UWF International

Union of Wrestling Forces International, better known as UWF International, U-Inter, or simply UWFi, was a shoot style professional wrestling promotion in Japan from 1991 to 1996. Although the matches were worked (i.e. predetermined), the UWF-i was very convincing for its time, promoting a more hard-hitting, realistic style. In retrospect, UWFi, along with other shoot-style promotions, served as precursors to popular MMA promotions, particularly PRIDE.

Union of Wrestling Force International
AcronymUWFi
FoundedMay 10, 1991
DefunctDecember 27, 1996
StyleShoot style
HeadquartersJapan
Founder(s)Nobuhiko Takada, Kazuo Yamazaki, Yukoh Miyato, Yoji Anjo & other

History

The promotion was founded on May 10, 1991, as a continuation of the UWF. The UWF-i 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 a trainer for their gym (the UWFi Snakepit), and wrestling legend Danny Hodge occasionally served as a judge in their pursuit of old-school credibility. Lou Thesz would also be used as a trainer and spent a week every month in Japan teaching the wrestlers catch wrestling techniques. 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. UWF-i, 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.

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.

Feud with New Japan Pro Wrestling

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 UWF-i's stars mainly lost the interpromotional matches, with the exception of Takada, who won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on January 4, 1996. Kiyoshi Tamura haf left UWFi before the feud in 1995, to join rival promotion, RINGS.

In 1996, as the New Japan feud died down, UWF-i formed an alliance with Genichiro Tenryu's WAR. 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 UWF-i 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.

Rules

The combatants would start with 15 points each. Points would be lost for knockout attempts, being at a disadvantage during a hold, and/or for breaking a hold by grabbing onto the ring ropes with hand(s) and/or feet. The only way to win was by submission, knockout (count of 10) or a wrestler's points being reduced to 0.

Tag team matches were allowed as well, with 21 points (instead of 15) given to a team at start time. However, the points system was rarely referred to, as a wrestler or team losing points could still win by forcing his opponent to submit or by knocking him out. No pinfall counts were allowed, and no countouts were allowed (in practice, wrestlers never set foot outside the ring during the match).

In 1995 rules were somewhat relaxed to allow pinfalls in order to allow for New Japan, WAR, and other non-submission-oriented wrestlers (such as Abdullah the Butcher) to compete.

Roster

Championships

Pro-Wrestling World Heavyweight Championship

The championship used the belt used by Lou Thesz as NWA World Champion during the 1950s.

No. Wrestlers: Times: Date: Days held: Location: Notes:
1 Nobuhiko Takada 1 September 21, 1992 696 Kyoto, Japan Defeated Gary Albright to become the first champion; Takada and Albright had been chosen as contenders based on their UWFI records (Albright 11 wins and 0 losses, Takada 10-1).
2 Super Vader 1 August 18, 1994 245 Tokyo, Japan
3 Nobuhiko Takada 2 April 20, 1995 165 Nagoya, Japan
— Title retired — October 2, 1995 — — Lou Thesz withdraws his support for the promotion and takes the belt with him in protest against a proposed unification match against IWGP Champion Keiji Mutoh. Takada beats Mutoh on January 4, 1996, and wins the IWGP title.

Combined reigns
Rank[A] Wrestler No. of
reigns		 Combined days
1 Nobuhiko Takada 2 861
2 Super Vader 1 245

Video game

In 1995, Hudson Soft published a video game, Saikyō: Takada Nobuhiko (最強～高田延彦～) for the Super Famicom in Japan. Unlike most wrestling games, Saikyō was a linear fighting game, but moves such as suplexes counted for heavy scoring, like in the real-life promotion. Nobuhiko Takada was the only actual wrestler licensed as a character, all others used made-up pseudonyms, such as Gary Albright being known as Briant.

gollark: I *did* think of getfenv pretty fast.
gollark: <@!206233133228490752> If that's meant to remove potatOS, it won't work.
gollark: ... what?
gollark: Well, on the plus side, that closes a few potential attack vectors potatOS might have had?
gollark: Nope, it won't let me. How odd.

See also

References
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