For the first time ever, Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport heads to Tokyo, Japan’s Sumo Hall with a loaded card featuring the brand’s namesake in action against reigning IWGP World Champion Jon Moxley.
It’s a rematch from 2021’s Bloodsport 6 when Barnett picked up the victory by TKO. Since then, Moxley has picked up two straight victories in the unique format.
Minoru Suzuki will return to the red mat once again as he challenges the always dangerous Timothy Thatcher.
Former UFC & PRIDE star Rampage Jackson will return to Japan and make his Bloodsport debut as he faces Hideki Sekine while the legendary Masakatsu Funaki battles Bloodsport veteran Davey Boy Smith.
Another legend — Kazushi Sakuraba — challenges Santino Marella while Konami goes one-on-one with Maya Fukada in a women’s bout.
The card is rounded out by Hikaru Sato vs. Hideki Suzuki, Takuya Nomura vs. Erik Hammer, and Fuminori Abe vs. Yu Iizuka.
Our live coverage begins at 2 AM Eastern/11 PM Pacific.
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Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport: Bushido
The opening ceremony began with an elaborate Taiko drum performance on the mat. Since ABEMA produced this edition of Bloodsport, the overall production value for this is outstanding. Attendance looked like it was poor, so only the floor section of Ryogoku’s Sumo Hall had proper lighting. The upper levels were tactfully blacked out for the duration of the show.
After the performance, an interview with Josh Barnett aired between past clips of Bloodsport. He explained his concepts behind Bloodsport, what it means to him and how it can affect combat sports. He also detailed why he wanted to have this special Bloodsport event in Japan today.
Next, legendary MMA ring announcer Lenne Hardt introduced the full roster for today’s card as fighter walked to the ring to the Bloodsport theme song. The text of the names on screen and Hardt’s announcing were completely out of synch for this, unfortunately.
If you’re not familiar with the rules already, Bloodsport victories are only the result of either a knockout or submission, not a three-count pinfall in professional wrestling.
Fuminori Abe defeated Yu Iizuka (GLEAT) via submission
Iizuka is a very talented young wrestler from the GLEAT company and trained sambo with Volk Han in the past. Abe is a regular freelancer and actually appeared on the most recent Bloodsport event back in April. He’s one half of the tag team Astronauts; the other half being Takuya Nomura of BJW who will appear later on the show tonight.
Abe landed a dragon screw legwhip early on and contiuned to maintain an advantageous top position for a few moments. Izuka countered and locked in an an armbar before Abe had a cross facelock on Iizuka, wrenching against his mouth and nose, Snakepit style.
Iizuka later peppered Abe with open hand strikes while he had Abe locked in a crucifix hold.
Iizuka landed a high roundhouse kick; Abe answered with a jumping headbutt, forehead to forehead, before sinking in an achilles lock for the quick tap from the younger challenger, the 29 year old Mr. Iizuka.
Bloodsport Bushido Tournament First Round Match: Hideki Suzuki defeated Hikaru Sato via submission
Hikaru Sato wrestled the day before this—in his backyard, against Sanshiro Takagi et al. On the grass, in the sun. This is a rather different vibe. Sato sharpened his craft first with Pancrase before he became a regular freelance pro wrestler around Japan. Hideki Suzuki has been active this year in AJPW.
After about five minutes of high-level groundwork, it was Suzuki who caught Sato in an STF hold for the submission victory. He moves on to the next round in tonight’s tournament.
Bloodsport Bushido Tournament First Round Match: Erik Hammer defeated Takuya Nomura via TKO
Nomura is Fuminori Abe’s tag team partner in Astronauts, as mentioned earlier. Nomura is so perfect for Bloodsport and should probably be on every one he can make. Erik Hammer is a Bloodsport stalwart and Josh Barnett’s training partner.
Hammer darted at Nomura early and landed a few hard strikes. Nomura answered with a flurry of Penalty Kicks. Hammer was back in the mix moments later throwing hard knees.
The match spilled out onto the floor. There’s a ten-count for this Bloodsport event. They would spill back onto the floor a minute or so later, rolling to the floor from 50/50 guard position as both pummeled for leglocks and footlocks.
It felt like it was all Nomura until Hammer exploded at the end and flattened Nomura with a massive power bomb for the TKO victory. Hammer moves on to face Hideki Suzuki in tonight’s tournament.
Konami (STARDOM) defeated Maya Fukuda (GLEAT) via submission
This will be the first time a lot people will get to see Maya Fukuda. She’s a Kiyoshi Tamura project and trained her, though she has a previous martial arts experience. She’s been with GLEAT since the launch of that promotion, and has grown and improved a lot in a short amount of time. Fukuda also has more experience working this Bloodsport style in Lidet’s UWF. She fought with confidence tonight, though Konami did as well, which brought out a great match in both of them.
Fukuda’s karate background allowed her to be aggressive with her kicks early on in the match. Konami was eager to take the fight to the ground and worked over Fukuda with an armlock attempt before the younger Fukuda countered out of the hold and into Konami’s guard.
Moments later, both fought for a straight ankle lock until Konami cinched in a deeper grip, forcing Fukuda to break her hold. The two rolled to the floor while in the lock. Konami wrapped Fukuda in a single leg crab on the ground before the ten-count started.
Konami used a German suplex and kick to the face of her pink-and-white-costumed opponent, Fukuda, who answered back with a few flurries of kicks. She connected with a step-up enzuigiri kick to Konami’s head; Konami responded with an ankle lock, then rolled into kneebar variation. Konami adjusted her position and went for another German suplex but Fukuda clipped Konami with a Brazlian kick to the face.
Despite her fierce late rally towards the end, it wasn’t enough to take Konami out, and “The Submission Sniper” eventually tapped Fukuda with a kneelock hold for the win. It’s clear the idea was to get Fukuda over with the audience for trying her best. That often elicits a lot of empathy from the Japanese crowd who then go out of their way to support her over her career as she grows.
Masakatsu Funaki defeated Davey Boy Smith Jr. via submission
The MMA legend, the icon, the prodigy, the founding father of Pancrase, 55-year-old Masakatsu Funaki, took on Bloodsport regular and current AJPW guest, Davey Boy Smith Jr. It’s a special match for a number of reasons, like this being Funaki’s first-ever Bloodsport match, or Smith and his family’s legacy in Japanese pro wrestling but also as a pioneer of the current iteration of wrestling we are watching at the moment.
Funaki fought from the closed guard position. He made sure to control Smith’s wrists to make sure the 6’5″ Smith wouldn’t come down hard on him with punches or elbows.
On their feet, Funaki fought for a side waistlock, possibly looking for a back suplex, but DBS Jr. wrestled him back to the mat with a strong side headlock before smoothly transition to top guard and then to side control on the adjacent side of Funaki’s body. Smith was hunting for a double-wrist lock (we don’t call them Kimuras here, folks) but would soon move to a north-south position and letting go of the hold, returning to strong side position control. Funaki struggled to create a frame against the larger Smith, but Smith couldn’t settle into any offense either.
Smith stood up after conceding side control and invited Funaki to restart the fight on their feet. Funaki landed a few of his signature kicks to DBS Jr.’s body before Smith caught one of them mid-air. Smith then spun Funaki around and drilled him with a bridging back suplex. Since pinfalls aren’t an option in Bloodsport, Smith released his hold and went in to finish Funaki off with the Sharpshooter, but it was Funaki who would counter the submission attempt and lock in a kneebar of his own to score the victory. The fact that Funaki is 55 and looks and wrestles the way he does is amazing. He doesn’t look too different from how he was 30 years ago.
There was a brief in-ring ceremony between matches that featured guests Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Akira Maeda and Kota Ibushi. Fujiwara accepted an award and the three then posed on the Bloodsport mat together. Fujiwara, 75 years old, will appear on two upcoming shows for Pro Wrestling NOAH and will team with Kaito Kiyomiya & KENOH. A brief intermission followed.
Quinton “Rampage” Jackson defeated Hideki “Shrek” Sekine via TKO
PRIDE & UFC legend, MMA pioneer, Quniton “Rampage” Jackson. If you’re of a certain age and remember Rampage’s unreal PRIDE fights back in the day, you’ll probably feel nostalgic like I am now as I type this. He’s the reason we now see the triangle choke power bomb spot so regularly in today’s pro wrestling. I believe he was the first person to TKO someone with a power bomb. Shrek is a burly grappling specialist and can be seen frequently working for AJPW. Sekine also has MMA experience in the past, just without the same success someone line Rampage Jackson experienced.
Sekine launched Jackson with a back suplex. Moments later, somehow, Sekine was on his back and Jackson landed a hard, flat stomp to the middle of Shrek’s chest.
The finish saw Rampage hammer the barrell-chested Sekine to the mat with a huge bodyslam and followed up with a series of punches and stomps. Shrek wouldn’t give in, but after a relatively long while, the referee did and called it: Rampage Jackson is your winner via TKO after a beating that went on slightly too long—just like an old PRIDE fight would.
Both Rampage and Barnett did special collaboration t-shirts with Baki the Grappler, an animation series that’s on Netflix in the US. He put on his shirt, put his signature silver chain around his neck and then thanked Japan and Josh Barnett for the opportunity. He shared a nice moment with Lenne Hardt at ringside, as well. Two very important pieces of the PRIDE story and to the story of Japanese MMA in general.
Kazushi Sakuraba defeated Santino Marella via submission
It was all business with Santino Marella tonight before his fight against another PRIDE and MMA legend, Kazushi Sakuraba.
Marella has actually competed for Bloodsport in the past, but for those who aren’t aware, Marella has a deep background in judo and is an important figure in the judo community even to this day. He also lived in Japan years ago where he trained with Yuki Ishikawa at the BattlARTS dojo. He sometimes shows up on commentary at big judo events as well, too.
For those who aren’t already aware, Kazushi Sakuraba’s theme song is actually a remix of the Speed 2 theme song. Saku’s a Jason Patric guy. Who knew?
This went to the ground almost immediately. Neither could gain an advantage because each fighter had an answer to the other’s offensive attacks. Marella used a fireman’s carry drop to slam Sakuraba to the mat, where Marella would attempt a few submission attacks from the north-south position before rolling into a kneebar that he couldn’t fully lock.
Marella then used a very tight baseball choke on Sakuraba.Later, Marella locked in another deep submission, a flattened arm triangle with his body fully extended and pressed to the mat, squeezing the blood flow to Saku’s head.
Sakuraba would punch through the choke try sticking Marella in a rear naked choke of his own.
Sakuraba teased the Cobra at Marella while the were stalemated on their feet. Marella would eventually slide himself into an RNC of his own but from a side angle, more against the side of Sakuraba’s body. This wasn’t successful, either.
It was more nonstop back-and-forth on the ground, lots of pummeling for leg locks and arm locks until, finally, in true Snakepit fashion, Saku cinched in his signature double wristlock for the quick tap.
The two hugged afterwards. Sakuraba got on the mic and told the crowd Marella was super strong and that he’d like to deliver more and more fights to the fans. I think this might have been the best of the night so far. I want more Bloodsport Santino Marella.
Minoru Suzuki defeated Timothy Thatcher via TKO
Thatcher has been a regular in Japan for a few years now for Pro Wrestling NOAH. He and Saxon Huxley recently had a run as GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.
About Suzuki: If you’re still reading at this point, I am going to go out on a limb and assume you are pretty familiar with Minoru Suzuki.
These two are integral to Bloodsport. Suzuki had the much-talked about 30-minute draw against Barnett at Barnett’s first edition of Bloodsport. Thatcher was on the same show and defeated J-MMA legend Minowaman.
As they grappled on their feet, Thatcher would fight for a standing double wrist lock, but Suzuki defended against it well. Their struggle would take them to the corner of the ring, and then out onto the floor with Thatcher still locked onto Suzuki at the arm. When Suzuki was out of the hold, he dashed across behind the guardrail and grabbed a chair from the audience. Thatcher went to the opposite side and did the same. They threatened a duel but thought against it, tossed the chairs to the floor and went back inside the ring.
The two had a long, violent battle of European uppercuts and forearm shots until Thatcher used an ankle-pick on Suzuki, taking him to the ground where he’d look for a straight ankle lock submission. Suzuki countered and used the hold on Thatcher before the two rolled back onto the floor again. Suzuki smashed Thatcher’s head into the Japanese commentary desk. Suzuki things.
Suzuki went for the Gotch-style piledriver, but Thatcher was able to counter that into a bow-and-arrow submission. Suzuki got out of that by ripping at Thatcher’s finger joints, wrenching it across the ring post and Suzuki’s own shoulder. This is illegal in Bloodsport and the ref demanded Suzuki break the hold.
They teased a suplex to the floor, but Thatcher was able to lock Suzuki in the modified bow-and-arrow STF but couldn’t finish it. I’m not sure when it happened, but Thatcher suffered a nasty cut or bruise across the left side of his back. It looks like from when he was slammed against a table or guardrail, or ring apron.
The fight got uglier as they traded holds on the ground. Nasty, mean grappling, nothing frilly or unnecessary. Thatcher yanked at Suzuki’s leg in a crab hold.
When Suzuki used an eye gouge, the crowd booed. Again, more classic heeling from Suzuki. Thatcher rallied back with a couple wind-up-uppercuts. Suzuki blasted Thatcher with more elbows that put Thatcher on his ass, then onto the floor.
The traded more shots before Suzuki finally able to spike Thatcher with the Gotch-style piledriver for the TKO win. “Mean” and “violent” are the two key words to use to really understand this match. Good stuff.
Afterwards, Suzuki went over to Kota Ibushi on commentary and challenged him to a match. Ibushi looked ecstatic. We also saw Suzuki and J-MMA legend Yuki Nakai exchange daps before our winner exited to the back.
Bloodsport Bushido Tournament Final Round Match: Hideki Suzuki defeated Erik Hammer
Collar and elbow tieup between the two to start. Hammer took Suzuki’s back but Suzuki easily Granby rolled out of it. The two were quick in their exchanges and upped the pace a bit compared with their earlier fights tonight. It wasn’t entertaining enough for one of the people at the Japanese announcers table, who was completely passed out while in full focus on the hard cam. This was awful. The production team finally noticed and adjusted the fixed cam position so that you couldn’t see the guy anymore. I can’t think of anything more rude to the fighters and the art. This was a horrible look.
Suzuki eventually tapped Hammer out with a toehold and they shook hands afterwards. Suzuki is the Bloodsport Bushido tournament winner.
Jon Moxley (AEW/NJPW) defeated Josh Barnett
This is their second Bloodsport main event. Barnett took the first bout in Florida a few years back. Mox is current IWGP Heavyweight champion and was wearing his NJPW warmup gear on in the opening ceremony.
Sleepy Guy was still sleepy during the main event, but he was more into playing with is phone for this one.
Barnett launched Moxley with a single-arm suplex just after the five-minute mark. He went for a north-south double-wristlock but would later transition to side control in what looked to be a head-and-arm hold with Mox’s own arm wrapped across his own neck and face. Barnett moved to attack the back next and would lock into a twister lock before Mox escaped and mounted Barnett from the top position. Moxley then locked in a head-and-arm choke but couldn’t finish a wriggly Barnett, who’d escape and move to his signature scarf hold, but still, no submission from Moxley.
Moxley has improved a lot at the Bloodsport style wrestling he did here. I really enjoy this version of Mox.
The fight kicked up the tension when it spilled out onto the floor. Barnett drilled Mox with a suplex on the floor. Mox was out on his feet but was able to summon up some burning spirit, shake it off and fight back, back and forth into the ring and out onto the floor onto Barnett. He’d wrap Barnett’s knee around the ringpost and pull on it as the ref started to count.
There sounded to be a number of either foreign fans or a small, loud cadre of Japanese Jon Moxley fans who’d sporadically break out into unfamiliar chants in support of him.
Towards the end of this, Barnett again drilled Mox, this time with a textbook vertical drop brainbuster. He’d then go in for a submission kill, but Mox went for a triangle choke. These two were soaking in sweat with five minutes left in the match, in Tokyo in July, no less.
Barnett would then use an airplane spin on Mox, whipping him headfirst into the steel ring post upon release. It looked really cool. Mox then reappeared in the ring, bloody as damn hell. Oh, Mox and your blood.
The canvas was a beautifully stained mess as the relentless Jon Moxley fought for an armbar as Barnett staved him off. I figured Sleepy Guy would be wide awake for this, but the production crew made sure that he wasn’t visible on screen. Smart.
With one minute to go, Barnett had Mox locked in a Fujiwara armbar, apropos of tonight’s affair. The visual they had in the ring looked amazing.
When the ring announcer made the 30 seconds left call, Barnett hoisted Moxley over his head for a power bomb. Mox tried punching his way out of it, but Barnett eventually smashed him into the mat, but it wasn’t enough and the time limit expired. Early in the show, they explained that overtime would come into play if there was not a winner by the end of certain bouts. So, we quickly moved into overtime.
Overtime: Mox came out of the corner running and caught Barnett with a flying knee that laid Barnett out. Mox was frantic in pace because he needed to finish overtime as soon as possible; he threw a German suplex. Barnett tried locking a single leg crab but Mox escaped. Mox continued landing knees to an exhausted Barnett. Mox spiked Barnett with a Death Rider. He’d follow up with a huge tiger driver, a jumping double stomp to Barnett’s chest, then unloaded strikes on Barnett until the referee called for the bell. Jon Moxley is your winner of this bloodbath.
Mox screamed into the ringside camera afterwards, shouting “I told you! I told you I could beat him! I’m not crazy!”
Barnett went up to Moxley and the two shook hands. Moxley flashed three fingers to imply a possible third match, a rubber match.
Moxley thanked the fans and called them the best fans in the world. “What you saw tonight is professional wrestling in its realest, rawest form. No bullsh**.” He asked the fans if they wanted to bring Bloodsport back to Japan. It was a spirited call to action for “the greatest sport in the goddamn world.” His words.
Final Thoughts: Go out of your way to check out tonight’s main event, which was a bloody good time. And make sure to watch until the end for Moxley’s promo, too. It left me with a good feeling. Hopefully they can bring this back to Japan again in the future.
