What is the best Pride DVD available?

[Guest Deebo]

I am just starting to get back into MMA (I used to watch UFC a lot when it was first starting out but then stopped). I have never seen a Pride show in my entire life but always see DVD's of it at the mall, so I was wondering what you all think is the best Pride show out there right now that would really get me into the company?

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Here's the usual list...

 

Pride 10 - Is probably the most recommended show for newcomers to Pride. It features a lot of “old stars” (which, given the turnover rate of stars in MMA, is only after 3 years) and really got the ball rolling for PRIDE. Mezger/Silva, Vovchanchyn/Inoue, Sakuraba/Renzo are all really freakin good matches. Plus there are some _sick_ KO’s in it.

 

Pride 12 - Silva vs. Henderson rules. Sakuraba vs. Gracie is really good. This was the first Pride a friend-of-mine saw and he became instantly hooked.

 

Pride 14 - Daijiro Matsui vs. Pele is really, really good. Shoji vs. Henderson is non-stop. Silva continues to build his reputation. Mezger vs. Liddell is back-and-forth action with a sick finish.

 

Pride 17 - a really awesome bout between Antonio Rodrigo Noguiera and Heath Herring. One of the best heavyweight fights you will see. This is the show where they determine the 2 champions (Heavyweight and Middleweight) and it’s in the Tokyo Dome so the atmosphere is amazing. This show has a lil bit of everything on it and features mainly current fighters. - these are the top 4. If you can get Pride 19 and 20, do so. Newton vs. Pele is stunning, as is Ninja vs. Sperry.

[razazteca 0]

I'm surprised Pride 15 Raging Rumble was not pimped yet.

 

Pride 15 is the closest thing to a sport entertainment show you can find in MMA. Jackson gets over for losing to Sakuraba, Nogueira squashes Japan's favorite jobber in Goodridge, you get the screw job angle with Gracie vs Ishizawa, and the never ending feud of Brazil vs Japan in the match up of Wallid Ismail vs Oyama and Matsui vs Braga.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

PRIDE 15 is one of my favourite shows, but I wouldn't rank it up there with the others in the "GET THIS!!" category.

[razazteca 0]

Well is'nt that Sakuraba vs Jackson in your sig?

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

No.

 

It's Jackson vs. Minowa from the Shockwave 03 NYE show.

[Styles 0]

Any "Best of" or "History" kind of DVDs avaliable for Pride or UFC that you'd reccomend?

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

I don't think PRIDE has a best of and I haven't seen the UFC "Ultimate" DVD's so I can't tell ya (I believe the matches are clipped). The King of the Cage Best Of is a good buy (features Jackson vs. Eastman, Smith vs. Bang, various _sick_ KO's.)

[razazteca 0]

I have the 1st UFC Hits dvd and its full of short fights, it is fair to say if the match is longer than 5 minutes or went past round 1 it is clipped.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Oh god that sucks. Part of "educating" fans is having them go through "long" matches. Not everything can be a quick KO, and ground fighting CAN be fun to watch. They do nothing but add to the mentality that 'once the fight goes to the ground it's boring' with stuff like that.

[Styles 0]

Just came back from Suncoast! Along with the Best Of Cactus Jack in ECW DVD I've been looking for and a wretling gold OVW 2001 DVD that looked interesting I decided to get 2 Pride shows. Now, unfortunately they don't list the "number" of the show on the cover, and there was no way I could remember all the fights listed so I just chose 2 that looked good (i.e. I've heard of most of the people!).

I ended up with Return Of The Warriors (I see this is the Pride 10 you highly reccomended so good choice there), the other though I don't believe you mentioned. It's Collision Course with Silva vs. Sakurava, Teligman vs. Vovchanchyn plus I recognized Herring, Belfort, Coleman and Gracie in their own matches. Hopefully this is a good one too. At 10 bucks a DVD (and being coaxed into joining their frequent buyer program) I'll definetly be back for more! They also had 2 different double DVD sets for Grand Prix tournament (I'm assuming a previous one since it wasn't the same as the one from last year). Any reccomendations on that? Ok, I'm off soon to watch Return Of The Warriors!

[the pinjockey 0]

Collision Course is Pride 13. I went looking for the one last week, but it was gone by then. I figured I might as well pick up Sak/Silva part 1 since I have parts 2 and 3.

 

The other events that are on DVD with a name instead of a number match up like this:

 

9 New Blood

10 Return of the Warrios

11 Battle of the Rising Sun

12 Cold Fury

13 Collision Course

14 Clash of the Titans

15 Raging Rumble

16 Beasts from the East

17 Championship Chaos

18 Cold Fury 2

19 Bad Blood

 

The only ones that haven't been covered that I have are 2,3, and 16. 2 and 3 are both one fight cards, along with an interesting side show on each card (Cikatic/Kerr on 2 and Takase/Yarborough on 3)

 

And I liked 16 as Nog/Coleman and Ninja/Matsui were good along with a Frye/Yvel sideshow.

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Don't ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, EVER get PRIDE 9: New Blood.

 

Learn from my mistake.

 

Pride 13 is a pretty good show with one of the WORST MATCHES EVER in Satake vs. Yasuda. AVOID THIS MATCH AT ALL COSTS!!

[razazteca 0]

Oh god that sucks. Part of "educating" fans is having them go through "long" matches. Not everything can be a quick KO, and ground fighting CAN be fun to watch. They do nothing but add to the mentality that 'once the fight goes to the ground it's boring' with stuff like that.

I have the old release (2000) before SEG sold the company and it is from the early years. It is before UFC made the rule changes to become a "sport". Some of the better fights are the Frank Shamrock, Vitor Belfort, Gracie matches and there are of course the mismatch fights like the sumo vs karate fights.

[the pinjockey 0]

What was the deal with Pride 9? I saw some people over a Sherdog completely ripping that event as well. Did they not book good fights or just have decent fighters having bad fights?

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

It was just a bad show.

 

Ricco vs. Goodridge

Igor vs. Matsui

Yvel vs. Belfort

Shoji vs. John Renken

Newton vs. Sano

Goes vs. Vern White

Berreto vs. Telligman

Herring vs. Willie Peters.

 

It's actually a good show on paper (which is why I got it), but some of the fights go long and boring (rodriguez, belfort) and some go really, really short (newton, shoji). And the rest is just blah.

[razazteca 0]

What was wrong with it, too many fighters wanted to stay in the guard and got lazy?

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

Basically.

[Tim Cooke 0]

If you are new to Pride, I would go the comp route.

 

Get someone to make you a Best of Sakuraba Comp from Pride 2 - 13 with every fight in between.

 

Also get a history of Nogueria/Fedor with all of their Pride matches which will build EPICALLY to 3/16/03 where they face each other and then into the summer and fall of 2003 where Fedor has fun squashes with Fujita (more than a squash actually) and Goodridge and Nog has a tough fight with Ricco and then Cro Cop.

 

I would also suggest all of their work with RINGS.

 

Tim

[RavishingRickRudo 0]

What's on the Fedor/Nog comp???

[Styles 0]

If you are new to Pride, I would go the comp route.

 

Get someone to make you a Best of Sakuraba Comp from Pride 2 - 13 with every fight in between.

 

Also get a history of Nogueria/Fedor with all of their Pride matches which will build EPICALLY to 3/16/03 where they face each other and then into the summer and fall of 2003 where Fedor has fun squashes with Fujita (more than a squash actually) and Goodridge and Nog has a tough fight with Ricco and then Cro Cop.

 

I would also suggest all of their work with RINGS.

 

Tim

Right, but for most 10 bucks a DVD at the local Suncoast is a lot easier than sending away for bulk bootlegs over the internet...

[Tim Cooke 0]

The Nogueria/Fedor comp I had made has:

 

Nog/Goodridge

Nog/Coleman

Nog/Herring

Nog/Inoue

Nog/Sapp

Fedor/Schilt

Fedor/Herring

Nog/Schilt

Nog/Henderson

Nog/Fedor

Fedor/Fujita

Fedor/Goodridge

Nog/Ricco

Nog/Cro Cop

 

Tim

[Guest Dynamite Kido]

Pride 10 - Is probably the most recommended show for newcomers to Pride. It features a lot of “old stars” (which, given the turnover rate of stars in MMA, is only after 3 years) and really got the ball rolling for PRIDE. Mezger/Silva, Vovchanchyn/Inoue, Sakuraba/Renzo are all really freakin good matches. Plus there are some _sick_ KO’s in it.

Rudo, you recommend 10 huh? I've been meaning to check out PRIDE for some time now, and to find out that is the one DVD they always have at the Suncoast near my house is really awesome!!!! Thanks Rudo.

[Styles 0]

Finished off Return Of The Warriors, your right, excellent show. Favorite moments were Yvel's kick to Goodridge, Ryan Gracie playing punching bag with the Japanese guy's head, Silva and Mezger trying to kill each other and Renzo getting his arm twisted. Probably a good time to ask, how many Gracie's are there? And what are their relations to each other? What happened with Shamrock though? He was dominating that fight and was moving really crisply and then he just gave up. Was he hurt? Also that crazy Giant Ochai, is he the one that died this past year? Yeah, top to bottom each match had something good about it. Will watch Collision Course soon.

[razazteca 0]

At least 7 active fighting Gracies, all of which names start with the silient R and then Carlos Jr.?

 

Rickson

Royce

Royler

Ryan

Renzo

Jr

 

Note: Sakaruba beat 4 of the Gracies.