BattlARTS History #2: May - September 1996

 Dieuseul Berto vs Alexander Otsuka, 5/31

Dieuseul Berto! This was a fun match. Berto is really spry and it makes for some good grappling exchanges. He'd also throw these stinging palm strikes and kung fu kicks. And Otsuka does dump him with some pretty hard suplexes. Based on this I wouldn't have minded Berto to stay with the BattlARTs crew for longer because he could still go.

 Takeshi Ono vs. Katsumi Usuda, BattlARTS 5/31/1996 - GREAT

This was 5 minutes of seriously competitive shootstyle. Basically like another take on the grappling match these two had in 2001, but with strikes. Ono didn't have the gloves yet, but was a tenacious grappler. His hair as also amazing. Usuda battered him early on with nasty kicks and knees but Ono made himself respected. Some pretty great stuff here, including Ono hitting a monster german suplex, or eating a backhand from Usuda only to pick him up and slam him. Great finish. These two always make the most out of every given second.

TAKA Michinoku vs Minoru Tanaka, BattlARTS 5/31/96

This was longer than their previous match, and as such it dragged a bit. Pretty much all matwork in the first 10 minutes, and while it was competent there wasn't exactly much spark to it. They came alive when it was time to roll out their junior spots and nearfalls, and it was a pretty good finishing run. TAKA kept trying to do some fighting spirit no selling in response to Tanakas head kicks and Tanaka just kicked him back down. That should happen more often when someone tries that nonsense. There was good stuff here but at this poit going 10 minutes suits them better.

Yuki Ishikawa & Minoru Tanaka vs Takeshi Ono & Daisuke Ikeda, 7/17/1996 - GREAT

A BattlARTS tag that I actually don't recall seeing before as it was just lost in the cracks of a random Champ Forum airing. With that kind of premise you'd hope that this will be a hidden gem, and... it's not quite a hidden gem, but it's still seriously good stuff. Probably the most jarring thing about going to watch BattlARTS from 30 years ago is how competitive everything is. These guys are relentless on the mat and don't kid around with any of their striking. There is not much structure, but that kind of makes it more interesting. It doesn't always produce the most aesthetically pleasing wrestling but it sure stays fresh because it's unpredictable and believable, no cookie cutter stuff just hard fighting. This was going solid in the early minutes. Violence increased when Ishikawa and Ikeda faced off obviously, with Onos punches and kicks also being highlights. After some raw as hell Ishikawa/Ikeda exchanges Ono stepped and even amped up the brutality with some hard shows to Ishikawa. Tanaka is the weakest guy in the match, though Ono pretty much carries him with his unrelenting matwork and brutal strikes. Ono seemignly never tires and is constantly trying to choke someone out on the mat so there's hardly a dull moment when he's in. There's also some nifty teamwork, an out of nowhere outside brawl and the occasional odd touch like Ikeda hitting a northern lights suplex over the rope and Ishikawa breaking up a pin with an insanely sick Killer Kowalski level knee drop. The ingredients to an EPIC BattlARTS tag were cooking in this and they would soon put it all together, but this stuff still stands out as immensely enjoyable to watch with 2026 eyes.

TAKA Michinoku & Shoichi Funaki vs Takeshi Ono & Satoshi Yoneyama, 7/19 - Fun

Ooooh this ones a fun discovery. Basically the Kai En Tai guys have their hands full with these shootstylists so they would play the numbers game and rely on sneaky cutoffs and saves. Lots of fun dickish smacks and ratty dropkicks from Funaki and TAKA here. Ono is good as usual pounding on these bastards and just trying to submit people. Yone still feels very rough but he does bring some fun stuff. Needed a bit more of Yone kicking the hell out of these Michinoku Pro guys and less clumsy Yone trying to work the mat. He did go for a mongolion chop of the top rope of all things, and he had a great looking jumping boot outside the ring. Just a lot of stuff going on. TAKA looked quite good grappling and he busted out an awesome deadlift German on Yone. The kind of action that only BattlARTS can deliver.

Daisuke Ikeda vs Dieseul Berto, 7/19 
Quality match with Berto being very game. You'd think with Berto being a PWFG veteran and all maybe Ikeda would be respectful, but nope. He was really beating on Berto here with knees and punches on the ground, even clawing at his face. This is not gentlemans sport to Daisuke Ikeda, and you gotta fight for your right to party. Berto kept finding answers with his crafty reversals though, so eventually Ikeda just went for his bandaged arm and cranked a Fujiwara armbar for the tap. Could've been bigger than it was, but they made it feel like an important match and it was cool. After this there's an ad for a K1 game on PS!? Wow, didn't know that was a thing. It looks awesome.

Satoshi Yoneyama vs Alexander Otsuka, 7/17
We JIP almost to the finish. I guess they are trying to make something out of Yone now, as he's allowed to hit a shitty looking dropkick. His rolling kick still looks cool. Otsuka goes for a sweet looking arm spin throw, but Yone hangs on to lock in a choke for the surprise tapout. Was this a sign of bigger things to come for Satoshi Yoneyama soon? Well, he made 0 wins in the 1996 Young Generation Battle tournament, so I guess the answer is no.

Takeshi Ono vs Carl Malenko, 8/4/1996 - FUN

Pretty much a mat sprint with both guys doing fast scrambles and locking in slick submissions. Ono can totally scrap with Carl and give him all he can handle on the mat. Ono also has the gloves now and he was definitely making Carl eat those fists a few times. The clipping here certainly is annoying but it's 5 minutes of all around BattlARTs undercard goodness.

TAKA Michinoku vs Minoru Tanaka, 8/4/1996
We get the last 7 minutes of a 30 minute draw. They pretty much did their stuff, some more some less good, kinda disliked TAKA just no-selling to hit some Michinoku Drivers but who cares. Knowing their match from May already felt too long at half this length I am not super sad that we don't have the full thing. Tanaka integrating his dropkicks into a shootstyle environment is kinda interesting, I liked the TAKAs head was shaking as he went down for a dropkick KO. They also spend about a minute in a pointless figure 4 leglock. You'll probably do better to just stick with their earlier match that went just 10 minutes.

Yuki Ishikawa vs Daisuke Ikeda, 8/4/1996
You know they are the one and only. Sadly JIP of their first duel in BattlARTS, but we still get the most of it with 8 minutes of 11 shown. These two beat the fuck out of each other as you expect. Rarely has a basic face stomp looked as mean as when these guys are doing it. I especially liked all the parts where they hit each other straight in the mush. Ikedas face-blasting lariats are already awe inspiring. It's still a bit more shootstyle focussed than their later meetings, so you get these nifty Ishikawa suplexes. Still, this is all about the brutality, and they delivered plenty of brutality in glorious fashion. Could be the best BattlARTS singles of 1996...

Alexander Otsuka vs Tetsuhiro Kuroda, 8/5/1996
Kuroda doing shootstyle? What do you know, the 30 seconds of this they showed weren't bad! Granted, he was grappling with Otsuka, so it was bound to be good. Kuroda even wins the match in just 5 minutes with a German suplex followed by a lariat. They really must have owed FMW something.


Satoshi Yoneyama vs Dieuseul Berto, 8/5/1996

Fun little match. Yoneyama rushed Berto with some pretty hard kicks early on, but the veteran would end up pushing through. Berto continues to bring some fun matwork and striking and hit Yoneyama pretty hard with his palm strikes.

Katsumi Usuda vs Carl Malenko, 8/5/1996
Some good shootstyle action here. I always enjoy seeing Carl grapple it out, and Usuda is no pushover. This feels very much like two guys who are unrelenting on the attack facing off. Some really nice counters and aggression here. It needed perhaps a slightly more extraordinary finishing to really be a great bout but it's really enjoyable hard working stuff anyways.

Masahito Kakihara vs Satoshi Yoneyama, 8/25

I had no idea Kakihara did BattlARTS. And well it was a short love affair. Yoneyama briefly manages to outgrapple Kakihara but Kakihara quickly grabs a leg and leans back hard on the single leg crab for the tap. Afterwards they show an ad for the first Virtual Pro Wrestling game. Boy wasn't 1996 a time to be alive.

Alexander Otsuka vs Minoru Tanaka, 8/25/1996

Aw yeah this one takes place in a coliseum, in sizzling summer heat. And they gave the audience a fun match. Pretty much all action with both guys busting out the stuff that they shine out. Tanaka with the big kicks and flash submissions, and Otsuka absolutely killing him with throws. So pretty much what you expect but the vibe was really cool here. The audience took a liking to Otsuka and he rewarded them dropping Tanaka on his skull with a dragon suplex for a nice KO win.

Yuki Ishikawa vs Carl Malenko, 8/25/1996
Just a couple minutes. Pretty much just Carl taking Ishikawa apart, before Ishikawa caught him in a Fujiwara signature reversal to tap him out. They would go on to have bigger and better matches in the future but I always enjoy a good shot of a cool submission.

Daisuke Ikeda vs Dieuseul Berto, 8/25/1996
Fuck yeah it's more of Dieuseul Berto. He puts a really cool neck crank on Ikeda here during the grappling. Ikeda stands up and rushes him with strikes. Berto takes a Dai-Chan bomber right to the face that looks harrowing. Berto is able to survive, but fires back not quite had enough and soon Ikeda catches him with another cool submission counter into an achilles hold for the tap.

Yuki Ishikawa vs Naohiro Hoshikawa, 8/31/1996

JIP right to the part where they start hitting each other really hard. Hoshikawa was really laying into Ishikawa with his kicks and throwing hands, and Ishikawa cracked him right back with really hard headbutts and punches. Thought it was looking like pretty great BattlARTS stuff but then the match kind of veered off into junior territory when Hoshikawa kept insisting on his corner whip and Ishikawa busting out an awkward huracanrana and it didn't really look particularily good or well integrated. Still you may want to check out a few minutes of this because it was hard stuff.

Takeshi Ono vs. Katsumi Usuda, BattlARTS 8/31/1996 - FUN

These two always wrestle a different match against each other. Ono has the gloves here, and both guys are barefoot. There are some brief moments where Ono tries to punch Usuda out but this was mostly grappling. Really really slick stuff. Only 4 minutes where shown and I would love to see the whole thing because it looked like another goodie. Absolutely worth checking out the grappling here, though.

Minoru Tanaka vs Shoichi Funaki, 9/1/1996

Not the most substantial shootstyle, as they basically stuck to their spots, but they looked good. Tanaka really leathered Funaki with his kicks, getting in some good combos. He looked unstoppable but then Funaki caught him in a leglock and tapped him out just like that.

Minoru Tanaka vs Carl Greco, 9/1/1996
Just a few minutes of this. Not much to see here except Tanaka butchering an attempt at a German suplex. Boy Tanaka kind of sucks on the mat here. You can't lay around this much when you're facing Carl Greco. At least we get Carl getting the win with a cool modified triangle choke.

Takeshi Ono vs. Daisuke Ikeda, BattlARTS 9/1/1996 - FUN

Only 4 minutes shown, but it was 4 minutes of that sweet BattlARTS action we all crave. You get some smooth matwork, Ikeda suplexing scrawny Ono around, and some brutal near KOs. Pretty much a short highlight reel of what these guys can do, and these are two of the best Japanese wrestlers ever so it was really cool. Especially dug Ono unloading the punches and a jumping knee, as well as Ikeda trying to make him throw up with a nasty spin kick to the stomach.

Yuki Ishikawa vs Katsumi Usuda, 9/1/1996
Only 4 minutes of this, which is regrettable because there's some really hard stuff here. We JIP right to Usuda knocking the hell out of Ishikawa with some kicks and palm strikes, and because it's Ishikawa you know he was taking some extra brutal kicks. Ishikawa catches a kick and slaps Usuda right in the mush then hits a sweet deadlift german suplex. There's a grittiness to BattlARTS grappling - guys elbowing each other in the ribs, hitting headbutts etc that feels not as strong in other shootstyle leagues. It makes it a bit less pretty, but also more gnarly. Usuda advances in the tournament after beating the shit out of Ishikawa some more.

Takeshi Ono vs Yuki Ishikawa, 9/1/1996 - GREAT
Nasty fight, with both guys hellbent on tapping the other out. Ono was starting to soak in his nasty fucker energy. He was mauling Ishikawa with his strikes, and breaking out of submissions by kicking Ishikawa in the face. Some nasty as hell leglocks here, with Ono breaking out of an ultra tight heel hook  by kicking Ishikawa right in the eye. Ishikawa seemed focussed on making Ono submit, which proved no easy taste, though he did slap the shit out of him at one point. This is one for the grappling freaks but I thought it really built to something good.

Daisuke Ikeda vs Katsumi Usuda, 9/1/1996
Awesome tournament finale. Usuda looked like a killer and was coming straight at Ikeda, who seemed to be on a bad leg. Some of the most dramatic and violent strike exchanges of the year for sure. Usuda seemed to be strategically taking Ikeda apart. Ikedas selling and desperation comebacks were quite great. Last kick combo in the corner was just annihilation. It's a fairly short match but the intensity was great and they made the most out of everything.

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