Review of Pride FC: Shockwave 2004

Introduction

In the UK, the closest things we have to New Year`s Eve traditions are having Jools Holland on the TV, and getting very, very drunk.

Naturally, things are a little different in Japan. It used to be that the annual concert run by television company NHK was the thing to be a part of on New Year`s Eve; now, it is to watch fighters from K-1 (kickboxing) and PRIDE (mixed martial arts) beat each other up.

Not much of a tradition, you say? Tell that to the 40m+ Japanese who watched on December 31st 2005.

On the same date the previous year, PRIDE Fighting Championship presented Shockwave from the Saitama Super Arena, featuring a main event of Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira vs Fedor Emelianenko for the vacated PRIDE Heavyweight Championship. It was a rematch from their collision at Final Conflict 2004 when Fedor sustained a huge gash across his forehead from an inadvertent headbutt. The bout was declared a no-contest.

Aside from the main event, the card offered up other excellent contests, including an open-weight match between Mark Hunt and Wanderlei Silva, as well as a battle of the Olympic champions as 2000 Greco Roman wrestling champion Rulon Gardner went up against 1992 Judo champion Hidehiko Yoshida.

Full card:

PRIDE Heavyweight Championship
- Fedor Emelianenko vs. Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira
- Wanderlei Silva vs. Mark Hunt
- Takanori Gomi vs. Jens Pulver
- Dan Henderson vs. Yuki Kondo
- Mirko `Cro Cop` Filipovic vs. Kevin Randleman
- Rulon Gardner vs. Hidehiko Yoshida
- Ryo Chonan vs. Anderson Silva
- Ryan Gracie vs. Yoji Anjo
- Mu Bae Choi vs. Giant Silva
- Ikuhisa Minowa vs. Stefan Leko

Video

Video is presented in 4:3 fullscreen PAL, and it is excellent for a DVD of this genre. Being a Japanese production, this has been converted from NTSC, and lacks a little sharpness because of that. However, that is a minor flaw, as otherwise this capture and transfer is fantastic, with no pixellation at all in sight, nor any compression artefacts noticeable in such a long show (3 ½hrs plus extras).

Audio

Audio is presented in Dolby Digital 2.0 and is very good for a DVD of this genre. Commentary is provided by Mauro Ranallo and Bas Rutten, both of whom in particular are students of the Japanese fighting game. As such, this is a particularly informative commentary.

Features

Spread over a disc and a bit, there are some great extras here. Along with the actual event on Disc One (and I have no idea how they managed to fit so much footage acceptably onto one DVD) we have a photo gallery, fighter bios, the rules of PRIDE, a glossary of fight terms, pictures from the event poster and programme, as well as a very short commerical hyping the event.

On Disc Two, we have extended fighter interviews (some of which are excellent), as well as two music videos - one as a highlights package of the event and the other introducing the ring girls of PRIDE. Finally there is a bonus match of Henry Miller vs Makoto Takamoto, which is very, very long, and very, very much worth skipping!

Conclusion

With a card so packed with fighting talent - this DVD release has been editing from a staggering 6 hour television production - I was expecting a lot from Shockwave 2004. I got some good and I got some bad. Thankfully, the bad was reserved for the beginning of the card, with the big matches living up to their billing.

There was no surprise whatsoever in the fact that the bouts featuring Ryan Gracie & Yoji Anjo, and Mu Bae Choi & Giant Silva were not up to PRIDE standard. Anjo is a former pro wrestler and has no place in a fighting arena, and at 7ft 2", Silva is a just a freak show that the Japanese love to see beaten.

But having got those bouts out of the way early, I`m happy to say that the rest of the bouts were good to very good. The former describes the Gardner vs Yoshida fight, but the crowd was so into Yoshida that the fight seemed much better than it ttechnically was.

Kevin Randleman vs Mirko "CroCop" Filipovic was a re-match from Randleman`s stunning knockout of the Croatian politician earlier in the year. This bout was equally short and had just as convincing a finish.

Both Ryo Chonan vs Anderson Silva and Dan Henderson vs Yuki Kondo were good bouts, and the former had one of the best finishes I`ve ever seen to an MMA contest - a fascinating display of technique.

Takanori Gomi vs Jens Pulver was, in my view, the match of the night. It was fought totally as a stand-up kickboxing-type contest, with neither competitor having an interest in taking it to the ground. There was some devastating striking taking place and the fact that the bout finished with a knockout is no surprise whatsoever.

Mark Hunt went into his open-weight bout with Wanderlei Silva with a 70lb size advantage, making the K-1 star the pre-match favourite, even though Silva is a PRIDE legend. Of course, it helps that Hunt never, ever seems to be hurt by strikes to the head.

The main event of the evening was an excellent way to cap things off. Fedor may not be the most popular fighter in Japan, but he is without question the pre-eminent heavyweight in MMA, his only ever loss coming as a result of a blood stoppage - and even that was back in 2000. As such, many figured that Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira - arguably the 2nd best all-rounder in the world at that weight - had little chance against the Russian, but this was a competitive bout and had the main event feel that sent the crowd home happy.

Overall, Shockwave 2004 was a good event that was heightened by the vociferousness of the Japanese crowd. A highly recommended purchase for MMA fans, especially those who purchased the 6-disc Grand Prix 2004 DVD set.