Just to post more on the FujiTV dealings:
the wrestling blog » PRIDE, Fuji TV, and the Yakuza
In what is probably the biggest story in all of MMA or wrestling over the last two years, and quite possibly the biggest story in MMA ever, Fuji TV abruptly canceled PRIDE from their schedule and severed all ties with the company yesterday afternoon, just five days before the Bushido show was set to air. Not only is the future of PRIDE seriously in doubt because of this, but just to show how intertwined MMA and professional wrestling have become, the future of several wrestling companies (Hustle and Zero-One) could also be dramatically changed by this recent upheavel as well.
For those that don’t know, Fuji TV is pretty much the lifeblood of PRIDE. They have an exclusive contract with PRIDE worth hundreds of millions of yen. Conversely, it’s because of this massive TV contract that PRIDE is pretty much able to sign and retain most of the top fighters in the world. Without Fuji TV, not only will PRIDE lose its sole source of exposure in Japan, but it will also lose its primary means of revenue as well. Even if they are able to quickly find a new television home (I’ve heard Tokai TV in Nagoya and Nippon TV mentioned), there is just no way that PRIDE will be able to get a deal as lucrative as their arrangement with Fuji TV.
Fuji TV faxed the media yesterday afternoon to let them know they had dropped PRIDE. While they didn’t specify the reason for the cancellation of one of the most successful television products in Japan, citing only “a breach of contract by Dream Stage Entertainment,” the reason was pretty obvious to anyone who had been following the news:
PRIDE, as well as its parent company Dream Stage Entertainment, is heavily involved with the Japanese mafia (the yakuza).
While PRIDE’s involvement with the yakuza is rumored to extend all the way back to the start of the company, the real story starts to pick up in 2003 with some good old-fashioned extortion.
In December of 2003, Nobuyuki Sakakibara—who is for all intents and purposes not only the boss, but the dictator of PRIDE as well—recieved word that a rival promotion was going to use one of PRIDE’s top draws, Fedor Emelianenko, for their upcoming New Year’s Eve special on Nippon TV.
Three weeks later, on December 21st, 2003, the producer of the upcoming special (Mr. Seiya Kawamata) was cornered in a room at the Akaska Tokyu Hotel. The door was lock behind him, and Sakakibara (PRIDE’s dictator), Mr. I (yakuza boss and true owner of PRIDE), and several other members of the P Gumi crime family “had a little talk” with him about using Fedor at their event.
When it became clear that Fedor was going to work the New Year’s show regardless of threats, Sakakibara showed up at the event with several high-ranking yakuza members and forced the show’s producer (Kawamata) to sign a contract stating that Fedor was the sole property of Dream Stage Entertainment and PRIDE. It was either sign or be killed, so Kawamata signed the contract.
A month later, Kawamata was summoned to the main office of the P Gumi yakuza family. He was told that, because Fedor was the exclusive property of Dream Stage, yet he had chosen to use him anyway, he owed approximately 20 million yen to the P Gumi family. It’s not readily clear whether or not Kawamata paid the yakuza or not.
Everything remained silent on the matter until about four months ago, when several yakuza members were arrested for extortion and kidnapping in relation to the incident. While they were quickly released due to a lack of evidence, police hit gold when they arrested several other high-ranking members of the family several days later. One of the men arrested was the true yakuza owner of PRIDE, Mr. I. Somehow though—this all remains a big mystery—most of these high-ranking yakuza, including Mr. I, escaped and have since completely disappeared.
Kawamata, the producer who the yakuza had extorted, has fled Japan out of fear for his life and gone into hiding overseas. Unfortunately, even there he hasn’t been safe from the yakuza. On April 10th, Kawamata called the police at 2:00 in the morning to report that his secret location had been compromised and that the yakuza were at the door trying to get into his house. The men fled when police arrived, but Kawamata told the officers, “As soon as I became involved in the fight game, I was targeted by the yakuza. How long will I be a target to get hit by the yakuza?””
Shukan Gendai, a tabloid newspaper in Japan, has been bringing these issues to light in recent weeks, and the story has absolutely exploded in Japan. While wrestling is somewhat popular in America, MMA and professional wrestling are societal backbones of Japan. To say this story is huge in Japan is as big of an understatement as you’re going to find.
Furthermore, the story has also raised numerous new questions about the 2003 “suicide” of then PRIDE boss Naoto Mori****a. PRIDE was going through some severe financial difficulties in 2003, and after having dinner with Hiromichi Momose (another PRIDE big-wig), PRIDE boss Naoto Mori****a went up to his hotel room and commit suicide, somehow hanging himself from the shower rail of the Tokyo Hilton suite. He left a wife and small child behind.
Mr. I appointed his right hand man, Mr. Sakakibara, as the new head of PRIDE, and both men quickly began circulating press releases insinuating that Mori****a’s suicide was somehow related to an affair he had been having with a young mistress. According to one source, “It is a common tactic of the yakuza to use sex scandals to explain strange ‘suicides’. It’s a very effective tactic in Japan, and the grieving widow makes less noise when there is a sexual scandal attached.”
Mori****a’s “mistress” disappeared shortly thereafter, and his family never recieved his shares in the company—which have since ended up in yakuza hands.
As the story of PRIDE’s corruption continues to snowball in Japan, Fuji TV (which looks as if it might be implicated in the yakuza scandal as well) made the decision to sever all ties with PRIDE. Although PRIDE recieved a great deal of money from the television station, Fuji TV stands to lose just as much from this situation as PRIDE.
Where this leaves PRIDE, as well as the entire world-wide MMA scene, is dramatically up in the air right now. If PRIDE does die, things are going to get really interesting in Japan. Guys like Fedor and Cro-Cop have infinitely more value in Japan than they do in the United States, and Dana White just isn’t going to reach into his pocket and pay PRIDE fighters what their worth. So what we’re probably looking at, in the event that PRIDE does go under, is the birth of at least two or three new MMA companies in Japan, as well as the possibility of another big name or two jumping to HEROES. And with all of these new revelations coming up, it’s pretty obvious that Sakuraba saw this firestorm coming and got out while he could.
Things are so combustible right now that just about anything could happen. Perhaps the best quote I’ve found comes from a message board, with one user saying, “to me, the sudden collapse of PRIDE is the equivalent of Don King and Bob Arum dying in a plane crash and forgetting to leave wills.”
Anyway, if you’re an MMA fan, or even if you’re not, this is going to be a hell of an interesting story to follow.
*Thanks to Zach Arnold of FightOpinion.com for his translation of all the Shukan Gendai articles. Zach’s been bringing attention to this scandal for a couple of months now, and it looks like he was right on the money.
