Shoot wrestling is a Japanese hybrid grappling style and combat sport . Shoot wrestling incorporates techniques from various wrestling , submission grappling , kickboxing and karate styles. It was particularly inspired and influenced by catch wrestling , a form of wrestling with submissions that was the predominant style of professional wrestling in the 19th and early 20th century, at the time a competitive sport and not yet predetermined.
25-534: Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Group ( Purofesshonaru-resuringu Fujiwara-Gumi , プロフェッショナルレスリング藤原組) was a shoot style professional wrestling promotion based in Tokyo, Japan , operating from 1991 to 1996. It was formed by Yoshiaki Fujiwara , Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki after the collapse of the second incarnation of the UWF . The company had the financial backing of eyeglass brand Meganesuper Co., Ltd executive Hachiro Tanaka who
50-813: A hybrid martial art emphasizes its disparate origins. The idea of hybridization or "mixing" of martial arts traditions originates in the 5th century BC. The concept rose to wide popularity during 5th century BC in Greek Olympic game Pankration , which uses aspects derived from various arts including boxing and wrestling . Hybrid martial arts are systems that blend techniques and philosophies from multiple traditional martial arts, creating comprehensive and adaptable methods for self-defense, sport, and combat. These arts typically integrate striking, grappling, and weapons training, allowing practitioners to handle various combat scenarios effectively. Some notable hybrid martial arts include: These hybrid martial arts highlight
75-604: A " shoot ". Later on, many wrestlers became interested in promoting this more realistic style of professional wrestling and in 1984, the Universal Wrestling Federation was formed. The UWF was a professional wrestling organisation that promoted the shoot and strong styles of wrestling. While predetermined, the UWF featured effective and practical martial arts moves, which were applied with force. The organization would even host some legitimate mixed martial arts fights, where
100-638: A few companies have been promoting shoot-wrestling events. GLEAT is a Japanese promotion founded in 2020 by LIDET Entertainment consists of former Pro Wrestling NOAH officials. The "Lidet UWF" is a sub-brand which has UWF-style matches. Game Changer Wrestling —an American New Jersey –based promotion—promotes shoot-style wrestling events known as the GCW Bloodsport . The events counted with former MMA and shoot-inspired pro wrestlers such as Minoru Suzuki , Josh Barnett , Matt Riddle and Dan Severn . Shoot wrestling branched into several sub disciplines after
125-601: A student of full contact karate, kodokan judo, and sumo . Yoshiaki Fujiwara was already a black belt in judo, while Satoru Sayama had studied Muay Thai with Toshio Fujiwara and went on to study sambo with Victor Koga . This would eventually lead to the added influences of karate, Muay Thai and judo to the wrestling style. One of Gotch's students, Antonio Inoki, hosted a series of mixed martial arts -style wrestling matches in which he pitted his " strong style professional wrestling" against other martial arts in an attempt to show that professional wrestling and shoot wrestling were
150-510: Is that percussion techniques are basically prohibited and are often practiced as mixed martial arts performed by amateurs. Professional wrestler Satoru Sayama , a student of Antonio Inoki , founded Shooto in 1985 with the goal creating a sport that revolved around a realistic and effective fighting system. Shooto is focused on all aspects of fighting: striking , stand-up grappling and ground fighting . Practitioners are referred to as shooters or shootists . An early term for MMA, based on
175-418: Is usually not seen by amateur wrestlers and mixed martial arts fighters, is attractive and is now a successful door for mixed martial arts fighters. In addition, joint levers and chokes are considered fouls unless they lead to a fall, but in combat wrestling a fall does not result in victory (it will be a point at judgment). If a wrestler taps from joint blocks or throttling, a winner is declared. The basic rule
200-530: The Shooto , Pancrase and RINGS promotions. Organizations, promotions and gyms with origins in shoot wrestling are referred as the " U-Kei ". Mid 20th Century 1970s and 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s and 2020s Historically, shoot wrestling has been influenced by many martial arts, most influential of them being catch wrestling , but also freestyle wrestling , Greco-Roman wrestling , and then sambo , karate , Muay Thai and judo in
225-506: The " U-Kei " ("U-Group" or "U-Class"). Shoot wrestling itself was popular until the mid-90s due the demise of the UWFi in 1996 and the simultaneous rise of mixed martial arts in Japan led to a sharp decline in popularity. Most shoot wrestlers started to migrate into MMA— Fighting Network RINGS itself became a full MMA promotion—or back to more theatrical forms of professional wrestling. Currently,
250-504: The 1970s, particularly stemming from the influence of wrestlers Karl Gotch , Lou Thesz and Billy Robinson , all who had an enduring popularity in Japan due to their serious submission wrestling style. Professional wrestlers of that era attempted to use more realistic or even "full contact" moves in their matches to increase their excitement, diminishing or eschewing the theatrical elements and acrobatics, looking more similar to an actual, unscripted fight. The name "shoot wrestling" comes from
275-568: The Indian system of exercises using push-ups, neck exercises, yogic breathing exercises and "Hindu squats" for conditioning. Gotch attained legendary status in Japan, earning the nickname God of Wrestling. In the 1970s he taught catch wrestling-based hooking and shooting to the likes of Antonio Inoki , Tatsumi Fujinami , Yoshiaki Fujiwara , Satoru Sayama , Masami Soranaka, and Akira Maeda . Most of these professional wrestlers already had backgrounds in legitimate martial arts. Masami Soranaka had been
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#1732897987549300-434: The UWF wrestlers were able to test their shoot wrestling techniques against fighters with other styles, mimicking Inoki's own exploits. However, internal conflicts between the wrestlers soon resulted in a breakup of the company. After the breakup of the original Universal Wrestling Federation, shoot wrestling branched into several disciplines. One of the first top stars to leave was " Tiger Mask " Satoru Sayama in 1985, he
325-444: The breakup of the original Universal Wrestling Federation. The main forms and revivals are listed below. Combat wrestling, also known as "MMA without strikes" is a shoot wrestling variation founded by Kiguchi Dojo. Doojo, a former wrestler, incorporated classic wrestling rules in his sport. Famous mixed martial artists also participate in the tournament and a tournament is also held throughout Japan. Even matchmaking, which
350-623: The company was revived briefly for a few of shows during the following summer. After 1996, when everyone on the roster except Fujiwara left to form BattlARTS , the Fujiwara Gumi name was kept as the name of the booking office handling Fujiwara's appearances for other promotions. In retrospect, PWFG, along with other shoot style promotions, served as a precursor to mixed martial arts and to popular Japanese MMA promotions, particularly Pride FC . Shoot style Shoot wrestling originated in Japan's professional wrestling circuit ( puroresu ) of
375-466: The latter, a few wrestlers such as Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki , dissatisfied with Fujiwara's turn to lucha libre -inspired style and lack of focus in fighting skills, founded Pancrase in 1993, a company which used shoot-wrestling rules but promoted real unscripted fights. The multiple successors and organizations inspired by the UWF range from professional wrestling, to MMA and even standalone martial arts styles, they are collectively known as
400-404: The new style. Shoot wrestling was popular in Japan from the 1980s until the mid-1990s, fading from popularity due the demise of the leading shoot-style promotion UWFi in 1996 and the simultaneous rise of mixed martial arts (MMA) in Japan. Most shoot wrestlers started to migrate to MMA or back to more theatrical forms of professional wrestling. Shoot wrestling had a considerable influence on
425-725: The pro wrestling term " shoot " to denote that the fighting is not staged . It encompasses striking and grappling like MMA, however has slightly different rules to MMA, including rope breaks. Kickboxer Caesar Takeshi founded Shoot boxing in 1985, a stand-up fighting league allowing standing submissions and throws. Hybrid fighting systems Hybrid martial arts , also known as hybrid fighting systems or sometimes eclectic martial arts or freestyle martial arts , referred to as mixed martial arts or fighting systems that incorporate techniques and theories from several martial arts. While numerous martial arts borrow or adapt from other arts and to some extent could be considered hybrids,
450-434: The professional wrestling term " shoot ", which refers to any unscripted occurrence within a scripted wrestling event. The first wave of shoot wrestlers were students of Antonio Inoki and Karl Gotch from New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), two wrestlers which already were advocates of a stiffer and more realistic wrestling style. Their students left NJPW to form the Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) in 1984, pioneering in
475-504: The renowned catch wrestler Billy Riley in Wigan . The gym was the centre of learning submission wrestling as practiced in the mining town of Wigan, popularly known as catch-as-catch-can wrestling. It was here that Karl Gotch honed his catch wrestling skills. Karl Gotch also travelled to India to practice the wrestling form of Pehlwani ; later on he would propagate the exercises using the "Hindu mace" (large clubs) and would go on to incorporate
500-475: The sport of mixed martial arts. Prior to the emergence of the current sport of shoot wrestling, the term was commonly used in the professional wrestling business, particularly in the United Kingdom , as a synonym for the sport of catch wrestling . Shoot wrestling can be used to describe a range of hybrid fighting systems such as shootfighting , shoot boxing and the styles of mixed martial arts done in
525-466: The sport's later stages. Karl Gotch is one of the most important figures in the development of shoot wrestling. Karl Gotch would begin his journey into wrestling in the German and North American professional wrestling circuits, where Gotch found moderate success. However, it was in his tours of Japan that the early formations of shoot wrestling took place. Gotch was a student of the " Snake Pit " gym, run by
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#1732897987549550-456: The strongest fighting disciplines. Inoki would go on to teach these fighting techniques to a new generation of wrestlers in the dojo of his professional wrestling promotion, New Japan Pro-Wrestling . These matches eventually culminated into the Muhammad Ali vs. Antonio Inoki . While the previous matches were predetermined, Ali and Inoki could not agree on the terms of the match and it turned into
575-479: Was also funding Super World Sports (SWS). Its motto was " ONE FOR ALL AND ALL FOR ONE ". Although the company was considered the smallest of the three UWF offshoots, it had a strong roster which included former UWF wrestlers Yusuke Fuke , Bart Vale and future MMA star Ken Shamrock . One of its most successful shows took place at the Tokyo Dome on October 4, 1992, headlined by Funaki versus Maurice Smith , which
600-515: Was attended by a record 40,000 fans. Legendary wrestler Karl Gotch acted as the face of the company, much like Lou Thesz did for fellow promotion UWF International . In December 1992, Suzuki, Funaki, and Fuke left the promotion over Fujiwara's decision to send PWFG wrestlers to appear for SWS, Universal Lucha Libre and W*ING . The trio would go on to form Pancrase several months later. Fujiwara decided to close down PWFG in November 1995, however,
625-559: Was dissatisfied with the UWF's internal politics and decided to follow his dream of founding his own martial art discipline. He combined his knowledge of shoot wrestling and other martial arts to create a legitimate fighting style which he later named " Shooto ", holding the first amateur event in 1986 and first professional event in 1989. Nobuhiko Takada and his supporters went to found UWF International , Akira Maeda founded Fighting Network RINGS while Yoshiaki Fujiwara went to found Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi ("Fujiwara family"), in
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