Fujiwara Family: Battle and Arts Pro Wrestling 2/11/20

Yoshihiro Horaguchi vs. Sho Karasuno

PAS: Karasuno kind of wrestles like an indy scum version of Masao Inoue, which is style I dig. A ineffectual schmuck who can goof his way to an advantage. He gets beat on at the beginning of the math including Horaguchi pushing him face first into the corner and tenderizing his kidneys with forearms. Karasuno is a able to get a bit of an advantage by chop blocking Horaguchi and does some fun leg work before falling to a deep boston crab. Nothing really shoot style about this, but a fun opener. 

SR: Very basic opening match. I’ve seen Yujiro Yamamoto carry Sho Karasuno to a good match working another micro indy called RAW, which runs shows with no ring and just a bunch of judo mats instead. Karasuno continued his Masao Inoueish streak in this match, doing some finger manipulation stuff, but also rubbing me the wrong way when he did some geeky stunners and DDTs to Horaguchis leg. Horaguchi worked over Karasunos back with some stuff shots indicating he may be entertaining even when not partnered with Yuki Ishikawa.

The Blue Shark/Baisen TAGAI vs. Superhuman Hero G Valion/Super Macho Monkey 

SR: The last BAP card we saw was a bit all over the place, I like how for this show they adapted a matchcard formula similar to late 90s IWA Japan shows on Samurai TV which is kind of my favourite japanese indy wrestling, starting with a basic match and building up through a series of fun undercard matches to a main event. This match was in the Takeshi Sato & Tortuga vs. Cosmo’Soldier & Akinori Tsukioka spot of a semi-shootish juniors tag. It wasn’t quite on that level but I had fun. Tagai was more annoying than Tortuga, as he kept shoehorning his comedy into the match, he seemed to be making fun of Zack Sabre Jr. style wrestling, which is a weird thing to do on a show main evented by Keita Yano who does serious Zack Sabre Jr. ripoff wrestling. Chojin Yusha G Valion is another maniac who came up from the SPWF dojo and started his own wrestling cult, he has annoyed me on the few SPWF Dojo shows that I’ve seen but he looked decent here and didn’t derail the match like I thought he would. 

PAS: I wasn't into this, there was some nice shooty exchanges between Shark and Valion early, and a couple moments later in the match, but I thought Tagai was crap here. Just shoehorning in lame comedy spots with Monkey, felt like a midwest indy bathroom break match. The moments of good were really out weighted by the bad. 

Yuu Yamagata vs. Anzu Chamu 

PAS: Yamagata is apparently 44? She has been wrestling 20 years? I have never heard that name, and I wouldn't claim to be a Joshi expert, but man there are a lot of random wrestlers in Japan. I gave this a couple of minutes, which was mostly bad forearms by Yamagata and posing by Chamu, ARSION this was not.

ER: Phil's description of why he skipped this match kind of made me interested in seeing this match. I don't think it was a good match, but I found Anzu Chamu charming and possessing genuine underdog relatability. Her offense was as weak as can be, but she looks like a pop star and I assume has several hundred weird Twitter accounts dedicated specifically to her. She's enough of a weenie that she draws actual sympathy, and I think if Yamagata had laid in a beating at a quicker pace this could have been good. Chamu was sympathetic enough that I'd probably feel too bad seeing her get annihilated by a monster, not sure I could celebrate an Aja Kong or Chigusa Nagayo style mauling the same. Her ineffectiveness had charm.  

Macho Pump/Nobutaka Moribe vs. Shigeyuki Kawahara/Takumi Sakurai

PAS: I gave this a chance, too. Pump and Moribe came in masked and in Rey Bucanero shirts and beat around Kawahara and Sakurai a bit. It felt like it went on forever though, without much of a pace difference. The undercard of this show hasn't been doing it for me.

9. Yuki Ishikawa vs. Raito Shimizu

SR: Great, great match that may have been even better than the Horaguchi match from the last show. On the previous show, I said Raito Shimizu showed some promise for this upcoming singles match. I’d say this match way overdelivered on that promise. This was just fantastic and way better than just “Yuki Ishikawa carrying a rookie”. Obviously Ishikawa magic was at play here, the man can do no wrong at this point, but Shimizu held up his end. He really held up his end both hitting the mat and showing personality. At any rate there’s no reason why a guy like Shimizu should be stuck in Z-level indy undercard matches after this. Shimizu is a big boy and this was built around Shimizu trying to even the match by throwing and slamming Ishikawa hard. Of course Ishikawa is 50 years old and beaten up so that made all the crowbar throws look even harder. And Ishikawa is great at coming up with counters to prevent the throws. Really dug Shimizu's selling as he would clutch his arm or neck after escaping from a submission to put over how bad he was torqued. Damn fine performance, and I hope this isn’t the last time Raito Shimizu is booked into a match like this. 

PAS: Man Yuki Ishikawa was a king in this. I have seen Ishikawa carry young guys a lot (much of 2010s BattlArts was Ishikawa carrying guys on this show), and this was one of the better of those matches. Shimuzu brought a ton to the table. He is this rawboned country strong kid who just tosses Ishikawa with big throws. Ishikawa is in his 50s and has a bad back and takes a bunch of really hard slams, each one really made me cringe. Shimuzu wasn't completely lost on the mat either, he uses his strength to power out of some submissions and locks on a nasty gator roll. Ishikawa is master, he constantly uses his grappling to counter the suplex attempts, sometimes locking stuff in mid-air, and absorbs throws to lock in Shimuzu when they both land. It is just a matter of time, if you don't take Ishikawa out, he is going to take you out and eventually locks on a hammerlock into a straight armbar for the tap. Ishikawa is putting together an all timer of a post 50 year old run, and I came away from this wanting to see more Shimuzu.

ER: You get a real sense that old, bad back Yuki Ishikawa could work a captivating match against me, so when he has someone with a cool set of skills it's a given that he's going to work something great. Shimizu is a guy who none of us have ever seen, who is built like a smaller Big Japan guy and is intent on trying to throw Ishikawa onto his head or twist his head off with a series of gator rolls. Ishikawa is a master at using his weight and leverage to attempt to block those throws, tangling Shimizu's legs on Karelin lifts and often turning them to his advantage. Shimizu's determination is really fun to watch, and the crowd picks up on that too. It's infectious watching a guy who is almost certainly over his head and has to know he's going to get tapped but doesn't know how, and the it's great hearing the crowd get behind Shimizu's mad charge into potentially getting ligaments torn. And Ishikawa is someone who will put cruel strain on your ligaments. 30 seconds into the match he is already digging his knee into the meat of Shimizu's calf as he passes guard, locks in a hard guillotine off another Shimizu lift, and has some nasty focused attacks on Shimizu's ankles. You want to harness your deadlift strength? Good luck with that, let me know how that goes when Ishikawa twists your foot backwards. I loved how active both men were, while not entirely neutralizing the other. There was a lot of movement and it always went somewhere, not just movement for the sake of it, and Shimizu really looked like someone who belonged. 

Manabu Hara/Keita Yano vs. Yujiro Yamamoto/Katsuo

SR: Fun indy main event tag built around the main matchup of Hara vs. Yamamoto. Those two had some slick U-Style exchanges early which really made me long for a straight shootstyle match between them. They are both a lot more beaten up than in their primes from 10 years ago, but they still had no problem throwing some surprisingly dangerous suplexes and really smacking each other. Yano, to my surprise, did not ruin the match. He was mostly kept out of it and his one brief run of offense consisted of some stretches which worked. I also enjoyed Katsuo once again as a crowbar trying to crack skulls. The finishing run was a bit of an indy run with shootstyle touches, so I dug it. The next BAP in 2021 is announced to have a Yamamoto/Hara main event, so let’s see if we can unlock that too. 

PAS: I thought this was a blast. It ticked some of the same boxes as the great FUTEN tags, although not at that exalted level. Hara and Yamamoto are the best of that second generation of BattlArts guys and they go after each other here, flying into aggressive grappling and winging big shots and suplexes. Yano still isn't for me, but he mostly stayed out of the way and had some cool Sabre Jr. style stretching submissions which actually worked against Yamamoto. Katsuo is a heck of discovery. 2020 wrestling needed a Takashi Ishikawa and he delivers the step too far clotheslines, forearms and headbutts you want out of crowbar. I didn't love the crowd brawling, and the restart confused me, but this built to a big crescendo and had some pretty high end moments. 

ER: This didn't really work for me. For a 25+ minute tag, it felt really meandering, and much of it never gelled as a tag match. A lot of this felt like a series of singles matches with no kind of tag flow, and Hara/Yamamoto was the only good singles match, all those exchanges were really good. Hara is definitely my favorite of the late BattlArts guys, and veteran Hara is cool in ways he wasn't in 2010. He has this narrowed aggression and confidence and can still surprise with speed. I liked the scrambling a lot and I like how they built up to Yamamoto coming in down the stretch and throwing him with a sick uranage (sent the ref scrambling out of the way) and some suplexes. But those spirited moments of Yamamoto and Hara kept getting slowed down by Keita Yano doing unconvincing exhibition holds. They never made sense, as Yamamoto - who worked fast, engaging, cool exchanges with Hara - is now suddenly powerless to defend against any hold Yano slowly put him in. Yamamoto had to lie there barely moving, suddenly unable to counter any slow motion World of Sport hold. The singles match combinations that weren't Hara vs. Yamamoto also felt like they each went on a bit too long, without really advancing, sometimes repeating sequences as if they were stalling for time. The sudden finish, restart, and then apparent time limit draw really didn't help things. I liked how Yamamoto got his big moment roaring back at the restart bell, but the ending wasn't satisfying for me. I'm excited for the Hara/Yamamoto singles that may exist, but this tag kept losing me.  

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

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I'm on the Trigger Plus I Got the FUTEN Sword: FUTEN 7/18/11

I am cataloging all of the BattlArts and FUTEN shows we have reviewed, and realized this was out there but somehow unreviewed.

Katsumi Usuda vs. Kotaru Nasu

PAS: Nasu was a Style-E guy and a perfectly solid unspectacular opponent for Usuda. Usuda provides most of the highlights here, unsurprisingly, popping Nasu right in the temple with a high kick, doing a great looking Fujiwara double leg twist counter into a kneebar and an incredible leg trip into a Fujiwara for the tap. Nasu did have a couple of nice near falls on knockdowns and a cross arm breaker, but this was a fun Usuda show. He is really a guy who can deliver against almost anyone.

ER: I thought Nasu was the perfect kind of opponent for Usuda, the kind of lower ranked guy that Usuda is great at almost losing to. For his end, Nasu kicked the hell out of Usuda and looked like he came real close to tapping him, and if a guy throws hard kicks and can lock in a sub that looks like it can get a tap, Usuda can take that guy to his career zenith. Usuda comes into the match with his expected bored expression, totally underestimating Nasu, and after a couple of minutes he appears correct in his underestimation. Usuda is really special, and I love how his selling in this match was based entirely on facials and not, you know, selling a limb. His face starts off in his classic resting sleepy expression, and within 7 minutes it's total panic. Nasu kept doing more damage with each set of kicks, and looks like he was a few newtons away from stinging Usuda on a kick to the spine. His subs keep coming closer and closer to tapping Usuda, and Usuda's grasps for the ropes start looking more and more desperate, and we get a great shot of his eyes darting to every single rope in the ring. When he makes an escape he didn't think he'd made, he realizes that the time for fucking around is over. He wastes Nasu with a kick as Nasu charged into the corner, and I love in fights when a guy *almost* getting a tap causes him to throw strategy out the window. He came so close to that win that he's now too focused on finishing and the blinders leave him wide open. The finish was so sick, Usuda sweeping Nasu's left leg from his back to trip him to the mat, expertly swinging his leg over to shift his weight and grab the arm, then wrenching that arm into the ugliest Fujiwara. It's one of those submission finishes where the guy who gets tapped knows he's in the quicksand the second he steps into it, knows his only option is lose quick or lose slightly less quick. Usuda!


Ryuji Hijikata vs. Bison TAGAI

PAS: This was Tagai representing BattlArts taking on Hijikata who was repping FUTEN, and he repped the hell out of FUTEN, landing a nasty cheap shot headbutt, and some sick punches to the ear. Tagai would fight back with some takedowns and grappling, but he was in over his head. Hijikata hit a couple of great looking sole butt kicks to the stomach, including turning his back after it landed like Steph Curry, before he made Tagai's knee touch his ear for the tap.

ER: Hijikata is a beast. He was taking harsh beatings in BattlArts when Bison was a teen. This guy was toughened up a decade before Bison got started, and even if I don't remember Hijikata winning matches in the late 90s Batt I loved, being a regular there in that area is a lasting badge of toughness. Early in this match there is a moment that would go on an all time best Futen video. Both men are reaching for a knucklelock and TAGAI punches Hijikata straight in the face. Hijikata is rattled and backed up, but quickly comes to and decides TAGAI needed to be taught a rest of match lesson. He backs TAGAI up, headbutts him right in the eye, then throws a right hook to his ear that sends TAGAI to the mat. From there it's just Hijikata stalking and beating TAGAI while TAGAI backs into him and has an I Fucked Up look on his face for much of the rest of the match. He fires back with some slaps but Hijikata is letting him do it, and he's walking through those strikes like all the old 90s BattlArts guys walk through strikes. Those mule kicks hit like two mules, and the finishing submission was disgusting. Hijikata hyperextend's TAGAI's knee up past his head and rides it like one of those guys on Furiosa's metronomes in Fury Road.


Kengo Mashimo vs. SEIKEN

PAS: These are a pair of big boys and stuff was landing hard. SEIKEN rushes Mashimo early and sends him to the floor. Oba is on the sideline and he gives him a talking to, and Mashimo comes in and bulldozes him with hard kicks and punches. Once Oba hyped him up he was a wrecking ball and took SEIKEN out.

ER: Akitoshi Saito feels like a guy who should have made at least a couple Futen appearances and never did. But Mashimo wrestles exactly the way a Futen Saito would wrestle, and it's great. SEIKEN is new to me and he rushes Mashimo to start, blowing him up with quick knees, kicks, and open hands. Once Mashimo gets his pep talk, it's a slow drowning for SEIKEN. Mashimo shows him how actually ineffective his kicks are, and awesomely blocks a spinning heel kick right out of the air with his forearms. Mashimo absorbs strikes, takes slaps as if his face was merely hit merely by a cool breeze, takes kicks to the chest like he's getting a massage, and we get a great moment where SEIKEN nails a spinning heel kick right to Mashimo's chin that sends Mashimo staggering around the ring. From there, Mashimo shows SEIKEN what a leg kick is supposed to look like, absolutely chopping down that tree, dumps him with some very hard back suplexes and Germans, and from there it's a race to see what head kick is going to be the one that makes SEIKEN stay down instead of stand up at 9. 


Mitsuya Nagai vs. Takeshi Ono

PAS: This is a cool scrap which was worked like a speed versus power boxing match. Every shot Nagai threw and every submission he put on had a ton of force. He cut Ono in half with kicks and nearly tore off his limbs. Ono would respond with activity, none of his shots thudded like the much bigger Nagai, but he peppered him with quick punches and kicks, and spun into fast submissions. He even ends up blooding Nagai's ear with fast right hands before falling to a nasty submission which saw Nagai twisting him into taffy. Really cool fight, Ono is an all-time great and any chance to see him is a treasure.


Daisuke Ikeda/Manabu Suruga vs. Yuki Ishikawa/Munenori Sawa

PAS: FUTEN tags are on a short list of the greatest things ever produced by wrestling. This wasn't a top tier FUTEN tag, but even mid-tier FUTEN tags are top tier in a list of all other things. The structure of a FUTEN tag is lots of back and forth violence with all four guys leading to a one on one battle between two wrestlers until one wrestler is demolished. The one on one battle at the end of this match was Sawa versus Suruga which is the least of the possible face offs, both those guys are fine, and the end run was cool, but you really don't want Ishikawa and Ikeda to be on the bench in the fourth quarter. The Ikeda versus Ishikawa stuff here was more of a teaser, but damn it was appropriate, Ishikawa threw a punch to Ikeda's head which sounded like a two by four hitting a pumpkin. Ikeda kicked him right between the top of the jaw and the end of the ear, it was as great and as lamentable as it always is. I always enjoy Sawa's handspeed and I liked how he tried to use that speed against the heavier hitting of Suruga and Ikeda. I wanted a nastier KO then I got, but I still just enjoyed the hell out of watching every second of this.

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BattlArts 1/17/10

Takeshi Takeshima v. Sanchu Tsubakichi

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

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

Bison TAGAI v. Akifumi Saito

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

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

Yujiro Yamamoto v. Yoshinori Narita

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

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

Keita Yano v Sanchu Tsubakichi

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

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

Bison TAGAI v. Yujiro Yamamoto

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

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

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

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

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

Keita Yano v. Yujiro Yamamoto

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

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

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BattlArts 12/6/09

Katsumi Usuda v. Akifumi Saito

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

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

Keita Yano v. Takeshi Takeshimi

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

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

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

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

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

Yujiro Yamamoto v. Sanchu Tsubakichi

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

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

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

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

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

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BattlArts 9/6/09

This is the finals of the B1 tourney which was kind of mixed bag overall

Yuki Ishikawa v. Keita Yano

PAS: Match had it's moments of the sublime and the ridiculous. Ishikawa is pretty great as we know, and he lays in the punches and does some really nasty stretching of Yano. Yano does some cool stuff here, I liked his neck crank where he links his hands behind his back, and he hit some nice knees, but fuck when he is bad he is bad. At one point he does a horrible looking Bryan Danielson MMA elbows tribute and follows it with a double springboard Chris Sabin thigh slap dropkick. Ishikawa should ban US Indy torrents from the BattlArts dojo ASAP.

TKG: This was a fine match despite Yano's stuff. Normally when you have a good mach with Yano, it is about opponent keeping Yano's stuff to minimum. Here Yano just gets to do one egregiously bad looking thing after another. Yet Ishikawa has enough stuff to fill a match around it that you leave satisfied. On some level I guess I don't mind a match with a lot of stupid bad looking shit when the story is "here is a guy beating someone who does a lot of stupid bad looking shit".

Bison TAGAI v Muenenori Sawa

TKG: I actively enjoyed the body of this as they do a nice job of working a "guy with speed vs. guy with bulk" story despite Sawa not being a guy who I think of as being particularly quick and TAGAI's not a guy I think of as being particularly bulky, And then it falls apart in the last two minutes of the thirteen minute match. The whole end run is built around Sawa's more goofy stuff, none of which are executed well here. I do mind it when the stupid bad looking stuff wins the match.

PAS: Sawa is a guy who's basic stuff looks pretty good, and he can be carried to a very good match if you keep his poor instincts in check. TAGAI is a guy who can't do anything complicated, but is perfectly fine doing basic stuff. When this was basic it was pretty good, but Sawa needed to get his stuff in, and his stuff kind of sucks.

Yuta Yoshikawa v. Ryuji WALTERS

TKG: This was pretty fun. WALTERS is a guy who actually is bulky and early on WALTERS just stampedes Yoshikawa out of the ring. Both do some fine mat work with long side headlockish control stuff. They move into an almost "your turn my turn" run that is saved by how much I actively enjoyed the reversals and it ends with just a spectacular step over toe hold. Yoshikawa is a guy who I think of as hit and miss and WALTERS is a guy who is always fun as a crowbar but not completely sold on him, and the two have the best wrestling match on the show thus far.

PAS: This was really good stuff. I think WALTERS has really become a solid all around wrestler. He wasn't just potatoing Yoshikawa he also sold really well and worked the mat solidly. WALTERS final run of offense was really brutal, Pain Game into a released vertical suplex and the cranking and pulling on the step over toe hold was great.

There was a worked San Sho match which lasted about two minutes. The winner gives a long speech after, and I am without context

Katsumi Usuda/Kysouke Sasaki v. Satoshi Kajiwara/Yujiro Yamamoto

TKG: I've liked the Usuda/Sasaki team before. Sasaki can be kind of dickish with a couple amusing bucking moves and it compliments Usuda well. Sasaki is an ex U-Style guy, and Kajiwara is a Toyumon guy and the two match up weirdly well with a bunch of neat exchanges including a nasty high knee catch of spear. Sasaki and Yammamoto also have pretty good mat exchanges although there are moments where Sasaki looks a step off. This never hit high end Battlarts tag territory but everyone matched up well and these are teams I would like to see more of.

PAS: This was pretty solid stuff, Yammamoto is by far the best of the young guys and has really good chemistry with Usuda. I also though Kajiwara fit in really well with everyone, the finish run with Usuda was great as Kajiwara busts out all of his offense with a ton of intensity only to see Usuda counter a kneebar with a nasty looking crotch stretch for the submission. It really felt Fujiwaraish how he came out of nowhere to steal the win.

Yuki Ishikawa v. Super Tiger II

TKG: Super Tiger appears to bust Ishikawa's eye in about the first 45 seconds of this. They work some cool mat stuff, I especially liked the Ishikawa chops to SuperTiger's kidneys to escape a hold. This had a real Fujiwara feel to it for long chunks as Ishikawa is blind guy absorbing punishment hoping for an opening to exploit. But he becomes blind 45 seconds in, so it never really felt like their was a build to Fujiwara end run it was just that end run as 7 minute match.

PAS: I thought this was a couple of pretty good performances which didn't add up to great match. Tiger was really vicious laying into Ishikawa with Ishikawa being really defensive and back peddling. Ishikawa is so great as gutsy guy who is willing to die on his sword, and Tiger throws some nasty kicks. Still he is definitely hampered by the orbital bone break. If Tiger broke his face 8 minutes in, instead of 90 seconds in this might have been a MOTYC.

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BattlArts 8/03/09 - Show 2

Alexander Otsuka/Bison Tagai vs. Ryuji Walter/Satoshi Kajiwara

TKG: Ryuji Walter is a guy who I enjoy doing standup, but for the most part he was doing matwork here. Really undynamic matworker. There were a couple moments where Kajiwara looked like he was anticipating spots too early but for the most part I dug his sections with Tagai. This match was kind of just there and never kicked in to a second gear.

PAS: I thought as usual Otsuka was the highlight, pretty by the numbers performance by him, but he is a top five guy in the world, so his numbers are pretty high. There was an especially cool moment where he backs Kajiwara into the corner and forearms him in the kidneys, and his delayed german suplex is one of the best moves in wrestling.

Tiger Shark v. Keita Yano

TKG: In the morning show Keita Yano was able to pull off a decent inoffensive work the arm strategy. Here he tries to work the back and it is painfully ugly. Ole could work a match around working an arm or work a match around working the back. Yano really can only pull off the arm stuff, not as multifaceted as Ole. I mean everything Yano did looked crappy and awkward. And this was a match built around him controlling. Yucky.

PAS: Yeah this was all of the worst aspects of Yano, I could imagine this match worked hold for hold on the undercard of an EVOLVE show and getting good reviews by indy wrestling fans, but this was a pile of shit. It did have an awesome finish, with Shark hitting a nasty kick from his back, KO Yano right into a omaplata. Still the first 9 minutes of this 9:12 match sucked.

Yujiro Yamamoto v. Super Tiger

PAS: Spectacular match, add this to his match earlier in the day, and Yammamoto pretty much cements himself as one of the greatest wrestlers in the world. Whole match is built around Tiger being this nasty brusier punishing Yammamoto with kicks and punches, and really using his strength to control parts of the matwork. Meanwhile Yammamoto is using his speed and technique to pull off some amazing looking reversals and counters.

TKG: Yeah holy fuck this was amazing. Yamamoto is awesome at selling a beating just splaying and fighting back weakened. There is a point where he sells a kick to the chest while Super Tiger II does a bunch of weak looking spots, and he really gets over the idea that the wind from the kick made al the other stuff worse. He sells a Super Tiger awkward elbow drop as though his neck is really fucked…which makes the follow up tease of a german super tense. He is also a guy with tons of really intricate ways to get in reversals and change momentum. There is an awesome reverse kick at one point and a ton of heel hooks that are just really dramatic.

Yuki Ishikawa v. Yuta Yoshikawa

TKG: Yuki Ishikawa aged 15 years since his morning match. He looked like current Great Kabuki. This was really great Ishikawa performance. This was less Ishikawa standup and more him as superstar on the mat.Yoshikawa is doing a move and hit deal where he’s trying to avoid getting caught on the mat for any length. Ishikawa suddenly looking geriatric kind of makes Yoshikawa’s strikes seem more vicious.

PAS: Ishikawa did look awesome here. Yoshikawa really needed to bring the pain more for the amount of selling Ishikawa did. It was really awesome selling though. Finish was sweet with Ishikawa eating knees to the head, and grabbing a really great armbar for the desperation submission. Don’t really understand why he needed a desperation submission, but it was a cool moment.

Katsumi Usuda v. Munenori Sawa

PAS: Pretty disappointing. Usuda has had a monster year, but he couldn’t do anything here. Individually cool stuff, but Sawa was indulging his worst impulses. There was a moment in the corner where he unleashed this totally corny punch combo, totally took me out of the violence. Really nasty leglock finish, but the worst Usuda match of the year.

TKG: Apparently Sawa and Usuda are on the same tier or at least they are working this as though the two are really even. I almost expected a two count roll up exchange. This wasn’t good.

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BattlArts 8/03/09 - Show 1

PAS: This is the first of two shows they ran that day in the B1 Climax

Alexander Otsuka/Bison Tagai v. Satoshi Kajiwara/ Yuki Ishikawa

PAS: Kajiwara is a Toryuman Mexico guy I have seen work Negro Navarro before, I am not the biggest fan of Ultimo Trainees, but if you can semi hang with Negro Navarro doing lucha exchanges and semi hang with Yuki Ishikawa doing shoot matwork you might have some promise. Tagai can look flat out awful at points, but here he mostly looked fine, and the Tagai v. Kajiwara section, which you would expect to stink, kind of didn’t. Otsuka and Ishikawa were Otsuka and Ishikawa, there was an especially awesome exchange which ended with Ishikawa landing a nasty sliding enzigiri. One of the better BattlArts tags of the year.

TKG: TAGAI is super hit and miss. Here he was hit for the most part, as even when he was grabbing for nonsensical stuff he did it with purpose. There were a couple of weak moments in the Tagai v Kajiwara sections but for the most part those were fun. Ishikawa was a real blast here and came off really charismatic. I especially liked one of his rope breaks when he forced opponent to give up hold and then immediately latched on to him. Otsuka was doing more Mafia kicks than I remember him ever doing before. Lots of straight forward kicks, not really nasty stiff kicks but more like hard shoves.

Tiger Shark v. Ryuji Walter

TKG: I had no idea what to expect going into this match. I kind of like both guys but am unsold on either being able to really put something good together by themselves. This was kind of fine, sometimes the Tigershark highspots felt like they weren’t paced well and this fell out of Battlarts and into being a real standard indy match for big chunks. This wouldn’t have looked out of place on a Futen undercard and is as good as the best stuff on the Futen undercard we saw. But I wantd a Battlarts match.

PAS: Right before this match I made the comment “Ryuji WALTER may not be a great wrestler, but you always want to see him, because you know he will punch someone brutally in the face.” I must have jinxed the match, as they have a perfectly fine under ten minute match which does not feature any violent face punching. I liked this okay, but it is not what I wanted to see.

Super Tiger II v. Katsumi Usuda

TKG: This was made by Usuda’s sell of the finish run. The fatigue sell of locking in and holding onto that near fall ankle lock after Tiger gets the break really makes the next couple of minutes. As exciting an end run as you’re going to get.

PAS: This is another tremendous Usuda performance, I am unsure how we are going to rank the Super Tiger II and Tiger Shark on the SC 500, as they have both been in very good matches where they were clearly carried by great wrestlers. We will have to see how this tourney shakes out. This was a match made by Usuda’s selling, he does an amazing job putting over Tigers kicks, finish run was about as good a last two minutes as anything I have seen this year. Tiger is killing with big kicks, and Usuda is able to catch the kick for an awesome near fall ankle lock, before finally getting knocked all the way out of the ring where he can’t answer a 10 count.

Keita Yano v. Yuta Yoshikawa

TKG: Did Yano get a hold of a PWG tape with a Disco Machine v Hook Bombery main event? I was actively dreading this match up and for the most part they avoided living down to my expectations. Worked a pretty simple Yano works the arm, Yoshikawa fires back with kicks storyline. Nothing too complex. Yoshikawa hits really hard kicks and does a really great job with the arm selling. Yano doesn’t fuck much up as the arm work keeps him from getting too elaborate. You keep on waiting for the match to derail but the simple story keeps it from falling apart. Then they do a neat nearfall play off the last match and then all bets are off and they try for an extra six minutes of rope running exchanges or something. It just falls off. I was shocked that they had a solid 11 minutes in them, but they should have ended at 11.

PAS: Yeah if this match had ended right after Yano gets knocked to the floor it would have been close to a miracle match, but man does it go to shit soon after. They had a good 9 minute match and then went another 9, this was less Hook Bombery v. Disco Machine, then a current PWG big main event (has Davey Richards wrestled Chuck Taylor?) in that it had no sense of timing, it just kept going and going, finishes weren't finishes, near falls were the same for weak shit and cool shit. They do lots of simple cool arm work and then Yano says fuck it and starts doing shitty top rope dropkicks on the elbow, a terrible looking rebound lariat and jacks a Danielson finish. While there was plenty of blame to go around for their first match, I thought Yoshikawa was pretty good here. I am dropping this at Yano’s doorstep.

Munenori Sawa v. Yujiro Yamamoto

TK: Holy fuck is Yujiro Yamamoto amazing. I mean Sawa didn’t do a ton in the early sections where he was working from below, and his offense here was limited to his signature dragon screws, superman punches, an octopus and a shinning wizard. These are spots that I’ve seen look really mediocre. But Yamamoto made all that work. He eats the fuck out of the dragon screws and makes you buy them as really game changers. And when Yamamoto is working from above he is just destroying Sawa.

PAS: I really liked the way this was paced, they built nicely from the opening matwork, which was pretty slick, to some totally badass standing exchanges. They were just popping each other in the mouth with rude slaps. There was also tons of shitalking, both guys yelling at each other as they went at it. Really ended up a total fight. This was a damn good card with pretty much everything except the last 10 minutes of the Yano match being good.

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BattlArts 7/26/09

BISON TAGAI v. Super Tiger II

PAS: Tagai is pretty terrible, and Tiger is very hit and miss. There is two or three kind of cool things in this match. I liked how TAGAI tauntingly went for a Tiger suplex and got met with a nasty mule kick, but still this was four minutes and it didn’t feel like he had four minutes in him.

TKG: TAGAI just kicks the shit out of Tiger’s shin early in the match, and Tiger hits a nice mule kick but lots of this was just sloppy. Huge parts were entertaining stiff trainwreck sloppy. Unfortunately those parts were broken up with really dull standing sloppy punch exchanges. And then there were Super Tiger’s embarrassing senton-leg drops. This was the worst Super Tiger II has looked,

Keita Yano v. Ryuji Walter

TKG: I didn’t expect Walters to sell this much. But Yano exposes Walters’ ankle and Walters spends whole match struggling with it. Walters beats the fuck out of Yano and I think as a result Yano is forced to throw better than usual uppercuts. Either Yano does a spectacular job selling guy knocked the fuck out or Walters legit knocked him into laying fetal and instinctively cupping what was left of his own manhood.

PAS: This match may have redeemed Yano a bit for me. I was just hoping for Walters to beat him hideously, and we certainly got that, but there was more to the match. Yano cut down on his fake PWG offense and focused on working over Walters leg, including some pretty good looking submissions. When it was Walters turn to fire back, he fucking fired back throwing some jaw jackers, Yano looked like Jermain Taylor at the finish.

Katsumi Usuda v. Yujiro Yamamoto

PAS: Really great match. Really had sort of unique feel. Both guys fought kind of tentatively, with neither guy wanting to make a mistake. There was also a chippyness with both guys kind of throwing shots on the break and waiting a beat to release submissions. They were also both kind of throwing these Nick Diaz style punches, a couple of range finder weak shots and then a hard shot. It felt like it was building to a more epic finish then it had, but I really enjoyed it.

TKG: I’m used to seeing Yammamoto work underdog v veteran. Here instead when they weren’t working even they seemed to be working sections of Yammamoto as athletic youngster v cagey less athletic veteran. Usuda went for a bunch of short cut chokes , hair pulls etc. and worked lots of guy overwhelmed by opponents athleticism stuff. Usuda as guy outgunned working to slip something in was neat and I’m not a guy who needs a 2.9 finisher run but like Phil said this felt to me like it needed a couple more minutes.

Yuki Ishikawa v. Tiger Shark

PAS: This was a Fujiwara student and a Sayama student doing a really great version of Fujiwara vs. Sayama. Much like those matches you have the crafty veteran maestro trying to catch and stretch the freak athlete kickboxer. It was a great match in 1985 and it is pretty great 25 years later. Ishikawa is awesome here, he carries the match, leaning into Sharks kick, throwing lots of little cheap shots and smirks. The armlock he finishes him with is awesome, you can see him shift, set it up, twist and crank. Beautiful stuff and my working BattlArts match of the year.

TKG: BattlArts match of year? It didn’t have the epic feel to it that parts of Ryuji Walters v Ishikawa achieved. And I don’t know if I ever fully bought the danger of the freak athlete kickboxer. I mean I dug Tiger Shark a bunch here and he is clearly the better of the Sayama trained Tigers. But I never bought him as being so nasty and dangerous that Ishikawa needed his cunning to defeat him. It wasn’t Fujiwara v Sayama. Still this was really good and this is two really high end matches in a row with one pretty fun match before those---and this has become the best BattArts show of 2009.

PAS: I agree that Shark doesn’t deliver the kind of horrific beating Sayama laid in (or Watlers did in the Ishikawa v. Walter match), but he certainly dominated the stand up, knocking Ishikawa down multiple times with some cool looking kicks. Outside of some tricky shots, Ishikawa really has no answer on his feet. This really is one of the most Fujiwaraish Ishikawa performances ever, which may be why I dug it so much. There is moment where Ishikawa gets smacked with a spin kick, which he sells like death, he gets up at seven, and does this really great waving off of the ref, like he was saying “Fuck it I can take this punk”

TKG: Yes I probably was underselling this match to combat Phil overselling it. And this is a pretty great Ishikawa performance as he does sell the fuck out of Tiger Shark's stuff and there are a bunch of neat exchanges and spots. Still I think this match felt more like the story of a great dramatic Sirus v Adam challenge then a Fujiwara v Sayama matchup.

Kyosuke Sasaki/Alexander Otsuka v. Yuta Yoshikawa/Muenori Sawa

TKG: This was odd. Kind of really middling match. I remember liking the Sasaki/Usuda ass kicking tag team. Sasaki/Otsuka work very differently together. They kind of work like Hamada/ Shinsaki v Kaeintai. As Otsuka works guy being disrespected and kicked in the balls a bunch while Sasaki works charismatic guy with over spots. Their was lots of comedy spots and the fast elaborate hand speed exchanges between Sasaki and Sawa might have been more entertaining on a regular indy show but felt really weak and b.s. in the context of this show.

PAS: Yeah this felt like a DDT tag rather then a BattlArts tag. Otsuka has been kind of AWOL in 2009 and I was really looking forward to seeing him, but he doesn’t do much. No real violence, some lame comedy spots. Not what I want to see.

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BattlArts 7/5/09

Katsumi Usuda & Kyosuke Sasaki vs. Keita Yano & Satoshi Kajiwara

TKG: Sasaki is a guy who was getting a big push in U style and haven’t seen for years. He looked fine here in this more pro style environment. It’s hard to really gauge as he didn’t do a ton of matwork and tagged with Usuda he’s going to look secondary. Kajiwara may have some potential and Yano is still awful. Yano is a guy who clearly watches a bunch of US indy tapes and poorly imitates it.

PAS: US Indy wrestling used to be dudes poorly imitating Japanese puroresu, and now we have puro guys poorly imitating ROH guys, the World is truly Flat. I don’t know what was worse Yano’s Nigel rebound lariat or his Danieslon MMA elbows, but Yano is the single shittiest wrestler showing up on tape. This is the real problem with current BattlArts v. 90’s BattlArts, pretty much everyone in the 90’s was at least carryable, current BattlArts still has awesome guys, but some of the younger guys can just drag a match into the toilet. Usuda looked good in his sections, but he got this completely ridiculous tan, it looked like he was working a Khmer Rouge gimmick.

B-1 Climax - Block B: Yujiro Yamamoto vs. Baisen TAGAI

TKG: Yamamoto is pretty awesome, does a really awesome job selling for TAGAI’s shitty offense. Sells arm well early on, eats an awful corner lariat and makes it work, etc. He’s also got really frantic nice comeback offense where even when stuff missed it came off reckless. Unfortunately he works the match from below and TAGAI is a guy who needs to stick to tags.

PAS: Yamamoto is great, and it is a pleasure to watch him work anyone, but TAGAI really is a load. I haven’t minded him in some of the tag matches I have seen him in, but he looked pretty untrained here. I like that they are using Sasaki, but they need to grab so more ex U-Style guys to fill out these undercards.

B-1 Climax - Block A: Yuta Yoshikawa vs. Tiger Shark

PAS: This was perfectly okay although I didn’t really get much of a BattlArts feel from it. Felt like the third best match on a DDT show. Both guys did some okay kick exchanges, but this isn’t a trained monkey show, lay it in.

TKG: This was an indy match. Tiger Shark hits a really nice diving headbutt. And all the mat work and strikes in this felt like the kind of indy matwork and strikes that is used as filler to build up to dive train. Are Johnny Storm and Jody Fleish still showing up in So Cal indies once a year? They could steal this match as filler before dive train and people would dig it. But this was indy match filler.

B-1 Climax - Block A: Yuki Ishikawa vs. Ryuji Walter

TKG: Ryuji Walter is an entertaining crowbar. As powerhouse guy opposite Ishikawa he sells more than Sekimoto. But I see a guy who is going to punch Ishikawa in the face I want to see Ishikawa punch back. I love toe to toe Ishikawa. Ishikawa as underdog valiantly and smartly fighting back against powerhouse is fun but isn’t as awesome as toe to toe Ishikawa. Still Walter is nasty as fuck and Ishikawa looks tough eating and fighting off his stuff. Feels like a match I’ll dig a lot more on rewatch.

PAS: Ishikawa is a guy who grew up idolizing Inoki and this is the most Inokish performance I have ever seen out of him. Walter was in the Hansen/Brody/Vader mode of dominating monster, and Ishikawa was the veteran legend who was going to take a beating, but was going to use his guile and toughness to pull out the victory. I still don't have much of a sense of Walter as a wrestler, but fuck is he stiff, during the first flurry out of the ring he slams Ishikawa with a straight right hand which landed right on the upper part of the jaw. By the way Ishikawa's mouth was swelling it wouldn't shock me if he broke his cheekbone. There was also an in ring right hand for a near fall which had both of us yelling "Holy fuck." Still I loved how Ishikawa weathered the storm and had Walter on the ropes, with a bell saving him from tapping.

B-1 Climax - Block B: Super Tiger II vs. Munenori Sawa

PAS: This was shockingly good, I think it might have been better then previous match, which is never something I would have guessed before hand. This is by far the best STII has looked, he had been carried to some good stuff previously, but it looked like he had it figured it out here. The matwork at the beginning was solid stuff, but it really got good when they stood up. Lots of really nice exchanges, there was one section where both guys stood in front of each other exchanging sick body shots, it is a drill I used to do in boxing and it brought back some painful memories. Finish was awesome with Tiger landing some really pretty athletic kicks and Sawa doing an awesome half KO sell.

TKG: These guys have signature crowd popping spots and they really didn’t do them here. Instead they just went at each other. Really impressive performance by guys who I didn’t think had this in them. In the past Super Tiger II has been a guy who when his stuff looks polished it doesn’t work as well as his stuff that looks sloppy. Here he came across as a polished wrestler in control of his stuff and it all looked good. The match also built from sections to sections really well. I didn’t really think either guy was capable of that. In this kind of match often times the finishing KO will feel really arbitrary, like the wrestlers realized how long the match had gone on and decided “well I guess this will be the strike that ends it”. Here the selling and the set up for the final kO made it clear that it was the finish.

PAS: First part of this show was a bit rough, but the last two matches got me pretty excited for the rest of this tournament.

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