7. Wrestling World 2005 "Submissions Only" Tournament
New Japan Pro Wrestling may be the best wrestling promotion on Earth, but a decade ago, the league was in dire straits. The MMA boom in Japan was ending 50 years of consistent popularity for the sport, and so New Japan tried to bring elements of mixed martial arts into their programs. One of the most bizarre MMA/wrestling hybrids came at Wrestling World 2005, that year's iteration of the January 4 Tokyo Dome show. Eight men - Ron Waterman, Masayuki Naruse, Manabu Nakanishi, Toru Yano, Dolgorsürengiin Sumyaabazar, Mitsuya Nagai, Yuji Nagata, and Blue Wolf - competed in a shoot-style (but worked) grappling tournament, with decisions only coming via submission. Most notably, two bouts were held in the same ring simultaneously. The tournament came down to Waterman and Nagata, and Waterman - a former MMA fighter and WWE developmental talent - picked up the win. Nothing really came of it, Waterman wasn't pushed afterward, and the bout is more of a curiosity than anything else.
Scott Fried is a Slammy Award-winning* writer living and working in New York City. He has been following/writing about professional wrestling for many years and is a graduate of Lance Storm's Storm Wrestling Academy. Follow him on Twitter at https://twitter.com/scottfried.
*Best Crowd of the Year, 2013
