This was the basis for the TKO animations in AKI's VPW engine games (including WCW vs NWO Revenge, WWF No Mercy and DefJam Vendetta).

AKI often used iconic moments from Japanese Puro & MMA for their animations (in the era before motion capture was the norm). https://twitter.com/CatchWrestling/status/1064509801865125888

Masakatsu Funaki's iconic hesitation sleeper is another example of an animation that made it to the AKI wrestling games.

AKI even animated the absurdity of Antonio Inoki vs Muhammad Ali as part of a special move you could use.

Managed to find an emulator and ROM on a backup drive. Made a Funaki.

The Inoki / Ali inspired 'Burning Combo' I mentioned earlier.

Kirifuda

Pretty much all the Suplexes you can score a TKO with in the AKI VPW games are based on Gary Albright and Vader matches.

EG: Vader nearly killing Inoki with a high angle German in 1996.

This was animated as German Suplex 03 in WWF No Mercy for N64.

Gary Albright lifting Yoji Anjo off the mat for a hard German Suplex.

Release German Suplex as a ground lower body move in No Mercy.

Albright's snap German Suplex.

German Suplex 02 in No Mercy.

Albright's Double Overhook Belly to Belly Suplex.

"Underhook BTB Suplex 02" in No Mercy.

Gary Albright's version of the Belly to Belly Suplex.

"Belly to Back Flip Suplex" in No Mercy.

An infamously scary moment in All Japan Pro Wrestling, Toshiaki Kawada botched a powerbomb on Mitsuharu Kawada in their January 22nd 1999 match.

Later became known as a Ganso Bomb or Kawada Driver.

The Kawada botch was so significant though, AKI did animate it into their VPW games, and can be found as "Hangmans DDT" in the special moves section of WWF No Mercy on N64.

In 1999, one of the greatest Lighter Weight MMA fighters in history, Shooto's Rumina Sato, won his fight against Charles Diaz by flying armbar in just 6 seconds.

AKI immortalized this finish and called it the "Six Seconds Magic" in their VPW releases afterwards.

The first ever Pride Fighting Championship took place in 1997 and saw Rickson Gracie take on Nobuhiko Takada. Gracie would defeat Takada by armbar in less than 5 minutes in the first round.

AKI referenced this fight in a special they cheekily called "Ultimate Armbar".

Ironically enough neither Rickson Gracie or Nobuhiko Takada ever fought in the UFC, and Pride FC was UFC's biggest rival of the late 1990's and early 2000's.

Alright, I think that's all I've got for you, aside from moves that were animated for WCW games in official releases that carried over to the WWF games. The origins for the Puro and MMA based moves were the ones of interest.

Thanks and glad you enjoyed this thread.

PS there are a ton of other moves that AKI animated as references to Tiger Mask, Jushin Liger, Hiroshi Tenzan, Great Muta and even one of my all time favourites Hiroshi Hase (they animated the Northern Lights Suplex with the arm trapped, just as Hase would do it).

*Hiroyoshi Tenzan