The story
Founded by Nobuhiko Takada in 1991.1
The promotion was founded on May 10, 1991, as a continuation of the UWF. The UWFi featured most of UWF's roster, and was led by Nobuhiko Takada, who was the top star and the face of the promotion. Other natives for the promotion included Kazuo Yamazaki, Yoji Anjo, Kiyoshi Tamura, Tatsuo Nakano, Yuko Miyato, Masahito Kakihara and kickboxer Makoto Oe. Vintage shooter Billy Robinson was used as head trainer for their gym (the UWFi Snakepit), and wrestling legends Lou Thesz and Danny Hodge occasionally served as trainers in their pursuit of old-school credibility. Former pro wrestler Shinji Sasazaki would lend a hand by helping some of the foreign talent, mostly from the Tennessee area, get booked on their cards.
In 1992, the UWFi introduced its first championship, the "Real Pro-Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship", which was won by Takada after a victory over top foreign antagonist Gary Albright. Lou Thesz acted as commissioner and lent his 1950s NWA World title belt to be used as the distinction for it. The theme of UWFi being "real pro-wrestling" was central to the promotion's image, and both Thesz and Takada would deride other Japanese promotions (particularly Takada's old promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling) for being "fake", while claiming themselves to be legit. UWFi, however, was no more legit than any other group at the time. Takada went so far as to challenge the champions of other major Japanese promotions (Mitsuharu Misawa (AJPW Triple Crown Champion at the time), Masahiro Chono (NWA World Heavyweight Champion at the time), and The Great Muta (IWGP Heavyweight Champion at the time), in an effort to determine who was the true world champion.
The UWFi's emphasis on proving the superiority of its "Real Pro-Wrestling" style was inspired in part by Antonio Inoki's famous inter-style bouts, particularly his 1976 match against Muhammad Ali. The promotion incorporated fighters and contests representing a range of disciplines, including kickboxing, Muay Thai, karate, Kempo karate and Savate in matches against their wrestlers. Notable examples included Nobuhiko Takada vs. WBC Heavyweight boxing champion Trevor Berbic, Kiyoshi Tamura vs. former WBC light-heavyweight boxing champion Matthew Saad Muhammad, and Nobuhiko Takada vs. former sumo grand champion and karate stylist Koji Kitao.
The UWFi also featured a separate division of "Standing Bouts", originally billed as the "UWF International Stand-up Fighting Division". These were genuine kickboxing contests held alongside the promotion's shoot-style wrestling, with rules varying between Oriental-style kickboxing, Full-Contact kickboxing and Muay Thai without elbows. The division's regular fighters were Makoto Ohe, a former All Japan Shootboxing champion, Bovy Chowaikung and Gong Yuttachai, who faced opponents from around the world with backgrounds in kickboxing, Muay Thai, karate, Kempo karate and Savate. Ohe's June 1991 bout with American kickboxer Rudy Lovato was particularly notable, while Ohe and Chowaikung later won ISKA world titles during their UWFi tenure. The UWFi also hosted the first ISKA-sanctioned bout in Japan and became the only professional wrestling promotion to have held world kickboxing titles.
In 1993, Super Vader, the World Heavyweight Champion from the United States-based World Championship Wrestling, accepted Thesz and Takada's grandstand challenge, whereas the aforementioned champions were "too afraid" of Takada to face him. After Gary Albright quit UWFi to join All Japan and Vader left over money disputes, the promotion was left with a lack of credible challengers to Takada's title, and interest in the promotion began to wane. After being overlooked several times over the years, Kazuo Yamazaki left to return to New Japan in July 1995.
In July 1994, Brazilian jiu-jitsu practitioner Rickson Gracie won the inaugural Vale Tudo Japan tournament, defeating four opponents in legitimate bouts. Gracie's victory drew UWFi's attention, as the promotion was seeking legitimate inter-style contests to demonstrate the superiority of its "Real Pro-Wrestling" style. UWFi approached Gracie about a fight with Nobuhiko Takada, but Gracie refused, as he reportedly expressed little interest in working with professional wrestlers or participating in matches that he regarded as staged rather than legitimate. The dispute was further inflamed by Takada, who publicly provoked and challenged Gracie, contributing to a personal feud between the two fighters. In December 1994, Yoji Anjo, accompanied by UWFi executive Shinji Sasazaki and members of the Japanese press, traveled to Gracie's academy in Los Angeles and performed a dojo storm, challenged him to a fight. Gracie accepted the challenge and defeated Anjo in the unsanctioned bout, dominating him with a violent ground-and-pound and choking him out with a rear-naked choke. The confrontation was subsequently publicized in Japan and became a serious embarrassment for UWFi, intensifying Gracie's rivalry with the promotion and fueling interest in a Gracie–Takada fight, which ultimately took place not at the UWFi, but at the inaugural Pride Fighting Championships event in 1997.
Interpromotional feuds and downfall
In 1995, Anjo and other UWFi bookers proposed co-promoting with New Japan Pro-Wrestling, as a potential solution to their financial problems. New Japan booker Riki Choshu agreed, under the condition that New Japan have full control over the booking of the interpromotional matches. Thesz, who saw New Japan as another gimmicky promotion, withdrew his support as a result and took the belt with him. For Choshu, it was an opportunity to get payback for Thesz and Takada's earlier derision of their wrestling style, and he was determined to show fans that the real stars were in New Japan. All of UWFi's stars mainly lost the interpromotional matches, with the exception of Takada, who won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on January 4, 1996 at Wrestling World 1996. The NJPW vs. UWFi event on October 9, 1995 was a huge commercial success, drawing 67,000 spectators to the Tokyo Dome, making it the second-highest-attended professional wrestling event ever held in Japan, while its followup Wrestling World 1996 drew another 65,000, making it the fourth-largest event. However, the defeats severely undermined UWFi's credibility and its claim to have the superior and "real" fighters.
Kiyoshi Tamura had left UWFi before the feud in 1995, to join rival promotion, RINGS.
Read the full text
In 1996, as the New Japan feud died down, UWFi formed an alliance with Genichiro Tenryu's WAR.
On August 17, 1996, Takada defeated Yoji Anjo at Tokyo's Meiji-Jingu Stadium. The damage to the promotion's credibility had already been done, however, and UWFi had its farewell card ("UWF FINAL") on December 27, 1996, at Tokyo's Korakuen Hall arena. Most of the UWFi roster formed Kingdom, which would promote a similar product on a smaller scale. Kingdom would have a presence at UFC Japan: Ultimate Japan in 1997, as Yoji Anjo would lose to Tank Abbott, while Kazushi Sakuraba won the heavyweight tournament. The promotion, however, failed to reach the same level of popularity as the UWFi and closed in March 1998.
Takada went on to become one of the founding figures of Pride Fighting Championships. He faced Rickson Gracie in the main event of the inaugural Pride event on October 11, 1997, losing by submission in the second round. The bout was the culmination of the rivalry that had begun with Yoji Anjo's dojo storm in 1994 and helped establish Pride as the major mixed martial arts promotion in Japan and the world. Takada later served as one of Pride's most prominent executives and public figures, while several former UWFi and Kingdom wrestlers, most notably Kazushi Sakuraba, who had been a relatively low-card wrestler during his UWFi tenure, became major stars in the promotion. Sakuraba's victories over members of the Gracie family would eventually make him one of Pride's biggest attractions and further connect the promotion's history to the UWFi's earlier pursuit of "real" wrestling.
From Wikipedia’s article on UWF International, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3