 | |
| Acronym | UWFi |
|---|---|
| Founded | May 10, 1991 |
| Defunct | December 27, 1996 |
| Style | Shoot style |
| Headquarters | Japan |
| Founder(s) | Nobuhiko Takada,Kazuo Yamazaki, Yukoh Miyato,Yoji Anjo and others |
| Predecessor | Newborn UWF |
| Successor | Kingdom |
Union of Wrestling Forces International, better known asUWF International,U-Inter, or simplyUWFi, was ashoot styleprofessional wrestling promotion inJapan from 1991 to 1996. The UWF international was the successor to theNewborn UWF that ran from 1988 to 1990, which itself was the successor to the originalUniversal Wrestling Federation.
Although the matches were predetermined, the UWF-i was very convincing for its time, promoting acombat-based style featuring a mix ofwrestling,submission grappling andkickboxing. The promotion also held kickboxing contests and, in rare instances, special shoot matches. In retrospect, UWFi, along with other shoot-style promotions, served as a precursor tomixed martial arts and to popular Japanese MMA promotions, particularlyPride FC. The promotion was also known for hiring dangerous shootersLou Thesz,Billy Robinson andDanny Hodge as trainers and promoters of their product in order to establish legitimate credibility.
The promotion was founded on May 10, 1991, as a continuation of theUWF. The UWF-i featured most of UWF's roster, and was led byNobuhiko Takada, who was the top star and the face of the promotion. Other natives for the promotion includedKazuo Yamazaki,Yoji Anjo,Kiyoshi Tamura, Tatsuo Nakano, Yuko Miyato,Masahito Kakihara and kickboxer Makoto Oe. Vintage shooterBilly Robinson was used as head trainer for their gym (the UWFi Snakepit), and wrestling legendsLou Thesz andDanny Hodge occasionally served as trainers in their pursuit of old-school credibility. 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 antagonistGary Albright. Lou Thesz acted as commissioner and lent his 1950sNWA 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 promotionNew 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), andThe 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-basedWorld 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.
In 1995, Anjo and other UWFi bookers proposed co-promoting withNew Japan Pro-Wrestling, as a potential solution to their financial problems. New Japan bookerRiki Choshu agreed, under the condition that New Japan have full control over the booking of the interpromotional matches. Thesz, who saw New Japan as anothergimmicky 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 UWFi's stars mainly lost the interpromotional matches, with the exception of Takada, who won theIWGP Heavyweight Championship on January 4, 1996. Kiyoshi Tamura had left UWFi before the feud in 1995, to join rival promotion,RINGS.
In 1996, as the New Japan feud died down, UWFi formed an alliance withGenichiro Tenryu'sWAR.
On August 17, 1996, Takada defeatedYoji Anjo at Tokyo'sMeiji-Jingu Stadium. 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'sKorakuen Hall arena. Most of the UWFi roster formedKingdom, which would promote a similar product on a smaller scale. Kingdom would have a presence atUFC Japan: Ultimate Japan in 1997, asYoji Anjo would lose toTank Abbott, whileKazushi Sakuraba won the heavyweight tournament.
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). Similarly, six-man tag team matches occurred, but were rare, with 30 points given to a team at start time.
In 1995, rules were somewhat relaxed to allow pinfalls in order to allow for New Japan, WAR, and other non-submission-oriented wrestlers (such asAbdullah the Butcher) to compete.
In 2017 anAmericanindependent promotion,Paradigm Pro Wrestling, based inJeffersonville, Indiana, revived the rules for its matches.
The championship used the belt used byLou Thesz asNWA World Champion during the 1950s.
| No. | Overall reign number |
|---|---|
| Reign | Reign number for the specific champion |
| Days | Number of days held |
| Defenses | Number of successful defenses |
| No. | Champion | Championship change | Reign statistics | Notes | Ref. | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Event | Location | Reign | Days | Defenses | ||||
| 1 | Nobuhiko Takada | September 21, 1992 | Pro-Wrestling Heavyweight Championship Match | Osaka, Japan | 1 | 696 | 2 | DefeatedGary Albright to become the first champion; Takada and Albright had been chosen as contenders based on their UWFi records (11 wins and no losses for Albright; 10 wins and 1 loss for Takada). | [1] |
| 2 | Super Vader | August 18, 1994 | Pro-Wrestling World Tournament Final 1994 | Tokyo, Japan | 1 | 245 | 1 | This was the final of the Best of the World 1994 tournament. | [1] |
| 3 | Nobuhiko Takada | April 20, 1995 | Pro-Wrestling Heavyweight Championship Match | Nagoya, Japan | 2 | 165 | 0 | [1] | |
| — | Deactivated | October 2, 1995 | — | — | — | — | — | Lou Thesz withdrew his support for the promotion and took the belt with him in protest against a proposed unification match againstIWGP Heavyweight ChampionKeiji Muto. Takada went on to defeat Muto onJanuary 4, 1996, winning the IWGP title. | |
| Rank[A] | Wrestler | No. of reigns | Combined days |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Nobuhiko Takada | 2 | 861 |
| 2 | Super Vader | 1 | 245 |
In 1995,Hudson Soft published avideo game,Saikyō: Takada Nobuhiko (最強～高田延彦～) for theSuper Famicom in Japan. Unlike most wrestling games,Saikyō was a linearfighting 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 made through alterations of their kana or kanji names, such asGary Albright being known asGary Briant.
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