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Tatsuya Iwasaki

Tales from the MMA jobber file, #24: This is our last entry for the Pride/K-1 Shockwave/Dynamite 2002 supershow, and it's...really anticlimactic.

Seriously. For all the hype both promotions put into their BIG CROSSOVER SUPERSHOW, the opening match not only was the polar opposite of super, it wasn't even a crossover match. Wanderlei Silva faced Tatsuya Iwasaki, a former karateka--and not even a particularly notable one, as despite fighting in the All-Japan and World Karate Open kyokushin tournaments he never placed any higher than 5th place--and that was in 1991. Eleven years later he was a slightly pudgy 33 year-old with no MMA training facing Wanderlei Silva at the height of his power. It's a quick and terrible massacre, with Iwasaki TKOed in a little over a minute after a barrage of knees, punches and a well-placed soccer kick. It left the MMA world mostly wondering why the fight had been made.

The answer is simple: Because the people running Pride and K-1 were insane and Shockwave/Dynamite was their crazy magnum opus.

To support this, I present the following evidence:

-The show's full, actual name was Dynamite! Biggest Mixed Martial Arts World Cup - Summer Night Fever in the National Stadium
-The show opened with Antonio Inoki and Helio Gracie lighting an Olympic-style torch
-The show was co-hosted and had all interviews conducted by WCW star Bill Goldberg
-The mid-event intermission was ended by Goldberg cutting a promo and Antonio Inoki leaving the arena just so he could parachute back into it
-Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira faced Bob Sapp at a 100-pound weight disadvantage
-Co-main event Royce Gracie vs Hidehiko Yoshida ended in either the biggest ref screw-up in MMA history or a real-life Montreal Screwjob

And once again, because it bears repeating:

-The show opened with Wanderlei Silva, the baddest man on the planet, fighting a man whose only MMA or kickboxing experience was a three-minute sparring exhibition with Sanae Kikuta.

It was supposed to lead to an annual tradition of co-promoted Shockwave/Dynamite events, but the two organizations fell out of cooperation quickly, leading to separate Pride Shockwave and K-1 Dynamite events taking place concurrently as competing new year's eve specials for the rest of each promotion's existence. Each would individually do crazier things than the 2002 supershow--but for one brief, shining moment, all the insanity was contained in one building, and it was glorious.

And terrible. Really pretty terrible. But glorious.

Moveset, stats, logic and four attires (Shockwave 2002 vs Wanderlei / same outfit with UFC gloves because there's only so much I had to work with don't judge me / Pancrase 2002 exhibition vs Kikuta / Kyokushin '91 championships vs Stanislavovich).