Directed by Shuji Goto, Kings of the Square Ring comes from a curious time in the time of pro wrestling, martial arts and what would someday be known as mixed martial arts.
This film shows nearly every style that was known in the late 1970s when it was filmed. You get to see kickboxer Benny "The Jet" Urquidez fighting Takeshi Naito, sumo Takamiyama and Muay Thai expert Toshio Fujiwara - the first Japanese person to win a title in that style - against Monsavan Lukchiangmai and Seepree Kiatsompop. Plus, you get boxing, as Paul Fuji fights Abdul Bey.
The majority of the film is devoted to New Japan Pro Wrestling and its star Antonio Inoki. It first shows the fight he had with Muhammad Ali - a match that everyone thought was fake but was more real than either man wanted it to be - as well as a fight with Everett "Monster Man" Eddy, who was in Disco Godfather and did stints for Petey Wheatstraw. There's even training footage of Willy Williams, who was one of Inoki's most famous challengers, a man who fought bears and trained in a waterfall like a real person who had come straight out of a Street Fighter video game.
Beyond the intense Karl Gotch-taught training in the New Japan dojo, the film also shows Inoki battle Bob Backlund, Andre the Giant and Tiger Jeet Singh, as well as a match between Willem Ruska and Buffalo Allen, who would later become Bad News Brown in the WWF.
This reminds me of Fist of Fear, Touch of Death, another 1980 documentary on the mysterious world of martial arts. It had to make Inoki happy that his obviously not real world of real martial artists and fighters coming to Japan to challenge him would be treated as fact by an actual movie.
What remains is a true document for fans of this era and the opportunity to see matches and people you may have only seen in magazines, read about or seen clips of.
This film shows nearly every style that was known in the late 1970s when it was filmed. You get to see kickboxer Benny "The Jet" Urquidez fighting Takeshi Naito, sumo Takamiyama and Muay Thai expert Toshio Fujiwara - the first Japanese person to win a title in that style - against Monsavan Lukchiangmai and Seepree Kiatsompop. Plus, you get boxing, as Paul Fuji fights Abdul Bey.
The majority of the film is devoted to New Japan Pro Wrestling and its star Antonio Inoki. It first shows the fight he had with Muhammad Ali - a match that everyone thought was fake but was more real than either man wanted it to be - as well as a fight with Everett "Monster Man" Eddy, who was in Disco Godfather and did stints for Petey Wheatstraw. There's even training footage of Willy Williams, who was one of Inoki's most famous challengers, a man who fought bears and trained in a waterfall like a real person who had come straight out of a Street Fighter video game.
Beyond the intense Karl Gotch-taught training in the New Japan dojo, the film also shows Inoki battle Bob Backlund, Andre the Giant and Tiger Jeet Singh, as well as a match between Willem Ruska and Buffalo Allen, who would later become Bad News Brown in the WWF.
This reminds me of Fist of Fear, Touch of Death, another 1980 documentary on the mysterious world of martial arts. It had to make Inoki happy that his obviously not real world of real martial artists and fighters coming to Japan to challenge him would be treated as fact by an actual movie.
What remains is a true document for fans of this era and the opportunity to see matches and people you may have only seen in magazines, read about or seen clips of.
