The Shintaro Higashi Show - CJI Recap

Episode Date: September 9, 2024

The much anticipated Craig Jones Invitational (CJI) concluded last month, and it really challenged the status quo of submission grappling as a sport. In this episode, Shintaro recaps what really stood out to him while watching CJI– its accessibility through platforms like YouTube and Instagram, the high-stakes million-dollar cash prize, and the strategic sponsorship choices that appealed to the event's audience. (00:00:00) Introduction (00:01:10) Accessibility and Streaming of CJI (00:03:28) Comparisons with Other Grappling-focused Streaming Services (00:06:10) Big Sponsors at CJI (00:07:23) Rule Sets in Submission Grappling (00:11:35) Thoughts on Cash Prizes (00:16:57) The Role of a Unified Governing Body

You know, if you really take a look at freestyle wrestling, collegiate wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, or CJI ADCC ruleset, and judo, I mean, like, a lot of it is going back up towards the feet. But I'll tell you what, man. I like the million-dollar cash prize. And I think IGF could do something like that, too. They could have one big tournament a year where there's zero points involved, but it's just a big cash prize. You think it's a good thing? Does it make it more exciting? I mean, they're trying to make it more exciting with a lot of movement and a lot of explosive motion.

But honestly, it looks like a freaking varsity high school wrestling tournament. Hello, everyone. Welcome back to the Shintaro Higashi Show at PDU. Today, I want to talk a little bit about what I loved about CJI. It was a beautiful tournament. Big money prize. $1 million per winner. There were two categories. Under 80 kilograms.

Above 80 kilograms. There was so much hype. Yeah. Definitely take away from ADCC. We did a dedicated episode about that. Yeah. So I'll be up front. I couldn't watch it because I was moving back from California to Michigan that weekend. It was a busy time but so i'm gonna just let you share your thoughts but

i bet you were able to watch some clips from on instagram i did i know how it's set up it's uh it's like that combat karate setup right with the and i i caught caught uh i think k going just bonkers With the other guy It was pretty cool It was a great match So I caught those They're doing a great job

Spreading all this content So the first thing I really liked about it Was that you were able to watch the whole thing on YouTube Yeah And they had one mat going for the whole freaking day so it was like nine ten hours straight of jujitsu oh okay and a lot of people were like oh it's way too long i can't watch just for that long this is the thing you don't have to you don't have to yeah i would be like with my kid my kid wanted to watch peppa pig whatever it was

and she'd run off and draw and when she she was drawing, I just turned and watched it. Yeah, yeah. I'm watching it, watching it, great. Papa, let's watch Bluey. Okay, let's watch Bluey. And turn it right back, right? And the beauty of this was, as I'm watching Bluey and she's eating her snack, I could pull out my phone on Instagram and it's streamed live on Instagram Live.

Oh, they did it on Instagram Live too. Yeah. So now all of a sudden i'm watching it and uh nothing's happening nothing happening i'm bored yeah scroll through reels do whatever have a snack take my kid to the playground even at the playground i could be like all right who's going oh yeah these two guys are going i know this guy i'm watching watching oh it's pretty good joseph shank out there he got knee crushed you know ah that sucks yeah but i'm like following it throughout the day not like dedicated in front of my computer, but I could really easily pull my phone out and pull it up.

There's no logging in or logging out or pay well this or flow grappling, which I freaking hate. I played flow grappling for a year just to be able to watch some of my teammates compete. It was the worst. It was the worst interface I've ever experienced. It's not like Judo TV. Guys, Judo TV is so excellent judotv.com is great

that's the one subscription you should have discount coach Chintaro for your discount you get a nice

chunk of change back and you know you can pick to watch the matches you can watch the live stream it's unbelievable

I'm going to Cadet Worlds in Peru you guys can take that watch that I'm going to be commentating

but yeah that was my favorite thing about CJI were you able to like Unbelievable. I'm going to Cadet Worlds in Peru. You guys could take that, watch that. I'm going to be commentating. Yeah. But, yeah, that was my favorite thing about CJI. Were you able to, like, kind of like in Judo TV, go back to certain matches and stuff? Or was it just like a straight stream? It was a straight stream. It was a straight stream. And I think you can, like, you know, scrub backwards and then watch matches. Right, right, right.

But you almost didn't even have to I can't remember what I was doing but I was out with my lady friend and I was able to go to the page and then see clips of the main guys submitting guys and then I'm like oh

this guy beat that guy Levy beat one of the Rotolo brothers with a heel hook in the beginning. And you can watch and be like, huh. You know what I mean? Yeah, I see. Yeah, so that was a really nice feature. Yeah, the accessibility.

I mean, you have that in judo, too. Don't get me wrong. You know, judotv.com and everything. And judotv Instagram is amazing. Run by these guys by Fighting films robin and uh willing him and his brother jack they're awesome and then when the international circuit's happening you kind of catch it almost live right someone from someone with a spectacular sone you see it on your instagram instagram yeah 20 minutes later yeah yeah that's all hit for me he's in yeah great

form and then so it's like even if you're not watching the stream you're getting updates on 20 minutes later. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. Yeah. Great form. And then so it's like, even if you're not watching the stream, you're getting updates on your Instagram feed and you're capable of seeing what's going on. And then you can just log into the site and watch it. If you want to sit down, you can also watch it after the fact.

Right. So there's a lot of good with that. You know what I mean? Yeah. That's what CJI, but Instagram live, like that was a really nice, that was my favorite feature of the whole thing

i forget youtube because instagram is on your phone right and then when it's live it has like that blinking like hey this is live right now and you log in you know i see that's that's good that's good because i think there was another like i don't know how it works with ADCC, but yeah, it seems like CJ and I really focus on the accessibility aspect of it. So before we move on, we'll just thank the sponsors and then we'll hear about your other thoughts. So thank you, Jason, Levon, and Joe for always sponsoring us. You guys are amazing. And judotv.com just kind of

Koshintaro as usual alright that's it higashibren.com higashibren.com yeah we got Yu-Gi dropped yeah

Yu-Gi dropped hell yeah check it out guys so yeah so what else like any other points

that you were impressed by on the administrative side of things? I think they had a big sponsor. I think Merrick Health was, like, one of the main sponsors. And they're kind of known to do hormone replacement therapy for all the dudes, like TRT stuff. And I know there's, like, sort of a stigma around it. But the CGI guys, they leaned into it and craig's like you know what yeah grts you know they really took a look at the market segment the demographic and like it's all the dudes who are in their 30s 40s like they do this stuff it's perfect this is the type of crap so they leaned into that and i thought that was pretty

cool and uh you know a million dollar cash prize is always a really really good thing for the athletes and i think hopefully this is a new thing every year they do it and you know, a million-dollar cash prize is always a really, really good thing for the athletes. And I think hopefully this is a new thing. Every year they do it. And, you know, I hope they can keep it going. I hope it's sustainable. It was like 10K to participate, right? Yeah. If you get selected.

Okay. And then a million dollars. And I think it did take the luster from ADCC because ADCC seemed like a backup tournament. You know, it seemed like. Right. Because it happened on the like a backup tournament. It seemed like... It happened on the same weekend. It happened on the same weekend. Yes, there were some big names competing in ADCC and yes, some of those

matches were awesome also. But CJI was really the... Everyone I've spoken to was like, CJI is so much better. I see. And then, you know, commentating on, like, me commenting, not commentating,

commenting about, like, the actual jiu-jitsu and the thing. Yeah, yeah. You know, these current rule sets with no gi, man, it's almost like a wrestling tournament. Yeah? I mean, ADCC, they do say

it is a wrestling tournament. You know, it's like submission wrestling. Because it's submission wrestling. It's almost, yeah, it's like less jiu-jitsu and more, you know it's like submission wrestling wrestling yeah it's like less jujitsu and more you know what i mean you think it's a good thing does it make it more exciting i mean they're trying to make it more exciting with a lot of movement and a lot of explosive motions but honestly it looks like a like a freaking varsity high school wrestling tournament because the wrestling is like it's good it's not the olympic level wrestling but

even olympic freestyle wrestling is different from collegiate wrestling yeah used to seeing in the united states you know i guess a collision cgi is probably close like submission grappling is probably closer to collegiate wrestling wrestling closer yeah because they have to have control they can't just do back exposure right yeah yeah so it's definitely closer to collegiate wrestling even collegiate wrestling they want to make it more exciting they have to have control. They can't just do back exposure, right? Yeah, yeah. So it's definitely closer to collegiate wrestling. Even collegiate wrestling, they want to make it more exciting. They have the three-point takedown rule now. You know about this?

Oh, no. What's the three points? Used to be two points for takedown, one point for escape. Now it's three points for takedown. Oh, I see. So you're encouraging people to... I mean, it's kind of like...

It's a weird thing to hear well i totally agree with that approach but you know how in judo people are like oh we gotta put more newaza back into it whatever yeah and then but the judo had already pie kind of pioneered this move towards more you know more standard yeah more standard i mean it's just more fun to watch of course look at freestyle freestyle is all about like big movements they don't do a lot of

Nehwaza stuff at all they don't do leg riding this and claw and the spiral ride they don't do any of that stuff you know it's like yes gut wrench

ankle lace whatever it is but a lot of it's like the big lifting stuff on the ground a lot of it's like takedowns upper body feet to back

these kinds of things you know if you really take a look at freestyle wrestling collegiate wrestling brazilian jiu-jitsu or cji adcc rule set and judo i mean like a lot of it is going back up towards the feet you know yeah yeah and uh yeah it's a very interesting thing it's a it's more pleasing to the eye i guess i guess it's faster it's dynamic you know and there's a lot of yeah

so you saw a lot of takedowns more like wrestling like collegiate wrestling or did you see more riding like top bottom stuff I mean I think I'm a little bit I'm not seeing the whole picture

because I didn't sit down and watch everything right right right I'm watching it as the day goes by I'm seeing highlight reels and things like that when you're only watching highlight reels you're only watching the best part like that but yeah and then it's mostly scrambly wrestling and then uh the finish of

the take the heel hooks and such i know so finishing maneuvers so it's like i can't really quite comment on that you know i will but for where i was standing and watching like just uh it seemed more of a wrestling match right they even say adcc is like it's a wrestling tournament yeah i see it's called a wrestling tournament i wonder uh i wonder if someone compiled like hold the whole stats kind of like dr sarah negative i'm sure they are you know they're watching this stuff and uh they have statistics on like all right finishes you know they're watching this stuff and they have statistics on like alright finishes you know yeah

but in judo there you can't finish I mean in jiu jitsu you can't finish by just taking them down and slamming them yeah yeah

the only way to finish somebody is by submission yeah so obviously statistics only show that and then they keep statistics of like alright

how many points were scored by takedowns etc etc but like criteria for a takedown being etc etc but like criteria for a takedown being scored is different amongst all the different rule sets yeah if you look at collegiate wrestling takedown scored a little bit differently yeah from freestyle and stuff do you so did you see a lot of uh guard pulling not as much as usual i see but then again i'm

not watching the guard pulling matches. Yeah. So I don't really know. They probably don't make it to the highlights or the main events. Yeah, no one wants to see anyone pulling guard. But I'll tell you what, man. I like the million-dollar cash prize, and I think IGF could do something like that too.

They could have one big tournament a year where there's zero points involved, but it's just a big cash prize. Oh, interesting. It's tricky to do, I think, also, because now all of a sudden you give a cash prize, like let's just say it's a million dollars. Yeah. You get a guy that's like on the circuit who's come from a very poor country. They win that, and then that's it. They retire, and they're done.

You think they'll really just retire after that a million dollars i mean why wouldn't you i guess it's like it is a life-changing money life-changing yeah yeah even like a hundred grand let's just say like uh you know from a third world country you make it out in the circuit and now all of a sudden you're competing in this you know then somebody from like france wins it it's like or even u.s not actually there's no one winning from the u.s but like a rich country you know it's like all right you know what i mean the argument is that i mean are we really doing it i mean why do we if the person if the athlete wins the money and happy with it and then retire yeah why would he want to force the athlete to keep competing you know just for our enjoyment

that's i don't know you just got to give him justice that's that's the argument with ufc too right like you're grinding out there and you're making you know nine thousand dollars a fight or something like that you have to keep fighting ah yeah you know and then you have a big fight and then now you make 30 g's you can't retire on that so you got to keep fighting you know he keeps the champions in the sport, but the moment you pay $10 million for somebody to come out there, they've been fighting their whole life, now all of a sudden they have all these residual bang-up freaking things,

and now I'm on the borderline CTE, this and that, and now here's $10 million. That's the first thing. Look at Conor McGregor. He got that money. He's like, all right, I'm going to, you know. It takes away the hunger. It takes away the hunger. It takes away the hunger, and you satisfy that need.

And now all of a sudden, if you were doing it as a career, you can retire now. You know what I mean? But I would like to see the IJF do something like that where it's like, all right, they have the Masters tournament. Maybe make that more money. Maybe just have a separate tournament that just has a huge prize money thing. I don't know. It would be nice because then they could feel like professionals a little bit more, these athletes.

You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah. Instead of trying to grind. Yeah, Craig Jones did it. So it's like, all right, might as well. Maybe this is the new era. People want to see you could grapple your way to a million dollars yeah you know that's that's a cool thing you know like i remember when i first

started like bjj it was like what back in 2009 2010 and then just you know it was like such an underground thing but now it's you can actually make a living off of it you know i mean no not really well there's a there's a way that could a way yeah a way you know most 99.9 of the guys are not going to be able to make well that's like i mean you know most professional sports are like that though yeah that, that's true. But as long as you see someone doing it, it's enough to be motivated to do it. Yeah, yeah. So having watched all this,

the money and the infrastructure built for it and everything, what do you think will be the future for submission grappling, submission wrestling? I think they set a new standard. I think they kind of came in and challenged the status quo. What's the word? Disruptor? It was a disruptor. Yeah, disruptor.

Yeah, so now all of a sudden next year, who's going to compete in ADCC next year? It's going to be worse for them next year. Do they announce that they're going to have another CJI? No, but I'm assuming that they would. Because they probably made they probably made it back. I don't know.

I don't know how much the financials are. I don't know how much the sponsors paid, etc. But that would be cool. We'll see it next year. That's pretty much my thoughts on that. I don't want to go into all the other things that everyone else is talking about that's obvious. the rotolo brothers are so athletic and

exciting to watch yeah no shit you know yeah you know that already yeah man they yeah i'm really happy with them and you know listen to our interview with them um if you guys have a chance the rotolo brothers yeah yeah you're away and yeah it was they were such nice kids and I'm just happy that they're seeing the success they deserve and yeah they're like real professionals you know it's not like your local black belt that's like

competing on the side this is their career good for them but yeah a million dollars is nice you know it's a new dream you know that house you know by growl like that yeah it's a new dream yeah could be you know these to say what Brazilian jiu-jitsu guys say a black belt is worth a million dollars because you know so

now it's like now it's actually yeah it could be it's the champions are worth a million dollars, right? Yeah. Black Belt to be a champion, I guess, you know? Yeah, yeah. I mean, you don't have to, but. That statement got real, I guess. Just got a little more real. You know what?

It legitimizes grappling just a little bit more. Yeah. So there's two real big criticisms, right? There's no organization. Yeah. What do they call it? NOCs? National Organizing Committees?

NOB? National Organizing Bodies, maybe? I think it's NOC because they're talking about like judo NOCs in the Olympics versus the wrestling NOC versus taekwondo NOC. How many governing bodies are there? And then judo, I think I had like 127. Wrestling was like half of that. Yeah. Right?

So now all of a sudden, you need that organization. You need that unified rule system. You need the global community to buy into one rule set to make it Olympic-like. Right. Yeah. That's one portion of it. Jiu-Jitsu does not have that. They had it for a little bit

ibjjf adcc yeah thing this guy comes in disrupts it right so maybe this can be the new thing and then now all of a sudden they could be a unified rule set etc so that's one thing the other thing that legitimizes is money obviously yeah i'm a professional athlete okay how much you get paid you know people think i remember like some dude of mine who like introduced me to a bunch of chicks like oh he's a professional athlete i was like stop saying that shit you know like they're gonna get the wrong impression like no you're doing judo on the circuit and whatnot that means nothing to 99.9 of the people and they're like oh my god like you have sneakers and stuff like no it's not like that at all stop saying that i'm professional i am a professional athlete.

I was, kind of. Not quite. When you hear professional athlete, the world thinks, oh, you have a shoe deal, you're making millions. It's not like that at all. You know what I mean? I had a free nutritionist from the U.S. Jo because they thought i was too fat you know i had like personal trainers and massage therapists that you know took me on pro bono because they thought i was going to be in the olympics that was and then you know some tournaments paid for some cash in my pocket but it's not like this thing like i'm professional yeah yeah so now you could say oh

i went to a tournament and there's this tournament that you could go to and win a million dollars you could say, oh, I went to a tournament and there's this tournament that you could go to and win a million dollars. So, it legitimizes it

from the financial standpoint and if they have a governing body that's actually doing a good job governing, yeah, like I said, now all of a sudden

you got something, you know, so I think that's the goal. There needs to be some kind of collaboration happening. Yeah. This thing

was sort of the proof of concept that you can pay athletes for their money. Hopefully, they take it from there. This is a springboard. Very exciting time, honestly. It's cool to see things coming together like this.

That's it. Thank you guys for listening. Thank you, Peter. Thank you to our sponsors. You two can sponsor us go to higashibrand.com we have really cool merch judo gi shorts

judo gi pants with pockets gi's up judo gi's rash guard yeah alright cool alright thanks guys thanks for listening

and we'll see you guys in the next episode yup Thank you.