This review was commissioned by Eric T. over on my Ko-fi account.
Volk Han’s 1996 starts on a shaky note. He fails to win the podium slot in the 95 Mega Battle Tournament against Hans Nijman, and then in April gets tapped out by Nikolai Zouev. Things take a turn, however, when he engages in a two-match series with Tsuyoshi Kohsaka. Easily one of the best and most successful native RINGS workers in the promotion, Kohsaka’s a real test for the sambo practitioner. Even in loss, Volk’s matwork represents an ever looming threat against his opponent, but against Kohsaka, Volk genuinely feels like he runs into an equal and maybe even a superior down on the mat.
That’s what makes it so important that Volk defeats Kohsaka twice on back-to-back shows. First, it’s after a big flurry of strikes opens up Kohsaka and forces a stoppage. Then, the month after in an evenly contested back and forth, Volk puts all the questions to rest by tapping out Kohsaka in the rematch.
In my experience going through Volk’s year, it happens some time in that series with Kohsaka that Volk becomes the man to beat in RINGS. That makes him a perfect opponent for the hottest new signing in the promotion: Kiyoshi Tamura. After leaving the UWFi, Tamura came on board to his old mentor Akira Maeda’s promotion to ply his trade. He’s 3-0 up to this point in the company, but this easily feels like the biggest test that Tamura’s faced since arriving. His first three bouts feel like gimmes (the Maurice Smith bout in particular resulting in an absolute snoozer), so it’s sink or swim for Tamura against arguably the most dangerous technician in the company.
I lay out all this context because it does add some color to what’s already one of the most mechanically proficient displays of shoot style wrestling one’s ever bound to see. From a pure nuts and bolts standpoint, this feels immense even to a relative neophyte like myself. Volk’s in-ring work constantly feels like absolute magic. I probably overuse that term in my writing, but in this instance, I associate it far more with the grounded art of magic than anything ephemeral. His attacks feel like these beautiful exercises in misdirection and reveal. Just when one thinks he’s in trouble, everything all tangled up in a mess of limbs and flesh, suddenly Volk comes out on top with just the right grasp to stretch a limb in the most disgusting way possible. It’s not making something of nothing, but rather tricking the eyes, building on anticipation, and that eventual flourish of skill that just might end the match in a matter of seconds.
If one’s only following the points, it’s easy to say that Volk proves himself to be easily the better competitor in this match. Where the nuance of this match’s greatness lies though is in the smaller moments that allow for questions to be left on the table for when these two fight again. As controlled and effective Volk may be on the mat, Tamura acquits himself quite well in their exchanges. He never looks lost grappling with Volk, and he survives a hell of a lot that other men have not. At one point, while working his way out of a Tamura leg lock, Volk grabs a beautiful Cross Armbreaker out of nowhere. This isn’t the exact technique he used to beat Kohsaka in August, but it’s the same idea–Volk caught in a submission, grabbing an arm and wrenching with all his might. Where Kohsaka taps in August, Tamura endures here.
Not only that, Tamura doesn’t seek the shelter of the ropes to burn an escape. The guy actually reverses the goddamn thing.
It’s a not a winning thing and the match still moves in Volk’s favor eventually, but it’s a wonderful gift to make Tamura seem credible even as Volk chips away at his points. Beyond that too, there’s the question of what happens when these two get on their feet. Volk may be a killer on the mat, but his credibility on his feet is far more in question. Nijman notably rocked Volk constantly by keeping their fight as a standing bout and wearing down Volk’s midsection. In one of this match’s great turns of fate, Tamura throws one of the pettiest, most ruthless gut kicks I’ve ever seen that totally floors Volk. Points-wise, it almost evens the score too with the big knockdown being worth two of Volk’s rope breaks. Volk looks in agony on the mat recovering from that gut kick, and it pushes him to the same desperate striking that he utilized in the first Kohsaka match. Again, where Kohsaka fell, Tamura endures and actually gets back to his feet from the knockdown.
Tamura survives only a little longer as when the match gets down to the mat as well, the inevitable happens and Volk finds himself racking up another submission win. But the fact that the match shows us how close Tamura can get is the mark of some truly fantastic professional wrestling. This is both a decisive win for Volk Han–tapping out the hot new kid on the block–while being a solidifying performance for Tamura. Tamura gains more from enduring Volk’s most powerful attacks here than he does KO-ing some foreigners. All that captured in just over ten minutes.
While there are some stylistic barriers still up that keep me from having the same top level, overwhelming love that some display for these kinds of things (I sometimes feel that shoot style strays a little too far from pro wrestling, but we might yet untangle that further as the series progresses), there’s no denying just how effective and powerful it all is. Even a doubter and a newbie like myself can feel the immense weight behind this. I’m looking forward to seeing what comes next.
IS IT BETTER THAN 6/3/94? The initial instinct here is to go with Tamura/Han, especially when one considers that my most common criticism of 6/3/94 is its feeling stretched thin due to runtime and the sag in momentum early on. That being said, 6/3/94 does tap into my love for the more pro wrestling-style aspects of presentation and work. They both have different strengths and weaknesses, most of them down to the genres they both come from. In this moment, I’ll choose to err on the side of discovery and reward the succinct nature of Tamura/Han. The RINGS bout is loaded with history, even from just both men’s journeys in 1996 alone, and they get all that across in a breezy ten minute runtime without sacrificing any gravitas or quality. Shoot style wins on this go around.
Rating: ****1/2
