I know last time I mentioned talking about the entry of olympic wrestlers into MMA but I realized I needed to talk a little more about the evolution of the sport in Japan first.

And I really need to mention the godfather of Japanese MMA, Antoni Inoki, a protege of Karl Gotch who taught Inoki and other Japanese wrestlers the old style of catch wrestling Wikipedia does a good job of explaining what he was up to in the 1970s:

I can't find any video of the other matches, so here's the fiasco with Ali. [Note: Thanks to BE reader Peter van Rijn, I found this page that includes some video of Inoki's two matches with Judo gold medalist Willam Ruska.They appear to be obviously worked matches.]

Then in the 1980s, several stars of Inoki's New Japan Pro Wrestling split off to form the Universal Wrestling Federation. Here's a little about the UWF from wikipedia:

The original Japanese-based Universal Wrestling Federation (UWF) was a Japanese professional wrestling promotion from 1984 to 1986, formed by wrestlers who had left New Japan Pro Wrestling. It was a pioneer in the shoot-style of pro-wrestling, which emphasized realistic moves. ...

The original roster included Rusher Kimura, Akira Maeda, Ryuma Go, Mach Hayato, and Gran Hamada. Soon, however, they were joined by Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Nobuhiko Takada, Satoru Sayama (the original Tiger Mask) and Kazuo Yamazaki, and this changed the orientation of the UWF's wrestling from the traditional style to a more martial arts oriented style. Maeda, Fujiwara, Takada, Sayama and Yamazaki had been martial artists before joining New Japan Pro Wrestling, and they began incorporating realistic moves, including submission holds and kickboxing-style kicks, which created a new form of wrestling called shoot-style.

In 1984 another former New Japan wrestler, Osamu Kido, who had trained under Karl Gotch, joined the UWF. But just as the promotion fledged, Maeda and Sayama, the top two stars, began bickering with each other over the shoot-style's essence. Maeda wanted to focus the matches on submissions, while Sayama, a former kickboxer, wanted to focus on kicks. This came to a head in a brutal match in late 1985 when Maeda did not pull a kick and instead kicked Sayama hard in the groin, causing a disqualification.

Sayama, embittered with wrestling after this match, left the UWF and was not heard from again in the wrestling world for 11 years.

...
Because clean finishes (as in, submissions or knockouts in the middle of the ring) were used, so the fans could see clear-cut winners and losers, it was more accepted as "real fighting" than New Japan or All Japan, which at the time were still using the American-originated standard of countouts and disqualifications.

Shortly after the death of Japanese Emperor Hirohito in early 1989, Maeda held a meeting with New Japan promoter Antonio Inoki, in which they agreed that Fujiwara, who had remained in New Japan but now wanted out, would be allowed to rejoin UWF and bring two of his disciples, Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki, with him. That year also saw the debut of Kiyoshi Tamura, who is still recognized as one of the eminent shoot-style pro-wrestlers in Japan.

After the UWF broke up and the leading Inoki disciples split off into many camps, several of which ultimately became part of the greater MMA world in the 1990s:

One of the key players in the evolution of Japanese wrestling into MMA that gets overlooked is Yoshiaki Fujiwara, mentor of Pancrase founders Funaki and Suzuki. Here's something interesting I found in his wikipedia entry:

Fujiwara was the first graduate of the New Japan Pro Wrestling dojo (Mr. Pogo was the first debutante in the promotion, but he and Gran Hamada had trained with Tatsumi Fujinami before he and Antonio Inoki left the Japanese Wrestling Association). A former Muay Thai kickboxer, Fujiwara was easily able to absorb and apply the "Strong Style" of professional wrestling taught by Inoki and Karl Gotch. In 1975, this led Fujiwara to win the Karl Gotch Cup (a tournament for rookies named after Karl Gotch and forerunner to the latter Young Lions Cups).

More vids in the extended:

Promo of Yoshiaki Fujiwara's wrestling promo featuring Ken Shamrock, Masakatsu Funaki, and Bart Vale.

Here's a worked match between future RINGS founder Akira Maeda vs and Pancrase founder Masakatsu Funaki

And here's a real freakshow match, a pro-wrestling match from 1986 in which Andre the Giant and Akira Meada fought a work that turned into a shoot, Maeda legkicked the poor giant for 15 minutes. Ouch! Part 1, 2, 3, 4.

Highlights from the Lumax Cup event of 1995, a judo based event with early MMA rules. Keep an eye out for Egan Inoue, Akihiro Gono, Kazunari Murakami (getting KO'd by a kick), and tourny winner Tsuyoshi Kohsaka.

A classic early Pancrase match between Masakatsu Funaki vs Minoru Suzuki

Previous installments of MMA History:

XX: Kazushi Sakuraba and Frank Shamrock Emerge at Ultimate Japan
XIX: The Humbled PRIDE of Nobuhiko Takada
XVIII: The Losses of Luta Livre
XVII: The Lion's Den Roars
XVI: Rico Chiapparelli and the RAW Team
XV: Pancrase, RINGS, and Shooto 1996
XIV: Boom and Bust in Brazil
XIII: Coleman Gets His Kicks
XII: End of the UFC Glory Days
XI: Carlson Gracie's Mighty Camp
X: The Reign of the Wrestlers
IX: Strikers Attack
VIII: From Russia With Leglocks
VII: A New Phase in the UFC
VI: A Dutch Detour
V: The Reign of Royce
IV: Rickson Brings Jiu Jitsu Back to Japan
III: More on Japan
II: The Ur-Brazilian MMA Feud: BJJ vs Luta Livre and the Style They Never Saw Coming
I: UFC 1 Pancrase meets BJJ