PRIDE Executive Producer, Antonio Inoki
Do you feel alive? PRIDE is alive today. What will happen from now on? Move forward without fail. When you move, you will understand! An exciting PRIDE is waiting for you and that's why we've got this press conference today. At the same time of PRIDE's rebirth is the appointment of the new General Manager, Nobuhiko Takada. I believe that he's going to help PRIDE become even more exciting and ask you all for your support.
PRIDE General Manager, Nobuhiko Takada
As the Executive Producer, Mr. Inoki, said, I was appointed to General Manager recently. I promise that I will do my best to improve PRIDE and do my job in a way that I can be proud of. As a part of that, I'd like to announce one fight for PRIDE 26.

As many of you remember vividly from RPIDE 25, there was a man who completely dominated Nogueira. That man, Fedor, with his incredible strikes will be challenged head-on by Kazuyuki Fujita. I feel certain that this will be an excellent card for PRIDE's restart. Now, I'd like to get some comments from Fujita, who has come here today.

Kazuyuki Fujita
Good afternoon. It will be about 2 years since my last appearance in PRIDE. Being the man I am today is due to PRIDE. PRIDE's eternal theme is a call to the strongest and that's why I've come back. That's why I decided to fight Fedor, the current PRIDE Heavyweight Champion. He's the best and the brightest at this moment. That's all.

Questions and Answers
PRIDE Fighting Championships: How many fighters will participate in the PRIDE GP?

Nobuyuki Sakakibara: We are currently thinking around 8 fighters. But, honestly, we're not sure. It will be really tough to pick just 8 fighters out of the Middleweight division. We are still leaving the option of 16 fighters open.

PRIDE: Mr. Takada. What will you be responsible for as the "General Manager"?

Nobuhiko Takada: To put it simply, I'll do anything asked of me. (laughing)

PRIDE: Will Fedor vs. Fujita be a Heavyweight Championship match?

Sakakibara: It will be a NON-title match.

PRIDE: Mr. Fujita, what do you think of your fight being a non-title match?

Kazuyuki Fujita: I'd like to get my hands on the belt, of course, but fighting the strongest fighter in the ring is the most important thing. Rather than fight for the belt, I want to fight to see who's got the most heart.

PRIDE: You will also be fighting a Vale Tudo match against Nakanishi Manabu at the May 2nd New-Japan Pro-Wrestling event.

Fujita: I feel proud that I will be able to fight the world's strongest man in PRIDE and the world's stupidest man in New-Japan.

PRIDE: Will the January event be the only event held in America next year?

Sakakibara: The January even is the only one finalized but I'd like to have 2 or 3 more in America. It's possible that both the preliminary and final rounds of the PRIDE Heavyweight Grand Prix will be held in America. We've only announced the schedule as far as March of next year but I think it will be safe to say that there will be more matches in America. In the mean time, we want to have the January event and see how that goes.

PRIDE: Mr. Takada, do you think Sakuraba will be fight in the July or August events?

Takada: He wants to fight but it will depend on his training, among other things. My honest opinion is that I would like for him to concentrate solely on PRIDE Grand Prix.

PRIDE: Will your main responsibility be match making?

Takada: I believe that the fans are basically the ones that do the match making. Based on the fans' voices, fighters and promoters make interesting events. It's not the case that only 1 person decides who fights.

DSE President Nobuyuki Sakakibara, Executive Producer Antonio Inoki and General Manager Nobuhiko Takada were present at a Tokyo press conference on April 15th to announce the reorganization of PRIDE. A one-year event schedule and a partial card for the upcoming PRIDE 26 (June 8, Yokohama, Japan) were also announced. Kazuyuki Fujita will fight the current PRIDE Heavyweight Champion, Fedo Emelianenkor, in a non-title match at PRIDE 26.
DSE President, Nobuyuki Sakakibara's Comments
My name is Nobuyuki Sakakibara and I have been tasked to be the President of Dream Stage Entertainment, Inc. Since the unfortunate passing of President Mori****a, we have been working at full-speed over these 3 months to do what needed to be done. We would like to express our strong gratitude to all who supported us and gave us their understanding. DSE will not disappear and PRIDE will continue thanks to that support and understanding. DSE has been reborn and I would again like to thank all of the fans from the bottom of my heart. Additionally, I would like to thank all of the fans that have written us letters and post cards of support and to all of the fans that came out to PRIDE 25 in great numbers and let their voices be heard. Last, but certainly not least, I would like to thank the fighters. Despite the gloomy situation, they came out and fought as usual, with all their heart. Thank you very much.

Regarding the PRIDE series
Now I'd like to shed some light on the upcoming PRIDE series. As President Mori****a explained at the New Year's press conference, it is DSE's strong desire to hold a PRIDE GP this year. However, differing from what was announced at the press conference, the GP will not be a joint Middleweight/Heavyweight event. The Middleweight GP will be held in August of this year and the Heavyweight GP will be held next year. We would like to see Heavyweight and Middleweight Grand Prix tournaments regularly held on alternating years from here on. The first round of the Grand Prix will be held on August 10th in Saitama Super Arena. The final round will be held at the end of October or beginning of November at either the Saitama Super Arena or the Tokyo Dome. Sometime around January of 2004, we also plan on holding a PRIDE event in America. The location will be Las Vegas, Nevada. In total, we plan on holding 5 events in the upcoming fiscal year.

Regarding PRIDE In The USA
From PRIDE 26, PRIDE events will be broadcast throughout the United States on iN Demand. This PPV broadcast is the result of over 2 years of negotiations and we expect to broadcast to 37~38 million households.

Over the past 2 years, DSE has also negotiated with the Nevada State Licensing Commission and, as previously reported, was successfully awarded a license. Although the license is basically for American-based companies, DSE is the first non-American company to receive this license. As such, we at DSE intend are not happy with just saying that we have received a license. We want to use it to its fullest potential and we have been working to prepare an event for the USA.

We have received many strong offers from the major hotel-casinos in Las Vegas, saying that they definitely want to hold our event In Las Vegas at their hotels. We don't want to make this Las Vegas show a one time only event so we will put a lot of thought into our strategy for the upcoming year. The American market will be our main market in the future. This will probably mean a reduction in the number of events held within Japan but we would like to appeal more to the worldwide market. It may be that basic matches will be held in the US while big matches will be held in Japan. At any rate, we are sincere in our efforts to bring PRIDE to America's giant entertainment market.

Regarding PRIDE 26
This next PRIDE event will be PRIDE 26: REBORN (Japanese title. Title may differ in the United States). It will be held on Sunday, June 8th at the Yokohama Arena. The "REBORN" is a reflection on the DSE and PRIDE organization and reports our rebirth. We hope that everyone will watch this event as we set off on a new PRIDE journey.