Takeshi Ono vs. Yoshiyuki
Saito (BattlARTS 12/3/2000) - FUN
Yoshiyuki Saito is a Toryumon guy who doesn’t really do shootstyle, BattlARTS was filling undercards up with lots of random guys at the time. This was pretty much a typical indy undercard match with slightly more matwork. Takeshi Ono is really fun basing for Saitos technical stuff here, he is so lithe he can make any kind of movement look good, and for every pro style move Saito does Ono punches him really hard. It’s too bad no indy picked up Ono after BattlARTS folded the first time because he could’ve made a career out of carrying pretty boy fliers, on the other hand I don’t want to imagine him going to Dragon Gate and becoming Mochizukiized.
Takeshi Ono vs. Masao Orihara
(BattlARTS 1/12/1999) - GREAT
The Tonpachi Machine Guns explode~! This is vastly different from Onos typical output. Instead of shootstyle, you get a pair of lunatics flying around and trying to kick each other in the balls. There are some punches and kicks, but they don’t feel like BattlARTS punches and kicks. These two are really fun doing this kind of scuzzy indy match. Takeshi Ono with his stupid e-boy afro has no problem hitting dives and working ridiculous sequences. There was one especially outragoes moment where both guys kept feinting nutshots until Ono blasted Orihara with a massive uppercut, it was like the sleazy version of a Red/Ki sequence. The match felt thrown together and the finish feels a little lame but sometimes you just gotta watch two sleazy way too talented punks dick around the ring and do their stupid idea of a match.
Takeshi Ono & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Alexander Otsuka (BattlARTS 10/30/1996) - EPIC
Just an amazing badass violent brawl. I think UWFi did "shooty" tags before this, but I don't remember any of them having this kind of violent, out of control flair. This is really US style tag psychology fused with shootstyle at lucharesu pace. Ikeda and Ono are an awesome pair of bruiser heels. Right at the start they double team Ishikawa pasting him with kicks and cutting off the ring to isolate him while he busts out cool mat counters to defend himself. Otsuka has these really awesome moments of explosive hot tags where he just runs in and dumps somebody on his head right off the bat. Just like the Ishikawa/Ikeda dynamic (who spend most of the early going shoot punching eachother in the mouths) he has this dynamic with Takeshi Ono, who spends most of the fight on the apron waiting to sneak in and kick somebody in the eye to break a submission. At one point, Otsuka is visibly fed up with it an pummels Ono really aggressively into the corner almost like a sumo. He was looking pretty irate and Ono just taunts him even more. When Ono actually was in the ring, we got to see either his slick skinny ratboy grappling or his reckless kicks. We also get to see what Ishikawa is really about as later in the match he gets his comeuppance hooking one nastier and nastier submission on Ikeda. The finish is absolutely picture perfect as Ikeda and Ishikawa go back to the shoot punches while Otsuka finally catches Ono. Perfect introduction to the style. I've watched some top level 90s AJPW tags in the past weeks and I wouldn't hesitate to put this up there with them.
This is the DVDVR 100 match that Dean labelled as "Samurai TV debut
card", which is why it took me so long to track this down. Not very
helpful labelling, dude. I have little grudge though, because this was
as good as advertised. They downtuned the matwork elements and just went
right to straight up murdering eachother. This is really as good of an
introduction to BattlARTS as I can think of, as they establish their
"shootstyle with pro style psychology and 200% more death" dynamic as
well the tactics of the Team Taco "we'll isolate you and then stomp you
to a pulp" heel team, Otsuka's ability to kill folks by
dumping them on their necks till the lights go out and Yone's
underdogness. Ikeda and Ono were constantly cutting off the ring and
whenever in trouble would buckle the opponent to their corner and reign
shots on him 2 on 1. Ono looked damn great here, as he was obviusly a
target being the smaller guy, but got the better of his opponents using
his superior speed, getting chokes and felling them huge kicks in the
standup. Ikeda and Otsuka were as good as you've ever seen them here and
Yoneyama didn't get in the way, hitting some brutal moves of his own
and mostly being punching bag for Team Taco otherwise. 13 minute match,
but probably the 2nd or 3rd best BattlARTS tag that year.
TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION PROJECT MASTER LIST
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