The dust has settled following Shooto's star-studded final 20th Anniversary celebration and it appears the show was a success on all fronts: there were some great scraps, tickets to Tokyo's JCB Hall were sold out well in advance, and the event drew the attention of a number of hardcore MMA fans and journalists who don't normally follow the organization.

So, what does the world's longest-running MMA promotion do for an encore? How about reviving its dormant "Vale Tudo Japan" series, which once hosted the likes of Rickson Gracie, Frank Shamrock, Dan Severn and Enson Inoue? No further details have been set, but "Vale Tudo Japan 2009" was announced for "autumn" in the ring at Sunday's show, and an ad was featured during the Samurai TV broadcast.

Nightmare Of Battle pointed out another potential big deal which I missed:

SENGOKU’s big sponsor Don Quijote was on the ring posts at the Shooto event this past weekend. It seems like the relationship between WVR and Shooto promoter Sustain might start to take off. Could Vale Tudo Japan be something that they are working on? If I remember correctly the VTJ 2009 rumor started around the same time that WVR and Sustain announced their relationship.

- Speaking of Samurai TV, the Japanese satellite network has begun airing a new series called Shooto Legend to celebrate 20 years of shooters. Each hour-long episode focuses on the Shooto career of one fighter; the first installment was Hayato "Mach" Sakurai, and the second is Caol Uno. Both are highly recommended if you can get your hands on them, as they feature tons of rare mid-90s footage. An episode dedicated to Takanori Gomi is said to be next up.

- During Sunday's show, Shooto announced an event for July 19th (the day before DREAM.10) which will feature bantamweight champ "BJ" Kojima (10-3-5) defending his title against an opponent to be named, plus what's sure to be a fantastic featherweight title bout between champion Masakatsu Ueda (9-0-2) and #1 ranked Brazilian Eduardo "Dudu" Dantas (7-1). Also announced for the show: Masaaki Sugawara (7-3-1) vs. Yasuhiro Agaki (6-4) in a bantamweight bout, and fan favorite flyweight "ATCH Anarchy" (6-4-2) vs. #3-ranked "Heat" Takeshi Sato (8-6-1).

- Still more Shooto announcements: the "Shooting Disco 9" show on June 6 will be headlined by a flyweight bout between #2 "Shinpei" Tahara (5-3-1) and #4 Shinya Murofushi (5-1-1). The two were involved in a rankings shake-up last month when then-#2 Murofushi suffered his first loss to "Heat" Takeshi, and Tahara took Murofushi's spot. Also, after a disappointing Sengoku debut, Shintaro Ishiwatari (6-2-3) will return to Shooto against roots product Taiki Tsuchiya (3-2).

- DEEP boss Shigeru Saeki called the final "Shooto Denshou" card "truly splendid" on his promotion's blog, and said that DEEP will probably do a similar show for its 10th Anniversary next year.

- The DEEP middleweight title rematch between champion Yuichi Nakanishi (9-8-3) and Riki Fukuda (14-4) has been officially announced for DEEP 42nd Impact on June 30th at Korakuen Hall. No other bouts have been scheduled, but the following participants were announced:

Ryuta Sakurai (18-15-4; R-Blood), Takeshi Yamazaki (14-9-2; GRABAKA), Hiromitsu Kanehara (17-22-1; UKR), Toshikazu "Ise" Iseno (6-5-2; PUREBRED Omiya), Kazuhisa Tazawa (4-0-1; Thug Life), Yusaku "99" Tsukumo (6-3; Tiger Place), Shigetoshi Iwase (7-11-3; T-Blood), Tomoya Miyashita (10-5-5; Power Of Dream), RYOTA (0-3; Kingdom Ehrgeiz), Hiryu Okamoto (3-1-1; Mach Dojo)

- June 28th will see DEEP's first major show in Toyama prefecture: "DEEP TOYAMA IMPACT" was announced during a press conference today. Women's lightweight champ Miku Matsumoto (20-4) will attempt to defend her title and wipe the last unavenged loss off her record when she faces American Lisa Ward (12-4), who subbed Miku in Smackgirl back in 2006.

The rest of the card so far:

Yoshiro "Barbaro44" Tomioka (12-7-4) vs. Takafumi Ito (34-28-10)
Takahiro Kajita (9-9-3) vs. Yuya "Jacare" Osugi (4-3-1)
Yuichi Ikari (10-6-3) vs. Takaaki Aoki (4-4)
Kenji Arai (13-13-3) vs. Kunihiro Watanabe (4-3)

"Lion" Takeshi Inoue (16-3) def. Rumina Sato (24-14-2) via TKO (Punches) at 4:41 of Round 1
Takanori Gomi (30-5) def. Takashi Nakakura (11-3-1) via TKO (Punches) at 4:42 of Round 2
Willamy Chiquerim (13-1) def. Yusuke Endo (12-3-2) via Submission (Guillotine Choke) at 5:00 of Round 1
Mizuto Hirota (11-3-1) def. Mitsuhiro Ishida (18-5-1) via TKO (Punches) at 1:33 of Round 1
Kenichiro Togashi (9-6-5) def. Tetsuji Kato (19-9) via Majority Decision (30-28, 29-29, 29-28)
Kotetsu Boku (14-5-2) def. Yutaka Ueda (6-2-1) via TKO (Punches) at 4:56 of Round 1
"Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura (10-4-1) def. Takumi Ota (4-3-1) via Unanimous Decision (20-18, 20-18, 20-17)
Megumi Fujii (17-0) def. Choi Em Bun (0-1) via Submission (Arm Lock) at 0:52 of Round 1
Takesuke Kume (4-1-2) vs. Bo Kyung Sol (2-2) - canceled due to Sol not making weight

Notes

- During one intermission, the ring was filled with about 40 Shooto veterans and champions for a 20th Anniversary commemoration ceremony. Fighters included "KID" Yamamoto, Kenji Kawaguchi, Tatsuya Kawajiri, Ensen Inoue, Shinya Aoki, Hideki Kadowaki, Masakatsu Ueda, Hayato Sakurai, Miku Matsumoto, Takuya Wada, and lots of others. Akitoshi Tamura said that although he is in WEC now, he always carries the pride of Shooto in his heart, and that he'd like to fight for Shooto again "once upon a time."

- Mizuto Hirota cracked Mitsuhiro Ishida with a big right hand up the middle which flash KO'd the "Endless Fighter" and sent him backward into a ring post. As he leaned forward to shoot, Ishida ate more punches from Hirota, and the ref stepped in to call a halt to the action. Ishida stormed out of the ring and appeared to disagree with the stoppage, but the replay showed it was justified.

- Shooto Brazil lightweight champ "Chiquerinho" warded off Yusuke Endo's attacks on the feet and escaped a leglock attempt, eventually snaring Endo in a tight full guard guillotine for the final 20-30 seconds of the round. Chiquerim elicited a tap just as the bell rang to end the opening frame.

- In their co-main event bout, Takashi Nakakura and Takanori Gomi slugged it out in the first round, with Gomi landing the bigger shots, along with some punishing body blows. Gomi's hand speed looked good again in the second, often beating a tentative Nakakura to the punch with right hooks and overhand lefts. Gomi finally detonated Nakakura with a three-punch combo which sent the Shooto champ sprawling through the ropes, where the former PRIDE ace unloaded with more punches until the ref had seen enough. After the fight, as promised, Nakakura laid his belt on the mat in front of the judges.

- Rumina Sato got inside and beat up on Takeshi Inoue early, even attempting some flashy spinning backfists and axe kicks, but it was all "Lion" in the end as the champion recovered from a scary knockdown and blasted the "Moon Wolf" en route to a TKO victory. Sato - whose left leg was taped up to the knee - left the ring without speaking, but one has to think the end is near for the 35-year-old, who has now lost six of his last seven.

UPDATED: Forgot to mention that during the Samurai TV broadcast, there was a commercial for "Vale Tudo Japan 2009." Shooto hasn't held a VTJ event since 1999.

Videos after the jump.

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Shooto's last 20th Anniversary event - one of the best shows of the year which nobody will get to see - kicks off in Tokyo in just a few hours. Here are results from yesterday's weigh-ins via Sportsnavi; undercard fighter Bo Kyung Sol was listed as "absent."

"Lion" Takeshi Inoue (65kg) vs. Rumina Sato (65kg)
Takanori Gomi (69.9kg) vs. Takashi Nakakura (70kg)
Yusuke Endo (69.9kg) vs. Willamy Chiquerim (70kg)
Mitsuhiro Ishida (69.9kg) vs. Mizuto Hirota (70kg)
Kenichiro Togashi (69.7kg) vs. Tetsuji Kato (69.8kg)
Kotetsu Boku (70kg) vs. Yutaka Ueda (69.9kg)
"Wicky" Akiyo Nishiura (65kg) vs. Takumi Ota (64.8kg)
Megumi Fujii (52kg) vs. Choi Em Bun (51.8kg)
Bo Kyung Sol (n/a) vs. Takesuke Kume (77.6kg)

The returning "Fireball Kid" told reporters at the weigh-ins that he feels good and "tomorrow will be a good day," while his opponent Nakakura said he would relinquish his welterweight title if he lost to Gomi, even though it is officially a non-title fight.

To ease the pain of not being able to watch this stacked card, check out Jordan Breen's excellent two-parter "A Blood Called Shooto" (Part 1 & Part 2) over at Sherdog.

Gomi vs. Nakakura

"Lion" Takeshi vs. Sato
photos via GBRing

This is the first in what will hopefully be a regular series here on Bloody Elbow, a place to gather up the myriad notes and bout announcements from the Japanese scene every few days (or weekly, as the news dictates). I hope you dig, and feel free to let me know about anything I may have overlooked.

- DREAM may have found its ratings savior, and it's... a boxer? According to Nightmare of Battle, WBC Flyweight Champion Daisuke Naito (34-2-3) will defend his title in China against Xiong Zhao Zhong (12-1-1) on May 26th, and the fight will be broadcast on TBS as a lead-in to the live DREAM show. Last time DREAM had a live show on TBS (September's DREAM.6), they pulled a 9% rating. The ratings for Naito's last four bouts? 40.9%, 26.3%, 18.3% and 25.6%.

- Popular 6-foot tall JEWELS fighter / ex-dominatrix Yuko "HIROKO" Yamanaka (6-1) will face the Josh Barnett-trained Shannon Hooper (0-2) in an openweight bout at the promotion's "3rd Ring" show on May 16th. I've yet to see any tape on "HIROKO," but from what I hear, I wouldn't be surprised if Strikeforce was offering her a bundle of money this time next year. Prized prospect Shizuka Sugiyama (2-0) will also be in action, facing a member of Joachim Hansen's Team Hellboy named Celina.

- Pancrase added three fights to its June 7th card, which features the return of Sengoku lightweight champ Satoru Kitaoka. The first ever Flyweight King of Pancrase will be crowned in a bout between Mitsuhisa Sunabe (8-5-3) and Takuya Eizumi (5-1), the company's #1 and #2 ranked 127-pounders respectively. In a match-up of recent "King Mo" victims, Light Heavyweight King of Pancrase Ryo Kawamura (9-4-2) will face fellow Sengoku vet Yukiya Naito (15-5-2) in a non-title bout. Meanwhile, Seiya Kawahara (6-2) moves back to bantamweight following his Sengoku Featherweight GP opening round loss to Nick Denis; he'll square off against Tatsuya So (3-2-1)

- The "Olympic Combination" of wrestler Katsuhiko Nagata (4-5-1) and Kazuyuki Miyata (6-7) will join forces for a 15-minute tag team grappling match at ZST 20 on May 24th. They'll face "Team ZST" - "Super High School Student" Tetsuya Yamada (3-1) and Masayuki Okude (5-6-5)

- Megumi Fujii (16-0) has a new opponent for Shooto's massive May 10th show. Japan-MMA had originally reported that "Mega Megu" would face an unknown Korean fighter named Kim Don Hee, but now says that Hee is injured and has been replaced by Chu Won Bun, an MMA debutante with a 10-3 Muay Thai record.

- Yusuke Masuda (2-5-2) has officially been announced as Riki Fukuda's replacement in the 84kg weight class on Team Japan for Wedneday's DEEP/M-1 Challenge card. He'll face Team England's Matt "12 Gauge" Thorpe (10-7), who hasn't fought since last July, when he was submitted in under a minute by Team Hellboy prospect Simeon Thoresen.

- In his latest blog, Shinya Aoki says he's excited to watch the 2009 All Japan Judo Championships, which start this week (the Golden Week holiday) in Tokyo. He was unable to attend last year because of his rematch with "JZ" Cavalcante. He also takes (mock) offense at statements made by DEEP boss Shigeru Saeki that tickets are selling fast to the DEEP/M-1 Challenge show because of Fedor Emelianenko's appearance (and not Aoki's).