This review was commissioned by Eric T. over on my Ko-fi account.
When a star burns as bright as Kiyoshi Tamura, he can’t help but outshine the others. It’s been an interesting trend working my way through the RINGS crash course to note all the talents that Tamura jumped ahead of once he debuted in the promotion in 1996. I’ve talked a bit already about Tsuyoshi Kohsaka and how he got overtaken by both Volk Han and Tamura in the late 90s, but another interesting case is Yoshihisa Yamamoto. Granted, it’s hard to say that Tamura’s truly to blame in this regard as Yamamoto’s struggles can really only be summed up through his own failures. In RINGS, he struggles to get past company legend Akira Maeda, but more embarrassingly is how weak Yamamoto’s chin is. In shoot fights against the likes of Hans Nijman and Ricardo Morais, Yamamoto gets knocked out and he gets knocked out fast. They are humiliating losses.
These losses feel tied in with Tamura’s rise in the company thanks to the 1996 Mega Battle Tournament though. In the semi-finals before getting to his second match against Volk Han, Tamura defeats Yamamoto in a victory that basically bars the latter from the truly elite level of the company. Tamura passes the man by and their rivalry feels like Yamamoto constantly fighting with a chip on his shoulder to get his own back.
Coming into this bout against Tamura in 1999, Yamamoto’s 0-2 against Tamura and he has 20 minutes to finally get over this obstacle. In this match too, each man only has five points to play with instead of the usual ten. At this point in his RINGS career, Tamura’s the very top guy in the company. He’s the newly crowned and only 2-time RINGS Openweight Champion which means that Yamamoto has a steep hill to climb.
What results might just be the most violent RINGS match I’ve seen to date. What’s so beautiful about it though is that it takes its time getting to that point. The initial skirmishes between these are very clean shoot style wrestling exchanges. What stands out for me on this watch is that it’s one of the few times that Tamura’s paired against a wrestler that’s just as slippery as he is. Yamamoto has the same quickness and mastery of leverage that Tamura does when it comes to blocking and avoiding holds, and then later on escaping those holds as they’re applied. That means it’s a real struggle on the mat between these two, never quite settling down and always moving at this quick pace that can’t help but dazzle the eye.
The cracks of incoming violence begin to reveal themselves though. At first, it comes in the form of these shitty little body punches from Yamamoto. They’re more probing than damaging, but they also do still leave this delightful smacking sound on each blow. They’re not killer shots at first, they seem to be designed to provoke and annoy Tamura more than anything else, and the match really starts to reach a new level when Tamura finally gives in. In one of my favorite moments down on the mat, Yamamoto’s landing those little body shots again only for Tamura to start firing back in return, more earnestly this time, by going after Yamamoto’s chest and shoulders. It frustrates Yamamoto enough to catch a blow a little too low for the referee’s liking and loses a point to a yellow card violation.
The match is filled with these small bursts of violence, again typically centered around those body shots. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a match where the striking can feel equally emotive and tactical. Yes, the body blows land as a means of escaping holds or opening up the opponent for an attack, but there’s a real air of pettiness around it too. Even from the start, before those blows ever get to crazy, they always come across like both men actively trying to prove a point.
It’s in the deep waters of the match that that point seems to reveal itself. As each man loses points to both rope break escapes and knockdowns, the tone of the fight transforms from this highly active yet cerebral wrestling contest to just an out and out gut check. As they did in their second bout together, this match becomes far more about fighting on their feet, trading shots for the pure joy of knocking the other man down. At one point late in the bout, after getting tangled up on their feet, Yamamoto takes Tamura down to the mat with a neck lock only for Tamura to slip out with ease and daring the man to get back up and fight him.
It’s a gut check, pure and simple. The underlying implication to that it’s a chance for Yamamoto to expunge those embarrassing knockouts from his past adds a whole lot of weight and drama to these exchanges as well. Even without that history though, the performances here are astonishing. It’s in the selling. I wouldn’t describe what we get here as traditional pro wrestling selling, but it is a perfect thing for this promotion at this time. It’s not just that both men exhibit the damage and exhaustion of fighting toe to toe, it’s in how stubbornly they refuse to go down in the fear of losing points on a knockdown. Note how they lean against each other at points, sometimes even having only each other and the ropes to keep them up. It’s compelling without feeling forced, a natural consequence of their battle and their surroundings. There’s an old cliche that actors get more out of trying not to cry than they do out of forcing the tears. In this match, it’s the refusal to go down and the struggle to stay on one’s feet that informs the breathtaking drama of the closing moments.
In the end, Tamura finally tries to go for the submission with a heel hold, but Yamamoto blocks the attempt just as the bell rings. It’s not a fairy tale ending for Yamamoto here, but one can’t help but get the sense that something was gained for him at the end of it all. He took the champ to 20 minutes, refused to go down, forced the judges to declare a draw instead of make a decision.
That’s not nothing. And in this case, it’s worth a whole lot.
IS IT BETTER THAN 6/3/94? Stylistically, these two are so far apart and while my personal bias leans towards the King’s Road, there’s just basically nothing here that feels comparable. This bout is a precise contest that devolves into one of the most sincere battles of pure will and heart that I’ve ever seen in pro wrestling, all accomplished with an astonishingly high level of mechanical execution and understanding of style. It is not close, RINGS takes this one.
Rating: ****3/4
