February 24, 2021
Nineteen ninety-four and the history of Bushido: The Way Of The Warrior
Though the World Wrestling Federation’s first United Kingdom boom period had flamed out two years earlier, its success had only encouraged television executives to find a similar product that might attract even a fraction of that attention. Nineteen ninety-four was thus a remarkable year to be a pro wrestling fan in the UK, as not only could you catch the WWF on Sky One and Sky Sports, but thanks to BSkyB being on the Astra satellite system, you could easily find WCW on DSF (a German-language station that, critically, was the only way to see WCW pay-per-views on UK television), New Japan Pro Wrestling (as an evergreen programme entitled World Superstars Of Wrestling), and AAA on the Spanish-language Galavision station.
Still, there was perhaps an even more surprising entry to come, with the debut of the UWFI (Union of Wrestling Force International) on Sky Sports in January 1995. A shoot-style group that boldly claimed (read: lied) to be the real thing, the UWFI was most famously home to a trilogy of bouts between lead babyface Nobuhiko Takada and Super Vader (Leon “Big Van Vader” White) from 1993-1995. Their December 5, 1993 encounter, indeed, was so widely anticipated that an alleged 46,000 fans (a number that is likely exaggerated by around 15,000) flocked to Meiji Jingu Stadium in Tokyo for a bout that Takada took via cross armlock (juji gatame) submission.
Though the UWFI’s popularity in Japan declined even more sharply than that of the WWF in the UK (the Takada versus Vader re-match 9 months later, for example, was relegated to the 15-000-seat Budokan Hall) it was felt that the product might translate to international audiences in a longer-lasting way. Behind the worldwide effort was Gene Pelc, a Marvel executive who in 1978 was hired by Stan Lee to make the company a big-time player in Japan. Under the Pelc Productions banner, he spliced UWFI events into 50-minute Bushido: Way Of The Warrior programmes, in various degrees of chronological order, with his son Ted Pelc and Geoff Thompson overdubbing English commentary in the style of an Olympic boxing match.
Gene Pelc produced the UWFI product for TV syndication
Over time, the programme was syndicated throughout the world, but upon production was originally believed to be headed to Channel 4 in the UK, after perennial UWFI mid-carder Yoji Anjo – fresh off a real-life beating from Rickson Gracie in Los Angeles - made one of the most unlikely appearances in morning television history, offering a demonstration of the submissions-and-knockdowns style on The Big Breakfast, of all places.
Despite such a plum advertisement, the show debuted on Sky Sports on January 14, 1995, but went without the benefit of the prestige Takada versus Vader contests, as WCW owned the rights to the latter’s likeness in English-speaking markets. Still, UK television viewers did get their first glimpse of Takada, Gary Albright, Kazuo Yamazaki, Kiyoshi Tamura, and other great grapplers who had made the UWFI such a sensation.
As it happens, the show is still widely available to UK audiences as content on Amazon Prime Video. Interestingly, what Amazon describes as the first episode of “season one” is in fact the 19th Bushido episode, featuring matches from the March 17, 1992 card in Nagoya, with Albright versus Yamazaki topping the bill.
Though it is certainly dated - and arguably was in 1995, given the rise of the Ultimate Fighting Championship - Bushido: Way Of The Warrior remains an entertaining way to spend an hour, whether to witness an entirely different genre of professional wrestling, or simply for nostalgia.
One thing is at least for sure: the joy of mid-’90s wrestling fandom is never coming back in the same way again.
A Little Bit Of Housekeeping
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