[RINGS] Final card on 2002/02/15 in Yokohama

[Hisaharu Tanabe]

Akira Maeda's RINGS organization will have its final card on 2002/02/15 at Yokohama Culture Gym.
The promotion has been losing its main stars. Japanese have been jumping to pro-wrestlig organizations, and top foreign stars have jumped to PRIDE.
Also, promotion's contract with a satellite network WOWOW will expire in next March and not be renewed.

RINGS, which started in 1991/05, was a pioneer of the mixed-martial arts competitions.

[Great Mollos]

**** shame. RINGS was a great promotion.

The King of Kings Tournaments were really great. The only good that can come out of this is that PRIDE can pick up some good native talent (TK, Kanehara, etc.)

[ElGringo]

I predict that PRIDE will suck a lot od RINGS figters up, and that the same thing may happen to Pancrease. Allthough, it could also come to pass that a lot of Pancrease guys end up in New Japan because of the current surge of Inokism. Pancrese fighters are shoot draws, but their style is easier to slot into pro-wrestliling than that of your typical PRIDE fighter, so they are perfect for Inoki booked shows.