Daisuke Ikeda is All Throughout This So-Called Nation

Daisuke Ikeda/Kotaro Suzuki vs. Black Tiger/Black Buffalo Tokyo Gurentai 10/1/16 - FUN

ER: In which Daisuke Ikeda is not the reason to watch some indy show tag match, and you come away realizing you should have been paying more attention to Black Buffalo over the last decade. Ikeda worked this like Mr. Niebla working a Sunday Arena Mexico show, right down to skinnier arms, a nice belly, camo capri pants, and staying out of most of the action. Black Tiger is Tatsuhito Takaiwa, and Takaiwa vs. Ikeda is a pairing that has rarely happened so I was all about that. Sadly, neither goes at the other the way I was hoping for. They're old, and I should be happy that none of the lariats looked crippling, but they've gotten me used to a specific level of unprofessionalism. Suzuki was not one of my favorite NOAH guys during my 2001-2008 love affair with NOAH, but it feels like even the guys I didn't seek out in NOAH from that era just look better when compared to a lot of modern Japanese wrestlers. Black Buffalo is the guy bumping around for everything here, he and Suzuki are a nice match, and I really loved the moment where Tiger caught Suzuki doing a 619 and then held him in the ropes for Buffalo to jump on. It's amazing how more people don't find inventive ways like this to keep an opponent tied up in the ropes.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Nobutaka Moribe BJW 9/10/17 - FUN

PAS: This was listed as a FUTEN offer match, which is incredibly exciting on paper. It doesn't live up to that at all though, as Moribe is getting ten count downs off of dropkicks and sprinboard elbows. If you are going to claim FUTEN, claim fucking FUTEN. The match picks up a bit near the end when they just start punching each other in the face, although it wasn't FUTEN level face punching. Ikeda did a really nasty running headbutt which seemed to split him open, and a nasty clothesline for the finish. Liked the last 90 seconds or so, but I was amped for discovering this, and it mostly failed. 

COMPLETE AND ACCURATE DAISUKE IKEDA