Rizin bombs on NYE on Fuji TV

Crazy. I thought the show was the best thing I’ve seen in a long time. I’ll definitely be watching in the future
 
For the Japanese to watch - You have to have King Kong vs Godzilla and / or a Sakuraba fighting foreigners . Horiguchi has to be put up against scary / "undefeatable" foreigners . Gabi vs Bob Sapp .

There is truth to this. The Japanese like to see demonstration of Bushido spirit. While no doubt fighters demonstrate it on the regular, I think they care more about the image of it than the reality. That is, rather than two talented 125 Lb men fighting, they’d prefer to watch a 125 Lb man fight a SHW. And they will cheer and be fans of the smaller man win or lose as long as he fights like a demon.

Basically, make every card a Super Hluk tournament and they will have a massive fan base.
 
Gabi vs Bob Sapp .
That bout would actually draw tons of views!!!
And since where add it let the 420lbs strongman world champion dude from game of thrones fight a 80lbs japanese guy.
And just to be safe we need an cartoon anime character vs randy coture(they did this at k1 i think) or don frye vs mark colemann (only if theyre health is ok) hope they will book this on nye!

vs
 
I was really interested in Rizin at first, but I lost interest pretty quick (besides a fight or two here and there) because they had tons of women fights and didn't bring back any Pride stars very often. Still hope the best for them, but I haven't watched anything from them since Kron's last fight.
 
I was really interested in Rizin at first, but I lost interest pretty quick (besides a fight or two here and there) because they had tons of women fights and didn't bring back any Pride stars very often. Still hope the best for them, but I haven't watched anything from them since Kron's last fight.

building the promotion on retiring fighters isn't doing them any favors in the long run, especially when you have talented marketable new fighters like they do now.
 
I was really interested in Rizin at first, but I lost interest pretty quick (besides a fight or two here and there) because they had tons of women fights and didn't bring back any Pride stars very often. Still hope the best for them, but I haven't watched anything from them since Kron's last fight.

All the women's fight lately were really good and entertaining.
The 2-day NYE 2017 fights were some of the best I've seen in RIZIN for a while.
 
I was really interested in Rizin at first, but I lost interest pretty quick (besides a fight or two here and there) because they had tons of women fights and didn't bring back any Pride stars very often. Still hope the best for them, but I haven't watched anything from them since Kron's last fight.
I thought the December 31st card was a perfect mix and one of my favorite MMA events of the year. Pride stars like Mirko Crocop and Takanori Gomi, as well as 3 tournaments featuring some great newer talent like Kyoji Horiguchi, Tenshin, and Kanna/Rena.

While I enjoyed this May card very much, I think it could have used a little something extra.
 
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building the promotion on retiring fighters isn't doing them any favors in the long run, especially when you have talented marketable new fighters like they do now.

How marketable are they if the cards are bombing in japan?
 
For the Japanese to watch - You have to have King Kong vs Godzilla and / or a Sakuraba fighting foreigners . Horiguchi has to be put up against scary / "undefeatable" foreigners . Gabi vs Bob Sapp .

I don’t think it’s so much as a circus match as it is simply having a charismatic Japanese fighter who can compete against the world’s best at 155 and above.

Without a Sakuraba who kept it real against the world’s finest, the Japanese aren’t that interested which forces promoters to come up with circus type match ups.
 
Kickboxing tournament with Tenshin and Horiguchi would be pretty big I feel.

I was in Japan a couple of weeks ago and randomly saw Tenshin as a guest one of the popular TV panel shows.
He must be getting pretty famous.

Masato was a massive draw so hopefully he can appeal to the same audience...he's a more exciting fighter, even if he isn't as handsome.

Side note:
Baruto was in that show having about 10 sumo matches against 2,3,4 and even 5 opponents that matched his weight (combined).

MMA fighters (ex one fc champ naito for example), pro wrestlers, Thai boxers, body builders, and school children were among his opponents.

What a great show & I miss baruto
 
Which is a bigger fight?

Horiguchi vs. Tenshin (kickboxing)
or
Kanna vs. Rena II
 
Which is a bigger fight?

Horiguchi vs. Tenshin (kickboxing)
or
Kanna vs. Rena II


Horiguchi vs Tenshin by far. Most Japanese fans hate the idea of an instant rematch and Rena's twitter was flooded with hate comments after her callout. Consensus opinion is she has to earn her rematch. RIZIN is in a precarious position with her atm, they have to tow a fine line between promoting her as hard as they can vs making sure she isnt seen as a "favored child" that gets anything she wants at the expense of others without having to work for it (which is obviously the exact opposite of the ganbatte attitude the Japanese can get behind). And while the public's perception is still massively pro-Rena, there is a clearly growing amount of fans who are souring on her.
 
Horiguchi vs Tenshin by far. Most Japanese fans hate the idea of an instant rematch and Rena's twitter was flooded with hate comments after her callout. Consensus opinion is she has to earn her rematch. RIZIN is in a precarious position with her atm, they have to tow a fine line between promoting her as hard as they can vs making sure she isnt seen as a "favored child" that gets anything she wants at the expense of others without having to work for it (which is obviously the exact opposite of the ganbatte attitude the Japanese can get behind). And while the public's perception is still massively pro-Rena, there is a clearly growing amount of fans who are souring on her.

I thought Rizin's idea was to set up what happened. Let Rena in the ring to ask for rematch, Kanna says no she has to earn it, and Rena accepted, saying she'll ask again after her next shooto competition, Kanna says maybe.

Unfortunately I'm only going by the english commentators translation. But I thought that was the general storyline they created.
 
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I thought Rizin's idea was to set up what happened. Let Rena in the ring to ask for rematch, Kanna says no she has to earn it, and Rena accepted, saying she'll ask again after her next shooto competition, Kanna says maybe.

Unfortunately I'm only going by the english commentators translation. But I thought that was the general storyline they created.


Kind of. They told Rena to get into the ring and challenge Asakura, but didnt tell Asakura how to (re)act, so she just said whatever came to mind. First she said that Rena had to win an MMA match, Rena then replied that she had a shootboxing match coming up, to which Asakura didnt know what to say and asked whether it would be okay if she got back to Rena with a reply after having had some time to mull things over (Im trying to approximate her choice of words here, she said it in a very non-commital, polite, meek way).

After the show Rena got shat on by fans over twitter for disrespecting Asakura, so she made a tweet apologizing for being impolite, to which the fans mostly responded with more negativity about her trying to get an "unearned" rematch.

Now obviously RIZIN doesnt care too much about who fans think is the "good guy" as long as the rivalry raises interest, but Rena doesnt seem at all ok with playing the bad guy role. Also, RIZIN have to be careful about how they manage Rena long term - if she does get the immediate rematch and gets smashed again, her star power will be seriously diminished. Additionally, there is no other credible rival for Rena after Miyuu bombed.

Overall, it seems best for RIZIN to let the rivalry simmer a bit, maybe have Rena fight a can in autumn, and book the rematch on NYE at the earliest.
 
Kind of. They told Rena to get into the ring and challenge Asakura, but didnt tell Asakura how to (re)act, so she just said whatever came to mind. First she said that Rena had to win an MMA match, Rena then replied that she had a shootboxing match coming up, to which Asakura didnt know what to say and asked whether it would be okay if she got back to Rena with a reply after having had some time to mull things over (Im trying to approximate her choice of words here, she said it in a very non-commital, polite, meek way).

After the show Rena got shat on by fans over twitter for disrespecting Asakura, so she made a tweet apologizing for being impolite, to which the fans mostly responded with more negativity about her trying to get an "unearned" rematch.

Now obviously RIZIN doesnt care too much about who fans think is the "good guy" as long as the rivalry raises interest, but Rena doesnt seem at all ok with playing the bad guy role. Also, RIZIN have to be careful about how they manage Rena long term - if she does get the immediate rematch and gets smashed again, her star power will be seriously diminished. Additionally, there is no other credible rival for Rena after Miyuu bombed.

Overall, it seems best for RIZIN to let the rivalry simmer a bit, maybe have Rena fight a can in autumn, and book the rematch on NYE at the earliest.
Wasn't Rena being downright pleasant and polite though? Never demanding anything, but instead asking Kanna for a favor and respecting her opinion. She was smiling, handshaking Kanna, the crowd was rooting her on. People on social media are crazy negative, so even funnier that Rena apologized for being impolite, and still the fans were like "no we don't accept", and just hated on her more. Very funny. Just a very different threshold than what you get in America.

But anyway I think that fight is in a good position right now, and do agree that letting the rivalry simmer till NYE would be perfect. A Rena comeback fight where she asks Kanna again afterwards would be perfect in July.

Also thanks for the translation.
 
Wasn't Rena being downright pleasant and polite though? Never demanding anything, but instead asking Kanna for a favor and respecting her opinion. She was smiling, handshaking Kanna, the crowd was rooting her on. People on social media are crazy negative, so even funnier that Rena apologized for being impolite, and still the fans were like "no we don't accept", and just hated on her more. Very funny. Just a very different threshold than what you get in America.

LOL yeah it's different than in the USA, it's much more subtle - people were shocked and appalled that Rena challenged Asakura without first congratulating her on winning her match, for example. This tweet shows Rena apologizing for exactly that, explaining why she didn't, and belatedly giving congratulations to Asakura:





Also it depends highly on which social strata you're talking about; the Japanese Everyman has a much lower threshold for "bad manners" than the lower social classes you'ld see at an Outsider show for example. But Rena is being marketed to the mainstream, and is thus expected to follow the mainstream social rules for "idols" and "talents".
 
LOL yeah it's different than in the USA, it's much more subtle - people were shocked and appalled that Rena challenged Asakura without first congratulating her on winning her match, for example. This tweet shows Rena apologizing for exactly that, explaining why she didn't, and belatedly giving congratulations to Asakura:





Also it depends highly on which social strata you're talking about; the Japanese Everyman has a much lower threshold for "bad manners" than the lower social classes you'ld see at an Outsider show for example. But Rena is being marketed to the mainstream, and is thus expected to follow the mainstream social rules for "idols" and "talents".

Got it thanks for the information.
 
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