BattlArts 1/17/10

Takeshi Takeshima v. Sanchu Tsubakichi

TKG: This is super short with Takeshima working amateur rolls and Tsubakichi fighting from below for subs. Fine mat exchanges but nothing that will make you forget RPW.

PAS: Yeah I liked this fine, but it was only about four minutes and had nothing that stood out

Bison TAGAI v. Akifumi Saito

TKG: WOW! This was super fun. Saito is turning out to be really good and does these real U-style like submissions right up against the ropes making the forced breaks and sub feel like a bigger deal. This also had a shockingly lot of cool things from TAGAI. He kept on going for headlocks into attempted throws (and never pulls it off till the throw that leads to finish), and he does a real neat turtle in par tier avoiding a lift thing earlier.

PAS: This was tremendous, it really felt like a fun first round of a WEC bantamweight match between two good Ju Jitsu guys, lots of counters and escapes done really fast. The rolling guillotine finish was Negro Navarro level awesome.

Yujiro Yamamoto v. Yoshinori Narita

TKG:I don't think I've seen Narita before but Yamamoto is a guy who is super at scrambling and Narita did an impressive job moving and avoiding that scramble. He gets a couple of takedowns and a bunch of neat attempts to get the back and some really nasty subs from the back. And they do an awesome spot where Narita is doing really cool butt scooting to avoid Yamamoto's attempts to grab hold of an extremity.

PAS:Another really fun match. Narita was especially impressive at moving between holds on the mat. He does this beautiful transition from a triangle to almost a crossface. Yamamoto is of course off the chain. The finish was tremendous with Narita on his back upkicking to avoid Yamamoto, Yamamoto does a spin, catches an ankle, locks up the other leg and twists Narita's foot off.

Keita Yano v Sanchu Tsubakichi

TKG: Keita Yano starts with a choke in the ropes and I was really worried hat we were going to get another Keita Yano "Ultimate Opportunist /Master of the B Rules Rules" match. And I have no desire to try to figure that stuff out. Instead they do about 6 minutes of mat work with a couple of rope breaks at start. Nothing bad, you always got the sense that the two were trying for finishes (not just time killing) and the actual finish was neat.

PAS: Yeah this is two perfectly acceptable Keita Yano matches in a row. This didn't have the highs of the previous two matches, but didn't have any Keita Yano lows either. I am enjoying this tourney a lot more this year, as they haven't been focused on the stupid rules.

Bison TAGAI v. Yujiro Yamamoto

TKG: This was a TAGAI power v Yamamoto scramble type matchup. Tagai has some cool bowling a guy into a takedown stuff and some cool power stuff including a giant swing into a leg lock, and Yamamoto is always good at working from below. This was probably the longest of the matches thus far and it felt like they were really building up to something. Again another neat finish.

PAS: This is the matchup I wanted to see coming out of the first round, and it didn't disappoint. The finish was really good, I liked how Yamamoto was able to use his leverage to negate some Tagai's power and sink in the triangle.

Yuki Ishikawa/Alexander Otsuka v. Tiger Shark/Super Tiger II

PAS: Not really the match I wanted to see, but a really good match nonetheless. Ishikawa and Otsuka are kind of the BattlArts Megapowers, but the work most of the match selling a beating from the Tigers. Both Ishikawa and Otsuka are really great at selling beatings, timing comebacks, throwing in little shots, evoking sympathy. Still this is BattlArts and if these guys are going to sell a big beating, the beating better be bigger. The Tigers need to bring it, and for the most part they didn't. Still they built to hot tag really well, and we had a pretty hot finish, with Otsuka dumping Tiger Shark on his neck.

TKG: Phil pretty much covers this. I kind of want to see Ishikawa and Otsuka working from above but they are guys who are awesome working from below. For old vets vs younger athletic opponents. I would like some of that athleticism to look like it hurts. Still if you close one eye and just watch the vet's selling this is pretty awesome. Both Otsuka and Ishikawa are really awesome at throwing in hope spots when working from below that ar just absolutely nasty. At one pint Tiger Shark is in the mount throwing hands and Ishikawa just jets a punch upward that made you go "Holy shit". I kind of expected it to be followed up with a rolling tag.

Keita Yano v. Yujiro Yamamoto

TKG: This does have a weird B rules finish but could be enjoyed without any understanding of the rules. Yano continues to be unobjectionable and Yamamoto is able to deliver the fire to keep you interested. And they pretty much keep this moving. No real stoppages, just both guys countering and moving around the ring till they get to a finish.

PAS: Yeah the workrate in this match was impressive, a mat sprint with a pair of athletic guys moving a million miles an hour, constantly trying to grab arms, legs and necks. I wasn't paying attention to the rope breaks, so I didn't understand why the rope break didn't count, it was still a cool finish. Really enjoyable show, for something I wasn't looking forward too.

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BattlArts 12/6/09

Katsumi Usuda v. Akifumi Saito

TKG: Appaently Usuda’s entrance music is T Rex’s “20th Century Boy” and well there was nothing glam about this match. Just two guys really kicking the shit out of each other. Usuda kicks the shit out of Saito’s arm, and Saito goes to kick the shit out of Usuda’s arm. They do submissions to close to the ropes and Usuda wins with a absolutely nasy submission in the center of the ring. Move like a cat. Talk like a rat. Sting like a bee, baby I wanna be your man.

PAS: This is the second time we have seen Saito this year in BattlArts and he has been really impressive both times. Usuda can be such a wrecking ball that it takes a lot to look credible in a slug fest with him. This had everything you want from a BattlArts undercard match, cool tight matwork and reversals, nasty kicks and punches and multiple moments where you audible curse because of the violence.

Keita Yano v. Takeshi Takeshimi

TKG: What bizzaro world am I living in where I watch a god Nova match and a good Yano match in the same night. This is Keita Yano vs. a rookie which is something I was dreading but really there was nothing at all objectionable here. Takeshimi has some cauliflowred ears and I assume he has a wrestling background as he rolls and turns on the mat really well. He throws some nice elbows and semi-European uppercut like strikes. And Yano does nothing at all objectionable and actively contributes lots of good to this match. He ends the match with Danielson style elbows to the face into a really cool chickenwing. We see the elbows to the face from the back so we don’t get a real sense of the impact. But normally when Yano does Danielson spot it feels like a spot “Hey I’m doing a spot for pops”, here everything he did felt like it worked into telling the story of the match.

PAS: I would have never expected Yano to be able to carry anyone, but not only did he look tolerable here, he was clearly leading this dance. I kept waiting for him to do something stupid, he never did. I kept waiting for him to jack a PWG move, he never did. I kept waiting for him to throw sissy strikes, and not only did he never do that but he actually jaw jacked Takeshimi a couple of times. I really liked all of Takeshimi’s simple wrestling mat work, but Yano was leading here to, doing a bunch of nifty elbow and arm twists, leading to the really nasty finishing arm lock. Shockingly good match.

Munenori Sawa/Bison Tagai v. Ryuji Walter/Yoshinori Narita

TKG: This is a pretty fun undercard Battlarts tag. Ryuji Walter and Bison Tagai have some surprisingly fun two thick guys heavyweight matwork and Ryuji Walters absolutely wastes Sawa with punches and lariats. I don’t know Yoshinori Narita is but he’s mostly doing kickboxing gimmick with simple sub attempts and most of his kickboxing was guy swinging wildly. But Sawa just murders him. They do a section where Sawa bobs and weaves ducking all of Narita’s strikes and then tagging Narita at will. And at another point Sawa just grabs Narita’s head and cocobutts him full force.

PAS: You rarely see WALTER out crowbarred in a match, but man was Sawa laying a nasty beating on Narita. His mouth was busted, that coco butt looked like it crosseyed him, just a nasty unnecessary asskicking. Walter did his part though, as he cracked Sawa and Tagai with some big punches and lariats. Not great execution, but all of the sweet violence you want from a BattlArts match.

Yujiro Yamamoto v. Sanchu Tsubakichi

TKG: I don’t think we’ve had good things to say about Tsubakichi in the past. But Yamamoto is a guy who will make epic matches. This starts with a lot of Tsubakichi beating on Yamamoto. And Yamamoto is great as guy coming back from below: great as guy selling fighting to stay on his feet and great as a guy hunched over (after a beating) grabbing a leg. He can just destroy a leg in a minute. Tsubakichi does a neat job briefly selling that he was struggling to support himself on his knee. You do that and Yamamoto will go in for a kill. Tsubakichi does get a hold of Yamamoto’s arm and they a couple of really nice U style rope break near falls before Yamamoto can escape and come back from below again.

PAS: Yammamoto is the absolute truth, Tsubakichi is not only a guy who has never shown any spark before, but also a guy coming back from an injury, and Yamamoto carries him to one of the best BattlArts matches of the year. Lots of dramatic stops and starts, it starts with Tsubakichi jumping him at the bell, but evens out until he absolutlely spikes Yamamoto with a uranage, it slows again just to build to another dramatic moment. Just great pacing.

Super Tiger II/Tiger Shark v. Yuki Ishikawa/Yuta Yoshikawa

TKG: This was super disappointing. Ishikawa was great in his little sections working the mat against either of the Tigers, had nice standing technical exchanges and was cool as tag guy coming in to save partner. But this really felt like a collection of moments and not really a tag match. There are points where the Tigers are double teaming on Yoshikawa and you get the sense that he is supposed to be junior partner working in peril. But the Tigers really aren’t beating him hard. I mean he may have taken one of the least beatings of anyone on the show and Yoshikawa was kind of selling it like that was the case. I can’t get amped up for Ishikwa making a save when it feels like that save was unnecessary.

PAS: Ishikawa is coming back from an injury due to Super Tiger II, but he never really felt like a guy who wanted revenge. There is brutality, intensity and fire up and down this card, but I didn’t feel it here at all. Nothing engaging about this in the least. Worst match on the show, which is a shocking thing to say about a Yuji Ishikawa match.

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BattlArts 4/12/09

Ryuji Walter -vs- Sanchu Tsubakichi

TKG: Hey it’s Ryuji Walter. Haven’t seen him in a while. He’s kind of a pro-style heavyweight who crowbars folks. I wouldn’t mind them using him instead of Sekimoto. He will beat a guy up and all his stuff looks absolutely nasty. Tsubachiki is along for the ride.

PAS: Ryuji Walter is a guy who will always entertain you. Haven’t really seen him in a ton of competitive matches, but in these kind of opening match squashes, he will hit someone really hard in the side of the neck. His matches may not be good, but they will be memorable.

Chihiro Oikawa -vs- Esui.

TKG: And the first came forward red like a hairy garment so they named her Esui? She kind of looked like the kind of flat chested lanky girl who would have hairy forearms but try as I might I can’t figure out how to do a Biblical telling of this match. Pretty basic submissions v kicker story. Esui doesn’t do any strikes but has some neat submissions including a really nasty choke with her thick forearm. Chihiro’s kicks have gotten really vicious and you really buy them as finishers.

PAS: I am starting to really enjoy these Oikawa matches, she seems to have graduated from the stupid B-Rules matches into normal wrestling matches. Her kicks really look better then her matwork and she does beat the crap out of Esui.

Munenori Sawa/Fujita Jr Hayato -vs- Tiger Shark/Akifumi Saito.

TKG:I dug the Real Japan team of Shark and Saito a bunch here. Saito feels like a guy with a nice upside. Tiger Shark feels more polished than Super Tiger. His kicks feel more pro style and less reckless. That may not always serve him well, but it was fine here.

PAS: This was a really good match, right up there with the best of the new generation of BattlArts matches. It was really worked at a nice pace with everyone showing a ton of intensity. I especially dug how Saito and Sawa would constantly take cheap shots at each other, I don't know if that is currently an indy Japan feud, but I bought into it and wanted to see a singles match between the two. Hayato continues to impress me to, and he may be getting on my list of guys where I watch all that they do.

Yuta Yoshikawa -vs- Keita Yano

TKG: So Yano has had a series of ok matches recently but those may have been all smoke and mirrors. Really these two guys are not at all ready to have a singles match with each other. This was unwatchably bad. For some reason they scream more than the joshi match earlier on the show and well none of the mat exchanges or strikes looked as good. The whole pacing didn’t work and this went on forever. Not only was Yano awful but I have never seen Yoshikawa look this bad either.

PAS: Tom is underselling the awfulness of this match. I have been watching BattlArts since 1995 or so, and have probably seen 95% of the shows that exist on tape, and I have never seen a BattlArts match this bad. Yoshikawa was on the bad side of mediocre here, but Yano was just atrocious. There is a section where he is throwing his gingerly uppercuts that I actually screamed at the TV “YOU ARE IN BATTLARTS, FOR FUCK SAKE.” Near the end of the match he has a comeback where he actually throws Lisa Simpson style windmill punches. Honestly out of all the effeminate Japanese juniors who closeted UK Figure Four board posters mark out for, he may be the shittiest. This is a match which is clearly booked to be the two young guns giving us a glance at the future, and man was it a dystopian glance, I felt like I was reading The Road.

Yuki Ishikawa/Katsumi Usuda -vs- Super Tiger II/Yujiro Yamamoto

TKG: While the earlier tag was worked more all out, this started slow and built up. The earlier building parts were really neat and I get the sense that Ishikawa and Yamamoto have a really great singles match in them. Super Tiger has added a bunch of new kicks to his offense and he really looks like he’s figured out how to control his old ones. Usuda who has been spectacular of late, is surprisingly underwhelming in this. Still his sections with Yamamoto were really cool and he ate SuperTiger’s kicks well but you almost don’t notice him in those exchanges.

PAS: I am still waiting for the blow away 2009 BattlArts tag, this had some really nice parts to it, but I didn’t get the dopamine rush that really awesome BattlArts will give you. Yammamoto continues to look like the real deal, I loved every time he squared off with Ishikawa, as he came after him like a puppy after a piece of chicken skin. Those two are going to have a great singles match sometime soon. Still this was the most understated Usuda I have seen, and while it had lots of cool stuff, it never got into that intense violent mode that your truly great BattlArts tags achieve.

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