New Ken Shamrock Interview

Welcome to our Community
Wanting to join the rest of our members? Feel free to Sign Up today.
Sign up
William C

William C

Active Member
Sep 6, 2015
131
167


Hey Guys-

I did another interview concerning the beginnings of MMA (in this latest incarnation of the sport).
This is (another) Ken Shamrock interview, this time a two parter.
First part is up, next part should be up tomorrow:

Origins of Combat: The (follow up) Ken Shamrock Interview, Part 1

Part two has some great stuff on behind the scenes of newborn U.W.F., PWF-Gumi, Pancrase, some talk on worked matches, and some interesting Bart Vale references.

My next interview after this current one I'm gonna give to this forum- that one covers the Australian fighters that were prevalent in Pancrase in 1994 to 1995. We learn about how they entered the company and what the experience was like on their end (through one of their two head coaches).

Bill
 
Last edited by a moderator:
crowbar

crowbar

First 200
Jan 27, 2015
8,432
8,187
All good stuff.Interesting how Ken avoids talking about some parts by saying that he won`t get into that.

Bill was there some questions that you knew the answers too that Ken wouldn`t talk about?

*Don`t worry I won`t ask which questions were they.
 
William C

William C

Active Member
Sep 6, 2015
131
167
crowbar said:
All good stuff.Interesting how Ken avoids talking about some parts by saying that he won`t get into that.

Bill was there some questions that you knew the answers too that Ken wouldn`t talk about?

*Don`t worry I won`t ask which questions were they.
Click to expand...
Yeah, between both of my interviews with him, there was definitely stuff that I felt he had info on but wouldn't talk about (at least bluntly). Stuff having to do with other fighter's careers, or certain organizations. But almost every fighter was holding back some stuff- that's only normal. Some things Ken said, he would give answers- but you would need to read between the lines. Which is fine, as it goes with that era I'm researching.
 
William C

William C

Active Member
Sep 6, 2015
131
167
Kneeblock said:
William C @William C please tell me you're going to profile Gregory Smit and Larry Papodopoulos?
Click to expand...
Chris De Weaver. I would love to interview those two also though- especially Greg.

Greg was IIRC the first Australian to enter Pancrase, and he trained with Gotch. He wasn't associated with the other Australians, although they did share techniques.

Larry and Chris owned a security company and were basically the team leaders of all the other Australians who entered Pancrase back then. Chris was at every practice and gives the lowdown on everything, including his Pancrase rules fight with Minoru Suzuki that was held in a co-promotional show outside of Pancrase.
 
crowbar

crowbar

First 200
Jan 27, 2015
8,432
8,187
I wonder if Ken was managed by the late Phyllis Lee?

I know that she had some power with the organization concerning American fighters such as Marquardt.
 
crowbar

crowbar

First 200
Jan 27, 2015
8,432
8,187
I have a feeling that Ken respected the Nasty Boys & while at the airport he didn`t want to catch another beatdown from both of the Nasty Boys again.I don`t think that fear of being arrested would have stopped him.
 
kneeblock

kneeblock

Drapetomaniac
Apr 18, 2015
12,435
23,026
William C said:
Chris De Weaver. I would love to interview those two also though- especially Greg.

Greg was IIRC the first Australian to enter Pancrase, and he trained with Gotch. He wasn't associated with the other Australians, although they did share techniques.

Larry and Chris owned a security company and were basically the team leaders of all the other Australians who entered Pancrase back then. Chris was at every practice and gives the lowdown on everything, including his Pancrase rules fight with Minoru Suzuki that was held in a co-promotional show outside of Pancrase.
Click to expand...
Greg was kind of like the Brooklyn Brawler of Pancrase. He, Vernon White and Katsuomi Inagaki seemed to be the perennial losers in the promotion and sometimes got beaten up badly. I'd be fascinated to know how many of these 3 guys fights were legit versus put overs. They were either really bad or working for the check.

This is a great bit of interviewing William C @William C but that's no surprise. We've been talking Pancrase and Ken for years so I know you know all your stuff well enough to do a great job. Keep up the great work!
 
William C

William C

Active Member
Sep 6, 2015
131
167
crowbar said:
I wonder if Ken was managed by the late Phyllis Lee?

I know that she had some power with the organization concerning American fighters such as Marquardt.
Click to expand...
I strongly doubt she had anything to do with managing Ken.
Ken was managed by his dad, if anybody. Her name never came up as being involved with him anywhere I've seen.
Don't forget Ken was already a valuable quantity at the end of U.W.F.
IIRC (it's in my first Ken interview from a couple years ago) in 1991 Soranaka gave Ken 30K cash up front to wrestle through that year for PWFG.
Then when PWFG was done and Pancrase started, Ken had more clout and was involved a bit with the show behind the scenes.
There was never a need for her in his case (or his Lion's Den fighters).
 
William C

William C

Active Member
Sep 6, 2015
131
167
Kneeblock said:
Greg was kind of like the Brooklyn Brawler of Pancrase. He, Vernon White and Katsuomi Inagaki seemed to be the perennial losers in the promotion and sometimes got beaten up badly. I'd be fascinated to know how many of these 3 guys fights were legit versus put overs. They were either really bad or working for the check.

This is a great bit of interviewing William C @William C but that's no surprise. We've been talking Pancrase and Ken for years so I know you know all your stuff well enough to do a great job. Keep up the great work!
Click to expand...
Hey thanks man! More good stuff coming (lots of it).
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom