Kiyoshi Tamura with a Basquiat crown 👑

Who was the GREATEST WRESTLER EVER?

Thanks for asking!

open.substack.com/pub/hybridsh...

It's on our long list of things to do. For sure coming out. We delayed it to get in an extra story which is pretty good!

Cat in a box

Cat in a box closeup

Hello. Surprise run in.

Christmas Night on Happy Valley Road: The Last Round for Justin Eilers The cold cut through everything in Nampa that night.

An #MMA tragedy.

hybridshoot.substack.com/p/christmas-...

Christmas Night on Happy Valley Road: The Last Round for Justin Eilers The cold cut through everything in Nampa that night.

An #MMA tragedy.

hybridshoot.substack.com/p/christmas-...

NAOYA OGAWA VERSUS SHINYA HASHIMOTO: THE DAY THE LADDER WAS REMOVED How Antonio Inoki Created a Monster to Kill the King of Destruction

At the intersection of #MMA and pro #wrestling, things in the late 90s got weird. The business was in a state of turmoil. And the man stirring the pot, as usual, was Antonio Inoki.

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Got let go right on his face.

I didn't see 2016. Still...what the hell?

NAOYA OGAWA VERSUS SHINYA HASHIMOTO: THE DAY THE LADDER WAS REMOVED How Antonio Inoki Created a Monster to Kill the King of Destruction

At the intersection of #MMA and pro #wrestling, things in the late 90s got weird. The business was in a state of turmoil. And the man stirring the pot, as usual, was Antonio Inoki.

Please join us on Substack and support independent writers.

That can't possibly be the Dennis Hall who fought Noburo Asahi in SHOOTO can it? He would be ancient.

The Suicide Mission: Nobuhiko Takada, Mark Kerr, and the Price of Pride An Interview with the Wrestling Star Ahead of PRIDE 6

As some of you know, I’m writing a book on the origins of PRIDE Fighting. At heart, it's a pro #wrestling story.

This interview, translated from the original Japanese, represents the kind of primary source material I’m using to build that narrative—PRIDE through a completely different lens. #MMA

You know it's cold when the cat has a cat blanket!

Definitely not a coincidence. I follow his Playlist closely.

The Kick That Broke Professional Wrestling Akira Maeda, Riki Choshu and the Dawn of the Shootstyle Revolution

This incident has long fascinated me. Two of the best wrestlers of all time in a collision that launched the shootstyle revolution.

Prepare for a deep dive into #wrestling lore.

hybridshoot.substack.com/p/the-kick-t...

Akira Maeda battles Riki Choshu for spiritual control of New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Coming next.

I have found the perfect niche: translating material and writing about a form of wrestling that no longer exists and no one remembers.

The Invisible Wall Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki were sold a revolution. What they got was business as usual.

Wrestling history is a tapestry and every match has a story to tell. This one, a bout you've likely never heard of, loomed larger than most.

Masakatsu Funaki. Minoru Suzuki. Promises not kept and the road to Pancrase.

The Invisible Wall.

open.substack.com/pub/hybridsh...

The Beautiful Lie: Royce Gracie, Matt Hughes and the UFC's Invasion of Los Angeles Los Angeles.

I wrote about that fight at Hybrid Shoot and can proudly report that, a decade plus later, the Gracies are still using that line of reasoning.

open.substack.com/pub/hybridsh...

The Theft of Light: The Night Gerard Gordeau Blinded Yuki Nakai Vale Tudo Japan 1995

The Theft of Light: The Night Gerard Gordeau Blinded Yuki Nakai

#MMA #Wrestling #Lore

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The theft of light: a collage of images featuring Yuki Nakai and Gerard Gordeau.

I thought I had terminal writer's block, but I got inspired.

Coming Monday!

#mma #wrestling

Aww man.

The Sanguineous Circus: An Eschatological Examination of the Ultimate Fighting Championship and the Collapse of Western Civilization From the Papers of Ignatius J. Reilly

I found a lost missive from famed medievalist Ignatius J Reilly discussing UFC and #MMA.

A truly inspired diatribe.

Sky Blue covered in blood.

More like Sky Red amirite. #AEWDynamite

This is the first time blue sky has appeared as a site referring readers to one of my wrestling posts.

2% of readers clicked from here.

So, thanks.

It was pretty ballsy of me to claim to be a professional writer. So far no pushback.

Bookshelf

Arn Anderson as bookmark.

What do I, a professional writer with lots of fancy books on the shelf, use as a bookmark?

A randomly selected #wrestling card, a pile of which sits loose in my bedside table for this specific purpose.

There are probably 25 books about UWF alone. Plus guys have done autobiographies down to the Naksno level. And the magazine coverage was extensive.

The Sermon of 55 Kicks: The Night Tiger Mask Created Shootstyle Wrestling The Universal Wrestling Federation was a company born of spite and baptized in failure.

I've done a lot of translation for book projects focused on Japanese fighting and wrestling. I'm sharing pieces at Hybrid Shoot.

In 1984, a band of renegades created a new wrestling that would eventually birth Japanese MMA. This is their origin story.

hybridshoot.substack.com/p/the-sermon...

Update on me: over here interviewing Tugboat and Bob Cook and Mark Mero. Malenko adjacent guys.

My commercial instincts remain singular. Doing it for the culture.

I'm down to watching a few GIFs and still feel cheated.