Takeshi Ono vs. Katsumi Usuda, BattlARTS 4/13/1997 - GREAT
This was right before Takeshi Ono joined Masao Orihara to form the sleazy superduo of the Tonpachi Machine Guns. Ono and Usuda had a damn great match in 2010 (review to come), and this was also a damn great match and a more grandiose finishing stretch away from being on the level of the 2010 match. Basically straight shootstyle full of intense mat scrambles and Ono attacking as a dangerous striker with kicks and knees on the ground. Usuda kind of took a backseat in this match and let Ono dictate the bout, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. Some really brutal leglocks in this that seemed to be broken short of popping someones knee. There was an especially violent moment near the end where Usuda went for another break and Ono tried to kick his leg out of his leg in frustration. It builds to a series of near finishes with Ono continueing to force breaks and being super close to scoring the upset until Usuda is able to score a nifty counter and put him away with a quick flurry of devastating strikes.
Takeshi Ono vs. Super Rider, BattlARTS 6/2/2001 - GREAT
Super fun 7 minute undercard match full of slick mat scrambles and stiff blows. Super Rider sucks when he's doing pro style, but he looks really good doing straight shootstyle exchanges. His submissions are a bit different to what the BattlARTS crew usually does and it makes for a fun contrast. All of his submission counters were great. Ono was of course fantastic demolishing him with slick strikes. He also did some crazy sharp, brief work on the leg. It makes me sad though that a wrestler as good as Ono was jobbing like this to a no name outsider in 2001.
Takeshi Ono & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Katsumi Usuda, FUTEN 12/19/2010 - EPIC
Uhm... it's these guys fighting eachother for 25 minutes in 2010 FUTEN. We get lot of really good exchanges throughout and an incredibly violent finishing run. The broken down version of Ishikawa/Ikeda is a pretty great matchup in itself, as all their exchanges have this continually exhausted Lawler/Mantell feel. Ishikawa was the far superior grappler by this point and would catch in Ikeda in all kinds of neat submissions, while Ikeda would come through with something incredibly stiff once in a while. It's a testament to Ikedas selling ability that even knowing he can take absolutely insane punishment he can make you believe he was seeing stars after a simple sleeper hold. Ikeda would also keep the grappling violent by just fishhooking Ishikawa repeatedly. Ono was incredible here and may have been the best guy in the match (and the world) at this point. He came across as this super dangerous striker early on (even in a match that has Daisuke Ikeda in it), pounding dudes really violently, flying stomps on the ground. The finishing run is between him and Usuda and it's just this amazing dangerous striker vs. Counter specialist matchup. The cool thing is Ono was avoiding all of Usudas signature spots but Usuda would still catch him, all while fighting for his life. Ono would go for a full force stomp that would likely cave Usudas face in only for Usuda to slip and lock in a submission. Increasingly violent saves were pretty gnarly with Usuda and Ono taking some sick headbutts and kicks while entangled in leglocks. Also, Onos lightning fast submissions were amazing.
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