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...and they think it's a shoot, lol.
Actually, a lot of people still to this day think this stuff is a shoot. It was obviously 100% worked, I think liquidrob flirted with the idea of going over there for this or helping to train guys to prepare for it, I can't remember.
Pancrase was about 75% shoot, 25% work. But this was all work. I mean, c'mon, a 47 year old Bad News Allen wasn't going to do shootfights (and look at some of those other names, especially the gaijins), and the "right" guys for business always won.
What I find interesting, is having not watched this stuff in many years, it's pretty obvious that this was the original inspiration of Gabe Sapolsky & Bryan Danielson for what EVOLVE was supposed to be (and was early on). Shoot style "fights", generic menacing entrance music, no pro wrestling bullshit, W/L records, no gimmicks, etc. Watch this footage, it has the look & feel of the early EVOLVE shows:
What happened was (besides Danielson signing with WWE as it was getting off the groud), they couldn't find enough guys to work the style, and by blending in "gimmick wrestlers" like AR Fox, Ricochet, Lince Dorado, etc, it ended up evolving (heh) into pro wrestling. There were only so many Bobby Fish's & Claudio's & Danielson's & Munenori Sawa's who were willing to beat the shit out of each other and could work the style.
Actually, a lot of people still to this day think this stuff is a shoot. It was obviously 100% worked, I think liquidrob flirted with the idea of going over there for this or helping to train guys to prepare for it, I can't remember.
Pancrase was about 75% shoot, 25% work. But this was all work. I mean, c'mon, a 47 year old Bad News Allen wasn't going to do shootfights (and look at some of those other names, especially the gaijins), and the "right" guys for business always won.
What I find interesting, is having not watched this stuff in many years, it's pretty obvious that this was the original inspiration of Gabe Sapolsky & Bryan Danielson for what EVOLVE was supposed to be (and was early on). Shoot style "fights", generic menacing entrance music, no pro wrestling bullshit, W/L records, no gimmicks, etc. Watch this footage, it has the look & feel of the early EVOLVE shows:
What happened was (besides Danielson signing with WWE as it was getting off the groud), they couldn't find enough guys to work the style, and by blending in "gimmick wrestlers" like AR Fox, Ricochet, Lince Dorado, etc, it ended up evolving (heh) into pro wrestling. There were only so many Bobby Fish's & Claudio's & Danielson's & Munenori Sawa's who were willing to beat the shit out of each other and could work the style.
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