second incarnation became genuinely convincing and fooled many people). However, the fact its wrestlers professed a realistic fighting style made them look actually prepared for real fighting, so the crowd always had the "but in a real fight, they would have rocked" impression to work around the pro wrestling irreality and believably consider them as tough guys. This shows how disappointing was to them that Takada lost so quickly to Rickson Gracie, as it revealed that the best guy of the UWF could not really back up his wrestling prowess in a real fight. | |
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Ambiguous Situation | |
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Ambiguous Situation: Perhaps inevitable giving that the UWF's shtick was blurring the lines between work and shoot, but it goes down to some matches in which it isn't clear what in the heaven is happening. The January 16 match between Satoru Sayama and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. It goes more or less as expected, until Sayama starts kicking Fujiwara's leg out and Yoshiaki answers submitting him with an armlock. Sayama is left clutching his arm in pain, a flood of ring crew comes to the ring to check on him, and Fujiwara limps out of the arena looking pissed and not letting the referee raise his hand. It's not known whether it was the planned ending (the bout is labelled as a "death match," whatever it means, in some records) or it turned somehow into a real fight. Anyway, if there was some real heat among Sayama and Fujiwara, it was gone for the time of their next match together in February. The Mega Battle Tournament '92 match between Masaaki Satake and Mitsuya Nagai in RINGS. They start normally, trade some tentative strikes... and then Satake lands something (a camera switch prevents it from being clearly seen on the official video, but it looks like a random palm strike) and Nagai falls down flattened, losing the bout by KO at little more than one minute. It is completely unknown whether it was the planned ending, an accidental KO or a deliberate shoot by Satake, or even if the bout was a shootfight and not a worked match in first place. In 1996, Wrestle Association R's resident karateka and shootist Koki Kitahara wrestled 150% Machine from the Golden Cups stable in an UWF-i event. However, after a regular worked match starting, Kitahara attacks Machine brutally and destroys him with kicks, making him literally leave the ring on a stretcher. The thing, if it was a shoot, never seemed to have any consequences, and nobody knows what was the reason behind it. | |
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Master of None | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_2804d516 | comment |
Master of None: A problem observed in most of the shoot-style pro wrestlers during the PRIDE era was that, while they had been cross-training pioneers for years and knew multiple disciplines like Muay Thai, Catch Wrestling, Sambo and Judo, they were not proficient in any of them and thus they could not make a difference against their opponents. Kazushi Sakuraba and Daijiro Matsui finally reverted the trend by focusing in wrestling and anti-game tactics. | |
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Non-Indicative Name | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_295087bf | comment |
Non-Indicative Name: As BattlARTS's Japanese name was "Kakuto Tantei Dan Batoratsu," which literally translates (and is always translated as such in the West) as "Fighting Detective Team Battlarts," you would be pardoned for thinking this promotion ran theatrical storylines about detectives and hardboiled guys in fedoras. Actually, a more accurate translation would be "Fighting Investigation Team Battlarts," refering to scientific yuxtapositions of wrestling styles on the ring instead of fighting detectives. | |
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Boring, but Practical | |
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Boring, but Practical: The philosophy behind the shooters's moveset. The moves they used in their matches were things that you would expect in a stylized MMA match. | |
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Worked Shoot | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_46bf638a | comment |
Worked Shoot: The matches in UWF progressively tilted towards realism, from regular matches featuring more groundwork and less aerial moves to intense bouts almost indistinguishable from MMA fights. For the second incarnation they were already publicizing themselves as real fighting, which they sometimes actually did in their different style fights. The UWF International was somewhat a step back, as they returned to fantasy elements like tag team matches and big suplexes, but they kept the spirit that you had to be a tough guy to wrestle like that. | |
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Cool People Rebel Against Authority | |
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Cool People Rebel Against Authority: The main thing which made the UWF wrestlers so attractive to the Japanese young people was their bad boy attitude in contrast with the elder, conservative wrestlers from NJPW and AJPW. Teenage crowds loved how the UWF guys carved their own niche in the puroresu world with a wrestling style which was more direct, vicious and easy to master than the ceremonious established one. | |
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Use Your Head | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_4873d055 | comment |
Use Your Head: Technically, UWF Newborn never actually banned headbutts, which is why Yoshiaki Fujiwara still indulged in them occasionally. PWFG was also carried on the vagueness concerning them in the rules, which makes sense since it was Fujiwara’s promotion. | |
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Minored in Ass-Kicking | |
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Minored In Ass Kicking: Aside from creating shoot-style wrestling and starting up the USA's and Japan's MMA boom, the UWF was also responsible for training and influencing the guys that would create the first no-gi submission grappling events in Japan with Hidetaka Aso's Submission Arts Wrestling and Noriaki Kiguchi's Combat Wrestling, as well as a Kickboxing and stand-up grappling hybrid martial art sport with Caesar Takeshi's Shootboxing, revived the dying kickboxing scene by inspiring the creation of Kickboxing promotions like Kazuyoshi Ishii’s K-1. | |
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Early-Installment Weirdness | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_4f4372e9 | comment |
Early-Installment Weirdness: As the promotion's theme was not established yet when the Original UWF formed, it featured several wrestlers who don't jive easily with what would later become shoot-style. Comedy wrestlers like Go, hardcore experts like Rusher Kimura and luchadores like Gran Hamada were part of the first generation before leaving for creative differences. Also the standard 3 count pin was still a valid way to win a match though this was used less often and was finally removed after UWF Newborn closed its door. | |
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Disproportionate Retribution | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_50b05d30 | comment |
Disproportionate Retribution: The UWF Newborn match between Bob Backlund and Masakatsu Funaki on 21st May 1989. It started out normally, (though Backlund may have been overselling Funaki’s kicks). Then about 4 minutes in, while both are on the ground, Funaki starts kicking the back of Backlund’s head, causing him to stand up and put up his dukes to fight it out, though things calm down before anything happens and they go back to wrestling. That is until Funaki starts kicking and stomping on Backlund to get out of a kneebar and then head kicking Backlund to put him down for a count of 8. What follows is a train wreck of a match featuring Backlund then doing a pro wrestling style bridge up like he was escaping a pin, Funaki throwing pro wrestling style strikes like European uppercuts, backhand chops and soccer kicks, Funaki going for a gutwrench suplex only to be countered with Backlund’s own gutwrench suplex, and Funaki applying Backlund’s own move; the crossface chickenwing. They actually go back to wrestling properly for a while, until Backlund lifts Funaki and carries him to a corner to break off an armbar attempt, to which Funaki dropkicks Backlund with the referee finally disqualifying Funaki. It is not known why Funaki became uncooperative during the match, though it has been theorized that he didn’t like Backlund’s goofy behavior in the ring and thought he was insulting the UWF as being just another pro wrestling company he could work for. Unfortunately Funaki comes off as the bad guy here as Backlund did his best to get the match back on track, despite Funaki’s abuse. | |
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Cosmopolitan Council | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_5230d420 | comment |
Cosmopolitan Council: Fighting Network RINGS had one, thanks to its worldwide reach and multiple branches. It featured the representative of each branch: Akira Maeda from Japan, Chris Dolman from Holland, Vladimir Pagodin from Russia, Nodar Ekvtimishvili from Georgia, Nikolas Zahariev from Bulgaria, Chris Haseman from Australia, Lee Hasdell from England, Monte Cox from USA, Donatas Simanaitis from Lithuania, and some unspecified others. | |
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International Showdown by Proxy | |
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International Showdown by Proxy: The best examples were featured in UWFI, Pancrase, and RINGS. | |
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Colour-Coded for Your Convenience | |
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Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Aside from the red and blue corners that most puroresu promotions are known for (similar to boxing), when Shooto went pro in 1989 it had its fighters wear red or blue tape on their gloves depending on their corner. Newborn would have their fighters wear wrist bands of the colors in its last year, when Newborn closed its spinoffs had differences in their use of the bands. RINGS used them on and off in their early years before making it mandatory somewhere in the mid-1990s (and even allowed the use of red and blue elbow pads if fighters didn’t want wrist bands) and UWFI only followed suit in their last years, while PWFG and Pancrase never adopted them for some reason. Referees wore both a red and a blue wrist band (Shooto only started this in the early 1990s as well), one on each wrist, and would point a Finger Gun with the same corner color on the fighter that was caught in a submission (and Shooto referees announced it to the audience by shouting “Catch!�) and asked if they give up. | |
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Foreign Wrestling Heel | |
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Foreign Wrestling Heel: Gary Albright and Big Van Vader fit the classic puroresu trope of the big, burly Western monster. | |
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Beat Them at Their Own Game | |
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Beat Them at Their Own Game: The UWF members often challenged karatekas, judokas, boxers and wrestlers to gym duels to prove they were superior, and they usually wiped the floor with them. In the second incarnation, they started to celebrate those fights in events, basically creating style vs style bouts. Some of them were worked, while some other did not. This backfired one the UWF International's face when they sent Yoji Anjo to challenge Rickson Gracie. Anjo was a legit wrestler accustomed to shootfights, but the UWF management wasn't well acquainted to Brazilian vale tudo, and Yoji paid the consequences when he stepped forward to face a fighter from a style much better adapted to vale tudo than his. To put it less dramatically, he was pounded and choked out. | |
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Tournament Arc | |
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Tournament Arc: The UWF-i staff tried to put together an all star tournament and sent letters to all the top wrestlers of the era: Mitsuharu Misawa from AJPW, Shinya Hashimoto from NJPW, Akira Maeda from RINGS, Genichiro Tenryu from WAR and Masakatsu Funaki from Pancrase, but none of them accepted; Funaki was not interested, Tenryu gave in but put an excuse, Maeda countered with an offer of a tournament of his own, and Hashimoto and Misawa talked harshly against the idea. They all probably deducted that the tournament might be a plan to attract them to UWF-i to allow its wrestlers to legit shoot on them and destroy their aura. | |
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Dangerous Forbidden Technique | |
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Dangerous Forbidden Technique: Along with closed-fist punches to the head, as well as kicks and stomps to the head of a unguarded opponent on the ground, elbow strikes are the big no-no in shoot style wrestling (except for a brief time in early RINGS, though they needed to put on elbow pads to do so), though they do allow forearm strikes (except in Shooto surprisingly). Also fighters weren’t allowed to kick without shinguards or knee without knee pads (though Battlarts had no such restriction). | |
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Weak, but Skilled | |
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Weak, but Skilled: Hiromitsu Kanehara never was a top fighter, but he instead was a training maniac (to the point Sakuraba said of him "he trained like a machine") who spent every free hour in the dojo. The result is a career which is pretty impressive, with wins over the feared Valentijn Overeem, Dave Menne and even vale tudo veteran Cacareco Ferreira. | |
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One-Hit Kill | |
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One-Hit Kill: Until Funaki and Suzuki created Pancrase, worked shoot matches used to be long and slow in order to maintain the crowd entertained. However, when the two implanted their real matches concept, proved when the first Pancrase event lasted only 28 minutes, the Japanese crowds loved it and coined the word "byosatsu" (秒殺, "instantly finished") to refer this kind of exciting battle (though according to Pancrase president Masami Ozaki, it was mainly Bas Rutten who inspired the phrase). Even so, the two used to carry weaker opponents to avoid a too short fight. | |
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I Know Karate | |
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I Know Karate: Kind of important to the U-System wrestlers. From trying to create realistic looking bouts to actual fighting, most of the wrestlers came from legit combat sport backgrounds to emphasize the realism. | |
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Wrestler in All of Us | |
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Wrestler in All of Us: Perhaps natural in a MMA system founded by pro wrestlers, but some cases were particularly spectacular. Jeremy Horn, who was not even a part of the shoot-style circuit, tried a real diving chop on Randy Couture in their match in RINGS. | |
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Ur-Example | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_b20fdfc8 | comment |
Ur-Example: Many puroresu elements, so common nowadays, were actually innovated in the UWF. The clean finishes of the matches were the main characteristic. Given its serious combat sport focus, UWF actively avoided the classic shenanigans of DQ's and interventions which were made to protect the wrestlers's aura from a clear defeat. In fact, it was what moved All Japan Pro Wrestling to adopt the clean finish doctrine which gave birth to the King's Road wrestling style. The modern puroresu attire of underwear tights and shinguard-kneepad combination (called "leggers" by the Japanese, and for some reason commonly mistaken in the west for latex kneeboots) were created by the UWF (specifically by Satoru Sayama), as opposed to the black tights and wrestling shoes used by strong-style wrestlers (though some shooters, most notably Yoshiaki Fujiwara, still adhered to this clothing). The emphasis on young, attractive wrestlers was also derived from the company. Traditional shoot-style favours barehanded striking, like the famous Pancrase palm strikes, but the modern MMA fingerless gloves were first used by Shooto. They also the first to use fog machines and laser light shows in their production values. | |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_b739f0d2 | type |
Finger Gun | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_b739f0d2 | comment |
Finger Gun: Referees did this when asking if the wrestlers were giving up while pointing it at them. | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_b739f0d2 | featureApplicability |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) | hasFeature |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_b739f0d2 | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_bfaff026 | type |
Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_bfaff026 | comment |
Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Akira Maeda and all the UWF roster during the NJPW invasion. | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_bfaff026 | featureApplicability |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_bfaff026 | featureConfidence |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) | hasFeature |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_bfaff026 | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_c6d3e8eb | type |
Five Moves of Doom | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_c6d3e8eb | comment |
Five Moves of Doom: Due to their common martial arts style, all of the UWF wrestlers had roughly the same moveset, and the matches tended to end via head kick, cross armbar or some leglock variation. Eventually, RINGS would improve it with a much wider variety of technical finishes. | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_c6d3e8eb | featureApplicability |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) | hasFeature |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_c6d3e8eb | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_cadf2d2a | type |
Death of a Thousand Cuts | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_cadf2d2a | comment |
Death of a Thousand Cuts: A common part of the style was its leg kicking approach to chopping down opponents, inherited from striking arts Muay Thai and Kyokushin Karate. Nobuhiko Takada was the most famous user of this approach. | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_cadf2d2a | featureApplicability |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_cadf2d2a | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_cde840c1 | type |
Pro Wrestling Is Real | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_cde840c1 | comment |
Pro Wrestling Is Real: The company's members vowed for it, and eventually succeeded with Pancrase implementing what they called "kekka no sutairu" ("results-oriented style") in its very beginnings. | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_cde840c1 | featureApplicability |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_ce10b025 | type |
Versus Title | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_ce10b025 | comment |
Versus Title: UWFi vs. WAR: Super Summer Wars | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_ce10b025 | featureApplicability |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_ce10b025 | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_ceec4df5 | type |
Roaring Rampage of Revenge | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_ceec4df5 | comment |
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Wataru Sakata featured one in RINGS against Dutch fighter Willie Peeters, who had defeated him in an spirited shootfight in 1995. He faced him in two pro wrestling matches through the next year until he could fight him in another shoot, in which Sakata could submit him to a facelock - but unfortunately the bout had a Dutch referee who invalidated Sakata's win and gave the decision to Peeters. Finally, an infuriated Wataru had his revenge in 1998, defeating Willie by submission in mere seconds to put an end to the feud. | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_ceec4df5 | featureApplicability |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) | hasFeature |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_ceec4df5 | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_d4c98786 | type |
Writing Around Trademarks | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_d4c98786 | comment |
Writing Around Trademarks: The second company was called simply Shinsei UWF (UWF Newborn), with the UWF standing for nothing. Also the UWF International changed the meaning of the acronym from "Universal Wrestling Federation" to "Union of Wrestling Forces". | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_d4c98786 | featureApplicability |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) | hasFeature |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_d4c98786 | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_d7639dba | type |
Achilles' Heel | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_d7639dba | comment |
Achilles' Heel: A common weakness among shoot wrestlers in MMA were closed-fisted punches to the head and ground-and-pound, due to their shoot wrestling rulesets banning the former and generally discouraging the latter despite not being against the rules (except in RINGS where it was banned completely). | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_d7639dba | featureApplicability |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_d7639dba | featureConfidence |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) | hasFeature |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_d7639dba | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_dca6a9d | type |
Start My Own | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_dca6a9d | comment |
Start My Own: Hisashi Shinma started the first UWF for Inoki, and Maeda started the second one for him and his pals. | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_dca6a9d | featureApplicability |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) | hasFeature |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_dca6a9d | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_e3739de7 | type |
Cast Full of Pretty Boys | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_e3739de7 | comment |
Cast Full of Pretty Boys: An alluring element to the young crowd (specifically the female one) was the attractiveness of the wrestlers. Nobuhiko Takada was the best example. | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_e3739de7 | featureApplicability |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_e3739de7 | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_e563bf09 | type |
Insistent Terminology | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_e563bf09 | comment |
The modern puroresu attire of underwear tights and shinguard-kneepad combination (called "leggers" by the Japanese, and for some reason commonly mistaken in the west for latex kneeboots) were created by the UWF (specifically by Satoru Sayama), as opposed to the black tights and wrestling shoes used by strong-style wrestlers (though some shooters, most notably Yoshiaki Fujiwara, still adhered to this clothing). | |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_e563bf09 | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_eb7c34cf | type |
Crossover | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_eb7c34cf | comment |
Crossover: Surprisingly, only RINGS managed bring in wrestlers from most of the other U-System promotions to compete at their shows (unless you count Vale Tudo Japan 1995 with Yoshihisa Yamamoto’s participation or maybe even some of the Dutch fighters featured on Pancrase that trained at one of the RINGS Holland dojos like Bas Rutten and Toon Stelling). First there was short period of PWFG sending Yoshiaki Fujiwara, the future Battlarts guys and even some of their gaijin regulars to compete in RINGS (not too surprising since PWFG regularly sent wrestlers to other promotions). Then Kiyoshi Tamura came from UWFI to join up, followed by Hiromitsu Kanehara, Kenichi Yamamoto, and Ryuki Ueyama from Kingdom, also Minoru Toyonaga stopped by for a match. A few Lion’s Den guys and Pancrase regulars like Maurice Smith, Frank Shamrock and Pete Williams stopped by for a fight or two, and even Pancrase original Ryūshi Yanagisawa competed in one of the King of Kings Tournaments. Hell even Shooto guys like Sanae Kikuta, Egan Inoue (accompanied by his brother Enson), Katsuhisa Fujii, Akihiro Gono (he actually debuted in RINGS, but came back for a match while still part of Shooto) came to compete under the old point rules, Caol Uno came for an exhibition match with Tsuyoshi Kohsaka and even Hirotaka Yokoi officially joined the promotion in its last years. Even referees Yuji Shimada (PWFG and Battlarts) and Ryogaku Wada (UWFI and Kingdom) were used quite a lot in the promotion’s later half of its run. There was also the Bridge of Dreams show in 1995 that featured several different promotions which included RINGS, UWFI, PWFG, LLPW and Pancrase among other non-shoot style promotions. They didn’t actually have matches against each other, but the fact they agreed to be on the same show says a lot. | |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_eb7c34cf | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_f25b1ae6 | type |
Unskilled, but Strong | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_f25b1ae6 | comment |
Unskilled, but Strong: RINGS's star Yoshihisa Yamamoto was known for doing almost no sparring. Most of his training was composed of running, lifting weights and eating the food female fans sent him. Many of the gaijins count as this, especially the ones from RINGS and UWFI. | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_f25b1ae6 | featureApplicability |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) | hasFeature |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_f25b1ae6 | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_f5144b92 | type |
Tag Team | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_f5144b92 | comment |
UWF International was a more complicated matter. Wrestlers would start with 15 points and one way a wrestler could win was to reduce his opponents points to zero. Knockdowns would reduce 3 points, rope escapes would reduce 1 point, and being overhead suplexed would reduce 1 point. When they opened up to let wrestlers from NJPW and WAR compete, pinfalls would reduce 5 points. Tag Team matches would have each team start with 21 points (even the one-time Tag Team Kickboxing match used it, with an additional rule that tagging reduces 1 point from their own score), while the Bridge of Dreams event showed an UWFI rules 6-man tag team match with each team starting with 30 points. Their Kickboxing matches also had a point system, with each fighter starting with 40 points, 9 points (later 8) are deducted for knockdowns and 1 point (later 2) is deducted for losing a round. | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_f5144b92 | featureApplicability |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) | hasFeature |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_f5144b92 | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_f6722211 | type |
Hit Points | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_f6722211 | comment |
Hit Points: UWF Newborn established a new ruleset in which the first person to score 5 knockdowns (in which the opponent could not get back up at once, similar to boxing knockout attempts) would win, giving the 5-knockdown situation the same weight as a submission or knockout, with three rope escapes also considered as one knockdown and fouls would be at the referee’s discretion. Newborn’s offshoots would also carry this ruleset, with a few modifications overtime. Shooto, while not an offshoot of Newborn used the mandatory standing eight count system for knockdowns with 3 knockdowns in a single round will end the bout though they would eventually remove it in 2009, even in their amateur matches. They also never used rope escapes. Smackgirl and AX would also use these knockdown rules. PWFG would stay the closest to the system established in Newborn. Pancrase changed its rules to one rope escape to be equal to one knockdown with a five point limit, then lowered it to three points in a regular match (with championship matches keeping the 5 point system) in 1996 and even later in mid 1998 limited 20 minute matches to 3 points, 15 minute matches to 2 points and 10 minute matches to 1 point until the major rules and style change in 1999. Battlarts however just abandoned the points system entirely as it was never a highly promoted way to win in PWFG anyway. RINGS reduced the amount of rope escapes for a knockdown from three to two. On special occasions, they used a 5 rounds system, with each round having a 3 knockdown limit that is reset after each round. It switched to a 10 point limit system during the mid-90s, where knockdowns scored 2 points and rope escapes scored 1 point, then reduced it to a 5 point limit in 1998 until the forming the King of Kings (KOK) rules in 1999 which removed the point system (along with rope escapes and knockdowns), then they added back rope escapes and knockdowns with a 3 point limit in 2001, with an additional rule set for new guys called Universal Bout Rule that removed rope escapes. The 1998 World Mega Battle Tournament featured 3 vs 3 Kachinuki Shiai (Winner Continue) styled team matches (basically like pro wrestling elimination team matches, without tagging in or out) that used a 1 point limit rule on both rope escapes and knockdowns per match, except the finals which used a 2 point limit rule. ZST had a few bouts under old RINGS rules, but only allowed one knockdown or rope escape per bout. UWF International was a more complicated matter. Wrestlers would start with 15 points and one way a wrestler could win was to reduce his opponents points to zero. Knockdowns would reduce 3 points, rope escapes would reduce 1 point, and being overhead suplexed would reduce 1 point. When they opened up to let wrestlers from NJPW and WAR compete, pinfalls would reduce 5 points. Tag Team matches would have each team start with 21 points (even the one-time Tag Team Kickboxing match used it, with an additional rule that tagging reduces 1 point from their own score), while the Bridge of Dreams event showed an UWFI rules 6-man tag team match with each team starting with 30 points. Their Kickboxing matches also had a point system, with each fighter starting with 40 points, 9 points (later 8) are deducted for knockdowns and 1 point (later 2) is deducted for losing a round. USWF used a 3 knockdown limit and an one time rope escape rule, if they grabbed another rope escape after that it counted as a loss. Promotions like Kingdom, U-STYLE, and even the recently formed GLEAT's "LIDET UWF Rules" used Pancrase’s 5 point system, probably due to its popularity. Ganko Pro (another U-FILE Camp affiliated promotion like U-STYLE) also used a 5 point system for 30 minute bouts, while using a 3 point system for 15 minute bouts, while Hard Hit adopts a 5 point system for 15 minute matches and a 3 point system for 10 minute matches (its Dramatic Dream Team years had 30 minute matches with a 5 point limit, tag team matches had an 8 point limit and allowed 3-count pins). GAEA Japan's few matches under "GAEA-Kai Rules" (which is referred to on some English sites as "Reforming Rules" for some reason) were originally based on Pancrase's ruleset, but later distinguished itself by making its point system have different point limits for knockdowns and rope escapes, with victory coming from either two knockdowns or five rope escapes. Paradigm Pro Wrestling uses UWFI rules but modified them to allow elbow strikes, strikes to a downed opponent, and time limits have been removed from all fights. They also introduced a variant of the rules called "Terminal Combat", where wrestlers will have five minutes (ten minutes in tag team matches) to win the bout via their modified UWFI rules, but if a winner has not been decided within 5 minutes, then it becomes a more of a hardcore match as weapons, small joint manipulations, biting, and striking to any part of the body (including closed fists to the face, headbutts, and low blows) would then be legal, the point system and rope breaks would be suspended, and the only way to win is by KO, TKO or submission. | |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_f6722211 | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_fdb3fcce | type |
My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours | |
Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) / int_fdb3fcce | comment |
My Kung-Fu Is Stronger Than Yours: UWF International members developed a feud with the Gracie family when Rickson Gracie defeated Yoji Anjo and caused the promotion's departure. After Takada's failure in beating him in PRIDE, the Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu fighters started to clean house against the pro wrestlers turned fighters during the first events. It took Kazushi Sakuraba to retake the mantle to avenge the company. | |
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Universal Wrestling Federation (Wrestling) |
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