Welcome to UWF-Bushido.com, your exclusive source home for "Bushido - The Way Of The Warrior"!

The UWFi, a shoot-style professional wrestling promotion, was founded on May 11, 1991 in Japan and ended in 1996. Active years before the UFC and Pride, "Bushido - The Way Of The Warrior" is the seventy-five episode English-language documentary made to give a glimpse at the combat athletes from around the globe competing in the brutal Union of Wrestling Forces International organization in Japan (aka UWF International, the U-Inter or simply UWFi).

The rules for the fights in the UWFi were simple:

Competitors being with 15 points a piece. Points are deducted for 1) knockout attempts 2) for how long they in a disadvantageous hold 3) or for breaking a hold by grabbing the ring ropes with their hands or feet.

Tag team matches would be held as well, however with 21 points given to a team at start time instead.

However, point wins were rare since the wrestlers, despite how far behind on points, could still win by simply submitting their opponent (in a tag match, the legal opponent) or knocking them out cold.

While many matches were "worked" (i.e. predetermined), due to the harsh, hard-hitting, realistic style it is often extremely difficult to tell precisely which ones. In fact, many have convincingly argued that the shoot-style pro-wrestling of the UWFi served as the precursor to the popular MMA promotions of today, especially the PRIDE Fighting Championships.

"Bushido - The Way Of The Warrior" documents the battle for the UWFi's first championship, the real "Pro-Wrestling World Heavyweight Title", began between Takada and the top foriegner of the era, Gary Albright. Lou Thesz acted as commissioner and gave his old 1950s NWA World title belt to be used as the distinction. They also employed vintage shooter Billy Robinson as a trainer in their gym (the UWFi Snakepit), and occasionally jr. heavyweight legend Danny Hodge as a judge.

Realism was crucial to the smashing success of the UWFi. In fact, Thesz and Takada offered legitimate challenges to other Japanese Pro Wrestling promotions (like New Japan Pro Wrestling). Takada took on genuinely tough men such as Russian wrestler (and former IWGP Heavyweight Champion) Salman Hasimikov, and fought former WBC Heavyweight Champion Trevor Berbick (in one of the most bizarre shoots in modern history. It really has to be seen to be believed).

With nearly 60 hours of fight programming, UWF-Bushido is proud to set the Mixed Martial Art history books straight. The legitimacy of the matches in "Bushido: The Way of the Warrior" allowed for genuine crossover appeal between pro-wrestling and MMA fans, and furthermore provided an impetus for PRIDE's early events in the form of its roster. PRIDE's successes , such as Sakuraba (who became one of Japan's most popular fighters), would perhaps not have been possible had it not been for the interest generated by Takada's name value and his fights against Rickson Gracie.

The torch of "real pro-wrestling" had been passed to Sakuraba, who was to compete (and win) in Pride. Essentially, UWFi's shoot-style had been superseded by the legitimate fighting of PRIDE, and the new generation of "real" pro-wrestling.

UWF Roster Japanese: Nobuhiko Takada, Hiromitsu Kanehara, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kazuo Yamazaki, Naoki Sano, Yoshihiro Takayama, Koji Kitao, Masahito Kakihara, Yoji Anjo, Tatsuo Nakano, Kenichi Yamamoto, Yuko Miyato, Masakazu Maeda, Kiyoshi Tamura, Makoto Oe (kickboxer)

"Foreigners": Gary Albright, Dan Severn, Mark Fleming, Victor Zangiev, Salman Hasimikov, Vladimir Berkovitch, Iron Sheik, Bob Backlund, Gene Lydick, JT Southern, James Stone, Bad News Allen, Tom Burton, Steve Nelson, Mark Silver, Billy (Jack) Scott, Dennis Koslowski, Tommy Cairo, Steve Cox, Greg Bobchuck, Pez Whatley, Jim Boss, Matthew Saad Muhammad, Bowy Chowaikun (kickboxer), Danny Steel (kickboxer)