Matches from NOAH Mohammed Yone 25th Anniversary 10/18/20

 

Alexander Otsuka/Mohammed Yone vs. Akitoshi Saito/Masao Inoue

ER: It's 2020 and these boys have all beefed up to the degree that Akitoshi Saito might be the smallest man in the match. Otsuka especially needs to just sport Butcher singlets at this point. He looks like best possible Dana White. Inoue brings his failson charisma to this early, attacking Yone at the bell and having it immediately blow up in his face when Saito ducks out of the way of a clothesline that Inoue doesn't. So Inoue spends the next several moments taking legdrops and axe handles all while holding his stomach as if he just won a hot dog eating contest and his friends keep trying to hit his belly. The tone changes noticeably when Saito finally tags in, as Yone starts throwing big impact lariats to counter the heavy leather Saito comes in swinging. Saito/Otsuka is a dream pairing that's hardly happened, and we get only a taste here (ending with a great Otsuka German suplex). There's funny Inoue stuff, like Saito dropping Yone before tagging out and Inoue getting into the ring and stretching his back before just running and covering Yone. Inoue does some eye rakes, he and Saito run at Yone with some slow back elbows and lariats, and Inoue does more selling where it looks like he accidentally walked into a screen door. I was shocked to see Otsuka break out the giant swing on Inoue, but happy to see it. Everyone is a little sluggish here (they're old and meatier, it happens), but I laughed all throughout Inoue shaky legs falling to the mat every time Yone tried running at him. This is the kind of match that would have been a 2004 list match, but still makes me smile in 2020. 

PAS: This is more an Eric thing then a Phil thing. I am here to see Otsuka and we don't get enough of him to make it worth my time. I appreciate Inoue comedy, although conversely it works better in a more serious atmosphere then in a match with other people up for the yuks.  I thought Yone unable to hit a move on Inoue because Inoue is too old, but he is also too old to successfully execute a roll up, so it goes both ways.  

Daisuke Ikeda/Ikuto Hidaka/Mohammed Yone vs. Yuki Ishikawa/Naomichi Marufuji/Junji Tanaka

ER: This was great, and could have been even greater had it been worked more like a WAR or Kings Road or Futen trios. The ingredients were there but it doesn't take advantage of some of the built up drama and instead pays it off in more of a feelgood anniversary show finish than heat, but the highs are way way up there. We get this awesome surprising big babyface performance from Junji Tanaka all throughout this tag that really plays as the unexpected highlight, but the people you went in hoping to see perform, all performed. The Yone/Ishikawa opening was cool, with Yone coming in like an aggressive Batt guy and popping Ishikawa, leading to Ishikawa doing a cool sweep to cause Yone to miss a punt and slip, with Ishikawa going in for the kill with a Fujiwara. But once we get into Ikeda/Junji stretch the match really opens up into something special. Ikeda dishes out one of those cruel beatings he's known for, instantly turning Junji into a huge fighting babyface. It's a sadistic old dude punishing a tough but weaker old dude, and it came off like Kurisu kicking Mitsuo Momota's ass. Junji is out here in his mawashi, trying to put both cheeks into everything, and Ikeda would just punch, kick and lariat him back to the mat. It was feeling like the same kind of Kantaro Hoshino performance we'd see in those 80s New Japan elimination tags, all clearly building to Ishikawa and Marufuji absolutely wasting the guys across the ring from them. Ikeda's beat down on Junji goes on long enough that it gets uncomfortable, like those old AJPW beatings of Kikuchi, but I loved how Ikeda sold for all of Junji's little comebacks, including a nice headbutt and an elbow that puts Ikeda down on his butt, holding his eye. Finally Junji makes the hot tag, leading to a crowd wildly on his side as Marufuji charges in and Hidaka, Ikeda, and Yone all trip over themselves to bump wildly for this molten lava tag.

I'm just kidding, Marufuji completely tanks any of the actual built up heat, stood idly by watching his teammate get his body and limbs kicked in, and actively decides to turn this into a more standard Anniversary show main event. He just somberly strolls in, then proceeds to chop Hidaka in the corner for the next 4 minutes. Yeah, yeah, Hidaka's chest is raw and bright red when it's over, but it was literally Hidaka with his arms hooked over the top rope and Marufuji just throwing chops, slowly. It felt like more of a gym hazing than anything that would make an actual match interesting, and lo! When it comes to actual sequences, Marufuji isn't very interesting in those either. Hidaka has this evergreen goodwill with me just from showing up as a then unknown (to me) in ECW over 20 years ago. I always like when he shows up in something I'm watching, even though I wished he had worked more Batt and less juniors wrestling here.

The Ikeda/Ishikawa sequence is worth the price of admission. If you weren't as captivated by the Junji performance as I was, you're still guaranteed to love Ishikawa sharp elbows and hooking punches to the curve of Ikeda's jaw, and of course Ikeda's straight fully body right hands to Ishikawa's ailing face. A low key best moment of the match happens right after Ikeda decks Ishikawa: the camera cuts to Yone, standing on the apron with a huge grin on his face. It did not seem like the kind of grin Ikeda's partner would be flashing, instead it looked like the grin of a big fan. In that moment you really got the sense that Yone wanted Ishikawa and Ikeda in this match because he's a tremendous fan of their specific thing, and wanted the best seat in the house to view that thing. I can't blame him, as their exchanges here were as good as any of the dozens of great Ikeda/Ishikawa exchanges we've seen for decades. What amazes me most about their pairing is that there is no "home base". There isn't a comfortable set of spots that they can hit every time, branching off from those spots depending on how long they each want to solo. This is a new song every time, played in the same key, but totally different arrangement. You're going to get punches to the face, but there are never any sequences that are repeated in the same way. The greatest pairings in wrestling history (Santo vs. Casas, Rey vs. Psicosis, Flair vs. Steamboat) all have spots and elements in common with their prior matches. Ikeda and Ishikawa just go out there and play free jazz with it, every time, and I've never seen them sound like they're using different different Fake Books. 

PAS: This is a hard match to rank, as there is nothing in any of the matches on our MOTY list as bad as that Marufuji hot tag, not only the endless comedy spot chops but then the interpretive dance step superkick misses with Hidaka. Just dreadful. But there are also few things on our list as sublime as another redux of the horrific dance between Ikeda and Ishikawa. As disgusting and gorgeous as it always is, the punches and headbutts landing with that hollow sound you really only get with these guys. Yone and Ishikawa had a killer opening section, Tanaka gets massacred by Ikeda in a very Ikeda way, but we also had a finish based around a Junji Tanaka comedy spot. I dunno, color me confused.  Ikeda vs. Ishikawa is the best wrestling gets, and I think the highs are higher then the lows are lower. 

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Fujiwara Family: BattlArts B-My Baby 11/5/97

BattlArts 11/5/97

Ikuto Hidaka vs. Mamoru Okamoto 

PAS: This goes really long for a undercard young guys match, but they have enough cool stuff to fill the time for sure. Okamoto was the bigger hitter, and he threw a couple of nasty kicks including a high kick which crossed Hidaka's eyes and some body kicks, he also had some simple but deeply executed submissions. Hidaka was early and career but started to mix in his fancy stuff, flipping senton, flying armbar and a cool victory roll into a kneebar for a tap. This probably would have been better at 10 minutes instead of 16, but I enjoyed what we got. 

Carl Greco vs Takeshi Ono 

PAS: These two guys are the badass B-Sides of BattlArts, Ishikawa, Ikeda, Otsuka, those guys are the big radio hits, the encore songs, Ono and Greco are the deep cuts  BattlArts super fans really love. This was killer stuff, almost all on the mat and full of grappling at the level wrestling has rarely reached. Greco is one of the best to ever do it, he moves in and out of holds with such grace and speed, constant movement, always looking to improve his position or twist a body in a different way. Ono is super skilled on the mat too, and looks a little outclassed, but in a way that fits the story of the match. We only get a couple of reckless Ono strike flurry, and maybe could have used one more, this is the midcard version of this match, a main event version could have been an all time classic. 

Yuki Ishikawa vs Mohammed Yone 

PAS: This was really cool too, man could BattlArts deliver on a show. Yone jumps Ishikawa before the bell, and the story of the match was Yone trying to earn his stripes against the top dog, and failing. It was a very Tenryuish performance from Ishikawa, except more nasty chokes from the ground and less short jabs. Loved how Ishikawa turned it up in the final moments, Yone fights the German suplex attempt, and Yuki lands two jumping headbutts to the back of his head, hits a German, lands another gross headbutt to the back of the head and sinks in a choke. I have been rabbit punched before, I hope Yone had someone sitting with him at night to make sure his brain didn't swell. 

Minoru Tanaka vs Masao Orihara 

PAS: Really fun mix of BattlArts style and sleazy Orihara shit. I am a low voter on Tanaka, especially on this rewatch, but he was really good here, using BattlArts style to counter Orihara's low blows and moonsaults. He aggressively takes him to the mat and works on an ankle pick which Orihara escapes by punching him in the dick. Eventually Tanaka just gets fed up and kicks him to death, winging hard shots at the kind of gross looking bandage on Orihara's arm until he brings his head low and gets put to sleep. I wonder if that bandage was from a wrestling injury or a shooting gallery abscess. 

Daisuke Ikeda vs Alexander Otsuka - EPIC

PAS: Big time violent BattlArts main event. Ikeda is a bulldozer here, opening the match by stuffing an Otsuke shoot with a uncalled for head but and a running stomp to Otsuka's face sending him out of the ring. Ikeda is kicking, punching and headbutting him with real violent force, and throwing some just ungodly hacksaw lariats like he is reaping wheat.  Otsuka meanwhile is focusing on the mat, with some slick looking leglocks, a tight triangle, and a really awesome looking la magistral into a chickenwing choke. This builds to a really epic finishing run with Ikeda throwing massive KO shots, dazing Otsuka all around the ring, only for Otsuka to duck under and catch a couple of his monster suplexes, including a brutal dragon which was able to get the KO. Ikeda was almost like an MMA fighter who throws so many huge power punches that he gassed himself out, with Otuska being able to rag doll his way to an upset. Great stuff between two all timers. 

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Fujiwara Family: UFO 3 3/14/99

UFO 3

Tiger Mask IV vs. Jean-Pierre David

PAS: This was nifty stuff, Mask was throwing sharp kicks and punches, while David would try to grab him and take him down. There was a couple of pretty wild shootstyle highspots, including David judo tossing Mask off of the weird UFO circular ring apron to the floor, and Tiger responding by kicking and punching him off the apron on the other side. Finish had David working for an armbar only to see Mask get his back and choke him out. This had the fun choppiness of a good RINGS match, like David in this, he had some good throws and a French Canadian chippiness which made for a fun opponent. 

ER: I've never seen TM4 work any kind of shootstyle, but this had that cool shootstyle feel where things start out normal and keep escalating to a clearly unprofessional peak when one guy stops playing around. This all looked very normal, David working for armbars, TM using cool pro wrestling strikes to back him off. The finish looked fantastic, as TM just starts wailing punches at the back of David's head, and not just one or two. Tiger Mask starts using punches to the back of the head to set up his other strikes, including a cool use of a Tiger Mask solebutt and a great high kick that knocks David swiftly to the mat. Then, more TM punches to the back of the head to set up a nasty rear naked choke. 

Sean McCully vs. Orlando Wiet

ER: We at Segunda Caida are big fans of pro wrestler Sean McCully, but this is probably the first actual shootstyle match of his we've written about. And it is good! But in a different way than his pro wrestling is good. Weit had the obvious size and reach advantage, but that did not prevent McCully from charging right in and keeping things close, negating the reach, and literally dragging Weit to the mat. The ropes are really the only thing that allowed Weit to last long enough to finish, as he just kept hooking them to prevent takedowns, leading to McCully just dragging him down anyway. I loved this one moment where Weit would not unhook his arm, and McCully just punched him in the teeth. Weit has really explosive ground and pound and landed several quick shots, and he finally used that reach to drag McCully down with a nice guillotine. 

PAS: Love to see McCully, he looks like an Irish mob legbreaker who ends up getting 15 years in Framingham because he tried to knock over a cigarette truck drunk. Cool story with McCully's aggression versus Wiet's skill, and the finish made a ton of sense, as the aggression  eventually backfired and he got caught in a nasty choke for the tap.

Koichiro Kimura vs. Richard Roland Loux

ER: Mostly one-sided shootstyle squash, with some stand up leading to a dueling leglock (it was 1999-2002 MMA, so there's going to be a dueling leglock). I do like dueling leglocks though, especially when someone like Kimura adds in a couple twists to show how stubborn he is, making it look like both guys really did want to end it right there. After the stand up it doesn't take long for Kimura to get an armbar. 

PAS: Loux was a big bald fat guy in a gi, and had one great throw, but it is hard to get a sense of someone in such a short match. Weird to watch Kimura as such an overdog while watching all of the RINGS stuff where he is sort of a jobber.

Tiger Mask vs. Alexander Otsuka

ER: I liked this, even though there were some moments of disconnect that I would have roasted some unknown indy worker for doing. And I guess that makes me a hypocrite, because I like these guys (that said, Sayama had some ground and pound that looked like he was intentionally trying to not hit Otsuka). But I think the match would have been better if they leaned harder into having either a shootstyle match, or a pro wrestling match. They kind of combined the two and sometimes it worked and other times it looked a bit silly. I liked Sayama breaking out a bunch of cool Tiger Mask spinkicks, and Otsuka was great at getting his head in the way of catching them. But I also think Sayama went to them too often, and Otsuka kind of had to just keep leaning in and keeping them, and not all of them hit as well and he had to sell them anyway. If they had gone full shootstyle it would have been cool to see Otsuka take a glancing blow and then punish Sayama for missing. 

We got a weird mix of them seemingly treating the shootstyle stuff seriously, but then also mixing in their signature pro wrestling spots. We probably didn't need to see Otsuka's big swing, but I liked the realism they brought to other exchanges, like the way Otsuka looked to sandbag a Tiger suplex before getting dropped. Otsuka's rolling kneebars looked fantastic, really hyperextending Sayama's leg, and yet I was still really surprised Otsuka got the tap. Otsuka really should have made an even bigger mark in 90s/00s wrestling than he did, but it seems like his desire to control his own schedule was more important, and that just makes him cooler. 

PAS: I though this was pretty great, Sayama wasn't throwing the same level of heat as he did fifteen years earlier against Fujiwara, but he still had some big swings which landed hard, and spiked Otsuka with the dragon suplex. I also could have done without the giant swing, but otherwise thought Otsuka was brilliant. I loved his constant activity on the ground, adjusting his attacks, landing nasty body shots to readjust and move Sayama. The final kneebar was amazing, rolling it into nastier and deeper locks until he nearly ripped Tiger's leg off. Awesome shit, and a real mark on Otsuka's impressive resume. 

Kazunari Murakami vs. Gerard Gordeau

ER: This was cool, but would have been even better a year later. Murakami was totally evolved into his best self by 2000, here he was still a little bit more of a normal MMA-based wrestler. And while Gordeau clearly worked heel (including pretending he had no clue who Murakami was in a pre-fight interview), outside of one questionable eye attack he really wasn't as brazen about his heel attacks as he had been. Still, this was a cool fight made up of bizarre grappling and tumbling over and through ropes, and an apparently loose set of rules that allows for submissions to be applied outside of the ring. They kept getting tied up in the ropes, but it always lead to something weird and unique, like Gordeau shoving Murakami until Murakami flipped over the ropes to the rounded apron, or another time where Gordeau went after Murakami's eye (UFO was always really smart or really stupid to not show the eye attacks up close, never giving us the camera angle of the suspected gouge). Murakami came out of it blinking a lot, and Gordeau swung with his biggest strike attempt of the match, a high kick that would have decapitated Murakami had it been an inch or two closer. Murakami grabs a kneebar and Gordeau tries to tie him in the ropes, but they roll out to the ample, rounded apron and the ref just allows the hold to continue, and Gordeau finally has to get Murakami to drop off the apron, allowing him to pounce. This whole thing gets ruled a no contest after both men refuse to break on the floor, and it's a shame they never did a bigger rematch. I have to assume that negotiations broke down, because you do the no contest to set up the big triumphant Murakami win, but instead Murakami just beat UWFI guy Billy Scott. 

PAS: I agree that this would have been better with the terrorist taking on the nazi, but I did love it. Gordeau is awesome at bringing that out of control aura to his matches which Murakami would master later, you can almost see Murakami in this match thinking "shit I can just do this stuff for 20 years". I am a fan of the weird UFO ring with the big circular ring aprons, which allow a lot of shit to be done on the edges and off the sides, it is almost like a no ropes match but with ropes. Gordeau made a career out of cowardly blinding a guy, it is like if Invader 1 had a spot in every match where he hid a knife in his trunks, which in hindsight would rule, and this ruled too. Liked how this just ended in oblivion with both guys on the floor tied up and Gordeau trying to melon scoop Murakami's peepers. 

Dan Severn vs. Naoya Ogawa

ER: You remember that awesome match you love where the referee kept involving himself in the action the entire time? Of course you don't, because no good match can ever come from referees overly involving themselves. This match keeps threatening to get violent many different times, and every single one of those times Special Guest Referee Dory Funk Jr. literally wedges his body in the middle of these two, pulls one away from the other, grabs arms to prevent strikes, just completely breaks up any sort of conflict whatsoever. Funk was like Tirantes, if Tirantes had no charisma, shitty hair, and a ball cap that he purchased when he and his wife visited a retired aircraft carrier. Severn would grab Ogawa, back him into the ropes, fight for control...and then Funk would separate them. Ogawa would reverse Severn on the mat, get in the mount, and Funk would interject his body. The whole match was like being at your favorite restaurant, and every time the waiter comes walking up with your food he just keeps walking past you, letting you really see and smell this great food before not giving it to you. I don't think we got to see one single sequence worked to any kind of finish. At one point they spilled through the ropes onto the entrance ramp, and things looked like they were ready to unravel as they kept rolling and struggling down the ramp...and Funk comes running out of the ring with a freaking whistle, blowing it like he was breaking up a fight on an elementary school playground. Ogawa hits a nasty pump kick to the back of Severn's head and sinks a choke for the finish, but this entire match had all the guts ripped out of it. There has to be a story behind this, as this may be the most intrusive guest ref performance in wrestling history. 

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Fujiwara Family: BattlArts Action-B 4/19/98

ACTION B

Ryuji Hijikata vs. Mach Junji

PAS: This was pretty early in both guys careers when they had nothing but potential. I don't think either guy had the careers this match predicted, but this was a damn fun example of young guy Battlarts. Junji had some fun leg work including a nasty kneebar which drove Hijikata's knee to his chest. We had some hard kicks and punches by both guys and then a couple of 95% Otsuka level suplexes by Hijikata where he just collapsed Junji. 

ER: I thought this was raw as hell, can't remember a Junji performance I liked more. He had this wild eyed, all out there performance and attacked Hijikata's leg like a guy who had been locked in a cage all day. He works a kneebar and does not want to let go of that leg, and it's great. He also throws these nasty knee lifts in the corner and blasts Hijikata in the back of the head with a downward lariat. I'm so into wild rookie Junji! Hijikata pays him back by dropping Junji a couple times in freakshow Karelin ways, folding Junji's legs in ugly ways over his head. Then, decides to fold him just as bad to win with a single leg crab. These rookies are hungry!!

Kasumi Usuda vs. Hidetomo Egawa 

PAS: I thought this was a totally rad 7 minute match. No idea who Egawa was (according to Cagematch he worked some WAR undercards, and IWA Japan stuff in the late 90s), but he was pretty great here. He had two cool german suplexes and a nasty back suplex and had this way of whipping his head back when he was selling high kicks that made Usuda look like prime Mirko Cro Cop. Usuda is always worth watching, and he lands some big shots and slick counters, including nearly getting a tap with a straight armbar counter out of a german suplex. Total hidden gem of a match.

ER: Yeah this ruled. I am also an Egawa novice, but he took a fierce beating from Usuda. Usuda really looked like a hit man here. Usuda often looks like a hot man. He has these focused eyes and just goes Energizer Bunny on Egawa. Egawa rose to this challenge and got run through like a champ, not slowing down despite knowing his odds kept getting worse. He had a couple nice suplexes that landed hard, but Usuda sold them like a guy getting out of bed to pee and was totally unflappable. He throws kicks in such great order, never getting trapped in overly similar combos, just throwing legs out constantly. His submissions always look like he's trying to break a limb as quickly as possible, his armbars have probably left so many people with creaky elbows from being briefly hyperextended a couple dozen times by Usuda. This is 7 minutes, feels like 3, all killer. 

Masao Orihara/Takeshi Ono vs. Mohammed Yone/Mamoru Okamoto 

ER: Orihara/Ono is such a badass tag team. You can picture them being a mid movie mini boss in a Jason Statham movie, Statham opening the door in a kingpin's office to find these two in black tights, black gloves, weird hair, swinging chains. And it's weird seeing Yone with a bowl cut, it's like seeing Sam Elliott without a mustache. Orihara is one of my favorite assholes in wrestling history. Here he swings hard on clotheslines, hits powerbombs and suplexes as unprofessionally as possible, shoves the ref when he gets in the way of Orihara hitting the ropes, headbutts Yone in the balls, all cool asshole things. Ono is focused on bending legs, and he really tries to pick on Okamoto, who has some nice moments (like surprising Ono with a dragon screw). I didn't love how Yone and Okamoto made their big comeback, felt a little like they skipped a couple steps. Yone took Orihara's nasty spider suplex, then Orihara hit a moonsault that I think was supposed to hit Yone's knees? But it looks mostly like a normal Orihara moonsault, and it looked dumb when Yone got right up and immediately went on his first big offense run of the match. His offense looked good (and Okamoto came in and hit a nice spin kick, also dropped Ono with a fast German), but I would have liked them coming up with a more interesting way of getting to their comeback. But the final run is a real winner, stacking up some crazy things on top of each other. Yone hits a big hang time crossbody off the top and basically bounces off a brick wall of Orihara, Ono dumps Okamoto with an insane tiger suplex, they hit a tandem vertical suplex on Yone with Orihara kicking him in the temple right after, a nice violent run to the finish line and an overall good match. Ono's octopus is the cruelest chiropractor in the ocean. 

Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Ikuto Hidaka 

ER: This was more down-paced than anything we've had on this show so far, and it's kinda tough to follow a couple of hot 7 minute sprints when your match is those 7 minutes with 7 slower minutes of rope break knee bars before it. The pace felt like a deliberate cool down, and I thought they did a good job building from sparklers to cherry bombs. I liked Hoshikawa more a couple years later, when he was more of his own thing and less Minoru Tanaka-lite. Hidaka had a lot of the same arsenal but it wasn't as refined in '98 as it was a year later. He was doing the same kind of suplexes transitioned into kneebars and chained suplexes, but they had a lot more poise a year later. Still, they go for some nice and risky stuff, like Hidaka dropkicking Hoshikawa's knee from the top rope, and Hoshikawa hitting an awesome dropkick while Hidaka is perfectly upside down in an Asai moonsault. That latter spot came off especially nuts, and you gotta like guys trying to stand out like that. Weakest match on the show, but you still got to watch guys take hard kicks to the arms and body, see a couple suplexes. 

Minoru Tanaka vs. Tiger Mask IV 

ER: This started with a cool package showing Minoru Tanaka as the proud UWA World Heavyweight champ, a belt that I'm sure has a very long complicated history of different wrestlers or promotions controlling it, but I liked them highlighting Tanaka as a guy constantly defending the belt with his spinning armbar. They worked this like a serious title match, but I think that held it back from what it could have been, especially compared to the rest of the card. Most minutes of this card were filled with a real immediacy and guys really going for the kill, and it's tough to jump into cold water like this no matter how safe it is. They work some competent mat stuff but it never has the danger of any of the submissions from the first three matches. They take their time working holds and while I can like methodical wrestling, some of this felt like they were lying in holds a bit too long. And while the prior match started slower, I felt they turned the dial up nicely to build to the finish, and this match didn't get to that. Even the highlights of this match didn't feel like they lived up to the highlights of Tanaka's other UWA title defenses. This was sound stuff, but didn't have anywhere near the dynamite of the rest of the card. 

Yuki Ishikawa/Alexander Otsuka vs. Daisuke Ikeda/Carl Greco - EPIC

PAS: Man alive was this tremendous. These may be my top four BattlArts guys (Ono and Usuda are obviously contenders as well), and they just stretch it out for a big time main event BattlArts tag. Greco is incredible in this, what a monumental and underused talent. He hits this gator roll into a side choke here which is breathtaking in its speed and violence. He has killer grappling sections with both Otsuka and Ishikawa that are cool in very different ways. The Ishikawa sections are chess matches with both guys countering attacks, the Otsuka sections are speed chess, they put the fucking clock on and just attack and overwhelm. To add to all the mat wrestling, Greco is as cool on his feet, throwing super fast hands, using great head movement, and landing a fucking Jean-Claude Van Damme jumping side kick from across the ring. We also get Ikeda vs. Ishikawa aka The Greatest Match-up in Wrestling History, and it is what it always is. Otsuka throws a couple of big throws, and even hits a tope to cut Ikeda off during this finish. Matches like this are why I am doing this project, couldn't recommend it more.

ER: When you are in the mood to watch BattlArts, this is the kind of match you hope to get. This really captures the overall energy of this really great show, as you have three of the Batt Mount Rushmore (also agree with Phil that Greco/Usuda/Ono would be the ones vying for that 4th spot) going full blast for 18 minutes. When a match starts with Ishikawa/Ikeda doing the things those two do, you'd think it would be hard to maintain that energy over a full match, but that would also mean you wouldn't be giving enough credit to Otsuka or Greco, which is a mistake. Ishikawa and Ikeda are fired up at the bell, no build to their violence, just starting off with fast grappling and quickly getting to Ishikawa raining down punches and elbows into Ikeda's face and neck. Ikeda doesn't forget those, as he spends the rest of the match taking any chance he gets to land cheapshots, my favorite a running punt to Ishikawa's t-zone just to break up a submission (2nd place goes to him leveling Ishikawa with a lariat to the back of the neck after the match). Ishikawa has this great wedding singer hair that makes him look like a real madman trading punches, and you know he and Ikeda were trading punches. My favorite exchange between them might have been this sick 1-2 combo, where Ishikawa threw a right to Ikeda's jaw while Ikeda was already throwing a right to Ishikawa's body, leaving both of them momentarily stunned. 

But the Greco/Otsuka exchanges were a different kind of wild. Greco has such insane enthusiasm and Otsuka easily matches it. Their throws are so quick that I have to assume they have no idea what part of their body is going to hit the mat first. There was one exchange where Greco did a Karelin lift that flipped Otsuka over in a 360, and as he was landing Otsuka was already picking up Greco to do a similar more violent lift. Greco had a moment earlier in the match where he suplexed Ishikawa and landed with a freaky dragon sleeper, actually looking like he was going to separate Ishikawa's head from body. This whole match was a scrap, and scraps with actual technicians always produce some killer results. The whole match was hot, and the finishing stretch turns the heat up even more, with Otsuka sending Ikeda flying with a great tope and Ishikawa flattening out Greco with a grisly rear naked choke. You want BattlArts? This is peak BattlArts. 

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Fujiwara Family: BattlArts Tag Battle 1996 12/21/96

12/21/96

Alexander Otsuka/Yuki Ishikawa vs. Carl Greco/Viktor Kruger

ER: As much as I appreciate Greco and Kruger coordinating their trunks for a Tag Battle League, I can't help but think this match could have been a classic had Greco chosen someone a little more interesting than Kruger as his partner. Kruger is a guy who gives us the answer to the question nobody ever asks, which is "What would shootstyle Jungle Jim Steele be like?" His power strikes feel like the weakest strikes of the match (those clubbing forearms are bad Power Plant trainee personified), but I did like when he was trying to use his size to hyperextend Otsuka's knee, and at least his late match powerbomb on Ishikawa and especially the KO splash mountain bomb on Otsuka looked great. The rest of this was just me being excited at our next shot at Greco vs. either Otsuka or Ishikawa. Greco brings such great energy to his mat scrambling, and he vs. Otsuka is one of my favorite BattlArts pairings in history. Otsuka is a guy who will throw incredible suplexes, and his suplexes on Greco make it feel like Otsuka is twice Greco's size. Seeing Greco tangle with Ishikawa you get the sense that a finishing sub could come at any time, and it's fascinating to just zone out and watch them each work three holds in advance, going after an ankle while also having a crossface in mind, always cool stuff. I loved when Ishikawa and Otsuka trapped Greco in a tandem Boston crab, really looked like they were going to wishbone the guy, and Ishikawa mocking Kruger while applying the hold made it that much sweeter. Again, thought the match ending powerbomb on Otsuka was sick, but Kruger needs to bring it in the finals. 

PAS: I didn't hate Kruger in this, he comes in with a terrible looking legdrop, and those Vader forearms were awful, but I liked the idea of a giant German guy using his size to bulldoze smaller guys. It is really just the drop off, Greco is such a talent, that any time he is on the apron you want him in the match. Kyle Kuzma is a fine player but if LeBron is on the bench, the Lakers are going to get outscored. The Greco vs. Otsuka and Greco vs. Ishikawa exchanges are as brilliant as they always are, Ishikawa and Greco just grapple and it is great to watch. I liked Kruger's finishing powerbomb, felt like a KO shot, but he was clearly a big step down. 

Daisuke Ikeda/Takeshi Ono vs. TAKA Michinoku/Shoichi Funaki-FUN

ER: This was fine, but shootstyle removes all of the most interesting parts of Kaientai's game, and the match is also unexpectedly controlled by them, so you mostly get Taka and Funaki just throwing stomps and locking on submissions directly next to the ropes. Was this their strategy? Because it felt like every time they locked on an armbar or kneebar it was right in the ropes and immediately broken up by the ref. It was odd. Their coolest bit of submission work was even a kind of a copy of the tandem Boston crab from the prior match, with Taka and Funaki focusing more on wishboning Ono's legs (like I thought Ishikawa and Otsuka were going to do) rather than turning it. Ikeda is always nice when working guys like Funaki, never outright massacres the guys who aren't real killers, so he still hits several headbutts but they aren't thrown with the math-forgetting intensity that he'll throw them against Yuki, his Brother in Lost Brain Cells. Taka does not get as much leniency, as Ikeda lays him right out with a mean as hell lariat that upended Taka like he was hit by a Yugo. I think I would have liked this more as a style clash, with both teams playing to their strengths, rather than one team dominating at a style they aren't nearly as good at.  

PAS: Hard not to see this as a disappointment. I have seen really great PWFG TAKA and PWFG Funaki, but they didn't full embrace that style. Instead of really going hard on the mat, you had long sections of kind of dull figure fours and boston crabs, it felt like Brad Armstrong and Ted DiBiase killing time until a loaded glove finish. I really liked the opening asskicking rush by Ono and Ikeda although it kind of promised a match we didn't end up getting. There were a couple of mid match moments of dickness from Ono and a big Ikeda lariat, which keep this from being skippable, but it was a miss for me. 

Daisuke Ikeda/Takeshi Ono vs. Carl Greco/Viktor Kruger - GREAT

ER: I liked this but - as with the other two matches - this never really kicks into that higher gear the best Batt matches get to. We get some fun brief double teaming on Kruger (Ono hitting him in ring while Ikeda throws kicks at his kidneys and back of head from the apron), and a lot of Ikeda and Ono ripping apart Greco. Ono was a real dickhead, which is Ono at his best. He punked Greco the whole time they tangled, throwing in small unprofessional shots to set up something bigger. He punched Greco in his braced knee right before dropping back with a kneebar, and any time he had mount he would just grind his forearms and elbows across whatever part of Greco's body is most convenient. Ono here makes me want a wrestler who just does this, no real offense, just digs his elbows into a guy's flesh every single chance he gets. I have no clue how Greco got anything done, with an elbow or fist constantly digging into his jaw or eyebrow or collarbone. Ono is the master of annoyance, never holding still, the guy who will crank on Greco's neck with no intention to actually lock on a neck submission, just being annoying in painful ways. By the time Greco finally tagged out to Kruger, I was excited to see Kruger stick up for his boy, but he doesn't really have it in him. Kruger is lost on the mat and it's exciting to see the much smaller Ono completely fearless with him, shooting in for a takedown and kicking away at him, tagging in Ikeda for more kicks. Kruger can really only cover up and absorb attacks while waiting to catch a limb, and I do like the payoff over shoulder powerbomb he crushes Ikeda with for the KO. Part of me likes that he has this killshot powerbomb, but perhaps a bigger part of me is annoyed he does basically nothing other than take shots and hit his one finish. 

PAS: I am higher on this than Eric. I thought the use of Kruger in this match was really good, he mostly just stays out of the way and lets us get awesome Greco sections against Ono and Ikeda. He gets really worked over by a pair of legendary cheap shot artists in Ono and Ikeda so when he finally comes in for the final run he looks like a killer, huge wild stiff shots, like he decided "Fuck it, if these tiny guys are going to pop me, I am popping them back" and the final powerbomb was an exclamation point. Of course most of the match was Ono and Greco rolling hard with Greco being a wizard and Ono being a nasty little asshole. I need to seek out some singles between the two, I am sure they happened and they have such great chemistry, two guys who never stop attacking, always looking to adjust and sink in something different or tighter. I agree with Eric that this didn't hit the level of the best BattlArts tags, but that level is so high that it still leaves plenty of room underneath for great stuff. 

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Fujiwara Family: BattlArts Final Fight in X-Mas 12/25/96

12/25/96

Kazumasa Fujimoto vs. Michiya Chiba 

PAS: Not sure who either of these guys are, and this was 2 minutes of rolling until Chiba gets an ankle pick for the tap in 2 minutes. Nothing to see here, keep it moving. 

Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Satoshi Yoneyama 

PAS: This was a fun little match up with a pre NOI Mohammed Yone.  I enjoyed how much these guys were bending each other on knee bars and boston crabs, I tweaked my back earlier this week and I clearly need Yone to stretch me out. Hoshikawa was fun in this environment, nice snap kicks, cool submissions willingness to push the pace. Yone had a a couple of cool looking flip kicks, hitting a couple before getting one caught and bent into a one leg crab for the tap. 

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Minoru Tanaka 

PAS: Isikawa's trainer really mastered this kind of wiley technician versus pretty boy kicker match, and it is fun to watch Ishikawa do his riff on Fujiwara vs. Takada or Funaki. Tanaka tries to overwhelm Ishikawa with speed and athleticism, only to see Ishikawa use skill to find places to attack. Ishikawa had some of the nastiest pro-wrestling ground and pound in this match, cracking Tanaka with hard knuckle out punches to the side of the head and ribs. Tanaka hit a wild flurry of shots, for two downs near the end of the match, really hard and super fast. He hits two big suplexes on Ishikawa for close near falls, only to let Yuki get hold of his arm for a nasty hammerlock submission. 

ER: I think before watching this match I had only seen one other Ishikawa/Tanaka singles match. This isn't a typical pairing I think of in BattlArts, even though they were there at the same time for many years. I thought this was fantastic though, as Tanaka was using his quickness to escape holds and had really fast application that kept Ishikawa scrambling. This really is a Fujiwara vs. striker match, the kind where Fujiwara takes maybe 20% of the match and then finally pulls off the thing he's been thinking about the whole match. Tanaka was super speedy and hit hard, and the way he and Ishikawa got tangled was always cool. I loved them fighting over a heel hook, and once Tanaka got the better grip Ishikawa just punched him right in the bandaged elbow. Tanaka even gives him a little "seriously!?" kind of look before wrenching in the hold. Ishikawa is mean when he gets the chance to be, like when he got in mount and threw a couple filthy punches down into Tanaka's jaw, but I thought for sure that Tanaka was going to tap him once he got him into a snug triangle. You could really see Ishikawa quickly running out of options before he just desperately rolled his body toward the ropes for the break. After I saw Ishikawa punch that bandaged elbow in the heel hook, I know it was on his mind, and I saw him reach for it again while trying to break a subsequent hold. So once he hit that awesome trap arm double underhook suplex to stun Tanaka I was not surprised in the least that he went straight to that hammerlock sub on that bandaged elbow. Awesome sub 10 minute match from a BattlArts singles match pairing I never think about.  

Daisuke Ikeda/Alexander Otsuka vs. Katsumi Usuda/Takeshi Ono - EPIC

PAS: BattlArts style main event tags are about the surest best in wrestling history, and this was another barnburner. Ikeda and Ono are an incredible tag team, but also amazing opponents, they throw shots with such reckless abandon at each other, and turn every exchange into a high wire act where someone is moments away from going to sleep. Otsuka is a magician as well, his level switches and throws are so much fun to watch and he brings a different spice to match with three big kickers. I thought the finish run was some wild stuff, and Ono sleeping Otsuka with a big knee felt like a huge moment for him. Ono is a monster talent, but he seemed slotted a bit below the rest of the BattlArts big four (the other three in this match and Ishikawa) so it was great that he got to show the thunder in his hands and feet to win this one.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA 

FUJIWARA FAMILY

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Fujiwara Family: BattlArts Yuki Ishikawa 15th Anniversary Show 7/21/07

This show is available, along with a ton of late 00s BattlArts on IWTV

Katsumi Usuda vs. Keita Yano

PAS: Looking back on my early 2010's reviews Tom and I hated Yano as he just got completely up his own ass and started trying to jack ROH moves from tapes. I have heard from people I semi-trust that recent Yano is weird and cool, in 2007 he was hueing more closely to the style and he was a fine basic opponent for Usuda. I liked Yano starting the match with a sneak high kick to try to catch the veteran sleeping. Usuda is never not worth watching, and he throws some big hard kicks like he want to do. I also liked him adjusting his kneebar to really torque the leg for the finish. Replacement level Usuda match, but that is a nice level. 

Toshie Uematsu vs. Carlos Amano

PAS: This was solid joshi wrestling with a bunch of nifty mat counters. I especially loved Uematsu putting Amano in a kneebar, catching Amano's leg when she tried to kick out of it and putting in a figure four. Amano also had some nifty work both in the guard and trying to clear Uematsu's guard. I wish the strikes landed with some more thump, weakness there kept this from being a real standout, but it was worth watching nonetheless. 

Kyosuke Sasaki vs. Yuta Yoshikawa

PAS: This didn't do much for me. It was pretty much all striking, and Sasaki landed a great solebutt to the stomach, punt to the face combo, but outside of that there was nothing memorable. Lots of strike, make a face, other guy throws a strike exchanges, and the final KO needed to be a lot more brutal on a show with Ikeda in the main event. 

Fujita Hayato vs. Munenori Sawa

PAS: This was a way better version of the stand and trade type of match. I liked the story of Sawa having the faster hands and feet, but Hayato landing the big shots. Hayato always fit in the Fujiwara Family feds great whenever he showed up, his default is crowbar and he lands some big thumping shots. Sawa had a little more horseshit then I prefer, his Mutoh aping never looks good, and I don't know about a figure four as a finishing submission in a shoot style fight. I did like how Hayato kept slapping the shit out him to try to break the hold, by the time Hayato tapped Sawa's nose and mouth were bloody. 

Alexander Otsuka/Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda/Manabu Hara - EPIC

PAS: These fucking guys. What absolute legends. Most people celebrate big milestones like Anniversaries by inviting some friends to dinner, maybe spending a weekend in Vegas. Ishikawa spends it by inviting his buddies over to kick the ever loving shit out of each other. Hara isn't my first choice for the fourth in this tag, but he is on eleven here, from opening up the match by dropping Ishikawa with a high kick to his killer final stanza against Otsuka, career performance for him. Of course the other three are incredible too, Ikeda spends much of the match sniping, anytime Otsuka or Ishikawa puts a submission on Hara, Ikeda is coming in hot, with full force kicks to the head. Ishikawa and Ikeda also have a couple of their legendary back and forths, as nasty and grotesque and you would expect from those two. Otsuka maybe the star of the match though. He mostly faces off against Hara and eats big shots again and again trying to get close enough to unleash hell with suplexes. At one point he counters a Hara kneebar attempt by grabbing him and chucking him with a German suplex. He and Ishikawa also hit an awesome enzigiri/German combo and finishes Hara with a dragon suplex on his head. These matches are made on their final showdowns and this one had a great one.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA

FUJIWARA FAMILY

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Fujiwara Family: BattlArts Project B Master Plan 1/21/97

Project B Master Plan

Shoichi Funaki vs. Ikuto Hidaka 

PAS: This was Hidaka's debut match and he comes in wearing already wearinf pressure bandage which tell something about the training at the BattlArts dojo. As you might expect this was mostly a squash, although Hidaka gets a big dropkick and super fast flip before being dispatched. Funaki is not the optimal guy you want to see beat on a rookie (I imagine Hidaka was happy he didn't draw Ikeda for his debut) but this was fun.

Naohiro Hoshikawa  vs. Alexander Otsuka

PAS: This was a styles clash with Hoshikawa representing MPRO against Otsuka's BattlArts style, and they really meshed those styles well I liked Otsuka refusing to run the ropes early, only for Hoshikawa to force him and crack him with a jump kick. There was also a fun spot where Hoshikawa throws these theatrical kicks which don't hit clean only to finish the combo with a soccer kick to Otsuka's face, that was a style I was taught in boxing, throw the first couple with speed and land the last couple with force (I was much better with the force then the speed). You come to an Otsuka match primarily for the suplexes and there were some corkers, we get his great hanging German, a blindingly fast high angle capture suplex and a dragon to finish it off which looked incredible, fast forceful and violent, one the greatest dragon suplexes I have seen, Otsuka was a marvel. 

The Great Sasuke/Gran Hamada/Gran Naniwa/Masato Yakushiji vs. Kaientai DX (TAKA Michinoku/ MEN's Teioh/Dick Togo/Shiryu) - EPIC

PAS: This is one of the all time great combinations of guys in wrestling history, just true magic anytime you get a KDX team against a group of MPRO babyfaces. This starts a little diffThis ierent then the traditional matchup with KDX jumping Sasuke's team before the bell and taking them on a destructive arena tour, tossing them into walls, Sasuke gets launched back first into chairs, Yakushiji gets bodyslammed on a table, after that KDX struts back into the ring triumphant. When the babyfaces appear we get some of the fast forward speed action that you would expect from these teams, everybody hitting everything with such grace and force, with just impeccable timing. Much of 2020 wrestling aspires for this level of grace, athleticsim and beauty but no one does it like these guys did it. Awesome Yakushiji performance, he really was Rey Jr., La Petit Prince level fast and agile, and had a perfect group of rudos to work with, He hits a whip kick in this match where he looked like he had super speed. Out of nowhere this match takes a turn, Naniwa get's his mask ripped and gets sliced by Togo and all of a sudden a waterfall of gore just streams out of his forehead (Shiryu looks like he got slammed into barbedwire with the blood on his back, which was all from Naniwa's head). It takes a real turn, with Naniwa getting his head wrapped and coming back triumphant, with no mask to get the win. It's crazy that these guys can still add that kind of wrinkle to their amazing formula.  

ER: What a match. My friend Charlie was over at my house to record a podcast episode, and when we were done he just wanted to hang out for awhile and decompress. He is as casual a wrestling fan as you can get, would never watch wrestling on his own, but always enjoys and immediately gets into it whenever I put it on. And are there really many better styles of wrestling at reaching across that aisle of casual fandom, than a vintage all cylinders MPro multiman? He took to it immediately, and how could anyone not? This is not really even a heralded Mpro multiman, but it's on the level of the greatest ones I have seen, and it is a match I seek out and love. At its heart it has a tremendous bloody fighting babyface Naniwa performance, and it had a tremendous dickhead heel performance from Taka. Everybody else added nothing but positive segments, we built to a fever pitch where guys were flying in and out like a chaotic fight in Enter the Dragon. 

There really isn't a misstep in the whole thing, a real tight 20 minutes that - like the best of this style - felt like a bottomless bag of tricks to pull from. The crowd brawl was a fun diversion and really set the KDX tone, camera cutting all over Korakuen to see them inflicting violence, as Sasuke gets thrown through chairs and has chairs thrown onto him, and Taka instructs everyone to learn from him as he bounces a chair off the side of Naniwa's head. Taka takes that attitude back into the ring as we settle down into pairings, and Taka is the guy out there kicking people in the head and really separating himself from the pack. As Charlie observed while watching, "Some of these guys are hitting a lot harder than the others." Taka especially targets Naniwa, not just smacking him down and landing everything harder than necessary, but every time Naniwa is down Taka just mockingly kicks at his head, just shoving Naniwa's head around with the bottom of his boot. And it leads to a tremendous moment where Naniwa stands up and just wastes Taka with a falling clothesline. Naniwa hits a couple of big clotheslines in this match, but telling Taka he wasn't going to take his shit anymore is one of those immaculate pure babyface moments. Naniwa gets his masked ripped right off his head and bleeds a gusher, all building to him spiking Shiryu with some great sitout gutwrench powerbombs (each one landing higher and higher on Shiryu's shoulders) for the win. Everyone had great moments in this, that shouldn't be a shock. Sasuke had big bumps into chairs and a couple of wild Sasuke dives; Yakushiji reminded me of how damn quick he was and how bananas his headscissor and armdrag variations were, the kind where as he's spinning you don't have any idea what direction either he or his opponent will fly. Everyone looked good, but adding in a huge gusher and triumphant Naniwa return (with big head bandage!) made this one of the greatest MPro multimans ever. It just happened in BattlArts. 

First Tiger Mask vs. Minoru Tanaka 

PAS: It was pretty crazy that the most pure shootstyle match on this card was an old fat guy in a puffy silver mask. This was excellent stuff, old tubby Sayama is my favorite of all Sayama's and he was a machine in this match, constantly coming forward, working the guard, trying to take Tanaka's back and using his hips and foot movement to stay away from Tanaka's kicks. I loved all of the fight for the chicken wing, Sayama really yanked on the neck and arm and kept adjusting to tighten the grip, and then whipped off a beautiful snap german suplex which landed Tanaka directly on the back of his neck, before finally sinking it in. Really cool stuff, one of my favorite Tanaka matches ever, and better then anything Sayama did in his first New Japan run.

 Daisuke Ikeda/Katsumi Usuda vs. Yuki Ishikawa/Takeshi Ono - EPIC

PAS: My god is this match something. The utter reckless disregard for their opponents, the speed and athleticism of the attacks, the clever ways to mix in moments of true horror with moments of beauty.s. This was a battle of four all time greats at their absolute athletic peaks. All of these guys remained great wrestlers well into the 2000s, but their style slowed down a bit as they moved into their 40s and 50s. Here they are all in their mid 20s and the exchanges are so much faster and explosive without surrendering any of the chilling violence. The opening of this match is a great example of the brilliance of this style, Usuda and Ono have this lighting quick intricate exchange of kneebar counters, with Ono getting the advantage, which was quickly snuffed out by Ikeda running in and kicking Ono's head into the fourth row. A Sunday of skill and speed with a cherry of brutality on top. The match continues on that vein, with great exchanges by all of the participants, with all four looking great. Ikeda throws some of his classic crowbar lariats along with nasty kicks and some really good desperate leg selling, selling which was instigated by Ono throwing some of the nastiest leg kicks I have seen in either wrestling or MMA, you could see Ikeda's kneecap shift with each shot. Every move in this match was remarkable, just the force Usuda used to yank in a choke, or the wild reckless punch exchange between Ikeda and Ishikawa which looked like something out a Necro Butcher brawl, to Ono working Usuda's body like a heavy bag. Just perfection.  If this match happened in the 2010s it would be match of the decade material, and it was just another day in the office for the BattlArts boys.

ER: This was tremendous, exactly what I wanted from everyone involved. The MPro showcase earlier, followed by an excellent Tiger Mask/Minoru Tanaka match, felt like a difficult set to follow. But this delivered in an entirely different way, and I'm sure there haven't been many better straight hours of pro wrestling than these three matches. This match has no problem following those matches, as everyone here is in a mood to throw kicks and eat kicks. Takeshi Ono was not nearly as heralded as his contemporaries when these matches were actually happening. Ikeda, Ishikawa, Tanaka, Hidaka, Malenko, and Otsuka were the acclaimed BattlArts guys which didn't leave a lot of room for Ono at the time. Catching up and getting more shootstyle opinions into the wrestling web allows us to reevaluate and find new high value and joy in guys like Ono. Ono is a fantastic shootstyle wrestler, and one of the most compelling juniors wrestlers of the last 25 years. His wrestling instincts are great, he knows when to dramatically go in for the kill, knows how to milk drama out of rope breaks and knock down selling. Having he and Ikeda on opposite sides means you have guys on each side who specialize in kicking people in the face while breaking up pinfalls, and I think everyone in this match takes at least three kicks somewhere directly behind their ears. Ikeda gets his leg attacked and bent in painful ways, Ikeda and Ishikawa dragged things down into the gutter with a nose busting punch exchange, four absolute legends of shootstyle all working at top gear. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DICK TOGO

FUJIWARA FAMILY

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Fujiwara Family: BattlArts 3/25/00

BattlArts 3/25/00

Mohammed Yone vs. Ryuji Yamakawa

PAS: This was a Yamakawa match rather then an Yone match, and does a nice job of showing the variety that was on an average BattlArts card, everything wasn't Ikeda kicks to the eye. This was a fine hardcore brawl, Yone takes a suplex to the floor through a couple of tables, Yamakawa bleeds just to bleed and finishes the match with a nasty clothesline. Nothing that would go on either guys resume tape, but fun nonetheless.

Minoru Tanaka vs. Ikuto Hidaka

PAS: This was a 2000s juniors match with the only really BattlArts flavor being some knee bars and head kicks, but it was a heck of 2000s juniors match. Hidaka is really great at flying into things, diving knee bars, flying chokes, spring board dropkicks on knees. Tanaka has some cool rolling attacks too, and just hurls Hidaka on top of his head and kicks him in the face. There was a Tanaka dragon suplex which was as cool as that move has ever been thrown. Tanaka gets his knee taken apart, but sells it sporadically, which is a problem, but kind of par for the course. 19 minute Juniors matches are very much not my thing, but this was as good as that is going to get.

Shinobu Kandori/Mach Junji vs. COW COW/Takeshi Ono - FUN

PAS: Shinobu Kandori and Takeshi Ono are two of the coolest wrestlers of all time, so of course this tag match turns into a Mach Junji vs. COW COW showdown. Ono and Kandori are stuck mostly breaking up pins as COW COW and Junji face off. Not sure who COW COW was, but his execution on stuff was pretty good, nice german suplex and a stiff clothesline, so I didn't mind the match, but this was about the most uninteresting way it could have been worked.

Alexander Otsuka/Kazunari Murakami vs. Naoki Sano/Yuki Ishikawa

PAS: Look at this lineup, just four of the most badass wrestlers ever working a long BattlArts tag. We know what a great matchup Ishikawa vs. Murakami is, and it is awesome in this match too. Murakami is frenzied as usual and he and Ishikawa go after each other early with Ishikawa dumping him with a side suplex and Murakami using these amazing Judo throws. Most people think of Murakami as a guy who would just throw crazy punches and kicks and mean mug, but he had maybe the best Judo throws in wrestling history, he would just hurl the guy he was wrestling with incredible speed and tremendous force. We also got a bunch of Otsuka matching up with Sano, which is something that happened a couple of other times in tags, but was just incredible stuff. They had super fast takedowns and grappling exchanges, constantly moving and looking for the smallest advantages. These are also a pair of guys who will stretch the boundaries of BattlArts style and we also got a great tope by Sano and a pescado by Otsuka. The match breaks down first into an Ishikawa vs. Murakami final run, which included Otsuka breaking up a save by destroying Sano with a Everest German, and then a Sano vs. Murakami section with some nasty exchanged kicks and submission scrambles. It goes to a thirty minute draw which deprives us of a finish but does give us 30 minutes of these guys, so a good trade off.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Katsumi Usuda - EPIC

PAS: Usuda is sort of the Akira Taue of the Battlarts big four, a little less flashy, a little less regarded, but equally able to deliver the goods when needed. He comes out wilding here, super aggressive and total pushing the pace to Ikeda, winging hard kicks to his head and body. You don't usually see Ikeda having to work off the back foot, it was a really cool different look for him. Even when Ikeda lands a side suplex, Usuda is able to grab an arm and work a keylock. Ikeda is able to land some big kicks of his own and one of his lead pipe clotheslines right on the ropes, I have no idea how Ikeda didn't break his forearm or Usuda's jaw or both. Finish is really great, with Usuda being a little reckless trying for a guillotine choke allowing Ikeda to slip first into a Fujiwara and then into a nasty choke sleeper which whitens Usuda's eyes. Really felt like Usuda had his number, but Ikeda was able to use his aggression against him. Maybe the most Fujiwarish Ikeda performance I can remember seeing. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE SHINOBU KANDORI

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA

FUJIWARA FAMILY 

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All Time MOTY List Head to Head 2001: Hashimoto/Otsuka vs. Misawa/Ogawa VS. Santo vs. Parka

Mitsuharu Misawa/Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Shinya Hashimoto/Alexander Otsuka NOAH 1/13/01

ER: Interpromotional Japanese wrestling has always been a source of gold, with the WAR vs. NJPW and Onita vs. Karate Guys being genre standouts. Pro Wrestling NOAH rarely utilized the interpromotional feud, but did so for a scant number of memorable matches opposing Hashimoto's Zero1 in 2001 (maybe some day we'll cover the WEW feud?). One of these matches, Hashimoto/Yasuda vs. Honda/Inoue, was our inaugural 2001 champ, and that was on Zero1's ground. This tag is from three months before that match, on NOAH's ground, and had the pairing that every fan of either promotion wanted to see. The month before, Hashimoto had his NOAH debut in Tokyo, against Takao Omori. The crowd was super hot for Omori, and super excited to see Hashimoto in a NOAH ring. Hashimoto knew exactly how to work one of these Invading Big Star matches, and worked to a clearly uncooperative finish that was to plant the seed of Hashimoto being unprofessional with Misawa in this match, three weeks later. I'm surprised that the first showdown ever between two legends like Misawa and Hash was only run in Osaka, as I'm sure this could have drawn 15-20K people in Tokyo. Perhaps they established rules where Hashimoto would agree to work a smaller Osaka show if Misawa would work a larger Tokyo show, I don't know. And really, I don't care, because this match is everything I wanted.

The presentation was cool, with Otsuka and Ogawa already waiting in the ring, giving Hashimoto and Misawa their own entrances, and the crowd felt like they were chanting equally for both legends. Misawa is ever the benevolent top gun, as he lets Hashimoto totally come off like the top dog here, as Hash pie faces Ogawa all the way around the ring and refuses to take his offense seriously and keeps trying to get Misawa in the ring. I said Misawa was charitable in how much of a star he treated Hash, but picture this: Sting debuts in WWF in 2001 in a tag opposite HHH, and when Sting immediately calls for HHH to get in the ring, HHH just stares back, Sting yelling and demanding he get in the ring with him this instant, and HHH just keeps staring, whispers to his partner to handle Sting himself, and just continues holding the tag rope while not fighting Sting. Impossible, right? Well Misawa does just that with Hashimoto, and Hashimoto is great at punishing Ogawa as punishment for not getting Misawa right off the bat. I was not expecting Misawa to give that much presence to Hashimoto, and I loved it.

But what I *really* wasn't expecting was Alexander Otsuka - not even a Z1 guy at this point so basically a BattlArts guy teaming with a Z1 guy as a band of outsiders - being the superstar of the match. Hashimoto/Misawa was the entree everyone went to the restaurant for, but Otsuka is the dessert that everybody is raving about as they leave the place. I can't believe Otsuka didn't get some kind of big fed run after this match. Maybe he wanted to stay freelance shootstyle Butcher, but can we just assume that Mohammed Yone got his cushy consistent paycheck undercard BattlArts slot? Yone didn't show up in NOAH until the end of 2001, that job was probably Otsuka's for the duration of the year until they just went with the guy with the afro instead of the bald guy playing hard to get. And after a performance like this, it's no wonder they pursued him the entire year, in this scenario I've almost entirely fabricated. But Otsuka's the guy driving the outsider angle, the guy taunting all the NOAH boys at ringside.

Now, young boy attire is what puts some of these feuds into legendary status, with the genre peaking at Karate Dojo OP Surf Punk in FMW. Biggest complaint of the match is the NOAH young boys, as their emotional thermometer never rose above "Hey guys come on, let's keep things on the level and not take away from the show here", and their gear made them look like a JPOP band, all of them wearing black and red athleisure wear in different styles. Marufuji was clearly the star of the group with his baggy track suit and gelled up hair, but Izumida was the bad boy wearing black capri pants and a teen mustache; Morishima was the baby faced fat guy who is always wearing a muscle tank on the beach when the other group members in the music video are shirtless, and Ikeda is the cool guy with his open jacket and caesar haircut. Meanwhile Z1 just brings Tadao Yasuda as their giant track suit goon, and he has the crazed eyes of the dad from the I Learned it from Watching You commercial as he thrust kicks Ikeda during a post-match melee. And here's Otsuka talking shit to NOAH's resident boy band (their band name would be "NO4H"), egging them on, and then starts bullying Ogawa. But the kicker is when he belts Ogawa with a great elbow, then holds his elbow up to Misawa and points at it. That's the kind of juice I NEED. Otsuka also has a genuine claim to Best European Uppercuts - when we talk about who does what best - as nobody throws an uppercut quite like him (his is the fastest, and slices sharp, getting really fast speed for such close contact). He has a real cool showoff showcase of all his coolest throws and strikes, peaking with a gorgeous bridging German.

Perhaps Otsuka's best gift to this match is his selling, as he puts in one of those Lawler/Finlay performances where you can't imagine seeing anybody take a specific offense any better. One of the real joys of this match is seeing both ways Otsuka sells Ogawa's jawbreaker, the first time really rubbing out his jaw and flexing it side to side while getting back to his feet, and the second taking a backwards bending bump on the recoil. He's a tremendous stooge for Misawa and Ogawa's offense, knowing how to play straight to camera as he sells the drop toehold/Misawa elbowdrop like he was at the proctologist, and the way he staggers and stumbles and flies into the ropes for Misawa's revenge for that earlier taunt. Misawa's two hardest elbow strikes of the match are clearly leveled right at Otsuka's jaw, holding Otsuka's coconut with his left hand while shifting his molars with his right elbow.

The Hash/Misawa sections were fun, while never getting to a real volcanic section, with the best part being Hash stomping him into the corner and refusing to quit, leading to NO4H finally thinking he had gone too far. The match stoppages and stalls were built well into the match, and the visual of Hash stomping and kicking his way through Misawa and Ogawa was like a mad lumberjack razing a forest. Misawa's stoicism played well off Hashimoto's fire, and I loved his casual, subtle communicating with Ogawa, loved the way Ogawa finally got Hashimoto to take him seriously and knocked him down, and how he charged Hash at the finish to keep him away from Otsuka. Look at how Misawa rubs the finish in Hashimoto's face, hitting a tiger driver while facing Hash, staring at him during the whole pin, planting Otsuka just out of reach. It's such a Calmer Than You Are way to handle being the house boss. This match should have been the beginning of 4 months of different NOAH/Z1 matches, and judging how well all four player their role in this one, it would have been fabled.


PAS: I am also a Japanese interpromotinal feud superfan, but I thought this fell well short of the heights these matches usually achieve. I am normally a much bigger Misawa fan than a Kobashi fan, but I thought he looked more annoyed than filled with hate and disgust, which is what you need from a match like this. It feels like Kobashi or Akiyama would have been a better top dog. I normally love stoic Misawa, but this felt more like card filler six-man Misawa, and I needed to feel more desperation and fury from him. I liked how they kept Misawa and Hashimoto apart,  it added more juice to the times they actually went head to head, and Misawa pinning Otuska while staring down Hashimoto was great. I think Otsuka is one of the great wrestlers of the 90s and the 2000s, but he didn't pop for me here, he felt a bit steamrolled and we didn't get to see much of the killer offense which makes him so great. There are ways that the lesser partner in these matches get chances to shine, watch what Ohara or Takashi Ishikawa bring to WAR vs. NJ tags, or even Ogawa in this match, but I felt like Otsuka never got to be Otsuka. This is a great Hashimoto performance, he is an incredible interpromotional wrestler and is eager and willing to try to murder both opponents, all of the seconds, and the front row of the crowd. I totally agree that the NOAH vs. Z1 series was a total lost opportunity, but I got that more from the Z1 tag than from this match.


El Hijo del Santo vs. La Parka Review

Verdict: 

ER: I thought this was great, with a strong Otsuka performance that showcased his full range on offense and defense while highlighting his personality. That is was right next to an amped up Hashimoto performance made this extra special. This was the only time Otsuka and Hashimoto tagged, and it felt like a glimpse at a pairing with all time potential. I thought Misawa played his stoicism into brief desperation, into calm cool, and I thought it was an extremely confident performance from the ace of the company, and I love how it felt like he was disrespecting Hashimoto by insisting on Ogawa staying in longer and fighting. These feds could have had some barn burning interpromotional stuff, and I'm glad we at least got this. That said, I think the Park/Santo bloodbath is going to prove to be a tough to kill champion.

PAS: It's Santo vs. Parka for me pretty easily. This would lose to the other 2001 challengers we have put forward, and I didn't like it nearly as much as the other Z1 vs. NOAH tag. Worth watching especially for the Hashimoto performance, but not a top tier contender.

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BattlArts Action-B 4/24/98 + 5/10/98

4/24/98

Masao Orihara/Takeshi Ono vs. Mamoru Okamoto/Masaru Seno

The Orihara and Ono weren't really BattlArtsy, but they were a total blast to watch. Seno starts off with a nice forearm, but then gets totally blizted, face kicked, dumped on his head with a Michinoku Driver and carried out of the ring. Orihara then taunts Hijikata at ringside, until he gets in the ring. He and Okamoto have a moment or two, including a german suplex, but they get worked over too and Okamoto gets powerbombed and pinned, post match they beat both guys up some more including a spiked piledriver. Fun squash which establishes Orihara and Ono as total dicks.

Alexander Otsuka/Mohammed Yone vs. Daisuke Ikeda/Katsumi Usuda-GREAT

The best BattlArts tags are this alcheminical mix of shootstyle and pro-style. This match strayed a bit too much into prostyle and missed that high level. Usuda kept throwing big demonstrative headbutts, Yone came off the tope rope, Ikeda was more rope running and less full on murder bot then I prefer him. There was of course still a lot to love in this match. Otsuka was absolutely slaughtering people with suplexes, including a head and neck throw into a choke for this finish. Any combo of these guys in a tag is going to be great, but this missed that absolute peak.

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Carl Greco

This was an absolute classic, as good as their more well known 1998 match. Greco was basically BattlArts version of Ken Shamrock, and he may have even been slicker on the mat. These are the two most skilled grapplers in BattlArts and they are rolling, grabbing necks, ankles and knees and twisting. Greco has one of the best tendon locks I have seen, he grabs it super fast and really looks like he is shredding tendons. There is some great stuff with Greco taking Ishikawa's back and squeezing a body lock and Ishikawa countering with foot lock. There is some really nasty striking too, some nasty body shots and ground and pound by Ishikawa and an awesome spin kick by Greco. We all know how great Ishikawa is, but the more I watch Greco I think he is a hidden all-timer too.

5/10/98

Masao Orihara/Takeshi Ono vs. Mamoru Okamoto/Ryuji Hijikata

Another fun Orihara and Ono tag as they beat on some lower card guys. Again there wasn't much BattlArts flavor to this, outside of Ono trying to take everyones heads off with kicks. There was some looseness to what Okamoto and Hijikata were throwing, and you can tell why they were slotted where they were. I did like them double stomping Ono, that guy is so skinny that you almost expect their boots to go through his body.  I am excited to check out Ono and Orihara against guys higher up the ladder.

Alexander Otsuka vs. Katsushi Takemura

Takemura is a NJ young guy and gets taken to the woodshed by Otsuka. Otsuka is a great guy to take apart a rookie, and he dumps him on his head with some nasty suplexes, including turning a trapped guillotine choke into a no protection DDT, and high angle piledrive. Takemura gets a nice German of his own, but this was mostly an opportunity to watch Otsuka unload.

Daisuke Ikeda/Gran Naniwa/Yone Genjin vs. Carl Greco/Ikuto Hidaka/Yuki Ishikawa

This was an elimination trios match with some pretty crazy teams. On paper you would think this would come down to a big Ishikawa vs. Ikeda showdown, but Ishikawa is weirdly the first guy eliminated, getting dumped over the top rope. We do get some really great Ishikawa moments first, including him dumping Naniwa square on his head a couple of times, blasting Yone in the ear with a slap and having a cool section versus Ikeda with all you would expect from a taste of that match up. With Ishikawa out early we get to see a lot of the other guys match up with Ikeda and it is pretty great stuff, Hidaka tries a bunch of flipping submission attempts only to homicided by an Ikeda clothesline, landing directly on the top of his head. We get a great Greco vs. Yone and Ikeda section, with Greco being an absolute marvel, whipping off incredibly slick submission counters on Yone. Unfortunately, there is nothing worse then executing a beautiful submission hold when Ikeda is waiting on the apron, as Ikeda tries to drive his foot and knee through Greco's skull every time he has an opening. Totally fun to watch Greco fight against the odds, an oddball set up for a match which totally works.

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BattlArts Battle Rock 97 3/13/97-3/14/97

3/13/97

Minoru Tanaka vs. Katsumi Usuda

PAS: Minoru Tanaka was an evolution of the pretty boy shootstyist, Takada, Funaki and Tanaka. Those guys are never my favorites, I want my shootstyle guy to have the fury of a ugly dude. No one would every confuse Usuda with a boy band member, and he brings the heat here. Tanaka eventually went fully into juniors wrestling, but he was a Battlartist here and had a lot of skill. Match starts with a lot of leg fighting and feeling out. Usuda steps it up with a snap german suplex and a punt to the face for a near fall. After that it ramps up and gets violent, with both guys throwing and racking limbs. Loved the finish, with Tanaka passing guard super fast and getting a nasty kneebar for the tap.

Takeshi Ono vs. Alexander Otsuka

PAS: This was great, although a little minor key. I just love both of these guys, and it is really cool to see how there divergent styles work in concert. Much of the match is Ono throwing kicks and punches, and Otsuka trying to use head movement to slip in and grab Ono and hurl him violently. Otsuka is any discussion of greatest suplexers in wrestling history, and Ono is spindly enough that he can really manhandle him, there are a couple of Taz on Pablo Marquez level suplexes in this match but Ono will fire back with some real face punts and hard punches. Liked the finish, which was not how I was expecting this to go at all.

Yuki Ishikawa/Naohiro Hoshikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda/Shoichi Funaki - EPIC

PAS: This was a match of different styles which meshed pretty well. Hoshikawa vs. Funaki was much more a MPRO match then a BattlArts match, when they first tag in they exchange rapid fire chest slaps, which is very much not BattlArts, still their exchanges were exciting stuff, and Ikeda vs. Ishikawa was as great as that match up normally is, young Ikeda gave as few a fucks as older Ikeda but with really fast twitch athleticism. This also had some of my favorite stuff in these tags, where someone would put on a submission or pin attempt leaving them open for a hellacious break up. Ikeda especially just gets such joy walking in the ring and teeing off on a prone opponent. Hoshikawa threw similar heat when he got a chance.  Finish was cool with Funaki making the mistake of trying to grapple with Ishikawa and getting totally worked and Fujiwara'ed for the tap.

3/14/97

Minoru Tanaka vs. Ikuto Hidaka

PAS: This is rookie Hidaka, and is a very short scramble, where they roll for a minute or so, until Tanaka grabs a kimura and taps him. Too short to mean much, but it had good energy.

Katsumi Usuda vs. Shoichi Funaki

PAS: Funaki was always a bit of a wonky fit for BattlArts, he had some takedowns and submissions, but was always more comfortable with a figure four or a pratfall from a kick. He is a skilled guy, and it feels like he found his right role as a long time WWF undercarder. Usuda is going to do what he does, come forward firing hard shots and throwing in some slick submissions, in many ways he is hybrid of both Ikeda and Ishikawa, he doesn't do either of their strengths at their A+ level and he doesn't have either guys charisma, but is a solid A- at both striking and matwork and is pretty much always going to be well worth watching. He shellacks Funaki here at the end, which is what I wanted to see.

Tatsuo Nakano vs. Alexander Otsuka

PAS: This was a cool match with lots of real examples of skill, which didn't live up to it's on paper promise. Nakano sandbagged Otsuka a bit, not really letting him rip off any suplexes, or take much of an advantage on the mat. It was cool to watch Nakano, counter attacks, and reverse out of things and his one big stomp was the kind of nasty asshole thing that makes me love him, but letting Otsuka shine a bit could have made this incredible.

Daisuke Ikeda/Takeshi Ono vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa/Yuki Ishikawa - EPIC

PAS: Ikeda and Ono are one of the greatest tag teams of all time. Ono as a beanpole ass kicker and Ikeda as his thicker someone even nastier partner are just magic every time they are in the ring. I don't remember the period where BWO shirted Funaki was their running buddy, but he is on the outside shit stirring, and even brawls a bit with Ishikawa. I enjoyed Hoshikawa in this match, he is best known for his MPRO 10 man appearances and Zero One work, but he is fun here as a flashier BattlArts guy. He really cracks Ikeda with a top rope leg kick, and has some really nice throws. Ono is tremendous as always too, he really mixes it up with Hoshikawa, and I love how he responded to getting ragdolled bu front kicking him right in the chin.  Of course as always Ishikawa vs. Ikeda is the highlight. We have the expected level of violence, including a couple of sections where it breaks down and they start clawing at eyes. Finish has Ikeda wasting Ishikawa with an absolutely hellacious lariat, which even stands out in the category of Ikeda lariats to Ishikawa, think of what that entails.  They were doing this stuff multiple times a month, fucking nuts. The baseline for BattlArts tags is so high, this isn't the absolute tippy top, but even below that level is incredible stuff.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA

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2019 Ongoing MOTY List: IKEDA and ISHIKAWA Rekindle Their Violent Romance

10. Daisuke Ikeda/Alexander Otsuka vs. Mohammed Yone/Yuki Ishikawa Ikeda 25th Anniversary Show 4/7

PAS: I am in a pretty great nostalgia K-Hole right now, I get to watch the Warriors go back to 2015 post KD injury, and I get to see my FUTEN and BattlArts friends take it back to 2010 and approximate a FUTEN tag. Ishikawa has shown up in 2019 and is making a strong Wrestler of the Year pitch, after basically being inactive for the last half a decade. The rest of the guys in this match have clearly slowed down a step or two, but Ishikawa looks like prime Yuki Ishikawa. We get great opening Ishikawa mat sections with both Ikeda and Otsuka, including Ishikawa doing an awesome gator roll. There was a long Ikeda vs. Yone section where the match dropped down a gear (although it did have an awesome spot where Otsuka deadlift Germans both guys, and some great Ikeda straight punches to Yone's head). The focus of the match was Ikeda vs. Ishikawa of course and I was so glad to see them run that all time legendary matchup back. The structure was pretty interesting with Ikeda initially working as a guy who had lost a step and couldn't hang, in the early sections he kept going to the eyes and breaking submissions by biting. When we got the final stanza though, he stands up and brings the heat you would expect from Daisuke Ikeda, including nearly beheading Ishikawa with a spin kick to the jaw. There is some great intense scrambling on the ground, but Ishikawa finishes Ikeda off with a nasty Octopus. So happy this happened, and so happy it showed up on the internet. Can't believe that they are still doing this to each other, but god bless those two lunatics.

ER: This had a different vibe for me than the past BattlArts/Futen throwback tags we've gotten, and while I don't think it ever ramped up to the gear of some of those absolute classics, but those classics also largely felt like the Ikeda/Ishikawa show (which is obviously the most durable of all BattlArts feuds) and an equal parts Otsuka/Yone show. Obviously all of the most classic Futen tags have
contributions from non Ikeda/Yuki guys like Ono and Oba, but this felt like the first throwback tag we've seen in a long time that had contributions from all original BattlArts guys, and I loved what Otsuka and Yone brought to the table. Otsuka is beefy as helllll now, but he's not just some sluggish tub, just makes his asskick more thicc. Dug his scramble with Yuki the most, but he's also great at the guy throwing stiff as hell flat feet right to the chest to knock someone back a few feet, or tossing out German suplexes on one - or both at once - of his opponents to save his boy (and Phil is right, those tandem German suplex trains can look silly but this one looked violent, like they all entered into a pact to wind up in more pain), and Otsuka got the awesome role of being the guy who marches in to break up Ikeda from trouble, in mean ways. Normally Ikeda seems to get that role, but Otsuka really runs with it. Otsuka also pulls off what might honestly be the fastest giant swing I've ever seen. He was whipping around and literal knee breaking speed, just a total marvel of strength. Yone got to show off his stiffness as well, which isn't something that always happens as he can definitely be more "pro style" than the others. He and Ishikawa have barely even crossed paths in 20 years, and Ikeda has mostly been his tag partner this decade. So it was awesome seeing him come in with really hard leg kicks, a couple awesome mule kicks to the face, and arguably the hardest thrown elbows of the match (and yes, I realize the three guys he was in with, Yone's elbows looked that good). Of course we end with the two legends, doing their dance, Yuki getting dropped with what should be an illegal brainbuster, Ikeda landing completely under the chin with a brutal spin kick (his best kick of the match, would have bought as a finish), and Yuki locking on the twisty octopus. *Obviously* this match was going to make our list, but these old dudes just keep justifying it.

2019 MOTY MASTER LIST

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Daisuke Ikeda Anniversary Show 4/7/19

PAS: Very excited to see this show up!! Ikeda and Ishikawa back on their bullshit again, plus lots of other fun dudes.

Funimori Abe vs. Junji Tanaka

PAS: Junji Tanaka is old school BattlArts dude Junji.com, and is dressed in a Sumo pad for some reason. This is a solid BattlArts/Futen opener, where guys hit each other a little harder than is really neccesary. Junji is in his late 40s and takes a bunch of really gnarly kicks to the head which he sells like an old man falling down a flight of stairs. Abe was fine in his role of a guy kicking an old man.

SAKI vs. Hikari Shimizu

PAS: This was a bad Joshi match, which really felt out of place on this card. When BattlArts had Joshi matches they would usually try to work the style, this was just a lot of bad dropkicks and hair whips. Shimizu seemed to hurt herself at one point so the ending felt abrupt. I did like SAKI's furry pink Brody boots though.

Keisuke Okada/SUGI vs. Hiroshi Yamato/Taro Nohashi

PAS: Match had some really fun moments without really ever coming together entirely. Okada and Yamato had a fun shoot scramble to start, and SUGI and Nohashi followed it up with a fun lucha exchange. The middle dragged a bit, but built to a fun finish with SUGI unloading all of his big highspots. Taro Nohashi seems like a guy I need to dig into more. He was awesome as a crowbar in his FUTEN matches, and here he splats Okada with some sick headbutts and bases really well for all of SUGI's spots. I wonder if their are hidden MPRO gems I need to dig up.

Ikuto Hidaka vs. Takafumi Ito

PAS: This was really great, basic arm versus leg match, but both guys were super tricky on the mat and found awesome ways to fly into attacks, counters into counters. I loved Hidaka's dragon screw whip with Ito tied into the corner, really looked like it shredded all the tendons in his knee. Ito really grabbed at the arm in nasty ways too, including a victory roll into an armbar. Built nicely from simple grappling into more complex fun stuff, had enough wacky stuff that I wouldn't call it pure shootstyle, but shootstyle adjacent wrestling is having a good year.

Yoshiaki Fujiwara/Tatsuo Nakano vs. Super Tiger/Tomohiko Hashimoto

PAS: Apparently Nakano is still semi-active, I hadn't seen him in years, he still brings the heat when needed, and I really enjoyed team UWF. Fujiwara is ageless, and still will deliver two or three cool things a match, even as he enters his 8th decade on this planet. I loved how he broke a Tiger submission hold by twisting his ankle at a really nasty angle, and the counter of Hashimoto's slap into a Fujiwara armbar was smooth as expected. I didn't think the Tiger and Hashimoto team brought enough to really make this a list match, although I liked Hashimoto's energy.

Brahman Brothers vs. Masayuki Tokumitsu/Rocky Kawamura

PAS: This was a Brahman Brothers match. They are very much a thing, lots of comedy spots of spitting water and grinding things into faces. It serves a purpose I suppose, but It isn't really my thing. As a former amateur boxer I do appreciate the form on Rocky Kawamura's body shots, but this was mostly forgettable. This was a show of everyone showing up and doing their stuff, some of that stuff I love, this is stuff I don't.

Daisuke Ikeda/Alexander Otsuka vs. Mohammed Yone/Yuki Ishikawa

PAS: I am in a pretty great nostalgia K-Hole right now, I get to watch the Warriors go back to 2015 post KD injury, and I get to see my FUTEN and BattlArts friends take it back to 2010 and approximate a FUTEN tag. Ishikawa has shown up in 2019 and is making a strong Wrestler of the Year pitch, after basically being inactive for the last half a decade. The rest of the guys in this match have clearly slowed down a step or two, but Ishikawa looks like prime Yuki Ishikawa. We get great opening Ishikawa mat sections with both Ikeda and Otsuka, including Ishikawa doing an awesome gator roll. There was a long Ikeda vs. Yone section where the match dropped down a gear (although it did have an awesome spot where Otsuka deadlift germans both guys, and some great Ikeda straight punches to Yone's head), The focus of the match was Ikeda vs. Ishikawa of course and I was so glad to see them run that all time legendary matchup back. The structure was pretty interesting with Ikeda initially working as a guy who had lost a step and couldn't hang, in the early sections he kept going to the eyes and breaking submissions by biting. When we got the final stanza though, he stands up and brings the heat you would expect from Daisuke Ikeda, including nearly beheading Ishikawa with a spin kick to the jaw. There is some great intense scrambling on the ground, but Ishikawa finishes Ikeda off with a nasty Octopus. So happy this happened, and so happy it showed up on the internet. Can't believe that they are still doing this to each other, but god bless those two lunatics.


COMPLETE AND ACCURATE YOSHIAKI FUJIWARA

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA

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To Daisuke Ikeda Life is a Rivalry Keep a Step Ahead of Me.

Daisuke Ikeda/Takeshi Ono vs. Satoshi Yoneyama/Alexander Otsuka Inoki Festival 12/1/96 - EPIC

Your BattlArts boys show up on a supercard and show it how its done. Yoneyama is a pre-NOI conversion Mohammed Yone and is pretty great here, he takes a nasty beating, pastes Ikeda in the face with a koppo kick and drops him with nasty german. The Ikeda/Ono tag team maybe my all time favorite tag team (they would certainly be the team I would be most excited to see live, or have a hidden gem show up for), and they are killing it here. Both guys throw some of the nastiest cheap shots ever, every time Otsuka or Yoneyama put on a half crab, Ikeda and Ono are coming it to whip kick them in the temple. Anytime either of them ended up in the corner, Ono would be running over to liver punch them. They also absorbed some gross suplexes, Ikeda ate a capture suplex on his forehead like Necro took Samoa Joe's powerslam. Finish was pretty great with Yoneyama taking a jaw dislocating kick to the face, only to get up at 9, big mistake as Ikeda strafes him three more times for the KO, stay down kid, it isn't worth it.



COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA

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IGF - NEW Opening Series 4/5/2017

PAS: NEW is a new shootstyle fed offshoot of IGF, and at this point we will review every new shootstyle fed. Looking forward to see how this compares to AMBITION as this has a bunch of actual MMA fighters along with masters like Fujiwara and Otsuka

Shinya Aoki v. Yoshiaki Fujiwara

ER: So Fujiwara is in his late 60s, and I pray I have this mobility in 30 years. This is a match made of classic and telling Fujiwara faces. We start and he's the smug overconfident vet, taking Aoki down to the mat and tying him up in some cool ways (especially loved him picking Aoki's ankle and pulling it closer to his face while also wrenching a headlock). Before long Aoki is meeting him in a stalemate and as the tide turns a bit, we get that wonderful Fujiwara smile, recognizing that maybe he's fighting from underneath, but grinning at the challenge, almost welcoming Aoki's attacks. But by the 10 minute mark when their legs are impossibly tangled while they're fighting over wrists, the ref has to separate them and Fujiwara rolls to the floor with almost fear in his eyes. He looked like a man underwater and he needed to calibrate and try something else. So he suckers Aoki into a knucklelock that allows him to land a thrust headbutt. He wasn't making any avenues on the mat so of course the man goes to the head. Later on he lands another using the same trick. But Aoki is lanky and knows how to befuddle Fujiwara by tangling him up in limbs, and as we hit the 15 minute mark we can see a bit of desperation creeping onto Fujiwara's face as Aoki is patiently waiting for an armbar, perfectly content to play the waiting game as Fujiwara starts reaching and soon scrambling for ropes. And as soon as Fujiwara lets his guard down Aoki pounces and maneuvers into a side triangle. Killer lo fi stuff here.

PAS:  I assumed that the days of Fujiwara classics had passed, I have been working on the C+A Fujiwara project since 2009, I have found a couple of EPIC's since then, but they have all been tags and trios matches which included great performances from other wrestlers as well. Fujiwara is 67 years old, how is it possible for him to be able to work a 15 minutes singles match this good? Aoki isn't a guy who has done much pro-wrestling before, although he is one of the greatest MMA grapplers ever, he fits in to shootstyle great, he is so skilled and fast. I love how Fujiwara was working this as a guy a little outclassed on the mat, it is a foreign role for him, but Aoki is so slick that Fujiwara keeps finding himself in a compromised position. He has to resort to cheapshot headbutts to get an advantage (and man what a cheapshot headbutt it was, one of his best), I also loved how Fujiwara used wrestling grappling in a shoot context, at one point he uses a headlock to drive Aoki's knee to his temple, another time he does almost a drop toe hold to get back position, credit to the skill of both guys that it looked natural.

Katsumi Oribe v. Feng Chang Jian

PAS: Jian I would assume is a rookie from China, and this was kind of a lame rookie match. We had a long forearm exchange, which is a bummer if that is thing in rookie matches. We get some kicks, and Jian kind of blew a bodyslam. Finish was a boston crab. I didn't see much in either guy, but who knows what will happen later.

Alexander Otsuka v. Xuan Lin Dong

ER: Otsuka is looking beefy as hell now. Have we ever seen him and Negro Navarro in the same place at once? I'd never seen Lin before but I enjoyed him (he should have worn black gloves to complete the look though), came off like kind of a meathead and I dug how Otsuka handled him. There's a lot of standing grappling and Otsuka goes for his big German early, finds Lin grounding him too well, so just sidesteps and throws him backwards to the mat. Eventually he gets tired of grappling and just cracks him with a slap, and I loved how Lin stopped and staggered around before following up with an admirable forearm. But Otsuka slaps him again, and then slaps him to cut off an elbow, and THEN we get our big German. Otsuka smugly saunters over and picks him up for a big delay vertical suplex, the result academic.

PAS: Yeah Otsuka has been hitting the buffet, but he still looked awesome, I didn't think much of Dong (Eric loves Dong however, can't get enough Dong), for an MMA dude he really should hit harder, but all of the standing switch grappling looked good. Those pair of finishing suplexes are a pair of Alexander Otsuka finishing suplexes with all that that entails.

Masakatsu Funaki v. Mitsuyoshi Nakai

ER: This didn't do much for me, as Nakai looked like he didn't want to be there and Funaki looked like he was doing things at 3/4 until it was time to finish. They spend a lot of time with Funaki working a rear naked on Nakai, and there's plenty of times he has openings to do something, but it looked more like he was setting potential traps to see if Nakai could get out of them, and then just moving on when he had the satisfaction that Nakai couldn't. He easily maneuvers into an armbar, Nakai gets ropes, then Funaki decides things are just over and hits a huge high kick, then another one to the forehead, then a punt that he pulls back on. I did like him suckering Nakai into slapping him, allowing him to hit an awesome rolling kappo kick. He ends it with some kind of brutal capture piledriver. Neither guy seemed that interested in this match.

PAS: First part of this was kind of dull although it picked up a fair amount at the end. Nakai lands a nasty teeth cleaning knee lift and it wakes Funaki up and unloads on Nakai. He throws a big kick right to Nakai's temple and a punt to the chest, he finishes him off with a arm capture piledriver. If the whole match was as good as the last two minutes it would have been awesome, but the dull stuff at the beginning drags it down.

Minoru Tanaka v. Minowaman

PAS: Minoru Tanaka was never my favorite BattlArts guy, he was a little juniorish, more likely to do a flip then a punch to the mouth. He is reall skilled, and there were a lot of cool moments in this match. Minowaman is a MMA guy who doesn't fully translate his MMA charisma over to wrestling, but again he he has a ton of skill. I really liked some of the leglock work here, Minowaman has a cool reversal of a scorpion into a leg lock. This goes to a draw, and I feel like with a better finish and maybe one or two more special highlights this would have made a list, but it was still pretty enjoyable.

Josh Barnett v. Shinichi Suzukawa

PAS: I really enjoy watching Josh Barnett wrestle. He doesn't do anything flashy, but every forearm lands with a thud and he has these great slow powerful looking suplexes where he just yanks a guy up like a sack of flour. Suzukawa is a big guy with Yakuza looking tattoos who comes out really aggressive powering Barnett to the corner and hits him with some clubs. Suzukawa works a head and shoulder choke a bunch, and Barnett isn't afraid to punch him in his sake soaked kidneys to go for the break. Barnett ends up escaping and tossing him with a nice side suplex. Just a big boy shootstyle scrap and I dug it a bunch.

ER: 40 year old MMA fighter vs. disgraced sumo wrestler is about as NEW Gen  WAR as you can get, and this played like a WAR match via RINGS fight. This was filled with hard knees to the ribs, forearms to the back of the head, and these nasty as hell hardway suplexes where neither guy jumped; you just had these low angle brutal suplexes that looked like science class rockets tipped over and shot right into the ground. There are no free rides in this one, every single ankle lock and kneebar had a twist and some squirm, the head and arm chokes looked sunk, and those knees just kept getting buried into Barnett's body. Suzukawa has a great boss charisma and Barnett looks to be in better shape than during most of his MMA career. Neither guy gives the other one space, Suzukawa presses his knees into Barnett's throat in the corner and against the ropes, both competitively sandbag, and that was all kinds of awesome. Go watch this.

ER: We would have had this posted 8 months ago, but Phil needed to construct *just* the right Dong joke. And after 8 months of workshopping it, I think it's safe to say...we got it! We are adding the Fujiwara and Barnett matches to our 2017 Ongoing MOTY List, deservedly so.

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