World Japan – X1 09/06/03
By Maffew Gregg on 30 June 2024
World Japan
Yokohama Bunka Gym
Attendance: 1,000
“What the hell is this?” I hear you yelling.
So after losing a lot of money over several months, the financial backers for WJ demanded a shoot show because MMA is hotter than Finding Nemo right now and surely even Choshu can’t screw this up, right?
Well the arena is 20% full and the company had to cancel American fly-ins so they could have the money for the cage they had to buy for this event.
It’s also hilarious seeing Riki being forced to embrace shoot style after decades of publicly hating it and insisting it would kill wrestling. Hey if anyone’s going to do that, it’s Riki himself.
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Jason Leigh
Fifteen year old Nakajima avoids an attempt at a light kick before taking out Jason with a high kick to the face before pummelling Jason on the mat until the ref has to drag him off at 1:25. Nakajima looked like the prodigy they were building him up to be but this was also Jason’s only fight so make of that what you will.
Nakajima would turn out to be a huge, long-lasting deal for everywhere but WJ.
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Christian Wellisch
Sasaki goes for punches straight away as Christian tries to keep him away with weak kicks. Sasaki grabs him but Christian slips out and gets pushed into the chicken wire fence, requiring multiple large men to hold up the wall to prevent Christian Shockmastering through. Christian isn’t trying his hardest here I think as he goes for a guillotine but stops for more wall-pushing. Or to wait until Sasaki gets his breath back. Both men strike in the clinch until Christian attempts a terrible takedown which also puts him in prime guillotine position for the Sasaki tap-out.
Hmmmm. Call me cynical but Christian attempting that takedown on a guy the size of Gdansk suggests a pay-day. You can say it’s because he’s rubbish but Christian would make it to UFC years later so hmmm. Anyway Sasaki ends his MMA career with 2 wins. Watch here if you like.
UPDATE: Sasaki broke his hand during this fight but he’s not going to miss any matches because he’s Sasaki.
Bobby Southworth vs. Bryan ‘Pain Inducer’ Pardoe
I enjoy hearing the commentators saying PAIN INDUCER. Bobby’s bald spot is deafening. Fight goes to the mat with only heavy breathing audible due to the high camera angles they’re using but when the ref stands them up Bobby is bleeding from a bad cut above the eye. After a towelling, he demands to carry on because visibility is only for American shoot companies. Bobby bum-rushes his opponent only to be taken to the mat again, with Bryan slipping out of a headlock to end Round 1 as the intermission music is for some reason The Theme From The X-Files.
Round 2 starts off with strikes from both men before Bryan mounts Bobby and pounds his bastard face in with the ref doing a good job and stopping it straight away.
Bobby accepts it but his corner can be heard yelling “WHY??” despite Bobby resembling a defeated portrait from Street Fighter II. Respect to both lads for trying.
Dan Bobish vs. Basil Castro
Bobish was built up for this main event by losing to TODD FUCKING SHANE:
Regarding Bobish’s choke slam loss to Todd Shane on 8/26, it wasn’t so much that they’ve given up on the Bobish experiment (although the result wouldn’t have happened if they were as strong on him as they were not all that long ago). What happened is that the Shane Twins went to Riki Choshu and complained at how stiff Bobish was working with them, because they were six-year vets and this rookie was demolishing them, and they wanted a break from the physical pounding. Choshu then told Bobish to keep doing what we was doing because you have to work stiff to get over, and said on that night, “please, to keep the peace” just do one job for Todd tonight and do it clean, which Bobish did. On 8/31, in a tag, Bobish & Kensuke Sasaki beat the twins when Bobish used the rack on Mike.
It’s worth remembering that with Vader and Don Fyre gone from WJ, Bobish is supposed to be the company’s big gaijin star. Who just lost to one of the Shane Twins.
Tonight he’s fighting a wide dude wearing the finest in long sleeved P.E. teacher shirts. Bobish immediately grounds him and turns the big ham into mince meat with punches until his corner throws in the towel for the one sided win at 1:33. Bobish yells “I broke my hand” after the bout so Basil scored the long-term victory I guess.
That was the alleged main event so with an hour left let’s look at the prelims:
Jim Kikuchi vs. David ‘Little’ Velasquez
Both fighters feel one another out with kicks but it’s a ruse for Dave to let his guard down so Kikuchi scores a right cross to knock Dave loopy and have the ref end it quickly at 1:06. Looked premature but Dave does the shaking-his-head-to-get-rid-of-the-cobwebs thing afterwards so maybe not.
Jeff ‘Big Diesel’ Ford vs. Philip Preece
Starts furious with Ford forcing Preece to the mat but the bald lad keeps bouncing up and off the walls, requiring the young boys to hold the cage up again.
Preece sticks to the head & arm and takes Ford to the mat where both lads grapple over the guard. Ford releases and misunderstands a ref’s instruction so nearly gets decked by a charging Preece. This started off hot but turned into a farce with Preece inexplicably doing forward rolls like he’s speedrunning Ocarina Of Time. Preece blocks a high kick and sends Ford onto his arse with Ford attempting a Ken Patera charge and nearly flies through the cage as this has quickly gone from The Diaz Brothers to The Chuckle Brothers.
Ford assumes Preece is loopy because of how bad he’s flying around, causing Preece to assume a safety position as Ford knocks on his head for the stoppage at 2:58. I can only assume Preece had vertigo or equilibrium issues near the end there as the fight fell of a cliff. Pretty funny though, not going to lie.
Daniel Puder vs. Jay McCown
Hey, pre-Angle Puder! Both men wrangle on the mat with Jay resembling Bobby Hill but managing to out-competent Puder on the mat. His farmer tanned titties absorb the body punches Puder throws as Jay dogs the Tough Enough III future-star until the round ends, easy win for the disgusting fat body.
Both start off Round 2 slugging by the fence with Jay slumping after a shot, enabling Puder to gain the momentum until Jay powers out and up on his feet. Jay pushes the action forward but he takes more shots than he lands. I have no idea why Jay tried staying on his feet after doing so well on the ground the first round but Round 2 ends with Jay bleeding from his nose, looking full of regret.
Round 3 starts with Jay’s cornermen yelling him to be better. Yeah cheers lads. Puder misses a wild kick because he figured he couldn’t miss. That’s what everyone was saying about his pro wrestling career. Jay takes Puder to the mat and maintains control by default because both are gassed. Puder mashes the pad harder and shoves Jay into the corner to do enough to win the round and the fight.
Decent first round and mildly interesting because of Puder, but needed more Kimuras.
Jimmy Westfall vs. Adam Guerra
Neither of these guys were worthy of match graphics. Guerra starts off fast and hard with punches to the face and sends Jimmy into the cage door which promptly falls off. Crowd laughs as the lumberjacks are forced to not only hold the cage wall up but also keep the door on. Two pay cheques that way. Both big lads are going for broke with their shots but it is all for nothing as they break the door AGAIN and the crowd laughs some more as the ref wonders if he’s going to have to actually stop a fight because of a bad door.
Adam’s optimism isn’t enough to prevent Jimmy from getting a shot to his neck and battering him until he verbally submits at 1:33.
Hell of a way to sum up the event, thirty seconds of action and one minute of stupid.
Overall: Well that was quite the non-event. If it wasn’t for the wrestlers and awful cage, it’s doubtful anyone would remember this happened. At least we get some choice cuts from the WON:
The X-1 shoot show was a bomb, drawing just 1,000 fans to the Yokohama Bunka Gym. As mentioned before, the company’s financial backers are into shooting, thinking it’s the wave of the future, and Riki Choshu, who has publicly hated the trend, basically changed his tune to go along with the owners, saying that you have to keep pace with the new generation and what they want.
The fighters were told the reason the show didn’t draw is because the fans thought it was a pro wrestling match and not a shoot show.
There were guys doing shootfights on the 9/6 show from the U.S. that got payoffs of less than $1,000, some as low as $200.
Choshu himself walked out of the event and refused to talk to the media before the end of the show, to the anger of Sasaki and Nagashima.
This company is turning into the pro wrestling version of the XFL.
Next week: The end.
