Meltzer's first ever story on UFC

[Warner2BruceTD]

From the October 3 1993 Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Yet another pay-per-view involving a few participants in pro wrestling, although definitely not a pro wrestling PPV will be taking place on 11/12, emanating from Denver. The show, put together by John Milius, the movie director whose credits include "Dirty Harry" and "Conan the Barbarian," will be called "The Ultimate Fighting Championship." The concept is to take a pro boxer, pro wrestler, sumo wrestler, judoka, karate and other martial arts fighters and put them into a one-night tournament, with the idea being to capitalize on the success of martial arts movies depicting the same type of anything goes fight to the finish tournament with men of different fighting styles.

The two names involved that have participated in pro wrestling are Ken Shamrock and Gerard Gordeau. Shamrock is listed in the bios as representing the sport of "shootfighting" rather than pro wrestling. He was a top-notch amateur wrestler and toughman contest winner before being trained by Nelson Royal for pro wrestling several years ago, works as Wayne Shamrock, the top foreigner for the Pancrase promotion in Japan which had its debut show this past Tuesday in Tokyo. Prior to that time Shamrock had worked for All Japan Pro Wrestling, and later switched to the old UWF, and then after the UWF split, worked the past few years for Pro Wrestling Fujiwara-Gumi. The press guide to the tournament lists him as having a 23-2 record, which I believe is actually his record in UWF and PWFG pro wrestling matches. Gordeau, from Amsterdam, is listed as the current world heavyweight champion in savate (foot-fighting). He's also listed as having a 27-4 record, although I have no idea what that entails as when he came to Japan in 1989 they gave him a record that back then included more than 70 fights. He also won a major kick-boxing tournament in Japan about two years back and another famous tournament before his lone UWF match, and was world ranked in judo. His only pro wrestling appearance was a main event match in 1989 on a major UWF card at the Ariake Coliseum in Tokyo, losing to Akira Maeda. The other participants are a 410-pound sumo wrestler from Hawaii who was the first non-Japanese to team with Japanese collegiate sumo championship, the World Kick Boxing Federation (WKBF) super heavyweight champion, the World Ju-Jitsu light heavyweight champion, a former World Kick Boxing Association super heavyweight champion (between WKBA, WKBF, ISKA and WKA, kick boxing seems to have more different organizations with world champions than pro wrestling), the IBF Cruiserweight boxing champ and the Sabaki (I have no idea what Sabaki is although with as many martial arts aficionados among the readership, that question should be answered in a week or two) heavyweight champion. The matches will be five, five-minute rounds fought in a circular pit with no ropes with matches being stopped by knockout, submission, throwing in the towel, unbreakable chokehold or doctor stopping. The only illegal moves are those affecting the eyes and groin, there is no point system and matches go into overtime if they last five rounds without a finish.