6. Rolles & Daniel Gracie vs Kazushi Sakuraba & Yuji Nagata - UWFi Rules Tag Match (New Japan)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0evKoi0afzs So for those of you who watched New Japan Pro Wrestling for the first time ever for Wrestle Kingdom 9, you got to see one of New Japan's favorite types of New Year's event battles when Minoru Suzuki wrestled Kazushi Sakuraba in a UWFi Rules Match. From 1991-1996, UWFi was a promotion that existed in Japan that presented shoot-style grappling-as-wrestling that was ironically embroiled in a legendary feud with New Japan that actually led to the closure of the promotion. Last New Year's a UWFi-style tag team shootfight (yeah, this isn't even sounding right in concept, right) took place pitting members of the legendary Gracie training clan Rolles and Daniel Gracie versus UWFi legend Kazushi Sakuraba and shoot-skilled pro wrestler Yuji Nagata. Tag-team worked shootfights have occurred successfully before, but this is just not one of those times. Putting such a confounding to understand match on the promotions biggest show of the year just seems like a terrible idea all of the way around.
Marcus K. Dowling
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Besides having been an independent professional wrestling manager for a decade, Marcus Dowling is a Washington, DC-based writer who has contributed to a plethora of online and print magazines and newspapers writing about music and popular culture over the past 15 years.
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