BattlARTS History #5 - January + February 1997

1/21/1997

Ikuto Hidaka vs Shoichi Funaki

Hidakas debut match! And it’s a fun 5 minute scrap. Hidaka is bald, bandaged head, wearing kickpads, he looks nothing like the guy he’d become later, but you could see he was brimming with talent. There’s some really nice amateur rides, and Funaki busts out a crafty set up for a Fujiwara armbar. Funaki realizes he’s on veteran duty here and starts smacking Hidaka around and kicking him in his bandaged head in dickish ways and it’s really fun. Hidakas few highspots (dropkick, flip senton into an armbar that really popped the crowd) were integrated really well.

Alexander Otsuka vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa

The first half is kinda eh. Hoshikawa can engage in some decent grappling exchanges, but then drags things down with his tendency to try and force in irish whips. Otsuka at least makes him work hard for that irish whip, but it takes one out of the match, and the general lack of intensity does not help. It picks up when they start fucking nuking each other with Hoshikawa hitting an insane kick combo and his awesome looking diving kick, and Otsuka nuking him with his suplex, including an insane struggle over a dragon suplex that lead to Otsuka headbutting him in the back of the head. Always love two BattlARTS guys trying to nuke each other.

Gran Naniwa & Gran Hamada & Great Sasuke & Masato Yakushiji vs. Dick Togo & TAKA Michinoku & Shiryu & MEN’s Teioh

The Michinoku Pro crew rolls in on a BattlARTS card and hits one of their greatest matches ever, does that rule or what? Yeah it’s not a BattlARTS match but this kind of stylistic diversity is what made the promotion great. This is less of a crowd-pleasing showcase, it’s more of an intense frantic battle. These guys have all gotten so good now they can just hit their stuff shooting from the hip and mix things up no problem, and Korakuen Hall is absolutely excited going nuts for every single dive and complicated headscissor that they nail. It’s a frantic fight from the get go though with Kai En Tai going for outside brawling. We get some awesome Fujiwara-ish reversals from Gran Hamada here, really stealing the show while being in with a bunch of guys half his age, and Yakushiji hitting some beautiful stuff. The centerpiece of the match though is Naniwa with everyone trying to bully him and the little crab fighting back with gritty WAR-ish lariats. Eventually they rip his mask off, chair him and bloody him and we get some of the greatest grizzliest bloodiest minutes in wrestling history as he fucking gushes a fountain of blood and in turn tears up Shiryu. Chaos during the last couple minutes was awesome, I especially love Togo going with a chair after Sasuke while Sasuke dove off with that asai moonsault, before Togo himself eating that same chair in brutal fashion later. It’s a blazing hot match that delivers all the spectacular action and insane dives this crew can deliver along with some grizzly hateful violence and the incomparable underdog aura of GRAN NANIWA~, not much more needs to be said here.

Minoru Tanaka vs. Original Tiger Mask

A match that exceeed my expectations. Probably the most competitive you’ll see Tiger Mask being in the 90s, as Tanaka forced him into an actual contest instead of just running through his spots (something that he liked to do a lot post-return). Tanaka, to his credit, brought the fight and sold Tiger as this legendary behemoth of the ring that could crush him in an instant if given the chance. That low kick being the perfect example of this. He also came across as less spotty than usual, with his flying armbar looking like he really wanted to tear Sayamas arm out. At 10 minutes it’s packed with pretty good action. Perhaps the best match for either guy in the 90s?! Eitherway it’s really good and surprisingly a standout. Good action, good struggle, cool moments and a sense of Tanaka trying to topple a legend rather than old Tiger just being brought out to hit his spots for a crowd pleaser.

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

This was some truely high end BattlARTS tag team action. The first thing you notice is how on point all 4 guys on the mat were. The opening exchanges felt slick like U-Style matwork and always highly competitive, with the violence upgraded to BattlARTS standards. The brutality was of the charts here. The "tag team partners running in to make the save from a submission" where some of the must vicious I've seen and felt like PRIDE ground stomping, Ikeda at one point started throwing mule kicks on the ground, and Usuda and Ono threw some kicks that looked like nobody would get up from them. Man I don't even care whether there was a story or anything this match because the work was so frantic, hard fought and believable and sold so, so well I was 100% engrossed the entire time. The match also felt like it could end at anytime: at one point, Ikeda got his leg worked over with a few kicks from Ono and nice holds by Ishikawa (note the teamwork there), then Ono landed a series of skull crushing kicks on him. Ikeda believably beat the count, but his entire body language was such that you could see he was moments away from being finished, so he did the only reasonable thing and quietly slipped to his corner to tag out before collapsing like a broken man. That may have been my favourite moment of the match and it made the finish feel even sweeter where it feels like Ishikawa and Ono have the match in the bag and Ikeda just comes in and turns Ono's lights out to set up the finish. All 4 guys had career highlight performances, Ono did some stuff on the mat only he could do, Usuda stepped up big time and Ishikawa and Ikeda had some incredible exchanges together. Great, great match and a really compelling fusion of top notch shootstyle matwork, brawling and top level stiffness.

 2/20

Shoichi Funaki vs. Ikuto Hidaka

Hidaka is still rocking the kickpads and shooter look. He barrages Funaki with some pretty hard kicks to begin. Funaki is not thought of as much of an asskicker, but he is pretty effective smacking Hidaka around and leaning back hard when he grabs a half crab. It even builds off of Hidakas debut match when Funaki scouts his dropkick and just tries to rip him in half with a camel clutch. It’s just a 3 minute match and Hidaka brings a lot of fun energy already.

Alexander Otsuka vs. Katsumi Usuda

Otsuka had grown his hair out a bit here which just looks weird on him. This was decent shootstyle action early on, kind of slow paced with not a ton to stand out. Things pick up when Otsuka bodies Usuda with an insane German suplex. They get a bit more aggressive from that point forward including a great mat sequence with Otsuka trying his mightiest to force a Fujiwara armbar and Usuda trying to roll into a legbar, until he’s able to succeed and crank it back for the tap. The early goings weren’t much but the second half is worth a look if you want to see Otsuka being a suplex freak.

Takeshi Ono vs. Minoru Tanaka - Skippable

Well this was a bit of a waste. They went over 10 minutes but didn’t really have the material for it, so they basically spent 5 minutes dicking around with ‘cautious’ standup, and things didn’t exactly get going after that either. They tried to have a contest with more suspense and such but it just didn’t really build any intensity. I liked the bit where Ono ambushed Tanaka as he went to do a kip up. Really not a lot to this otherwise.

Daisuke Ikeda vs. Carl Greco

For a 8 minute match this was pretty beastly. Ikeda knew he was up against a monster, so he brought his A-game. The result was a bunch of really good exchanges. Whenever Ikeda saw an opening he would just go for the kill with his strikes, including almost stomping Carls face in with a vicious stomp. Carl was a fiend as we know him, always scrambling for submissions and hitting some big throws. Loved that back trip that spiked Ikeda. This was a reminder of how good wrestling can be even as an undercard match when both guys care to be competitive.

Viktor Krueger vs. Yuki Ishikawa

Krüger was getting better. Everything he does is kind of overshadowed by his freakish size, but he was getting more adept at the grappling and he wasn’t afraid to engage in some sicko headbutt exchanges with Ishikawa. As such this was a pretty fun match. It was perhaps a bit long at 17 minutes but for the most part it was pretty compelling action. They told the david vs goliath story about as good as possible while Ishikawa still looked like the grappling master. There was one reversal to Kruegers powerbomb in here that was pretty awesome Fujiwara-esque, and later they even went for the Andre/Mighty Inoue powerbomb counter. They had the right idea too with Krueger constantly going for the deadly powerbomb and Ishikawa trying to lock in an octopus hold on the big man. In the end Ishikawa was able to survive the powerbomb but a big double axe handle from Krueger did him in which was a pretty cool finish.

2/28

Takeshi Ono vs. Ikuto Hidaka - FUN

This was when Hidaka had just debuted and he was introduced to the world of BattlARTS the hard way. Ono just destroys him here, punches, kicks with abadon, Hidaka is able to take him down and immediately Ono elbows him in the back of the head and tries twisting his leg off. Hidaka is able to score a single go behind, with Ono frantically selling the threat of a German suplex for a moment before Hidaka hits a scrappy Mysterious Rana in a super cool moment. Shortly after Ono puts his lights out though. For under 3 minute rookie squashes this was really cool.

Shoichi Funaki vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa

I was thinking they would just do a junior style match, and well they did pretty much just that. Although there was some slick matwork with Funaki looking pretty impressive. I thought he would do his thing where he goes for leg attacks on the more aggressive Hoshikawa but instead it was Hoshikawa who had to resort to stopping Funaki after he got dropped by a nasty fisherman buster. It wasn’t much of a BattlARTS style match but their shit looked good. Funaki took the win pretty easily with the Shawn Capture.

Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka

Well these two are BattlARTS gods and they can’t have a bad match. There was some great matwork here, really slick stuff with Otsuka always doing something more interesting than everyone else. That guy had such a way of rolling in and out of odd positions and into submissions, there’s no one else quite like him. There was also a surprising amount of animosity as they both hit each other with some evil god forsaken headbutts. Otsuka was also hellbent on killing Ishikawa to death with his suplexes as usual, there was one pretty unreal uranage where he lifted him from the ground. So while it was a 10 minute undercard match they pretty much went hard and had a great little wrestling match.

Minoru Tanaka vs. Gran Hamada

Gran Hamada working BattlARTS style huh? He isn’t much of a shooter, but he did his best I thought. Tanaka kind of ate him up early on the mat early and didn’t look bad while doing so. It gave the match a bit of a story and Hamada was smart enough to not try any rope running or anything like that, unlike a certain Naohiro Hoshikawa. Tanaka was pretty gentle besides one hard kick to the chest. This was kind of deliberate and not super explosive but it was a decent match, if you can get over the fact Hamada has such plot armor that Tanaka cannot beat him even in his own style.

Daisuke Ikeda & Katsumi Usuda vs. Carl Greco & Viktor Krueger

A lot of good shit in this tag to close out this TV block. Anytime Carl is in it’s just great straight forward shootstyle action, and Usuda ain’t lazy either. These two are a great match up and always deliver. Krueger was continueing to get better, really finding his way into becoming a really fun monster. He was doing lots of actively cool stuff, he had a wrist takedown that came across really believable thanks to his bear paw hands, he also had this great twisting headlock into a guillotine choke. Ikeda was stepping up to the fight and it’s some compelling big vs. small action. Also because Ikeda is involved there’s always a chance you might just see the most evil kick you’ve ever seen any moment. At the end Krueger hurled Usuda to the side and dropped him with one of the most brutal powerbombs you’ll ever see and an unexpected and chaotic finish occurs. Really nice stuff and shows you how loaded 1997 BattlARTs was getting with action this good even on small shows.

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Kakuto Tanteidan IV ~ Straight Ahead 10/23/2025

 Ali Najima vs Kosuke Sato, KT 10/23

Najima is my boy, and I'm so glad they brought him in on this show, because clearly he is great in this kind of quasi-shootstyle environment. And Sato has also been quite reliable as an aggressive pitbull  that will slap and dropkick the shit out of your face in these short violent shootstyle matches. This was a great mix of slick wrestling and two aggressive guys trying to maul each other and one or two very well timed moments. I can't say much more than that, it was that simple  and straight forward. Just sick elbows and slaps and headbutts galore. Quite possibly the most enjoyable under 10 minute match of the year. Really hope Najima becomes a mainstay on these shows. I also liked the old lady in the front row that was really into the action.

brother YASSHI & Yuko Miyamoto vs Tanomusaku Toba & Kengo Mashimo - GREAT

A lot of fun to be had here. Miyamoto kind of felt like a joke, and he is an odd addition, but I thought for what he was going for he totally worked in this match, and he did some cool stuff like busting out his moonsault knee drop in plausible fashion, and a cool rolling cradle into a calf slicer. We also get to see brother YASSHI unleashing his inner grappler which is always cool, and Mashimo being a dick, especially to Miyamoto. I have no idea what Yasshi was thinking with that cartwheel comeback he tried though. TOBA~ brought the face punches as always. He does not swing as much as he did in his younger years but when he hits he will hit pretty hard. Thought the violent working over he gave YASSHI was easily the highlight of the early goings of the match. I thought they would have a Mashimo vs Miyamoto finish and it would settle for being a decent watch but instead TOBA and Yasshi tagged in and delievered an awesome brief but violent finish with Yasshi redeeming himself with a sick running headbutt and deadlift suplex that left Toba cold. Can't ask for much more from an old man comedy tag that is the 2nd on the card.

Keita Yano vs Manabu Hara - EPIC

It's been a while since their 2013. Keita has gone through many transformations, but at the core he is still the same old demon. This was Yano torturing Hara with carny tactics and dodgy Zbyszko stalling, and getting kicked in the face for his troubles. Even things like the old face scrape were made to look exceedingly violent and painful. I loved how Keita took off his elbow pad for seemingly no reason only to shove the point of said elbow into the Haras elbow nerve in a painful way moments later. Acts of cruelty always become more disturbing when they are premediated. Hara really looked like he just wanted to end the match. He was fighting a right demon after all. Builds to an approbiatly grotesque and violent finale. The most Keita match to happen in 2025, as somehow even his unconventional antics don't feel predictable here, and we are all here for it. One of the best bouts of the year, and Keita retains his title as the definitive anti-pro wrestler.

Yuki Ishikawa & Mohammed Yone vs Daisuke Ikeda & Ikuto Hidaka

Pretty much full on old man comedy tag stuff. I was expecting Ikeda to do an Eigen spit spot. Ishikawa still does provide some interesting matwork when he matches up with Hidaka, and he and Ikeda also had a nice grappling exchange later that lead to Ikeda biting Ishikawas wrist of course. Their one standing exchange felt to be at 5% of the usual intensity, which is understandable, though they do punch each other in the face later in the match. Yone looked spry and Hidaka can still be a bit energetic, he also had to shoe in the I'll be back. Not much shootstyle here, felt very much like a NOAH undercard tag. All these guys have more than proven their salt in their long careers so I don't really mind them retiring to this kind of thing.

Fuminori Abe vs Hikaru Sato

The early goings were pretty solid slow paced shootstyle action. Unfortunately, they had the really bad idea to have this be 30 minutes long. I wouldn't have minded if they had just continued dicking around on the mat for 15 minutes and then had a hot second half or something, but instead they padded the time with some pointless crowd brawling and some of that 'sitting down and letting the other guy kick you' macho stuff, which is probably the worst trope in all of wrestlig for me. You certainly never saw Yuki Ishikawa lying down allowing Daisuke Ikeda to hit him back in the day. They do hit each other quite brutally hard and the match has a few good moments, but just buried in an overly long match that didn't feel particularily inspired. Turning this kind of BattlARTS style match into a joke is certainly Fuminori Abes worst sin.

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Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #24

 

Takeshi Ono vs Ikuto Hidaka, BattlARTS 7/21/1997 - FUN

Ono beats the living hell out of young Hidaka for 5 minutes. Ono was in kill mode here, basically constantly trying to KO Hidaka. Give young Hidaka lots of credit here, he was taking a bigger beating from Ono than nearly everyone else in 1997 and he came back swinging heard. There was an exchange in the corner that was impossible nasty. The finish is just Ono trying various ways to submit Hidaka with Hidaka desperately trying to survive until Ono has enough and kills him off with some vicious punches on the ground. Harrowing.

Takeshi Ono & Mamoru Okamoto vs Ikuto Hidaka & Alexander Otsuka, BattlARTS 7/21/1997 - GREAT

Yes, Ono and Hidaka faced off twice in the same day! And this match is totally wild. Hidaka and Okamoto beat the hell out of each other, then Ono beats the hell out of Hidaka again, and Okamoto wants to beat the hell out of Otsuka but ends up getting nearly mangled. BattlARTS at its finest. This took place at the Shonan Zoo with folks watching in the searing outdoor heat and seemingly having no idea what they are seeing because there is complete silence and so these 4 guys beat the heck out of each other in complete silence with nothing heard except some neighbourhood dog barking. Otsuka did slick submission work and it was fairly great too. Ono getting the hot tag and just dickishly stomping in peoples face was also great. The guy had one mode, just being a dick and he never stopped commiting to it. The finish is Ono vs Hidaka and it builds on their earlier match nicely with Hidaka narrowly surviving by evading a crazy knee strike from Ono. Top stuff, just really relentless and insane, BattlARTS was the best.

 

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project

Assorted BattlARTS

Munenori Sawa & Yujiro Yamamoto vs Manabu Hara & SEIKEN, BattlARTS 8/21/2011

Really good scrappy match from the last days of BattlARTS. Everyone beat the shit out of each other and never backed down. Sawa cut down the goofiness, but things definitely got more serious when Yamamoto stepped in the ring. He had some intense exchanges with both Hara and SEIKEN. SEIKEN is a pretty fun character to insert into a BattlARTS match, as he doesn’t have much grappling and just tries to KO people with nasty head kicks, it makes for a cool contrast. There wasn’t a ton of grappling but Yamamoto in the brief moments did some really cool stuff. Haras brief hot tag trying to crack Sawas jaw was pretty great, too. Sawa trying to dive at Hara who was outside was pretty crazy and immediately lead to another chaotic, scrappy exchange with SEIKEN. Fun chaotic ending run with lots of stiff blows. I miss BattlARTS.

Yuki Ishikawa & Munenori Sawa vs Super Tiger II & Manabu Hara (BattlArts - 11/16/2008)

The early goings are a bit slow, tho there are a few neat moments. Hara cranks Ishikawas neck with a nasty headlock then hits him with an out of nowhere kick to the face. There's a pretty heated exchange between Sawa and STII with Sawa trying to headbutt him in the guard about 8 minutes in a flick is switched and Hara and Tiger start fucking pulverizing Sawa with brutal kicks. After that it's off to the races as they deliver a brutal beatdown on Sawa. Some breathless exchanges ensue with guys tagging each other full force, headbutts, slaps, kicks to the head. The finishing run is Super Tiger II unloading his spectacular kick arsenal on Ishikawa. STII has some crazy kicks, and he nails them all here. I also really liked the violence of Sawa and Hara trying to prevent each other from making a save. As usual with Ishikawa there are some tremendous submissions. Last 12 minutes of this or so were some of the most brutal and best BattlARTS action of the new millenium for sure.

Ikuto Hidaka vs Yuta Yoshikawa, BattlARTS 12/21/2008

Really good 10 minute match. Hidaka was hellbent on destroying Yoshikawas mid-section here, making this forever one of the greatest matches in the "matches where a guy gets his mid section destroyed" genre. Early goings were no-nonsense as Hidaka was relentless going after Yoshikawa with great looking body shots and knees, it felt like an aggressive U-Style match. When Yoshikawa takes it too the mat it actually feels like he needed to take it to the mat. Yoshikawa is low standing at this point but his brief run off offense is nice, he is able to hit a big suplex that actually feels earned and follows up blasting Hidaka with a kick. Yoshikawa punching away at Hidakas arm/shoulder was a nice touch. Hidaka denying a flying armbar, but eating a punch to the face seconds later was great. Eventually Hidaka took Yoshikawa out destroying his guts with knees and spin kicks that looked brutal. Very nice stuff and cool to see Hidaka doing something different when he could've just hit his usual spots instead.

Kakuto Tanteidan 10/12/2023

 

Hideki Suzuki vs Yu Iizuka

Nice little match to start the event. Mostly grappling, everytime Iizuka get a submission on Hideki was really cool. Iiizuka seemed to be the one pushing the pace while Suzuki mostly relied on his size and didn't do much, though he had one really neat counter to an Octopus Stretch attempt. Finish was Suzuki starting to hit elbows during the grappling and KOing Iizuka, I felt it would have been nice if we had got a bit of back and forth. I mean Iizuka has gone toe to toe with Masakazu Funaki, it wouldn't have been absurd to see him take it to Hideki a bit more.

Ikuto Hidaka & Tanomusaku Toba vs Brother Yasshi & Hikaru Sato - EPIC

Great super violent undercard tag. I wasn't sure how Yasshi would do in this, but he does pretty good and took some insane punishment. He was solid early on taking down Toba, before he tries some pro wrestling bullshit and immediately gets punched in the face HARD. Hidaka/Sato was good shootstyle stuff with Hidaka being really lively and aggressive. Match got great once Yasshi took a sick out of nowhere bump on a German suplex. Toba then turned into super violent mode and started dishing out incredibly stiff punches and kicks. Sato/Toba exchange was brief but pretty great, I definitely would've liked to see more of that. Toba/Yasshi was just awesome as Toba was brutalizing Yasshi and Yasshi started hitting these sick jumping shoot headbutts which were some of the sickest I've ever seen. Hidaka/Sato finish was excellent BattlARTS stuff with some big strikes neck crunching moves and cool submission counters. Really good quasi shootstyle undercard tag that left me wanting more, just what we need in this day and age.

Keita Yano vs Super Tiger II - GREAT

I was curious to see Yano doing shootstyle matwork, but he stuck to his british style grappling even in this context. He was pretty good, though. He did things like leaning into a shoulder pin really slowly to emphasize he was stretching his opponent in painful ways. Keita controlled about 80% of the match. Tiger sold the fuck out of that armwork and hit some ultarsharp kicks when he got fed up with being toyed with. Tigers kicks looked great and he seemed to have a lot of spark in him, I would definitely like to see more of his modern day work. He looked like a badass when he finished Keita with a couple of brutal kicks.

Yuki Ishikawa & Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Minoru Fujita

Ishikawa pretty much carried the match, always doing neat maestroish things when he was in the ring. I haven't seen Fujita in years but he looked fine doing serious wrestling here. He did the right thing immediately going for his finisher during a brief grappling section with Ishikawa. He was also fun looking out of his depth against Sekimoto and trying to pull off a counter. Sekimoto didn't really do do Bati-Bati style here, just his pro style stuff with things like Irish Whips cut out, but the random touches like his big cross body were fun. I thought the final Ishikawa/Ikeda exchange underdelivered as Ikeda looked blown up after eating some slams from Sekimoto and nearly KO'ing himself with a big running headbutt. He didn't put up much fight against Ishikawa besides some Baba chops. Slightly disappointing outing from the two though I understand Ikeda is probably on his last legs.

Fuminori Abe vs. Takuya Nomura

Sick, blood-drenched fight. I was worried Abe would bring a goofy vibe, and while there was a bit of that early on, they stuck to doing serious pro wrestling. Nomura looked really great whenever he was doing Hashimoto-like beatdowns to his goofy opponent. After getting stomped in the corner, Abe finally decided to quit the silliness and just started knuckle punching his opponent in the face. After that the match got pretty great as both guys were just violently pummeling each other. Tons of sick headbutts, at one point Abe started bleeding from the crown of his head and it was just grizzly. Abes knee to the side of Nomuras face was by far the highlight of the match. Nasty nasty finish where a bleeding and beaten down Abe was stuck in a submission like Austin in the sharpshooter. Really good shit, no downtime and both guys just punished each other, really hope they keep doing this stuff as the whole show was great from top to bottom, and this was one hell of a fight to cap it off.

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2023 MOTY List

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #14

 

Takeshi Ono vs. Ryuji Hijikata, Futen 10/24/2010 - EPIC

Cool matchup due to both guys feuding in BattlARTS undercard matches 10 years earlier. Hijikata went to All Japan and got kinda rotten there, but that is no problem for Ono who carries him to his career match. Opening minutes were just great as Ono demolished Hijikata with superior striking and some beautiful submission attempts. It was almost starting to look like a squash until Hijikata got it together and decided to fire back. His suplex no sell was pretty cringy (he didn‘t even do a goofy yell) but other than that, he was willing to get hit by Ono and fired back with some big shots of his own, including a big knee right under Onos chin and a deadlift brainbuster, all of which Ono sells great. Slick finish. Not an epic match, but an epic performance from our man Takeshi Ono.

Takeshi Ono & Ikuto Hidaka vs. Ryuji Hijikata & Minoru Fujita, BattlARTS 1/30/2000 - FUN

This was basically a juniors match with the addition of Takeshi Ono punching people in the face. Him vs. Fujita was a really fun match up and I‘m sure they had a great match on a BJW house show one time or something. I also enjoyed Hidaka and Fujita facewashing each other since the apparently had broken up their tag team. Some big dives, including one from Ono. This was perfectly watchable popcorn wrestling plus face punches.

Takeshi Ono vs. Ryuji Hijikata, BattlARTS 2/13/2000 - FUN

JIP match. This full on pro style. There were the usual cool Ono counters and technical moves, plus he just blasted Hijikata with a straight right coming from the ropes and that rules. Hijikata didn‘t show much, didn‘t even throw any stiff kicks, just a nice lariat at one point. Full BattlARTS worldwide point thanks to the Ono factor though.

Takeshi Ono vs. Katsumi Usuda, BattlARTS 1/28/2001 - FUN

This was a Grappling Only match that delivered 8 minutes of slick grappling. I enjoyed it a lot. Dug all the leglock trickery, Ono using his judo and generally containing the bigger Usuda. Crafty finish. Strictly for the grappling purists, but it was really good grappling.

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Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #11

 

Takeshi Ono & Masao Orihara vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Minoru Tanaka, BattlARTS 10/19/1997 - GREAT

It‘s the first time Ono and Orihara team up! And, what the hell – this was really good! It wasn‘t really a BattlARTS match and more of an indy tag with the stiffness upgraded to BattlARTS level stiffness and more fierce submissions – so what, that‘s a really good kind of match! And everyone here was super fired up. Tanaka was unusually stiff and trying to take down Orihara, and Hidaka fawas really good in his usual spunky young guy role. It was nice to see Hidaka had graduated from getting squashed by Ono in under 5 minutes to actually being a threat and even upsetting Orihara a few times. All the Hidaka/Ono sections were really fun, and of course Orihara is a sleaze good in this. Doing dickish kip ups, spitting on people, kicking them in the face, hitting gnarly powerbombs. It builds to a bigger finishing run than you‘d expect from a midcard(?) match, too. Really good shit and exactly what you want.

Takeshi Ono & Masao Orihara vs. Katsumi Usuda & Tatsuo Nakano, BattlARTS 11/25/1997 - GREAT

What a matchup. This was also pretty great. Two stoic shooters vs. A pair of absolute fuckers. The Tonpachi Machine Gun assault tactics were in full bloom here. The just swarmed all over Usuda and Nakano. Nakano looked damn great here as a tough old bastard teaching these punks a lesson, and Usuda had his share of gnarly moments too. There are just moments in these matches – like Usuda reversing a leglock and throwing some hard elbows to the back of Onos head – that you only really get in BattlARTS, and that is why BattlARTS rules. I also really enjoyed Nakano blowing off the attempt at a 2 on 1 and just beating Oriharas ass on the floor. Orihara was spectacular as usual, spitting on Nakano, running in to kick dudes in the face and then in the balls. Ono hadn‘t fully embraced his ratboy ways here, but he had some quality stiff exchanges against Nakano and Usuda. There was a constant feel that the Guns were outskilled and had to use their cheating in order to stay in the match, which made the whole thing really damn entertaining. Ono also had one of the hardest Russian Leg Sweeps in history on Usuda. Great finish where Orihara runs in like he had done so many times before only to catch some serious hands from Nakano while Usuda sinks in the choke on Ono.

Takeshi Ono & Masao Orihara vs. Minoru Tanaka & Alexander Otsuka, BattlARTS 11/29/1997 - GREAT

Another very good match, although it was much less heavy on cheating tactics from Ono and Orihara. There was still some serious fuckery going on, especially from Orihara, but most of this was straight wrestling. Orihara/Tanaka is always a quality match up, and we get some nice slick grappling sections between Otsuka and Ono. The match up turns up a notch when Otsuka drops Ono with an absolutely sick brainbuster – lord knows, Otsuka really tried to kill Ono all the time – and it moves into a pretty great brief ending run with Otsuka launching Ono across the ring with suplexes and Ono desperately trying to not get his neck broken. 

TAKESHI ONO DOCUMENTATION MASTER LIST

Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #10

 Takeshi Ono vs. White Moriyama, FUTEN 1/30/2011 - EPIC

I loved this, a real testament to the greatness of Ono. This was Moriyamas (initial) retirement and while he has never shown much, he was game to engage in a FUTEN level war. Normally you‘d associate retirement matches with feel good moments and the retiree getting their shit in, but that wasn‘t the case here as Ono was incredibly vicious throughout and just trying to turn Moriyama into a pulp. Just a super competitive match even outside the violence, really dug the opening grappling with Ono stuffing Moriyamas takedown attempts and doing some excellent guardwork. Onos relentlesness however may have been at its peak here as he caught Moriyama with a nasty stomp during a scramble in the ropes and then just demolished him with sick punches and kicks and ungodly knees. Ending run felt shockingly epic for a Moriyama match as he uncorked some gnarly head spiking suplexes while maintaining a sense of struggle, Moriyama getting a bloody nose and trying not to get punched out, refusing to die on his sword while getting his face perforated by Onos kicks etc. It works because of how bad Ono was stomping Moriyama earlier, that Moriyama reaching deep and trying to hang on actually feels epic. Strong contender for the greatest retirement match I've ever seen, and its all Ono.

Takeshi Ono & Junji.com vs. Ikuto Hidaka & Tiger Mask IV, BattlARTS 2/14/1999 - FUN

Fun match which may have been BattlARTS hybrid style at its most experimental. These guys were going back and forth from working lucharesu exchanges to shootstyle mat scrambles. Hidaka and Tiger Mask IV tore it up. Ono looked great too, but he spent too much time on the apron. When he was in the ring he went from kicking and punching people really hard, to working cool submissions, to stooging like an expert rudo. Junji was in most of the time and he is the weakest guy in the match, although still decent when he wasn’t hitting sloppy dropkicks. Cool match which felt hard fought, but I wanted more Ono content.

Takeshi Ono & Masao Orihara vs. junji.com & Ricky Banderas, BattlARTS 4/26/1999 - FUN

We only got about 5 minutes of this, which is too bad because it looked like a really good match. Junji cleaning house was fun, and Orihara and Ono are real fuckers beating the piss out of him. Banderas seems really out of place in this but does fine dropping some bombs. Finish is spectacular with Ono hitting a spider german, Orihara moonsaulting over him before Ono dives outside and Orihara gets the win with an abdominal stretch of all things. Tonpachi Machine Guns rule, man.

 

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BJW 1/ 2/1998

 

BJW 1/ 2/1998

Neftaly vs. Miho Kawasaki

Shunme Matsuzaki vs. Shadow VII

Yone Genjin vs. Naohiro Hoshikawa

Kendo Nagasaki & Gennosuke Kobayashi vs. Masayoshi Motegi & Makoto Saito

Katsumi Usuda & Ikuto Hidaka vs. Tomoaki Honma & Minoru Fujita

Gedo & Jado vs. Yoshihiro Tajiri & Ryuji Yamakawa

Jason the Terrible & Shoji Nakamaki & Mitsuhiro Matsunaga vs. Great Pogo & Shadow WX & Shadow Winger

 

Aaaaand of course a 1998 indy show opens with a forgotten japanese girl wrestler and a luchadora working quasi lucha exchanges. This and the other first 3 matches are really clipped so it's mostly just to get a quick laugh, but what they showed of the ladies match wasn't bad. Neftly hits a nasty senton and wins with a nifty powerbomb variation. Matsuzaki is a sad case as he always looks ridiculously polished (for a guy in the second match of your typical sleaze card) and always gets saddled in some non match, in this case against a mexican Mini-Mr. Pogo (sorry Ricky Santana, you're better at lucha than garbage brawling). All these BJW undercard matches quickly devolve into crowd brawling shenanigans. I would've liked to see more of the BJW vs. WYF tag – because Motegi is GOOD and Saito is COOL and I am actually liking Nagasaki with his nice back elbow and quick bursts of wrestling and actually dangerous floor brawling. The unrecognizable rookie Kobayashi is yet another indy guy who doesn't know how to take Saito's springboard moves properly which almost feels like a rib at this point.

 

So they actually showed the BattlARTS vs. BJW dudes tag in full and it's AWESOME. I am not playing a trick on you here, if that match happened in BattlARTS it would have a good shot at being the tag MOTY. It's not a BattlARTS style match but it has enough cool shootstyle matwork and stiff shots throughout to keep you entertained, and the whole thing is just ridiculously tight, innovative stuff. Hidaka & Fujita are all skinny and young but they join the 98 GAEA crew by looking spunky, inventive and super talented. Pre-bumpfreak Honma is good as your kickpadded guy who sells really well, can work a kneebar or two and gets kicked in the head by Usuda. Usuda looked like a badass black belt tumbling with some purples trying their best to push him. He is a stoic shooter guy with some really spectacular counters and he always works really well with these indy juniors he can just rip apart and this was no exception. I also liked that because Hidaka and Fujita are scrawny 1 year rookies any basic move on them looks like a plausible finish. But the whole thing was just a bonkers match with breathtaking lucha meets shootstyle submissions and counters and nasty double teams and some brutal stand up exchanges (Usuda just dropping bombs) and yeah this is just the kinda gem you hope for when going through this old stuff. Also, great moment where Honma botches a springboard move so Hidaka just pounces on him and they beat the shit out of eachother. That's how you cover up a blown spot.

There was no way in hell that Jado/Gedo vs. Tajiri/Yamakawa could follow up the workrate of the previous tag and they wisely didn't try. They worked more of a US style tag with Gedo and Jado bringing the heel cutoffs and punches and rope stun guns and Figure 4s and what not. Pretty bread and butters stuff but it wasn't a bad match and I always enjoy checking out young Tajiri who is such an ultra sharp wrestler with the kicks and lucha flying moves and so forth.

The main event – well, you know what you're getting. Mostly wandering brawl with 2 guys occasional rolling into the ring to do stuff, then back out. In between that you get shots of Winger putting a headlock on Matsunaga backstage and strolling up the stairs. There were a few cool individual moments, such as the big Nakamaki dive to open the whole thing, Pogo hitting some Tenryu kicks on a bloody Matsunaga, Matsunaga hitting karate kicks and the Undertaker walk on the balcon, Pogo bringing out a barbed wire drill and Jason working Jason spots. This was falls count anywhere so there were also some cool spots where they had multiple referees and fans on the outside would count along when a nearfall happened. Finish is Jason working his „resurrection“ spot a bunch (yeah Shadow WX you loser you're not going over JASON) and winning with a god damn Northern Lights Bomb. Jason The Terrible is indestructable and it rules.

This show top to bottom was not as good as the IWA Japan stuff but it had an absolute killer obscure gem in Usuda/Hidaka vs. Fujita/Honma (I totally expect one of you granddads to tell me how eveerrrryone put that one on their VHS comps back then and talked it up as a **** 3/4 match on random obscure DVDVR offshoot boards). Everything else delivered as you'd expect and I always enjoy checking out a random card like this. 

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Takeshi Ono Documentation Project #7

 Takeshi Ono & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Manabu Hara & Takahiro Oba, FUTEN 4/26/2009 - EPIC

Man, is Team Taco the greatest tag team ever, or what? Is FUTEN the greatest promotion ever? Those 24 shows between Bati-Bati 1 and 26 that we don't have are sorely missed. This is head and shoulders the best thing to come out of Japan - and probably all the world - that year. 28 minutes of pure hybrid shootstyle greatness. The great thing about this post modern shootstyle is that it allows for plenty of character work and psychology while also delivering high end exchanges and insane stiffness in spades. Ikeda and Ono are predictably great here cutting off the ring, isolating guys and beating the tar off of them, but there's also plenty of fairly great wrestling exchanges. Ono is king sized here, both delivering some really slick grappling and punishing guys with precise striking. There is a great section where Ono and Ikeda are stretching the shit out of Haras leg, really Regalesque torture holds that you don't see much in shootstyle, and it really underlines what a pair of pricks they are. Oba & Hara are a revelation here totally holding up their side of the match. Haras athletic moves are a cool change of pace from the hardened tough veteran asskicking that Ikeda and Ono bring to the table, and Oba is on fire in this match as an eccentric tough guy with supreme idiot strength. Several great spots throughout the match, and it keeps building and building to the eventual explosion when Ikeda and Hara really start killing each other. Ikeda is a fucking god here, and Hara holds up in a stretch that is up there with the most insane Ikeda/Ishikawa ending stretches. Bare knuckle boxing exchanges, Ikeda almost crushing Haras face with probably the craziest spin kick caught on film, Hara dropping Ikeda with a completely out of nowhere Tiger Driver 91, both guys were just raining hell on each other and it was truely transcendent. Ikeda is one of the few guys you buy as tough enough to survive this kind of punishment, and Hara is really elevated by making it through this madness even as he gets trapped. Tremendous, tremendous match, pro wrestling at its absolute best.

Takeshi Ono vs. Ikuto Hidaka (BattlARTS 4/15/1997) - FUN

It’s fun to watch Hidaka progress through getting his ass kicked by Takeshi Ono. Hidaka lasted about a minute longer in this than in their last match, but may have taken an even worse beating. Ono was unloading with some sick kicks and headbutts here. Also dug his knees on the ground. When Hidaka briefly got the advantage on the mat, he was met with another kick in the face swiftly. Talk about earning your stripes.

Takeshi Ono & Yuki Ishikawa vs. Alexander Otsuka & Katsumi Usuda (BattlARTS 5/18/1997) - GREAT

Back then you could throw almost any combination of BattlARTS guys into a tag and you were basicallly guaranteed a great match. This was basically a barrage of great grappling and vicious strikes. Usuda and Ono were just killing people here with their kicks, you don’t see people getting walloped like that anymore. Ono came across as this ultra vicious little bastard. He had some cool power vs. sheer scrappiness exchanges against Otsuka, including Otsuka deadlifting him from a hold into a Takaiwaeske piledriver in a sick moment. Finish was great as Usuda just barely got the drop on Ono and Otsuka ran in to nuke him with suplexes. Ono did this really excellent KO sell as he tried to regain his equilibrium. My only gripe with this is they clipped a 15 minute match down to 9.

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Takeshi Ono Documentation #6

Takeshi Ono & Katsumi Usuda vs. Daisuke Ikeda & Alexander Otsuka, BattlARTS 12/25/1996 - EPIC

 Man, BattlARTS wasn't afraid to bring the badass shootstyle in 1996. The rhythm of this wasn't exactly great, but the pace was frantic and the match felt like it could end at any moment, which is exactly what you want from a shootstyle brawl. The Ono/Usuda team constantly going back to heel moves despite being able to hold their own doing pure wrestling was a nice touch, as was Team Taco EXPLODING and the AJPW flavour that some of the interference/double teams had. The first half had lot of great mat moves, while second half was intense as hell with stiff shots raining down. Everything after Ono tanged Otsuka up in the ropes was just fantastic, intensely violent pro wrestling and the finish was a finish. Easily one of the better 90s BattlARTS tags.

Takeshi Ono vs. Ikuto Hidaka (BattlARTS 2/28/1997) - FUN

This was when Hidaka had just debuted and he was introduced to the world of BattlARTS the hard way. Ono just destroys him here, punches, kicks with abadon, Hidaka is able to take him down and immediately Ono elbows him in the back of the head and tries twisting his leg off. Hidaka is able to score a single go behind, with Ono frantically selling the threat of a German suplex for a moment before Hidaka hits a scrappy Mysterious Rana in a super cool moment. Shortly after Ono puts his lights out though. For under 3 minute rookie squashes this was really cool.

Takeshi Ono vs. Alexander Otsuka (BattlARTS 3/13/1997) - FUN

Fun undercard match between two BattlARTS kingpins (not many Takeshi Ono main event singles in the 90s, sadly). Lots of slick grappling, and the whole match built to either Ono brutalizing Otsuka with kicks and punches or Otsuka trying to break Ono in half with suplexes. I liked how Ono got pissed off after Otsukas giant swing. Hanging armbar finish was great. These two faced each other quite a bit in the 90s so I will try to find a better match between them.

Takeshi Ono & Daisuke Ikeda vs. Yuki Ishikawa & Naohiro Hoshikawa, BattlARTS 3/14/1997 - EPIC

Man, are BattlARTS tags the greatest thing in wrestling or what? This was just amazing, I can't praise this match enough. Ono & Ikeda look like the greatest rudo team in the world here (but they always do), just swarming all over their opponents. They even had Sho Funaki at ringside to assist in the beatdown. First half was basically built around Ono & Ikeda kicking their opponents to a pulp. Ishikawa vs. Ikeda is always the main attraction when it comes to violence, but don't underestimate Ono mixing in slick grappling exchanges in between kicking people in the face. The 2nd half had some great retaliation as Ikeda came in with a bandaged abdomen and Ishikawa and Hoshikawa just destroy him. Ikeda really looks like the toughest son of a bitch alive selling that shit like he's getting eviscerated and coming back with big desperation suplexes and lifts. Hoshikawa/Ono section was great as Hoshikawa was seemingly wrecking Ono with neck spiking suplexes and brainbuster type moves (while Ono nails him with some vicious strikes, including a sick jumping knee that sent Hoshikawa over the rope) until he got too cute by going to the top rope and ended up eating a sick double team move in an epic spot. I've had some problems with Hoshikawa in BattlARTS before and while he did look a bit green here he looked perfectly good doing some grappling and getting kicked in really painful looking ways. Ikeda also tries crushing his face with a lariat at one point and that rules. This whole match was just them going all out for 16 minutes, nothing held back and everybody looks great. It really made me think Japanese wrestling peaked with this stuff.

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Indy World 5/21/1998

 The show starts with a bunch of rookie exhibition matches involving IWA Japan guys, with most matches ending in time limit draws. And then we move right on to...

Tarzan Goto vs. Chainsaw Charlie

What a matchup, and it ends up delivering exactly as it promises. Incredibly gory, violent and chaotic brawl. I am not super well versed in Terry Funks 90s output but from what I’ve seen this is easily among his greatest matches of the decade. The Chainsaw Charlie character is so fun, and Goto holds nothing back just tearing him up. I want nothing more from a brawl than two crazy characters throwing punches and sometimes guardrails at each other and taking crazy out of nowhere bumps, and this delivered that in spades. Terry throwing chairs across the arena and then getting a barbedwire board in his face was pretty damn crazy, same for the further barbedwire spots. Goto mockingly putting a spinning toe hold on Terry only to end up eating the barbedwire himself was also a really fun character spot. Then, after getting buried underneath a bunch of plunder, Goto suddenly emerged with a broken battle to carve up Terry further. I mean, the broken bottle is pretty much a regular spot in Goto matches, but it really felt like an escalating barfight move in this. Just as Tarzan decided to reprise the 1977 Funks/Arabs match and stab the shit out of Terrys arm and I was thinking the match was moving into MOTY territory, all hell broke loose with a bunch of Kai En Tai dudes running in to attack Goto on behalf of WWF. Still we gut more props thrown around, Victor Quinones getting walloped and Wally Yamaguchi taking a nasty powerbomb from Goto. Even with the non finish, this was everything you hope for and more. I’m kinda shocked this match is not legendary as it’s just incredibly bloody and also a well worked match. If it happened on a WCW PPV people would be talking about it to this day.

Masashi Aoyagi vs. Katsutoshi Niiyama

We get like 2 minutes of this and what was shown looked rather forgettable.

Gran Hamada & Ringo Mendoza & Akinori Tsukioka vs. Great Takeru & Asian Cougar & La Ning

Mendoza and Hamada are very fun additions to the indy scum juniors. Mendoza was basically working like a maestro here and just locking in cool submissions. Wish he had been in the match more, I guess he had a great match against Cougar on a ZIPANG houseshow the following night. Tsukioka was a hard worker at this point and dutifully ate all of Asian Cougars sick offense. I haven’t seen La Ning before, but he had a cool twisting dive and then a funny moment where he completely overshot on a moonsault. The match was basically a spotfest with everyone rolling out their offense, but everything made sense and looked good, so I had fun.

The Great Kabuki vs. Shinigami

How bad is Shinigami? Bad enough he couldn’t have a decent match against Kabuki. This was clipped down and still pretty bad.

Goro Tsurumi & Apollo Sugawara vs. Devil #2 & The Bulldog(?)

Devil #2 is some weird indy scum monster in a skeleton suit. He has multiple doppelgänger at ringside and sometimes they switch places by doing a thimble rig switching motion. The Bulldog is a big tough looking foreigner and actually seemed like a decent worker, but with the rest of the guys here this was never going to be anything more than a bullshit match.

Dick Togo & Shoichi Funaki & MENs Teioh vs. GEKKO & Palomino & ZAP

Classic Kai En Tai rudo performance. What made this unique was Masao Orihara in his goofy GEKKO costume doing his best to outscum them, spitting on people and kicking everyone in the balls. Palomino is Ikuto Hidaka and it was nice to see him work some cool sequences against his trainer Funaki and hit a big dive. Togo also had some cool exchanges with Orihara in this, including one where he hits this awesome spin kick. Finish was pretty great too, Orihara goes for his Spider German Suplex and Togo nails him with a dropkick while he’s in the tree of woe, then Teioh jumps on him to kick at Orihara some more while Togo hits the big senton for the easy victory. ZAP is tubby dude in a goofy costume and perfectly average. This was lacking in structure (people were just constantly punching eachother in the nuts to transition to offense) but it was a cool slice of pro wrestling.

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2002 MOTY List Update #1

Ikuto Hidaka & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tiger Mask IV & Kazuya Yuasa (Michinoku Pro 2/3/2002)

Tomohiro Ishii comes out in full on Dick Togo worship gear. Amazing. This was a shockingly great indy tag with all 4 guys smacking eachother hard while working complex spots and cutoffs. We get lots of fun heel tactics from Rudo Hidaka and Ishii which was interesting to see these two go back and forth between throwing hard shots and working Stunning Steve Austin/Fuerza Guerrera heel spots. Hidaka likes slapping his thigh but he really does paste guys with his kicks. This was one of the greater Tiger Mask IV performances I've seen too as he looked like a graceful technico while also spin kicking dudes really really hard. Him almost crushing Hidakas ribs with a massive kneedrop and Hidaka coming up bloody was a pretty epic moment. All their brief showdowns really made me want to see a singles match between the two which is not something I would've said from watching their BattlARTS material. Kazuya Yuasa is the future GAINA and he works like a WAR rookie here, hitting as hard as he possibly can on his dropkicks and lariats and hitting awesome bulldogs and elbow drops. He survives a ton of punishment and it builds to him and Ishii trying to crack eachothers jaws with lariats. The finishing run wasn't as brilliantly tricked out as the body of the match but what the hell... it's a great little discovery.

 Kenta Kobashi & Kentaro Shiga & KENTA vs. Akira Taue & Daisuke Ikeda & Bison Smith (NOAH 11/17/2002)

Borderline great NOAH 6 man action. Really fun opening, BURNING try isolating Taue only to eat a bunch of boots to the face and Taue ends up teasing the apron chokeslam on Kobashi with Ikeda helping him. We get some brief exchanges where you can't tell what the layout is going to be and then Taue takes out Kobashi with the big chokeslam on the floor anyways. In 1995 this probably would barely phase Kobashi but in 2002 this takes him out for a long time and we get a long heat segment with KENTA taking a huge beating while Shiga desperately tries to save him. That they were able to get serious heat for something like a Sleeper Hold in Differ Ariake speaks volumes about they excellent job the rudos did here. Ikeda was in top form, hitting hard, constantly running in to cheap shot dudes and almost knocking KENTA out with high kicks and spin kicks. Kobashi ends up coming back altough looks badly wounded. We get a really fun finishing run with Ikeda laying into Kobashi, doing a great job selling a big suplex, Shiga busting out his awesome submissions. Bison manhandling the little dudes etc. Great postmatch too, Taue rules.

Tamon Honda vs. Takashi Sugiura (NOAH 11/17/2002)

One year after their first match, Sugiura looks much more rugged. Can he take down Honda now? He can't, but here's another really fun match. Plenty of grappling, and that is a good thing because Honda rules so much on the mat. His cradles, takeovers etc. are so much cooler than your average UWF matwork. His super tight headlocks etc. also help emphasize how much it must suck to wrestle this guy and they also have significance, he might just lock in a basic front headlock then yank the guy over and crank his neck. Sugiura brings a lot more to the table in this match. Not outstanding and he does look a little awkward at times but he is a fun dance partner for Honda. The finish was pretty fun and unpredictable even if you've seen a lot of Honda as he wasn't doing his usual finishers (yet?) and instead some more experimental things.

Sumie Sakai vs. Megumi Yabushita (JD 1/20/2002)

This match was like a joshi version of Atlantis/Blue Panther. Just what the hell was going on with these two girls? I'll just assume that this is how Jaguar Yokota taught them wrestling is supposed to be like. Just a straight up grappling match with a ton of legit ability in both workers and a strange lucha influence to keep it sweet and graceful. I swear to good some of the sequences here wouldn't look out of place in a 1991 CMLL title match. At one point, Sakai floated into a flying headscissor, which turned into a standing choke, that Yabushita then countered into an ankle pick. Really unlike anything I've seen in a wrestling match before. Same for Sakai's strange huracanrana where she slipped underneath almost as if pulling guard and then gracefully rolled into a pin. That kind of stuff could look cute and contrived, but they had their timing down pat and the rhythm was just right, moving from matwork, to sparringly used rope usage, to hellish suplex moves. Yabushita again went for the arm like a bat out of judo hell, and the selling was top, adding just the right kind of fatigue and desperatin. Some of Yabushita's armlocks were straight out of Negro Navarro's book. Really I've no idea what was going on with these two to have a match like this in a dying promotion. I guess it's just a thing between two workers who trained together and just did the kind of bout they enjoyed.

2002 MOTY MASTER LIST