Segunda Caida

Daisuke Ikeda/Giant Baba/Rusher Kimura vs. Masa Fuchi/Masao Inoue/Haruka Eigen AJPW 5/18/97 - GREAT

ER: What a treat. This is not only Ikeda's TV debut with All Japan, but this is the only taped footage of Ikeda going opposite Fuchi, and it's as good or better than you want it to be. The fans are really excited for Ikeda all match, and I'm unsure if his BattlArts rep somehow preceded him, or it was just the excitement of seeing a new, younger guy teaming up with Baba. It's cool to see Ikeda so chummy with Baba, they look like real pals. And you know you want to see how Ikeda matches up against everybody, but all members of the match bring something to this. Inoue (looking like Manabu Nakanishito) vs. Ikeda gives us our first taste of Ikeda in AJ, and soon he's delivering huge front kicks to Inoue's chest, boots him straight in the stomach to stagger him, and then hits a savage full arm flat foot lariat that puts Inoue down immediately. Honestly, that's a kill shot right there. Ikeda had a special talent for making tough-to-hit lariats look good; I'm not sure there's anyone close to his standing lariat or diving lariat off the top rope. Fuchi tags in and commences to not fuck around, and seeing Fuchi yank Ikeda to the mat by his arm, kick him in the face, and muscle him over with a headlock takeover makes you cry actual adult tears that we never got to see Fuchi in Batt. Fuchi brings it hard all match, not about to let some kickpads punk come in and outpunk him. Fuchi is potently badass opposite Ikeda, later in the match he throws an awesome Saito suplex on Ikeda, really upending him, and it even inspires Fuchi's team to take their shots against Ikeda. It's highly amusing to see Eigen throwing actual hard stomps on Ikeda, I loved it. Baba was awesome as Fuchi held him in high reverence, like you do, so Fuchi would be kicking Ikeda's ass and then get sent wobbly kneed by a Baba chop. Baba had great presence throughout. He was a little thicker at this stage of the game, and it added to his aura, and I flipped when he came in and wrenched Fuchi over with a cool headlock takeover, or when he was holding Eigen in a full nelson so Ikeda could dish some kicks to his stomach. Ikeda even gets included in a fun spot on his first night, getting a spit take from Eigen after a big kick on the apron. Finish was fun with Ikeda getting to throw Eigen into a Baba boot and a Rusher lariat, just a total blast.

PAS: Eric is one of the few people in the world who could happily watch dozens of All Japan old man comedy matches, but I will admit their is something comforting about well done formula wrestling. That is especially true when a little wrench is thrown in the formula. All of a sudden here comes Ikeda hurling crowbar lariats and straight kicks to the chest, and while we still get an Eigen spit take, we also get Eigen trying to grit out getting kicked square in the chest really hard. Fuchi was masterful, and he had a really cocky strut as he took Ikeda down and stretched him or dumped him on the top of his head. Ikeda was clearly pretty amped to be teaming with Baba and really came hard, it is too bad that a long stint in NOAH sapped some of that spunk.

ER: Sounds like Phil's first sentence just spilled the beans on my next Complete & Accurate...

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA

Labels: AJPW, All Japan, Daisuke Ikeda, Giant Baba, Haruka Eigen, Masa Fuchi, Masao Inoue, Rusher Kimura

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Thursday, March 12, 2020

2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Ikeda/Ishikawa vs. Ridgeway/Makabe

8. Daisuke Ikeda/Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daniel Makabe/Chris Ridgeway WXW 3/5

PAS: Such a treat to get to see new Ishikawa and Ikeda footage. This is clearly a thrill for their opponents, don't know a ton about Ridgeway but I know Makabe is a giant BattlArts mark and this had to be like a fantasy camp for him. Ishikawa has been more active than Ikeda in recent years, and he still looks likes one of the absolute best in the world. There are a bunch of very cool moments in this match, where Makabe seems like he has Ishikawa caught in something only to see Ishikawa smoothly reverse his way out. The way he spun into a cross armbreaker was just masterful. Ridgeway and Ikeda matched up, and Ridgeway clearly understood how hard he had to hit in a Daisuke Ikeda match. There were a bunch of elbow exchanges in this match - which I don't love - but I did like how both Makabe and Ridgeway would mix in sharp elbows to the body to get an advantage. Ikeda hit pretty hard in this, but never Daisuke Ikeda hard (hopefully that came in the singles against Ishikawa), and I was hoping for this to hit that level of sublime violence which the best BattlArts/FUTEN tags reach. It never got there, but I thoroughly enjoyed everything we got.

ER: Just the fact that this match happened would have likely been enough to make me happy. This feels like an alternate timeline WCW WorldWide match that someone finds years after it happened. Makabe has been one of the most creative and high quality mat workers of the past few years, so seeing him up against two guys who really made me dive into that style was really special. Seeing Makabe get tied up and scramble to save his arms from Yuki was a treat, and I absolutely loved all of Ridgeway's submission attempts on Ikeda. He and Ikeda were constantly going after each other's knees and ankles, from their first roll to their last. Ridgeway broke out some tricks that I didn't expect and appeared to genuinely flummox Ikeda, my favorite moment being Ridgeway twisting through an Ikeda attempt at a kneebar and getting a figure 4 across his knee and ankle. And I really liked the strikes thrown between Ikeda and Ridgeway, actually jumped the first time Ridgeway realllly punted Ikeda in the back after a snapmare. Now, I jumped because I thought a kick like that to a guy like Ikeda was just a fancy way of signing your death certificate, but I loved how Ridgeway sold all of Ikeda's strikes after that. Ikeda came in with some blistering shots to Ridgeway's back and triceps, then threw a few isolated elbow strikes. Ridgeway fought up after each strike, but there was no silly stand and trade, just Ridgeway not backing down until Ikeda really put him down. And it lead to something even better, which was Ridgeway starting to throw decoy strikes to throw Ikeda off his game. Ridgeway threw a sucker high kick that Ikeda bit at, leading to Ridgeway throwing heavy weight behind a shot to Ikeda's body. Later, while working for an ankle lock, Ridgeway leans in his chin to sucker Ikeda into going for an enziguiri, which Ridgeway dodges and grabs *that* ankle. Dug Makabe's hot tag as he capitalizes on the body shots Ridgeway had just dished out to Ishikawa, pastes Yuki with a corner dropkick, and even gets off the Big Unit. Seeing Makabe hit a Big Unit punch on Ishikawa AND Ikeda was something special, and now I'm gonna need to see him fire that off on Katsumi Usuda, Carl Malenko, Takeshi Ono, Alexander Otsuka, just start working a gimmick where he's tracking down old Batt guys to punch, the way some try to visit every MLB stadium. I'll be the first to write about the GoPro video of Makabe finding out where Urban Ken lives and then punching him in the face right as Ken opens the door. Makabe can even call him Suburban Ken as he mocks the man at his own home. Anyway, the match doesn't quite cash in on things they were building to, and the end felt a little abrupt after what we'd seen, but I find no faults whatsoever with the actual ring work. That was everything my eyes wanted.

2020 MOTY MASTER LIST

Labels: 2020 MOTY, Chris Ridgeway, Daisuke Ikeda, Daniel Makabe, WXW, Yuki Ishikawa

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Monday, November 12, 2018

2009 Match of the Year

Daisuke Ikeda/Takeshi Ono vs. Manabu Suruga/Takahiro Oba FUTEN 4/26/09

PAS: The kind of harrowingly violent shootstyle tag war which FUTEN mastered. Oba is kind of a lanky goofy guy who has some big impressive throws, kind of like Otsuka stretched out on a rack, Surugu is the former Manabu Hara, who was never the most electric BattlArts guy, but perfectly willing to engage in a war, and Ikeda and Ono are Ikeda and Ono, two of the best to ever do it. Lots of great tag work early by Ikeda and Ono as they work over Suruga and Oba's legs like hyper violent Anderson's. These matches usually build to long one on one violent war of attrition sections. We get two of them here, the first is a great Ono vs. Oba battle with Ono fighting off his back, locking in submissions while dodging Oba's stomps and leaps, it ends with a big fight over a grounded octopus, while Manabu is fighting desperately against Ikeda to make the save. We then get a violent Ikeda vs. Suruga section with both guys landing hellacious shots and both end up glassy eyed and spent. FUTEN maybe my favorite wrestling promotion ever, and this was the best thing going in 2009 for sure.

ER: This was a match with a lot of little stories going on throughout it, with some cool shifts in control, and all four guys getting great moments in the spotlight. I've seen this tag several times, but not for a few years now. For some reason this time I got really invested in Oba's arc. Oba is pretty easily the weakest contributor in the match, but I think that's more a testament to how strong the match is, that his performance here is the weak link. He starts the match as a bumbling goof, erases that image with a great hot tag that makes him look like a real badass, then by the time he's doing comedy stuff again he's practically a folk hero, the comedy coming from a place of confidence now instead of incompetence. It was a cool mid match transition and really added to things, but the others got those moments too. Ikeda was confident veteran who got a couple of awesome late match fighting babyface moments, the first after Suruga savagely drops him with a Tiger Driver '91. It looked like something that someone shouldn't get up from, but Ikeda barely does and his new vulnerability makes him more of a hero. Ono is the great lost BattlArts guy who basically started working only quarterly after Batt, and always looked as good as ever. Here he gets to show off his great speed and precise striking, and contributes huge to the drama with an awesome save for Ikeda. Suruga came in at the end of the Batt run and is much younger than Ikeda/Ono, but here he gets to show that he can hang with the vets, and peaks with the stretch run where he looks like he can destroy Ikeda singlehandedly, dropping him mightily with two German suplexes and that crushing Tiger Driver. All men work cool submission moments, like Ikeda muscling his way out of a headlock by moving his neck behind Oba's back, or Ikeda getting his arm stomped on, or Suruga getting his knee yanked around; but we got cool pro wrestling moments too, none more pro wrestling than Ikeda and Ono pulling off a Doomsday Device in a shootstyle match, and Ikeda dropping one of the nastier post-Hashimoto brainbusters, or Suruga dragging his body to finally tag out after taking some ruthless shots, and then collapsing on the ring apron to recover. And of course every moment in between these moments is peppered with hard leg kicks, clonking Ikeda headbutts, fast Ono rabbit punches, and full body Suruga strikes. A match where everyone came out of this looking powerful, a unique and awesome tag match deserving of being the 2009 champ.

ALL TIME MOTY LIST

Labels: All Time MOTY, Daisuke Ikeda, Futen, Manabu Suruga, Takahiro Oba, Takeshi Ono

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Tuesday, May 21, 2019

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

Labels: 2019 MOTY, Alexander Otsuka, Daisuke Ikeda, Mohammed Yone, Yuki Ishikawa

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Tuesday, January 10, 2017

2010 Match of the Year

Daisuke Ikeda/Takahiro Oba v. Makoto Hashi/Kengo Mashimo FUTEN 10/24/10

PAS: A truly transcendent piece of wrestling violence. The match starts with a little jiving and taunting, especially by Ikeda and Obo, although in true FUTEN fashion that includes a teeth loosening Ikeda kick to Mashimo's face. I also really liked how Oba used his taunt as a way to feint out Hashi and get a takedown. The middle section of this match was pretty damn great too, with each pairing getting a chance to stretch out a bit and show some things. Oba had some truly impressive grappling exchanges with Hashi as they were grabbing limbs and throats and twisting and cracking. We also got to see Ikeda and Mashimo kick each other in the face, thighs and ribs, Mashimo and Oba do their thing and some teases of the Ikeda v. Hashi hellstorm yet to come.

Then like most of these matches, it comes down to two guys battling it out, and sweet Christ on the Cross dying for our sins, do they battle it out. Hashi and Ikeda just rip into each other with about the most brutal exchanges I have ever seen. The final showdown is basically Lawler v. Dutch with withering headbutts instead of punches. It was truly vile. They have a very cool mini story here, unlike most back and forth strike exchanges in Puro, this wasn't a battle of equals. Ikeda is the big bad killer, he has been for a long time, still when he is cracking skulls with Hashi he is being outpunched. He is like a boxer who has finally run into someone with heavier hands. He can't go toe to toe, but never learned to do anything else. Early in this showdown he takes a sickening headbutt and stumbles to his corner, Oba slaps him hard in the face to say "You are Daisuke By God Ikeda, this is your house, there no tagging out, go beat that motherfuckers ass." By the end of the showdown, we see Oba in the corner cringing, you can see him thinking "He is going to die in that ring, I should have let him tag out." The FUTEN camerawork was great here, we get some amazing closeups of the bruised and bloody foreheads of both guys, it was pretty spectacular. When Chris Nowitski autopsies their brains, they are going to look like spoiled bananas. The ending of this was epic, Hashi hits a big slap, and one final headbutt dropping Ikeda. They go for a ten count, and as Ikeda raises at 9, you get this great shot of an exhausted Hashi. He has this terrified look on his face, he unloaded it all and the monster didn't stay down. It didn't matter what followed, Ikeda walked through hell and mentally broke him. Professional wrestling at it's absolute best.

ER: Man Phil has been crushing some of these MOTY reviews. He covered most anything you could love about this match, but it really is something else. This is so different from so many other, similar matches, even within the fed itself. The structure is so odd and cool. You get all the different match ups that don't often happen, and then you get the king willing to die on his cross for a long, long home stretch. But it's not Mashimo and Hashi cutting off the ring, it's this wild perseverance that is encouraged by Oba, and not believed by Mashimo or Hashi. Well, eventually they believe. Ikeda is able to portray both vulnerable and unbeatable all at once, and this is an amazing performance. He had a couple of beasts to work with, as Mashimo has all sorts of kicks from weird angles and throws some of the sharpest knees you've seen. He gets nervous first though, seeing that insanity in Ikeda's eyes and leaving things up to Hashi. And Hashi is a monster. He's got this weird soft body that you know could also rip you in half, an epic fail Minoru Suzuki haircut, and this weird feminine swamp thing face; oh, and also an ability to headbutt the math skills out of Ikeda. But this is much more than guys stiffing each other. There is palpable drama behind these strikes, and the more you keep wondering why one of them is standing back up for more, the more you cheer them on. Ikeda's staggering around, going on muscle memory; Oba is rooting him on after laying a lot of groundwork early; Mashimo tired himself out trying to take down the minotaur; and now Hashi in his weird dominant cynicism is left to finish him off. Just as Ikeda is vulnerable and unbeatable, Hashi is masterful at being cocky and nervous all at once. The forehead altering headbutts stand out here, but it's all good. The strikes are killer, the throws are often unexpected, and the stand ups are filled with drama. Just all out classic pro wrestling.

ALL TIME MOTY LIST

Labels: All Time MOTY, Daisuke Ikeda, Futen, Kengo Mashimo, Makoto Hashi, Takahiro Oba

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Saturday, February 27, 2021

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

Labels: 2020 MOTY, Akitoshi Saito, Alexander Otsuka, Daisuke Ikeda, Ikuto Hidaka, Junji Tanaka, Masao Inoue, Mohammed Yone, Naomichi Marufuji, NOAH, Yuki Ishikawa

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Saturday, May 10, 2014

Daisuke Ikeda Will Stop at Nothing! Nothing! Nothing!

Daisuke Ikeda/Katsumi Usuda v. Yuki Ishikawa/Shoichi Funaki PWFG 5/19/95 -GREAT

PAS: We have now moved from the mat based style of PWFG into the violence fest that is BattlArts. Usuda and Funaki are fine here, but this is Ikeda v. Ishikawa and is everything that match up promises. PWFG is stiff wrestling compared to all other wrestling, but when those two match up it is like you are watching something completely different. Kicks to the face, punches to the ribs and face, just great. The finish was super as Ikeda gets Ishikawa's back and yanks on his nose and eyes so he lifts his chin for the choke.

TKG: Ikeda is an absolute monster in this. Just a beast. you start this off with a two juniors matching up section, and the Funaki v. Usuda stuff is fun polished stuff at this point. You then get the heavyweight v. junior section with Ishikawa v. Usuda and this is somewhat disappointing considering what we expect from the two matched up. Mostly Ishikawa twisting Usuda up. then we get the Ikeda vs. Fuanki section where Ikeda just completely abuses and manhandles Funaki. Just beats the piss out of him. All building to the heavyweights finally matching up and fuck Ikeda is a beast. The way Ikeda fishhooks Ishikawa and lifts him up by the fishhook to get him into position for choke is just bad ass.

ER: I think I thought more of this than anybody. I really liked all the match-ups, and really liked the Funaki performance. He took an awful beating from Usuda, then an even worse one from Ikeda. I have a soft spot for old men or wimpy little guys who clearly have only a tiny chance to win against most people. Those are usually the only comebacks that guarantee get me into a match. Funaki just looks overmatched and helpless while Usuda and Ikeda are kicking him about and I love how it built to Funaki hitting a big running dropkick to Ikeda's knee. Funaki's dropkicks were great here, with him also hitting a fast and loud one in the corner. It's always neat seeing old Ishikawa too, as he used to be a real asskicker before later settling into his role of punching bag who can still catch you sleeping. Him punting Ikeda in the stomach got a loud exclamation out of me. Things kind of ended when things were getting super fired up, but that's the kind of thing that adds to the drama of Batt/shootstyle matches for me. Every little knee bar seems more dangerous as it could end the match.

Labels: Daisuke Ikeda, Katsumi Usuda, PWFG, Shoichi Funaki, Yuki Ishikawa

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Saturday, February 12, 2022

2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Ikeda vs. Keisuke Goto

147. Daisuke Ikeda vs. Keisuke Goto GPS Growth5 12/18/18

PAS: This is Ikeda against a young kid, and while that isn't what it would have been 10 years earlier, it is still going to be violent kicks to the ribs, punches to the jaw and gross headbutts. Goto has a nice second rope senton, but otherwise was pretty much there to be beaten violently. There is a great moment where Ikeda has a tight purpling rear naked choke with this sick grin on his face, looking like he is right where he needs to be. What a beautiful psycho.

ER: This is a pretty baseline Ikeda beating, but those are the best, and it's always fun to see what his punching bags to do fight back. Goto really bends Ikeda's left calf over his knee, forcing it down at the ankle, and some of his elbow smashes actually pack more wallop than Ikeda's. This starts out actually competitive, and that changes complete when Ikeda stops Goto's assault by jamming his thumb up Goto's ass. I cannot think of a bigger insult to injury than Ikeda doing an Oil Check before delivering an asskicking. If I'm going to get kicked in the cheek several times, please just kick me in the face. Ikeda does some big body kicks, a hard headbutt, and a mean front kick to Goto's nose and mouth. Where guys like Finlay would stomp on your hands if you were to slow to get to your feet, Ikeda just kicks you in the ribs and face alternately until you make it back up. I liked Goto's running senton, and his middle rope senton wasn't pulled at all, but I would happily take both of those sentons rather than take Ikeda's vertical suplex, his sick high tilt sheer drop back suplex, and that collarbone crushing lariat. We can all identify with the man in the crowd who starts loudly laughing after that lariat. All Ikeda fans are That Man.

2018 MOTY MASTER LIST

Labels: 2018 MOTY, Daisuke Ikeda, GPS, Keisuke Goto

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Saturday, May 09, 2020

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

Labels: Alexander Otsuka, BattlArts, Daisuke Ikeda, Ikuto Hidaka, Katsumi Usuda, Minoru Tanaka, Naohiro Hoshikawa, Shoichi Funaki, Takeshi Ono, Tatsuo Nakano, Yuki Ishikawa

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Wednesday, March 06, 2019

Quick Fast We Reflect Like the Sky Be Blue True, FUTEN Saga Continues

Futen 12/19/10

PAS: This is a FUTEN show which sort of slipped through the cracks when I was reviewing all of it back in the day. It isn't new exactly, but it is new to Segunda Caida.

Taro Nohashi vs. NARITA

PAS: Man if you don't watch FUTEN for a while, it can be pretty jarring to get back into this world. Nohashi is a MPRO guy who worked as a mini-Shinzaki, but that isn't what he is doing here, here he is taking his head and smashing it violently into another persons head. NARITA works like a kickboxer, throwing punches and kicks and they look pretty great, more fast then really powerful. They are however powerful enough to bust up Nohashi mouth so it looks like he is brushing his teeth with ketchup. There are some real moments of brutal greatness, including Nohashi thrusting the back of his head into NARITA's face to break a german suplex attempt, and a cool punches vs. headbutts finish run, with Nohashi's head being the victor.

ER: Killer opener, just give these Futen lunatics 6 minutes to open a card and they got nuts. I'd never seen NARITA before, but early on he's throwing evil hammer fist blows to the top and back of Nohashi's head, and essentially he had me at hello. NARITA was punching the way I hoped Suruga would have punched later in the card, really teeing off on Nohashi's face. Loved all the stuff Phil mentioned with Nohashi using his head - literally - to even things out, thought NARITA threw some really great low angle rolling German suplexes, and the matching ending half crab that Nohashi locked on was disgusting (I kept clenched jaw waiting for one of NARITA's bones to snap out of his ever bending leg). Setting the tone for a Futen card can't be easy on the body, but these two did it.

Mitsuya Nagai vs. Kazuki Okubo

PAS: This was basically two guys exchanging thick kicks and working leg locks. Nagai is a crowbar from way back but it is really hard to stand out throwing hard kicks in FUTEN. Okuba was fun in U-Style, but never that dynamic. These were hard, but we got Ikeda on deck. Solid stuff, but nothing which passes the high bar FUTEN sets.

Kengo Mashimo vs. Rui Hiugaji

ER: I thought this was pretty great until we hit a sort of amusing rough patch down the finishing stretch, but even that was redeemed by how both men handled it. Mashimo is a total legend in Futen and throws some deadly kicks and knees, really feels like this is headed towards being a Futen squash. Then Hiugaji catches a leg and drops into a kneebar, and suddenly we have an opening. Mashimo does a real nice job of selling his leg, and we get a couple cool moments where he's in the middle of a kick flurry only to have his knee buckle under him, allowing Hiugaji to pounce again. Both guys really try to take a couple years off the other with nasty brainbusters, Mashimo hits a killer Saito suplex, and Hiugaji pays him back later by absolutely launching Mashimo with a German suplex that flips him over and lands him right on his forehead!! My god!!! The awkwardness comes with Hiugaji takes an eternity to lock in a figure 4 (after seemingly getting confused by how to lock one in), and ends up locking in one of the weakest submissions ever seen in Futen. Mashimo redeems it by repeatedly pointing out his lousy application and laughing about how terrible Hiugaji's figure 4 is. The criticism was certainly warranted, and Mashimo took a potentially ugly situation and made it work. I liked Hiugaji's fighting spirit during the finish run, as Mashimo kept putting him down with high kicks and then standing by as Hiugaji fought slowly back to his feet. I wish Mashimo would have really put some extra mustard on the final couple kicks, but I liked the finish overall and dug what they did with the layout.

PAS: Mashimo was really great at throwing those thudding Hashimoto baseball bat wheel kicks to the stomach, and he hit a couple of nasty ones to the temple. I also dug his hooks to the ribs, I imagine Hiugaji had some really troubling urinations for the next week after this match. Hiugaji seemed a bit out of his element, I liked the german suplex, but that figure four was pretty embarrassing and he never delivered the heat he needed to, you got to hit a guy back if he is strafing you like that. It picked up at the ending, and got pretty fun, I agree with Eric if you are going to do a KO finish in FUTEN, you had really better come close to actually knocking your opponent unconscious, it's like doing a blood stoppage in lucha, that guy better need a transplant after the match.

Manabu Suruga vs. Makoto Hashi

ER: This was kind of a Futen version of a modern indy moves match, with more strikes trading than moves trading (but still some moves trading). Makoto Hashi is one of the weirder guys to come up through the AJPW system. He's a big lumpy boy with his waterbed body and hot dog lips and 1 minute haircut and hatred of foreheads, and he was always somehow the 4th man on the totem pole who also happened to headbutt people. Futen really gave him the chance to open up and unleash violence, and he really comes off like a total sadist. Here's a match where he busts his own head open by swinging it as hard as he can at Suruga's forehead, repeatedly. They abandon the matwork fairly early in the match, and things take an entirely different turn when Hashi dumps Suruga brutally with a Ki Krusher type driver. The long home stretch is these two smacking each other, and Suruga really throws some of the sharpest and fastest kicks, blasting Hashi in the chest and legs, really swinging. He also weirdly overworked his punches, like he was some Lance Storm type who was going to verbally take pride in throwing punches that don't crack an egg, and it's weird because he's doing it to a man who broke open his own head smashing it against things. Fucking PUNCH that dude in the face!! I liked a lot of the strike breakdown here, and loved Hashi's backfists, these hard awful fists pounding right into Suruga's neck. This all felt like a more interesting version of the current New Japan bomb fests.

PAS: Hashi in FUTEN was such a shooting star, he had 16 matches there, and we only have seen five (and there are some killer stuff we haven't seen, Hashi vs. Ikeda, vs. Mashimo teamed with Mashimo vs. Ikeda/Ishikawa, looking at FUTEN results is a form of masochism). He arrived in FUTEN after years of NOAH undercard stuff where he was only sporadically featured, and made himself right at home, driving his lumpen head violently into the faces of fellow wrestlers. Hashi headbutts are more violent looking then the headbutts that put Shibata into a coma, it is really hard to watch in the best way. Suruga is very competent and is a great B-Side for a Hashi geek show. He really whips kicks into the knee and it does a great job of slowing the match down and injecting some real danger into the match. Great stuff, the kind of thing FUTEN did regularly but would dominate 2019 MOTY posts if it happened today.

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

ER: It's crazy that this tag (and this show) has been just sitting out there not being reviewed on this site. This is another classic battle of violence, divided into 3 Acts: Ikeda and Ishikawa torturing each other, Ono and Usuda torturing each other, and the super amusing Act 3 that is just Ikeda and Ishikawa breaking up nasty submissions. Ikeda and Ishikawa have the weirdest friendship in wrestling. I mean, I assume they are friends. Is it more weird if we find out they hate each other, or if they're best friends for life? I love their dynamic (strong opinion there), love how Ikeda looks absolutely unbeatable for long stretches, and how Ishikawa is the ultimate punching bag who can turn things on an instant. Ikeda and Ishikawa is never not a fun mess, and I love our later period match-ups between them; both have this beleaguered, tired intensity, doing the dance again, Ishikawa eating leg kicks and doing his insane strategy of eating two kicks to the chest only to catch the third, Ikeda getting his joints bent horribly by kneebars. But I was really excited for the Ono/Usuda portions of this, loved the cold Terminator precision from Ono. Ono locks on submissions quicker than maybe any man in wrestling history. The way he quickly sweeps Usuda's legs and a split second later had both of Usuda's arms wrapped tightly behind his back was a thing of beauty, and I don't think I've ever witnessed a faster or more efficient octopus hold applied by anybody. Usuda lingers for a second and suddenly Ono just has every single limb tied up and being stretched in a different direction. Both guys keep getting locked into nasty holds, Usuda tying up a few awesome figure 4 leglocks, the most shootstyle figure 4s you've seen, and our home stretch is an absolute blast of comedy and violence. Ono and Usuda are locked in eternal kneebar struggle, and Ishikawa keeps trying to knock Usuda loose while Ikeda is knocking Ono loose. Neither man wants to break, but the older guys force them to, except for the times that these savages just keep holding on and refusing to break. Ishikawa is dropping knees on Usuda's head, Ikeda is headbutting Ono, neither one wants to break, and it's great. We get moments of Ishikawa and Ikeda looking at each other while their wards are giving each other knee injuries for life, like "what more can we do here? We raised monsters!" It was the kind of tilt we don't usually get in these wars, and I thought it worked great.

PAS: This felt like a parejas match with normal partners Ikeda and Ono and Ishikawa and Usuda which was an interesting twist on this matchup. The main dance partners were still Ikeda vs. Ishikawa and Usuda vs. Ono and they were all some great dances. FUTEN tag matches usually build to these long one on one battles of attrition, surprisingly Ikeda vs. Ishikawa was used at the set up battle to the final stretch of Ono vs. Usuda. The Ikeda vs. Ishikawa sections were unsurprisingly stellar, with both guys hurling horrid abuse at the other. The final Usuda vs. Ono waltz was great too, a great mix of slick submissions and big KO shots. I loved their first exchange with Usuda trying for the Fujiwara Boston crab counter, and Ono just stomping him right in the head. Usuda was able to find openings to slip in and crank submissions, while Ono would throw them on with blistering speed. Ikeda and Ishikawa would just wander in and break submissions in the nastiest way possible, at one point Ikeda headbutts Ono right in the back of his head to break up a submission, Ishikawa is dropping shin bone to the nose kneedrops. It has to totally suck to lock on a submission in a FUTEN tag. Every one of these matches is a treasure.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA

Labels: Daisuke Ikeda, Futen, Katsumi Usuda, Kazuki Okubo, Kengo Mashimo, Makoto Hashi, Manabu Suruga, Mitsuya Nagai, NARITA, Rui Hiugaji, Takeshi Ono, Taro Nohashi, Yuki Ishikawa

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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

I Felt Like Watching BattlArts

So, Rachel is on the phone with her mother, I have bourbon in my hand, can't watch Veep until Rachel is off the phone. I felt like watching BattlArts.

Alexander Otsuka vs. Katsumi Usuda, 8/3/96 (?)

Otsuka is young and slender here, like a young Yul Brynner. Otsuka is one of my all time favorite mat guys as he's always super squirmy and he always winds up in weird positions and angles from which to yank limbs and slap face. This is filmed in a weird little TV studio with a backdrop that kind of looks like a sunset. They also did pre-match pre-filmed interviews with both guys wearing tweed sport coats. Cameras film too high up so we cannot confirm elbow patches. Usuda's conservative jacket makes him look like Alex P. Keaton going on a date. So in other words everything about this is flawless from the word go. We're just a few minutes in and both guys have hyperextended each others' elbow joints and Otsuka has thrown 3 of the gnarliest deadlift belly to belly suplexes you've seen and a killer Dead End german. Usuda throws furious knees to the stomach and gets a cool roll through choke for the win. Otsuka bows in defeat. This was like 7 minutes and the most pants shittingly great Worldwide match ever. The white shirted fanny pack wearing crowd would be in stunned silence by the violence brought forth here.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Shoichi Funaki, 8/26/96 (?)

Ikeda comes out to Fight for Your Right (to Party) so, well…this is on. Ikeda, to the shock of many, throws a kick at Funaki's face to start, but Funaki has watched tape and knows that Ikeda kicks face. So he ducks it and takes him down with a super cool single leg roll through. Ikeda's leg ended up on Funaki's shoulder, and Funaki rolls through it with a weird Rolling Olympic Hell, but as a leg takedown. Funaki takes a mean german but is crafty and holds Ikeda's arm on the way up and over so Ikeda can't capitalize. Rachel just got off the phone and walked into the room and said "why are these guys fighting in the Memphis TV studio…with a sunset in the background? It looks like a yearbook background." I love her. Funaki can go on the mat but damn is Ikeda such a bully with him, with the kicks and the forearms grinding the face. Rachel thinks Ikeda looks like an Asian Paul Koslo. Holy god Rachel needs to write for Segunda Caida. Funaki is really good in this (truthfully Funaki is the Kaientai member I am least familiar with, pre WWE run) with a kind of "barely hanging on" body chemistry, where he tries to shoot for any tiny advantage he can find whether by just tying Ikeda up so he can rest, or scrambling for any limb he can grab on the mat. Eventually though Ikeda levels Funaki with one of many from his fount of kicks, dropping Funaki to his knees. There Ikeda throws one straight to the temple for the KO and rides off into the sunset (background) to the strains of young NY twenty-somethings sleeping in, not wanting to go to high school, and high end pornography periodicals being maliciously thrown into the garbage by mothers.

Labels: Alexander Otsuka, BattlArts, Daisuke Ikeda, Katsumi Usuda, Shoichi Funaki

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Wednesday, December 19, 2012

You Can't Hurt Daisuke Ikeda, Cause He's Banned in DC

Daisuke Ikeda/Tamon Honda v. Shiro Koshinaka/Yoshinari Ogawa NOAH 1/22/06-FUN

This isn't the hidden Ikeda NOAH gem I will be searching for. Pretty much a comedy match with some amusing spots, but very little of that Ikeda violence, probably the loosest worked Ikeda match I can remember seeing. They do some nifty stuff built around the hardness of Honda's giant waterbaby head, and Ogawa's eyepoke and roll up stuff is usually entertaining. Ikeda didn't do much, his big spot was tying up Shiro in a ball and punching him in the taint. Fine use of 12 minutes, but I am going to keep looking.

Daisuke Ikeda/Katsumi Usuda/Super Tiger II v. Yuki Ishikawa/Alexander Otsuka/Munenori Sawa BattlArts 7/26/08-EPIC

This isn’t just the best match of 2008, it is right up there with the best things ever done in this style. This is an elimination match which goes 40+ minutes and was even more brutal and awesome then it looked on paper. Everyone in this was on their games, Ikeda’s team was working heel, and they spent the early part of the match abusing and cheap shotting the faces, especially Sawa who was really great in the role of spunky young guy eating an asswhooping and showing stones. Because this was a tag, you had a lot of submissions being put on and saves being made, and man the saves were just horrific, stomps directly to the head, kicks square in the face, I mean you start cringing as soon as anyone comes into the ring. I hadn’t seen much Super Tiger II before, but he ruled here, really capturing the kind of awkward recklessness of Sayama’s UWF kicks. Your BattlArts big four were as great as they have ever been, Otsuka just brutalizing people with suplexes, and ripping out awesome mat counters, Usuda both taking and dishing out ungodly stiff shots, and Ishikawa and Ikeda being Ishikawa and Ikeda. Their interactions with each other are all you could possibly hope for, and there are parts near the end that almost feel like the last rounds of the Rumble in the Jungle with two guys punishing each other past the point of human tolerance. I don’t want to talk about any of the eliminations specifically, this is a match I don’t want to spoil, but when you have such brutality dished out during a match, you can fall into the trap of everything looking like a finish, and when everything looks like a finish, nothing looks like a finish. Here every elimination felt like exactly the point at which the guy should have been eliminated. This is a match I can’t imagine anyone who likes wrestling not loving, get your hands on it ASAP.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA

Labels: Alexander Otsuka, BattlArts, Daisuke Ikeda, Katsumi Usuda, Munenori Sawa, NOAH, Shiro Koshinaka, Tamon Honda, Yoshinari Ogawa, Yuki Ishikawa

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Thursday, October 01, 2020

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

Labels: Alexander Otsuka, BattlArts, Daisuke Ikeda, Ikuto Hidaka, Katsumi Usuda, Kazunari Murakami, Minoru Tanaka, Mohammed Yone, Naoki Sano, Ryuji Yamakawa, Shinobu Kandori, Takeshi Ono, Yuki Ishikawa

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Thursday, February 26, 2026

A Week of Death Valley Days: Karl Greco Malenko

It is real fever dream stuff for us to be able to bring Karl Greco Malenko out of retirement, BattlArts is such an important thing to all of us, and to Dean, and somehow we have excavated an all time great and brought him back to wrestling.

Carl Greco/Daisuke Ikeda vs. Yuki Ishikawa/Katsumi Usuda BattlArts 4/14/96-EPIC

PAS:Bat-Bat tags are one of the best bets in pro-wrestling history, I can't remember ever seeing one I though was even mediocre, and they pretty much nearly always reach excellent, and of course this one ruled. Not as much Ikeda vs. Ishikawa as you might expect, this one was a lot of agro Greco going after his opponents, he really presses the pace whenever he is in the ring, making them survive the whirlwind. We also got a lot of really violent Ikeda and Usuda exchanges with Usuda out crowbarring Ikeda at points. Cool setting as the ring was surrounded by people at round tables eating dinner. Can you imagine dinner theatre BattlArts? The world really used to be better.

MD: I've been spending a lot of time with Newborn UWF in 88 and 89 so even seeing a shootstyle tag is a bit jarring to the system. This had all of the stuff you'd want and expect, the technique, the scrappiness, the way that Greco or Usada would have to unlock holds with multiple strikes, the sheer violence when Ikeda and Ishikawa finally got in there against one another. Nothing was given, that sense of struggle was always there.

What stood out the most were the more traditional pro wrestling elements. It's true with every style: lucha, French Catch, WoS, shootstyle. At the end of the day, there are humans in there and the humans have emotions, wants, desire, and fears, and what makes pro wrestling interesting is how the clash of those things balances with the clash of size and skill.

What made this as much as anything else was Ikeda being opportunistic and cagey (and Greco willing to come along for that ride). Ikeda dodged Ishikawa for the first third of the match, only coming in when he was staggered in the corner. He'd interfere freely, would roll to the corner so that Greco could save him, would facewash Ishikawa. A subtle heel if not an over the top one, and then Ishikawa would outwrestle him or get him in a position to kick the crap out of him. Ikeda would survive it and gain an advantage and they'd repeat the process. It all built until Ishikawa finally had Ikeda set up so he could invite Usada in for some real clear, clean shots that he wouldn't recover from. A morality play just like any other, no matter the sharp technique and brutal trappings. The heart of pro wrestling is universal.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE IKEDA

Labels: BattlArts, Carl Greco, Carl Malenko, Daisuke Ikeda, Katsumi Usuda, Yuki Ishikawa

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Thursday, December 20, 2012

Yes It's Time for You to Pay, Better Watch out for Daisuke Ikeda he's a Member of the F.V.K.

Daisuke Ikeda v. Takanari Tateno PWFG 6/18/95-FUN

TKG: This is another mixed match with Tateno in a gi wearing boxing gloves. Ikeda just bulldozes through Tateno taking him down and beating him from the mount. Nothing Tateno does looks that good but mostly he gets to move his hands fast like hes throwing flurries in defense. Doesn't really matter as this is just a one sided beating. Post match Ikeda calls out Ishikawa.

PAS: Yeah this was a slaughter, Ikeda does come off like a bad motherfucker, and where is the Ikeda v. Ishikawa PWFG match this pull apart is setting up?

Daisuke Ikeda/Takeshi Ono v. Yuki Ishikawa/Alexander Otsuka BattlArts 10/30/96-EPIC

Sweet sweat of Christ what a match. This is everything I love about this style of wrestling. These are the four best BattlArts guys, young and hungry and going all out. Ikeda and Ono are such a great smarmy asshole heel team, like the most violent Tully and Gino ever. Ono is shit talking and getting in Ishikawa and Otsuka's grill before the bell rings. When it does ring it is wall to wall action. Everyone in this was great, we get big doses of Ishikawa v. Ikeda violence, lots of great scrambles with the guy on top raining sick punches and headbutts. Ono is a dervish throwing kicks and punches with abandon and scrambling for chokes and I just loved Otsuka in this. He always brings a different vibe to these matches, he isn't throwing hands and feet like the other guys, but what he will do is grab you and toss you on your neck. He is great at coming in with these desperate lightening fast shots where he leaps into position and unloads with a suplex. These tags always have great finish runs, but this was like a 20 minute finish run from bell to bell. Just loved it, if you haven't seen it, go watch it, if you have seen it, watch it again.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA

Labels: Alexander Otsuka, BattlArts, Daisuke Ikeda, PWFG, Takeshi Ono, Yuki Ishikawa

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Friday, January 17, 2014

Ikeda Gonna Swim Across the Atlantic Cause That's the Only Place He Can Go

Daisuke Ikeda v. Yuki Ishikawa, BattlArts 9/1/97 - EPIC

PAS: This is a match I don't remember seeing before and if I had it had to have been around 97. This is one of my 2 or 3 favorite in ring feuds in wrestling history and this is exactly the kind of uncomfortable to watch, transcendently violent spectacle the marquee promises. One of my favorite nifty new things in this match was Ishikawa's knee lifts, I don't remember him breaking out the worlds most violent Mr. Wrestling II knee lifts before and they were molar loosening. The mat work was pretty great, Ikeda had an especially nice reversal from the bottom, and every choke and armbar was tight and nasty. The great thing about these matches is the start out so violent you don't think they can go up, but the crescendo always delivers. That clothesline Ikeda nails Ishikawa with has got to be as nasty as anything Hansen ever threw and Ishikawa's glassy eye selling was perfect (or he was really KO'd, you can never tell). A little shorter then many of their other classics but this was a tight brutal masterpiece.

ER: Man these guys are just brutal. It's nice being able to watch this knowing that they're at least functioning human beings 16 years on. It's not too hard to imagine a scenario where watching an old match these two is followed by an Amityville Horror type postlude graphic of "They never remembered what they ate for breakfast that morning again". I'm grown so accustomed to Ishikawa as a defensive wrestler, taking furious beatings and looking for any signs of light to take his shot, that I mostly forgot about his turns as a vicious mauler. There have been a lot of Ikeda/Ishikawa matches, and my memories of most of them have Ikeda taking 2/3 of the offense. But a lot of this is the Ishikawa show with flashes of the nasty Ikeda beatings you'd expect. Instead of the Ishikawa throwing a shot while he's retreating, you get Ishikawa the aggressor, which is fucking killer. Here he chases after Ikeda and throws nasty punches at his eye, all while tearing limbs apart. Ikeda has no problem fighting back, with leg kicks and dropkicks to the knee cap that would have left a lesser man bed-ridden for a week (and very well could have for all I know) and one of the most horrific clotheslines you've ever seen. Ishikawa sees it coming and tries to turn out of the way, but that means he gets a rangy violently swinging arm to the side of his neck, face and ear. His selling afterwards made me think of Sterling Archer after an explosion goes off around him. It goes without saying that this match is great, just a super war with many possible finishes coming at any time.

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE IKEDA

Labels: BattlArts, Daisuke Ikeda, Yuki Ishikawa

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Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Daisuke Ikeda Always Wants to Stay In Touch, Never Wants to Use a Crutch

Daisuke Ikeda/Syuri v. Kenichi Yamamoto/Kana Kana Produce 6/17/12-GREAT

This is the closest we have gotten to new FUTEN in a while, as this is a mixed tag with a very FUTEN flavor. Kana and Syuri are regular dance partners and they are very fun running through nasty leg submissions and punching and kicking each other in the face. Yamamoto is an especially nasty fuck in his interactions with Syuri, there is always an uncomfortable spousal abuse vibe you have to work through in these Kana mixed tags, but the Syuri v. Yamamoto section felt like Casey Affleck and Jessica Alba in the Killer Inside Me.

Much like your classic FUTEN tags this builds to a singles match showdown, and Kana is clearly as big a fan of Ikeda v. Ishikawa as I am. I have seen her in the Ikeda role against Ishikawa before and here she is the Ishikawa role against Ikeda. The end run is as violent as your Ikeda end runs normally are, you have to suspend disbelief a bit and buy Kana can hang in this abbatoir but she brings it, at one point splitting Ikeda's eye with a headbutt, and removing her boot to throw kicks (which I am not sure would actually make them harder, but it was a cool strap drop spot). Ikeda does Ikeda things, one point he just unloads a straight right, and the finish clothesline was up there with the most brutal he has thrown. Only thing that kept this from EPIC status, was the length, 45 minutes is just too long for a match this brutal, kind of requires too much absorption of stuff that should end it, and it can get a bit repetitive especially before the end run. Still anytime I get to see new examples of Ikeda dancing his special dance I jump on it.

Labels: Daisuke Ikeda, Kana, Kana Produce, Kenichi Yamamoto, Syuri

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Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Daisuke Ikeda is heading for that Adult Crash

Daisuke Ikeda/Ikuto Hidaka v. Yuki Ishikawa/Mohammed Yone BattlArts 6/20/99- GREAT

Late 90's BattlArts tags are the most consistently enjoyable wrestling matches you are going to get. Any combo of 8 or so guys is guaranteed to be at least very good, and probably excellent. This had pieces of the Ikeda v. Ishikawa violence waltz we expect, punches, headbuts, kicks to the eye (seriously how has Ishikawa not learned that he shouldn't apply a submission hold when Ikeda is standing on the apron, talk about the definition of insanity), but what gave this a bit of flair, was the performances of Yone and Hidaka. Hidaka on his own or in a juniors match is pretty hit or miss, but in this arena he is really fun as a guy diving into kneebars and armbars and throwing stiff dropkicks. I also loved Yone as a bull, getting in Ikeda's face, knocking Hidaka out of mid air with a lariat, he is a fun powerhouse. Probably needed a more classic finishing run to push it into the EPIC camp, but will still be up there with the best things in the world if it happened today

Daisuke Ikeda v. Masao Inoue NOAH 6/13/14-FUN

More of an Inoue match then an Ikeda match. I like me an Inoue match, but the best Inoue matches mix his shtick with some real drama and violence, and this was pretty much all shtick. There was a funny spot where Ikeda and Inoue whip ringside trainees into each other, and I liked Inoue winding up his arm so much that he got tired. Still Ikeda like he want to do in NOAH, just faded in the background. We need some new FUTEN

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE IKEDA

Labels: BattlArts, Daisuke Ikeda, Masao Inoue, Mohammed Yone, NOAH, Yuki Ishikawa

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Thursday, October 15, 2020

Fujiwara Family: Bad Boy's BattlArts 10/2+10/4/96

Bad Boy's Battlarts

10/2/96

Katsumi Usuda vs. Minoru Tanaka

PAS: This was a chance to see both of these guys very young in their careers, and both already had a lot of what made them great (and Tanaka hadn't really developed his bad habits yet). Tanaka has very fast hands and feet and while he didn't land with the force of Usuda, he was often able to land two to Usuda's one. Usuda meanwhile got his feet moving and landed some huge whip kicks including one which caught Tanaka right on the temple, Tanaka did a great semi-concussed sell of that kick (or just got his bell rung, it is always a bit hard to tell in BattlArts), but Usuda got a bit overzealous to finish him off and got spun into a kneebar. Crazy how talented these kids were.

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

PAS: This is one of the earliest Ikeda and Ono tags and man did these guys mesh early. This match had Hoshikawa trying to prove he could hang with the BattlArts elite. He had his moments, but eventual just get beaten into an unconscious pulpy mess. I liked how they used his MPRO style in the appropriate moments but made it look Battlartsy, Ishikawa bull rushes Ikeda into the corner so Hoshikawa can crush him with a dropkick. There was also a cool double rolling kneebar. Of course putting a submission on a Takeshi Ono tag partner is one of the great mistakes in wrestling history, he is just an incredible dickhead, and he will wing a snap kick right to your eye, as of course will Ikeda. We get some nice Ikeda nad Ishikawa mat rolling, all of which ended with a sick punch or headbutt. Hoshikawa eats a bunch of really nasty kicks and ends up staring at the lights with blood pooling in his mouth.

10/4/96

Shoichi Funaki vs. Minoru Tanaka

PAS: This was a match with a tremendous singular focus. Funaki was going after the leg, and hit it with dropkicks and kneebars, and elbow drops. Tanaka sells the leg the whole match until he hits a spinning cross armbreaker for the flash submission. Technically solid work although nothing particularly compelling.

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

PAS: This is JIP about 3 minutes in, but we obviously get the lion's share of the brutality. This was the uncut raw, no baking soda in this match, four of the nastiest violentist guys in wrestling history flinging full force punches and kicks until someone can't stand. We join the match on some matwork, but quickly move into Usuda decimating Ikeda in the corner with body and head kicks, much of the early part of this footage was Usuda beating and being beat upon, Ishikawa doesn't tag in for a while, of course when he does, he contributes straight punches and headbutts. This match seemed especially hard on the ribs and kidney's, the body kicks were as nasty as anything you are going to see outside of Shinya Hashimoto. There is a great moment near the end of the match where Usuda and Ono are strafing each other in the ring and and out of the corner of your eye you catch Ikeda and Ishikawa pummeling each other on the floor. The final Ikeda kick to Ishikawa bent Yuki's neck at a really scary angle. The fact that this was just their regular weekly tag match is ungodly, how are any of these guys still alive 25 years later?

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE FUJIWARA FAMILY

Labels: BattlArts, Daisuke Ikeda, Katsumi Usuda, Minoru Tanaka, Naohiro Hoshikawa, Shoichi Funaki, Takeshi Ono, Yuki Ishikawa

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Segunda Caida

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Complete and Accurate Daisuke Ikeda

Wednesday, October 03, 2018

Ikeda Ain't Got No Gold to Show

Thursday, March 12, 2020

2020 Ongoing MOTY List: Ikeda/Ishikawa vs. Ridgeway/Makabe

Monday, November 12, 2018

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Tuesday, May 21, 2019

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Tuesday, January 10, 2017

2010 Match of the Year

Saturday, February 27, 2021

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

Saturday, May 10, 2014

Daisuke Ikeda Will Stop at Nothing! Nothing! Nothing!

Saturday, February 12, 2022

2018 Ongoing MOTY List: Ikeda vs. Keisuke Goto

Saturday, May 09, 2020

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

Wednesday, March 06, 2019

Quick Fast We Reflect Like the Sky Be Blue True, FUTEN Saga Continues

Tuesday, May 13, 2014

I Felt Like Watching BattlArts

Wednesday, December 19, 2012

You Can't Hurt Daisuke Ikeda, Cause He's Banned in DC

Thursday, October 01, 2020

Fujiwara Family: BattlArts 3/25/00

Thursday, February 26, 2026

A Week of Death Valley Days: Karl Greco Malenko

Thursday, December 20, 2012

Yes It's Time for You to Pay, Better Watch out for Daisuke Ikeda he's a Member of the F.V.K.

Friday, January 17, 2014

Ikeda Gonna Swim Across the Atlantic Cause That's the Only Place He Can Go

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Daisuke Ikeda Always Wants to Stay In Touch, Never Wants to Use a Crutch

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Daisuke Ikeda is heading for that Adult Crash

Thursday, October 15, 2020

Fujiwara Family: Bad Boy's BattlArts 10/2+10/4/96

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