Goodbye Yellow Brick Road

1998-2007

As many of you may know by now, the Fertittas have bought PRIDE from DSE and is now running it as a seperate company. They now own the name, the library and the fighter contracts. In a way, they have finally won.

When I had heard the news, to be honest, I didn't want to happen. As a pro-wrestling fan, I and others have been bitter and cynical with these two in one deals and the results there in. As I was reading report after report, I kept hearing RD Reynolds in the back of my head.

Pride was not suppose to die.

I almost was going to call this article "Oct '95 part deux" in honor of the date Nobuhiko Takada's pro wrestling organization, UWFi, merged with New Japan Pro Wrestling. Fast forward twelve years later, and now you have, let's face it, Takada's PRIDE merging with UFC.

But I'm not. PRIDE, in a technical sense, is dead. It wasn't killed by egotistical fighters, bookers who had no clue how to make a fight or managers who throw money at problems rather then give up and coming fighters a chance at the big boys. What killed it was the very old Japanese belief that everybody knows everybody does wrong but it's turns evil if you get caught. Everybody knew the fight scene was in part, run by the Yakuza. Pride got punished when it was proven to be true.

So I should be happy, right? PRIDE is under new management and now everything will be hunky dory and we will finally see who's better who's best.

Not neccisarily.

From the Review Journal...

"This is a sport and we're going to follow the unified rules that were established in New Jersey and then in Nevada," White said. "It's a sport -- mixed martial arts -- and the sport should have the same rules everywhere. As far as I'm concerned, if an organization doesn't follow these rules, it's not MMA. It's something else, but that's not MMA."

Ok, just to make things clear. I'm am not for either rule set. There are many negatives for both. While Pride rules wouldn't be accepted on a social level, Unified rules will not be accepted on a technical level. With that being said, I think it was a really bad descion to totally eradicate the Pride ruleset. I can undrstand getting rid of stomps and soccer kicks. While Japan can accept that part of strategy, Americans aren't wired that way yet. We still have this thing where we have to reject our violent nature for some reason. Knees to a downed opponent is certainly debatable and does deserve debate. I think...when they abolished Pride rules, they got rid of the most important thing of any worth. The Yellow Card System.

For those who dion't follow PRIDE. The yellow card system is a penalty system that was used to stop intentional stalling. If you don't finish the fight or at least try to finish the fight, you were given a yellow card and you lose 10% of your purse. You're allowed two yellow cards and if you continue to stall or get worse by messing to the ref, you got a red card which took away 20-25% of the purse away. This was the whole meat of the whole ruleset. The Fertittas has something good in their hands that they could at least test out in Japan with the Unified rules and they blew it away. It's gone. Kaput! Fin! They wasted a great opportunity.

Also, the "Unified rules = MMA" comment Dana made really made him look like a fool. The Japanesse people are more knowledgeable about the fight game then people in the US. The statement Dana made is pretty much a dare to the japanesse people to leave. As soon as you get the first wrestler that lays and prays in PRIDE, I will garentee a huge chunk of the fanbase will leave. They know fighters when they see them and if you're going to feed them someone very boring be it striking and/or ground and they lay and pray the win, they will be off like a russian bra.

I'm sorry Mr. White, I can not and will not accept that unified rules are a way to go. It has a bias that benifits more simplistic styles and somewhat shun the advanced styles. It favors people who do not put much effort in their training over those who do. Thanks to the Unified rules, you have now made the ground poison.

I will be still watching, but the same intrest I had with PRIDE will not be the same when the Fertittas take control. I and other fans will look for greener pastures and follw new products that try to defy your rule.

And as the line goes from the song I reference in the title.

"I've finally decided my future lies beyond the yellow brick road."