Fight to Survive!!
The newest edition of Timothy Thatcher’s FIGHT column
Timothy Thatcher is a professional wrestler who has been perfecting the craft for the past two decades. The current Foreman of EVOVLE, Thatcher has wrestled in NXT, AEW, NOAH, wXw, and practically everywhere else you can imagine. His intense, authentic style adds a legitimacy to pro wrestling, and he brings that hard-hitting style to Undisputed every month with a new column.
PUNCHING FRUSTRATION
I’m taking hold of every moment
Given strength by the breath of life
I’m gonna stake my claim
I fight to survive
- “Fight to Survive” theme to Bloodsport, lyrics by Paul Hertzog
As silly as those lyrics are, they do relate to carving out our own spot in this pro wrestling ride. Especially when trying to represent a time and ideas that seem farther and farther away everyday.
Bloodsport the movie starring Jean-Claude Van Damme is very pro wrestling. Based on the “true” story of Frank Dux winning an underground fighting tournament.
In real life, Frank Dux convinced enough people that this is what really happened when he had actually made it all up. A fake martial artist who conned people with his story. Legend has it that he went with a reporter to the edge of the woods. He told him that was as far as he could take him but would return in a few days time. Frank would emerge from the woods days later carrying a trophy from his victory. Never mind that it was the size of the duffle bag he had taken with him and that he no longer had it.
The Bloodsport tournament in the 1988 movie is very much an independent show. There is no sense of order to the tournament. A lot of techniques that are done by the fighters don’t work in their situation. The main event has a gimmick that doesn’t add to the match at all. Only two competitors were in good physical shape. A “prestigious” event but only 37 people in the audience so whoever put on the event couldn’t have made any money. This isn’t an attack. I have been a part of the independents my whole pro wrestling adventure, and it is rough out there sometimes.
In 2018, Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) put on Matt Riddle’s Bloodsport during Wrestlemania week. After the success of Joey Janela’s Spring Break it seemed like an interesting concept to put on shows that were themed after certain wrestlers. Bloodsport matches would have the ropes taken off the ring and fights would end only by knock out or submission. That was all the instruction the competitors got. Matt competed for the UFC, and he fought Dan “The Beast” Severn at Joey Janela’s Spring Break the previous year in a match that would have fit into the Bloodsport theme. Matt is a laid back fella so probably a “whatever bro” was the answer to a lot of the more specific questions involving how he saw the event going.
This event ended up sharing the atmosphere of the 1988 movie. By the time next year’s WrestleMania week occurred, Matt was working for WWE so someone else’s name had to go on the event. Thankfully someone suggested Josh Barnett.
GCW contacted Mr. Barnett about adding his name to the event.
“If it has my name on it, it needs to be a certain standard,” said Mr. Barnett.
Being the youngest UFC Heavyweight Champion ever, a Top 10 Heavyweight in mixed martial arts for probably 20 years and long stints of working for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) and Inoki Genome Federation (IGF), Mr. Barnett had a vision for how Bloodsport should be.
“It had to be its own thing,” said Mr. Barnett. “It can’t ape off anything else.”
Barnett did so with a specific rule set that was announced before every event. He picked who he felt were the right people for the job.
“Not everyone can do it,” said Shayna Baszler, who has had an extensive fight and WWE career–even participating in Bloodsport events while under WWE contract and as an independent, most recently against Nattie Neidhart at Bloodsport XV during this year’s WrestleMania week. “It takes a very specific skill and mind set to be in Bloodsport.”
Bloodsport is straight forward professional wrestling. We are not sports entertainers but we will entertain with our sport. It is in the vein of the history of pro wrestling.
“I enjoy it because it is back to where wrestling came from,” said Ms. Baszler. “Where competition was the focus.”
It is a place that showcased Ms. Baszler’s skills and talents. When she was a part of WWE, the focus was entertainment. In the Bloodsport environment, she showed how dangerous she can be.
Ms. Baszler is a student of Mr. Barnett for fighting and pro wrestling. She follows his teaching and the lineage of his teachers such as Billy Robinson and Karl Gotch. Proficient pro wrestlers that also knew the skills and techniques to seriously hurt people. It is about credibility. Mr. Barnett also was under the guidance of the founder of NJPW, Antonio Inoki.
“I had a match in the Green Dome against Scott Norton for New Japan,” said Mr. Barnett. “Mr. Inoki invited me to his private room in the arena. That had never happened before. It was during that discussion he broke down his whole philosophy on pro wrestling. I’ve been an Inoki guy ever since.”
When Mr. Inoki left NJPW in 2005, Mr. Barnett went with him. IGF was formed in 2007 continuing Mr. Inoki’s view of straight forward style pro wrestling.
“There needs to be a barrier between the fans and what happens in the ring,” said Mr. Barnett. “There has to be some mystery.”
Japanese pro wrestling and Mr. Inoki’s wrestling especially put an emphasis on how important that is. In keeping with that idea, it was in New Japan in 1987 that Akira Maeda kicked Riki Choshu in the face, breaking his orbital bone. This would lead to Maeda and others leaving New Japan to form the Newborn Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF).
This incident is what Maeda used to “prove” that UWF was stronger and “realer” than NJPW. UWF held their matches with knock out or submission as the way to win. They would showcase more proper techniques that would be used in mixed martial arts instead of “show” moves that were commonly used in other Japanese pro wrestling companies.
The company became so popular that in 1989 it was the first Japanese organization to sell 60,000 tickets in the Tokyo Dome. The popularity of the group–which was only in existence from 1988-1990–led to many other “shoot” organizations in Japan like Union of Wrestling Forces International (UWFi), Fighting Network RINGS, and Pro Wrestling Fujiwara Gumi (PWFG). This style is a contributing factor to Bloodsport, but is not the blue print. As Mr. Barnett said, it had to be its own thing.
Everything is time and place specific. It has to be a product of the current environment. There were no giant financial backers for Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport. But thankfully GCW gave it a platform. Being a part of The Collective of independent shows during Wrestlemania week gave it an audience. The events provided something very different to the crowded wrestling scene every week around WrestleMania.
Since GCW gave their backing and Mr. Barnett’s name was on the event, the audience gave it a chance. What is expected by an audience of pro wrestling of all levels is very different from Japan in the late 80s-early 90s. It is very different from how pro wrestling was viewed in its beginning days. But Bloodsport found an audience. So much so that WWE and AEW contracted wrestlers wanted to be a part of the event.
“I didn’t have to break anyone’s back to get them on the show,” said Mr. Barnett. “No one was forced. They all asked to be there.”
WWE saw the value and allowed their talents to participate, drawing more eyes to the unique event. That was due to the trust they had in Mr. Barnett.
I was very lucky to have met Mr. Barnett in 2012. Myself, JR Kratos, and Jeff Cobb drove overnight from Northern California down to Fullerton to attend a seminar that Mr. Barnett was running on catch-as-catch-can techniques. At the end when we went to shake his hand and say thank you, Mr. Barnett eye-balled us. “You are all pro wrestlers, aren’t you? You should have told me, we could do things that relate to what you do in the ring!” Barnett’s passion for pro wrestling was immediately shining through.
